The next morning, Naht was again the one to wake them ungently. Elrond's hope had tremendously lessened during the night in which it had seemed to him that he and his brother had taken turns to burst out into crying. They were sat down at the table with Maedhros and Maglor again. Silently, the boys ate the bread and drank the fruit juice.
"We will have to teach you," said Maglor finally.
The boys looked up.
"If you are to become grown up and strong men like us, we will have to teach you how to fight."
After breakfast, Elros and Elrond were brought to a spring behind the house and allowed to bathe. The water was ice cold as the small river lay in the shadow of the mountains. They were given new clothes that looked far too big for them. When they were brought back to the stone house, Maedhros and Maglor waited in the big hall for them.
"Did your father teach you how to fight with swords?" Maedhros asked.
"Not our father, but a friend of ours," Elrond muttered, remembering that Kundäe was now dead.
"Speak up," Maglor yelled. "Show us some respect."
Elrond repeated the sentence with a louder but not firmer voice.
Maedhros handed the boys two sticks. "Defend yourselves." Then he began to attack Elrond, while his brother attacked Elros. Elrond tried his best, but after being hit several times at every bone of his body, he sacked down onto the floor in pain. Tears were running down his cheeks. It was only shortly later that Elros also fell down.
"You're weaker than I thought," said Maedhros and picked up Elrond. "Stand up and fight like an elf."
"Didn't you tell me I wasn't an elf?" Elrond said and SMACK, Maedhros kicked him with full power into the ribs. Elrond couldn't breathe for a few seconds and then gasped for air while lying helplessly on the floor. Elros wanted to rush over to him but Maglor held him back.
"Let me to my brother," Elros shouted.
"He needs to learn to survive on his own," Maglor said. "Five of our brothers died in our quest. It does not tear us down. We are strong and can fight without anyone's help. You two need to learn the same."
"Naht," Maedhros said to his servant who had been skulking in the shadows for the entire while, "take them back to their room."
The twins were thrown back into their dark cave cell again. More hours passed by.
"There is no point in resisting," Elrond finally said.
"You don't want to collaborate with them?!" Elros shouted, not believing his ears.
"What good will it do to us if we are beaten every day and treated like animals?"
"We have our dignity."
"The graveyards are full of people with dignity."
To that Elros did no answer. Naht did not get them for dinner that night. Elrond had been hungry nearly all the time for five days. It made him feel sick in a way that he had never experienced.
The next day after breakfast and bathing in the river, Maedhros and Maglor taught them again. This time, they showed the boys some moves for their feet and how to grip a sword properly. Elrond did as was told as much as possible due to the pain that covered every inch of his body, and Elros followed his brother's example. Neither of them countered the evil brothers or refused any order that they barked.
It was the first time that the twins were allowed to have lunch with Fёanor's sons. It was the first time that Elrond did not feel hungry going into the afternoon.
"You both need to learn how to survive in the wilderness," Maglor told them. He handed them a thick book full of handwritten notes. "This was written by one of our best cooks in this town. This book has information and drawings of all eatable fruits and berries that you can find in the forests of Arda. Read it."
"There is no light in our room," Elros protested.
Maglor and Maedhros looked at each other. They then ordered Naht to take the twins into the highest room that was available in this stone building. It was a drop of over 15 metres down to the ground which was filled with pebbles and stones.
"Have fun jumping," Naht said and locked the door.
Elros and Elrond sat down next to each other on the floor and began to read and memorise the book. They were called for dinner, and when they returned to their room, they found that two beds had been put in place and a candle and matches. Since it was the only thing to do, the twins studied until long into the night.
The next day, there was no breakfast. Instead, Elrond and Elros were taken to the stables, blindfolded and sat onto horses. Together with the twins they journeyed nearly half a day. When the blindfold was taken away, they realised that they were in the middle of a dark forest.
"You have read about the fruits you may eat," Maglor said. "Now this will be put to a test."
"We haven't finished the book yet," protested Elros.
Neither of the evil twins answered. Maedhros took his sword and carved a marking into a tree. Elrond could have sworn that the tree had silently screamed in pain. Then Maedhros said, "we will pick you up here again in two days. If you try to flee, good luck. You are deep in an unknown forest. Down here, not even the sun can guide you. Your only chance is it to survive with the knowledge that you have gained. If you eat anything poisonous, it will be back luck. If you get lost, bad luck. We will pick you up in two days at midday exactly at this spot."
Without any further instructions, the two brothers climbed their horses and rode away.
"If we walk away from here, we will need to find our way back," Elros said and began to gather small branches from the forest ground. "We will make crosses and lay them on the floor so that we can always come back here."
They put down branch-crosses on the floor and began to walk into an arbitrary direction. The canopy was thick and let only little light fall onto the lower layers. There were a lot of bushes and grass and moss that the twins investigated. But they could not find any plant that they recognise from the book. They eventually returned to the tree with the marking and headed into another direction, always making sure to be able to trace back their path.
When it became dark and even their elf eyes could not see the ground anymore, they sat down and cuddled close to each other. Hungry again, they doze off. They awoke the next day by the tweeting of birds. They had not heard or seen any animals they day before, but now they could sometimes see hedgehogs or foxes when they walked back to the tree where they had been dropped off. The walked into the next direction, weakened and stumbling over the twigs and branches on the groud.
"Do you hear that?" Elrond asked.
Elros hold still. "Is that a river?"
At the prospect of water, the twins rejoiced and ran into the direction. And indeed, a small river flowed through the forest. Thirsty, they knelt down and began to drink. They now walked alongside the river and investigated the plants nearby. But none of them seemed to bear any fruits.
"This is hopeless, Elrond," Elros complained and sat down on a rock that lay halfway into the river.
Elrond did not answer. It would be typical for the sons of Fёanor to set them an impossible task. It would not surprise him if the whole forest bore no fruits.
"Where do the animals get their food?" Elrond asked.
"We've seen hedgehogs. They eat worms, bugs, insects. We've seen a fox, he is a predator. And the birds we have seen are no vegetarians either. The whole forest lives of animal meat," Elros said. He sighed. "We will have to hunt, Elrond."
"We cannot harm the wildlife."
"We've cooked fish before. And father has brought us meat before as well. Men do that all the time."
Elros looked into the clear river water. He then got up and began to search the wet ground for worms. Once he had found one, he put it onto a stick and handed another stick to Elrond. Elrond sighed. Elros was right. Men always cooked animals and living of fish was not much different. Elros held the worm-stick into the water and once they saw a fish bite, Elrond stabbed it with his stick. They needed several tries but finally, they had killed a fish.
"Do you know how mother prepared them?" Elros asked.
"I have watched her a few times. But we need to make a fire."
While Elrond descaled the fish as well as possible with sticks and bare hands, Elros arranged stones and cleared the floor for a fireplace. With a stick and stone and some of their hair, they managed to get a small fire working and held the fish over it. Then they took turns biting until there was nothing left but the fishbone. They extinguished the flames and lay down next to it for their sleep. The fish had been big but not enough to satisfy them both. So the next morning, they repeated the procedure twice until they felt stronger again. They continued their search for fruits, but not even a single berry could be found in the forest. In the evening, they were not so lucky with the fish.
Another night passed and they returned to the tree with the markings because they definitely did not want to be late. There, they waited. Midday passed and they wondered whether the evil brothers would leave them here forever just to get rid of them. But well into the afternoon, the brothers both came.
"You survived," Maglor remarked.
"How can there be a forest with no fruits or berries?" Elrond asked.
"This part of the forest is cursed. Only carnivores live here. How did you survive?"
"We caught fish," Elros answered.
Maglor laughed. "You're beginning to learn."
The twins were blindfolded again and brought back to the house where they lived as prisoners. They received another lesson in sword fighting before dinner, and afterwards they continued to read in the book about fruits. The next days would all be the same. They received training in sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat. In their free time, they would read the book about plants until they had memorised it. Maglor gave them lengthy lectures about survival in the wilderness and the twins took notes. The boys were now allowed to eat three meals a day.
"You teach us about survival and fighting," Elrond said one evening during dinner, "but what about the arts? History of the peoples of Arda?"
"That is not important."
"Our mother said it was important."
"Your mother was stupid. What did the arts and history do for her?" Maedhros asked. "If she had known better to defend herself, she would not be dead."
The next day, however, Maglor gave them a book with history records about the great voyage that Fёanor and his sons had undertaken in Arda to reclaim the Silmarils, the jewels that they called rightfully theirs.
Autumn came and Elrond and Elros were allowed to visit the town sometimes, but only when they were accompanied by one of the evil brothers or Naht. They got to know the other elves, but most of them did not like young boys around. Elros and Elrond were slowly granted more rights, and they could walk in the house of Maglor and Maedhros freely. Elros befriended the cook and Elrond the healer master of the town who would even ask the brothers to be allowed to teach Elrond a bit of his lore for that he was eager to learn. At the time of the harvest, Elrond and Elros were called to help on the fields like every inhabitant of the small town. They were the only children and not used to the hard work. The week was more painful than the sword fighting lessons which had earned them a black and blue body. Maedhros saw their weakness as an opportunity to make them used to hard work – from now on, Elrond and Elros were in charge of cleaning the house and raking the street.
Only in the evening before sleeping did the twins have time to think of their parents. Elrond wondered whether their father had any idea that they were still alive. Or whether he searched for their bodies in vain, coming to the conclusion that their mother must have fled with them. Maybe he thought so and that was why he did not search for them here. Maybe he thought they would have a good life with their mother in a befriended elven town. Nearly every night Elrond cried himself to sleep at that thought.
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