For someone who is more of a hobbity person, you certainly have treated Mablung with great care and understanding. The long and hinted-at history between him and his wife is very intriguing. I don't suppose you'd pursue it, huh? Give this non-hobbity person something to read of yours? ;-)

Lovely one-shot fanfic. Consise, yet conveys a great deal. Lol, something i've never been able to really do for a story based in LOTR. Kudos to you for being such a great author!

~ ElveNDestiNy

OK, so I lied and didn't do this last night. But my lack of nicotine is throwing me and *puts on best whiny voice* I was tired!

Anyway - you know how I prefer my Frodo stories, but this one is so well done that I don't mind venturing outside my usual preference. You've managed to get both points of view across here and to make the reader empathize with Indil and sympathize with Mablung. So very sad that they can still communicate so well without words, but are leagues apart as to understanding. There are times when the reader wants to shake Mablung and tell him to snap out of it and pay attention to his blessings, but who are we to judge what type of emotions and loyalties a soldier must rely on for survival during war? Very sensitively done - from both POV's.

They „had learned to read each other’s thoughts in the subtlest nuance of a glance“. Pity that so many marriages today are divorced long before this deep understanding can be achieved.
And yet there are other kinds of love as you show clearly.
„She deserved a love as great as the one he had found in his captain, but where in all of Middle Earth would she ever find it?“ You let us know where she has found it and although it will never be „fulfilled“ it is not an unhappy one for she expects nothing from it.
Thank you for this wonderful story.