Sorry this wasn't up when it was supposed to be. This time of year is impossible. If I have the time to get on a computer, there isn't a computer. If there is a computer, the internet is working on the fritz at best.

Obviously, it decided to work for a few minutes, but I'm not holding my breath that it'll upload this time. I've been trying since Wednesday.

Apparently, had a few problems, too. I couldn't review, and a few e-mailed me to complain that they couldn't.

(Thanks!)

And thanks to those of you who actually managed to get a review through... I just hope the alerts are working!


Chapter 14 Echo of thunder

Ethwan tossed a battered old arrow up, catching it as it spiraled back to him, only to twist it around and toss it again.

"You're going to hurt yourself," Irithil murmured, frowning as he packed the remains of their lunch into the bundle it had originally been.

"No I'm not," Ethwan denied absently, tossing the arrow again.

"Last time you said that, you missed," Irithil reminded him quietly.

"I won't miss."

"You had to have Elrohir look at your eye." Irithil's brow twitched, recalling the bloody mess that had been made of their sibling lunch that day. It had taken hours to get Ethwan calmed down, even after Elrohir had taken care of his eye.

"I won't miss," Ethwan insisted, half-laughing, as if he couldn't be just as arrogant now as he had been at thirty.

Irithil sighed, shaking his head. "You can go find him by yourself, then," he muttered. "It will probably be quite difficult, as he and Lenaith have been holing up in their rooms so much recently. I doubt he always admits to being in there when he would rather not be disturbed—you'd have to shout out for all and sundry to hear that you'd managed to stab yourself in the eye with one of your arrows again."

Ethwan hesitated, fingers tightening over the arrow for a moment before he finally set it aside. "Is Lunian around, Cara?"

She shrugged absently, closing her eyes. She folded her arms under her head. "I don't know. Their talan was just completed this morning, I believe. They may lock themselves in for a few days."

Ethwan crinkled his nose. "I really don't need the visual, Cara."

"Get over it," she muttered, shaking her head.

"So, she isn't joining us?" he persisted.

"Even if she was here, I don't think she'd be joining us today, Ethwan."

"Why not?"

"Because this is the first one we've had in a while?"

"So? As you kept insisting, she is like our little sister…"

"Or older, in your case."

She smiled faintly, shaking her head. "The little sister, who is married and quite in love with her prince. She no doubt wants to spend some time with him."

"They're conjoined at the hip, Carathwan," Ethwan murmured dryly, without the rancor of previous times.

She laughed softly. "Yes… nauseatingly adorable, aren't they?" she asked, arching a brow.

Her brothers both snorted. "Makes the rest of us look downright cold," Ethwan muttered after a while.

Irithil scooted back, resting against a tree. He lifted his old, battered flute to his lips, playing their old play tune, bringing memory of times long past closer once again. With their eyes closed, they could all see themselves playing with Lunian, when they had all been quite young. They had been the only ones of that approximate age in Elrond's halls at the time.

Carathwan frowned slightly, remembering several times when Lunian had inexplicably stopped when they played on the shores, looking into the east, her eyes grave and tired.

She shook herself away from the past, listening to the faint echo of thunder as the world around them grew darker. A storm was coming.

She opened her eyes to watch the angry clouds come closer. "So, Thil… how's Alothie?"

"She's enjoying her nephews today."

"They're pretty young, aren't they?" Ethwan frowned, trying to remember from his time with her.

"Four and twenty," Irithil agreed.

"Why didn't you go with them?" she asked.

"Because it's our sibling lunch day," he answered, as if she shouldn't have asked.

She smiled slightly, closing her eyes as the thick clouds broke up, light spilling over her again from the small fissure.

"So, Cara… how are things with Luthier?"

She turned her head, looking at Ethwan, who was watching her pensively. She shrugged faintly.

"You've been eating, sitting, dancing, walking, riding, swimming—and I hope that's the end of it—with him in the last few months."

She nodded silently.

"Carathwan… he's not for you."

A bitter smile touched her lips. "I know."

"You shouldn't be like me, just because you can, you know."

"I'm not."

"Then why does he still behave so nervously giddy around you, and simply terrified around us? Those are not the actions of an old friend."

She sighed, rolling onto her stomach, reaching out to toy with a flower that was near her hand.

"He is trying to court you, Carathwan."

"I'm not blind, Ethwan," she hissed, pushing herself up so she was kneeling, better able to glare at him. "I know what he's doing."

"Then why do you allow it?" he persisted.

"Why shouldn't I?"

He shook his head. "You've always been more like Irithil. Don't start switching now."

"Why shouldn't I enjoy the attention, the affection, for once in my life?" she asked angrily, sweeping her hand out in the grass in an agitated move that deflowered several plants.

"There will be others, Cara—others who are far more suited for a fiery elf like you," he murmured quietly, watching her carefully.

She let out a choked laugh. "Fiery?" she asked, her eyes misting over. "How do I stop the fire?" she asked, curling into herself, a low cry escaping her as her body began shaking.

"Cara?" Ethwan and Irithil crowded her, Ethwan curling up behind her, hugging her, Irithil trying to see her face, holding her hands engulfed in his own larger ones as she turned to the earth to avoid him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, heart twisting to see her tears.

She shook her head.

"I don't believe that."

She sobbed again, pulling her hands away from him to cover her face. "There won't be any others," she managed at last. "Not for me… not for him." She shook her head slightly, and sounded so much like she was talking to herself that her brothers didn't rightly know what to do about her statement.

"She's crying over Luthier?" Ethwan asked eventually.

Irithil scowled at him as a strangled giggling sob escaped her. "Baby sister," he crooned, kissing her brow. "Who hurt you?"

"It hurts him more," she countered, closing her eyes against him.

"Who?"

"Luthier, apparently," Ethwan muttered.

"Grow up," Irithil snapped, glaring up at him for a moment. "Luthier is apparently just a distraction, poor lad."

She made a mewling noise at that, her tears coming more quickly.

Ethwan and Irithil looked at each other in total distress, not knowing what to do, what to say, as everything they said seemed to only make it worse. "Irithil can hold him for you to slap," Ethwan murmured. "It got my attention."

"Ethwan! You're hardly helping!" a frazzled-looking Lunian snapped when she stormed into the clearing, pulling him back before she dropped to the ground, quickly wrapping her arms tightly around Carathwan.

"Cara, what—"

"Shut it, Irithil," Lunian hissed, pulling Carathwan up, helping her sit up, pulling her into a hug as she rocked slowly. "You can go now," she murmured pointedly, stroking her friend's hair.

Ethwan and Irithil backed off, but watched the two females. They stood uncertainly at the tree-line, closing their eyes in relief when Carathwan's tears stopped. Lunian blotted at them, drying her cheeks, settling her hair behind her ears, smoothing it slowly, with long, gentle strokes. They spoke quietly for a short while, Carathwan going silent at something Lunian said before nodding quickly.

They got slowly to their feet, Lunian's arm around Carathwan's waist as they headed towards the hall. Legolas met them, handing something to Lunian, who nodded, kissing his cheek before they walked on.

Ethwan and Irithil reached Legolas's side as he watched them leave. "What's going on?" Ethwan asked.

"Who is he?"

Legolas sighed, and slowly shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand in an absently worried gesture that did nothing to calm them. "Leave her be for now. She needs time."

"Lunian seems to know," Ethwan grumbled.

Legolas snorted. "She probably knew before they did."

Irithil groaned. "That is really disconcerting."

Legolas smiled slightly. "It always has been."

Ethwan looked back at the building. "Will she be alright?"

The prince nodded. "Yes. No matter what comes of this, with time she will heal."

"Oh, that makes it so much better," Irithil groused.

A faint smile touched Legolas's lips. "When she can speak of it, you will know."

"And hopefully understand?" Ethwan muttered.

"That depends entirely on you."