Taking Readings I by Himring

On Ezellohar

After the trial of Feanor, two princes of the Noldor are forced to reconsider their desire to leave Valinor.

Fingon & Aegnor

Teens, no warnings

Her foliage is of a fresh green like newly opened beech leaves, but the edges glitter, and each of the flowers drooping from Laurelin’s branches in shining clusters is shaped like a small bright horn that spills a golden rain from its mouth, dripping into the vats set on the ground all about the tree in which the glowing liquid is collected. As Laurelin, waxing towards noon, comes into full bloom, the light and warmth of her grows until it seems almost too great. The air is drenched with it to overflowing. It fills their eyes and nose and mouth.

Fingon sighs and breaks the silence, turning to Aegnor, who accompanied him on today’s unplanned ride with surprisingly little hesitation and is now standing beside him unquestioningly, straight and still as a darker flame.
‘Aiko,’ Fingon says, ‘all this light—how can it not be enough? Is it perverse to desire more and risk losing what we have?  That longing for the wide untrodden lands of Middle-earth—it seemed so much my own, part of me! Was I merely deceived? Had I spent too much time listening to Feanaro—or Melkor? Were they so very crooked, my dreams of reigning?’

‘I cannot say,’ Aegnor answers. ‘But it is not only Feanaro who is restless—or his sons—or those that follow them. Even my father—it was hatred of strife and love for my mother that took him roaming to Alqualonde and beyond but was it these only? And the Vanyar—they may not long for Middle-earth, but are they less restless? They abandoned Tirion and now they leave Valmar, heading higher and higher up Taniquetil… As if we all felt confined—reined in?’
‘You, too, Aiko?’
‘Yes, still. But just what I hope for from Middle-earth I cannot say.’

Chapter End Notes

Triple drabble written for the Homophones Challenge at Tolkien Weekly on Live Journal.
Prompt: Rain - reign - rein

"Aiko" is a nickname based on Aegnor's  name in Quenya: "Aikanaro".

Finarfin's preference for Alqualonde and the coast over Tirion, alluded to by Aegnor, is canonical but usually interpreted differently.