When the earth shakes by Aprilertuile

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When the earth shakes

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Elrond and Maglor were still in their makeshift little camp when the earth under their feet started to shake. The trees around were losing stability and branches here and there all around them when the tremors suddenly stopped.

Elrond and Maglor exchanged a look.

“I think it means it’s time to go.” Elrond noted with a matter of fact voice.

Emergencies, he knew and could deal with. That was a sadly familiar state of things.

“I think you’re right.”

The sea was likely advancing again.

They picked up their bags and their cloaks, and just up and left. Gone was the leisure they had enjoyed as the sun came out in the horizon, they were now moved by the urgent need of getting out of potential harm’s way.

Since Beleriand started to sink beneath the wave, there had been several tremors followed by the fresh loss of more land being swallowed by the sea.

They felt new, smaller tremors under their feet and scrambled out of the way as a tree fell almost on top of them.

Maglor sported a wry smile as he noticed that they both had the same reflex: grabbing the other and dodge. That was going to be interesting.

They barely took the time to breath before they started running again, still holding each other’s hand. There was no way they were losing each other in the way.

Another tree falling broke more than a few big branches from the surrounding trees and they were going to all fall on them and…

Maglor barely had time to notice the danger. He grabbed Elrond and used his superior strength to move them so that hopefully his body would be enough to shield Elrond from the hard wood about to crush them.

There was the sound of a heavy crash, wood breaking, and an ominous creaking, but no pain… Maglor opened the eyes he had reflexively closed, and Elrond smiled at him tiredly, before looking up.

“The tree likes us. But we really need to move.”

Maglor didn’t know if Elrond had done something or not, but the falling tree was held up over their heads by a few very thick lower branches of the two nearest still standing trees. The same branches had offered also a very good protection from all the falling smaller branches.

Maglor let go of Elrond, straightened up, and let Elrond grab his hand again.

“It was easier with the Host. Eonwë told us where to go to avoid problems. Elrond noted in a breathy voice.

-Ah yes, that doesn’t happen here. Do you wish to go back?

-No.

-It was just a suggestion.

-It was just an answer.”

Maglor chuckled at that answer as they started to walk carefully out of range of the falling tree, before they started to accelerate again.

He hadn’t missed the way danger had given Elrond his footing back. That was a sad reality, truth be told, but at least he wasn’t about to witness the child he raised letting himself die. It would be far harder to ensure he stayed alive and well in their current situation if he was to just… Sit somewhere and wait.

Maglor wondered briefly if the change was due to the fact that Elrond wasn’t alone and his instinct as a healer was to ensure the other’s safety, or if being able to rest and rely on him for a few days had been enough for him to heal at least enough to not find the idea of dying quite as appealing, or even a mix of both.

As they walked as fast as they dared to while checking their surrounding for falling anything, Maglor found himself watching the younger elf.

The tense hand locked in his, the painfully stiff shoulders…

The thumb that just moved to his wrist’s pulse point…

Yes. That was definitively Elrond’s healer instinct/habit, however they called it these days.

Oh well, Maglor would take what he could so long the younger elf actually lived.

There was a heavy crash nearby and the screeches of an unhappy bird, and it’s by pure instinct that they hurried up.

-

They’ve been walking for hours, when they started to notice that they hadn’t felt a quake in a while, and that the trees around them were feeling less… uneven, less brittle to their senses.

“A race against the tide without food or regular breaks for water is not what I would have suggested for someone who needs rest. So… How are you feeling? Maglor asked Elrond as they stopped to at least drink and catch their breath.

-Like we spent our day running through a forest that was trying to kill us.

-Very specific and to the point, thank you. Care to develop a little for me?”

Elrond snorted at that and lent against Maglor, feeling shaky and oddly like he wanted to never stop running and yet like he wanted to just lie down somewhere and never move again.

“My heart is racing, I’m parched, I’m not feeling hunger but I know I must be hungry. I feel both not tired and exhausted, and I’d guess at something like shock, but I’m uninjured.

-Thank you for your honesty.”

Elrond glared at him at that.

“Stop talking to me like…

-Like you know more than me in healing and are perfectly able to withhold crucial information from me if I don’t scratch you behind the ears the right way?”

Elrond looked at him like he wanted to hit him for a moment before he sighed.

“I’m still not a cat.”

Maglor smiled at Elrond at that and passed a hand in his hair, taking a twig and a few leaves out of it. Elrond leaned into his hand, for a moment, just enjoying the contact and neatly defeating his point, before he looked at Maglor carefully.

“And you, how are you feeling?

-I’m fine, don’t worry.

-Not going to happen.”

Maglor sighed. No, of course not.

“I’m not injured and it’s not the first time I have to make a… Rather lengthy run for it. I’m fine.

-That’s not actually reassuring you realize?”

Maglor pulled gently on a strand of hair of the younger elf.

“I’m fine, that ought to be at least a little reassuring, no?

-Just a bit.”

Maglor smiled at that.

“Alright, let’s see if we can find somewhere that seems safe enough to rest tonight. I’d rather not be woken up by a tree falling down on our heads.

-In that case I doubt we’d wake up at all. Elrond mused in a darkly amused voice.

-Little Star.

-I’m just pointing out that if a tree trunk actually falls on our head, chances are that it’d crush our skulls. You don’t wake up from that. That’s basic healing. We would, however, bear a great resemblance to someone I once met. I uh… Don’t counsel it, it’s not a very good look.”

The utterly serious delivery had Maglor wonder about the younger elf’s sanity for a moment.

“Your sense of humor needs work, Dear One.

-My fellow healers tend to have the same, but I’ll grant you that, others don’t seem to appreciate it, for some reasons.”

Maglor snorted at that. He knew at least one who’d have absolutely adored Elrond’s current dark humor.

It’s with an arm around the young healer’s shoulders that Maglor started them on their way to look for an actual proper shelter.

Elrond froze suddenly in his track, eyes looking at the floor without fixing on anything as he took a deep breath through his nose, as if smelling for something in particular.

As a result, alarmed, Maglor put his hand on his sword hilt, ready to defend them but…

Elrond squeezed his wrist gently with an apologetic smile.

“I don’t feel danger, sorry. I just… Give me a moment.”

Maglor didn’t let go of his sword hilt yet. Elrond’s current notion of danger varied too greatly from his own for that.

He watched as Elrond knelt on the floor just next to a half crushed bush, and used his knife to do… Something he couldn’t see under the bush…

Elrond kneeled up with a handful of Athelas branches.

Maglor’s eyebrows rose in surprise at that discovery and he closed his eyes to focus on the scent in the air and… Yes, indeed, that sharp clean smell was there. How he could have not noticed it before was beyond him.

“There’s more under the bush but I think it’s too crushed to be of use.

-And you needed it?”

Elrond blushed brightly at that question.

“I… May have left camp without any supply for healing. Just the bare minimum from our emergency packs…”

Maglor hummed in answer, attentive, waiting for more… And more arrived:

“And I’m not blind, atto. I saw the way you got between that tree and me. It was a reflex. You can’t tell me it won’t happen again. Or you can, I just wouldn’t believe you. I just… I prefer to have it, and not need it… Rather than wait until we need it… And not find it then. You will not die because of me just because I don’t have adequate supplies with me, atto. You’re just not. That’s not happening.”

Well, that’s not quite what he had hoped to hear but if Elrond was looking forward to the what-ifs of the future, he at least wasn’t still looking at a “oh a warg, let’s see how it feels to get eaten”.

No, Maglor hadn’t forgotten the utter terror of that moment when he had found Elrond and he wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.

“It may be that nothing will happen to me, you know. History has proven that I’m rather hard to kill. Maglor noted gently.

-When you found me the other day, you just threw your sword through the warg’s throat. If there had been other wargs or other creatures hidden near us, you’d have been prey to them and you didn’t even care that you’d be helpless without your sword. Earlier today, you just got between the falling tree and branches and me. If there hadn’t been those sturdy branches over us, you were dead or as good as, and you didn’t even think before acting.

-That’s… You have your life in front of you, it just seems…

-Once upon a time, you’d have used your voice to throw the warg into sleep or terrify it witless or something.”

Maglor was going to answer tartly at that but froze. Elrond… Might have a point there.

“Let’s just say that seeing the son I raised in that kind of danger…

-Uhu.

-Alright, so I might be overreacting and acting stupid as a result, but now that I’m aware of it, I’ll work on that.

-And I’ll build up our healing supplies just in case.”

Maglor was going to protest the notion again, but stopped himself. For one, it was useless to protest, Elrond came by his stubbornness honestly from the two sides of his family; the line of Finwë and the line of Elu Thingol were certainly not known for being meek followers. For a second, it was good practice. And finally…  Maglor preferred to have Elrond keeping himself busy and looking toward the future rather than having to fight for him to move and imagine no future whatsoever.

It may be a reaction born of fear, but it could never be useless.

At best they’d never need the healing supplies, and still it’d keep Elrond moving, focused on some achievable tangible goal, and away from the idea of his brother dying, and other difficulties and memories.

At worst it’d still keep Elrond moving, focused on those achievable goals but they’d actually need the stuff, and they’d be happy to have it, even if Maglor would truly hate to be injured or worst, see Elrond injured on his watch.

What was it that Maedhros said once? “The worst thing is to be there and to look for a reason to move and come up with nothing, and to realize that you’re useless and can’t find a single redeeming thing, and you’re stuck on a downward spiral that has no end. And you know in your heart… if you don’t find something, you just end up dying.”

And yes, Maedhros’ situation was far different, Maglor was aware of that, but the base principle to keep Elrond alive was certainly the same. It couldn’t hurt at least.

Maglor could be reassured; Elrond seemed to have found his something.

Let’s hope it’d last.