Disclaimer: The majority of this story does not belong to me. Legolas, Arwen, Mirkwood, etc. is property of J.R.R. Tolkien. Rialel Rosewood however, does belong to me. In fact, she's my Mary Sue character. GUILTY....


The moon watched Rialel Rosewood through her bedroom window. The elf shook slightly as she fought back tears. As denied herself what she wanted, it seemed her heart reprimanded her for this.

The Rivendell night was cold, and the sky was gray. This matched perfectly the elven maiden’s emotions inside. She’d been dreading this night… Though she knew it approached, she tried to deny it’s existence. However, try as she might, she couldn’t.

She knew it was selfish of her, staying in her room while the people of Rivendell and their guests were most likely seated around on of the great halls. It wasn’t right. The girl knew she belonged there with them. And she greatly desired the join them. But she knew she wouldn’t have been able to bear it. After all, she was in love with him…

A harsh wind intruded, and Rialel retrieved her fur-cloak. As she pulled the fur around her, she stared up at the stars. They surrounded the moon, which was high in the sky, telling Rialel it was late in to the night, or early in to the morning. Just as she’d been pondering the time, she saw figures begin to leave the Hall. As she let out a sigh, she predicted that someone, possibly Arwen would want a word with her on this evening’s absence, sometime during the next day.

She’d tell whoever this was the truth- That it tore at her staying in her room, but her heart told her she had no choice. Rialel was quite aware it was wiser to listen to her heart as well as her mind, but there were common times when her heart spoke louder to her.

Then again, they might not come to her at all. There was only one person in the world who understood Rialel. Not always completely, but after all, he was her best friend. She was a very odd girl. Completely kind-hearted, and pure, but still odd. She had appeared out of the blue one day, when she was still too young to crawl. One of the Mirkwood Elves had found her, and had brought her to Rivendell, where she was raised.

But what she’d been taught didn’t always stick with her. She had a very independent spirit, and wasn’t always keen on an opportunity to hunt with another, when she could have hunted herself. And she was alone a lot. Yes, she had many good friends, but would have rather walked alone, thinking, than be in the company of others.

However, she’d spend the rest of her life with the one she loved if he asked her to. But it seemed the chances of that were dwindling at a great speed.

The next day they were off. To the Cracks of Mordor. A Fellowship of Nine, sent to destroy the Ring. Great perils lay ahead for them on the long journey they were forced to take. The haunt of death settled in the backs of all’s minds, and they feared for the Fellowship.

Rialel feared for him most of all.

His name was Legolas.

He was Rialel’s greatest friend. They’d known one another from the time that they were small, and though Rialel resided in Rivendell, and he was the Prince of Mirkwood, there was an unrivaled closeness between them. And sometime, Rialel knew not when, she’d fallen utterly and hopelessly in love with him.

She didn’t want to bid him farewell. She didn’t want to see him that night, for it would only break her heart. With her, there under the moon, and off the next day. Rialel was brave, and strong, but she loved Legolas with a weakening fierceness. Her heart was her enemy.

Selfish…

She knew she was being this. Not bidding the Fellowship farewell. Not expressing the fact she wished the best of luck to Frodo Baggins. And it was selfish of her not to say goodbye to Legolas. But she did not know what it might to do her to see him go.

However, it didn’t matter any more…

“ They often said we possessed similar traits, Rialel.”

The elven maiden froze. A kind, soft voice had spoken from behind her. She hadn’t heard him enter, but the second he began to speak, she knew who it was. In tone affectionately tinged with humor, he spoke briefly again.

“ And I know I am stubborn at times, my friend.”

“ Legolas.” She whispered almost inaudibly.

She wouldn’t turn around. It was silent for a few moments. It was true- Legolas did know her better than anyone. So he knew that Rialel wouldn’t look at him. No. Not yet. But if she wanted to see him or not, the blonde elf had no intention of leaving. He took one step forward.

“ Even if you do not wish to say goodbye to me, I certainly want to say it to you.”

Rialel felt her heart begin to pound loudly in her chest.

“ Please…”

His footsteps were light on the floor, but Rialel nonetheless heard him approaching. She buried her face in her hands, for she did not want him to see her, or herself to see him.

Legolas wouldn’t have it. This was his dearest friend, and he wouldn’t let her win in her attempt to push him away. Reaching out, he gently stroked some of her soft hair. Letting out a shaky breath, she took her hands away from her face and crossed her arms. But her hair fell around her face, so she still hid from the male.

Slowly, Prince… Legolas silently told himself. He smiled gently at Rialel. Another brisk breeze blew through the open window, and even under the heavy cloak, the maiden shivered.

“ Come now. You’ll get sick. Winter is nearly upon us.”

He closed the window, so the room would be warm. Rialel let him remove her cloak when he went to, as she didn’t need it anymore. He hung it on the wall, then went to sit next to the female elf at her window seat. She was trying her hardest no to look up at him, so he relieved her.

Gently cupping her chin in his hand, he brought her face to look at his. It seemed a shock went through them as their gazes met. Then Legolas caressed her face with his hand, and spoke the thought that had immediately invaded his mind.

“ Still beautiful, Rialel.”

Rialel did not know how exactly respond to this. Obviously, it was a compliment. And Rialel cherished these tender words he spoke to her. At the same time, she inwardly winced, for he knew not the power over her he possessed.

However, she did not know that power was being shared by her as Legolas stared at her. She looked like no other elf he knew. She fell a few inches below his height, and was thin, but strong, such as a cat. Her eyes were the brown of the healthiest bark in Middle-Earth, and her hair was unique. Reddish-brown with a slight hint of pink. It trailed down part of her back and was soft as silk.

She started to shake. Finally, she spoke to him. The words were not the ones she desired to speak most, but she knew it was what she had to say.

“ Legolas, you must go.” It was so much for her to handle.

But Legolas shook his head.

“ I won’t. You can not do this to us.” He paused, as a thought that almost made him ill came in to his mind. “ Unless… You do not care for me. Or our friendship.”

Rialel jumped up.

“ Legolas Greenleaf!” She shouted at him. Legolas felt his heart sink in his chest. He’d angered her. Seeing her like this was one of the last things he would have liked to see. It had not been intentional. But he had to know if the reason she did not care to see him was because he did not have the place in her heart he once had.

There was emotion in her eyes. A passionate anger mixed with love and the astonishment he would think to ask such a question. She tried to glare at him, but all she succeeded in doing was sending him an injured look. This look injured Legolas as well, in the same area he’d hurt Rialel. His heart.
She began to speak again.

“ Legolas, I’ve known you all my life! For over two-thousand years! How could you think I do not care! You are my dearest friend, and I adore you for that. The friendship we share means more than anything to me!” She paused, and swallowed, watching Legolas’ eyes widen at this remark, and catching her breath.
“ So you must now tell me; Do you care for it?”

Legolas stood up, and put his hands on Rialel’s arms.

“ Our friendship means more to me than I could ever tell you. You mean more to me than I could ever tell you. ”

He gingerly pulled her in to his arms. Warm shivers ran through Rialel like lightning as she found herself in the embrace she longed for.

The emotions had been bottled up inside of her for far too long now. She could not control any longer. Release.

She threw her arms around Legolas’ neck.

“ Legolas!” She began to softly shake in his arms. “ I can’t bear to lose you!”

The other elf swallowed back a sob at these words.
“ Rialel…” He held her closer to him still, softly stroking her back. Together, they sunk on to the soft carpet of her floor. For what seemed like longer than it truly was, they held each other.

Eventually, he kissed her forehead. Rialel bit her lip, and looked up at him. He managed to smile at her, through all he felt.

“ I don’t want to be lost. For I will be lost, and have things lost to me. My family, my friends, I can not bear to be with out them. And you, Rialel. I’ve known you throughout forever.”

Rialel had stopped shaking, and looked at him, a purely forlorn look in her eyes.

“ Yes… It has been long. I want to know you for the rest of eternity, Legolas! You leave tomorrow. And though I am not blind to see what you are doing is greater than any feat attempted in a long time. It’s just that… I might not see you-”

Quickly, Legolas put one finger on her lips.

“ Shh.” Eliminating the puzzlement in Rialel’s eyes, he told her, “ A thought approached. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. That is all I have heard this evening. But what about now? There’s still tonight.”

Rialel smiled.

“ Ah. I knew you could not have forgotten how to do that.” Legolas told her.

“ It is a night not to be wasted, no?”

He nodded at her. The warm smile that had dominated his fair face now left, as it seemed something was troubling him.

“ But… There is one thing.” He stood up, and held out a hand to Rialel. As he helped her to her feet, he still held her hands in his. “ There is something you must know. Now Please. Don’t speak, my dear.

“ Since we were small, we have been the best of friends. We share many memories, of all sorts. Some we care to remember, some we do not. But they have brought us close. And as we’ve gone along, we have seemed to befriend romance.”

Rialel’s heart surely skipped a beat as he mentioned this last note. She thought back to their first kiss. A kiss that had left them wondering what they were entitled to, and almost driving them mad, what with the things it had led to…


*~ It had only been several hundred years before. The demon wolves had been a threat to Middle Earth, and several elves had been sent out to try and eliminate them.

In the heat of a chase, Rialel and Legolas had been separated from the rest of the elves, and driven far away. Somehow, they’d managed to temporarily lose the demons, and were now taking shelter safely hidden in a cave. It was night, and the demons were more numerous at night. All the two could do was hide, and hope they were not discovered.

The cave had been dark, cold, and dreary. They’d managed to start a fire, in order to keep warm. The huddled close together under a warm blanket, as the cold nipped at their keen ears.

“ Legolas?” Rialel’s voice pierced the air, which had been silent except for the crackling of the fire.

“ Yes?”

Rialel moved closer to him, and looked up at the other elf.

“ What are we going to do?”

Sighing, Legolas shook his head.

“ I do not know, Rialel.”

It had been a habit all her life, and now Rialel once again bit her lip.

“ You will take care of me, right?”

Legolas nodded, and he slipped a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“ Of course.”
But he could not predict what the path held for them. What the demons would do next, what the two would do the next day when the sun came up, if they actually could handle themselves against the demons, and if he could actually protect Rialel at the same time if she needed him…

Rialel was thinking this was not like their last little adventure. When they had chased a deer too far from Mirkwood while Rialel was delivering a message, and found themselves in the middle of a thunderstorm. But then again, they were not the same. A hundred years or so older. More mature. Growing up.

They were not children anymore, they realized as they looked at one another in the fire light. Suddenly, the fire light was a new light they saw each other in.

“ Lord Elrond would surely not be happy if I brought news to Rivendell, that I had lost you to the demons.” He told her. He put his hand on her face. It was warm against her cold skin. She gazed up at a handsome face, and he down at a beauty.

She was dearest friend. She was the girl he found himself missing quite often, living in Mirkwood, with her in Rivendell. She was the only one who knew him, as he knew her, she was-

The one he shared his first kiss with as he suddenly brought his face down, and caught her lips with his.

Rialel seemed to whimper against him, as they pulled one another closer, and in to a deeper kiss. Their surroundings seemed to melt away as they surrendered.

It lasted several sweet moments, but then they pulled away, and found themselves staring at one another. ~*


Legolas had been thinking of the same experience. He was then pulled back in to the present, and longing to kiss Rialel again. But there had been confusion over the years.

There were times when Rialel and Legolas seemed to be planning to one day marry. While other times, they seemed to be merely friends again. As well as they knew one another, they could not discern what sort of association they desired. Even in themselves they could find the answer, at times.

But as time went along, there was one pure thing that became as clear as crystal to them.

Legolas spoke again, still wishing of Rialel not to speak.

“ I must admit to you, Rialel- I have not always understood our romance. What were we destined to be? Friends or lovers?”

Rialel wanted to speak, but she couldn’t interrupt him. She was longing to know what he had to tell her. But she knew what she would have told him. What seemed to be so true to her. Oh, Legolas… We’re to be lovers. I know it…

“ I can not tell destiny, but I do know what feels right… Rialel, I am in love you.”

Rialel gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. Legolas, who had been gazing dreamily at her suddenly could not bring himself to look upon her at that moment. Tears came to her eyes, and she put one hand over her face, trying to take it in the words that Legolas had admitted.

What Legolas saw, however, was the love of his life gasp, looking at him shocked, then begin to cry. Immediately, he began to rethink his action. What if it had not been right to tell her this? Was it not right? Were they truly not to be lovers?

But Rialel, circumstances as they were, had never had a happier moment in her life. This can not be possible. If this is a dream, I do crave to know what I did to deserve such a cruel punishment.

Legolas had detected rejection. So he could not bear to stay there. But even as she sorted through her thoughts, as the blonde began to leave, Rialel, reached out for him.

“ No!” She looked at him with pleading eyes. “ Don’t go.”
Swallowing, Legolas stopped, and faced Rialel. She was breathing heavily, for it had been inside of her for so long. A fantasy became a reality around her.

She’d longed to say it. She’d hoped to say it. She needed to say it now.

“ Legolas, I love you, as well!” She hadn’t meant to shout at him, but it left her with so much force, a natural energy accompanied it. She held out her hands. 

“ Don’t you see?! That is the reason I did not want to see you go! That is why I don’t want to see you gone from Middle Earth! I need you, my love! Without you, I am nothing!

“ There is a fire inside of me. It burns only for you! It will never burn for another! And if you die, you will be the rain that extinguishes the flames!”

Rialel was crying now. Finally, it had been spoken. The truth that the chance Legolas might die existed.

“ Oh, Rialel…” He wiped away her tears, and watched her normal color return.

They stared at one another. There love for one another was returned. Heartache was ended. At least, for the hours they had until midday the next day. Relief was the first thing they had felt. It was then followed by a swell of the emotion that within the two elves, no other emotion rivaled- Love.

Beginning to release the passion they held inside, they drew one another in to a kiss. A long, sultry kiss. Neither knew how long it lasted. The time didn’t matter. But they could not hide from the truth the next day held.

“ Legolas, my dear, sweet love;” Rialel whispered against his lips; “ If you are taken from me, I will have to live with death for the rest of my life.”

Legolas thought for a moment,

“ I will try my hardest to return to you. But if I don’t… I will give you something sweeter to remember me by.”

Pausing, Rialel once again looked at him. She knew. He knew. It was something they had both desired. And they knew not if another opportunity would present itself. So they took the chance they had.

They kissed again, only with more fire this time. It seemed to be the only thing to do- Promise themselves to one another. They kissed for a very long time again, but then desire began to grow, and overpower everything else. They knew it was time.


* * *


Rialel awoke pressed up against Legolas’ warm body. Her body was nude, as was his. Against her breasts, she could feel his heart beat lightly in his chest. She ran her hand along the ivory skin of his torso, as she had the night before.

It had been perfect. Hands, tongues, bodies, all had engaged in their passion. They’d explored one another’s bodies, moaning under erotic touches. They’d made love.

Legolas had been awake for a bit of time, and when Rialel’s hand trailed down his chest, he slid his fingers through her silken hair. The girl now looked up at him, eyes slightly tired. The golden locks he possessed fell loose, framing his face by what seemed to be the sun. He kissed down her face until his lips found their way to hers.

After he had kissed his love, he looked out the window, and sighed, sadly.

“ Rialel, look. The sun has risen over the tallest tree.”

Following his gaze, to her dismay, she found that he was right. They had slept well in to the morning, and the night they’d shared had been over for hours.

“ Legolas, you must go…” She whispered.

Against his body, Rialel felt him emit a shaky sigh.

“ I know, my love.”

Sitting up, the Elven female told him,

“ We should dress, my dear, for he slept very late.”

Smiling, Legolas sat up.

The two dressed one another, hands craving to try and memorize bodies. 
As Rialel finished lacing up his shirt, she found herself gazing in to his eyes. She began to shake her head.

“ No… Please, no.”

She buried her face in her hands, as tears threatened her.

“ Oh, Rialel…”

Legolas pulled him in to her embrace. After a few moments, she looked at him.

“ Come back to me, Legolas. I love you… I love you more than anything!”

“ My dearest, that is the way I feel for you. I desire greatly to return to you.”

They walked to the window, and looked out at Rivendell. The male’s arms slid around Rialel’s waist.

“ Beloved.” Nuzzling her ear, he began to speak in to it. “ If I return, I will go back to Mirkwood. After all, I am it’s Prince… I would love…” He paused, for as much as he wanted to speak his words, he couldn’t. “ I would love it… If…”

Still in his arms, Rialel turned to him, her warm smile crossing her face.

“ Yes?”

As Legolas basked in the sight of her, the words came rushing back to him.

“ I would love it if you would be my Princess.”

Gasping shortly, the girl stared at him.

“ Legolas, I…”

Legolas took her hands in his.

“ Please? I beg of you, Rialel. Marry me. For I desire no one else.”

The initial shock of his request took it’s time in the maiden. However, finally, her smile crossed her face.

“ Of course, my love.”

Legolas smiled, a feeling somewhat of relief spreading over him. They embraced.

“ I love you, my Princess.”

“ And I love you…” A sorrowful look once again found it’s way to her face. “ Legolas, I can not watch you go. Tell the Fellowship I wish them the best. It would be to much. I would want to follow.” She offered the smallest of smiles.

The Prince closed his eyes for a moment, then looked at Rialel again. 
“ Then this is goodbye. Have faith in the stars above, my beloved Rialel. They might shine upon me if you do.” Once more, he captured her mouth with his.

But the stars shone most brightly upon their love.

~End~