"She walks in beauty, like the night" by heget

Chapter 1

His hand is warm, steady, and does not pull. She shuffles forward across the light-less forest floor on brand-new legs, uncertain of her balance. Walking is a dance that she has seen others perform but has not mastered, and the sensation of pulling air into her lungs is incredible but frightening. He does not hover over her like a nesting bird atop its eggs, but he walks slowly beside her, making her pace his own, the hand gripping hers telling her that he has faith that she will walk and soon run and dance in this new body of hers, and that he shall give her the support and succor she needs as she learns - and that if her stumble turns into a fall, he will catch her ere she hits the earth. Melian knows what the mutual love and equal support between a couple looks like, for she has served the Ainur. She thought that she would be forced to live in this world companion-less, and yet this hand tells her that here is her Manwë, allowing her to become like Varda. In this new body she hears, sees, feels more than she has ever before. When she looks into his eyes, there is the exact same wonder. For all his hands and steps are steady, Elu’s eyes shake with the same amazement of a newborn animal beholding the world for the first time. 

They laugh at each other, the sweet sound of lovers, and that seems to steady her balance somehow. Soon she shall be dancing in his arms beneath the branches of this star-lit forest. A thousand years from now, Elu will hold their daughter’s hand as she wobbles through her first steps with the same gentle steadfast love.

In a few thousand more, their daughter will hold her beloved hands, and together they will support each other in brand-new bodies, laughing at they re-learn to walk together.