So, I'm pretty much certain you are all going to kill me. Maybe I should have warned you about my hiatus. Would it help you to know that I have the whole thing written and will upload it in 1-2 chapters per week?

Disclaimer 4: I own neither the characters nor the world. I own only the writing and the plot.

When Destiny Is Rushed

4

Arriving in Lórien, I decided I had never seen a more beautiful place. The leaves on the trees were a beautiful golden color, the bark smooth and grey like a pearl. The grass and plants were saturated with greens and blues. I gasped in wonder, and would have stopped walking altogether had Peter not dropped back and grabbed my arm to pull me along.

"Try and keep up, Susan," he told me, "I don't think these elves take kindly to having to wait up for us."

I nodded. "Agreed, brother dear." I responded, and made more of an effort to not hang around staring at the forest. We caught up with the rest of them soon enough. Seeing Haldir deep in conversation with Aragorn and Legolas, I stayed back with Peter and let him guide me so I could focus on what we were walking through.

I could see white houses scattered on the floor and staircases winding their way up huge oaks, up to where more houses lay nestled in the thick branches. Our escort led us up past these houses in the trees- tree-houses make them sound like the elves are little kids- and up into a great hall. There was a wide staircase leading up through the hall. At the top of it, there were two elves of unsurpassable beauty and stature.

Walking up the stairs and finally reaching them, I could see that the two elves were dressed alike in silvers and blues. The man looked very regal, and before I could register anything else he asked sharply, "But where is Gandalf? We have a great desire to speak to him." I saw pain in the eyes of the woman briefly, as if she knew what had happened to him.

"Gandalf the Grey has left us," she said in a musical voice like a thousand bells. "Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life." I did not know who Gandalf was, yet from the pain in the eyes of all the Fellowship I could tell that he had been well-loved.

The Lady slowly looked into our eyes, seeming like she could read our souls. When her grey eyes bored into mine, I did not doubt she could. "You shall find love here, dear daughter. Do not be afraid of it, or it may leave you forever." I felt her voice echo in my head. When I finally tore my eyes away from her, I could still feel the echoes of her words. I could tell we were all awed by her. Finally, she spoke again.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Tonight you shall sleep in peace." We were all relieved to hear that. I saw a collective sigh go around us, and we all let out some tension held inside. She dismissed us, and we all slowly turned and left, still a bit dazed at what had happened. As we were led to where we were going to stay, I let my mind drift over what had happened. Knowing not many people could cope with what had happened over the past two days, I smiled and shook my head. Wondering how long we would be in this place – Middle Earth – I couldn't help but wander back to the land of Narnia, and thinking of my sweet lands and trees, I drifted off to sleep.

I slept late the next morning. Having walked nonstop all the day before, I wasn't surprised to see the sun up fairly high as I washed my face and dressed. Wait, no – that was what I wanted to happen. What actually happened was Legolas tapping on my door right as the sun was rising.

"Indilwen," he spoke through the door, "You're getting up now. Come on." I grunted and rolled over onto my other side, trying to shut out the insistent knocking. "If you don't get up and out in 15 minutes, I'm finding someone with the key to your door. Or," he continued thoughtfully, "I could just kick it down." I groaned.

"Fine," I told him, rolling out of bed, "Fine, I'm up, I'm up. Don't kick down the door."

"Good," Legolas replied cheerfully, "And just to make sure you don't go back to sleep, I'm staying here until you come out." I sighed. I glanced over to where Lucy was sleeping – we had been given a shared room – and was very jealous of her ability to sleep through anything. Grumbling to myself, I looked around for something to wear other than what we had arrived in. My eyes finally landed on a plain white shirt, dark brown breeches, and a light brown tunic. The tunic was heavy with blue embroidery, not exactly my favorite, but as it seemed to be the only thing available to me I put it on, along with the shirt and breeches. I washed my face and decided to forgo putting up my hair, sensing that my 15 minutes were almost up. Yanking the door open, I saw Legolas standing up with his fist directly in front of the door, preparing to start hammering away again.

"Ah, Indilwen, wonderful!" Legolas exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I was just about to break your door down!" I shushed him and shut the door, allowing Lucy to get a few more precious hours of sleep. "Now, come. There is someone you should meet. Properly." As he pulled me along after him, I thought of his decision to call me Indilwen. It was just teasing, I could tell- and for some reason I had the feeling that he was playing a prank on someone. It might've been that he just seemed unusually hyperactive, more like my brothers, than he was when I met him. Maybe he just felt so free here. I decided to be wary just the same.

He led me through a maze of corridors, passing room upon room upon room. I don't know how he didn't get lost, but he seemed to know exactly where he was going. Eventually, we exited the house. Legolas didn't even slow down, he just continued leading me through the houses and paths. Finally, we reached a stable.

"When are you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked impatiently.

"If you keep asking me, you'll never get to know," he retorted. "Now, be quiet. I told you, we're going to introduce you to someone."

"Does this someone know that we're being introduced?" I asked skeptically.

"Well, not exactly, no," Legolas trailed off. "But don't worry, it'll be fine. Just, um, keep your hair over your ears and follow my lead."

"Whatever you say," I muttered under my breath, feeling more and more like I was playing a part in something where I didn't know all of the lines. Or any of them, really.

I realized that I had stopped walking. Legolas was standing at the entrance to the stable. "Well, come on, then!" he exclaimed impatiently.

Entering the stable, I thought I had stepped back into Narnia. It was so similar to the stables at Cair Paravel I had to stop myself from doing a double take. The ceiling was a huge, thatched roof. There must have been forty or fifty horses, each in their own stall. Legolas led me past most of them, to the back of the stable, where there was already a horse missing from one of the cells. Next to the empty stall was a beautiful chestnut brown mare.

"Now, Indilwen," Legolas told me. "I want you to take Feanor out for a little ride through the forest. Get to know the place a bit. There's a small hidden path that leads to a clearing, but you should be able to find it with no trouble." I had given up on trying to understand what he was doing at that point.

"And you're not going with me because…?" I trailed off, waiting for him to finish the sentence. He just smiled.

"You'll figure that bit out soon enough. Here," he told me, grabbing my bow and arrows from inside the stall. I assumed he'd put them there last night. "Take these. Saddle up your horse here and head out. I'll tell everyone where you've gone." I just nodded.

"Fine," I told him. "But there will be retribution coming your way for this, I promise." He smiled.

"Assuming you don't like the surprise, of course," he waved at me. "Now, remember, keep your hair over your ears." He turned and headed back out of the stable, presumably to go back to sleep. I shook my head and half debated following him out and back to my room, but decided I should humor him. I was also much too curious as to who it was he wanted me to meet, so I took Feanor out of her stable and saddled her up.

"Come on, we should see what Legolas has in store for us, shouldn't we?" I whispered to her, mounting up. Together, we trotted out of the stable and into the forest.

As Legolas had said, I quickly found the small hidden path off to the side of the bigger one. "What on earth does he want me to see?" I asked my horse. She just shook her head. I slowed her down to a walk so she could pick her way through the path, covered with ivy, leaves, and sticks. I didn't want her throwing a shoe out here, I wasn't even certain I could find my way out.

About fifteen minutes into the ride, I found the clearing that Legolas had been talking about. A second later, I spotted the person that Legolas had presumably been talking about. Well, elf, more like. He was facing the opposite direction, so I only saw his back, and if he did hear me he didn't turn around. I assumed he did, or else he would have to be super distracted. I walked Feanor a few feet into the clearing before dismounting, making sure not to land on anything spiky. That would have been both bad and embarrassing.

After a few seconds, I decided that the elf hadn't actually heard me. He was just standing there, not moving, hands clasped behind his back. Maybe he slept standing up, I don't know. It was very weird. I decided not to unsling my bow from my back, figuring that it would probably be considered a hostile action and I might get shot in the face.

I realized I'd been standing next to Feanor absentmindedly patting her head for an inordinately long amount of time. I made up my mind to get the attention of the tall elf before me. I took a step forward, but accidentally stepped on a stick, making a cracking noise. A second later, the elf had turned around and I was cursing myself.

It was Haldir.

"You're lucky I didn't draw my bow on you," he told me, after a few seconds of silence.

"Well, you also don't have your bow," I remarked. He looked surprised. Man, he was out of it.

"I don't- yes I- oh," he trailed off as he felt his back. "Did Legolas send you?" he asked, changing the subject. I nodded.

"Yes," I told him. "He said there was someone I needed to meet here." Haldir nodded.

"That's what he told me as well," he said, seeming more and more formal by the second. "I assume you're Indilwen, then?" he asked. I was slightly thrown off by his use of my "Elvish name" before finally catching onto Legolas' scheme. I debated about half a second before deciding to go with it, figuring that Legolas must have a good reason for what he was doing. He didn't seem the type to play practical jokes just for the fun of it.

"Yes," I said, matching his formality. "You must be Haldir, the elf who led us here yesterday." He nodded.

"Sorry about the blindfolds," he told me, looking slightly sheepish before recovering. "It's a tradition that no dwarf may know where Lothlorien is." I shook my head.

"It's not a very fair tradition is it?" I asked. He shook his head.

"It may not be fair, but it's how things are done," he responded. "You seem very diplomatic," he remarked, catching me off guard with the subject change. "Where are you from?"

I said the first thing that popped into my head. "The Northern Forest." It was hopefully vague enough that Haldir would draw a conclusion about where "Indilwen" was from without asking me, therefore I could technically argue that I hadn't lied. Because one could argue that, because the wardrobe that led into Narnia was in woods that were in the North, I was from the Northern Forest.

"That must be how you know Legolas," Haldir remarked. Crisis avoided. "Did you see the Prince of Mirkwood often?" And, enter another crisis. So, Legolas was the Prince of Mirkwood. Mirkwood were forests in the north. Haldir thought I was from Mirkwood. Good to know.

"I didn't see much of him until recently," I told him. Again, not really a lie. This was going to be fun to explain later. Why was I doing this again?

"I suppose that makes sense," Haldir said. Crisis avoided. I should start keeping track, I thought to myself. "So, are you here with the Fellowship? I'm surprised Boromir consented to having a woman join the quest, even if she is an elf." Enter Crisis Three. Dammit. This was going to be a fun stay.

"It took some convincing, I must say," I said. Also true. Also not a lie. "It was harder to get him to let Peter, Edmund, and Lucy come along." Shoot, I thought. Why did I mention them? And, Crisis Four.

"The other humans with you?" I nodded. "How did you accomplish that feat?" I started babbling, though apparently it made sense to him.

"The hobbits refused to leave Lucy after they met up with her," I started. Haldir nodded. "Peter and Edmund are her brothers, and absolutely refused to let her go without them." He kept nodding. All not lies. Crisis Four averted.

"So, do you want to head back and get some breakfast?" Haldir asked. I nodded, grateful for the respite in the questions.

"That sounds wonderful," I told him, smiling.

"You know, you have very dark hair and eyes for an elf," Haldir remarked as we were walking back to the stable. Feanor was following behind us.

"And you have very dulled senses for an elf," I retorted, starting to feel more comfortable around him. "I could have shot you earlier in the clearing if I'd wanted." Haldir ducked his head.

"I must admit, I'm not normally that unobservant," he told me. "I was- distracted." I nodded, not really knowing what to say to that. We took the rest of the walk in silence, until we reached the stable.

"I have to go put Feanor back in her stall and hang up my bow and arrows," I told Haldir. "Thank you for walking me back." He shook his head.

"It's nothing," he said. "I'll wait for you, you don't want to get lost on your way back to your house." I smiled.

"Thank you," I turned and walked Feanor back into her stall. I smiled to myself and almost brushed my hair behind my ear before remembering what I'd just done. The smile slid off my face. I just created a fake persona, I told myself. It's like I'm playing a role in a game controlled by people who I can't see. It's what it felt like, too.

After unsaddling Feanor and hanging my bow and arrows up in her stall, I put a smile back on my face and went back out to see Haldir.