Am hugely sorry this took so long. *appologises proufesly*. On the other hand, many thanks to Melody-chii for sending me helpful links for my essay. My vague attempt at an excuse would be the fact i managed to chip the bone in my right fore-finger (i'm right handed) and that injury is rather a bugger. Whoops
Oh, quick note for anyone wondering about the accuracy to the Silmarillion (since i seemed destined not to get round to actually answering the reviews in question) this story was written in about 3 days over the space of a weekend when i had no source available to me, just what i could remember so it may wander a bit from exactly what Tolkein wrote unfortunately.
Wrath's Recompense 6
Riona wasn't at lunch, neither was she at dinner. By the evening, Eönwë was beginning to get a little worried. Eventually, when the sun was long set, she appeared from the direction of the Healers, looking exhausted. Without a word, she scooped a drowsing Daffyd up in her arms. One of the generals asked if she was going to eat, pointing at the food pot to tell her what he was asking.
With a short shake of her head and an indication in the direction of the Healers, she turned and went into her tent. Nothing was seen of her for the rest of the night.
The next day went similarly, Riona being gone by the time everyone else rose and not being back till late, when she was obviously ready to sleep. On the third day of this behaviour, Finarfin followed her to the tent, but exited almost immediately, reporting that she'd already fallen asleep.
The next day, Finarfin said he had something to do once he finished breakfast only to return over an hour later looking disturbed.
On the fifth day, Eönwë woke to Finarfin in the main area of his tent looking singularly pissed off. The Maia raised his eyebrows, wondering what had happened to anger the Noldor King as such that he apparently had to deal with it.
"What did you do to her?" Finarfin snapped. The delicately raised eyebrow shot into his hair line. "What did you do to Riona to hurt her so badly?"
"Pardon? I don't believe I understand what you're talking about, My Lord Finarfin." The tone was slightly icy; what made Finarfin blame him for Riona's peculiar behaviour?
"The Healers say she's been appearing at first light, working till lunch time, eating tiny amounts and then carrying on until they throw her out because of exhaustion. Everyone can see she's vastly unhappy, she's making herself sick with her unhappiness and you are the only person who could have made her so. As if that wasn't enough, it's clear Daffyd saw whatever you did from the way he's suddenly taken to glaring at you and avoiding you, even though until recently he was very fond of you and that change coincidently coincided with Riona's sudden bout of sadness. So what in Angband did you do to her?"
Eönwë crossed his arms and glared at the Noldor. Finarfin glared back. As they stood eyeballing each other, Eönwë's mind went back to that night. Obviously she hadn't just forgotten about it, like what was sensible. The guilt must have shown on his face somewhere because Finarfin raised an eyebrow at him. Realising that for once he was beaten, Eönwë sat down with a sigh and gestured for Finarfin to join him.
Not a flicker showed on the King's face as he explained what had happened. Eventually, he stopped and looked up at the King, an uncharacteristic slump in his shoulders. After another staring-match, Finarfin's jaw twitched as he sighed.
"You're an absolute idiot, you do know that?" Eönwë jaw dropped in surprise – no one had ever said that to him before. "You are an absolute, complete and utter, total idiot! You are about the only person who can't tell that she's in love with you. When she's vulnerable and needs you most, you go and push her away all but telling her you reject her! You complete idiot! If she were an Elf she'd be fading right now!"
Eönwë paled. He knew (from many hints off several people) that she was fond of him, but in love? She loved him?
Finarfin got up sharply.
"I don't know about you right now, but I'm quite fond of the girl and you better try and repair the damage you've done. If she dies from grief because of you, I don't care who you are, when this War is over I'll cut you to ribbons. Am I clear?" With a sharp glare at the Maia's pale face, Finarfin turned and stormed out of the tent.
XXX
Finarfin went to find the Head Healer, noticing in passing that Riona was working on the other side of the tent, pale-faced, wan and clearly losing weight. When he found the Healer, and mentioned Riona, the Elf's face was a mask of worry.
"I don't know what has happened, my Lord, but if she were an Elf, I'd say she is fading." He stopped at the unelven-like snort from his King.
"Close enough." Finarfin waved for the ellon to go on.
"We try and get her to eat, or go to her tent earlier, but we can only get her to go when she's too exhausted to resist. I and the rest of the Healers are getting very worried over her." Finarfin nodded.
"I thought that might be the case. I'm going to set a soldier to come retrieve her before lunch and around dinner time and bring her to me, where I will force her to eat and rest. I can't do much about what is hurting her, but I can at least make sure she looks after herself until she either gets over it or it is sorted out." The Healer looked a little relieved that someone in authority was going to look after the girl.
XXX
With a soldier to ensure that she came and ate with them, Riona was actually back at a sensible time, though she looked absolutely terrible. Despite all efforts on Finarfin's part, she mostly prodded the food round the plate and fed it to Daffyd, who was more than willing to eat whatever she gave him, just happy to have his aunt back to look after him.
Throughout the meal, Eönwë didn't say a word, though his eyes rarely left the one female present. Her eye never met his, though. The looks on the other generals' faces implied that they had worked out who had caused her pain.
As soon as the food was gone from her plate, she fled into her tent. Everyone turned to look at Eönwë, who shot up from his seat and stormed off.
XXX
Eönwë threw himself into battle exercise at the training field, not noticing how his ferocity scared more than one of the soldiers. It was rare for him to get angry, but he was now. He was angry at himself for hurting Riona; angry that Finarfin was the one comforting her; angry that he was scared to go to her himself and try and take the pain away; angry for not having noticed her feelings because in retrospect, it was perfectly obvious; angry for the jealousy he felt when instead of taking her normal spot, she had chosen to sit by Finarfin.
Why should he be jealous of a married Elf? Why should he be angry that someone else was receiving Riona's affection instead of him? He didn't like this rush of emotion he felt and all of them because of one woman he couldn't even talk to...
He remembered hearing someone or other saying actions spoke louder than words; well actions were the only option here anyway. He finished beating up his current opponents (he'd had a several on one match, none of the men willing to meet him on their own when he was in such a bad mood) and stormed off, thinking what action he could take to make her a little happier.
In his wanderings, he found himself in an area outside camp boundaries. He looked around, vaguely wondering how he'd got there – he must have been walking for a long time. Suddenly inspiration struck – there were flowers growing here. Didn't men sometimes give women presents to make them happy? Carefully, and whispering a prayer to Yavanna as well as thanking the plants, he picked some of the prettiest flowers and put them together into a bunch.
When he got back to his area of the camp, Riona had not yet returned for the next meal so he carefully slipped into her tent and placed the flowers on her bedroll before slipping out again and going back to what he was supposed to be doing.
XXX
That evening, when Riona entered the tent, he caught a near inaudible sound of pleasure. Only his powerful hearing allowed him to hear the noise, but he smile slightly that she seemed pleased with the gift.
For the first time since her nightmare, she joined them for breakfast the next morning, though she sat next to Finarfin again. Before she went off to the Healers, she hugged Daffyd and bestowed on him the tiniest of smiles. She must have known who they were from. As she went, he noticed one of the flowers tied into her hair and Eönwë smiled in pleasure.