No Home Here

Chapter Twenty: Epilogue

The door to the dark healing room eased open gently, and a pale, slender hand gripped the doorframe. A dark head popped quickly in and out of view, and then there was a short pause before the lean body of an elf entered the room, followed quickly by another.

Having quickly ascertained that neither their father, Glorfindel, nor one of the healers was lurking anywhere in the room, the identical elves seated themselves on opposite sides of the bed, careful not to jostle its occupant.

Elrohir gazed sadly down on the still form of his younger brother, guilt eating at him for allowing himself to contribute to Estel’s condition. ‘If only we hadn’t ridden so hard,’ he berated himself, ‘then maybe he would have recovered even while riding. He certainly wouldn’t be so bad now!’

He stole a quick glance at his twin and saw the same thoughts running across Elladan’s face. With a small sigh, he reached across the bed and poked the other elf in the shoulder.

This incited Elladan’s wrath, and the younger twin received a small shove in return. This “poke-fight” ended with both elves kneeling fully over Estel on the boy’s bed, shoving each other in a friendly fashion while completely oblivious to the fact that the young man whose bed they had commandeered was now quite awake and trying very hard not to laugh out loud.

After a particularly hard pinch by Elladan, Estel’s restraint broke and he began calling out advice to the warring twins.

“No, no! In the stomach ‘Ro!” He said with a grin. Elrohir unconsciously followed his advice, quite used to Estel helping in some of the affectionate battles. Elladan, however, noticed abruptly that his youngest brother was awake, and bent down closer to the boy as if to greet him, unintentionally shielding him with his back and arms.

Not a moment too soon, for with the shudder that Elladan’s movement wrought in the mattress, Elrohir lost his balance and toppled forward, arms windmilling frantically as he tried to regain an upright position.

His dark head connected with Elladan’s with a loud thunk, rendering both twins senseless. Elrohir rolled off the bed, and the older twin collapsed hard onto Estel. The air left the young man’s lungs with a muffled “oomph,” and he panicked, not being able to breathe.

Finding his arms pinned underneath the stunned elf, Estel wriggled as he attempted to ease the pressure off of his chest and throat. Fortunately, just as the boy was beginning to see yellow spots dance across his vision, Elrohir pulled himself up off the floor, grinning wildly at the latest stunt he had pulled.

“Well, I’ll sure have a nasty bump on my head, eh Es…” The elf froze mid-sentence as he saw his younger brother’s bluish lips and eyelids.

“Estel!” He cried, leaping onto the bed and pulled his twin off of the boy. Elladan, dragged back to his senses by the rough handling, sat straight up when he saw his twin sitting a gasping Estel up and murmuring to him in the gray tongue.

“Elrohir! What on Arda happened?” He asked as he crawled to the edain’s other side and placed an arm around his shoulders. Elrohir looked downright stricken, and once Estel had his breath back both elves apologized profusely. Estel merely waved them off, smiling.

“Can’t you two find anything better to do than injuring me?” He teased. The twins, however, turned guiltily away, trying not to look each other in the eye.

“Oh, no you don’t! I was only teasing you! Seriously,” he said without a trace of mirth in his voice, “it was really my fault, all of this, so you just forget about it, alright?” The twins, though they knew the untruth of this, glanced at each other with a smile.

An unspoken agreement passed between them, and both vowed that though they wouldn’t speak of it again to the stubborn boy, they would not let anything like this happen again. For all that they were worth as brothers, for good or bad, they would see their baby brother through to the destiny that awaited him. Their silent vow strengthened their bond, and the twins simply smiled and hugged the young man tighter.

“Alright, little brother, we’ll let you off the hook this time, but no more, clear?” Elladan asked with a smile that showed that his words were in jest. Elrohir still looked worried about the head-banging, breathless incident of just a minute before, and turned to his twin.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t get Ada to make sure he’s all right?” He asked with a small frown. Elladan couldn’t help but laugh at Estel’s growl of protest, and another snigger was heard from the doorway. The brothers looked up to see a grinning Glorfindel leaning against the frame.

“Oh, I don’t think your father would be able to come, young ones.” He smiled and continued on despite three exclamations of objection. “He’s quite busy in the kitchens right now. I’m afraid Lord Elrond will find his time much more occupied during the next week, perhaps you should consider keeping yourselves out of harm’s way for a while.” And with a superior grin he stalked off, leaving the three alone in the room once more. The brothers smiled as one.

“Ada’s busy…” Stated Estel slowly.

“For a whole week!” Added Elladan in obvious delight.

“Just imagine the possibilities…” Put in Elrohir with a wicked grin. The three looked at each other and grinned.

‘Yes,’ thought Elrohir, “Rivendell is most certainly back to normal.’ And with that the sons of Elrond were once again in their natural state: plotting the demise of innocent elves.



Fin












Preview For Running the Gauntlet:

“Do it!” The boy crooned, accentuating his words with a nervous jiggling of his hands. “You know you can’t be one of us until you do. Come on, what harm can it possibly do?” Estel bit his lip and furrowed a sweaty brow in consternation.

“I really don’t know about this.” He began. “Surely Ada…”

“Your Ada won’t care. It isn’t as if he doesn’t know what we do! He’s let us do it for centuries!” The elf said smoothly. “Come on now, it won’t hurt for long, and then you won’t have to worry about us for the rest of the time you stay here!” The other boys soon joined in.

“Yeah, come on Estel, we’ve all done it.” Said one.

“If we can do it, surely an Edain can!” Wheedled another. At that Estel snapped.

“Of course I’ll do it.” He said impatiently, shrugging off the hands of the elves. Sighing inwardly, he wondered just what he was committing himself to. A brief flash of his father’s face, filled with disappointment, flashed before his eyes, but that quickly vanished, leaving the edge of the ledge gaping in front of him once more.

“Go on now!” One of the elves called to him. Estel shrugged, backed up a few paces, and then took the ledge at a running jump, disappearing from the sight of the now wickedly grinning elflings.