Amras grimaced as he pushed the Telerin girl through the door, and into his room. Then he led her to the bed and sat her down on it, cautiously stepping back in case she decided to make use of the sword hanging from his wooden chair and vanquish him with one cut to the jugular. He pulled a chair over and sat down himself, facing her and scrutinizing her expression. Was she planning to kill him or make him kill himself with all of the guilt?

"What is your name?" he asked, as he flipped open a bag of clothing and pulled a tunic out. He doubted that the maiden would fit in one of his pants, so he simply tossed the tunic to her. She caught it with a speculating look in her depressingly grey eyes, and responded.

"I am not telling you."

He stood up, turned around, and almost sighed in frustration as he bent down and picked up another tunic. "Alright. Have it your way." Then he promptly raised the hem of his shirt and prepared to change when a startled and horrified voice stopped him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, covering any view of Amras with the tunic he gave her.

He snorted. "You can't expect me to simply walk about the ship with my clothing dripping wet. It will look suspicious."

"I don't expect you to reveal yourself in front of me either!" For one with a grey head, a calm color, she was quite passionate about her views. "Why can't you just...go outside and change or something?"

"Or you could just shut your eyes!"

And then he cursed to himself as he realized how loud they were, and he dropped the tunic, dropped his hem, and went over to her, clapping a hand over her mouth.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

Two hours later with a change of tunic and slightly dried pants, Amras felt the urge to get fresh air, and the Telerin maiden was making the atmosphere extremely uncomfortable, with that piercing stare of hers. It was as if she wished to burn a hole through his head, or simply threaten him with silence until he slew himself on the spot, staining the very furniture that the Teleri prided themselves in carving. He had to admit - the Teleri were talented in craft as well, and the ships were nicely built. It was too bad that he couldn't compliment them on it now without taking a stone to the head.

"Hey, Amrod, has Father come out of his room yet?" Curufin asked, pacing around the deck as Amras emerged from the stairway.

Amrod shook his head and combed back several tendrils of long, copper-colored hair with his fingers. "No - he refused to emerge earlier, but I think he's just exhausted. It's been one day since...you know...it happened. I wonder when we will be able to meet up with Uncle Fingolfin's host."

"Considering how Father took off with the ships, I would reckon that he has no intention of going back to retrieve our uncle's host," Amras put in, stepping forward from the shadows with a weary look on his face. "But I am not sure."

Maglor, sitting near the bowspirit of the ship, where the mermaid on the hull extended a long pike from her forehead, sighed at Amras's slight pessimism. "Since when did you become so...cynical, Amras?"

"When I killed that Telerin girl and her husband."

He blinked. "Toron..."

Oh, Amras knew that Maglor had regretted the killing of the Teleri as soon as Father pulled out his sword. But, as second-oldest, he was to set an example for his younger brothers, and Amras knew that. He respected Maglor, and looked up to him as a guide. However, now, Amras wasn't sure of what he was pleading help for. Redemption? Recompense? He didn't even know anymore. Val - oh, wait, he was not allowed to bring their name into mention anymore. After all, he had revoked them.

He was starting to regret coming up here, and he turned around and went back down below the deck.

To his surprise, Amrod followed after him and stopped him just before he reached the bottom of the stairway, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"What is troubling you, Amras?"

Amras did not respond; his mind was vacillating between true and false, between reality and fantasy, between his life and the life of one in Mandos.

"You can tell me," Amrod told him softly.

"What is a good name for a girl?" Amras suddenly asked, deviating from the subject.

"What?"

"If I were to...have a pet, and it was female, what should I name her?"

Amrod stepped back, examined Amras, and stepped forward again. "Have you gone mad?"

"No. Just answer the question."

"Um... Well, I suggest Lithlaer."

"Are you mocking me?"

"No! Of course not. I would never - especially not after two days ago."

"Then suggest another name."

Amrod sighed inaudibly and closed his eyes. He couldn't figure out what was behind his twin's mind processes. "Well, you have to describe the pet's hypothetical personality. Then we can give her a suiting name. Is she stubborn? Fiery?"

"She's like a flame. But she's delicate. She burns so viciously, but she, supposedly, is young, gentle, and fragile."

"Then, I think you should name her Lachivren."

"It's settled, then."

"May I ask why you are thinking ahead to owning a pet?"

Amras smiled cryptically. "She can be someone that I could sleep next to...without having it to be awkward because we're both male, and we're brothers."

"Ah, those were good times," Amrod added.

Amras nodded and turned away, and Amrod did the same, in the other direction. They started to walk away from each other when Amras said, his voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you."

And he thought to himself, bitterly: Those were good times - but what becomes of now?

Quenya One Word:
toron: brother

Sindarin Names (Since I am using Sindarin names for this fiction):
Lithlaer - sand song (lith - laer)
Lachivren - flame of crystalline (lach - ivren)

Crackers, I am so dearly sorry that I didn't get cracking on this earlier. (No pun intended)
It was floating in my mind for a while now that I introduce Amrod. But I just didn't know how to start.
So...I hope this chapter is up to your expectations!

There may be some grammatical errors, but I have this bad habit in which I reread the story after it's published, revise one error, go back and read it again, and then find another error, and then go back and revise it and replace the chapter and all of that extremely difficult stuff when I could justread over the entire thing and look for errors first, and then deem it satisfactory and publish it. But I'm horribly lazy, so...revisions may not be until I actually see the error when it's published. Bad habit. I know.

Just wondering - did we ever decide on a name for mystery Telerin maiden?