"My lord," Hagar approached Caranthir as he strode towards the stockade, "Might I have a word?"

The Noldorin Lord paused, gritting his teeth slightly. He recalled the look the man had given him when he had interrupted his conversation with Haleth earlier than morning. Giving him a patient nod, Caranthir folded his gloved hands behind his back.

"Yes, of course," He replied patiently.

The man held himself with respect, his face bowed slightly to the ground.

"I mean no disrespect in what I am going to say," He began tentatively not meeting Caranthir's steady glare, "Heaven knows where we would be if it hadn't been for you-"

"Dead." Caranthir interrupted, stiffening slightly, "You'd be dead."

Hagar nodded, "But I feel I must speak to you concerning Haleth. She is young and has been handling the authority suddenly thrust upon her well. I am sure she values your wisdom."

"Is there a reason you wanted to speak to me?" Caranthir snapped, unable to keep from feeling patronized by the old warrior's tone.

Hagar met his gaze pointedly, "Only that she is young, my lord. Very young."

Caranthir scoffed, trying to keep his blood from running hot at Hagar's assumption of his motives.

"Is that all you wish to discuss with me, Sir Hagar?" Caranthir rounded him casually, "The obvious?"

"I believe you understand my meaning, my Lord."

Caranthir chuckled darkly, "I must go bid farewell to the lady, sir. Are you quite done?"

"Quite." Hagar met his gaze once more.

With a snort of disgust, Caranthir marched away towards the stockade. What irked him most was the honesty in the man's gaze. He genuinely saw Caranthir as a threat to Haleth. But what kind of threat that was remained mystery to the Noldo. Perhaps he thought his influence on her would lead their people away from their chosen path. Caranthir told himself he couldn't care less what the people of Haleth did. If they did not want to accept a fiefdom from him, than it made no difference to him. He couldn't possibly believe Caranthir had designs on the girl herself. The very idea was revolting. Only one of the Edain could conjure up such a twisted notion.

Haleth turned towards him as he entered her tent.

"Shela," She turned towards her kinswoman and nodded.

The fair haired girl stood softly and without looking towards him, left their presence.

"She does not have the look of your people." Caranthir commented off handedly in an attempt to forget his recent conversation.

Haleth nodded quietly, her eyes trailing after Shela. She stood from where she had been stacking kindling by the firepit.

"Shela's mother was not of our people, like Rochma's." Haleth replied, "However, my brother was as dark as I am. Their child will most likely take after him."

Caranthir approached her but not too close, Hagar's words echoing in his mind. Haleth looked up at him expectantly.

"My lord," She began directly without pretense, "I wish to apologize for my manner this morning. I had no intention of reacting so…emotionally-"

Caranthir cut her off, holding up a hand swiftly, "It is already forgotten. Your people are appeased by your new course of action."

"Yes, for the most part." Haleth shrugged.

"Still trouble with the usurpers?"

Haleth met his eyes with a smirk, "They say the paths we would take are suicidal. Some wish to return to the mountains to the east."

"So let them go."

"They are," Haleth glanced out at the gathered horses packed for a long road, "Rochma will lead a small band away."

"This I am glad to hear." Caranthir lifted an eyebrow in the direction of the traveling party with a look of boredom, "They would tire you."

"And will you return to your halls?"

Caranthir turned to find Haleth's gaze steady on his face. Her attention made him wary. He shifted his weight, pacing slightly towards the fireside.

"Yes," He answered evenly, feeling her eyes but not meeting them, "We have been gone too long as is."

"What is it like…where you live?"

"My halls are on the shore of a deep lake that reflects the sky perfectly." Caranthir found himself saying, his heart suddenly longing for home.

"I should like someday…" Haleth began, her voice trailing off, "I hope this is not our last meeting, my lord-"

"Your life spans are so brief," Caranthir interrupted, turning back towards the tent entrance, "The years tend to be lost to me. It is most likely we will not meet again."

He turned towards her. Haleth looked slightly crestfallen by his abrupt response but brought herself to her full height just the same. Her youthful vulnerability, a side that he had only seen a glimpse of that morning, was suddenly gone. Though he was glad to see her steeling herself, he couldn't ignore the fleeting pang of grief over its loss. She studied him icily.

"Then may your gods go with you, my lord." She gave him a bow.

As she rose, Caranthir couldn't find any more words. With a stilted nod, he left her to the dying fire.

"They are leaving!" Shela came into the tent breathlessly, "The company of elves, you should come see!"

Haleth looked up from where she crouched by the fire, her arms cross over her chest. Stirred from her thoughts, she looked up at Shela numbly.

"Haleth, are you alright?" She asked gently, her face twisting with concern.

Brushing away her contemplations, Haleth stood strongly, "Of course, just weary I guess."

"Come, they are quite a sight."

Shela held out a small white hand to her sister-in-law. Haleth took it with an attempted smile. The girls rushed from the tent, following the scant crowd leaving the stockade to witness the departure of the grand horde.

Shela and Haleth rounded the crest of the battle scarred hill. The valley below where the elvish encampment had been was left as though no one had been there at all. Shielding her eyes from the brilliant twilight, Haleth gasped as she watched the company move with utter precision, their dark banners catching the blood red light of the late winter sun. Their armor burned cold like icy river water as they rode tall and proud on their fine steeds. Haleth briefly thought she saw one of the riders paused, turning his horse back towards where they watched. However, the moment passed and the elves were gone as swiftly as they had come.

Several months later

"Dear sister," Shela grasped Haleth's hand, her gaunt face turning grey. A bead of sweat slipped from her hairline, "Tell me what you dream."

"What I dream?" Haleth was choked by a sob as she dabbed Shela's forehead with a kerchief, "What could you mean?"

"I mean what you see…for our people." Shela's eyes grew large as a tear escaped and slide across the bridge of her nose, "I wish I could be here to watch you shine. So bright. Next to my son."

"Don't speak so, you silly girl." Haleth wiped her nose with her sleeve, "You'll be right there with us, our own little family, my dearest friend."

"Tell me what you dream."

Thoughts tumbled through her head. Haleth wanted to come up with an answer to appease her friend, her dead brother's bride. Shela gave a shaky breath. Haleth could feel her skin growing colder.

"I dream…I dream of tree tops burning red and gold with autumn." Haleth managed to say, her throat throbbing, "I dream of children laughing beneath them, old women weaving and young men hunting in the shadowed eaves before dawn. I dream of a home that sings in our blood. I dream of your son as chieftain, his children afterwards leading our people in justice and peace."

"It's all so lovely," Shela's eyelids fluttered, her eyes rolling back towards the ceiling of the tent, firelight dancing off the canvas, "How I long to see these things."

"You will," Haleth begged for lies from her dying sister, "Just you see."

"You dream of someone too, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

Shela opened her eyes once more, resting their placid blue depths on Haleth, "I've heard you breathe his name in your sleep. You can't lie to me."

"I don't know what you mean." Haleth found herself replying, feeling her heart close hard to the emotion, "Shela-"

"You will see him again." Shela lifted her hand wearily, letting the back of her fingers trail down Haleth's jaw, "Trust me in this. The Noldo will not forget your friendship so easily."

Haleth bit her lip, unable to deny the truth coming from the fading girl's mouth.

"I know you will see to my child, I have no doubt." Shela closed her eyes, "I have never doubted you, my chief."

Eight years later

The snow had fallen deeply that day, gusting in thick drifts into the encampment of men. Though it had been a hard season, the people of the Haladin were hardy. They had built their homes from the earth, creating warm shelters of peat and clay that blended into the great green sea of Estolad. Their chieftain's home sat at the head of the settlement, only slightly larger than the others.

By the yellowed warmth of a tallow candle, Haleth hummed a song that her father had sung at her own bedside. The child's eyes drifted shut. Haleth smoothed back the shock of dark hair against his fair forehead. She smiled softly, thinking of how blue Haldan's eyes were when they opened. As blue as his mother's had once been. The child had also been blessed with her brother's dimples. Her nephew was her joy. Blowing out the candle, the room still scented with the heady aroma of the smoky animal fat, Haleth carefully shut the cloth partition to their common room.

"The boy asleep?"

"Yes, finally." Haleth replied approaching the fireside.

"You should let the boy play with his friends outside," Hagar lifted a brow at her, puffing on his pipe.

"Not in this weather." Haleth stated firmly, "He does not have the constitution for it. You know this."

"Let go of your fear, chief," Hagar stood, laying a paternal hand on her shoulder, "And let the child have some freedom."

Haleth wrapped her arms around her middle, not meeting her mentor's gaze, "I will consider it."

"Please do." Hagar wrapped his cloak around his broad shoulders, "It will help him go down easier at night at least."

"That would be a welcomed relief."

Haleth followed Hagar out into the snowy night.

"You did not answer my question from earlier." Hagar turned to her, snowflakes dusting his silvery crown, "Haleth?"

Haleth shifted her weight, the snow groaning beneath her feet, "I need to think more on it. It doesn't need to be decided finally till springtime."

"It'll be here sooner than you think."

"I know." Haleth gave him a genuine smile, "Time tends to go by faster these days."

The years tend to be lost to me. The words echoed through the halls of her memory like a forgotten ballad.

With a final nod, Hagar turned toward his own home on the edge of the village. Haleth stood alone in the snowy night. She turned her face skyward; the snow burning her skin where the flakes landed and melted instantly on her cheeks.

She had not thought of him in a while. There was a time in her life when the elf lord's presence in her heart was as overwhelming as sunlight reflecting against snow. Though her duties as the leader of her people were always superseding, there was a part of her heart that remained private. That was where she had buried the memories of their brief yet utterly life altering meeting. Though she had only been a girl of sixteen, Caranthir had left an impression on her that she could never fully understand.

Feeling the cold start to numb her fingers and toes, she turned once again towards the warmth of her small home.

Removing her heavy, woolen overdress, she wrapped a coarse shawl over the shoulders of her linen shift. Sitting by the fire, she pulled out her own pipe. It had been her father's when he lived. Before long, the warm smell of the dried weed leaves lulled her to a light doze in her high backed wooden chair.

There came a strong knocking at the door that disturbed her dreams of childhood. The visions of her father, Haldar and Shela's calm faces faded before her sleeping eyes. Haleth stumbled to her feet, realizing her fire had died down considerably. After struggling to relight the nearby candle, she stumbled towards the door.

She blinked in the faint light as she opened it to the harsh wind, her eyes barely registering what she saw. She held the candle up high.

"Well, I believe it is you."

Haleth's mouth dropped slightly as she opened the rough wooden door wider, "You?"

Caranthir's gloved hand reached out and grasped her chin, tipping it back, "Yes, it is you."