Chapter 37: The Last Peaceful Chapter

"The stars predict a good day for you, I think. Or maybe a painful death."

-Another Horoscope, written by My Brother

Well, things were going better now. I wasn't depressed, and it really was nicer not having too much to worry about. I still had to worry about Earendil getting in trouble with my friends' kids, but that wasn't exactly a huge deal.

And, of course, there was the potential problem of the city getting destroyed and everyone dying horrible, painful deaths, though that didn't seem very likely at the moment. In fact, I think my life could have gone on happily for quite some time if I hadn't had another one of those dang random prophetic dreams. Seriously, why do I always get those? Isn't my life crazy enough?

Anyway, the dream was this:

I wasn't in Gondolin. Actually, I wasn't really sure where I was. I was just kind of there. And there happened to be some kind of extremely dark, scary-looking forest. The trees shifted slightly, and suddenly I was looking in the window of a house, into a room where a dark-haired woman was sitting on a chair with a child in her lap.

"Well, kid, it's just you and me now," said the woman in an oddly familiar-sounding voice.

"Where's Dad?" asked the kid.

"He's gone to visit the Dwarves. Dang good thing if you ask me. Not that I'm not fond of your dad, but he gets on my nerves sometimes. And I can call you by your name now—Lomion."

"Tell me about Gondolin, Mom," said the boy. "Tell me about King Turgon."

"Gondolin," sighed the woman. "It's the most beautiful city in the world. Kind of closed-in, but beautiful. All white stone and lovely fountains, and the constant feeling of safety. You're never alone in Gondolin. Not ever."

The woman looked up and stared me in the eyes, and it was Aunt Aredhel, but not her somehow. I think she was kind of a combination of Aunt Aredhel and Mom, and maybe some of me, too.

"It's over, Idril," she said. "This is the end. Are you ready? Are you prepared for the fall of everything you know?"

"No," I whispered.

And woke up.

Well, no wonder that dream was so weird, I thought, sitting up on the couch and looking around. I never sleep at three o' clock in the afternoon.

But still, the dream had raised an interesting question. Were we prepared for Gondolin's eventual destruction? How was the tunnel going? How was the guard around the city walls? Which side would Morgoth attack from? And where, exactly, was Earendil?

Okay, so that last one had nothing to do with my dream. But I'd sent him outside before taking my unplanned nap, and I had no idea where he'd gotten to. What a great mother I was.

I got up and looked around the house for Tuor, finally finding him standing by the walls and looking out over the mountains. "Hey, you. Have you seen Earendil? I sent him outside a few minutes ago, but then I fell asleep and I don't know where he is."

"You fell asleep during the day? Wow, you must have been really exhausted," he said, not looking at me. "You never sleep during the day."

"Once again, you show an amazing talent for stating the overly obvious," I said. "Your parents would have been proud."

Tuor didn't laugh, which made me feel a bit miffed. Normally he would have found something like that hilarious.

"So anyway, I had another dream," I said. "One of those really weird prophetic ones."

That got his attention. He turned to me, eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Well, a lot of it was kind of weird and I didn't understand it, but the upshot of the whole deal was that Aunt Aredhel told me that Gondolin's end was coming and we'd better be prepared."

"Are we?"

"I don't know. Are we? How's the tunnel going?"

"It's pretty much done. We have, like, ten feet left to dig through."

"That's good. And no one else knows?"

"If they do, it's not my fault."

"For heaven's sakes, honey, you're pretty much a lord now. You've got to be more certain of things than that."

"Hey, you're the smart one. I just do what you tell me to. Which, by the way, is causing some of the guys to say I'm henpecked."

"Ignore them. Realizing that your wife is smarter than you does not make you henpecked."

"My, my, we're certainly arrogant. You're definitely a House of Finwe girl."

I didn't deny it.

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"Hey, Mom," Earendil asked me later that day. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around, does it still make a sound?"

"Why do you ask?" I said absently.

"Ringare said that her dad asked Aunt Meleth that at the dinner table yesterday and Aunt Meleth didn't know. So I thought I'd ask you."

"Well, the answer is yes," I said. "Even if no one heard it, it'd still make a sound."

"That's what I thought. But Aurelia thought that Uncle Glorfindel might not have meant that exactly, that the question might have meant something else."

"That, my dear, is called philosophy, which you shouldn't worry about until you're much, much older."

"What's philos'phy?"

"It's when a bunch of smart old people like your uncle Glorfindel and myself try to figure out the meaning of things and end up just getting confused and talking about something else."

"I don't wanna get old," said Earendil decidedly. "Old people don't have any fun."

"Nonsense, darling. Who's been telling you that?"

"Ilverin did. He said that his parents never run around or anything, they just sit around and talk and sometimes argue."

"Well, I know both his parents, and they both think that sitting around and talking-slash-arguing is fun. You don't have less fun when you're grown-up; it's just your idea of fun that changes."

"You sure know a lot, Mom."

"I had a very lonely childhood. Therefore, I studied a lot. The less attention you get, the smarter you end up."

"I get lots of attention," said Earendil thoughtfully. "Does that mean I'm gonna be dumb?"

"Of course not," I said, kissing him on the top of the head. "No son of mine will ever be dumb." I looked at the clock. "I have to go visit your grandpa now. Be good while I'm gone, okay? I'll be back in time for supper."

"Yes'm."

What I was hoping to accomplish by telling Dad about my dream I don't know—it wasn't like he was going to do a whole lot about it. But I just wanted him to be aware of it, because if I thought the city's end was extremely near then he had a right to know. Even if he did just dismiss it as womanly paranoia.

"Hello, Dad, Maeglin," I said, taking a seat on the couch in the palace's sitting room and sighing as I looked around. I'd spent so much time in this room over the years, and it felt awful to know that it would probably not exist fairly soon. In that moment, I realized that no matter how shut-in this city felt, it was my home, and I loved it. I didn't want Gondolin to fall!

"Hello, Idril," said Dad. "To what do we owe this visit?"

Oh, right. I had a reason for coming here. I'd forgotten about that.

"Dad, this is going to sound totally dumb, but Gondolin's destruction is coming. Soon. I've had another of my dreams, and you know that those are usually correct. We need to be prepared."

"Idril," said Maeglin gently, "do you have any proof of this?"

"Technically, no. I'm basing this off past incidents, which is usually a pretty good basis."

"But not always. Just because a few of your dreams have come true before doesn't mean that this one will."

Was it my imagination, or did he look a little bit guilty as he said this?

"Look, I'm not going to tell you guys that we have to pack up and leave the city," I said. "It's too late to do anything as drastic as that. All I'm saying is, we have to make sure we're ready for a potential attack. We are, aren't we?"

"Idril, Gondolin has been ready for a potential attack since the day it was built," said Dad. "And anyway, you've already talked to us about this. Since Tuor's coming we've doubled the guard around the walls twice! What more could you possibly expect us to do?"

"I don't know," I said wearily, closing my eyes. "I'm sorry, Dad. It's just, I'm so worried…"

"I know you're worried, Idril," said Dad gently. "It's in your blood to worry. But you have to have faith in me. I built this city, and I know how to protect it. Everything will work out. Can you trust me on that?"

I took a breath and opened my eyes. "I'll try. Thanks, Dad." I nodded at my cousin. "Maeglin."

"You know I care about you, Idril," said Maeglin. "I would never let anything hurt you."

If only.

We're on the home stretch now, ladies and gents. I didn't call this the Last Peaceful Chapter for nuthin'...