When least expected

Chapter five return

Haldir couldn’t take it anymore. Nothing seemed amiss with the southern road and the ominous feeling something was terribly wrong just did not leave him. It was getting worse by the minute.

Rumil had Orophin did not agree with their brother. They had seen unknown markings. It was clear others were using their road as well. Creatures that hid themselves and did not do the proper thing and pay homage to the ruler of the realm. They spoke about it as Haldir kicked over the last reminiscent of a camp.

“Im umestelta sina, gwador.”

Orophin nodded “Me neither, but there isn’t much we can do. There’s too many of them and too little of us.”

“I know.” Then Rumil’s face lit up. “What about signs, border signs. I’ve seen humans do it. It would tell others the Golden Wood is a realm. Our realm.”

“Maybe, but that’s not up to us to decide. We should keep a close eye to the borders. And I am not just talking about the village borders. We should never have neglected the wood beyond the village borders.”

“We had to, Orophin”, Haldir intervened. “If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to do our job.”

Orophin and Rumil looked at their brother. He did not look good. He looked almost haunted. “Haldir? Mannás?”

“Amin caela sina tyay.”

Orophin and Rumil understood immediately “Celeborn.”

Haldir nodded. “Im dele ten’ho”

“Lye delear ten’lee” Was the reply. They all laughed. But for Haldir’s sake and all their sanity they none the less ran all the way home.

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Panting heavily Haldir and his brothers reached the royal talan. They hurried up the stairs.

When one of the maids saw them coming she stopped them. “Lle creoso dan, arátaerea. Im hartha námárs.”

It took them a while to understand everything. Rielle spoke a mixture of Quenya, Sindarin and Telerin. But they always managed to figure it out. They still felt odd by Rielle addressing them as noble ones. Celeborn was the noble one, but every time they had said so the maid had disagreed, saying they were just as noble as their lord.

“Manke naa Hîr Celeborn, Rielle?” Haldir asked.

A look of worry came over her face. “Hîrngua naa sammathria, Haldir, Im dele ten’ho.”

Even though they had not understood half of it, Orophin was quick to answer “Mani marte?”

“Im istabá. Hîr Telpegalla epe pestabályë.”

Haldir didn’t wait any longer and he ran towards Celeborn’s rooms, taking the stair three steps at once. Somehow he knew they could be too late. Tears were slowly making their way down his face. Every possible image of what he might find kept flashing before him.

Orophin and Rumil were hot on his trail, they did not know what would happed next but they did know they had to be there for Haldir. They silently begged the Valar to let everything be alright.

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One day before:
“Can’t you stand still for one second. I can’t get my work complete if you keep up this pacing.” Once again the weaving had gone wrong and Vaire had to undo almost half of it. It greatly annoyed her. Even more so because it was the result of her husband’s consistent pacing.

But he merely growled, showing his growing annoyance at the way things were going.

Vaire sighed. When he was like this, he was almost human. “Why don’t you tell me what is upsetting you? One of your guests?”

Mandos laughed. “And when I call them that you kindly remind me they are dead souls, awaiting to be reborn.”

“Well, it got your attention. And look,” his wife chuckled, “you stopped pacing.”

Mandos sat down on his favourite chair and looked at her in complete agony. “Tell me, are all elves this impossible or just these two?”

Vaire shook her head. “If you tell me which two elves you are referring to, I might be able to answer you.”

A glitter appeared in his eyes at the thought of enlightening his wife of what happhappened. And while he talked he saw their life appear before him, born out of his wife’s magical hands. “And look at them, they are annoyingly stubborn.” He concluded.

Vaire smiled. Mandos always got personally involved and she loved him for it. “stubstubborn. But why don’t we see if there’s something we can do? Give them a dream for instance. It’s better to go over our options than to pace around and fill this room with darkness. Besides, you are right, they belong together.”

And so Vaire and Mandos went over all options. Sending a dream was a good choice but time was running out. Suddenly Mandos saw his wife smile in the most wicked way. “Claim him.”

He looked stunned. “What? But that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid here.”

“I know bf yof you claim him, they’ll want to save him. And just like us they know who has to do it.”

“Hello, look down, Haldir’s on patrol.” Mandos growled frustrated. This wasn’t going to work.

“Ah,” Vaire’s gleam appeared, “but I think I can arrange a swift return.”

“Very well, we’ll try it, but if I have to welcome Telperion into my halls, you are going to fix it.” and he turned to go to work.

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When they opened the door the brothers saw nothing. The room was so dark; the fire didn’t burn, no candles were lit and the heavy drapes were closed, allowing no light in what so ever.

Haldir did not care. The darkness worried him more and he stepped into the room. He walked to where he figured the candelabra would be and he lit the candles. To their eyes the light that came from them was as bright as Arien itself and they had to blink a couple of times.

Looking around Rumil was the first to spot Celeborn. He was slumped in his chair, his robes cascading from the too slim shoulders and no longer well fitting as they once were. Arms dangled useless at the sides. The book in his right had seemed to fall out of the holding grip any given moment. Celeborn’s eyes were closed and with every small intake of breath the chest slowly rose. Little clouds of air could be seen emanating from his lips whenever air left him again. Lips that where blue with cold.

‘Was he this bad when we left?’ Rumil thought to himself as he ran towards the fireplace He had to start it and as soon as he had a fire going he threw up as many logs as he could, heating the room up. Then he went to light all the candles in the room.

Haldir stood glued to the spot. Celeborn seemed dead.

But Orophin shook him out of it. “Haldir, he’s still alive, look his chest still rises. But we have to get him warm. Go hold him. Rumil, get blankets and I will go to the kitchen and get some hot herbal tea. Hurry now.”

Haldir did as he was told and he drew the cold body to his own, sharing his body heat. He now saw the note Celeborn had left him but he refused to leave Celeborn to read it. He would wait until either Rumil or Orophin was back to read it.

Rumil was depriving every room in the talan of blankets, furs and other warming objects he could find. When he was getting to the end of his search there almost wasn’t an elf visible anymore, so many cts cts was he carrying.

Orophin was running harder than he ever had. When he entered the kitchen Rielle was there, about to leave. He quickly stopped her, they could use her help.

“Rielle,” he panted her name, “hot liquid. Reviving. Celeborn. Now.”

Even though he had not formed any coherent sentences Rielle understood immediately. She cursed herself for not checking on her lord. And she hurried to make some herbal tea, using all the reviving herbs she knew and even added some athalas. She pointed to where some extra miruvar was kept and Orophin took it.

When all was done they ran back to the lord’s room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rumil had already returned and despite the situation Haldir burst out laughing. It was hard to tell it was Rumil, all he saw where two shuffling feet sticking out under the large amounts of blankets and such.

Rumil threw them all on the floor and gave some to Haldir. “Here, cover him and yourself in those. And there are more if you need them.”

“I can see that, thank you. There’s a letter over there, get it will you.”

Rumil did so and was shocked to see the contents. He silently handed it to Haldir who read it just as silently.

Haldir sighed and then gathered Celeborn closer to him. “Aye, my lord, I will not endanger myself.”

Rumil’s mouth dropped to the floor. “But…but…we can’t….I mean…”

But Haldir clarified. “I will not, because you come back on you own, won’t you, my lord.”

Rumil sat down. It was as if he didn’t know his brother anymore. It was Haldir but yet he was so different now. He hoped they would be able to make Celeborn stay. He did not want to lose his brother. Sitting down on the pile of furs Rumil waited for Orophin to arrive, meanwhile watching Haldir talk to Celeborn. And he listened as talking turned to singing.

End chapter five
TBC

Note:
I do not know if I am going to do a story about Rielle but she’s basically alive because I found a dictionary of Telerin and it seemed so lovely I wanted to use it, and this was the only way I could do it. To make it more difficult for the other to follow her I had her speak a mixture of Quenya, Sindarin and Telerin. Possible explanation for this; she is a Teleri and is proud of her heritage.

Translations:
Im Umestelta sina. I don’t like it.; Literally: I don’t trust this, because:
Im means I
Um- is a denial verb
Estel means trust as well as hope
Ta is another denial. Used here to emphasise the denial.
Sina means this

Gwador means brother

Mannás means What is it? because:
Man means what
ná means it
s means is

Amin caela sina tyav means I have this feeling
Im dele ten’ho means I am worried about him.
Lya delear ten’ lee means we’re worried about you, because:
Lya means we
Delear is the plural of dele- to worry.

Lle creoso dan, arátaerea Welcome back to you, noble ones.; because:
Lle means you
Dan back (Sindarin)
Creoso welcome
Arátaerea means Noble ones. coming from Aráta which is Telerin for noble. In complete Telerin it would be arátapene, but I decided to mix it with Quenya, it makes her background more legit. (see note)
~er means one as in noble one or lovely one (lirimaer)
~ea shows it are more persons that are lovely or in this case noble.

Im hartha námárs I hope all was well; literally I hope it is well; because:
Im hartha I hope
~s it
Ná is
Már good/ well

Rielle a maiden crowned with a festival garland (Telerin)

Manka naa Hîr Celeborn? Where is Lord Celeborn, because:
Manka naa where is: manka where; na is +a
Hîr is just one of the many ways to say Lord.

Hîrngua naa sammathria Our lord is in his rooms; because:
~ngua our in Telerin
naa means is (located)
Sammath is Sindarin for chambers; plural of sam (chamber)
~ria comes from the Telerin word Cavaria, which means his house. Cavone one means house, so ~ria means his.

Im dele ten’ho means I am worried about him.

Mani marte? means What happened?

Im istabá means I don’t know, because:
Im ista means I know
Bá is Telerin denial.

Hîr Telpegalla epe pestabályë means Lord Celeborn said not to disturb him, because:
Hîr means Lord
Telpegalla is Telerin for Celeborn. Telpe is a shortened form of Telepe, both meaning silver and Galla means tree.
Epe means said, says or say. It comes from the Telerin verb Pet- (say)
Pesta- means disturb. Sindarin verb.
Bá Telerin for denial; refusal.
~lyë him.

Telperion is the high elven form of Celeborn. It thought it would be appropriate for the Valar to speak High elven. And high elfish just is another word for Quenya.