Enjoy! I do not own the work of Professor or Christopher Tolkien.
Of House and Home
The long winter that fell over Beleriand was a time of great lamentation and suffering. Families were sundered and the soldiers who had marched so bravely under the banners of High King Fingon, of Maedhros son of Feanor, mortal and Eldar alike, and Turgon of Gondolin, returned no more to their families. The Siege of Angband was broken and the vigilance of the Eldar was scattered to the frigid winds. By the days of starvation and nights of frozen death were the hardiest of tribes daunted and diminished.
Following the death of his wife Feldra, the father of Tauran passed in haste with her to the house of a tribe of his kin in the lands bordering Ossiriand, near to where Feldra had intended to seek asylum. She had desired to enter the service of Caranthir the son of Feanor, who held the lands of Thargelion ere the Nirnaeth. But following the demise of the Union of Maedhros, he and his forces were scattered to the wind; but Feldra knew naught of this, or that he was now a hunter in the wild.
For the sake of his daughter so soon after the loss of Feldra her mother, Carthrong forbore his mistrust and hatred of strangers and dwelt there for the winter. He hunted with their men, labored where it was needed, and shared their food and fire. The kin was extensive, the house a sprawling thing low and broad, its walls made of thick timbers and covered in hides. But though it was a mean and savage place, the household and hearth saved the lives of Carthrong and his daughter. For a while, Carthrong endeavored to heal the rift between them, for Tauran had always loved Feldra better, and they found their relationship not as unloving as they had first thought. But the time of reconcile between father and daughter was cut shorter than it should have been.
Within that house was a maiden by the name of Midrella who soon caught Carthrong's eye. She was dusky and rotund; unlovely in the eyes of Tauran, who still remembered her fair mother. Midrella was impatient with Tauran's free-spirited ways, but she tolerated the child for the sake of Tauran's father. For although he was harsh with bitterness, Carthrong not past his prime, and he was kind to his child, and so Midrella set her intentions on him to wed. For her grief young Tauran was cheerless and unwilling to remind Carthrong of his wife with her presence, and was often seeking for her mother in the vastness of the forests, leaving Carthrong to be ensnared by Midrella while the winter lasted.
Midrella was yet young in the years of Men in that time, and her youth and laughter drew him near. As the winter passed their love grew prodigiously, and seeing his father with another woman and his mind turned from her, Tauran was grieved and ranged farther and farther afield from the house, but was often forced to return for the short and bitter days. But in this way did she collect news of moving companies, the shifting clouds and winds, and find a true home, for she despised the house of Midrella's kin. It was closed in and bereft of her mother. Moreover they were jealous of the house of Beor, and in face and form Tauran favored her mother's kin.
In the woods Tauran was comfortable to weep and laugh as she chose, often huddled near a frozen creek, watching the water that still pulsed under the skin of ice, and imagined it to be the lifeblood of the forest. Therein Tauran was kin to the tall sentinels and oaks and pines, who she felt watched her more diligently than the loveless house of Midrella, and was in truth.
There came a time at which Carthrong was among those to collect firewood for the gathering storms to the north. They were accompanied by Tauran, who wished for time with her father, having sensed his distance and could no longer bear their sundering, even for her footloose ways. Tauran had but to smile for her father, and she was indulged, and even given a small knife by a brother of Midrella in a moment of pity for the child, who displayed ever but silence and sullen frowns. Overjoyed, she led the men deep into the forest at her father's command. Misunderstanding the purpose of axes, believing them to be for wild animals that might attack, she was horrified to see them set upon the trees.
Weeping and outraged as only a child can be, she begged for the men to cease their felling. In her loneliness Tauran had given the trees names and knew their voices; to her as living friends in the winter landscape and she felt every blow. They screamed for only her to hear. Tauran flung herself across the greatest tree in the dell. "Please!" begged she in her little voice, "donna hurt her! She is Mother, and you are Father! You shouldna hurt each other!" The oak was named for her mother, hoping beyond hope that she would meet Feldra under its eaves. Furious and ashamed, for Carthrong now also saw Feldra in the tree, in the strength of its gray-brown trunk and wide-encompassing branches, like her arms lifted to the sky, he thrust his child aside and set upon the oak as one in madness, and the men of the house joined him.
Hysterical, Tauran fled from the men she now deemed evil, and hid herself, for she was not yet five and small, swift even in snows, and knew how to ascend trees, or which roots to burrow into. In haste the men departed with the wood, intending to send the women to seek the child and whilst they finished their chore. It was Carthrong who proposed this, for he knew that Tauran would not be found ere she wished, and hoped that the gentleness of the women would coax his daughter back. In his blindness he did not see the jealousy with which Midrella watched Tauran, who was fair and free, and poisoning her kinswomen against her. He saw only that they gave her food, clothes, and when Tauran wished it and Midrella was in a kind mood, would brush her wild hair, which was near to black like her mother's.
Fearful of being caught in the snow, Tauran at last ventured from her hiding place at dusk, and set out to seek a small cave she knew of that she had filled with blankets spirited from the house and such fire-tools even a child could wield. There were even provisions set by of hard meats and a skin of water. In their journey until coming to the house of Midrella, Carthrong taught his daughter as best he could how to survive in the woods. Together they had searched for roots and berries to devour, though Carthrong was forced to hunt alone, and disguise the meat, or else upset Tauran.
As familiar as Tauran was in the woods, she was so in vague trails, as she was cautious in the winter-choked land. From the odd beginning point, and being caught in the dark of nightfall, she lost her way, and it began to snow.
Though reluctant to have the willful child back under their roof, the women did not tarry in seeking for Tauran. From the clearing made by their men, the women sought for Tauran with lanterns and loud voices, calling the name of her father's choice, which Tauran never responded to, fanning out in solitude or in pairs. But one among them noticed Tauran's small tracks, and said nothing. In her heart she repented this, and did forever, but her lust for Carthrong and dislike for Tauran burned hotly in her, and so Midrella was silent and veiled her lantern. The very forest around her then became threatening and cruel, and was ever after; for the memory of trees are long; and wherever she stepped seemed treacherous and slick, and the shadows deeper, concealing phantoms of her guilt. Midrella had never loved the woods, and for all her life sensed herself unwelcome beneath the eaves. She soon turned aside, therefore, and returned to her family.
And thus that night the women found Tauran not, for Midrella still said nothing. They were forced to turn back with the coming fury of the storm, which they could risk no longer, or else become lost themselves. The woods never forgot, nor forgave, those who abandoned its beloved wanderer to the cruelties of the cold.
Alone and ill-prepared for a long trek in the falling ice, Tauran sought dearly for her last hope. She floundered, up to her ankles in the numbing snow, but she pushed on, and did not hate the harshness of the land. She knew it bore her no ill will, and was as it was, and no helping for it. Tauran, as she weakened and grew colder, loved all the more the trees and even the snow. Since her mother's death Tauran had only known dismissal and irritation, save for her brief time with her father and being in the woods that were filled with the cold-softened sounds. The forest and its dim life was encompassing her, enfolding her, whispering for her to remain there, embraced by the elements until they melded into one, as child cradled in womb. But for all her sorrow and weariness, the Forest Wanderer knew to continue on, or else perish. Only in her heart did she know this, for Tauran did not yet comprehend death in its fullness.
At last the glow of a fire drew Tauran to her cave. Dim and slender was the beam that drew her near, and hope and apprehension filled her, thinking that her father or one of Midrella's kinsmen had found her haven, but it was not so. Green Elves of the Land of the Seven Rivers were come to mark the advance of Men into their lands, for they were the fellers of trees and slayers of beasts, and were their un-friends*, and had taken shelter for night. Great was their puzzlement and displeasure at finding Tauran's blankets and fire-tools, especially the child's doll that Tauran did not trust to keep in the homestead of her distant kin. Intending to burn them, the things were set aside, but partook in the foodstuffs. The things were soon forgotten as the Elves drank their summer wines and sang. From without Tauran was not marked, though she staggered with great difficulty up the covered hill and iced foliage, for the firelight blinded the Elves to the dark, and they were merry. But as she crossed the threshold that was concealed with a stiff screen of iced vines, and was within lined with Elven-cloth, Tauran was confronted.
The leader, robed in green, stood. He spoke first in the Silvan tongue, but seeing her uncomprehending, he spoke the language common to Men in that region. "Why do you come here? Child of Man, I bid you to speak!" An Elf-maid of his company bade him to be kind; she could see that Tauran was near death with cold, and many pitied her, and were alarmed at the signs of sorrow writ across her face. "I flee the cold and bad monsters," Tauran replied, "an' I knew of this place. Why do you come here? Are you of the Eldar? My mother spoke of you." Wonder filled Tauran despite her weakened state. The Elves were fair and lively in their faces, but subdued before a mortal, although she was but a child. Her talk of monsters set them more ill at ease, for they feared that she had brought a pack of Orcs behind her, who perhaps was hunting her for sport.
Drawing the little child nearer to the fire and enshrouding her with Tauran's rude blankets that had been destined for the blaze, the Elf-maid, sister to the leader and full of kindness, inquired as to why Tauran was out so. "Where is thy mother, or thy father, and why do you wander so far in this cold, thou little tauran?" She spoke not out of knowledge but observation, for the Elves had marked her from afar, walking so often to and fro under the trees, but Tauran burst into tears to hear her true name, and would say no more on the matter of her past. She wished to conceal from those beautiful people her suffering, thinking that they would reject her should they know that others did so. Or that her mother was lost, and Tauran thought it her own fault for leaving her as she did in the pines. These thoughts she clenched in her heart as one holds a fist, and the Elves could not read her mind.
But Tauran could not wallow in sorrow overlong, and was soon questioning the Elves on everything she could think of. In a fury her childhood curiosity burst forth and could not be contained: "How do ye all live in the trees? Is it wonderful beyond anything? Do you truly sing the trees to life? They live, yes, just beyond our hearing, but do they walk and speak as stories tell?"
That night the feelings of those Green-Elves were softened towards Men, or the children of Men, at least, for Tauran was merry, her normal temperament, and resembled an Elf-child of their own people. They fed her their own food and drink to ease her hunger and cold, taught her a song in their Silvan tongue, and arrayed her in an Elven-cloak in token of friendship. As she slept, they sang around her in their sweet voices. Beyond the barriers of the cave the wind howled as a hungry thing, furious to be deprived of child-flesh, for Morgoth's power in wielding cold stretched far in that winter and claimed many lives, even among those who served him. The Elves knew this, and did not fear a night-rape by Orcs that night, all the more for the little presence at their side.
*This is a direct quotation from The Silmarillion. Green-Elves hate humans for all the same reasons Tauran does.
Also, I'd like to point out that I'm not trying to bash on curvy or dark women here. Midrella is of the race of the Easterlings that came over the mountains after the three houses of Elf-Friends were settled, and they would typically look like Hispanic or Indian people. In Tolkien's work, the "good" people were described to be possessed of more Anglo-Saxon qualities. In other words: the whiter, the nicer. Bleh. I don't want to propagate racism or that Tauran is a victim just because she's white, but Tolkien was working under the intention of creating a set of stories strictly for England, and worked with that ethnicity. As I am working in a more conservative Tolkien universe, the behavior of Midrella the Thirsty and her family are what I deem canon. And as to my other point, Tauran is moody and standoff-ish after the death/disappearance of her mother, and in several places that the people of Beor settled, the Easterlings wanted. It's a lot of territorial disputes that cause their rifts.