grundyscribbling

Title: Tra La La Lally
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Summary: Ambarussa's return was a surprise all around.
Word Count: 1500

Celebrían smiled as she watched her daughter eat.

Not a single component of the dinner she was practically inhaling would have been recognizable to her in California. Perhaps the rice, but even the fragrant river-rice rapidly disappearing from Anariel’s bowl was unlike what she would have understood by “rice” in their Sunnydale days.

Her smallest daughter may not have found her balance in Aman just yet, but she will. That she can sit here so at her ease after the day she just had was proof.

The introduction of Amras and Amrod to the court of Elu Thingol had gone rather differently than Anariel had expected.

She clearly had been braced for anything short of outright battle, but the worst Thingol had done was glare as Amras apologized in fluent Iathrin for his part in the Second Kinslaying, slight though it had been, and asked the pardon of the king of the Lindar.

The audience at that point had been composed solely of Thingol’s own kin and most trusted retainers, so it was hardly the circus it might have become otherwise.

“Before I grant any pardon, I would have you be specific as to your role,” Thingol said. “What was it you did? Who was it you killed? And have you made your amends directly to them already?”

Amras looked slightly puzzled.

“I killed none. At least, none of your people. My brothers did not trust me with any more weighty responsibility, so I was left to mind the camp. The only time I left it was to look for Dior’s sons. Elurín can vouch for me having gone in search of him and his brother when they were known to be missing.”

“Only Elurín?” Thingol asked quietly.

“Eluréd was already dead when I reached them,” Amras said flatly. “He could know nothing of it until they were reunited in the Halls.”

Thingol looked at the twins in question, and received a slight nod.

“Eluréd’s death was not at his hand,” Elurín qualified wryly. “That was done by Celegorm’s people.”

“You said none of my people,” Thingol said, returning his attention to Amras.

“I passed sentence on my brother’s followers,” Amras shrugged. “I may not have killed them by my own hand, but their deaths were a consequence of my orders, as I knew they would be.”

Celebrían was sure she was not the only member of the extended royal family to catch his silent addendum.

I would have been most disappointed if they were not.

“You return yet unrepentant for deaths you have caused?” Melian demanded.

“I learned in the halls that the offenders died cleanly. They were neither taken nor turned. I cannot say Mandos brought me to consider death unduly harsh for those who beat small children and left them for dead,” Amras shrugged. “If that is to be counted a fault that bars me from the living, I shall return to the Halls. But Namo will not have any better luck with me the second time.”

Anariel’s snort indicated that would not be happening no matter what Melian might say next, so her maiarin grandmother wisely chose to say nothing.

“What of the kinslaying in Alqualondë?” Thingol asked at once. “What role did you play there?”

His haste to change the subject, coupled with the expressions on other faces – Celebrían’s parents among them – indicated Melian might be the only one who thought Amras’ lack of sorrow at the deaths of Eluréd’s killers a fault.

“You were both present then, I believe?” Thingol continued.

Amrod snickered, and Amras answered for both.

“We may have had swords in hand at the start, but not for long, and I don’t think we did more than look threateningly at anyone. We were tasked fairly quickly with minding our young nephew, and then with keeping Artanis out of trouble.”

Multiple heads turned at that, and her mother gave the pair a look.

“I would love to hear more about that,” Anariel said brightly, ignoring that Ammë’s look had just turned into a glare.

“I think many of us would,” Ada added.

“Oh, very well,” Thingol sighed, uninterested in Galadriel’s discomfit. “You are free to come and go in my lands as you will. Though I want it understood I have accepted your apology for you only – tell your brother his is still awaited. A letter does not suffice.”

“He means Uncle Moryo,” Anariel clarified.

“He means all of them,” Thingol amended at once. “Caranthir just happens to be the only other one who has returned as yet. At least he had the sense not to come bother us at once.”

“That was Tinu’s doing,” Anariel reminded him patiently. “And clearly his sense was somewhat lacking, because he amended her plan to include a side trip to Gondolin before Tirion.”

“The logic of the Golodhrim,” Thingol shrugged dismissively. “You are to make sure these ones use better sense. Mind you keep them well away from Nimloth.”

That pronouncement got five eyerolls at once before both sets of twins focused on Elrond.

Amras and Amrod appeared pleased to have younger relatives to dote on, and didn’t seem to mind including relatives of relatives in that – they had the same fun uncle energy for Eluréd and Elurín as they did for Elrond, Elrohir, and Elladan.

“I suspect they’re actually quite pleased to have other twins around,” her mother murmured to her in amusement.

Ammë had been surprisingly patient, waiting until Amras and Amrod noticed that she and Aunt Irissë were both there also - at which point, Celebrían and her family became the first in Aman to witness the reunited ‘Fearsome Foursome’. That hadn’t stopped yet, with the four sitting together in a tight knot for dinner, to the bemusement of both Ada and Uncle Eöl, who’d never experienced all four together.

Do you think we oughta warn Tirion?

She looked down to find Anariel smirking as she nibbled at her jewelbird tart.

To general merriment, the name had initially caused Anariel alarm – she’d thought they somehow made the small treats from her favored birds. She’d only been willing to try them once she was assured no birds of any sort had been harmed.

“Quite possibly,” she sighed, wrapping an arm around her most troublesome child.

“My love,” she added to Elrond, “do you suppose we should accompany them to Tirion?”

Elrond didn’t miss that Anariel deflated slightly at the prospect of returning to Tirion.

“We might just as easily invite my grandmother and uncle to our house,” Elrond suggested. “The reunion might be kinder…”

“Without a whole city that thinks gossip is a sport?” Anariel filled in. “Yes, please, to that. Should I tell her?”

“I can write to her,” Elrond said. “If you tell her directly, you’re liable to find other grandmothers turning up also.”

Celebrían traded a look of fond amusement with her husband, watching as her daughter weighed whether the faster reunion was worth putting up with Aunt Anairë. (She suspected it had been Anairë Anariel had been getting away from when she fled Tirion.)

“I’ll risk it,” Anariel announced. “If you write, not only will it take longer, she might not get the urgency.”

They all heard her Gramma! Meet us at Ada’s house? Uncle Moryo and Miryo should come too!

Elrond sighed.

With no further detail than that, Nerdanel was liable to set out from Tirion at first light, meaning they would need to do the same from here to have any hope of arriving at the same time. Arriving home before her was out of the question. Anariel still had quite a bit of Aman geography to learn.

Leaving us so soon, jewel bird? Melian asked in disappointment.

“I can come back whenever and I will,” Anariel assured her. “Besides, it’s probably just as well to give Nimloth some time to cool her…”

They’d never know how Anariel had intended to finish that sentence, because Melian shifted them all from Neldoreth to the dining room of the main house at Imlanthiriath so smoothly that Anariel didn’t even drop her fork, though she did look down in surprise at finding herself abruptly in an upholstered chair rather than the three-legged stool she’d had a moment before.

Lindir, who had been dining quietly with only a score he was working on for company, raised a single elegant eyebrow at the unexpected appearance of not only his lord and his immediate family, but Celeborn and Galadriel, Eöl and Aredhel along with their daughter, Eluréd and Elurín, and a set of twins he did not know. And, somewhat to Celebrían’s surprise, Elwing.

Mírimë exclaimed in excitement once she realized where she was, and brightened still further when she discovered who else was along for the adventure.

An irritated bark from out on the terrace indicated Huan had not been forgotten by Melian, or possibly had ways of his own.

Anariel sighed, popping the last bit of tart into her mouth.

“This family would not know normal if it bit them on the butt.”

“But at least you will get to sleep in your own bed tonight, my sunshine child,” Elrond laughed.