I own nothing.
When he opened the tent flap and spied two fair-haired heads instead of one, Turukáno thought he was seeing a ghost.
That was exactly what he thought. After leaving his home, losing everything he had of home, watching his wife die and suffering travail over Ice and stone, he had lost what little sanity he had left, and was seeing a ghost, or some delusion conjured up by his mind.
Normally, he would come to his tent in the ever-dark to find, at most, two people asleep inside. At most, he would find Irissë and Itarillë huddled by the fire, either sleeping or trying to sleep. If Irissë was still hunting when he returned to the tent, Itarillë might be there by herself, or she might have gone to another tent, Findaráto's or Findekáno's or Nolofinwë's, and Turukáno would be left to settle down by himself.
There were three people huddled by the fire. One of them was dark-haired, obviously Irissë. One of them was fair-haired and too small to be anyone but Itarillë. But there was another fair-haired nís asleep there.
Turukáno stared at her, shell-shocked and too numb and tired to move. It took him a few moments, a few moments in which he felt as though his heart was going to jump right out of his mouth, for him to realize that it wasn't Elenwë.
"Oh…" Irissë lifted her head from her pallet, blinking blearily at her brother. "You're back."
"Irissë." Turukáno told himself that he sounded very calm, perfectly calm, and not like someone who was about to lose his mind and start screaming where everyone could hear him. "What is Artanis doing in our tent?"
Irissë lowered her head back down to the pallet and shut her eyes. "Sleeping."
Turukáno swallowed and shook his head, struggling to find something civil to say. "…Why?" was all he could manage, and didn't manage to sound very civil after all.
"Well, in case you've not noticed, it's a bit crowded in her tent," Irissë replied a bit testily. "So I made the offer to her, and she accepted." She rolled over in her pallet as if to emphasize that the matter was closed.
This was going nowhere. Turukáno settled down on his own pallet, and told himself that if there was an argument to be had, it would be had when they had to get up and start moving again.
(And maybe it was nice, having four people in their tent again.)
Turukáno—Turgon
Irissë—Aredhel
Itarillë—Idril
Findaráto—Finrod
Findekáno—Fingon
Nolofinwë—Fingolfin
Artanis—Galadriel
Nís—woman (plural: nissi)
