Fic A Day - Day 13 - Homecoming
Aug. 13th, 2021 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingTitle: Homecoming
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Summary: Anariel finally makes it to her parents' house.
Word Count: 2045
“We’re almost home, you know,” Tindomiel told her siblings. “We should get there today unless you’re determined to be super slow.”
They’d had several days of quiet and nothing more memorable than Tindomiel rubbing it in to her big brothers that she could too hunt just fine.
“I don’t think they do super slow,” Anariel replied with a wave at the horses. She still suspected her sister had called to them. Tindomiel was doing her best not to obviously rush them. It was almost working.
Tindomiel rolled her eyes.
“You can’t possibly be put out that the horses came to hurry us up. They probably know Nana’s getting impatient. Most of them like her better than me anyway.”
“I think Hithui probably wanted to see for herself that you have recovered,” Elrohir said before Anariel could answer. “The last she saw of you, you were not your usual self.”
The mare snorted in clear agreement, and Anariel soothed her with a quiet reassurance. Out of deference to how many times her horse had heard her claim to be ‘fine’, she went with she was perfectly healthy now.
She hadn’t realized horses could look so skeptical.
“Look,” Maeglin said. “There is a fine view of the valley from this ridge.”
Anariel heard one of her brothers stifle a chuckle as she went to see.
“You didn’t say there were more waterfalls!” Anariel called back reproachfully.
“We thought the name was clear enough not to need further explanation,” Elrohir grinned.
Anariel snorted.
“All right, since Tinu’s in a hurry, let’s get moving.”
“Yeah, I’m the one in a hurry. Nothing at all to do with you being impatient to meet every waterfall in the valley,” Tindomiel sniffed. “Let’s aim for Nen Hithoel, we can stop there for an early lunch and let you get your yayas out.”
Anariel was already urging Hithui onto the track down towards the valley, and ignored the comment in favor of looking around the valley her parents now called home. Tindomiel was soon mollified by her sister looking to her to answer all her questions, seeing as the twins didn’t know Imlanthiriath well enough yet. She was very much enjoying the rare experience of being the expert at something new to her older siblings.
She happily showed them some of the nicer spots close to their route, as well as one detour to a particularly spectacular cascade she knew Anariel would like and a glade they both expected would become Elladan’s new thinking place.
But by lunchtime, all the children of Elrond were more than ready to stretch their legs.
The pool Tindomiel had named was just out of sight of the house, or so she said. Anariel wouldn’t have known either way. But it was a lovely spot.
There was a small waterfall, a gentle trickle compared to some of the more spectacular falls in the valley. Its quiet murmur was a soothing counterpoint to the conversation of the five of them having lunch and either relaxing (everyone but Anariel) or not (Anariel, who hadn’t burned nearly enough Slayer energy that day.)
Tindomiel could only take so much before she sighed.
“Would you just hit things already so you’ll be calm enough to sit still for more than two minutes put together?”
Anariel didn’t let her consternation show.
It was a mostly sensible suggestion, but she had levelled up a bit since the last time Tindomiel had seen her ‘hit things’. She was going to have to figure out how she was going to deal with excess Slayer energy in a place where there was nothing to slay. Middle-earth had at least still had the occasional warg pack.
“She has a point,” Elladan said cheerfully. “Come on, two on one should be fair enough.”
He tossed her favorite sword to her. Elrohir retrieved both twins’ swords from their horses.
The next quarter of an hour or so passed in a blur of feint and counter, and the occasional blow landed. She hoped her brothers chalked up the hits she didn’t pull quite enough to pent up energy. It wasn’t enough to tire her out, but it did take the edge off.
That was when Elrohir had the brilliant idea that she should spar with Maeglin.
Tindomiel looked as dubious as Anariel felt at the suggestion. Maeglin might be a brother, but not one whose style she knew yet, any more than he knew hers.
“I don’t want my husband broken!” Tindomiel snapped.
“I am able to defend myself,” Maeglin protested, looking slightly nettled at the lack of faith his mate was showing.
“Chicken,” Elrohir declared cheerfully.
Tindomiel glared at him until she realized the taunt had been aimed at Anariel, at which point she merely looked disgusted with him.
“Oh, fine,” Anariel sighed.
“This is going to end badly,” Tindomiel predicted dourly.
“I remember you being an optimist,” Elladan said. “What happened?”
“I’m plenty optimistic when it doesn’t involve my mate being mangled,” Tindomiel muttered.
“Tinu, relax, I’ll be careful,” Anariel told her.
Really, her little sister had no idea how careful she had to be these days.
“I’m touched by your confidence,” Maeglin added.
“I have every confidence in you when you’re sparring with normal elves,” Tindomiel assured him. “But you aren’t used to her. And I was so not kidding when I told you she could put even Grandpa Nolo or Grandpop Maedhros down for the count.”
Both reluctant combatants moved cautiously at first, sizing each other up.
There were a few halfhearted attempts from either side, really just testing each other out. Then Maeglin, perhaps still stung by Tindomiel’s apparent belief that he was inadequate compared to her sister, attacked in earnest.
For a few minutes, they actually looked evenly matched to a casual observer. Anariel was doing her best to make Maeglin look good in front of her brothers. She had noticed they were still not entirely sure about him, and suspected they were going to hear about it from Tinu at some point soon.
Unfortunately, while the brothers she’d been sparring with since she was twenty knew her quirks, Maeglin did not.
At one point, he pressed her in a way that would have led most elves to retreat. But Anariel’s habit in the face of this particular tactic was to quickly close the distance, throwing her opponent off balance. Everyone in Imladris had needed time and experience to adapt.
Maeglin wasn’t expecting it in the least, and was unable to stop his sword from meeting unprotected flesh in time. He ducked back, guilt-stricken.
“Don’t bleed,” Anariel ordered her arm firmly, hoping that maybe it wouldn’t. Now would be an excellent time for that whole maiarin command of her form thing to kick in. It wasn’t that bad a cut, really…
For a moment, she thought it had worked. But the blood welling up put an end to any hope she could get away with claiming it was barely even a scratch.
Maeglin dropped his sword at the sight.
“Look, you were right, Tinu,” Elladan said brightly. “It ended badly. But your husband is unmarked.”
“Fantastic,” Tindomiel shot back sharply as she moved to Maeglin’s side. He looked absolutely horrified.
Anariel, on the other hand, was merely annoyed.
“I don’t suppose any of you brought a first aid kit?” she asked in exasperation.
The twins wore matching expressions of consternation as they realized their mistake.
“Deep breaths,” Elrohir advised Maeglin bracingly. “She’s had worse. Quite a few times. Traditionally, this is the part where she tells us it’s actually fine and we’re all overreacting.”
“It would be fine if anyone had bandages to slap on it,” Anariel pointed out evenly.
“Glorfindel hit bone once when she did that,” Tindomiel sighed. “So you actually did better than him. Cheer up.”
“Maeglin may not have hit bone,” Elladan said, examining his sister’s arm, “but I believe I can see it. We should get you to the healing hall. Put pressure on it before it gets any messier.”
Anariel frowned, but did so barehanded since a quick glance around showed her there was no clean cloth she could commandeer without shredding someone’s clothing.
“How annoyed do you think Nana’s going to be?” Anariel asked as Elrohir lifted her up onto her horse so she could hold her injured arm still and keep pressure on it with the other hand.
“Very,” Tindomiel said flatly, urging her mate onto his mount. “But only with you three.”
“That’s fair,” Anariel nodded as her brothers glared at her. “They didn’t bring anything to patch me up with and encouraged me with bad ideas.”
She suspected Maeglin would be excused on the grounds that he didn’t know her well enough to know better, if not because he was the son-in-law and thus not expected to keep her out of trouble like her brothers were supposed to do.
Nana really did overestimate their abilities by times.
Fortunately, they were as close to home as Tindomiel had promised – it was only a few minutes on horseback before they clattered up to the courtyard between the stables and the main house. It would have been nice to take some time to admire, but right now that would end with her and the twins having to clean blood off the flagstones, and their parents very unamused.
On the bright side, it felt like the bleeding was starting to taper off. Go go, Slayer healing!
“You go on,” Tindomiel ordered. “We’ll see to the horses.”
Anariel wasn’t about to argue with such a sensible suggestion.
Elladan lifted her down before she could slide off – don’t jar it, nethig! – and strode into the house, only setting her down carefully in the front hall. At that point, all three of them paused.
Anariel had never been there before, and this house was not the same as Imladris.
“Um…”
“We don’t actually know where the healing hall is,” Elrohir admitted.
“We didn’t stay very long,” Elladan added.
“Or have need of it while we were here,” Elrohir pointed out.
Anariel looked around. They had the choice of stairs going up, or corridors leading right or left.
“I’ll take up,” she announced.
The twins nodded, and each of them set out in a different direction.
Anariel grinned to herself as she trotted up the large staircase.
She’d picked up because she knew that’s where her father was. He could walk her to the healing hall and bandage up her arm – and maybe once he’d gotten over being annoyed with her managing to arrive home bloody, give her some advice on how to convince her brother-in-law it really wasn’t that bad.
Tindomiel waited until the twins’ footsteps had faded before she turned to her husband. Maeglin was still pale and looked shaken.
“They really were telling the truth,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “Without any exaggeration. Glorfindel has done worse. So did Mirifinwë. Even Ada cut her once or twice when he was teaching her Noldorin-style spear fighting.”
Fortunately for their father’s peace of mind, those cuts had been little more than scratches. (By other people’s definition of the word, not Anariel’s.)
“Yes, but…”
Maeglin’s hands fluttered vaguely in the air.
“No one’s going to think anything of it,” Tindomiel assured him. “Well, aside from Nana, who will tell the three of them off for not having any sense at all, and Anariel in particular for managing to mangle herself when she was five minutes from home.”
Really, it would almost have been better if they’d done this yesterday. Slayer healing would have meant that even if it wasn’t stitched because their brothers hadn’t thought to bring anything they would have thought necessary for travelling with their smallest sister back in Ennor, Anariel’s arm would have been mostly better by the time their mother saw her. Nana did much better with Anariel injuries in the abstract than when she had to look at them.
“Come on,” Tindomiel sighed. “Let’s make the horses comfortable, then go find out how the scolding went.”
They only made it two steps into the stables before Tindomiel realized they were in for more grief than she’d thought.
“That’s Grandfather’s horse, isn’t it?” Maeglin asked.
“And Grandma Anairë’s,” Tindomiel agreed glumly. “I take it back, we’re all in trouble.”
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Summary: Anariel finally makes it to her parents' house.
Word Count: 2045
“We’re almost home, you know,” Tindomiel told her siblings. “We should get there today unless you’re determined to be super slow.”
They’d had several days of quiet and nothing more memorable than Tindomiel rubbing it in to her big brothers that she could too hunt just fine.
“I don’t think they do super slow,” Anariel replied with a wave at the horses. She still suspected her sister had called to them. Tindomiel was doing her best not to obviously rush them. It was almost working.
Tindomiel rolled her eyes.
“You can’t possibly be put out that the horses came to hurry us up. They probably know Nana’s getting impatient. Most of them like her better than me anyway.”
“I think Hithui probably wanted to see for herself that you have recovered,” Elrohir said before Anariel could answer. “The last she saw of you, you were not your usual self.”
The mare snorted in clear agreement, and Anariel soothed her with a quiet reassurance. Out of deference to how many times her horse had heard her claim to be ‘fine’, she went with she was perfectly healthy now.
She hadn’t realized horses could look so skeptical.
“Look,” Maeglin said. “There is a fine view of the valley from this ridge.”
Anariel heard one of her brothers stifle a chuckle as she went to see.
“You didn’t say there were more waterfalls!” Anariel called back reproachfully.
“We thought the name was clear enough not to need further explanation,” Elrohir grinned.
Anariel snorted.
“All right, since Tinu’s in a hurry, let’s get moving.”
“Yeah, I’m the one in a hurry. Nothing at all to do with you being impatient to meet every waterfall in the valley,” Tindomiel sniffed. “Let’s aim for Nen Hithoel, we can stop there for an early lunch and let you get your yayas out.”
Anariel was already urging Hithui onto the track down towards the valley, and ignored the comment in favor of looking around the valley her parents now called home. Tindomiel was soon mollified by her sister looking to her to answer all her questions, seeing as the twins didn’t know Imlanthiriath well enough yet. She was very much enjoying the rare experience of being the expert at something new to her older siblings.
She happily showed them some of the nicer spots close to their route, as well as one detour to a particularly spectacular cascade she knew Anariel would like and a glade they both expected would become Elladan’s new thinking place.
But by lunchtime, all the children of Elrond were more than ready to stretch their legs.
The pool Tindomiel had named was just out of sight of the house, or so she said. Anariel wouldn’t have known either way. But it was a lovely spot.
There was a small waterfall, a gentle trickle compared to some of the more spectacular falls in the valley. Its quiet murmur was a soothing counterpoint to the conversation of the five of them having lunch and either relaxing (everyone but Anariel) or not (Anariel, who hadn’t burned nearly enough Slayer energy that day.)
Tindomiel could only take so much before she sighed.
“Would you just hit things already so you’ll be calm enough to sit still for more than two minutes put together?”
Anariel didn’t let her consternation show.
It was a mostly sensible suggestion, but she had levelled up a bit since the last time Tindomiel had seen her ‘hit things’. She was going to have to figure out how she was going to deal with excess Slayer energy in a place where there was nothing to slay. Middle-earth had at least still had the occasional warg pack.
“She has a point,” Elladan said cheerfully. “Come on, two on one should be fair enough.”
He tossed her favorite sword to her. Elrohir retrieved both twins’ swords from their horses.
The next quarter of an hour or so passed in a blur of feint and counter, and the occasional blow landed. She hoped her brothers chalked up the hits she didn’t pull quite enough to pent up energy. It wasn’t enough to tire her out, but it did take the edge off.
That was when Elrohir had the brilliant idea that she should spar with Maeglin.
Tindomiel looked as dubious as Anariel felt at the suggestion. Maeglin might be a brother, but not one whose style she knew yet, any more than he knew hers.
“I don’t want my husband broken!” Tindomiel snapped.
“I am able to defend myself,” Maeglin protested, looking slightly nettled at the lack of faith his mate was showing.
“Chicken,” Elrohir declared cheerfully.
Tindomiel glared at him until she realized the taunt had been aimed at Anariel, at which point she merely looked disgusted with him.
“Oh, fine,” Anariel sighed.
“This is going to end badly,” Tindomiel predicted dourly.
“I remember you being an optimist,” Elladan said. “What happened?”
“I’m plenty optimistic when it doesn’t involve my mate being mangled,” Tindomiel muttered.
“Tinu, relax, I’ll be careful,” Anariel told her.
Really, her little sister had no idea how careful she had to be these days.
“I’m touched by your confidence,” Maeglin added.
“I have every confidence in you when you’re sparring with normal elves,” Tindomiel assured him. “But you aren’t used to her. And I was so not kidding when I told you she could put even Grandpa Nolo or Grandpop Maedhros down for the count.”
Both reluctant combatants moved cautiously at first, sizing each other up.
There were a few halfhearted attempts from either side, really just testing each other out. Then Maeglin, perhaps still stung by Tindomiel’s apparent belief that he was inadequate compared to her sister, attacked in earnest.
For a few minutes, they actually looked evenly matched to a casual observer. Anariel was doing her best to make Maeglin look good in front of her brothers. She had noticed they were still not entirely sure about him, and suspected they were going to hear about it from Tinu at some point soon.
Unfortunately, while the brothers she’d been sparring with since she was twenty knew her quirks, Maeglin did not.
At one point, he pressed her in a way that would have led most elves to retreat. But Anariel’s habit in the face of this particular tactic was to quickly close the distance, throwing her opponent off balance. Everyone in Imladris had needed time and experience to adapt.
Maeglin wasn’t expecting it in the least, and was unable to stop his sword from meeting unprotected flesh in time. He ducked back, guilt-stricken.
“Don’t bleed,” Anariel ordered her arm firmly, hoping that maybe it wouldn’t. Now would be an excellent time for that whole maiarin command of her form thing to kick in. It wasn’t that bad a cut, really…
For a moment, she thought it had worked. But the blood welling up put an end to any hope she could get away with claiming it was barely even a scratch.
Maeglin dropped his sword at the sight.
“Look, you were right, Tinu,” Elladan said brightly. “It ended badly. But your husband is unmarked.”
“Fantastic,” Tindomiel shot back sharply as she moved to Maeglin’s side. He looked absolutely horrified.
Anariel, on the other hand, was merely annoyed.
“I don’t suppose any of you brought a first aid kit?” she asked in exasperation.
The twins wore matching expressions of consternation as they realized their mistake.
“Deep breaths,” Elrohir advised Maeglin bracingly. “She’s had worse. Quite a few times. Traditionally, this is the part where she tells us it’s actually fine and we’re all overreacting.”
“It would be fine if anyone had bandages to slap on it,” Anariel pointed out evenly.
“Glorfindel hit bone once when she did that,” Tindomiel sighed. “So you actually did better than him. Cheer up.”
“Maeglin may not have hit bone,” Elladan said, examining his sister’s arm, “but I believe I can see it. We should get you to the healing hall. Put pressure on it before it gets any messier.”
Anariel frowned, but did so barehanded since a quick glance around showed her there was no clean cloth she could commandeer without shredding someone’s clothing.
“How annoyed do you think Nana’s going to be?” Anariel asked as Elrohir lifted her up onto her horse so she could hold her injured arm still and keep pressure on it with the other hand.
“Very,” Tindomiel said flatly, urging her mate onto his mount. “But only with you three.”
“That’s fair,” Anariel nodded as her brothers glared at her. “They didn’t bring anything to patch me up with and encouraged me with bad ideas.”
She suspected Maeglin would be excused on the grounds that he didn’t know her well enough to know better, if not because he was the son-in-law and thus not expected to keep her out of trouble like her brothers were supposed to do.
Nana really did overestimate their abilities by times.
Fortunately, they were as close to home as Tindomiel had promised – it was only a few minutes on horseback before they clattered up to the courtyard between the stables and the main house. It would have been nice to take some time to admire, but right now that would end with her and the twins having to clean blood off the flagstones, and their parents very unamused.
On the bright side, it felt like the bleeding was starting to taper off. Go go, Slayer healing!
“You go on,” Tindomiel ordered. “We’ll see to the horses.”
Anariel wasn’t about to argue with such a sensible suggestion.
Elladan lifted her down before she could slide off – don’t jar it, nethig! – and strode into the house, only setting her down carefully in the front hall. At that point, all three of them paused.
Anariel had never been there before, and this house was not the same as Imladris.
“Um…”
“We don’t actually know where the healing hall is,” Elrohir admitted.
“We didn’t stay very long,” Elladan added.
“Or have need of it while we were here,” Elrohir pointed out.
Anariel looked around. They had the choice of stairs going up, or corridors leading right or left.
“I’ll take up,” she announced.
The twins nodded, and each of them set out in a different direction.
Anariel grinned to herself as she trotted up the large staircase.
She’d picked up because she knew that’s where her father was. He could walk her to the healing hall and bandage up her arm – and maybe once he’d gotten over being annoyed with her managing to arrive home bloody, give her some advice on how to convince her brother-in-law it really wasn’t that bad.
---
Tindomiel waited until the twins’ footsteps had faded before she turned to her husband. Maeglin was still pale and looked shaken.
“They really were telling the truth,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “Without any exaggeration. Glorfindel has done worse. So did Mirifinwë. Even Ada cut her once or twice when he was teaching her Noldorin-style spear fighting.”
Fortunately for their father’s peace of mind, those cuts had been little more than scratches. (By other people’s definition of the word, not Anariel’s.)
“Yes, but…”
Maeglin’s hands fluttered vaguely in the air.
“No one’s going to think anything of it,” Tindomiel assured him. “Well, aside from Nana, who will tell the three of them off for not having any sense at all, and Anariel in particular for managing to mangle herself when she was five minutes from home.”
Really, it would almost have been better if they’d done this yesterday. Slayer healing would have meant that even if it wasn’t stitched because their brothers hadn’t thought to bring anything they would have thought necessary for travelling with their smallest sister back in Ennor, Anariel’s arm would have been mostly better by the time their mother saw her. Nana did much better with Anariel injuries in the abstract than when she had to look at them.
“Come on,” Tindomiel sighed. “Let’s make the horses comfortable, then go find out how the scolding went.”
They only made it two steps into the stables before Tindomiel realized they were in for more grief than she’d thought.
“That’s Grandfather’s horse, isn’t it?” Maeglin asked.
“And Grandma Anairë’s,” Tindomiel agreed glumly. “I take it back, we’re all in trouble.”
no subject
Date: 2021-08-14 10:29 am (UTC)Thinking ahead, Anaire would seem to be not too much of a traumatic memory source, but Ñolo most certainly is.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-14 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-14 05:53 pm (UTC)ETA: and yes, Anariel most definitely needs to carry a well stocked first aid kit everywhere.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-14 09:07 pm (UTC)You would think the twins would know that by now, and yet...
no subject
Date: 2021-09-14 11:21 pm (UTC)That slayer energy is going to be a problem for Anariel, I suppose.
She hadn’t realized horses could look so skeptical.
LOL
no subject
Date: 2021-10-02 12:58 am (UTC)They let their guard down in the Blessed Realm? I don't think they'll do it again...