No Home Here

Chapter Nine: Twins – Menaces to Society

Estel let himself be propelled down the street by the strange woman, wondering how much longer his legs were going to hold out. It had been a struggle getting out of the bed, but Estel had been sick before and knew that unless he wanted pity he needed to put on a brave face.

His eyes wandered unseeingly over the houses standing in the dawn light. Hardly anyone was outside quite yet, but the occasional passerby or playing child would often spare him a quick stare as they passed. He almost chuckled to himself as he thought of the picture he must pose: long, braided hair and dripping wet elven-cloak being tousled by the wintry wind.

In one of the yards a pair of boys had just emerged from one of the houses. ‘Funny,” he thought, ‘they’re waving at us.’ But when he looked harder, he stopped dead in his tracks. Two eerily familiar and identical faces were staring curiously at him. If he hadn’t known better he could have sworn that they were his brothers.

But of course that couldn’t be. All further thought was cut off abruptly as he felt the strange woman collide with his back, sending him flying. Finely tuned reflexes saved him from cracking his head on the cobblestones: a swift twist of his torso and he landed heavily on waiting forearms as had been drilled into him on numerous occasions.

The woman behind him performed a quick flailing of her arms to regain balance and a smart little skipping step over Estel’s outstretched legs, saving herself a fall. The young man bit his lower lip to keep from moaning as he got slowly regained his feet. He would have quite a bit of bruising on his arms in an hour or two, as he knew from experience, but aside from that he was unharmed.

He verified that the woman was uninjured with a glance, but before he could do anything else he was interrupted by the twins that had been the inadvertent cause of the little mishap. They swarmed upon the woman as she collected herself.

“Are you alright, Mother?” Asked one anxiously. “What happened there?”

“Yes, and who is this?” Chimed in the other hastily.

The woman smiled and held up a hand for quiet. “Hold on you two!” She exclaimed with a flushed face. “Let us get inside before we all freeze, then we’ll sort this all out.” Estel was confused to say the least, not having been able to follow the conversation at all, but he allowed himself to be steered up the path to the house.

Eagerly the two boys bounded inside, Estel and their mother following at a slower pace. They entered a house built right up on the street, with a white plank front and flowerboxes in the windows. Estel watched as the boys leaped around the room opening curtains.

// flashback //

Estel and his father sat across from each other at a wooden desk. Through a window in the study the young man could see his brothers up in a nearby tree, pulling faces at their foster brother to distract him from his lesson. Glancing back down at the list of Westron verbs in front of him, Estel posed a question for Elrond. “What would you call ‘Ro and ‘Dan in Westron, Ada?” The elf lord smiled. “Menaces to society’ might be the term that you are looking for, Estel.” The young edan had frowned. I mean, like how they’re exactly alike!” Still chuckling at his own joke, Elrond gave in. “Twins, that’s what they are Estel, twins. And they are your brothers. Remember that, twins and brothers.” Estel nodded, storing the information in the back of his head for later on, and then went back to his list of verbs.

// end flashback //

Estel was pressed down into a chair by the twins’ mother, who then said something to the boys before leaving the room. He obediently sat still, trying to stop his head spinning as it had been ever since his fall.

The boys visibly settled down at whatever their mother said to them and sat obediently in a sofa across from the chair Estel was in. Looking around the room, the young man found it to be cheery and well furnished in homey colors and furniture.

It was very unlike his home at Rivendell, but still nice in its own way. The chair he sat in was some kind of red velveteen, while the twins were sprawled across each other on a green striped couch. He smiled to himself as he realized that they were in one of his brothers’ favorite positions.

Glancing up cautiously at them once more, Estel found that they were staring straight at him, as if sizing him up. Cautiously he decided to exercise his knowledge of their language. “Hello.” He ventured. One twin immediately perked up, the other didn’t bother to do more than look over at him.

“Yes, hello to you as well. What is your name, stranger?” After taking a moment to digest this, he answered with an abashed, “Estel.” Seeing them trying not to laugh, he offered what he considered to be a lame excuse. “It is Elvish.”

At this both of the boys sat up concurrently, banging into each other. “You speak Elvish?” Asked one.

“Say something for us!” Chimed in the other.

Estel paused, thinking. “Umm, yes, Elvish is my language and I could… speak… something for you.” At two enthusiastic nods, he continued. “My brothers tell me to mabo orch often. That means ‘kiss an orc’ in Elvish.” He hoped that this would satisfy the eager pair: something more complicated and graceful that sung praises to Arda’s beauty would be completely lost on them, but he felt that the crude humor might at least hold their interest for a while.

Briefly glancing up to see identical broad grins on the twins’ faces, he looked down again and rubbed his temple aggressively, trying to make the world come into focus. It seemed to be swimming oddly in front of his face, distorting the inside of the house and making his boots change shape as he watched.

He shook his head to clear his vision, but that only seemed to make things worse. Heaving a sigh, he closed his eyes and held still, listening to the pounding in his ears, pounding that was attuned to the beating of his heart. Distantly he wondered how sick he really was: he had been bed-ridden with a cold before, but never had he felt so… drained.

He didn’t even look up at the sound of footsteps entering the room, but he heard them loud and clear. Consequently, he didn’t flinch when he felt a warm hand on his back, but instead looked up into the apprehensive face of the twins’ mother.

Without saying a word she came around to the front of the chair, revealing a tray with four mugs and a teapot perched on it. Setting the whole platter down on an end table, she carefully poured out tea for all of them, handing one to Estel and letting the twins fetch theirs themselves.

Estel discreetly sniffed at his before taking a sip: living with the greatest healer on Middle Earth and his twin terrors had taught Estel to always check anything that was offered to him in a teacup.

Detecting no sleep-inducing herbs in the brew, the young man drank deeply of the hot liquid, letting the warmth of the tea seep into his chilled body. A night in wet clothes inside a frosty hut had done little to help whatever illness he had contracted, and the tea was the first thing he had put in his body for at least a day.

Raising his eyes from his cup, he saw the three others in the room observing him closely. There was a tense silence before the mother broke the hush.

“Are you feeling all right…” She searched for a name, which one of the twins gladly supplied for her.

“Estel.”

“…Estel?” The man in question ducked his head, rather hesitant to answer and thinking to hide the truth for the sake of not intruding upon hospitality. But when he saw the resolute look on the faces of the family members, he gave up and shrugged half-heartedly.

The woman pounced on the opportunity and grabbed Estel’s arm, helping him to his feet. “Well then, I am sure that it’s nothing that a good bed rest will fix. We’ll get you some of Gareth or Garren’s clothes to sleep in while yours dry out, then we can pack you into a bed and you’ll sleep off whatever bug that’s got a hold of you.”

Estel, not understanding more than a word or two of what was said, simply nodded mutely. Allowing himself to be wearily dragged up a flight of steps in the corner of the room, he found himself in a bedroom with a full sized bed and a dresser. A window looked over the street, but he took in very little of his surroundings, merely standing in a corner awaiting orders.

The woman was rummaging through a closet down the hallway a bit, but presently came back with an armful of clothing. “Here you are.” She handed him what seemed to be a tunic and breeches, and then pointed to the bed. “When you’re dressed open the door before you go to sleep.”

Estel, with a head that felt like jelly, nodded his assent to what he hoped was a correct translation of her statement. She left the room, closing the door behind her. Quickly Estel stripped off his wet clothing and tugging on a coal gray sleeping tunic and tan breeches that were both several sizes too large for him.

Right then he didn’t care, though. The man had barely collapsed onto the bed when he blacked out, leaving all the cares of the world to be dealt with another time.