Taking Readings I by Himring

Fugitives at the Gate

Finduilas saves Gwindor (and Turin).

Written for Isilloth for Fandom Gift Box 2016.

Isilloth asked for a strong Finduilas and for her helping to run Nargothrond in Finrod's absence, if possible.

While I'm in favour of the idea, I couldn't come up with anything to write about the running of Nargothrond, at that point.

So this little piece just picks out that Finduilas would have needed to be strong to get Gwindor accepted in Nargothrond, not just perceptive.

Not so frail was Finduilas when her voice cut through the crowd, quelling the tumult--clear as a bell, sharp as a blade--she saved the lives of the fugitives asking admittance. The hunters of the Guarded Plain downed poisoned darts, ashamed of the mistrust and fear that had goaded them into precipitate slaughter. Nargothrond, recalled to itself by the voice of the princess, recalled kinder times.

But she, Finduilas, faltered. The semblance of age and weakness had not deceived her quick eye; she had named Gwindor at a glance. But looking deeper, she found change went deeper than that. Yet she named him again, in memory, in hope, where before she had been certain, seized both his hands and pulled him in through the gate.

Chapter End Notes

This is influenced by the tone of the scene in the Lay of the Children of Hurin in HoME, without being closely based on it.