Where the Ocean Meets the Sky and the Land by StarSpray

Chapter 14: Interlude

Nearly all of Beleriand was burning. Or at least, it seemed that way to Eärendil. He had abandoned his courses over the world and through the seas of night to hang as a constant beacon in the sky to those fighting far below. Finarfin and the armies of the Noldor and Vanyar were crawling northward from where they had landed in Arvernien, and with them were Gil-galad and Círdan. Behind on Balar they were busy building ships—when the Valar went to war, the earth was changed, and the lands the Eldar had loved for so long would soon be reshaped or perhaps sunk beneath Belegaer altogether. Only in the east was there open and green lands, between the River Gelion and the Ered Luin.

Birds—eagles, hawks, ravens, even gulls and albatrosses—flocked to Vingilot, called by the Maiar accompanying Eärendil who served Manwë. They took what Eärendil and his companions could see from their position so high above everything, and gave it to Finarfin and Ingwion and their captains, so that they might avoid ambushes or traps or areas that were so defiled that they were now nigh impassible.

When he was not watching the progress of the Valar or of the growing army following Finarfin and Gil-galad and Ingwion's banners, Eärendil was scanning the lands to the east. The little fort on the eastern end of the Amdram where he had finally spotted Elrond and Elros stood empty, and while he was certain the Fëanorians had taken his sons east toward the Gelion, he was not able to find them anywhere—which was not surprising, if they were hiding in the safety of the forests, but neither was it reassuring.

Then a bird came fluttering up in the wake of one of the great eagles. It was a nightingale, and she perched on Eärendil's shoulder and sang for several minutes, before Aisto laughed and held out his hands to the little bird. "She brings news of your sons, Mariner," Aisto said.

"What does she say?" Eärendil asked.

"That they are safe and well in the lands of the Laiquendi, and they sing with fair voices. That is only to be expected, from the children of Melyanna." Aisto released the little nightingale over the side of Vingilot, and she fluttered down and away; Aisto stood beside him as they watched her vanish into the clouds passing beneath them. When the clouds passed the nightingale was long gone, but Eärendil recognized directly beneath them the forests of Neldoreth and Region, where Melian had once walked, followed by other nightingales, and where for so long she had held her own against the power of Morgoth. And Melian had been alone. Eärendil looked northward to the dark peaks of Thangorodrim, lit from below with blood-red fires. Lighting flashed overhead, and strong winds out of the west kicked up the dust of the Anfauglith into whirling storms. There could be no doubt of victory; he could not wait to see Morgoth dragged from his deep dungeons in chains.