[Elora]

Falowik's smile soothed the unrest of her thoughts enough to give Uien the chance to reply.

“Perhaps your room, my love, for I feel that I've dragged you around Bree enough as it is. I am sorry to disturb your rest.” Falowik nodded and stepped back, ushering Uien through. With a glance into the empty hall, he left the door ajar and turned to where she stood. She seemed uncertain still. The room was filled with beds, unlike her own, and chairs were hidden it seemed. Falowik gestured for her to sit and she did so, taking a perch on the edge of the bed that still bore the outline of his form upon it.

He sat also, beside her, examining her face in the soft light of the room. She smiled at his seeking eyes and shifted a fall of hair back over her shoulder as she gathered her bravery. There was no anger nor recrimination in his blue gaze, she was immeasureably relieved to see. This reassured her further. After a small pause, Uien stretched her hand out to Falowik's hand which she brushed. Her hand fell back to her lap and his own retreated to clasp between his knees.

As she had stood in the hall, it had occurred to Uien that Falowik would be minded to have nothing to do with her following events of the day. She gazed at her hand and let the sounds of the commonroom filter through from below. Uien took in a deep breath, hoping it would calm her further. Beside her, Falowik asked hesitantly, “Is there something amiss?” His voice was close, curling in her ear, and worried.

“No, at least that is what I hope,” Uien replied softly. “It has been a full day. Arriving, leaders chosen…” Uien lifted her head to look at Falowik, smiling in remembrance of the stolen kiss. She felt the flush of her cheeks stir and her heart spin and float. He was so near. To bury herself in his arms would have her heart overrun. The light from the room's lantern glinted in his golden hair and she reached to smooth it back from his brow as he looked back at her. Her fingers trailed down his cheek. “I thought you had left because of… but you have not." The remembered fear faded as she spoke. He was here, undeniably present beside her as below the music and dance changed from reel to jig. He shifted under her touch and she let her fingers drop away again, aware of a distance.

Uien’s voice had grew soft. “Have you ever wondered if something you truly desired or wished for would ever be granted you, my love, even though it seemed impossible?” Falowik nodded and she read the truth of that echoed in his face. “Hoped through time and sorrow beyond all for something that you feared was hopeless?”

“Yes,” Falowik said. There were words moving inside of him. She heard that too. Uien turned her gaze to the floor briefly and drew a deep breath. “Today, Lira sought me out and told me of a tale and a Lay sung in Imladris.” Falowik’s brow creased as he tried to follow her words.

“There is noone else I would rather tell than you, Laurëatan." Falowik seemed to still beside her and Uien set out the tale relayed to her by Lira. As she spoke, a delight so clear as to be almost incandescent grew within her. Her voice rose and fell, through remembered sorrow to newfound joy, as she told of the full tale. She recounted her last glimpse of her brother as the storm howled around them, and of her fruitless search in the frigid, preternatural silence that followed it. To this, she added the new glad tidings of her mother and brother's survival.

Falowik listened intently through her unravelling of her brother's search for her, and their sorrow-laden journey to the Grey Havens where they took ship, leaving behind his lament in Imladris. Falowik's his presence steadied her as she recounted it all. Her lips curved into a smile at last, unfettered and radiant with the discovery gifted to her by Lira. She looked up into Falowik's intent face.

“They live, beloved! My mother and brother, they survived the mountain and the orcs and they live even now.”

Falowik sat up straighter, surprise evident upon his face. “Uien that, that is…” he paused as he searched for the right word. Uien nodded, a musical note of laughter slipping free into the room. “Yes… beyond hope in a world I thought empty of such gifts until I found you. A weight lifted…”

“Where are they,” Falowik asked.

“Valinor, the last refuge for my mother and brother after three Ages of strife and loss."

Falowik had been silent as he sorted through what Uien had told him, nodding and encouraging her to continue on.

“I believed that perhaps this would strengthen your own hope, Falowik Melda.

“It is not truly impossible until such time as we abandon hope,” Uien murmured to the one she had just named beloved. Through this the music of the Prancing Pony wheeled and turned, rising and falling, below. “I would give you that, hope, if I could.” Uien turned one of her own hands over in her lap and studied the palm before sending her gaze to study Falowik's blue eyes.

“There is much now I hope for, with strength renewed. What of you, Falowik? What do you hope for?”

She shaped his name tenderly, imbuing it with what moved and floated within her as she leaned close and studied his face with her own silvery gaze. Questions and other things she saw there, but it lay to him to decide what words he would trust her with, what questions he would dare.

[ November 06, 2003: Message edited by: Elora ]