Disclaimer: Nothing concerning Middle Earth is mine – it all belongs to Tolkien and his heirs, of which I am not one.  I promise to put my toys away when I am done.

Arguments and Decisions

Elladan woke up first, blinking sleepily as the first light of dawn peeked into the room.  He lifted his head to look around the room, his mussed dark hair falling over his face.  Elrohir woke at his twin's movement.  At first, he looked a little confused at finding himself in his parents' bed.  Then memory returned, and he frowned.  Ada and naneth still were not here.  Elladan, on the other hand, looked thoughtful.

"'Ro?  Do you remember the story about ada's ada and naneth?" he asked slowly.

"Yes…" Elrohir replied hesitantly, not entirely sure where Elladan was going with this. 

"Do you think… I mean…" Elladan did not want to say what he was thinking, as if the spoken word could make such a thing true.

"That ada and naneth are gone?" Elrohir supplied quietly.  He had been wondering the same thing himself.

"Yes."  Elladan answered, equally quiet.  It was an awful thought, but one that refused to go away.

"But ada wouldn't leave!  Neither would naneth!" Elrohir argued, but there was very little conviction in his voice.  Ada had not thought that his naneth would leave either, but she had.  The twins stared at each other in shared misery.  Then Elrohir broke the silence.

"What are we going to do?" he asked miserably.

"They might come back.  Ada sees daeradar every night…" Elladan mused.

"As a star!" Elrohir protested heatedly.  That was not how he wanted to greet his ada from now on.

"But that was because of the Sil… the Sil… the big glowing stones.  Ada and naneth do not have any of those." Elladan replied stoutly.

"True…" Elrohir conceded thoughtfully.  He mulled over this for a moment.  "This does not help us.  How will we find them?" he pointed out pragmatically.

"We could go on a quest."  Elladan suggested.  Whenever the heroes of his favorite stores needed to find something, they went on a quest.   Elrohir nodded eagerly, his childish face alight with glee.

"We can hunt and kill orcs and camp under the stars and stay up all night!" he exclaimed, the excitement over this new adventure over-riding his misery of being abandoned by his parents. 

"And we'll be brave and fight and be noble, and songs will be made about us!" Elladan added, catching his brother's excitement.

"We should go now before they try to stop us." Elrohir urged.  There was no need to define who 'they' were.  Glorfindel and Erestor simply would not understand.  Elladan nodded in agreement.  Both elflings slid off the massive bed, bolting towards their shared room.  After all, adventurers and heroes did not head out in their night clothes.

Elrond was quickly becoming annoyed, though he did his best not to show it.  The morning was beginning to wear on, and he had not even had time to say good morning to his sons. 

"My Lord Elrond, you must send your warriors to fight off the orcs coming west over the mountains." Mathorn's voice held a distinct patronizing tone that set Elrond's teeth on edge.  He was very thankful that he did not have to deal with this Dúnadan on a regular basis.  The only reason he had to do so at the moment was that both of Mathorn's superiors were lying unconscious in the infirmary. 

"My warriors already patrol the lands surrounding Imladris." Elrond replied reasonably, relying on centuries of diplomatic experience to keep his tone civil.  "I cannot…"

"You must!" Mathorn broke in sharply, clearly irritated at being denied.  "As the commander of the Eastern patrol…"

"Temporary commander."  Elrond corrected dryly, singularly unimpressed by the man's show of temper.  He firmly resisted the urge to throw this impudent human out of his office. He had already moved this utterly pointless conversation from the infirmary to here, since his repeated requests for quiet conversation were blatantly ignored.  "Your own commander will return to full health and strength in a short time." He emphasized the title, hoping to remind Mathorn of his place.  Perhaps a message to this man's king in Annúminas would not go amiss.

"Until then, my word is law in these parts." Mathorn growled.

"For your own people, sir.  Not mine." Elrond replied shortly, no longer willing to humor this man.  "You overstep your place."

"Then I demand my own people back… including Maechen and Himor." Marthorn snarled, naming his two commanders, of which both were still recovering from the previous night's battle.  Elrond stared at him in shock, and then narrowed his eyes. 

"The injured cannot leave, the move would surely kill them."  Elrond coolly informed the irate man.

"Why should you care?  You doom the rest of my people to death, why not them?" Mathorn snapped back.  If the overbearing soldier was expecting Elrond to respond in kind, he was sorely disappointed.  Elrond stared back at him, cold as a Wight's barrow and immovable as stone.

"You are over-weary and stressed.  Go to Maechen, he should have awoken by now, his wounds were not as grievous as the others." Elrond noted shortly, moderating his tone so it came just shy of ordering Mathorn out of the room.  He categorically refused to explain his motives to this fool.  Mathorn, even as obtuse and overbearing as he was, got the hint and hurried out of the room, the heavy door swinging shut behind him. 

Elrond sagged wearily into a chair, showing uncharacteristic frustration.  There were times he wearied of caring for his brother's descendents… this would be one of those times.  The door quietly opened and clicked shut, but Elrond did not look up.  Perhaps Mathron had finally found a properly scathing reply.

"You look weary, my love." A soft voice murmured.  Elrond lifted his head to gaze into Celebrian's bright, concerned eyes.

"I am well, nin-meleth." Elrond replied, rising to meet her embrace.  Gratefully he pulled her close, taking comfort in her soothing presence.  He wondered, and not for the first time, how he had ever been able to function without her.  When she spoke, the thick pile of his robe muffled her voice.

"The last of the young women sleep peacefully now." Celebrian informed her husband.  "Provided they are left undisturbed, they should sleep deeply for some hours." Elrond nodded and sighed.

"I pray they will!  Mathorn does not agree with me in most matters this morning, and I fear he may do something rash.  Before I wake the twins I must go encourage the on-duty healer to refuse any ill-advised orders from Mathorn, I will not have my patients killed by his idiocy." He stated definitively, fury at the temporary commander burning, muted, in his keen grey eyes.  Celebrian pulled away from him and smiled. 

"I will go." She offered sweetly. "Go, be with your sons." She instructed with a soft smile. 

"As the lady commands, of course." Elrond replied silkily.  He bent and kissed her, then moved towards the door.