Going Home (to a place we’ve never been before.) Chapter Two.
Here is a slightly early Christmas Gift for those who read chapter one of Going Home (to a place we’ve never been before.)
Chapter Two; The Years we shared…. Or didn’t.
2,725 words.
Rated PG
“So, your Naneth was all… well, like Lady Wilflede at the Hornburg, that time.”
Both Elladan and Elrohir knew exactly what Tindómë meant. Legolas had heard the story, and Rumil and Orophin were there, but Ithilienne and Lithôniel needed an explanation. Tindómë gave it.
“…and if it hadn’t been for the yrch we would have arrived at a more civilised time. But as it was, we arrived in the middle of the night, and these two…” she waved at the twins, “were ‘lording’. Her ladyship recognised them as the brothers of Queen Arwen, and Elladan explained that Orophin and Rumil were his grandparents’ emissaries, and I was their ward on my way to visit Queen Arwen and King Elessar - so Lady Wilflede gave us the best guest rooms.”
She paused, probably for effect, “Which was fine until Éomer King appeared over the horizon. And then her poor ladyship could not work out how to ask us to move, as we were in the suite of rooms reserved for the King and Queen. She was so worried that she would either upset her own king, or insult the king next door, that she was almost speechless.”
“What happened?” Ithilienne asked.
“Eventually Éomer more or less wrung it out of her. And then he said he would sleep with his guards as, after all, he had had to share with his horse on more than one occasion; so any bed would be good. Except that then she more or less told him off, as if he was a junior squire, explaining that was not acceptable behaviour for a king! Finally, their twin lordships here suggested Éomer use one of the rooms, and we would use the others, and poor Lady Wilflede was immensely relieved that no-one seemed to be insulted at any point.”
It was so good, Elladan thought, to be sitting here, at twilight, in the garden of the house Tindómë’s family currently occupied.
It had not taken very long, after that discussion in Elrohir’s bedroom, to contact their friends. Even Naneth had agreed that although both of her sons were in good health, especially compared with some who had arrived over the past few yéni like their father, spending time with people they knew well was a lot less taxing that meeting lots of new people in formal settings.
She had suggested inviting Legolas and Tindómë’s close family, to ‘Imladris-on-Sea’, but Tindómë had sent word that it might be even better if the twins came to ‘her’ house; it would save Rumil carrying a lot of pictures up the hill! As well as, she had added when Elrohir had managed to reach her silently once he knew she was quite close by, giving them a chance to talk to Ithilienne about her unexpected ability.
The conversation about the room swap was still going on.
“…so I was not supposed to know anything about you two finally deciding to take ship,” Legolas was saying, “as I was many, many, miles away, with no means of communication. Except that, of course,” he looked at Ithilienne, “I was fairly sure of it even before you sent the letter to your parents. And I was certain within days of the letters arriving because Ithilienne was able to tell Tindómë what the letter addressed to her said, and Tindómë told me.”
“It is fortunate,” his ‘small sister’ said, “that he is very good at looking totally innocent under such circumstances - and also lucky that his own naneth was not in the room at the time, as she would have been well aware that he was sure to know.”
Elladan was still not sure how, or why, Ithilienne had chosen to tell Legolas’ mother about her ability to talk to people as they slept, but not his own parents. But that was a conversation for another day, he decided.
“It really was a bit like Lady Wilflede,” Tindómë cut in. “There was going to be quite an influx for your parents to cope with, what with all the others coming with you, so he couldn’t just move into a different bedroom in your parents’ home. So it seemed obvious to Legolas that he could simply move in with some of us Ithilrim, or into the Hobbit Hole with Gimli. And, although it wasn’t quite offering to sleep with his horse, Ladies Celebrían and Galadriel both felt this was not princely enough.”
“And so,” Legolas continued, “along with my naneth, they had already made arrangements for her and I, and Cîrdoron and Rhîwen who had also been at your parents, to move to your great-great-grandparents palace, which is where you can find me… at least some of the time.
“And we will certainly be there when they do get the chance to formally welcome you - a few friendly faces. The ellyth are all very friendly too… do you want the low-down on all the current wagers, and what you could do to ensure the win with the longest odds?”
Elladan heard his twin speaking to him silently. Elrohir’s voice carried a smile.
“Thinking of that time at the Hornburg, we never did find out if any of the Galadhrim had money on Tinu’s next encounter, after her first time with Rumil, being ‘with Orophin and Rumil, in the King of Rohan’s bed’…”
Out loud Elrohir said “Inside knowledge of what may and may not be the subject of wagers is always of interest, Legolas, you know that. Good to know that at least our Telerin kin find pleasure in such things as well.”
“See,” said Tindómë, “life here is not as bland and boring as you feared. At times it can even get quite exciting,” she finished with a smile.
“Speaking of our Telerin kin,” Elrohir said, “what do you think of the people here?”
Legolas answered him. “They are like us, but not like us,” he said slowly. “And by ‘us’ I mean not just my people, but also yourselves and your folk.
“The people here in Alqualondë are friendly and cheerful for the most part; they happily showed us the best place to build the solstice fires so that the sea does not reach them and, then, came and joined in our form of celebrations. Tindómë has introduced us to pastimes suited to the sea and the shore that no-one here had ever thought of before, and the Teleri have happily embraced them…”
“You must tell us more about these new pastimes,” Elladan said. Then added, “but I sense ‘and yet…’ at the end of that sentence, Legolas.”
Legolas nodded. “…and yet there is a sense that nothing had really changed for yén upon yén until we troublesome wood elves arrived. The palace where we are now staying seems to have changed almost not at all through the Ages; there is a painting that shows your great-grandparents marriage celebrations and I swear that the furnishings and the colours in the Great Hall are the same in it as they are in reality today.
“It is not the sense of total ennui, of being set in amber, that we feared before sailing. For example, fashions in clothing seem to change quite often,” he said with a smile. “And yet it is as if those who build boats will always build boats, those who sail them will always sail them, and so on.”
“Perhaps,” Elladan said, thinking it through, “It helps them forget the passage of time. Grandmother tried, and succeeded for a long time, to keep everything in Lothlorien unaltered. Then you would not have to think, so much, on how long it has been since a friend, or brother, father, son, whoever, has been in Mandos Halls, and why is he not yet back with his family…”
“Or hers,” Tindómë said.
“Or hers,” he agreed.
“It’s going to be bad enough for you two,” Tindómë went on, “having to keep track of generations of relatives you have heard of only as stories, without having some who are on their first time around, some on their second, and some still ‘Missing In Mandos’.”
She said this with some relish, and he would not have been surprised if she had finished by sticking her tongue out and saying ‘I told you so!’.
He shared this mental image with both Elrohir and Tindómë herself, and saw the twitch of her mouth before she added, “I did tell you that you wouldn’t be looked down on as peredhil, seeing as how you are seen as royalty of one degree or another by Noldor, Teleri and Sindar.”
This caused some consternation amongst the others who had not been aware that they might have worried about it.
Then her voice could be heard clearly. “Although I am sure Haldir will still look down his nose at you - he has a reputation to uphold, after all!”
The others laughed, and Elladan waited, before saying that Grandmother had told them that Haldir had returned from Mandos, and had been sent, by the Valar themselves, on a quest with Tindómë that had resulted in them being shown how much land was available for them. She had told them nothing about the quest apart from that, and that Legolas and Haldir had then led a party to explore the new lands thoroughly, returning only recently. And both twins wanted to know all about it.
But when Elrohir said “What I want to know, Tinu, is how it came to be just you and your husband-brother who undertook this journey?” Tindómë glanced at Rumil and Legolas, then said that was a long story, for another time.
And Legolas cut in quickly “There is so much land! Wonderful land. Land that has always been there, waiting for us - and for you as well. Come and see Rumil’s drawings, and we will tell you about it.”
“I wonder what the story really is behind that unlikely pair being the first to see it all… we really will have to get her alone, preferably with some good wine,”’ Elladan heard his brother say silently, and could only agree.
But now Rumil began to unroll picture after picture and they found themselves drawn into the middle of the group, with description and explanation coming from all sides.
“Tirion… we have been there a few times now. Even when we stay in the Palace, a lot of the locals think of us as lowly ‘squirrel lovers’…”
“Squirrel lovers?” Elladan queried.
“They do not expect any of us to understand Quenya. Of course we can be even more insulting, if we wish, as none of the every day elves in the street have any understanding of Sindarin.” That was Orophin.
“The High King thought Legolas too young and inexperienced to lead the first proper expedition into the new lands. He thought he should send Gil-Galad along to take charge.”
“Oh…” said Elrohir out loud.
Silently he said to his twin “Surely, if he was at all interested in what had happened in the long fight against evil, our great-grandfather should have realised how that suggestion would have gone down?”
“Like a lead butterfly,” Elladan replied. “But then he will only have heard any of our history from the side of the Noldor. I suppose their telling of the tale will be very different from the way the people of The Great Greenwood, saw things.”
There was no time to ponder further as Rumil was unrolling a drawing and saying “The Máhanaxar.”
“The Máhanaxar?” Elladan asked. “What were you doing in the Máhanaxar?”
“Long story…” Tindómë said. “Hey, Rumil, where’s the pictures of the mining town?”
Elladan heard Elrohir’s inner voice; “We have got to get the full story. I begin to feel we stayed behind in the peace and quiet of Imladris for too long - this is where all the interesting things were happening!”
He could only agree.
“This,” said Legolas, “is the hidden valley which is beyond the first mountains, but before the second great range.”
He passed a sheaf of pictures to them. No-one spoke, but there was a sense that everyone in the room was waiting for the twins’ reaction.
There were a few moments of silent communion between Elladan and his brother - more a sharing of emotions than words. Neither spoke.
Eventually Legolas looked away from them and when he spoke it almost seemed to be at a tangent.
He took out of the sheaf a small sketch showing a group around a campfire, their faces caught between light and shadow.
“Do you remember the conversation that night?” he asked the others. “I was asked whether I would want to go back to being a prince in my father’s kingdom… or would I want to carve out a place for myself and the Ithilrim in the lands we would find over the next mountains. Gimli pointed out that both he and I had struck out after the Ring War and become Lords in our own right, and he would not have wanted to go back. I agreed. I would want my own lands.”
“It is a very beautiful valley,” said Tindómë in an apparent non sequitur. “Like Imladris must have been when your Adar first discovered it, but also different - not a copy, but an echo,”
“Our own new forests are over another high range of mountains,” Galanthir, this time. “But I think this valley is the gem of the lands in between.”
Lithôniel laughed. “And I will tell you what our esteemed husband-brother said,” she said, joining in the conversation.
She altered her stance slightly and, although she looked nothing like Haldir, it was suddenly as if it was him talking. “The situation is good, especially for a household that is part Noldor and part Sindar. Not that close to Tirion, so less likely to attract unwanted visitors… But close enough to make it possible to go the Noldorin court; to visit them as relatives and, incidentally, keep an ear to what is happening there. And there are only the next mountains to cross to reach my Lord and Lady in our lands.”
“There,” she went on, “I have come out and said it!”
Legolas grinned. “To be honest, some of us at first thought of your parents. But they both seem content here. Your adar, as Tindómë pointed out during this conversation,” he waved his hand at the drawing again, “was an elfling of the sea, he only ended up so deeply inland in desperation.
“And Gimli, whose feet are always planted more firmly on the ground than those of us elves, of course, told us sternly that there is no point in trying to make again what was before. His own folk, he said, have tried, but it is never the same thing. It would be better, he said, that your father and mother not try to use this valley to make a replica of the old Homely House.”
“But,” Tindómë said, “we all thought you two should get the first option, including Gimli. You might want to go back to living in your parents’ home, but you have been the decision makers for a while now, and we thought you may feel the way Gimli and Legolas did. So, as we knew you were on your way, when we got back here to Alqualondë we didn’t show these pictures to your parents…
“I mean, you would need to see it first, and you might want to ask your parents their opinion and give them the first option but, hey, if you guys stake a claim first, I reckon it’s yours.”
Although he could feel that his brother was as drawn to the place in these pictures as he was, Elladan decided to tease a little first.
“Why would we need a stake? We did not expect to need a vampire-slayer, like your sister from the other place, here in Valinor!”
It did not quite have the desired effect. Their ‘ tithen maethor’ did not answer, but looked, fleetingly, shocked before becoming expressionless.
“No fear of that,” said Legolas briskly.
But out the corner of his eye Elladan could see Rumil reach out and take his wife’s hand.
“There is a story here that we do not, yet, know,” came Elrohir’s voice silently.
“So,” this time it was Ithilienne who spoke, “What do you think of the valley?”
Chapter Two; The Years we shared…. Or didn’t.
2,725 words.
Rated PG
“So, your Naneth was all… well, like Lady Wilflede at the Hornburg, that time.”
Both Elladan and Elrohir knew exactly what Tindómë meant. Legolas had heard the story, and Rumil and Orophin were there, but Ithilienne and Lithôniel needed an explanation. Tindómë gave it.
“…and if it hadn’t been for the yrch we would have arrived at a more civilised time. But as it was, we arrived in the middle of the night, and these two…” she waved at the twins, “were ‘lording’. Her ladyship recognised them as the brothers of Queen Arwen, and Elladan explained that Orophin and Rumil were his grandparents’ emissaries, and I was their ward on my way to visit Queen Arwen and King Elessar - so Lady Wilflede gave us the best guest rooms.”
She paused, probably for effect, “Which was fine until Éomer King appeared over the horizon. And then her poor ladyship could not work out how to ask us to move, as we were in the suite of rooms reserved for the King and Queen. She was so worried that she would either upset her own king, or insult the king next door, that she was almost speechless.”
“What happened?” Ithilienne asked.
“Eventually Éomer more or less wrung it out of her. And then he said he would sleep with his guards as, after all, he had had to share with his horse on more than one occasion; so any bed would be good. Except that then she more or less told him off, as if he was a junior squire, explaining that was not acceptable behaviour for a king! Finally, their twin lordships here suggested Éomer use one of the rooms, and we would use the others, and poor Lady Wilflede was immensely relieved that no-one seemed to be insulted at any point.”
It was so good, Elladan thought, to be sitting here, at twilight, in the garden of the house Tindómë’s family currently occupied.
It had not taken very long, after that discussion in Elrohir’s bedroom, to contact their friends. Even Naneth had agreed that although both of her sons were in good health, especially compared with some who had arrived over the past few yéni like their father, spending time with people they knew well was a lot less taxing that meeting lots of new people in formal settings.
She had suggested inviting Legolas and Tindómë’s close family, to ‘Imladris-on-Sea’, but Tindómë had sent word that it might be even better if the twins came to ‘her’ house; it would save Rumil carrying a lot of pictures up the hill! As well as, she had added when Elrohir had managed to reach her silently once he knew she was quite close by, giving them a chance to talk to Ithilienne about her unexpected ability.
The conversation about the room swap was still going on.
“…so I was not supposed to know anything about you two finally deciding to take ship,” Legolas was saying, “as I was many, many, miles away, with no means of communication. Except that, of course,” he looked at Ithilienne, “I was fairly sure of it even before you sent the letter to your parents. And I was certain within days of the letters arriving because Ithilienne was able to tell Tindómë what the letter addressed to her said, and Tindómë told me.”
“It is fortunate,” his ‘small sister’ said, “that he is very good at looking totally innocent under such circumstances - and also lucky that his own naneth was not in the room at the time, as she would have been well aware that he was sure to know.”
Elladan was still not sure how, or why, Ithilienne had chosen to tell Legolas’ mother about her ability to talk to people as they slept, but not his own parents. But that was a conversation for another day, he decided.
“It really was a bit like Lady Wilflede,” Tindómë cut in. “There was going to be quite an influx for your parents to cope with, what with all the others coming with you, so he couldn’t just move into a different bedroom in your parents’ home. So it seemed obvious to Legolas that he could simply move in with some of us Ithilrim, or into the Hobbit Hole with Gimli. And, although it wasn’t quite offering to sleep with his horse, Ladies Celebrían and Galadriel both felt this was not princely enough.”
“And so,” Legolas continued, “along with my naneth, they had already made arrangements for her and I, and Cîrdoron and Rhîwen who had also been at your parents, to move to your great-great-grandparents palace, which is where you can find me… at least some of the time.
“And we will certainly be there when they do get the chance to formally welcome you - a few friendly faces. The ellyth are all very friendly too… do you want the low-down on all the current wagers, and what you could do to ensure the win with the longest odds?”
Elladan heard his twin speaking to him silently. Elrohir’s voice carried a smile.
“Thinking of that time at the Hornburg, we never did find out if any of the Galadhrim had money on Tinu’s next encounter, after her first time with Rumil, being ‘with Orophin and Rumil, in the King of Rohan’s bed’…”
Out loud Elrohir said “Inside knowledge of what may and may not be the subject of wagers is always of interest, Legolas, you know that. Good to know that at least our Telerin kin find pleasure in such things as well.”
“See,” said Tindómë, “life here is not as bland and boring as you feared. At times it can even get quite exciting,” she finished with a smile.
“Speaking of our Telerin kin,” Elrohir said, “what do you think of the people here?”
Legolas answered him. “They are like us, but not like us,” he said slowly. “And by ‘us’ I mean not just my people, but also yourselves and your folk.
“The people here in Alqualondë are friendly and cheerful for the most part; they happily showed us the best place to build the solstice fires so that the sea does not reach them and, then, came and joined in our form of celebrations. Tindómë has introduced us to pastimes suited to the sea and the shore that no-one here had ever thought of before, and the Teleri have happily embraced them…”
“You must tell us more about these new pastimes,” Elladan said. Then added, “but I sense ‘and yet…’ at the end of that sentence, Legolas.”
Legolas nodded. “…and yet there is a sense that nothing had really changed for yén upon yén until we troublesome wood elves arrived. The palace where we are now staying seems to have changed almost not at all through the Ages; there is a painting that shows your great-grandparents marriage celebrations and I swear that the furnishings and the colours in the Great Hall are the same in it as they are in reality today.
“It is not the sense of total ennui, of being set in amber, that we feared before sailing. For example, fashions in clothing seem to change quite often,” he said with a smile. “And yet it is as if those who build boats will always build boats, those who sail them will always sail them, and so on.”
“Perhaps,” Elladan said, thinking it through, “It helps them forget the passage of time. Grandmother tried, and succeeded for a long time, to keep everything in Lothlorien unaltered. Then you would not have to think, so much, on how long it has been since a friend, or brother, father, son, whoever, has been in Mandos Halls, and why is he not yet back with his family…”
“Or hers,” Tindómë said.
“Or hers,” he agreed.
“It’s going to be bad enough for you two,” Tindómë went on, “having to keep track of generations of relatives you have heard of only as stories, without having some who are on their first time around, some on their second, and some still ‘Missing In Mandos’.”
She said this with some relish, and he would not have been surprised if she had finished by sticking her tongue out and saying ‘I told you so!’.
He shared this mental image with both Elrohir and Tindómë herself, and saw the twitch of her mouth before she added, “I did tell you that you wouldn’t be looked down on as peredhil, seeing as how you are seen as royalty of one degree or another by Noldor, Teleri and Sindar.”
This caused some consternation amongst the others who had not been aware that they might have worried about it.
Then her voice could be heard clearly. “Although I am sure Haldir will still look down his nose at you - he has a reputation to uphold, after all!”
The others laughed, and Elladan waited, before saying that Grandmother had told them that Haldir had returned from Mandos, and had been sent, by the Valar themselves, on a quest with Tindómë that had resulted in them being shown how much land was available for them. She had told them nothing about the quest apart from that, and that Legolas and Haldir had then led a party to explore the new lands thoroughly, returning only recently. And both twins wanted to know all about it.
But when Elrohir said “What I want to know, Tinu, is how it came to be just you and your husband-brother who undertook this journey?” Tindómë glanced at Rumil and Legolas, then said that was a long story, for another time.
And Legolas cut in quickly “There is so much land! Wonderful land. Land that has always been there, waiting for us - and for you as well. Come and see Rumil’s drawings, and we will tell you about it.”
“I wonder what the story really is behind that unlikely pair being the first to see it all… we really will have to get her alone, preferably with some good wine,”’ Elladan heard his brother say silently, and could only agree.
But now Rumil began to unroll picture after picture and they found themselves drawn into the middle of the group, with description and explanation coming from all sides.
“Tirion… we have been there a few times now. Even when we stay in the Palace, a lot of the locals think of us as lowly ‘squirrel lovers’…”
“Squirrel lovers?” Elladan queried.
“They do not expect any of us to understand Quenya. Of course we can be even more insulting, if we wish, as none of the every day elves in the street have any understanding of Sindarin.” That was Orophin.
“The High King thought Legolas too young and inexperienced to lead the first proper expedition into the new lands. He thought he should send Gil-Galad along to take charge.”
“Oh…” said Elrohir out loud.
Silently he said to his twin “Surely, if he was at all interested in what had happened in the long fight against evil, our great-grandfather should have realised how that suggestion would have gone down?”
“Like a lead butterfly,” Elladan replied. “But then he will only have heard any of our history from the side of the Noldor. I suppose their telling of the tale will be very different from the way the people of The Great Greenwood, saw things.”
There was no time to ponder further as Rumil was unrolling a drawing and saying “The Máhanaxar.”
“The Máhanaxar?” Elladan asked. “What were you doing in the Máhanaxar?”
“Long story…” Tindómë said. “Hey, Rumil, where’s the pictures of the mining town?”
Elladan heard Elrohir’s inner voice; “We have got to get the full story. I begin to feel we stayed behind in the peace and quiet of Imladris for too long - this is where all the interesting things were happening!”
He could only agree.
“This,” said Legolas, “is the hidden valley which is beyond the first mountains, but before the second great range.”
He passed a sheaf of pictures to them. No-one spoke, but there was a sense that everyone in the room was waiting for the twins’ reaction.
There were a few moments of silent communion between Elladan and his brother - more a sharing of emotions than words. Neither spoke.
Eventually Legolas looked away from them and when he spoke it almost seemed to be at a tangent.
He took out of the sheaf a small sketch showing a group around a campfire, their faces caught between light and shadow.
“Do you remember the conversation that night?” he asked the others. “I was asked whether I would want to go back to being a prince in my father’s kingdom… or would I want to carve out a place for myself and the Ithilrim in the lands we would find over the next mountains. Gimli pointed out that both he and I had struck out after the Ring War and become Lords in our own right, and he would not have wanted to go back. I agreed. I would want my own lands.”
“It is a very beautiful valley,” said Tindómë in an apparent non sequitur. “Like Imladris must have been when your Adar first discovered it, but also different - not a copy, but an echo,”
“Our own new forests are over another high range of mountains,” Galanthir, this time. “But I think this valley is the gem of the lands in between.”
Lithôniel laughed. “And I will tell you what our esteemed husband-brother said,” she said, joining in the conversation.
She altered her stance slightly and, although she looked nothing like Haldir, it was suddenly as if it was him talking. “The situation is good, especially for a household that is part Noldor and part Sindar. Not that close to Tirion, so less likely to attract unwanted visitors… But close enough to make it possible to go the Noldorin court; to visit them as relatives and, incidentally, keep an ear to what is happening there. And there are only the next mountains to cross to reach my Lord and Lady in our lands.”
“There,” she went on, “I have come out and said it!”
Legolas grinned. “To be honest, some of us at first thought of your parents. But they both seem content here. Your adar, as Tindómë pointed out during this conversation,” he waved his hand at the drawing again, “was an elfling of the sea, he only ended up so deeply inland in desperation.
“And Gimli, whose feet are always planted more firmly on the ground than those of us elves, of course, told us sternly that there is no point in trying to make again what was before. His own folk, he said, have tried, but it is never the same thing. It would be better, he said, that your father and mother not try to use this valley to make a replica of the old Homely House.”
“But,” Tindómë said, “we all thought you two should get the first option, including Gimli. You might want to go back to living in your parents’ home, but you have been the decision makers for a while now, and we thought you may feel the way Gimli and Legolas did. So, as we knew you were on your way, when we got back here to Alqualondë we didn’t show these pictures to your parents…
“I mean, you would need to see it first, and you might want to ask your parents their opinion and give them the first option but, hey, if you guys stake a claim first, I reckon it’s yours.”
Although he could feel that his brother was as drawn to the place in these pictures as he was, Elladan decided to tease a little first.
“Why would we need a stake? We did not expect to need a vampire-slayer, like your sister from the other place, here in Valinor!”
It did not quite have the desired effect. Their ‘ tithen maethor’ did not answer, but looked, fleetingly, shocked before becoming expressionless.
“No fear of that,” said Legolas briskly.
But out the corner of his eye Elladan could see Rumil reach out and take his wife’s hand.
“There is a story here that we do not, yet, know,” came Elrohir’s voice silently.
“So,” this time it was Ithilienne who spoke, “What do you think of the valley?”