A maiden smiles, before all is lost to her.

(OOC- I WIsh I had a scanner!! Using a webcam takes the quality out of my pictures :( And I hate drawing sad pictures, I wanted to draw something happy! So this is Nenloth in ther first moments of the below liason!)

A lone maiden sits by the river bank.

At a distance she would seem to be as any 'normal' and joyous maiden, but close up... All is not as it seems.

'Nenloth...'  A male voice, strong and deep, issues from behind the un-expecting maiden. She turns, the glare of the sun blinding her and turning the stranger into a silhouette, unrecognisable, but the voice, she knows.

'You!' She jumps up. A tangle of unruly black locks fall about her shoulders, over her very slender figure and down past her abdomen. 'Where have you been!? I've...' She bites her lips, taking the tatters of her loose dress between her fingers and wringing it tightly as though it were wet and in need of drying.
 
The maiden is nervous, her cheeks flush and her eyes seem pained. She seems lost, filled with melancholy.

'I've waited for you, every day, all day, every single... Each and every day...' She states, her voice shaking.
 
The man steps forward, taking her by the arms and turning her away from the glare of the sunlight, moving so that he faces her as well. 'I did not ask for you to wait, I told you to leave... I came back because...' He stops, looking upon her sullen features with a saddened expression, he lifts a hand to her silken locks, brushing a tangle of hair and a few unkempt braids away from her face. 'I came back because I could no longer stand to...'

'... To be away from me?!' Nenloth croaks, her voice hoarse as though it had been overused with many nights of crying. The elf male sighs, he draws the maiden into his arms, stroking the back of her head.

'No...' He pushes her backward but keeps her within his grasp and looking down into her blue-grey eyes. 'I am here because it is cruel to leave you thinking as you do...' He swallows, his eyes betray pain and sadness and then he continues... 'I do not love you Nenloth... You must know that it can never happen...' He pauses, setting his features to be more resolute.

'Our paths are different, yours leads to where I cannot go... And for that I could never love you.' He stops, searching her grief stricken eyes.

To those watching this scene, it might seem as though these are two lovers, long in the parting from one another but finally reunited. And deeply in love.

Indeed, in that moment it seems as though the very world about the 'lovers' shifts; the grasses bend in a slight wind as though pointing to the duo... Small butterflies flutter in circles about the two... Indeed, it would appear to be a prefect scene to anybody too far to hear...

'No... I do not care for paths or some such nonsense... I know you love me' She almost shouts, pushing herself forward and against his chest. She feels his warmth suffuse into her cold body- She cannot imagine an existence without this creature... She refuses.

'Nenloth...' He holds her close against himself. A tear falls down his cheek. 'Please know that I care deeply for you... But only as a friend...' He pushes her away again, stepping back.  ‘You must leave this place now… The path you take now is not truly the path for you and will only lead to grief for you and for many others… Go back to the house of healing. That is where you must be… Go…’ His eyes are intense, all sense of urgency is set within the depths of them.

For a moment the maiden stares at him, she so desperately wants to leap forward and into his arms, but something about the man's resolute stare tells her that she must not.

'Goodbye Nenloth... Do not follow me, you will only find grief following in the wake of my footsteps' He turns on his heel and stalks into the woods.

For a short time the woman stands there, tears stream down her face in waterfalls of pain.
 
'No!' She finally sobs, broken. ‘I believe not your silly words!’ She shouts, and defying him she runs forward, she pushes into the trees, her bare feet against the bracken on the forest floor is of no concern to her, for her inner pain is greater than any physical pain that could possibly be inflicted upon her.

She runs until she reaches a small clearing. Knowing deep within her… That she is on the path to her own doom.

And this moment, this very moment in all of the tapestries of time, is the moment in which she is forever changed, forever lost within the depths of her own grief... For within the clearing she finds her beloved, sundered upon a mound of dirt and weeds... His midnight hair is spread about him, his fair complexion nearly drained of all life... His green-grey eyes stare upward toward the canopy... His red lips parted...

And there... Upon his breast a red badge of death, seeping into the cloth of his silken robes... Crimson red like a red red rose within the summer months... Red like the broken heart that beats, stricken within Nenloth's chest.