More Today Then Yesterday by ElrondsScribe

"Elwe, are we lost?" whimpered Elmo fearfully.

"Hush! No, of course not," said Elwe reassuringly, though he was beginning to fear that they were.

"Then where are we?" panted Olwe, struggling to keep up with his elder brother. He rather envied Elmo for being carried, but then Elmo had just passed his first year and though he could walk perfectly well his short legs were no match for his brothers'.

Elwe paused, adjusting his hold on Elmo, and glanced round for any familiar landmark. "You will both have to trust me," he said firmly.

Suddenly an eerie disquiet rustled in the branches of the surrounding trees and the wind whispered and sighed around them. Elwe's heart came into his mouth. 'The Hunter!' he thought with a thrill of fear. 'The Hunter is upon us!'

He knew that his brothers felt the rumour of the Hunter also, for Olwe gasped and Elmo buried his face in Elwe's breast.

"Listen to me," he said in a low urgent voice which he hoped did not betray his fear. "I need you both to be very brave. I will put you on my back, Elmo, and you must cling to my neck. You will run beside me, Olwe, and whatever you do, you must stay with me, do you both hear me?"

"Yes Elwe," chorused Elmo and Olwe. Elwe promptly set his youngest brother on his back and looked at Olwe. "Are you ready?"

Olwe gulped and nodded, and his face was pale. "Where shall we go?"

As if in answer, a wave of fear washed over them, and a Darkness seemed to creep through the trees. "This way!" hissed Elwe, and he fled. He was aware of Olwe running beside and slightly behind him, and of the tiny form of Elmo bumping against him.

Then his foot came down on a loose stone, and he stumbled and fell on his knees. Elmo slid from his back with a yelp. Not knowing what else to do, Olwe halted.

Elwe tried to leap to his feet, but a sharp stab of pain went through his left foot, making him cry out. He fell again, and this time his leg moved a large rock.

He looked again. "Why," he said. "There is an opening here!" The other two crowded close to him. "A cave!" said Elmo.

"Let us hide in it," said Olwe scrambling down into the rather small dark opening.

"Wait! Look where you are going!" cried Elwe, but Olwe was gone.

A thump and a grunt reached the ears of the other two waiting anxiously above. Then Olwe called, "There was a bit of a drop. You will have to come down feet first."

Elwe lost no time in cautiously handing Elmo down to Olwe and then following himself. The cave was dark, for very little starlight filtered in through the opening. The three brothers sat in silence, waiting.

At length Elmo whispered, "Has It gone?"

Elwe listened carefully to the speech of the forest around them (or rather above them). "I think we are safe now," he said. "Now let us get out of this cave find the camp, and quickly. You climb out first, Olwe, and I shall hand Elmo up to you."

Accordingly, Olwe scrambled up out of the cave to be met by a sudden blaze of brighter light than ever he had seen before. . .

Chapter End Notes

I fully realize this kind of thing has been done so many times it's not even funny. And in case you were wondering, the bright light that startles Olwe is actually sunlight, as the Elves have not seen the Sun yet.

"Here, give me the baby," said Faith, reaching for Elmo.

Elwe smiled gratefully and passed his youngest brother to the kind-faced woman. "Thank you, Mother," he said in heavily accented English. In the two years since their arrival in that strange place, the three brothers had all had to learn to speak its confusing, complicated language. Elmo had picked it up most readily, of course, most likely because he was so young.

Faith Kingston set the tiny elfling on her hip and turned to Olwe. "Where's Zipporah?" she asked.

"Behind you, Mother," said Olwe. Faith and Conrad Kingston had received the young Elves into their home almost a year before, and loved them as if they were their own. Their daughter, Zipporah, was no less happy to call them her brothers and shower them with kisses (or blows, as was more often).

Elwe, now Elmo-free, picked up the tall stack of library books to make way for his sister, responding to the librarian's friendly "Have a good day!" with a hurried "Thank you!"

Zipporah came up to the front desk with her own arms full of books. She smiled at Elmo while her books were being checked out, and Elmo put on his best "perfect darling" look - widening his large, beautiful golden eyes slightly and drawing up the corners of his little mouth.

Zipporah rolled her own brown eyes. That look always melted any female within eyesight, including herself, and he knew it too. Little flirt.

She picked up her books, acknowledging the librarian with a nod and a smile, and joined her mother and brothers. "I'm finished," she said. "Let's go."

They left the library and went out to Conrad's blue minivan. Olwe opened one of the side doors, allowing Zipporah and Elwe to climb in with their books. Faith, meanwhile, was firmly depositing Elmo in his carseat and strapping it in. Then she turned around and put the car key into Elwe's hand. "You're driving us home," she announced.

Elwe froze, staring from the key to the woman. Zipporah's eyes widened. Olwe's pink mouth opened and shut like a fish's. Elmo buried his face in his hands.

Then Elwe pursed his lips and seemed to pull himself together. "Yes ma'am," was all he said.

oo0oo

"You can go faster than 25 miles an hour, dear," said Faith placidly from the passenger's seat.

Elwe made no answer, his eyes fastened on the road and his hands on the steering wheel.

"Please, Mother," protested Olwe. "We'd like to get home alive."

"Oo, look at the puppy!" cried Elmo pointing out the window at the same time that Zipporah said, "Aww!"

"Do not distract me," said Elwe tersely. "We are almost home."

Carefully he turned into the drive leading up the house, pushing the button to open the garage, and steered inside. He shut off the engine and sighed.

"See?" said Faith. "We're home."

"All in one piece," said Zipporah.

Elwe growled and got out to unstrap Elmo.

oo0oo

Olwe tiptoed into the music room and stood in the doorway, listening to the tones of the grand piano at which Zipporah was sitting. She was lost in the intricacies of Chopin's Etude, Op. 25 No. 7, and could only still play the first page well. It was a lovely song even on its minute complexity (though I have yet to hear anything of Chopin's that is not) and Zipporah was most determined to learn it. But eventually she paused, and then noticed Olwe standing there.

"Come in Olwe, I don't bite," she said. "I haven't bitten anyone in the last three weeks. Don't be shy."

Olwe giggled and came in to climb up on the bench beside his sister. "Play for me?"

She smiled indulgently. "What would you like to hear?"

Olwe thought for a moment. "Clair de Lune!" he announced.

"Clair de Lune!" Zipporah shook her head. "I haven't played that one in a long time, Olwe."

"Then it is time to play it again," said he.

So she brought out the copy of Debussy's Works* which had lain abandoned for over a year and found the required selection. Then cautiously she began to play through the parts of the song that she could, smiling regretfully when her fingers faltered. "That's about all I can play off the top of my head," she said, kissing Olwe's forehead.

Olwe cuddled right up to her. "Then you can learn it again."

She laughed. "You and your brothers are the only ones I'd do these things for."

"We know," said Olwe. "You love us so much you cannot help yourself."

Zipporah cuffed him. "If I didn't love you, I'd crack you upside your head for sassin' me."

Olwe giggled again and kissed her cheek.

Chapter End Notes

*a purely fictional copy of Debussy's music. If such a volume actually exists, I know nothing about it.

"Olwe!" shouted Faith. "Boy, put that knife down!"

Olwe hastily laid the meat cleaver down on the kitchen table. "Sorry!" he chirped.

His sister regarded him. "Shouldn't you be practicing your song for Sunday?"

"We have been practicing all week!" protested Olwe.

"Then go practice it some more!" instructed Zipporah. "Elmo, please get out from under my feet. Where's Star-Man?"

"Father took him driving," said Olwe. "And you promised to teach us to cook!"

"I did, didn't I?" said Zipporah. "Okay, well, we're kind of in the middle of dinner here, so let's have you all work with me on dessert, how's that?"

"All right," Olwe sighed, and he turned and left the kitchen. But Elmo held out his arms to be picked up, with all the impudence of an adorable child who knows it. Whereupon Faith gave him a warning look that sent him scurrying after his brother.

Zipporah slid the large glass baking dish into the preheated oven and went to the living room. Little Elmo was curled up in a chair with a pillow rather larger than himself while Olwe lay on his stomach on the floor with a sketchbook. She shook her head in mock disgust. "Here I ask you all to be practicing your song, and y'all are just chillin'!" she said.

Olwe looked up from his drawing and smiled at her. Elmo climbed down from the chair and held out his arms to be picked up again. "I'm spoiling you," sighed his sister, sweeping him up nonetheless. "I'm spoiling you till salt won't save you, you know that?"

Elmo just made himself comfortable in her arms. He had spent more of his life in America than under the stars by Cuivienen, and his memories of his own mother and father were vague and distant.

Zipporah sat down in the chair herself, but at that moment the phone rang. Zipporah put Elmo on the floor. "Bring me the phone, please," she instructed, and Elmo ran away and returned in a few seconds carrying the receiver, leaping gracefully (if disrespectfully) over Olwe and his sketchbook.

"Thanks," said Zipporah taking the phone. "Why, it's Dad!" She pressed the Talk button and put the phone to her ear, re-situating the elfling with her other arm. "Hey Daddy!" she said.

"Hello Zipporah, is your mother around?" asked Conrad.

"She just went back to her desk," said his daughter. "Did you want to talk to her?"

"Yes please."

Zipporah put the phone on hold. "Mom!" she called. "Dad's on the phone, and he wants to talk to you!"

In the other room Faith picked up the second receiver. "Yes, dear?" she said.

On the other end of the line her husband sighed. "We're having a little situation here. . ."

"Which is?"

Another sigh. "Elwe seems to have met some elf friend of his from Cuivienen. They're crying and hugging and kissing and talking in their other language - "

"Excuse me, kissing?"

"It sure looks dangerous, but we did have that talk before. My point is, Elwe might not come home without the kid."

"He might not get a vote, Dad."

"You aren't seeing what's going on here, Mom," returned Conrad.

Faith sighed. "Put him on," she said.

"I'm telling you, Faith, he's never been emotional like this since - "

"Conrad! Just put him on!"

After a short pause Elwe's voice spoke. "Mother?" he said, sounding very weepy. This rattled Faith very much, for Elwe had always been the strong one of the three brothers.

"Yes, who is friend of yours that your father said you met?"

"Oh, Mother! Did I never speak to you of Finwe, my dearest friend and heart's brother?"

Faith rubbed her temples. "Yes dear, you did. How did you find him?"

"Father and I were out," Elwe sniffed. "and Finwe saw me, called me by name - "

"Yes dear, I see. And who is he staying with right now?"

"I - I do not know, Mother," said Elwe with a sigh.

Faith shook her head. "Put your father back on, Elwe."

A moment later Conrad said, "Hello?"

"Hey?" Faith sighed. "How about you go ahead and bring Elwe and this other kid home, all right? If he's like our three he might not be with anyone right now."

"Okay," said Conrad. "See you in a few." He hung up.

Faith went back into the living room where her daughter sat cuddling Elmo. "Zipporah?" she said. "Set the table for an extra place, will you? We've got company coming over."

Chapter End Notes

So I'm sitting writing this story, I've barely gotten started, and all of a sudden Finwe butts in on me. Says if I'm darned if I think I'm going to write about Elwe and not mention him too. Elves, honestly.