After their discovery of the monstrous giant, the party returned to camp. Yrill offered to track the movements of the creature.
“That we can inform our lords of the problem..and a solution,” she said, already turning back towards the lake. She was quick and fierce, a creature of action.
The Captain of the Arrows agreed, provided she was cautious. “As you will. Do not come to close to it, Yrill. I will not lose a good scout to a hunk of ice and stone.” He smiled crookedly.
The huntress grinned and tapped her bow by way of answer, as if to say close combat would be her last choice. Norliriel nodded to her kinmate.
“May the Valar protect you as you go,” she said softly. Yrill smiled encouragingly at Norliriel. It was obvious the healer was somewhat shaken at seeing the huge monster so close at hand.
“Stars light your path, Yrill,” Lilleduil put in. She spoken to the huntress but a few times, but she’d liked her. It was odd, how she tended to like the hunters that shot her friends. But then, some of her animal friends ate others of them, so perhaps it was understandable.
“My thanks,” Yrill responded. “May the Valar keep us all safe.” She bowed deeply as Dolthafaer cllicked his tongue.
“You both took the most exciting farewells,” he chided Norliriel and Lilleduil with a smile. “Come back in one piece, Yrill!” he added as his contribution.
“That works,” Lilleduil noted, but Dolthafaer’s levity had gone as quickly as it came.
“I will take up my watch, and send word to Veryacano,” he declared. “Rest well! Yrill will warn us if it comes to close.”
“I will stay by the fire and await your return there,” Norliriel said, and settled herself upon a convenient log as the Arrow Lord strode off to a good vantage point on the ridge above the camp.
Lilleduil was silent for a moment. She had not been pleased to see the giant. The Warband had killed two similar giants, as well as a giant Guaradan and a monstrous snow beast already. Dolthafaer had been surprised to hear the rumors about beasts had basis in fact, and that the Warband had dealt with such threats before. And she suspected he was not happy about not knowing. But it was not within her purview to decide how much information about Warband activities should be relayed to the lords of Vanimar. She was only Maethor. That was Elisbeth’s and Khalis’ decision.
She had hoped, however, that they had dealt with the threat in entirety. The fight against one of the giants, down in the Giant Halls, had been brutal. He had a stonier type of giant than this newest one, and had possessed a lightning attack that Lilleduil had suffered three times, getting up twice because she was Warband and that was what you did until you couldn’t. The third time she’d hit her head and had not woken until the battle was over. There were still holes in her memory of the fight, and that was unnerving. She’d also twitched randomly for a couple of days until one of the healers had wisely suggested that she go throw some lightning of her own, which had promptly sorted her out.
The second fight, with a giant much like this one, had gone much more smoothly, but it was still discouraging to realize there was more to be done. The Warband had acknowledged the possibility that there might be more of the creatures, but they’d been hoping they were wrong. Yet another periodic chore added to an ever-increasing list… Lilleduil repressed a sigh.
She glanced up at Norliriel, who looked similarly glum. “Are you all right?”
The healer looked up at her and responded simply. “I have to be.”
.
“I didn't need to see that,“ Lilleduil admitted. “We thought the matter finished. Which was why we didn't mention it. Given the tendency towards panic among certain elements in Imladris.” She looked about the camp full of sleeping warriors. “Present company excepted, of course.”
Norliriel smiled wryly.
“We don't always talk about what we do, we just do it. I spent two weeks up here alone after Estarfin's...fall, checking things out. Actually, I was hardly alone. Just the only elf.
Then I came back up here again to look for the beast, when those rumors started.” She cocked her head in Norliriel’s direction, curious.
“Did you go to Eregion with the others?”
“With the Fountain? Nay.”
Lilleduil always felt a bit of the storm crow when among the ladies of Vanimar, with their pastel dresses and elaborate hair, their gentle voices and gracious speech. Norliriel belonged in the Hall of Fire, or the healing halls. Even out here she wore lovely winter robes and seemed composed and gracious. But her eyes…
“You're older than I am, aren't you? By quite a bit, I would imagine.”
Norliriel said, 'I do not know how old you are. I was born in Gondolin, ere it fell.”
Lilleduil chuckled, thinking only of her suspicion about relative ages being confirmed and not realizing how it sounded, until Norliriel stated quietly, “There is nothing funny about it.” It did not sound like a reproach, but Lilleduil felt chastised none the less. Ah well, you’ve been talking for five minutes, after all. Past time to put your foot in! I"m sorry,” she said quickly, “I wasn't laughing about the fall of Gondolin.”
Norliriel accepted this with gracious calm. “I understood as much.”
“I’m only a little over 500 years old. A child of the Third Age.”
“Then you were spared many things.”
Lilleduil nodded. “And quite honestly, I don't comprehend them well,” she admitted. “The older elves. It’s easier with mortals, sometimes, than my own folk. Mortals, and animals. But I am trying.” She looked cautiously over at Norliriel, who spoke quietly and very gravely.
“Some things my own people did, I cannot comprehend either.” Lilleduil nodded in understanding and the healer continued. “Yet mortals... I honour what valour is in them, but I would not claim to understand them. I deem that it is not given to the Quendi, to understand them completely.”
Lilleduil looked down for a moment, thinking of Eirallyn‘s recent departure, then back up at Norliriel. “They are brief and bright, and while you might want to keep them from harm so that they will not waste a day, you cannot do that.” She sighed.
“Yes, I saw as much.” Norliriel had after all, looked after Eirallyn a bit, because Lilleduil had asked it of her.
“I've heard it said by some that we elves of the Third Age are the lesser, for being born further way from the creation. But maybe we serve a purpose? We don't have that fire, but we don't have the burden of the sorrow either. We can...act more freely?”
Norliriel gently shook her head. "I who am older have not seen the Light of the Trees any more than you. There is no 'lesser', here."
Lilleduil smiled a little. “I tend to ignore the sort of elf that declares that anyway.”
“You may be right, though. Regarding Men, as well. They do not carry the same Curse, the same burdens as we do. They have their own. And yet…” Norliriel voice trailed off, her expression thoughtful.
Lilleduil waited a moment, then nudged, “And yet?”
Norliriel shook her head softly. "I was thinking, that is all." After a moment, she continued. “Thendryt, your brother in arms, he will go his own way. He is not so different from some of ours, in this.”
Lilleduil grinned ruefully. “Thendryt is an acquired taste. He has to...rub off on you.”
Norliriel smiled wryly.
“But he is faultlessly loyal to Elisbeth, even if he sometimes considers the rest of us a bunch of poncy, pointy-eared nuisances. And he'd die for any of us and that's what counts. I got off on the wrong foot with him initially, but we've worked it out.” Lilleduil grinned. “But then, I like grouchy bears!“
The healer actually managed a small, soft laugh.
Wanting to keep the lighter mood, Lilleduil asked, “So-what about Manadhlaer's wedding? When is that going to happen? I offered to help sew. I'm hoping there will be dancing. I love to dance. Not that you will have noticed that.” Lilleduil seemed to remember Norliriel playing some lovely music one night in the Hall of Fire. Very danceable, it had been.
“I do not know yet. I suppose she and Themodir will set a date if... when we return to Imladris. And no, I have not seen you dance.” Her smile indicated she was having Lilleduil on a bit. “That is another reason, we must survive this. I wish to see your dance... and for Yrill to hear many songs still.”
Lilleduil spoke with the firm authority she had honed in her travels among mortals. “We will survive this, Norliriel. There are many warriors of note with us. There isn't anything in these mountains that could stand against us. Even the giant monsters. We could probably even clean out the Giant Halls, had we a mind to.”
“Lord Veryacano spoke against it, and I see the wisdom in it. The giants are not at war with Imladris... it should remain so.”
“They do not seem to be interested in anything beyond their territory, so indeed, attacking them would be a waste. Besides, there are plenty of other things that need killing. The wargs are breeding so incredibly quickly.”
Norliriel nodded grimly. “Like flies.”
“Pretty much. And they do eat everything up here.” This in reference to the earlier conversation with the others about the dietary habits of giants.
“You are concerned for the good Kelvar, aren't you?” Norliriel gave Lilleduil a sympathetic look. Rather surprised, for most folk did not pick up on that, Lilleduil nodded.
“That is not what my oath binds me to, however, so I tend to that on my own time. Like the business with Tathlas and the guardians.”
“What of them?” Norliriel asked. She seemed genuinely curious.
“Oh, he discovered some tiny mites on the corrupted ones. He's working on an herbal concoction to kill the mites, and perhaps restore them to health and sanity. We're wondering if there isn't a connection to the bog-guardians in the Lone-lands and elsewhere as well. So I've been collecting mites for him and when he gets his herbal dust together, I'll come up here as I can and catch guardians and dose them. I'm thinking I need to mark them in some manner, to show the ones who have been treated. Still working on how best to do that. The Enemy...attacks the very land itself. Aiwendil says that one cannot ignore that part of things.”
Norliriel’s look of approval was gratifying.. But then, a healer of all people probably would understand why the work was important.
“All the more, we need those who stand against it,” the healer agreed.
“I asked him once, Aiwendil that is, if it was right to ask my friends to fight with me. Since they could be killed. He said that not all creatures were able to fight, even as not all men or elves or dwarves did. But for those that could, this war was as much theirs as ours, since they could not drink or eat or breathe poison. “So...I will dust guardians when I can. And kill wargs so the rabbits can flourish.”
Norliriel nodded. “We need all... not only warriors, but also knowledge-seekers such as Tathlas. And huntresses such as you.” She smiled at Lilleduil, who found herself a little baffled.
“A huntress? I don't think so. Not as I understand the term.”
“You just said you hunt the wargs,” the healer pointed out.
“Oh, well then. I guess so!” Lilleduil smiled, her mood lifted a bit. “I suppose I am a hunter of the dark at least.” A flash of movement against the paling sky overhead caught her eye. “Excuse me a moment, please.”
Norliriel nodded, watching as Lilleduil went to speak to her eagle and raven friends.
“We were deciding where they would search today,” she explained to the healer when she returned.
“We?”
“Myself and my friends. They do have opinions on the matter. And I'm going to have to come back up here with honey cakes for a certain bear.”
“The one you asked to spy on the Giant Halls?”
“Yes. He wanted some payment. And I don't begrudge him, if he can get me the information.”
Norliriel smiled a little and Lilleduil shrugged. “This is what I do, what I'm good at. Polite small talk, not so much.”
“It must be comforting, to never be alone,” the healer noted. “At least not in places where good beasts still live.”
“It is. And they are more eyes. It's hard to be surprised with them about.”
Lilleduil looked over at Norliriel. “Do you have any family here?”
“Close family?“ The healer shook her head. “Not this side of the sea.”
“I don't either. So having so many friends is a welcome thing.”
“I hope I can be a friend to you, in these days, as you need one.”
Warmed by the idea, Lilleduil smiled, genuinely. “I would like that! And I am happy to be a friend to you as well. And I promise not to compare you to a bear.”
Norliriel’s answering smile was gentle. “I do not deem you bad at talking either, Lilleduil. Politeness is not merely learned manners, it comes from one's character.”
Very pleased, Lilleduil said, “I have been practicing a great deal of late. One would hope I would get better at it. But I am glad to hear that!”
“I meant it. Just as long as you do not compare me to a bear.” Gentle smile became something more wry and Lilleduil smiled back.
“I am going to get a little rest. Are you not weary? We've talked the night away.”
“Weary from worrying for friends, perhaps. But I shall rest as well.”
Lilleduil nodded. “Someone else can make the tea for a bit.”
