Kids will say the darnest things.
2. A Walk in the Woods
Just a bit more… and hopefully we could get our bearings in this damned wood. I tried to ignore the ominous creak underfoot. Big mistake.
With a loud snap, the branch I was standing on gave and I was crashing down to earth. I landed with a heavy thud flat on my back. I cussed Lord Namo and his dead trees roundly in both Quenya and Sindarin. It bloody hurt despite the fact that I was already dead. Two pairs of bright blue eyes were staring down at me.
"You said a bad word- Mirwen will make us wash our mouths with soap if we spoke like that," one twin blurted in horror. Elurin perhaps? I could never tell them apart.
"Are you hurt bad?" the other asked. I rubbed my back as I sat up. The pain was fading rapidly. The semblance of a hroa we wore here in the Halls are nowhere like the real thing in terms of sensation. The colours seemed more muted, the distant sounds muffled.
"Who's Mirwen?" I asked. The twins had been reluctant to let me climb up the trees. They claimed they sensed the trees did not give their approval. I was no wood-elf but I knew these trees were dead and hence incapable of giving their consent. As a Noldor, I had little dealings with trees even though I do read them as part of my tracking. If they were like Curvo or Moryo, they would be gloating over my less-than-dignified straits. I told you so, Curvo would smirk, just like he did when I burned my hand picking up a piece of a metal alloy he had been working on in the forge.
"She was our nurse…" Elured or Elurin sniffled. "Big mean elf hurt her with sword when we ran. She fall down and stopped moving. Then big elf tried to hurt us…" Great, I was going to hear how one of our men, or even one of my brothers slaughtered two little ones. Strange, the notion had not bothered me so much when we marched on Doriath.
"A tall elf with red hair stopped him," Elurin continued – or was it Elured?
"He got only one hand," hid twin added. Maedhros. I was not surprised he would interfere thus.
"We got locked inside a cupboard and cannot get out."
"After the scary noises stop, two other elves came to take us out. They take us into the forest and say they will kill us if we go back…" Elured or Elurin added as he studied the bloodied and rent Feanorion star on Celegorm's chest. "Are you going to kill us when we get back home, like the nasty elves said? They have star just like you!"
"No, no one's going to kill you," I groaned inwardly. "Tell me about the nasty elves – I will punish them."
"One has a missing ear… and a scary scar on his cheek." My faithful captain Borvon.
"The other has only three fingers on his right hand. I saw when he grab me."
Maegron had lost those fingers defending me from an orc scimitar in the Battle under the Stars. I hope Maedhros' mercy extended to sparing their lives, or they would be joining us in the Halls before long. Maglor had confided in me that since the disaster of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, our big brother has become prone to wild moods. On hindsight, I think we were all a little crazy by then, even reasonable Maglor.
"Tall elf with red hair come to look for us but we hide," Elurin or Elured murmured. Sweet Eru, why did you not go with Maedhros? Perhaps Nelyo was threatening to throw them to the wargs like he threatened Moryo for serving dinner late at Amon Ereb. My eldest brother had the Feanorion temper too under his icy exterior.
"We scared he going to hurt us like the nasty elves… will we ever go home to nana again? We're scared…"
"Yes, you will – I," I bit my tongue. There was no sense swearing oaths or making impossible promises to Dior's sons. "We will find a way out."
We trudged through the endless woods. Neither hunger nor thirst seemed to have any hold over us. When we came across a running stream, the water was inky black and we did not drink from it. There was no birdsong, only the eerie whispers which came and went like the shadow of a cloud. To pass the time I told them of Valinor, of Lord Orome my mentor, of my own amme with her rosy cheeks and red hair. I told them of my own little brothers – Moryo who had his mouth washed out with soapy water for cussing at our grandfather's begetting day party, Curvo who accidentally sat down on some nettles and most of all, the Ambarussa.
"I wish we have little brothers too. We only have one little sister Elwing and she is only two years old."
I spoke of my cousin Irisse and how we used to hunt in Orome's Woods with my little brothers. We had gone camping for weeks away from the city and poor snobbish Aunt Anaire, who deemed it unbecoming for her daughter to ride about in breeches borrowed from her older brothers.
"Do you like her very much?"
"Uncle Celeborn likes Aunt Galadriel very much, they always together."
"They lazy – they stay in bed all day. I saw them kissing in the hall, then Aunt got enough and drag Uncle into their room by his shirt." I choked back a laugh at the image that innocent comment conjured in my mind's eye. We had long heard of Artanis' rather hasty marriage to a Sinda lordling. Fingon once went so far as to accuse Finrod of engineering a political alliance with Elu Thingol through his kinsman. I hope our former ice maiden was enjoying herself – wait, if they were in Doriath, had they managed to escape the Sack?
"I hear something," Elured, or Elurin, chirped.
"Keep quiet and stay back, Elurin," I whisper hoarsely and grabbed hold of one twin as he tried to run ahead. My senses were on the alert.
"I'm Elured," the little pup pouted in annoyance at being mistaken for his twin. That's it, I'll call them Elurussa until I can figure who is who.
It was a tinny sound – that of a hammer on an anvil. It brought back memories of Atto's forge where he had spent many long hours trying to teach me his craft. It was to no avail. I never took to smith-work. Cautiously, I crept forward through the dry brush. It was an elf, Avarin, judging by the tattoos on his bare back and arms and he was working on a sword. He glared at me.
"Greetings," I tried to sound as friendly as possible. "Would you know the way to Lord Namo's throne room?"
"Even if I do, why should I share it with you, Noldo kinslayer?" he snarled in thickly-accented Sindarin before returning to his task. With a weary shrug, I gathered the twins close and prepared to leave.
"Hey, are you Master Eol?" one imp piped up. The Avarin elf raised an eyebrow.
"Ada told us about you – Eol the Dark Elf had a wife and could not keep her," his twin started on a ditty about the misadventures of Eol and his household. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing especially when the boys started singing about Eol's drunken misadventures with the Dwarves and coming home to find his wife had stormed off to her people in a huff.
"Shut up, you little brats, I am going to teach you a lesson…" the enraged elf snatched up his hammer and advanced on the twins.
"Run!" the twins ran and I stuck my leg out a little as Eol passed, enough to trip him and send him sprawling into the muck. I pinned him down with a knee in the small of his back.
"Now wretch, tell us how to get to Lord Namo's throne room or out of these accursed woods," I pressed the point of my dagger to his throat.
"You can't kill me!" he squeaked. "We're all dead!"
"No, but I suppose I can lop off your ears and nose and maybe your limbs… I do suppose that will really draw some attention…" I threatened in a low whisper. "Or I can stick you into your own fire to roast… so tell me."
"I don't know, really! I woke up in these woods and you're the first elves I have seen since!"
"Boys, should we believe him?" I asked the wide-eyed twins. Both slowly nodded.
"We think he tells the truth."
Reluctantly, I released my captive. I was glad to see that my dagger had left an angry gash in its wake where it had bitten into the skin of his neck. I found a pair of well-crafted daggers and leather strips in his forge to make crude belts and scabbards for the twins. These we took in exchange for his menacing the twins. Elurin named his little blade Gnat and Elured's was named Wasp.
Where to now? We could only walk away from Eol's angry curses, back into the damned woods. We had tied him up with some rope in case he felt inclined to pursue us with his hammer or sword. I silently prayed for Lord Namo to come find us soon. We trudged on through the forest.
If one has to be stuck with a sibling for an extended time, it is inevitable you will end up fighting at some point. Just ask Finrod and Tyelpe how often they had to mediate between me and Curvo. At least in our own realm we could keep out of each other's way for weeks if need be. Alas, poor Finrod. He really didn't deserve the end he got… not that getting kicked out of Nargothrond was any fun. Even the Ambarussa had their little snits at times.
"Stop pulling my sleeve!"
"Stop stepping on my foot!"
"Quit shoving!"
The twins were getting into a little shoving match. Their tinny voices were getting on my already worn thin nerves.
"Bloody break it up already!" I growled and pulled both would-be combatants apart. "One more peep from you and I'll leave you here for the wargs!"
Two pairs of eyes stared at me, turned watery and the pair started bawling their eyes out. Eru spare me! I clapped my hands over my ears.
Crap. And folk wondered why I never settled down. Do you see me dandling wailing babies and soothing night terrors away? Perhaps I was lucky Beren made off with Luthien. I would never have made a good father.
A scrabbling sound echoed through the bushes. The twins paused mid-wail and froze. It was getting closer to where we were.
"Stand behind me!" I stood between the elflings and the ever-approaching sound, dagger in hand.
A blur of fur burst out of the withered brambles and knocked me clean off my feet and the weapon clear of my grasp.
"WUFF!"
Author's Notes:
I did an initial version with the trio meeting Daeron but I decided to keep to the canonic version where his fate after he goes into the East is unknown. He is not really dead so there is no reason for Daeron to show up in Mandos.
I am not sure if Celegorm and Curufin would have been kept informed of Irisse's demise in Gondolin by Turgon, given Turgon's policy of isolation.