II: Goblins, Wargs and Bears, Oh My!

Thandir raised his head to look about. At the moment the avalanche began he had pushed Eluwen off the path and thrown her against a spur of rock, pinning her there. Luckily they were still near the crest of the pass so they were able to avoid the worst of it. They suffered little damage, save that Eluwen could feel the bruises forming where her body pressed against the unforgiving rock.

The roar of the avalanche had been loud and frightening while it lasted, but the silence that followed was deafening. Thandir looked down to where the twins had been and saw nothing but mountain. The rain was letting up, though the sky was still a purple bruise as storm clouds continued racing towards Rhovanion and Eryn Galen iDhaer.

"We need to find the twins," he said to Eluwen, his voice sounding overly loud in the quiet. "If they were caught in that..."

The thought that either or both of Lord Elrond’s sons might lie dead beneath a mountain of snow caused Eluwen to shiver with more than just the cold wet of the rain. "We won’t know until we find them," she finally said and pushed her husband off her.

They made their way cautiously down the path. The way was treacherous with mud mixed with snow and loose rubble. About where they had last seen the twins, they stopped, suddenly feeling indecisive. Their orders still stood. They were not to interfere or be seen by the twins, but none in Imladris had anticipated that Elladan and Elrohir would make for the High Pass and be caught in an avalanche, either. The scouts were saved from having to make a decision either way by the sound of Elrohir shouting.

"’Dan! Elladan! Man sad ci? ’Dan!" Elrohir’s voice was frantic and Eluwen stifled a gasp and clutched Thandir’s arm, tears flowing freely down her face. She wanted desperately to go to the twins’ aid, but Thandir held her close.

"Wait," he whispered. "Let us see if we are truly needed." And so they waited, listening in wretched silence as Elrohir continued calling for his twin.

****

Elrohir thought that he might be dead, or perhaps blind. He knew his eyes were open but he could not see anything. It was also difficult to breathe and everywhere he was surrounded by snow. He resisted the urge to panic, remembering at the last minute everything Glorfindel had taught him. Taking a slow, deep breath, he began digging. With his right hand he dug above him, while with the left he dug underneath him, for he had no way of telling in which direction the surface lay. After a moment, though, his right hand broke through the snow covering him and he began to dig in earnest, finally clearing himself. The rain pelting his face felt good and soon he was completely free of his prison.

Standing up he realized that he had neither bow nor pack, but he did not worry about that. His main concern was for Elladan. He began shouting his brother’s name, trying to gauge where Elladan might be. The avalanche had swept them apart and Elrohir did not know if his brother was further up or further down the path or even if he lay just two feet away.

"Elladan! Please! Where are you, muindor nîn?" Tears of panic mingled with the rain as Elrohir frantically began digging in random spots hoping to find his brother by pure luck. He prayed silently to the Valar and thought of the grief his parents would feel if he came back alone.

Finally, exhaustion took over and the young ellon collapsed in a heap, weeping quietly, fear for his brother’s safety overwhelming him. By now the rain had stopped and a profound silence reigned over the mountains. Anor, still hidden behind dark clouds, was setting, and here on the eastern slopes of the Hithaeglir all was in darkness, wet and drear.

"A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren penna míriel..."

Elrohir looked up, his expression wondering. The song was faint, barely heard. "’Dan?" Elrohir whispered, not sure if he was hearing correctly. "Elladan!" he shouted, standing up.

"...Na-chaered palan-díriel o galadhremmin ennorath..."

Elrohir began running heedlessly downslope, shouting Elladan’s name over and over again. He finally slid to a halt, tumbling in his haste as he found himself crashing into a stand of scrub pine marking the upper reaches of the tree line.

"Mae govannen, muindor nîn."

Elrohir looked up to see Elladan caught in the branches of a nearby tree, hanging nearly upside down, his braids all awry.

"’Dan, what are you doing up there?" Elrohir asked stupidly.

Elladan gave his brother a jaundiced look. "Birds-nesting. And you?"

The absurdity of his brother’s reply hit him and Elrohir began laughing and then crying as relief swept over him.

"Hey! What are you crying for?" shouted Elladan. "I’m the one stuck in this damn tree! Get me down!"

Elrohir hiccupped and struggled to calm himself, then tried to ascertain how best to get his twin down from the tree. He climbed up to where Elladan was hanging.

"Anything broken?"

"No, at least not that I can tell, but I’m pretty well wedged in so I can’t move anything."

"Let me see, then."

It was difficult to see anything in the dark but luckily the clouds were beginning to break up and a thin beam of moonlight peeped through, enough for Elrohir to see what Elladan meant. The ellon had somehow managed to wedge himself in the crotch of the tree, but with careful maneuvering, Elrohir was able to extricate his brother with much cursing on both their parts. Eventually they were both on the ground, Elladan feeling limp from lack of circulation, while Elrohir was simply limp from exhaustion.

For a long while they just lay there idly watching the clouds break up and the moon drift westward until Elrohir stirred himself.

"We need to move, brother, and find a place where we can make a fire if possible. Do you still have your pack? Mine is lost, I’m afraid, as is also my bow. I think only a few of my arrows remain, the rest were shattered."

"Look above and to your right. I think my pack is there but I do not know where my bow is."

Elrohir stood and sure enough Elladan’s pack was hanging from a branch on the same tree where Elladan had hung. It took only a few minutes to retrieve it and to find that it was mostly intact, though most of the food was crushed and rather useless. Still, there was a tinder box and some dry clothing that they could share, as well as some line for fishing or snaring, so they wouldn’t starve. There was even one of their cooking pots, a small amount of cooking oil and two or three packets of spices. Elladan’s bedroll had also survived, and they both had their swords, but that was about it.

Looking over their now meager supplies, Elladan sighed. "Well, I suppose it could be worse."

Elrohir snorted. "From your lips to the Valar’s ears, muindor nîn."

Some distance above them on the path, but still within earshot and eyeshot of the twins, who never bothered to look back up the trail, the two elven scouts stared at one another and grimaced in agreement with Elrohir’s statement.

Once they were sufficiently recovered the twins worked their way into the trees. They had looked for the path they had been on before the avalanche, but even in moonlight they could not find it, for much of it was now buried under snow. They contented themselves with finding a small clearing where a spur of the mountain jutted out, giving them some shelter from the wind, if nothing else. There they got a small fire going.

Elrohir found a packet of tea in the bottom of the pack, so they were able to make some tea. There were no mugs — those had been in Elrohir’s pack — so they took turns sipping from the pot. It wasn’t much but it heartened them, nonetheless.

Elrohir insisted that Elladan try to sleep while he took the first watch. "You had a rougher time of it than I did, brother," the younger twin said, "and I’m not feeling sleepy yet."

Elladan reluctantly agreed and soon was lost in the path of dreams while Elrohir went about the task of finding more firewood.

And in another part of the woods Thandir and Eluwen sat beneath a tree, huddled under their cloaks, quietly discussing what they might do to help the twins without going against orders.

****

Morning came bringing with it more rain, much to everyone’s disgust, though it soon tapered off and by noon it had stopped. The only bright spot of the day was Elladan discovering a dead deer partially buried in the snow not far from where they had camped. By the looks of things it must have been caught in the avalanche, its neck broken in the fall. The body was somewhat mangled and in their rush to recover as much meat as possible the twins did not notice that an arrow had pierced the flesh near the deer’s heart or realize that the animal’s neck had been broken after death.

The twins spent the rest of the day resting and smoking as much deer meat as they could carry between them. Elladan had complained of feeling too bruised to move very far and Elrohir was not adverse to spending a day relaxing himself. They decided, however, to at least look for the path, if it still existed, or failing that, determine the best way down the mountain, for they had learned, much to their dismay, that their camp was perched on a ridge that ran north and south along the face of the mountain but offered no way down along the east side. Behind them, of course, lay the bulk of the mountain.

"We could cut crosswise along the mountain’s flank following this ridge," Elrohir suggested, pointing southward. "See where it slopes downward? Even if the path no longer exists, we should still be able to reach the foothills with little trouble."

Elladan, however, was skeptical. "It looks easy enough, but I would rather find the path. There has to be some sign of it somewhere."

So they hunted for the path, trying to gauge where it could be in relation to where they were. But in that they were doomed to failure. The avalanche had done its work too well. It would be spring before the snow would melt enough for anyone to see where the path should be and set about restoring it. So, in the end, they followed Elrohir’s suggestion and the next day made their way along the ridge, hoping that it would eventually lead downward towards the foothills.

The going was somewhat slow, for the ridge was narrow and often blocked by boulders over which they would have to climb. By noon they estimated they had covered only a league, maybe two, but no more. The trees often blocked their view so it was hard to gauge if they were any further down the mountain.

By late afternoon, however, they could tell they had made some progress. Just before the sun disappeared behind the bulk of the mountain the trees fell away, leaving an unobstructed view to the south and east. They could see that they were much lower than before.

"Look! We’ve almost reached the valley," Elladan exclaimed. "We should be down off this mountain by tomorrow."

"Let’s find someplace to set up camp in the meantime," Elrohir suggested.

They went a little further and to their delight discovered a small cave where the shoulder of the mountain abutted the ridge. It nearly blocked their way, but the ridge curved around it and there was a wide ledge at the cave’s entrance that overlooked the valley below them. They carefully checked to see that the cave wasn’t already occupied and indeed it did not look as if it had been occupied for some time, if ever. Within minutes they had a small fire going just at the entrance to the cave and were busy heating water for tea and warming the smoked meat on sticks. Afterwards they sat as comfortably as possible by the fire, silently watching the stars come out, shining in all their glory.

"This trip isn’t turning out the way I thought it would," Elrohir said with a sigh at one point.

Elladan gave his twin a wry grin. "You think?"

Elrohir just shook his head. "Adar is going to be very upset with us when he finds out what we’ve done."

Elladan frowned, staring at the flames of their fire dancing in the light evening breeze. "Perhaps, but if we can reach Lórien we will have proved that we’re not elflings any more. Adar and Glorfindel won’t even let us on patrols yet, except for short ones within the borders of Imladris, where it’s safe." This last was said with an air of disgust. "And Adar was our age when he was fighting against Morgoth’s army. It’s really not fair."

Elrohir snorted at that but made no move to dispute his brother’s claims. "Come, I took the first watch last night, it’s your turn tonight." With that Elrohir entered the cave and wrapped their one bedroll about him, while Elladan continued sitting by the fire staring at the stars.

****

It was a snuffling sound that woke him. Elladan started awake, suddenly aware, with some embarrassment, that he had fallen asleep during his watch. He was leaning against the rock next to the cave entrance; the fire was nearly out. He silently berated himself even as he took stock of his surroundings, trying to determine what had brought him out of the path of dreams. By the position of the stars he could tell that it was very late. Already the eastern sky was greying with the coming dawn. Not only had he slept through his watch, but through most of Elrohir’s as well. A quick glance into the cave showed his brother still asleep. They must have both been more exhausted than either had guessed.

The snuffling sound came again and much closer. Elladan tried to move as quietly as possible, crawling into the cave to wake his brother. He reached out to touch Elrohir’s leg and give it a shake.

"Elrohir," he whispered. Elrohir jerked awake but went still when he felt his brother squeezing his leg in warning. He sat up carefully, then reached down and pulled Elladan closer to him.

"What is it?" he whispered into his brother’s ear.

"Listen."

Now Elrohir heard the snuffling sound as well. And something else.

"I think we’re in trouble, Brother," was his only comment as they eased themselves from the cave before attempting to stand up. As silently as possible they drew their swords from their scabbards.

"Do you see anything?" Elrohir’s voice was barely above a whisper but easily heard by his twin.

Elladan started to shake his head, then stopped. "There," he said, pointing to their right, facing south along the ridge.

A dark shape, hunched over, came shuffling towards them. It seemed to the two elves that it was hunting something. It took them a moment to realize what they were seeing.

"It’s a bear cub," Elrohir said unnecessarily, for his twin could easily see that it was so. He replaced his sword in his scabbard and Elladan did the same.

The cub had now reached them and they could see it came no higher than mid-thigh to them. It stopped at the sight of the elves and sat on its haunches, apparently surprised to see them but too young to realize its possible danger. Elrohir squatted down and put his hand out for the cub to smell. The cub leaned over and gave a tentative sniff, then with a sort of mewling growl, moved towards the elf, trying to butt its head into Elrohir’s thigh as the elf stood, as if seeking comfort. Both twins began petting the creature, stroking its bristly fur and crooning soft nothings to comfort it.

"I wonder what it’s doing here?" Elrohir asked idly, continuing to scratch the cub’s ears, much to that creature’s pleasure.

"Maybe it’s looking for it’s naneth," Elladan quipped, then gasped at the implications of his own words, grasping his brother’s arm. "We better get away from here. We don’t want to be here when nana comes looking for her cub."

"There’s nowhere to go," Elrohir protested even as he hurried to gather their supplies while Elladan doused the coals, carefully making sure there was no smoke to betray them. The cub, unsure of the reason for its new-found friends’ panic, came shuffling after them, crying piteously, not wanting to lose the comfort it had felt in the elves’ presence.

"No, pen dithen," Elrohir said, attempting to shoo the cub away. "Go find your nana, there’s a good cubling."

But the cub would have none of that. Even as the twins moved down the ridge — "It’s the only direction available to us," Elladan had said when Elrohir had protested his twin’s choice of route, considering that the mother bear was probably somewhere nearby — the bear cub followed, bawling after them. Elrohir kept stopping, trying to shoo the cub away, while Elladan kept urging his twin to "stop playing with the damn cub and move!"

By now the eastern sky was turning from grey to purple with a hint of rose and yellow as the dawn approached. In their rush to leave the cub behind neither twin noticed the two scouts following them.

****

Thandir had had the last watch and was both amused and frustrated at the sight of Elladan sleeping away. Amused, because it showed just how young these two really were in the eyes of their elders; frustrated, because he so sorely wanted to go down to the camp and be the one to wake the youth, reaming him out for dereliction of duty as if he were any raw recruit rather than the son and heir of the Lord of Imladris. He contented himself with mentally writing a report to his lord, instead.

Thus, he heard the snuffling noise before Elladan did and quietly woke Eluwen to warn her. The scouts moved silently closer to the twins’ camp, ready to protect Elrond’s sons if needed. They were as surprised and amused by the sight of the bear cub as the twins, but the implications of its presence hit them sooner and Thandir found himself silently cursing even as Eluwen was busy scanning the area for any sign of the mother bear. There was none, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t near, looking for her wayward cub.

In spite of the possible danger facing the twins, both scouts were amused by their antics as they hurriedly broke camp while trying to dissuade the little bear not to follow them. It was really quite funny, Eluwen had commented as she and Thandir set out to follow the twins, seeing the sons of Elrond running with a bear cub after them. Elrohir’s attempts to shoo the cub away brought huge grins on the scouts’ faces and both were hard pressed not to laugh aloud, thereby giving away their presence.

As the scouts followed the twins, a bend in the mountain, coupled with a dip and rise in the ridge, momentarily blocked their view, so they did not witness the meeting of the twins with the bear cub’s mother.

****

The twins had reached the top of the rise and had started down. Now the ridge was broadening out and becoming shallow as it reached the valley floor. Fields of tall grass and wildflowers surrounded them with here and there a lone tree. Suddenly, a grunting roar sounded in the morning air and a dark shape rose out of the grass, tall and menacing.

Nana had found her baby. 

The twins stared in horror at the sight of the mother bear looming over them and beginning to advance. She was easily twice as tall as they standing on her haunches. Unlike her child, she was not pleased to see them.

"Run!" Elladan screamed and grabbed his brother’s arm, pulling him to the right.

They ran through the fields, heedless of their path, thus they did not see the mother bear stopping to check over her cub, giving it a cuff on its head for good measure, before herding her child away.

Nor did they see the gaping hole into which they fell.

****

Elrond pinned the Man with an implacable stare, his ageless eyes dark and fathomless, a dangerous light beginning to glimmer in their depths. "What do you mean, they never arrived at Tharbad?"

The Elf-lord’s voice was soft, almost conversational in tone, which only made it worse. The Man standing before him was a proven warrior, one of King Valandil’s most trusted retainers, and well-known to the Elves of Imladris. Elrond knew the Man had faced down hoards of orcs and bandits in his day without a qualm.

Now, however, Borgil son of Boradan was sweating like the proverbial pig and looking as if he would rather be facing an army of orcs without a weapon at hand than be standing there giving Elrond his report on the Elf-lord’s apparently missing sons. Elrond relented somewhat, shifting his gaze to allow the Man time to recover.

"It is as I said, my lord," Borgil said in a strangled voice, sounding more like a beardless youth than a father of three and grandfather of two. "My men kept their eyes out for Lords Elladan and Elrohir all along the route they were supposed to have taken, but there was never any sign of them. They never crossed the Bruinen and they never came to Tharbad."

"Then where in all of Middle-earth did they go?" This was Glorfindel, entering the room as Borgil finished speaking.

Elrond glanced at the golden-haired elf with a wry expression. "Can you not guess, mellon nîn? They have done the one thing we didn’t want them to do."

Glorfindel’s eyes widened with realization and his mouth thinned in anger. "I’m going to kill them," he said softly, then muttered an oath in Quenya that caused Elrond’s eyebrows to go up.

"Not if I get to them first," the Lord of Imladris said with studied calm.

The two elves stared at one another and then smiled in a way that boded ill for the twins. Standing there, virtually ignored, and seeing the expressions on the two Elf-lords’ faces, Borgil felt almost sorry for the twins, but, being a father himself, he knew exactly how Lord Elrond felt.

"Thank you, Captain," Elrond said suddenly, shifting his ageless gaze upon the Mortal. "I have an idea what route my sons took. You may return your men to their regular patrol. Please extend my gratitude to King Valandil for his assistance in this matter."

Borgil bowed deeply and left, glad to be away from the immortal lord’s regard. For a long moment silence reigned in the study. Elrond wondered briefly how he was going to break the news to Celebrían. Coming to a decision, he abruptly stood up.

"Glorfindel, ready my horse."

Glorfindel eyed his lord with surprise. "You mean to follow them across the High Pass?"

Elrond smiled grimly. "Oh, worse than that, mellon nîn. I mean to be there in Lórien waiting for them when they arrive."

****

Man sad ci?: Where are you (singular)?

Eryn Galen iDhaer: Greenwood the Great. It will be another 835 years before a shadow falls on this forest and its name is changed to Mirkwood.

Mae govannen: Well met.

Pen dithen: Little one.

Mellon nîn: My friend.

Note: The lines from the hymn to Elbereth are taken from the Lord of the Rings, Book II, Chapter 1, "Many Meetings".