Title: Wordplay
Characters: Brandir, Turambar, Níniel
Prompt: 002. I write the lines you want me to; with the words I dare to use
Summary: Brandir is no stranger to harsh words.
Author's Notes: Tolkien's characters. Túrin and Nienor were respectively called Turambar and Níniel when they lived among the Men of Brethil. Brandir loved Níniel, but she only thought of him as a brother because she loved Turambar.
I am no stranger to harsh words. After the accident that left me limping for the rest of my life, my father's people would bid their children to treat me respectfully. They did so in my presence, but I was not deaf and I soon heard the names they had for me: club-foot, cripple, weakling, lame. When my father did not return from war, these words soon became craven and coward. I do not love war, and in any case I would be of little use on a battlefield. I have long believed that fighting begets only more fighting, but I do not understand why the taking of life is held in higher esteem that the saving and preserving of it. I suppose it does not matter anymore what I believe, for now Turambar rules in all but name. They have come back to me, those childhood taunts: club-foot, cripple, weakling, lame. Bitter, but only words.
Why, then, do I find brother the hardest to bear of all?