Untidy Souls by StarSpray

Chapter 2

Melian joined Elu after a time, coming up behind him to wrap her arms about his shoulders and to press her cheek against his. "A party from Menegroth and Alqualondë have just arrived on the eaves of Lórien," she said. "I fancy they have come to fetch you back with them."

"No doubt." Elu tipped his head back to watch another unfamiliar bird flitted past, a quick jewel-bright flash of feathers.

"There is a crown of jewels and gold awaiting you," Melian went on, "but until then…" She held up a wreath of niphredil blossoms, twined with violets and buttercups and daisies and deep green ferns into a fragrant crown. Elu laughed, and allowed her to place it upon his head. "Now you are ready to greet your people!"

They returned to the meadow where Ingwë and his folk were still singing and laughing together. Ingwë also had a crown on his head, of bluebells and bright poppies, and his daughter was busy braiding violets into her own hair. After a short time they heard other voices raised in song—singing songs written long ago in Eglador beneath the bright stars, and in the first Menegroth after it was newly delved. Melian laughed and joined her voice to theirs, setting all of the songbirds in the nearby trees also into a chorus.

The new party was primarily made up of Sindar from Doriath. At their head was Elmo, his white hair in loose curls about his shoulders. They all cheered as Elu stepped forward to greet them. Elmo embraced him, laughing for the sheer joy of the reunion. With him was Galadhon, and Galathil, and their wives, and many other familiar faces—too many of whom had come to Valinor by way of Mandos. The Vanyar welcomed the Sindar into their party with delight, and some of the Maiar who dwelt in Lórien flitted out of the trees to abandon the appearances of butterfly or sunbeam, and take Elven form to join in the fun.

Toward evening, Elmo and Elu slipped away from the party, and took a winding path through the wood. It was lined with flowers, and for a while their talk consisted only of Elmo telling Elu all the names of the unfamiliar ones. At last they stopped beneath a mallorn tree, its leaves all silver-edged spread over them in the canopy, glimmering softly in the purple gloaming. "For a time they stood in silence, contemplating the trees and the grass and the flowers. Then Elmo said, as though remarking upon the weather, "You made some spectacularly foolish decisions at the end of your first life, brother."

"Yes, I know."

"I suspect it is because I died," Elmo went on, "because if I had been there I would not have been afraid to hit you upside the head until you heeded your wife's council."

Elu smiled, though he couldn't quite bring himself to laugh as Elmo clearly intended. "I missed you and your council sorely, brother," he said. "There is nothing like one's little brother to keep one's pride in check."

"Which is too bad," Elmo said. "Though I daresay Elunis could have managed, if she hadn't died too."

"I noticed she didn't arrive with you."

"She's off with Minyelmë wandering in the west, somewhere," Elmo waved a hand in a general, westerly direction. "I'm not sure they've heard yet that you are returned to us. You remember our daughter?"

"I remember all of your daughters." One now dwelt in Valmar with Ingwë, High Queen of all the Eldar, and the other, it seemed, had retained the wanderlust that she shared with her mother, and which had led to her death. But there had been a third. "Has Neunë never come from Mandos…?"

A shadow passed over Elmo's face as he shook his head. "We have never learned what became of her," he said. "If she answered the call of Mandos at all, I am not sure she will ever return to life. There are many such tales. But we have Lúnamírë and Minyelmë, and Galadhon and his children and their children too—although Celeborn yet dwells in Middle-earth. And now we have you back as well!"

"Yes, if you will have me," said Elu. "My foolish decisions brought about the doom of Doriath and great suffering."

"It is not forgotten, though it is forgiven—mostly. You will find a magnificent welcome when you come to Menegroth, but in speaking with your close kin you may find things are not so simple. You passed on both your pride and your temper—do not be surprised to see it reflected back at you in the faces of your grandchildren!"

The party that left Lórien at last was large and merry, with Ingwë at its head and Elu beside him, both of them crowned with woodland flowers. The Vanyar and the Lindar who followed them walked arm in arm, laughing and singing together in harmonies sweet as morning birdsong. At the edge of the woods of Lórien the land opened up wide before them, green and gold grasses waving in the breeze, the road stretching out before them like a ribbon, worn smooth by Ages of feet and hooves and wheels following its course.

Overhead the sky was clear and blue, the sun blazing hot and bright, scarcely a cloud to be seen. Birds fluttered along the tree line and gathered in large flocks in the fields, where herds of beasts that Elu could not name at this distance roamed.

The journey was an easy one. Some days they walked from sunup to sunset and others they did not leave their campsites. Other nights they were welcomed at inns or the houses of farmers who herded sheep or cattle, or grew dozens of different crops, many of which had not grown in Beleriand, and were thus strange and new and marvelous to Elu. These farmers and innkeepers were used to travelers new-come from Mandos, and were only a little flustered when they learned that they were hosting not one but two kings.

At last the famed city of Tirion upon Túna came into view in the distance, gleaming white upon its hill, surrounded by farmland and pastures and with roads leading every which way. Beyond on either side stood the wall of the Pelóri, impossibly tall, their peaks shrouded by the haze of distance even Elven eyes could not pierce, or else by pale clouds; through the opening where Túna stood a distant glimmer of sky and perhaps the Sea could be glimpsed. "There lies Menegroth," said Ingwë, as they came to a fork in the road, pointing to the fork leading south of Tirion into the foothills of the Pelóri. "And beyond the Calacirya is the Bay of Eldamar, and Alqualondë on the shore."

"And there are other cities, too," Elmo said on Elu's other side. "The princes of the Noldor grew so used to having their own realms in Beleriand that they couldn't dwell again together in Tirion without endless bickering."

"I shall see them all in time," said Elu. He looked over his shoulder and smiled as Melian approached; Elmo moved aside so she could slip her arm through Elu's. "Ingwë, will you come to Menegroth with us?"

"Nay!" Ingwë laughed. "Let your people celebrate your return without worrying about another king getting in the way. Here we shall part, for the time being. I hope we shall meet again soon—and so I leave you with only one edict from your High King, Elwë Singollo. Do not tarry in making your peace with the children of Finwë! The Kinslayings are past, and while not forgotten they have been long forgiven."

The Vanyar continued along the road toward Tirion, laughing and singing as they went. The Sindar, with Elu and Melian and Elmo at their head, turned eastward on the road to the mountains. It was a broad and flat road, well-built and often traveled. It passed out of the open fields, where barley and wheat were growing in waving golden stalks, and into the woods where the road narrowed a little beneath great ancient trees with wide branching canopies, the leaves so thick that there was hardly any bright sunlight able to pierce through to dance dappled on the leaf mould below. The very air was tinged with green, and it smelled of wood and leaves and earth. Birds were singing. A deer darted away at the sound of their coming, tail up as a bright white flash in the shade before it disappeared into the distance. There was very little undergrowth. Here and there smaller paths branched off of the main road, leading to little clusters of houses, or to single dwellings. Sometimes they could be glimpsed without any path at all leading to them. Figures moved among them, and scurried up and down the great trunks of the trees with the ease of squirrels, for there were even more dwellings high in the branches than on the ground. They would pause and wave, if they were close enough to the road, and sometimes call out greetings. When it was called back to them who passed, there was often a great cry of delight, and many times the forest-dwellers ran to join their party. There were many familiar faces, and even more unfamiliar, all smiling broadly. Runners raced ahead with word of Elu's return.

Many small rivers and streams flowed down out of the mountains, frigid with snow melt, and joined together into a larger river that flowed with a sound like laughter through the forest, tumbling over stones and winding between little hills and through tree-shadowed hollows. It flowed like the Esgalduin before the gates of Second Menegroth, which were opened wide, the stone on either side carved like great trees with their branches reaching out over the top to twine together. The river was spanned by a bridge, wide enough for several to walk abreast, and as Elu and his ever-growing company came to it, they found Dior and Nimloth already halfway across, with a crowd behind them. A cheer went up as Elu and Melian stepped forward away from the crowd behind them.

They met Dior and Nimloth in the middle of the bridge. Elu had never met his grandson in waking life. He was as fair as Lúthien had been, with shadow-dark hair and star-bright eyes and the broad shoulders of his father's people, and he stood nearly as tall as Elu himself. Nimloth was white-haired and slender as a young tree, with blue eyes and freckles on her nose. She wore her hair braided up in a crown about her head, twined with pearls and violets. Dior's hair hung loose about his shoulders, and he was crowned with what at a distance Elu had taken to be leaves and flowers, but up close he could see that the crown was made of gold and silver and copper and inlaid with thousands of tiny gems to give the illusion of living greenery, with fruits and leaves and flowers from all seasons—golden winter mallorn mingling with summer berries and spring snowdrops, all glittering in the sunlight.

Smiling broadly, Dior reached up and removed the crown from his head. He held it up so the gemstones flashed in the sunlight, for all to see, and proclaimed, "At long last our king has returned to us!" A great cheer went up on both side of the river. "Gladly to I relinquish this crown. Welcome home, King Thingol, Queen Melian!" He knelt, offering up the crown.

"And gladly do I take it up," Elu replied, as he accepted it. The metal and the stones were warm beneath his fingers. "Will you have me again as your king, people of Doriath?" he asked, voice ringing through the wood, and in reply the crowd behind him and before him cheered, and it only grew louder when he placed the crown upon his head; it felt strange and heavy after the garland of flowers Melian had given him in Lórien, but it was not an unwelcome weight. "Rise up, Dior," he said, in a quieter voice, and held out his hands to his grandson. Dior gripped them and rose, and Elu pulled him into an embrace. It was brief but fierce on both sides, and then the four of them, Elu and Melian and Dior and Nimloth, turned and walked together back across the bridge to the entrance of Menegroth. As she stepped off the bridge onto the grass Melian lifted her voice and sang, and white and pale green niphredil burst into bloom up and down the riverbank, and nightingale trilled in the trees around them.