I keep wanting to make things happy. I keep wanting to skip to a happy-as-you-can-get ending so that they catch a break, but...I can't. There's too much to go through first.

And they hurt so pretty.

Thranduil in this is incredibly strong but he's infinitely fragile as well. Legolas is similar, in a way, but for different reasons. Gimli's just agonisingly well-adjusted. Thank the Valar for Gimli.

(I love the river. It's one of my favourite parts of the book, so it had to be in the fic!)