Category: Tolkien-Universe
Rating: M
Couples: Rog/Egalmoth/Maeglin
Warnings: AU, blood, character death
Chapter: 1
Copyright: Characters & places © By Tolkien Estate, Plot & OC´s © by me
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"Let me go with you!" Maeglin begged his mother, softly so no one could overhear.
"It's faster when I do it alone." Aredhel explained to him, their two horses grazing a short distance away. "Easier too, as I can make easier sure that our trails are covered when I follow."
"So what am I supposed to do? Randomly run around until you've made those fake trails, hope I don't run into anyone while I do so?" Her son demanded sharply, their fire bare embers.
"Well, if you want." She rolled her eyes. "No, you go ahead to Gondolin, while I do that. Hopefully we'll hit the gates at about the same time, so then we can just waltz in."
"And if we don't?" This was the first time he had left Nan Elmoth, he was not that keen on having to find a new home on his own after having come this far.
"Then I wait for you, or you for me." She pulled a necklace from in her bodice, a piece she'd worn his entire life and that looked utterly different from his father's works. She had told him that it was a gift she'd gotten long ago from a spouse of a distant cousin, depicting her father's - and his grandfather's - house-sigil. "Here, the guards will recognize me on sight, and they'll recognize you as friendly with this."
"Except that I could have found or stolen it." He pointed out, but still accepted it and hung it reverently around his own neck. He had never even been allowed to touch it before this, and now she'd just handed it over.
"Nope, actually." She grinned a bit, patting her bedroll a few times. "There's a Song in there, that keeps it from being taken against my will... somehow. So it can only be removed from my person if I hand it over. You can probably figure out that Song better than me, to be honest."
"Oh..." He lifted it a bit to look it over. "Huh..." If that person was in Gondolin, he was definitely going to try and hang out with them in a forge for a while. That was a level of Song his father hadn't taught him yet.
His mother snorted, clearly reading his mind. "Sounds like you're up for my plan now?"
"There's still the problem I have no clue where to go." He let the necklace fall, tucking it under his own tunic. "It's hidden, remember? I'm as likely to end up with one of your other kinsmen in these lands than I am with that specific brother. More likely to end up with them, if what little you have revealed to me of the ways the city is hidden is accurate."
"Hmmm..." She beckoned him over. "I'll show you the way then." And so she did, in the faint light of the stars when the embers of the campfire had also faded.
The next day, they split up. Aredhel would lay several false trails, and obscure Maeglin's true path, while he headed more or less straight for the dry riverbed his mother had informed him off. There he dismounted, leading his horse by hand along the rocky ground. At least here, it'd be near impossible to leave tracks, as the old river-stones were too large to be disturbed even by a horse if it stepped carefully.
He was nearing the mountains, and there was still no sign of his mother. Deeming it better to not await her out in the open, where anyone could spot him, he slipped into the narrow crevice that had been the exit-point of the river from the mountains to await her under shelter.
He had to shush his horse several times, as the stallion was less than enthused at having been lead into a cave. "Sshhh... we're not to be found." He warned the noble animal. "It's not going to be long." He hoped so, at least, regretting that his mother had not said how long it might take her to catch up again, and how long he was supposed to wait.
And what he was supposed to do if she didn't arrive in a timely matter. Should he go search for her, or find the entry into Gondolin himself to await her inside at least the first gate, and so remove the risk that someone outside of the city could spot him and the entryway?
The sun was still high, so in the end he decided to wait until it at least started setting before figuring out his next move. Still, better to move the horse and himself from easy sight from the outside.
Getting up from his rock, he took up the reigns of his horse again, turning to lead it further into the cave... where he was greeted by several spears very close to his face.