I do not own the lands of Arda or Valinor or those Tolkien wrote living there, but the characters seen here are my own. Please do not sue, but just enjoy as I make no money from this.

"Come home with us."

The last living Noldo in the canyon turned his gaze up at Lathwinn the Great. He found warm brown eyes staring into his. He then felt a grip on his shoulder and turned his raised head to see Sarnin's face with tears streaming down it. He turned his form to see the faces of Sarnin's nephews.

Lastanan met his gaze a moment face seemingly emotionless save for the wetness and softness in his eyes. He raised his head in agreement. Ranthalion met his gaze longer and his eyes were hard and sharper than the blades Sarnhael made. The ellon seemed to be trying to stab through his mind into the core of his soul. Sarnhael tried not to resist. Whatever the other ellon found, he didn't want either an invitation or a banishment from Ranthalion to come through a misunderstanding or a lie. Finally, the gaze softened, and he also raised his head in agreement.

Melarbeth gave him a watery smile. The younger ellon's cheeks were already as wet as his aunt's. Manpalan, however, instead of meeting his gaze had his head bent down not looking at him at all, but into the grave. Then, he removed his cloak. "I suppose this makes them kin then."

He lowered it over their faces. Sarnhael would not now have to shovel sand directly onto them. Lastanan and Ranthalion then removed their cloaks as well, Lastanan covered the dead's bellies and thighs with his. Ranthalion laid his cloak over their legs and feet. Melarbeth approached the living Noldo among them and threw his cloak over Sarnhael's shoulders. "Here, my master in stone-crafting and brother in heart. Grief can make one less aware of their surroundings. Better then, any danger should also be as blind to you as possible as you grieve your kin on the way back to the river we search through and cave we use to make weapons for our people."

Sarnhael lowered his face into his hands and wept.

…

When Sarnharl's tears had ceased and he had the will to complete his task, his brothers' burial became a complicated affair. They started with covering the already cloak-covered bodies with layer of sand about a long finger-length's deep. They followed this with a layer of silt equally deep. Into this they placed larger rocks with jagged edges pointed up toward any that might try to unearth the interred remains. Over this, they added an even thicker layer of sand. Sarnhael then backed away as the Green elves tried to make this final layer blend in as much as possible to the canyon floor.

Lathwinn finally backed away staring down at their work. "Now hopefully any orc or other dark thing corrupted by Morgoth will pass right over them never imagining they lay here."

"It is not enough."

The wood elves turned their heads to see Sarnhael staring up at the nearest lip of the canyon on which stood a boulder. Soon, all these elves stood behind it. Sarnhael though stared sadly without movement. "I wish … though I do not want them found, there was someway I could mark their place, show unlike the fading elves who came to your lands before me, those who buried them knew their names …"

Melarbeth then reached into the bag he wore from which he had been bringing forth food and instead brought out a hammer and chisel. He held them out to the one who taught him to use them with a sad smile. "Will this help?"

Sarnhael stared while Ranthalion's brows shot up and voice rose. "Why did you bring those weights on this journey?"

Melarbeth shrugged. "I know I am never the fastest nor the best fighter among you, but as long as I could keep all of you on sight on the way after we kept our aunt and sister from angering the Noldo of the north, I thought I might get practice in decorating stones on our way back."

Ranthalion scowled, Manpalan stared, and Lastanan frowned, but Sarnhael gently took the tools he had once given his apprentice saying, "Thank you, my student."

Melarbeth and Sarnin watched him carve his brothers' names into the boulder while the more warrior like Laiquendi began gathering the orc bodies in the other canyon. He worked till sunset and when he was finished, the other elves gathered back to him to shove the boulder first to and then over the cliff edge. The Laiquendi watched in amazement as it landed so the side with his brother's names carved into it landed right over the graves hidden on the bottom where it would rest perhaps till the world was remade.

Ranthalion found his voice first. "What good is it then that their names are then when none will see them?"

Lastanan spoke before Sarnhael could answer, "Better they be carved and hidden than let any foul thing know the bodies belonging with those names lie beneath that boulder."

Melarbeth turned his gaze upon his teacher. He had attempted at times, before they returned, to draw his older siblings forms and faces in dust, when he thought no one was watching. He had wanted to make them more real to himself those whom everyone remembered in his land, but him, who were also his kin. It seemed not strange to him that Sarnhael needed to prove his brother's names were remembered at the place he left them if only to them, Manwe who might be watching over the sea, and himself. Melarbeth raised his eyes to the sky. Beyond the circles of the world the one who made it sat enthroned there knew and remembered all things, but when He would share all these things or if no one knew.

Lastanan spoke, "Come let's bury the other dead and go. We have lingered too long already."

…

With rope and their own arms, they pulled orc body after orc body out of the canyon. The horses they piled rocks upon within it. The labor lasted another two days and their supplies ran short.

Manpalan looked to his brothers during one moment of rest and said, "I'm surprised no other Noldo have come searching for their lost warriors."

Lathwinn shook her head and answered. "From the way the youngest was running hard and fast so far ahead, they were not where they were supposed to be."

Sarnin then looked to her niece. "Then why did the orcs gather here?"

Lathwinn looked at the pile of vile corpses and shook her head. "They may have been waiting for someone else, who perhaps upon hearing the fighting and smelling the blood wisely turned and went another way."

Ranthalion crossed his arms and scowled. "Cowards they would have been then to not join us while we ended a threat to them!"

Lathwinn shook her head. "They may not have known, if they were also Noldo, that it was their own being slaughtered here. Orc bands often kill their own. We were so outnumbered, and the horses so quickly killed, from far away the chaos may have simply sounded like orcs killing one another."

Sarnin stared off into the distance. "So, we may have saved some lives after all …"

Sarnhael continued gathering stones in silence.

Finally, the horses and orcs were covered in stones and the elves had gathered around the last cairn to say their pieces for such occasions as on the day soon after Sarnhael first met them. Lathwinn began as always.

"May the Creator of all know we did not destroy these, his creations, for out own gain, but only for our protection and that of his other creatures."

After she spoke these words, the elleth's kin said, "May it be."

Then Lastanan spoke, "May we all remember well the task our Creator gave us beneath the stars at the beginning of our days as his free people."

The others including Lathwinn answered, "May it be."

Ranthalion intoned with a solemn voice, "May we all ever protect each other, our trees, and both birds as well as beasts."

"May it be."

Melarbeth went on, "May we not let grief or its possibility stop us from doing what is right."

"May it be."

Sarnin then spoke, but her voice wavered and Sarnhael silent till now turned his gaze upon her his face going lax in surprise to see her face so wet with tears, "May we never forget compassion even as we protect creatures from one another."

And Manpalan finished "And may we see our Creator's joy if indeed everything is to be renewed in time."

And then the elves besides Sarnhael and Sarnin began their long walk away and back home. Their food supplies were running short and they hoped to reach a place with both water and edible plants by the end of the day, but Sarnin lingered staring into the Noldo's eyes, who watched her in return. Her voice was soft and broken as the ancient elleth began, "If I had not set out without speaking to you, your brothers might still be alive."

Sarnhael bowed his head, sighed, and shook it. "I refused to either seek out or send word to them over all the years I've spent with you and your kin even when the opportunity came to me. They might still be alive had I done so. Besides, though I hate to speak it to you and your kin now, I still believe Morgoth will not stop until all Arda has burned. In the future there is nothing but ashes for us who remain here. I am glad they will at least be spared seeing that."

He turned his gaze back to the elleth with a wet face and soft eyes. He gave her a broken smile from his scarred face. "I know what it is you want from me gentle elleth, but if my heart was too hard to love you as you deserved before, it is too torn now. I have lost five I loved today and am reminded the price of loving on these shores. My heart shies away then even without thought from the worse pain of seeing one I have loved as you wish me to love you, meet an even worse fate in the future."

Sarnin bowed her head and stared at the ground in though before a small smile graced her lips. "And if we meet again on the other shore?"

Sarnhael remained silent a long time. "Would not your kin rebel against the union even on those peaceful shores if I make you wait so long gentle elleth?"

Sarnin shrugged her shoulders. "We can only find out then." And she turned and walked after her kin, but Sarnhael turned his head to look one more time at the canyon where he had buried his past before following them.

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes