Athrana (Wandering Shadow)
Chapter 30- Sneaking In
TA3019, February
Erestor sat bolt upright. He had slept very little and very lightly. Every small sound had woken him, but this sound was familiar. This sound he had heard before. It was the click of Athriel's balcony door closing. Without thinking he went to see what was going on.
Athrana, having pulled the balcony door closed, stood for a couple of seconds to compose herself. That was a stupid thing to do, a really stupid thing to do. What did it mean that she couldn't live without the hunt? She couldn't even last a couple of days without their blood on her hands.
"Athriel?" Erestor lit a candle from his own before turning to look at his sister. "What are you doing?" She was standing there with that thick black cloak wrapped around her, the hood pulled up to hide her face. His eyes went wide. "No!" He stormed forward grabbing her shoulder. "No! You're not leaving! You can't do this to me again!" As he grabbed her the hood fell back and he gasped. "I wasn't leaving Erestor" She said storming off towards the bathroom to wash her face. Erestor closed his eyes but he could still see it, the horrible smear of blood across her mouth.
TA 138
Erestor stormed through the corridors. He had been searching for Athriel for over an hour. The first place he had looked had been Glorfindel's room. That was where she usually went when he was upset with her. Next he had tried the twins, but they hadn't seen her all afternoon. Now he was on his way to the kitchens. He hadn't meant to get so angry with her. He still wasn't used to looking after a small elfling, she was only 7 and sometimes he lost his temper with her. He knew she hadn't meant any harm. But when he saw what she had done to the book he had lost control. He shouldn't have yelled at her.
Finally he peered around the doorframe and smiled. There was Athriel sitting on Glorfindel's lap shoving handfuls of blackberry pie into her mouth while the great slayer laughed. Erestor cleared his throat standing with his hands on his hips and his eyebrow raised. "There you are" Athriel gulped. "Hello Restor. Are you still angry with me?" He sighed shaking his head. "Of course I'm not Riel. Come here" She smiled jumping down from Glorfindel's lap and running towards her brother. He lifted her up ignoring her sticky fingers as she through her arms around her neck. "Let's go and get you cleaned up" He said seeing the smear of blackberry all around her mouth.
Erestor could hear the water running in the bathroom and sighed. The smear he had seen a moment ago hadn't been blackberry or anything half as pleasant. He looked up as Athriel walked out of the bathroom drying her hands. He asked the question even though he didn't want to hear the answer. "What were you doing?" She sat down avoiding his gaze. "Hunting" But Erestor needed more of an explanation than that. "Define hunting?" he said his voice falling back to a time when she was a child. "I... Sometimes... Orcs, I was hunting orcs. I can feel them Erestor, whenever they come close. And when I see them, I... I" she couldn't finish. It was difficult enough to admit it to herself, but here in her old room trying to explain it all to her brother made it feel so much worse.
She looked up trying to gage her reaction. "Restor? Are you angry with me?" Oh how he wished it had been blackberry. "No Riel, I'm not angry. We'll figure this out" He couldn't really lift her up anymore so he settled for a hug. First thing in the morning he was going to take Athriel to see Elrond and then the three of them were going to have a very long talk.