tar_minyatur | IC Inbox (FadeRift)

"A good helm would be helpful." Elros agrees. "I wouldn't refuse anything you make, but I don't know if I want a full set. Suppose one never knows..."

"Necessary." he amends, raising a hand to trace over one of Elros's now rounded ears, "It could not hurt. We are strangers here and I have heard of fearsome foes in the wild."

"Will we go out to hunt them?" Elros leans into his fingers.

"I suppose I don't mind having a set for emergencies."

"Eventually." he gazes out, beyond the garden, beyond the trees, "Kano and I, at least, are not accustomed to staying in one place long."

He leans against him.

"Take me with you, when you go? I'll go stir crazy stuck here."

"I want you to come." he nods and closes the book, setting it aside, "We need to stay together. This world makes it far too easy for us to be torn from each other's company."

"It will be like when we were young! But without orcs."

"Thankfully." he grins and stands from the bench, "I should have some poisons within the next month. They will help us defeat beasts that the Lady Beleth told me about."

"She's weirdly touchy." He rolls his eyes. "I like the humans here better. Less apt to randomly take or give insult."

"Touchy?" he looks perplexed, "What do you mean? The Elves here have endured much and they are not all of one mind. That leaves them weak to attack."

"I know that, but she got all upset when I brought it up?"Elros rolls his eyes.

"I tell you, it's like dealing with the Easterlings! Really, I left that all behind deliberately - I would be quite happy to not need to deal with it again. You can play nice with them if you want, but I'm just as happy to leave it again. Men are more fun."

"Maybe it was the manner in which you brought it up?" Maedhros's eyebrows rise and then he chuckles, "I agree it is very tiring to see otherwise skilled people biting and barking at each other. The problems they should be addressing are all around them, yet they focus on feeling superior."

He rolls his eyes.

"I asked if she could elaborate to me on their conquering, and nearly had my head bitten off. It does not speak well when one cannot even acknowledge their own people's defeat. You and Maglor taught me better! Call a spade a spade - call a kidnapping a kidnapping. You are my foster father, but you were also my jailor. I knew that, I acknowledged it. That's the only way to work through it, that's what I was taught. To act as if it never happened... tch. And worse, to explode at a stranger, simply because I am human? I don't have time for such histrionics. I chose mortality to get away from the politics of immortals. I have no interest in getting embroiled in it here."

"You are entirely correct and you do not deserve to be embroiled in the politics anymore." he laid a hand on Elros's shoulder, silently encouraging him to breathe and calm himself.

Beleth isn't alone in her reaction. He has met others who are equally emotional about the kindest of advice. Maedhros has decided to take none of it personally and simply do as he sees best.

"They are not immortal." he does not know their exact lifespan, but they are much more like Men than the Elves of Arda, "What you see are the politics of Elves mixed with the politics of Men, I fear. The worst of both worlds."

Elros snorts.

"Aye, and with enough discrimination to make a Mumak sick. Treating their own people as if they're somehow worse, because they stay in human towns? Pfah. It's just like the War of Wrath again, with loss of life because no one would listen to the Doomed Sons of Feanor, never mind that you and Maglor had the best battle experience of everyone there! Or because no one would fight beside Cousin Celebrimbor and his men because oh no, how terrible, they foreswore their lords, those kinslayers. Bah. Even the Easterlings stop fighting each other if you give them a common enemy to hate!"

"They are not above torturing one another either." his mouth is in a grim line, "Our battle experience will come in handy should they try that ploy on one of us. Then they will know what sort of warriors Arda has bred."

In a way, he longs to vent some of his anger. As gentle as he can be, there is always rage under the surface.

"I think the only quality we should discriminate against is stupidity."

"Maglor will kill anyone who touches you." Elros predicts. "He gets so protective these days. But either way - I don't owe them anything, and that attitude is hardly endearing them to me! I chose Men for a reason, Maedhros. I love you - you and Fingon and Maglor and Galadriel... you're family, both of my blood and of my choosing. I'll always come when you call. But if cousin Thranduil wants to embroil himself in their politics, that's his affair. I want nothing to do with them."

"I won't put him in that position if I can help it." Maedhros knows Elros's words are true, "No, you owe them nothing. I am proud of you for standing your ground, yondo and I am sorry she took that tone with you." he smiles briefly, sharply, "She takes a far different tone with me - out of fear, I am sure."

"I'd just as soon catch the next ship out of here in honesty."

Elros sighs. "I can't blame Father for always putting out to sea if Sindar-Noldor relations were even half this bad. She probably thinks you are wonderful."

"We do not have that choice." Maedhros shakes his head, "You cannot run, dear one. We must learn to either defend ourselves to the utmost or coexist."

He suggests a mixture of both, honestly. That way all potentialities are covered.

"It's not running it's a strategic retreat?"

He sighs and grumpily acknowledges.

"I can't anyway, because of the stupid shard in my hand."

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