Betas: Many thanks to my betas Moreth and Istarnie.

Disclaimer: I am playing in Tolkien’s sandbox and not making any money from it.

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Chapter 2

The scent of roasting meat woke him. His head throbbed and his chest ached, yet he sighed in relief. Rescuers obviously had come!

Opening his eyes, he tried to turn onto his side to lever himself up, but his chest was met with a force firmly opposing this action. Looking over, he saw Indis kneeling beside him, her hands pressing against his breast, concerned relief on her face.

“Rest, Lord Huoro,” she softly commanded. “We are safe. Please, be at peace.”

He allowed her to gently push him back down. Her warm hands lingered momentarily on his bare chest before moving to stroke his hair away from his face. He noticed she wore her dress once again.

“I feared for you,” she whispered. “We were caught in an avalanche. I dug us out and brought you here. I know all of the caves on Taniquetil from my wanderings. I treated your injuries as best I could. You have slept for three days. How do you feel?”

“My Lady,” his voice wavered uncertainly. How was he to reply to her? He had touched her, held her close to him. He had kissed her! How could he possibly face her now? How could he even speak to her? But then again, she did not know. Shamefully, he turned his head away so she could not see his face.

“Huoro?” She asked, her voice full of concern. Then she spluttered tearfully, taking his right hand in both of hers and drawing it to her lips. “Are you all right? I…I did all I could for you. I swear I did. I bandaged your wounds. I wrapped your broken ribs and I put a splint on your left arm. I did not realize it was broken at first, but I fear that it is. I have nothing to give you for pain, but I have tried to keep you warm. It is my fault that this happened to you. I am so very sorry. I……Please tell me that you are all right. ”

Her fault?!

He looked over at her in disbelief. “My Lady Indis, how could this possibly be your fault?”

She cast down her sorrowful gaze. “I am the one who chose the path we took down the mountain. I am the one who insisted on going to visit my son for Midwinter. If I had stayed…If I had followed the common path down the mountain…this would not have happened.” She paused for a moment. “Why did you try to shield me with your body as we fell? What could you possibly have hoped to gain by doing that?”

His heart constricted with her grief. Gently, he extended the fingers of the hand she still held and wiped the tears which were within reach. “You did not cause the avalanche,” he reassured. “It was my duty and my honor to protect you or to die trying as it has always been my duty and my honor to look after you since you returned to dwell with my king. You have not erred in desiring to see your son nor in the path you chose for us. If I had had any misgivings about the path or the journey I would have said as much and counseled otherwise.”

“Duty does not require of you that you risk your life on my behalf!”

“In my mind it does,” he replied.

She shook her head sadly. “I am not worth this. You should have let me die and freed yourself from the burden of following me around for two ages of Anar.”

Reassuringly, he clutched her hand tighter in his. “Hear me, my Lady. You are worth this! You are no burden to me. Your brother and your son honor me by entrusting your safety and well being to me.” You won my heart long ago. I would follow you anywhere! He longed to scream to her, but dare not. “If anything, I have failed you. I did not foresee any danger upon the road. I could not properly treat your injuries because I could not tear bandages, though I did all I could to protect you from harm in the fall.”

She smiled. “You have not failed me, Huoro, not at all. You always were able to comfort me with your words. And you spared me serious injury in the avalanche at great cost. Does your head pain you?”

He smiled back. “My head does hurt, but my brain is not addled. I awoke for a time while you slept. I cleaned your wounds, but my left arm would not cooperate in assisting me, so I was unable to do more than wash the blood from your body.”

Her eyes widened in alarm as she blushed with embarrassment. “Then you…” Dropping his hand, she hid her face in her hands and turned away from him.

Feeling his own face flush as well, he paused to calm himself amidst the awkwardness before reaching out to her. He took a few breaths, trying to figure out what to say before settling on, “We bathed together often in Cuiviénen and have swum together with others many times since then. We had no healer so you cared for my wounds as I attempted to care for yours. We lay together beneath the dry things left to us to keep warm.” She finally turned toward him, her face scarlet as he finished. “There is no shame in this.”

She looked long on him before replying, “If there is no shame, then why does your own face flush crimson?”

He inhaled to speak… but could not think of anything to say! He had much reason to be ashamed, but he did not dare tell her! His usual eloquence failing him completely when he needed it most, he covered his own face with his hand and turned his head away in a futile attempt at hiding.

Exhaling sharply, he gasped in startled agony and clutched his side. Immediately he felt her hands on his side, as well. “I am so very sorry,” she apologized. “There is naught to be done for broken ribs, but to bind them and rest.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, wishing she would leave him alone, but she remained, her hands moving from his side to his face once again, smoothing aside hair that was not bothering him in any way. Finally he grumbled through clenched teeth, “Please leave me, Lady Indis. When the rescuers return, I do not want them to see us together so. It will be scandalous enough if they initially found us lying together. I cannot protect you from anything that might be said when word of that reaches others in the city. I have defended your honor many times to those who would slander it after you married Finwë, and later after the rebellion of the Noldor in which so many of your children took part. There will be naught I can do when rumors arise about us because of this unfortunate accident.”

“Lord Huoro, of what rescuers do you speak?” Indis sounded worried. “No one has come for us. No one has found us. Tonight we will be missed when we do not arrive in Tirion. Tomorrow, my son will send out someone to look for us. In all likelihood, my brother knows of this avalanche, but he does not know that I was affected by it. The trail we took is seldom used, so I doubt that my brother has sent out any search parties. It will be a day and half or two days before Ingwe, too, knows we are missing and then he will begin to search for us. I know not how long it will take for anyone to find us at that point for we fell far from the path and our horses were swept away.”

“What of the cooking meat?” he asked irritably, gesturing toward the fire.

“I caught that rabbit myself!” She exclaimed pointing at the roasting meat. “How dare you assume that just because I was once a queen, I forgot how to survive away from a city! And…” she viciously stabbed him in the center of his chest with her finger. “What ever made you think that I wanted or needed you to defend my honor? Did my doting brother order it? I am not some weak or fragile blossom that wilts at the first coming of frost! I am stronger than a mountain oak and you would do well to remember it!”

“Indis!” He cried in exasperation. Taking her hand in his own -- her hand seemed so small engulfed in his—he pressed it close to his chest over his heart. “Indis, please,” His voice softened considerably as he pleaded. “Indis, please. Forgive me for my misgivings and concerns. I am…I just…” He sighed, but remembered to stop short of hurting his ribs again. “I know you are not weak. You are a great nís, perhaps the greatest nís I have ever known. I have never questioned that, nor will I ever. Your brother never ordered me to look after your honor. That was a choice I made. His orders only ask that I see to your personal safety, and I have done that to the best of my ability since I humbly and gratefully accepted that charge.”

He paused, a smile stealing across his face as he recalled, “I know you can hunt. You always were excellent at small game. I remember the competitions we used to have on the journey to Aman to see who could obtain the most the fastest and you almost always won. Many a nér was humiliated and humbled by you then. I think your daughters and granddaughters both inherited much of that strength of hroa from you, as well as their strength of fëa.”

She looked on him in wonder. “My brother has stolen two ages of Anar from your life in the dull charge of escorting me in addition to your courtly duties, and yet you admit you voluntarily called even more responsibility for my well-being upon yourself. Why? Do you so enjoy being ignored by me as you dutifully accompany me on my travels? You should have a wife and children of your own and not waste your life trailing after me in my grieving solitude as I visit my children. Why have you not wed?”

Emboldened by the experiences of the last few days and by the lack of searchers or rescuers at the moment, he continued to meet her demanding gaze steadily. “My king has stolen nothing from me, but rather he has gifted me with much more than he ever realized. I have not wed because I long ago gave my heart to one who had already gifted her heart to another. It is not a burden to me seeing you with your children when I have none of my own. I have watched your children blossom into the great níssi and neri that they have become, and I have grown to care for them very much. I am content with my current lot in life, even if it is just to stand by in vigilance.”

She drew his hand back to hold in both of hers in her lap. Smiling apologetically, she replied. “I did not know. I am sorry I never even saw fit to notice your solitude before, let alone to ask. You already know that I understand how you feel having given my heart to one who already held another. In my bitterness, all I can say is that you are more blessed than I, for I won my love’s heart for a time, only to lose it again to his first love. And now I am alone and doomed to remain so.” She pressed his hand to her lips in a gesture of tender sympathy. “Perhaps, my gallant defender, you will find another to win your love and make you her own. The path I trod was dangerous and it led to more pain that I ever could have imagined.” Lowering her hands, she gently traced his bandages with one hand while continuing to hold his hand with the other. Softly she added almost for her hearing only, but not quite. “The paths I tread are too often dangerous it seems.”

She bowed her head as tears slipped down her cheeks, and hid her face in her hands.

Mustering his strength, Huoro carefully sat up and drew her into the warm shelter of his one-armed embrace. Her tears soaked his bandages as he steadfastly held her, stroking her head with his chin, pressing his lips to the softness of her hair. She moved her head against him and before he realized what was happening, his lips were on hers, comforting, pleading, demanding, and being met every moment by hers.

When he could no longer breathe, he reluctantly drew back, avoiding her bright eyes.

What had he done?!

She covered her mouth with her hands, looking surprised and dismayed. “Huoro, I…I am so…I do not know what…I…”

“Indis, forgive me, I…”

Ready to die of shame, he lay back, covering his face with his arm. By the Valar, what had he just done? Thousands of years of control lost in one tender moment! What had he done?

He had just betrayed a most sacred trust. How could he face Indis after this? How could he face his king and dearest friend again? What was he to do?

Despite his resistance, he felt his arm being pushed away from his face. Unwilling to meet her gaze for shame, he kept his eyes closed. He felt movement beside him and then softness settling on his shoulder and warmth pressed up against his side. He opened his eyes when he felt her hand on his face turning his head to meet -- to his very great surprise -- her blushing gaze.

Her hand stroked his cheek, as she studied his face. “I…I do not know how to ask you this. But considering what just happened between us, I…Huoro, my dear protector, is it I? Am…am I the one? Am I the one you have loved all this time?”

Looking away for a few moments, he struggled to gather his thoughts. Did he dare tell her? He had told no one for all of these yéni. All this time he was the only one who knew. And he was content, blessed with her frequent presence and companionship even if she admittedly hardly seemed to notice. Did he dare risk all and tell her? But then, had he not just betrayed everything with that kiss? Gathering what was left of his dignity and courage, he felt his face flush as he met the glorious silvery grey of her eyes once again.

“Yes, my beloved Lady Indis” he whispered, baring his heart for the spear of rejection he knew was surely to come. “I have loved you since Cuiviénen. Even when you married Finwë, I wished you well. I mourned when you lost him for the grief I saw in you. If anything, your sorrow made you more beautiful to me and I loved you even more. I have been blessed with thousands of years of looking after you and seeing to your safety and well-being. I love you and will always love you.”

For an eternity he waited after he finished speaking, but the vicious blow never came.

Long she looked upon him, then without a word, she nestled into his shoulder, pulling the cloak over the two of them for warmth. Placing her arm protectively over his chest, she softly began to sing to him of Cuiviénen of the joys of the hunt, the beauty of the stars, and the cleansing warmth of the lake.

Later, in smiling silence she served him his meal, then returned to his side and slept that night in the safety and warmth of the crook of his arm.

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to be continued...