Three weeks after departing Rivendell.
Eglerio! There, just ahead, lay Erestor's least favorite place in all of Middle-earth: Lothlorien. Not that he had anything against Elrond's wife, Celebrian was like a sister to him. And he and Celeborn had certainly had several very nice, intelligent conversations over the years. And most of the Elves who lived in the Golden Wood were nice, normal, non-Balrog-slaying people. In fact, he would have moved to Lorien ages ago, literally, if it had not been for her.
Riding through the shallow stream Glorfindel had been sure to splash Erestor several times. Though the raven-haired one made a good show of neither noticing nor caring, internally he was ready to rip Vilya from Elrond's hand and summon the water to swallow up the Balrog-slayer as the Bruinen had so neatly done with the Wraiths.
Suddenly Erestor was reminded of that psychic conversation he interrupted back in Rivendell. If the rumors were true that she had given that big, strapping lad from Gondor a mental breakdown by merely looking at him, the advisor felt sure that he was done for. Oh, how he longed for a nice tall stack of parchment to busy himself with! He asked himself again, not for the last time, exactly why he had allowed himself to be dragged away from his content, orderly little study in Imladris to go gadding about all over Middle-earth. As for staying around with Lindir's absurd songs and Bilbo's Elf-bane, neither could ever exceed Glorfindel in the exasperating category. He was a true master!
Erestor managed to get through the initial greeting by the Lorien Three without too much disgust. Make that the Lorien Four... the way Haldir, Rúmil, and Orophin all embraced Glorfindel one would believe them all four brothers. After a brief, quiet discussion with Elrond, the Lorien Four went to the fore of the group to lead them to Caras Galadon. Glorfindel left Erestor stuck with Asfaloth, who was not getting along well with Mornië, Erestor's horse. Now all he had to do was weave a steel curtain around his thoughts and he might be safe from her. If there was such a thing as being safe around such a person.
As they approached the giant tree (oh, how Erestor did detest living in trees and climbing ladders and such foolishness), Lorien's three Sinda border guards and their dear Elda friend left the way to the Lord and Lady's grand flet. Elrond then took up leading his people, and as the four "brothers" left the march Rúmil took Morni's reins and lead a quite shocked horse and rider off to the brother's talan.
Erestor didn't know whether to be grateful that he did not have to have an audience with her immediately or agitated that they had disrupted his schedule. He had intended to get that trial over with as soon as possible. But then, he did now have more time to prepare. They halted in front of a tree and Orophin hopped swiftly up into the branches from where a rode ladder quickly descended, narrowly missing Erestor's head. Immediately upon Erestor's dismounting, Haldir whispered a command to Mornië and off he ran. Erestor glared at the March warden, who grinned serenely.
"After you, good Master Erestor," Haldir said, bowing and holding the rope ladder steady.
Erestor returned the bow partially, and rather stiffly, along with an almost simpering grin. Yes, he definitely hated this living up a tree business. He decided to heavily amend his previous thoughts about Lorien folk. They might not have been Balrog-slayers, a definite point in their favor, but they were by no measure nice, normal folk. Nice, normal folk lived on the ground.
After what seemed like a week's worth of climbing the unsteady ladder, Erestor finally pulled himself up through the hole in the floor and onto the brother's talan. The other four popped up quickly one after the other. Now that they were up, Erestor began to think of the one thing he disliked more than climbing up those ladders: getting back down. He began to feel lightheaded just thinking about it.
Obviously Haldir noticed Erestor's abnormally pale complexion and offered him a bit of lembas. Erestor rose a brow, wondering if the bread was not tainted specially for his arrival, and managing to look frighteningly like Elrond (who he wished dearly he had followed just for the sake of being with one person he actually trusted).
Glorfindel took a bit of lembas for himself and shoved the rest into Erestor's hand, who shoved them right back. "Come on, Erestor, where are your legendary manners?" he prodded.
"Oh, fool me, i must have left them with Elrond. I shall just have to go fetch him," Erestor said with mock apology as he started to rise. Rúmil tugged him back to where he was seated beside him though, earning a glare from the Chief Advisor from Imladris.
"Never mind him," Glorfindel said to the three, "he's just grumpy without his precious, mind-numbing reports to read."
Erestor laughed sardonically, reaching into a hidden pocket in his robe. "Did you seriously think i would ever go anywhere unprepared, you halfwit?" he said producing a small book. Erestor turned his chair away from the other four and tried to take comfort in reading, ignoring the several muffled snickers that made their way to his ears.
Every few minutes, specks that looked suspiciously like crumbs of lembas flew over the dark-haired one's head to land sometimes on the book he was reading, sometimes on his lap. Occasionally one didn't make it that far and stayed in his hair. After half an hour of silently putting up with this nonsense, Erestor patiently closed his book and tucked it lovingly back into his pocket. He rose with all of his usually dignity and brushed the crumbs away. He set the chair back as he had found it, bowed to the four leering Elves at the other side of the talan and dropped the ladder down, following it rather precariously. He noticed that it was pulled back up quickly enough after he reached ground.
Erestor walked away hoping to find a quiet place to sit and read without the taunts of others. He was having a difficult time suppressing two very strong urges, both the urge to just once allow himself to respond emotionally to Glorfindel's ludicrous behavior and the urge to kill all four of them. Never would he admit that the truth was that he hated leaving Rivendell because Elves in most other realms were less than friendly to anyone so obviously of Noldor descent. There was little such behavior in Imladris because of Elrond's sound leadership, and for that he was eternally grateful. Here, though, there was only one other fully Noldo Elf in this place that he knew of, and he was not about to keep company with her.
---
Poor 'Restor!
Eglerio - Glorify (meant sarcastically in this case)
To AM: Oh yes, you will be getting background information. All in good time.