Embers by Elleth

Nerdanel and Umbarto: Return

A double-drabble, HoMe-verse AU. If he had not perished in the burning of the ships, Umbarto would have returned to Nerdanel. What if? - MEFA 2008 Nominee. (Si07)

Nerdanel
The cry carried far in the mournful silence of Alqualondë.
“A ship! A ship returns!”
Hoping the best and dreading the worst, she ran. Pebbles slipped beneath her feet just as her stony composure slipped through her fingers.
She reached the beach. Face turned into wind and spray her eyes narrowed against Uinen’s tears (the sea was raging once more, her grief not forgotten) she stared into the dark.
“A ship!”
The cry was taken up.
“A ship!” “It is landing!”
Her own words and a nightmare of fire were whisked from her mind in an instant.
“Ambarto!”
Not Fated.

Ambarto
A plaything of wind and waves. Torn and tattered sails, tossed about, to and fro. Up and down. Darkness and fire behind him and shallow water beneath the keel. Then the scrape of rocks and pebbles, but he heeded them not.
A figure in white on the shore, storm-tossed and forlorn.
Cries in the town. “A ship!” and then “A kinslayer!”
He heeded them not. Pebbles slipped beneath his feet as he ran.
“Ambarto!”
“Mother! I have returned! I have returned!”
Strong arms around him, stronger than he remembered. Voice down to a whisper.
Certainty.
“I am no longer Umbarto.”