Prompts: "Maedhros looking for Eluréd and Elurin"; "apprehension"; "We won't go until we get some!"
Finding the Lost
Maedhros' task seemed impossible. The dark shadows of the first at night could hide anything. There were no footsteps in the snow, no broken branches in the bushes, nothing that could shed light on the two boys' whereabouts. However, the Noldo was determined to find the children. Maedhros had promised he would not return before he had found them, or at least knew their fate. Not before he could tell his brothers what exactly had become of little Eluréd and Elurin. But he started to get worried. Or rather, he had been worried all along, and now he started to admit his apprehension to himself. The two small children were lost. The desperate search reminding him of when he had been looking for his soldiers on the battlefield. He had had no luck back then, either.
In the morning his brothers found him sitting on a stone in the forest. His shoulders covered with snow, his hung his head. "I must find them, or else I will fail them," he muttered weakly.
"Maedhros, come," Amrod said quietly. "It is too late."
"You don't understand," his eldest brother replied. "They might still be alive."
Amras got down from his horse and approached Maedhros. "No," he said quietly, as he brushed away the snow from Maedhros' shoulders. "They probably aren't. And even if they were, we couldn't help them. They consider us enemies." He offered his brother a hand so that he would raise up, but it was ignored.
"Is there really something more important to tend to," Maedhros asked, his voice hoarse. His brothers looked at each other in silence.
"Would you join us in burying our siblings?" Maglor asked quietly.
Maedhros opened his eyes. It took some moments for him to register Maglor's words, but when he did, he stood up. "Certainly," he said. Wiping his write with a sleeve, he turned towards the others. There had been losses on both sides and all that was left to do was to let go of the departed.
