Posted: February 2004
Title: Helm's Deep
Type: FCS
Author: Ginger
Rating: PG
Characters: Haldir/Legolas implied
Warning: Mention of Het, mention of slash, original female character also mentioned, but no sexual situations.
Disclaimer: The estate of the esteemed genius J.R.R. Tolkien, along with Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema, et al, own these characters and places, except Finduilas who is the product of my imagination, although I did borrow the name from Tolkien. Please don't sue me! I mean no offence with this, and I don't have anything worth suing for.
Timeline: Set during the battle at Helm's Deep in TTT
Author's Notes: This is movie-verse. The idea for this came to me after my first viewing of The Two Towers a year ago, from my near-hysteria as I watched Haldir die. I hope you enjoy it!
Summary: A short vignette from the Battle Of Helm's Deep.

*****

The rain pounded down on the elven warriors. The air thrummed with the sound of arrows speeding to their targets. The cries of the Uruk-Hai, the deafening sound of thunder, of metal on metal as swords clashed, all melded together in a symphony of death and destruction.

Haldir stood in the midst of his elven kin, the army sent from Lorien to battle against the evil of Sauron and Saruman. Arrow after arrow left his bow, none landing anywhere but deeply embedded in an Orc. The mounting carcasses were almost to the top of the battlement, and still the Orcs kept coming. Haldir reached swiftly for another arrow, and froze momentarily as he realized his quiver was empty. Grabbing his elven blade in his free hand, he launched himself at the Orc bearing down on the slight elven form a few feet away. The Orc's head rolled off the battlement...but Haldir was too late. The Orc's blunt axe had found its target at the same instant it lost it's head. Quickly scanning the area, Haldir realized that there were no more Orcs near, that the fighting had moved further up the wall. Cursing, he knelt at the side of the elf he had tried and failed to save.

As he gently pushed back the hood of the elf's cape, his heart froze.

"Finduilas.."

This was no elf. How came she to be here? Why? Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at him.

Softly, quietly, her voice breaking with the effort, she spoke.

"Haldir, my love, please forgive me..."

Haldir choked back the tears that threatened to fall, as she continued, "I love you. I know you love another. The night before you left Lorien, I dreamt that you were slain in battle. It was so real, so clear, that I knew it foretold the future. I could not let you die here, so far from Lorien, so far from your love. Please forgive me...."

Her body went limp in his arms.

Gently, he picked up her lifeless body and walked toward the keep, his tears mixing with the rain as they slid down his cheeks. He had known she was in love with him, had known since that day in Lorien when their eyes had met as he came upon her standing silently at the base of Cerin Amroth. The love of such a fair and beautiful daughter of Men, given to one who could not return such love, was grievous to him. He had never told her to whom his love was freely given. To whom he had bound himself centuries before. He had been told that Men shunned such love as he his lover shared, so he had hidden it from all but Elven eyes.

"Haldir!"

The voice seemed to come from far away. A familiar voice. A soothing voice. A voice he longed to hear. The voice of the one who would take away his pain.

Suddenly, the keeper of the voice was at his side. Gentle hands brushed the tears from his cheeks. Haldir looked up into the face of the one he loved more than life itself.

Legolas.

*****

THE END

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