"Nooooo!" Haldir's raw cry of despair pierced the stillness of the night as he flung the sheets aside, trembling with fear and fevered sweat.

Bloody imagery stained his memory as freshly now as it had not yet a week before, calling forth the turmoil of emotions he sought so desperately to swallow and suppress. Rumil and Orophin, his brothers, slain in battle along with so many others he had led to their death. So much death. It was if the very swords that pierced the fragile Elven flesh were wielded by his own hands instead of those of his enemies. Unable to control his violent shaking, he raised his quivering hands expecting to find them mottled with the blood of his kin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Through the thick wooden doors, Legolas heard it. The strangled outcry of such pain that it rent his heart with the depth of its grief. Instantly, he was on his feet and out of his bedchamber, the swiftness of his departure leaving neither sound nor shadow in his wake.

The door was locked.

Legolas paused only a moment before giving it a sound kick, breaking the latch inside with ease and flinging the wooden structure aside. Keen Elven eyesight navigated the moonlit darkness within the chamber to where Haldir sat upright in bed, staring in shuddering revulsion at the palms of his hands, his silvery hair pasted in wild disarray to the sides of his ashen face where he gaped at a horror seen by his eyes only.

"Nooo. . ." Haldir's quivering voice sounded far away, hollow and devoid of reality as Legolas reached his side, grasping him by the shoulders, seeking desperately to bring the other elf out of his trance-like state of panic.

"Haldir! Do you not hear me? It is I, Legolas of Mirkwood, your friend and ally!" Legolas practically shook him, grappling for a response, any response but the one he received.

The blue of Haldir's dark eyes was a stormy sea of fear, glistening with dread as waves of terror broke over him, causing him to cry out in anguish one more.

"No, my friend, no! You will not linger there!" Legolas gathered the archer into his arms and crushed the furiously trembling elf against him in a fierce embrace. "Lasto beth nin, Haldir. tolo dan na ngalad. Tolo-dan an enni. " *

The melodically spoken language of his people seemed to set Legolas aglow with soft, golden light as he whispered the words gently, soothingly, until at last, the flame of fear was stamped out and Haldir's eyes fluttered closed and then open once more, as if seeing Legolas for the first time.

"Legolas. . ." Haldir murmured, his voice scarcely more than rasping whisper. "Duatha gostamin." **

"I know," Legolas said gently.

Haldir shivered in his arms. "Legolas. Dartha."

Stay.

Legolas hesitated a moment before answering, but the still lingering fear in Haldir's deep blue eyes reflected his plea as a single, glistening tear fell from his dark lashes, trailing a moonlit path down his pale cheek.

"I will stay," Legolas said. "But you must lie back down beneath the warmth of blankets. Come, now."

He laid the other elf against the softness of the down-filled bedding, drawing the blankets around his still-shaking body. Placing his hand upon Haldir's head, he whispered an enchantment in Elvish and the archer's eyes slowly closed as he sank once more into what would now be a dreamless, peaceful slumber.

Legolas withdrew his hand, fingering Haldir's sweat-dampened locks as he did so, wanting nothing more than to stay, wanting only to be close, but knowing regretfully that the Haldir he had just seen and the elf he knew were two different beings. Legolas would not linger. What saddened him most of all was that Haldir's memory of this night would slip away into shadow, just as evening slipped into nightfall.

*Hear my voice.  Come back to the light!  Come back to me!

**I fear the darkness.