All the characters seen, except Erestor, are mine. He, the world, and the greater situations in this story were first written down by J. R. R. Tolkien.

This story is not meant to make any money, so please just read and enjoy. :)

"Fine then, he is 'Celuant' to me as well. If it is a good enough name for our guest in your eyes, dear aunt, tis a good enough name for him in mine also." The eldest ellon smiled obligingly at the eldest elleth.

Ranthalion snorted at his elder brother's side. Lathwinn stepped up to her second brother's opposite side and gave him a punch in the arm. The Noldo, "Celuant," raised an eyebrow.

The youngest ellon turned to his aunt. "Now that introductions are over, and our guest is named, shall we return to our …" Manpalan turned to the form still lying, nearby, in the dust and made a face, "our former task?"

The eldest elleth nodded to him, "Yes dear nephew, you may."

He sighed. "Thank you, dear aunt."

He went to his burden picked it up by its wrists and dragged it along the edge of the cliff away from the group. Both of his middle brothers turned back to the ledge and climbed down it. The eldest, however, watched his youngest brother work.

"Do you always watch over your younger siblings so?"

Lastannan turned his gaze to "Celuant" and shrugged with a smile. "I suppose I do at that."

"Have you ever regretted it?"

Lastannan narrowed his eyes at the stranger. Then he drew himself up, looking to his youngest brother now watching him. The elder brother next peered over the edge at the two middle brothers he saw were also staring up at him. Ranthalion was grinning.

Lastannan looked up again to stare at nothing as he thought. They were all listening it seemed. That changed things.

He turned a grin upon the stranger. "Sometimes …"

The other Green ellon and two green elleth made expressed outrage in teasing tones as he'd known they would. After chuckling at them, Lastannan turned his attention back to his youngest brother as he worked.

Their guest shut his eyes against it all. He cursed himself for even asking. Inside, something roiled up and he trembled.

Sarnin put out a hand on his shoulder. His trembling ceased. Then she pressed something into his hand. He clasped it in curiosity and then rolled it about his palm. He smiled gently. Another honey-covered berry it seemed.

Actually, the second edible-orb turned out to be honey-covered nut-meat. After he finished it, the elleth gave him a whole bag of nut-meat bits to devour. They waited until he'd wet his appetite on the sweet to give him the plain it seemed, the sneaks.

As Celaunt ate the other ellon continued to drag orc corpses up over the ledge into the canyon and then throw them onto each other into a stack some paces from where he and the elleth watched. The Noldo raised his chin to gesture toward the heap. "Why are they doing that?"

The elleth glanced at each other before looking back at him. "To get them out and away from the river in case it floods. We do not want them poisoning its waters."

"They could have taken care of the problem in the canyon itself."

Sarnin perked up her ears and sat up. "Oh, how?"

"By …" The ellon stopped, shut his eyes, and shuddered. Then he continued in a softer voice, "How are they planning on taking care of them over there where they stack them now?"

The two elleth glanced at each other again wide-eyed. They looked as though the ellon was speaking out of delirium. Then they looked back at him with some pity in their gazes. Sarnin answered again. "They will make a cairn of rocks over them. In the canyon, such a structure might wash away with the bodies in a strong enough flood."

The ellon's eyes flew open. He turned his gaze upon both elleth. "You mean they will not …" He opened his mouth to form the word. It seemed to stick in his throat. He closed his mouth again, swallowed, and looked down at the ground.

Lathwinn tilted her head at him. Her gaze fixed itself upon the shut eye turned to her and then the cheek beneath it still vaguely shining and red in the dim light. A glint of understanding lit her own eyes.

She reached out a hand and laid it on his knee. He flinched away, but made himself be still as she spoke to him. "I once had friends who fashioned things, gleaming, sparkling things, like you Noldos do. Every one in a while one of them would have an accident doing so, particularly the younger ones. Such mistakes would sometimes leave scars on their skin, somewhat like your own."

The Noldo's brow furrowed. He continued to keep his eyes shut and facing the ground. Lathwinn smiled slightly and continued. "When these friends of mine hunted anything … they got rid of whatever they did not want by burning it up. That is what your people do with orc bodies after their battles with them, isn't it?"

The Noldo sighed. "Their bodies ... and sometimes also things we should not have destroyed."

Lathwinn smiled a little wider, yet also a little more sadly. Then she patted his knee. "We never do that ourselves."

The Noldo's eyes snapped open. He finally turned his gaze fully upon her. "You don't?"

Sarnin laughed aloud. Her eyes sparkled in the starlight. "We are Green Elves. We never burn things!"

The Noldo opened his mouth, but Ranthalion, having just climbed out of the canyon, spoke first. "Of course, we never make a fire, you fool. Why would we risk our growing things and very lives that way?"

Celuant scowled back at him, but as a smooth hand took his own and clasped it his gaze softened again. He looked up to loon into Sarnin's warm, but not fiery eyes. "You need not fear fire when you are with us Celuant."

Lathwinn spoke gently at her aunt's side. "Unless there is a storm of course. Then we usually know where the lightning will strike and avoid the place chasing animals away from the area too. We are usually long gone before any flames actually appear. And they often burn not long where the ground is so wet and the growing things so lush."

The Noldo swallowed. Then he gave another jerk of a head-nod, before muttering. "Thank you." In his thoughts he added, perhaps living among green elves will not be so bad after all …

. . .

"Except in winter."

"Erestor!" Mellolaes shouted standing up. "If you do not stop interrupting I'm going to pour this remaining tea over your head!"

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ScribeofHeroes