Title: Imminent
Characters: Brandir, Turambar, Níniel
Prompt: 038. It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
Author's Notes: The Halethrim was another name for the People of Haleth, also called the Men of Brethil. Turambar means 'Master of Doom'.
When Níniel and her company had gone, Brandir said to those that remained: 'Behold how I am scorned, and all my counsel disdained! Let Turambar be you lord in name, since already he has taken all my authority. For here I renounce both lordship and people. Let none seek of me ever again either counsel or healing!' And he broke his staff. To himself he thought: 'Now nothing is left to me, save only my love of Níniel, therefore where she goes, in wisdom or folly, I must go. In this dark hour nothing can be foreseen, but it may well chance that even I could ward off some evil from her, if I were near.'
– Unfinished Tales
All of the old ways will perish in the dragon's wake. That is what I told myself as I broke my staff and prepared to leave my home. My home! It is mine no longer, for Turambar took it as he has taken everything else I once held dear – my lordship, my people, the woman I love. Most of them have now followed him, believing that he will conquer the dragon. He may style himself Master of Doom, but for all that Turambar is still a mortal man. I do not believe that he can kill Glaurung, and so many of the Halethrim will perish with him. I no longer care if they live or die, but Níniel went with them, and it is for her sake that I follow. Let Turambar's doom take him and his people, but I am determined that it will not take her.