He looked at me, pausing to catch his breath, his golden hair wet and discolored with mud. He had blood spattered all over his armor, on his face. His sword was caked solid with it.
He was fierce. And beautiful.
"It...it is quite dead now," I managed.
Haldir smiled, then breathed out a tired laugh. "Yes."
I smiled too. "You are alive."
"You are alive."
"Barely. But Haldir...I killed so many orcs!" I announced more eagerly than intended, like a small child bragging to their parents.
At once he closed the few steps to me, taking hold of both sides of my face. "Is that your blood or theirs?" he said, running a thumb over my cheek, and I winced. I had forgotten about that. "It is yours. They have cut your lovely face." His words were tender, yet laced with something dangerous. "The orc who did this..."
"I drove a blade into his chest...much like you just did," I said, nodding slightly at the dead orc's body.
He appeared satisfied. "Good."
We both stood there, filthy and bloody, with rain streaking down our faces, and examined each other for a moment.
"You are covered in mud, Marchwarden. I have never seen you thus," I said.
"You have no place to talk, Little Mortal. You have faired no better," he defended. "You look like a soldier fresh from war."
Placing a hand upon his arm, I said, "Well, I am."
His eyes flickered over my form and he chuckled quietly. "It suits you."
"Only because I had the finest teacher." I did not remove my hand from its place upon his arm. Internally, I refused to do so until the very last instant in which I must. "I received your writing."
"Yes," he said. "I am glad." Another long few seconds passed with Haldir seeming very wrapped in his thoughts, though he looked at me fixedly. Finally, "Raena..."
"Yes? What is it?"
"I've--"
"Haldir!" Eomer called out, approaching quickly with a group of elven soldiers behind him. I sighed inwardly over the interruption, though I could not grumble much, considering the circumstances.
"The King will declare victory," Eomer told us with a raw voice.
"Thank heavens," I said.
"Lady Raena, I am glad to see you unharmed," Eomer said.
"I am lucky. I nearly met my end upon that wall top, there. An orc held my neck and would have crushed it, for certain, but an arrowman took him down, though I did not see him."
"I did," Eomer answered. "It was Haldir."
I turned to the Marchwarden. "It was you," I said, shaking my head. "Of course it was you. Who else could have made that shot from the battlefields below. That would not have been an easy mark...even for an elf. You saved my life, Haldir."
"He climbed atop a pile of dead orcs to gain height enough to hit the foul creature," Eomer said.
Haldir looked down at me. "That was a desperate moment, Little Mortal. I was lucky to have seen you when I did."
