Downfall: A Triptych by Himring

Chapter 3: Elendur

If you are unfamiliar with Elendur, you may be interested in Oshun's bio of him on this site, but it is not necessary to read it to understand this chapter.

On his great-grandfather’s estate in Romenna, there had been a large pool, close to the house, not far from the quays of the harbour. The pool harboured turtles. Elendur had been fascinated by them as a boy, by their slow movements. He remembered watching them for what seemed like hours, their dim shapes floating below the surface emerging more clearly when they came up to breathe.

In his new life as refugee in Lindon, he found himself haunted by those turtles and their fate in the Downfall. It seemed absurd, when countless lives had been lost, to keep thinking about these few animals in particular. Maybe it was precisely because all those lives were impossible to count or account for, because the scale of the destruction was unimaginable, even though he had seen it with his own eyes, that his mind, slipping away from that unimaginable whole, and from the loss of so many he had known, fixed on those turtles. Or maybe it was because he felt the turtles should not even have been there, at that time, in that pool, caught up and dragged along in the wake of their ruin, a responsibility too lightly undertaken.

It had been too easy, back there, even in the last days, to think of their conflict as almost an extended family feud, a bitter, even bloody one, but entirely theirs. However, even then he had known that was quite wrong, that it was not just about the Houses of Andunie and Armenelos debating high principles or jostling for position. Rancour and panic fatally pervaded their whole society, poisoning it all the way down to the beggar in the back alley and the farmer in the field. But their ruin had spread even farther than that, making the very earth beneath their feet suffer. And when they arrived in Middle-earth, he was shocked to find their ruin was already ahead of them, had overtaken them on the way, wreaking destruction on the coasts here, too, killing people who had never even heard of Numenor, probably.

He was haunted by the turtles, who should not have drowned, by their nature, but must certainly have, because of his family’s choices, because people had decided to keep turtles in a pond.  Fragile, despite their shells, the backs of those turtles bore the freight of the Downfall in his dreams. He imagined the floor of the pool cracking, battered by flying debris and by the Great Wave, the miniature lake and its surroundings sucked down into the deep, along with the flailing animals who had had less warning, even, than the people.

But eventually, one light summer night in a dream, near the peaceful waters of Lake Nenuial, he saw a blue arm, unlooked-for, emerge out of the darkness, the chaos and the confusion, easily scoop up those turtles and deposit them in calmer waters, a long way off.

Upon waking, he still saw, in his mind, the scaled blue fist opening, giant fingers deftly releasing the turtles. And he wondered, whether Osse, in his overpowering rage, might still, if the dream spoke true, have spent one thought on sweeping those turtles to safety and allowing them to swim free. Or whether Elendur merely wished he had.

Chapter End Notes

The prompt set was:

(1) Deus Otiosus: In this archetype, a god creates and then abandons the
universe. Start your story with a character leaving someplace. When the
character departs, open your next prompt.

(2) Theomachy: Myths often involve conflicts or battles among generations of
gods. Include an example of intergenerational conflict or disagreement
between characters in your story. When you reach this conflict OR write
another 200 words, you can open your next prompt.

(3) World Turtle: Several world myths envision the universe upon the back of
a giant turtle. Reveal a soft emotion or bit of backstory about a
character who seems tough or protective.