The old ways

"He is what?" Eowyn’s eyes had grown large. "But he is male. Surely, you don't want to tell me...."

Haldir laughed quietly "Oh, I do know he is male. Very male indeed. But he went through a special procedure to become fertile. I don't know when this idea manifested itself in his mind, but there it was. It took him all in all over one and a half years to achieve it, but in the end it worked."

"You have children?" Eowyn still looked shaken.

"No. Not yet. We hope to have children in the future, but we don't have any, yet. a few years after the procedure was finished and tctuactual chance existed, I had reached my worst level in over protection. The mere thought of anything happening to him was taking my breath away. Every time we slept together and the slightest chance of a pregnancy was in the air I lost my mind. I told him not to work too hard, not to practice with knives, sword or his bow. I made him sit down all the time and in end end I even didn't want him to leave our talan too often.

Then one day, and we had many fights until then, we received a message that Mirkwood was under a heavy attack and Legolas immediately wanted to leave for his home in order to help defend it. I was beside myself. I shouted at him, that he was irresponsible, young and naive, overeager and not trustworthy. I even told him that I wouldn't trust him with the life of my child. I told him all of that to make him stay. But instead I drove him away. He left in the middle of the night. No letter, no notice, nothing. I knew were he had gone to, but I didn't follow him. My pride got the better of me. Thus we never met again, for over a thousand years. My heart bled and I cried for many hours when I was alone. But even then, I never contacted him. Yes, I know I have been a fool and maybe I don't deserve him, but I only know that from now on everything is going to be better. I will never again hold him back, never stop him again. Rather I will stand by his side, stand tall beside him and walk with him where ever he goes."


They rode harsh and without much rest in order to reach Edoras in time for the mustering. Gimli, who was seated behind Legolas again, held onto the elf for his life. He doubted that he would ever become accustomed to riding a horse. From time to time he caught himself tenderly patting the elf’s slightly swollen body, mumbling reassurances to the unborn child. Only at those moments did Legolas allowed a soft smile to break, that played around his lips. But then his thoughts went back to the love he had lost and that he would never feel the tender touch of Haldihandhand on his growing belly, that he would never be able to rouse his love at night, or call out for him during daytime, because he would feel the child move for the first time. Tears would fall then and the dwarf would try to calm his aching soul with comforting words.

It took them nearly another two days without much rest at night to reach Edoras. Only a handful of people had returned yet, and they told them of the fallen bodies of the massacre at the Hornburg and piles of deodieodies. Many were slain and it was not expected to find many alive. Gimli felt Legolas recoil and therefore took his hand and led him away from the great hall in direction of the chamber he had stayed in before, muttering something about some minor wound he had to tend to.

Aragorn shot Gimli a questioning look, but said nothing and continued talking to the men that had returned from Helm's Deep.

Once inside his quarters, Legolas had to hold onto the four poster bed to keep from breaking down. Usually it would have driven him mad to experience a weakness like this or even worse displaying it, but with the loss of Haldir’s life, a virtue as this was not important to him any more. Meanwhile Gimli busied himself with the fireside and when finished moved over to Legolas, who still stood rooted to the spot and ordered him to sit down.