[Amanaduial the archer]

"Looking for someone?"

Nura turned as she heard the voice, looked puzzled for a moment, then looked up. Nuhrive smiled down at her, came down a few branches, then extended a hand down to her, helping Nura up. She beckoned, anot speaking, a finger to her lips to indicate Nura should so the same, so as not to disturb the birds at the prescence of a near-stranger, although Nuhrive didnt think of her like that; Nura, Sultir and Nuhrive had become fast friends. They climed to the top of the tree, helping each other.

"Close your eyes." Nuhrive whispered quietly to her. Nura looked puzzled once more, then did as she was told. Nuhrive guided her a little further, then tapped her to indicate she should open them now. Nura gasped, speechless.

Nuhrive knew how she felt. It had been Sultir who had showed her this first, several years ago, when the quiet elf boy had taken her up here in an attempt to make Nuhrive take more notice of him. She smiled fondly as she remembered; how the wind had tugged her hair back, making her fell unsafe, but then she opened her eyes and all fears were forgotten. For what they looked out from was the highest point in Lorien, and they looked out as far as it was possible to see, scores of miles in each direction. Nuhrive grinned at her friend.

"Pretty good, huh?"

The girl turned back to her, still beaming and kept looking out over the view, turning more than a little unsteadily to be able to see in all directions. She gave a small laugh.

"So all this too is what people talk about when they speak of the glory of the elves." She said softly, her voice joyful.

Nuhrive smiled back. "And you will be happy to live with this glory?"

Nura turned and saw the anxiety in Nuhrive's eyes. She smiled back and, carefully, higged her elven friend and her voice when she spoke was satisfaction made into a sound. "Aye. Certainly."

They looked out over the view in silence, and Nuhrive glanced at her friend, guessing that she was thinking about her brother and her countrymen and women, so she wisely stayed quiet. Then, after a moment, Nura's face cleared, and she sighed. She seemed to have reached some sort of decision within herself, and Nuhrive was glad of it.

"Come; the Lady holds a meeting tonight, and there is much I must tell you." Nura had been very anxious to learn the ways of elven ettiquette, for she did not wish to be looked down upon by the elves. Nuhrive, of course, had never been the perfect lady of the court, but in taking her friend to this meeting as an honourary and equal guest, and in teaching her the ways of the elves, she felt it was also her duty to make an effort herself. Her parents had been so glad to see her back, more than she had thought, for foolishly she had thought the cared more about work.

"Oh course not, darling," Isolde Fleetheart had assured her with a laugh. "Your father and I have stayed in the wood all the time you were away. We weren't allowed to follow- regulations of never having an entire family out in a dangerous situation at once. I tried, and I rather think I may have annoyed a few people..." Isolde's face had become thoughtful and a little bemused. Nuhrive had just laughed, and hugged her rather vague mother all the tighter. Since then, her and her parents had become closer than they had been before, and although her father would be going out on another scouting party for a while in a few days, her mother had decided to stay, and Nuhrive was glad of this. They were making up for lost time, and not just the time when Nuhrive had been kidnapped.

She turned in the direction of the lands where the men had come from, and her thoughts turned to the strange man, Ru-Sahn. He had never seen the land of the people he proffessed to come from, never seen their people together as a nation. Yet he had fought for them, until a voice from his past called him back...and he had refused it. Nuhrive wondered if she would ever truly understand men; but then, were they really so different from elves? Nura certainly wasnt.

"Are you coming, Vay?" Nura called up, using Nuhrive's nickname. She looked down to the forest floor where the human stood, and grinned and begn to climb down slowly. Well, if humans were so different, she intended to solve the differences. Although Nura had not said as much, Nuhrive guessed she would not always be content to remain within the wood. And although Nuhrive's heart lay within Calas Galadon, in every tree, in every elf, in every building, although the voice of her mind was represented within the very songs sung by the choir, and although all her friends and family were in this very wood, she would accompany Nura. For in leaving something for a while, the pleasure is only intensified. She had come back from the whole experience of being abducted different, a little wiser in thought and deed. As she had found out, no matter where she went, her heart would always remain within the Golden Wood of Lothlorien.