Daefon watched as she moved from the room,saw her father call to her vainly.Then,silently,using all his elven skill he moved silently after her,lurking in shadows undetected,as he had been all her life.He loved her,he always had,with an intensit- - a passion that took over his soul;she was beautiful,so very beautiful,like sunrise,midday and sunset all rolled into one.There was more than that though,she looked perfect,whatever she was doing,she looked absolutely perfect;he wished he could draw her,she looked like someone you would draw,whatever she did she was always perfectly positioned to be drawn naturally posed in the poses that would take anyone sitting for a portrait all day to perfect.It was there in her sister too,but not as natural,she was concious of it and Lalaithwen was not.He had spent his life haunting her,always longing to speak with her,never daring and now she ws leaving�walking out of his life�his heart and leaving an irreperable hole in both.He would not let her leave him,wherever she went,he must follow�whatever the cost.
Daefon�s stealth was,in this case, unnecessary;he could have jumped up and down calling her name,and she still would not have heard him,so intense was her focus.Lalalaithwen paused to take up Haldir�s bow which he had left by his horse�which,she also planned on �borrowing�.She leapt lightly up onto a horse,which,at the time she believed to be Haldir�s�.only when she had ridden,swift as the wind far,far away from Lothlorien,that she realised that the horse beneath her was not Asafel at all.She had chosen,driven by instincts buried deep in her subconcious,another horse,one that she had never seen before.He was as white and pure as fresh snow,but shimmered bright silver as the light of the stars of Varda.Seeming almost to ride the free wind,his movements were fluid and graceful,his silver hooves seeming barely to touch the ground.
As Lalaithwen drew further from Lothlorien�that,despite her deep desire to save it,had become loathsome to her�as she felt the fresh wind catch her bright hair and send it flying freely behind her�her heart lifted in delighted song,she realised that she was free too!Suddenly she laughed as she thought of her brother,who was now stuck in Lothlorien without his bow
At least he still has his horse She thought,her pure,musical laughter mingling with the deep voice of the wind.Daefon,riding softly behind her smiled slightly at the sound,and the sight of her rich golden hair,in perfect contrast with the pure white of her steed.He longed to capture s little of her light and immortalise it,through song,or picture for he knew in his heart that Lalaithwen would be short lived;that the flame within her was too bright and burned to strongly to be trapped for long in a body of flesh and blood.He rode after her,swift as he could;logically,his own horse,swift though he was,should not have been able to keep up with Lalaithwen�s--who was a horse bred in Valimar while the trees still grew�but,guided by some will from afar,his horse seemed almost to be lifted from the ground and carried on the breath of the wind�his fate was entwined with hers,wether Lalaithwen knew it or not.
Far ahead of Lalaithwen,unknown to the laughing maiden,Elenglinel cried out in pain;almost knocked off her shadowy horse as the merry sound pierced her dark heart from afar.
Daefon sighed slightly and rode on.He was beginning to wonder when exactly Lalaithwen was going to get there�wherever there was.He�d ridden after her,blindly following his heart with no idea as to what he was getting himself into,now,after four days of riding swiftly over hills and plains with very little rest,he was beginning to question the wisdom of that particular idea.His heart was,at present having a serious debate with the rest of his aching body,which was urgently repeating the same message to his tired brain |
