I arrived the day before the New Year's celebration in Celondim and, as I made my way to the stone ring that served as the grounds, I met a young elf-maid there. She was perhaps the fairest thing I'd ever seen-- I know it's unbecoming of me to praise her so, but it is true. She was truly lovely. She had golden hair that she entertwined into a braid with leaves caught in the strands, and eyes the same shade as grass in the spring. She seemed so delicate, yet she wore a chain hauberk with the colors of her homeland that she tells me she made herself.
The two of us sat on the stone stage together, leaves the color of dawn falling lightly around us. She told me she came from across the Mountains away in Mirkwood and that she had come for the festivities as I did. She mentioned that she was an armorsmith in the service of King Thranduil himself and helped armor his forces. However, she made clear, she was not a fighter. She preferred the company of the trees instead of orc corpses.
I could not believe how I was so lucky as to come across this lovely elf. Her smile... it was maddeningly beautiful. And smile often, she did. She grinned, smirked, smiled... Once, even, she laughed and it may have been superior to any music I had ever set ears on in the Hall of Fire.
She bid me farewell saying she had only just arrived and was not well-rested, nor freshened. She told me she would see me at the celebration on the morrow, and I hope-- I pray-- that she is correct. My breast still shivers where her hand touched me as she bowed to take her leave.
I do believe I am lost to her.
