Taking Readings II by Himring

An Honourable Leader

Finarfin has assembled an army from the remnant of his people left in Valinor and led it to Middle-earth to help defeat Morgoth, who has so killed many of his family and his people.
On his arrival in Middle-earth, he encounters Gil-galad, his great-nephew, for the first time.

Rating: Teens. Warning for references to canon-typical violence.

"I've come to save you", announced Finarfin, trying to appear confident.

It had taken so many negotiations to get him to Beleriand. He had had to convince his own people. Then he had to ask the Valar for leave, and then he had to persuade the Teleri to let Noldor set foot on their ships.

When he finally arrived with his army, nobody knew the whereabouts of his daughter. The only one Finarfin had managed to locate was his great-nephew on Balar. To his bewildered eyes, Gil-galad did not look very Noldorin.

"Thank you", said Gil-galad politely, a little stunned.

"Well, I must be going now," said Finarfin.

They had won. It had not been as he had imagined it, despite Valarin approval: fifty years of horror, destruction and far too much death, both among those he had led here and those he had come to save.

He had tried to keep them alive, fed, and talking to each other, everyone who was meant to be on their side, fighting the same enemy. As it turned out, his great-nephew had been right to be sceptical.

But Gil-galad surprised him, embracing him suddenly on the jetty. "Thank you, Uncle," he said.

Chapter End Notes

Written for the "Honour a Warrior" challenge at LOTR Community Challenges (on LiveJournal).
The individual prompt given me was: “It is so much easier to honour the leaders who are honourable,” by Gift Gugu Mona

Technically, the War of Wrath apparently lasted less than fifty years, but more than forty.
Bear with me, please, this ficlet is fixed-length and "fifty" seemed more concise.
Also, Finarfin is too weary to bother with exact numbers!