Naurthoniel and the Heroism of Housekeeping in Mithrim by Himring

Extra double drabble: The Bitterest North

Another closer look at my original female characters, Erien and Elvea, crossing the Ice.

Also featuring Fingon.

Warning for canon-typical character death.

‘The cold never bothered me that much,’ Elvea says.

She means the cold of Araman without the light of the Trees; she has no concept of anything colder than that. Erien, who once accompanied Fingon far enough up Taniquetil to walk among glaciers, says nothing.

But when Ninde dies—heart stopped after she slipped into deep-sinking ice—Elvea is still courageous. Erien leans on that courage, even as she struggles to adapt what that long-ago trip taught her to help them survive.

Elvea carries Rusco under her cloak, humming to him, while together they climb the cruel hills of ice.

‘Erien, you’re trying to carry them all with you; I can see it dragging on you,’ says Fingon quietly. ‘Let it go, at least a little. Elvea wanted you to survive. Your dead—you cannot lose them now; they will still be there when we get to the other side.’

Erien blinks at him, frozen. Since she left Rusco, last of all, in his little bed in the snow, she had forgotten there was even supposed to be another side. But Fingon speaks the words with conviction. If he can still believe in the other side…

She nods, walks forward.

Chapter End Notes

Originally written for the prompt "let it go" as appearing in the song in the Disney film "Frozen" (a double drabble for Tolkien Weekly).
The first sentence is also adapted from the lyrics of that song.

The title and some phrasing are taken from the canonical description of the Helcaraxe.