Killing Beauty

Ashva awoke to find her heart pounding and a strange sensation in her body. For many years the blood fire had been mild, easily satisfied by the men she had come across in her rides, but it was different now, it was stronger. Sitting up, aware of the wolves eyes on her, she wondered how she was going to survive. She was to leave this morning with the elf, but her first instincts were to lock herself in a cave and hide until the fire passed in a week. And it frightened, no shamed her even more to think he might be aware of it, perhaps even the cause of it. The part of her that was elfen was clearly trying to betray her.

She was already dressed in the riding clothes of a ranger when someone knocked at the door. Opening it, she didn't recognize the elf, but he told her in no uncertain terms that it was time for her to go. Praying that Rumil was already there, waiting to take Max and Mani, she grabbed her saddlebag and followed the elf down the long stairs to the waiting horses, the waiting gray horses.

"Why can't I take my own horse?" she asked the elf who only shrugged indifferently.

"He will be easily recognizable," Haldir replied as he walked around his horse with three elleths in tow. Ashva stared at them and then looked at him. Busy boy, was all she could think.


Rumil knew he was pushing it. Haldir had told him to be there at the first crow of the cock, but he had been tied up with something else. Jumping down those last steps, he saw that many were already making their good-byes and giving unsolicited advice to the marchwarden. Rumil meant to do the same, but then his eyes fell on the young woman off by herself with only her wolves to bid her good-bye. In this first light, the sun reflected off the dark crown of her hair and it burned like fire. Seeing her now for what she was, he was taken back by just how beautiful she was, and the loose rider clothes did not hide well the woman's body inside.

Changing his mind about picking up her wolves last, he approached her first, her beauty beoming even more evident as he did. She stood and smiled, and he was certain he saw gratitude in her silver-blue eyes. Why hadn't he noticed her earlier?

"Please treat them kindly," she said and handed their golden leashes to him. "They will follow you like children, if you do."

"I am proud to watch them for you," he suddenly blurted out, so taken with the beauty of her eyes and face that he had said it before he realized it. "May I kiss the brave lady on the cheek in parting?" he asked.

For a moment she looked hesitant and then smiled. "Certainly."

Rumil planted a chaste kiss on her cheek and then stepped back as she mounted the gray horse. He kept smiling, but he couldn't help but wonder if making her go with Haldir was such a good idea. For Haldir maybe, but this woman was proving to be more elleth than first imagined. And if he could smell the faint scent of desire on her, so would Haldir.


Ashva patiently watched Haldir kiss his elleths good-bye one at a time, and one would have thought he was a parting god the way they acted. One of them was even crying. Shaking her head in amazement, she turned her horse around and slowly rode down the trail towards the forest road. In a moment she heard the clatter of his horse's hooves as he galloped past her, his cloak trailing out behind him. A touch of the spur and she was in pursuit.

There was something invigorating about being on the move again on a good horse, the rythmic power of the animal driving between her thighs, the sound of its breathing and the champ of its bits. Overhead ancient mallorn trees rustled against the softest breezes, while the horses raced effortlessly over the leaf strown trail, their hooves thudding softly into the moist earth. Ashva could almost forget she was returning to the city that had been her home for the first twenty-four years of her life. She feared nothing good would come of this except more suffering. And had she half a mind, she would have turned her horse's head and raced north once they left the woods of Lothlorien instead of drawing long side him, their horses now galloping abreast


The sun was beginning to burn red in the sky when they drew rein for the night. The horses, although blessed by elven magic, still needed to stop, rest and graze. Even Ashva was grateful for the stop, and Haldir had picked a good secluded place near a spring. She only regretted there would be no fire from now until when, and no game to spit it on. Elves were not adverse to eating meat and they wore furs in the winter, but if they could avoid it, they did.

Brushing her horse down and making sure it was taken care of first, lingering perhaps a bit longer than she needed to, she returned to their cold camp and unrolled her bed roll. She would use her cloak as a blanket if she needed to, but already she felt the night was going to be too warm and too long. He was already resting, lying on his back with his gloved hands, finger ends removed, folded in his lap, his ankles crossed, right boot over left. His weapons were lying beside him, and she was thinking that she was noticing way too much about this elf.

"You can come closer it you like," he spoke up sensuously without moving so much as finger tip.

"I don't think that would be wise," she responded and threw herself on her bedroll, the ground unbelieveably hard after a week in the soft talan beds with Max and Mani as pillows. She really missed those wolves.