I did a structural edit of the first chapter (lines and bold headline text) and added a note about the question I got, if the story is in canon or not. Simple answer: mostly. ;-)
Thanks, Erintii for your nice review. Some of the customs and rules of the Hethurim will follow in this and the next chapters. Some may change later on.
*Chapter 2: A long way*
Year of the Trees: 1110, far eastward from Cuiviénen
The land laid in darkness, like all lands of Arda in the long Sleep of Yavanna, except those lands enlighten by the Two Trees. It had been changed in early wars against Melkor, when he made fiery volcanoes and hot deserts. But now many of these things had been remade. Only a deep sinkhole in a mountain, with a hot surface remained from Melkors 'design'.
Ulmo thought this land could be a good place for those in his care, but there was only one thing left he had to correct. This crater in the mountain had to be more suitable for the Elves. Therefore he used his powers and withdrew some water of Cuiviénen and poured it in the crater.
After a while the surface got colder and a lake inside the sinkhole was formed by the arts of Ulmo. Not as cold as other lakes in high mountains. The water was warm, but not too hot – at least there was no danger left of Melkors intrusion.
Ulmo smiled at his work. Now he had a place where they could dwell and still have the same power they knew from the water of Cuiviénen. Around the mountain laid great woods and plains. Some rivers flow to a near river-delta and into a huge sea.
Now he only had to guide them to this place.
Year of the Trees: 1110, a woodland eastward from Cuiviénen
To feed themselves they already learned decades ago at Cuiviénen, how to hunt and fish and to collect fruits. But in the Sleeping of Yavanna it was not easy to find enough food, so the search for food often slowed them down. Nevertheless they travelled much faster east than the Eldar in the opposite direction.
While they still travelled, Dúamarth tried to count the coming and going of the stars. Some of them seemed to stay in the same constellation, but others moved through this constellation. The Înelin*(1) they called their system of counting the coming and going of the stars.
They had only travelled some of the shorter star-circles, when one of the travellers was missed. Morwë was the first how realized it. "Where is Erredil?" he asked the people around him, but no one had seen her. So they stopped and searched for her, but she was nowhere near.
With a heavy heart they continued their journey.
Môrhîr was not only worried about Erredil, but also for his brother. Morwë had been growing found of Erredil, like Môrhîr did towards Ôldî. Because of their low number of Quendi and an imbalanced gender relation they had only few males and too much females in their group. Twenty-eight they had been and nine turned back from the other hosts before they decided to go to the east. In this group of thirty-seven Elves was split in only fourteen male and twenty-three females. Of this few people tree had been lost, Erredil, Erynor and Núron. Erynor and Núron disappeared only a few star-circles after Erredil.
After some star-circles more a few of the other females started to get closer to Morwë, but he rejected them all. It seemed natural to them to bind together, one male and one female. Even so Morwë had not bounded to Erredil yet, his heart told him to take no other. To watch Môrhîr and Ôldî getting closer every short star-circle was not easy for him, but he wasn't envious. He just dreamed about Erredil and hoped she would find back to them soon.
Hithiriel and Dúamarth took no part in the 'besiegement' of Morwë. Hithiriel thoughts still lingered with her lost love, which had gone to the west joining the host of Elwë. Dúamarth was always so busy to watch the stars or to make words and songs; she simply seemed to have no time left for a male partner.
Nurwë as a male elf was surrounded by the most of the other single women. But he made no choice jet; even so he was talking to them and was not so defensive like Morwë.
Still their journey continued and they evolved. They started to make new laws, like their council sessions. Everyone had the right to speak or to make a proposal and all of them decided together. Sometimes they decided who would lead a smaller group of them, but the leaders changed from time to time. After a while they realized some are better leaders through the wild than others, but the decision laid always by all. So they developed a kind of pure democracy in there early years, which seemed to work very well since their number was still small.
Year of the Trees: 1110, Máhanaxar, Valmar
In Valinor the Valar gathered to talk about the first lost Elves, especially the first dead which had come to the Halls of Mandos by now. It seemed unfair to them, which short live they had and because there was nothing they had done wrong in this short life. Manwë was gracious to give them a new body and a new life very soon. The question causing some dissent on this issue was where they should live from now on.
The simplest way seemed to restore their bodies and let them live in Valinor. But without other Elves those few may feel lonely. Therefore some spoke to restore them after the Eldar had arrived. Others implied to send them back to their friends.
Long they talked and no decision was made, until Irmo asked what those fëar want. Now Námo, who had asked the sixteen guests of his halls before, told the answers to the other keepers of Arda. Obviously the Elves disagreed in this point, too. While twelve of them linked the idea of going back and dwell among their friend again, four didn't want to have a hröa again (at least not in near future), for they had endured much torture in the hands of Mekors spies or Mekor himself.
Nienna and Estë tried to describe how difficult the healing of this torment was and how slow the progress. This four fëar, namely Estelmist, Erredil, Míriel*(2) and Núron, seemed to refuse healing nearly at all up to now. Námo and Nienna reasoned to give them more time, but in the end of this long meeting, most of the Valar and Manwë decided that all sixteen should go back.
To prevent all of them from their memory of bad experiences with Melkor and his followers and to give new hope to the four tormented souls, all of their memory would be erased, either from the beginning of the torment or from their death. They simply would wake up in a new hröa near the host, they followed before.
This decision seemed wise at this time and so all of this sixteen had been reborn and secretly send back.
Year of the Trees: 1110, a woodland eastward from Cuiviénen
Morwë started to count the circles of the stars like Dúamarth told him. Seventy-eight had passed since Erredil disappeared. He still felt lost without her and often walked alone to the wild, while the others camped or searched for food. He was sitting on a big stone at a river-bank, when he suddenly heard a cry for help.
As he stood up and tried to find the direction of the sound, Morwë thought for a moment it sounded like Erredil. But how should that be possible? She was gone, lost, like her name, which seemed so fitting to her, for she lost her way many times before. Morwë suppressed his thought and followed the cries.
She was standing in the river, not far from the stone where Morwë had been shortly before. At the bank of the river was a lone wolf. The beast was thin and looked ill. Obviously it saw an easy prey in the elfish woman, but was unsure to jump into the stream. Morwë picked up some stones and threw them at the beast. The sick wolf realized he wasn't in charge anymore and retreated slowly. After some more stones the wolf run away.
Still surprised Morwë stood at the bank and helped Erredil out of the water. She was shivering, because of the cold water but not harmed. "Where have you been?" he asked her softly and took her into his arms.
"Lost" was all that she replied. She knew her name, knew everything about her days in Cuiviénen, all about the start of their journey east, but nothing else. Erredil claimed to have woken up shortly before, alone, not knowing about her surroundings, when the wolf hunted her.
Even after Morwë took her back to the camp, she was not able to tell him, where she had been for so long. Surprisingly one of the hunting-troops found the two of the other missing persons that day, Núron and Erynor. They too could not remember where they had been for so long, but like Erredil they were glad to be back with their people. Morwë was glad to have Erredil back and they grew very fond of each other.
Notes:
hröa= body
fëa = soul; fëar = souls
new characters or Hethu-words:
Estelmist = Lost Hope
Erredil = Without a Path
Núron = Sad Male
Erynor = Wood-men
Înelin = calender of the stars*
*(1) What Dúamarth and the others count is nearly like our days and sun-years. Only, they have no sun to count the days.
In our astronomical world: If you could see what is behind the sun, you would discover that the sun seems to move through the stars, because the earth is turning around the sun in one year. The 'path' of the sun is the ecliptic, where our zodiac lies. Of cause the sun isn't moving itself. The planets are moving around the sun. Mercury and Venus as planets within the earth's orbit only circle around the sun (from our point of few) in a flat path. That's why we only see them left to the sun (in dusk and early night) or right to the sun (late night and dawn). Because of the turning of the Erath around its axis per day, the stars likewise seem to turn around us in a day.
Translated to Arda without a sun: The stars are moving around Arda once a 'day' and once a year. Elemmírë is equal to Mecury! Without a sun, Elemmírë makes flat circles around a center (where the Maia Arien in later times will ship around with Anar (sun)). This center is of cause moving thru the stars and after approximate 365 ¼ 'days' the center is again in the same astronomical sign.
'My' Elves are counting:
- A short star-circle is nearly a sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.0916 seconds).
- A long star-circle is a year, with 366 short star-circles (until the middle of Elemmírës path is in the same sign again).
- An Engthîn is the sixth part of a year or 61 short star-circles (this will be used later on).
Belief me, after seventeen years as a projectionist in a planetarium and planetarium program designer, I think I know what they count. ;-)
*(2)Míriel: Yes, this Míriel is Fëanors mum. While I constructed a reason for Erredils and Núrons later behavior, I thought, this might be a good reason for Míriels decisions, too. She and Estelmist will not appear in this story until near the end. They are just mentioned at this point of the story.