"There is still a part I do not know, little one, what happened to your brother, what happened to Eluréd?"
"He died," Erestor stated haltingly.
Gil-Galad closed his eyes briefly in sympathy for the elfling's loss. "Do you feel up to telling me about it?" He did not wish to distress Erestor further but felt it would help him to talk, and such was the mystery surrounding the fate of the two Princes of Doriath, it would give all those from that land who still lived some sense of closure to know the truth.
Erestor shifted slightly and pulled away from the High King, "It happened two nights after we had witnessed the deaths of the Grey Elves at the Nimbrethil. We had taken to resting within the branches of trees, as the ground was so cold and with the wolves, or rather wargs," Erestor corrected himself, "close by, we did not dare to rest upon the ground. The trees in that area were few and far between, and not very tall," Gil-Galad nodded, remembering well the landscape of that area.
"We settled in one that we thought was high enough, Eluréd was certain it would suffice. He seemed out of sorts that night, he had been so brave, so strong, I am certain I would have succumbed to death long before if he had not been there to comfort me and be strong for me. He made me swear an oath, that if he should die, I would find a way to live. I wonder if perhaps he had the gift of foresight." Erestor shook his head absently as Gil-Galad soothingly stroked his back.
"We were curled up next to each other on a branch, and while one of us usually stood guard while the other rested, it was becoming more difficult as we became weaker, Eluréd had even taken to sleeping with his eyes closed. That scared me, I was always afraid he would not wake come morning. But it was not to be a peaceful death for him," Gil-Galad could tell that Erestor's calm façade was beginning to crack and pulled him into an embrace as the elfling swiped in irritation at his weeping eyes.
"We must have both fallen asleep for the next that I knew I was awoken by an agonising bite to my leg and Eluréd had been snatched from my side! The moon was dark that night and I could barely see, but I could hear the laboured breathing and snorting of the warg, there was only one I think. I was petrified; I had no means of escape, though I do not think I would have had the wits to do so in any case. I simply stayed silent, hardly daring to breathe and though all was soon quiet I sat there frozen in place through the night, staring out into the dark.
When the first light of morning came, I searched for my brother's remains." Erestor made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a sob and Gil-Galad tightened his hold on the elfling and began stroking his hair to calm him.
"I did find him; he lay just a short distance away. Though he had not been eaten but rather had been mauled to death for sport, I was so angry!
I spent two days in that place, building a pyre; I cared not if the wargs returned for me, for I had no desire to live. Lighting the pyre was not easy, but I found some flint and after many attempts, succeeded.
And that is all."
Gil-Galad wiped at his own eyes, he felt drained and could only imagine how Erestor must feel. His gaze passed idly over a self portrait Erestor had painted shortly after his arrival, the painting had always bothered him, but it was not until now that he understood why.
"That is not a painting of you, is it?"
Erestor followed the line of the High King's gaze, and gave a slight smile. "Nay, it is not, we were almost identical, save for the colour of our eyes."
Gil-Galad took note of the stormy grey eyes that he had always imagined to be a misrepresentation of Erestor's own dark eyes and shook his head, "How is it that I did not see? I should have been able to see the pain you were in!" He berated himself aloud and Erestor squeezed his hand slightly in silent support.
"You should not be so hard on yourself, My Lord. I went to great pains to hide this from you, and for that I am sorry. You have ever treated me with kindness and love, and perhaps I should not have deceived you so, but once I knew for certain that you meant me no harm I was too entrenched in my deceit that I feared you would disown me for it."
"My heart would never allow that Erestor, you are as a son to me, I would never turn my back on you and I would protect you with my life."
Erestor gave a relieved sigh.
"There is just one other question I have. Elwing lives and you have known this for some time, yet to my knowledge you have not contacted her, you even refused to visit Arvernien, why?"
"Eluréd is dead, how could I face her when I swore to protect him! If she rejected me and you had learnt the truth, I feared I would be left with nothing."
Gil-Galad cringed, "I think you have too little faith in those of us that love you Erestor, Glorfindel and I would not be so easy to be rid of and I am certain that Elwing will be overjoyed to know that you are well!"
"Glorfindel hates me."
Gil-Galad smiled fondly, "Glorfindel does not hate you, he simply needs some time to come to terms with all that he has learnt, he too needs to understand what you went through."
Erestor looked unconvinced, "If that is the case, why is he not here?"
-
Glorfindel sat upon the deck, studying a map of the city streets, looking for tactical advantages and potential trouble spots. Around him the sailors went about their business and the soldiers kept out of their way as best they could.
A cry from the ship's bow exclaimed "The city is burning!"
Glorfindel looked up as one of the soldiers nearby addressed him, "My Lord, Arvernien is aflame."
The captain jumped to his feet and cursed at what he saw, before making his way across the crowded deck to where Círdan had charge of the wheel.
Círdan spoke before Glorfindel had a chance to open his mouth, "Do not ask, there is naught we can do, we are moving as fast as we can."
-
A/N
Batfinc – Apologies to you and all my readers for the delay in updating, I hope the multiple update will make up for it
CapriceAnn Hedican-Kocur, Crecy, Ilaaris - :o), thank you for your comments
Faby - thanks for your comment, things will improve I promise
Nessa Ar-Feiniel – Interesting, I didn't know that. I hope that you can imagine that it was Erestor's perception as you said or perhaps more likely a scared elfling translating fluent Quenya with only an academic knowledge of the language, and I hope you won't let it spoil your enjoyment of the story.