inundated with the fated thought of you by hanneswrites

epilogue

Nerdanel makes her way out of bed, warmth filling her chest as she hears the distinct sounds of her husband and their daughter in the kitchen. She wraps her morning robe around her shoulders and heads down the hallway, smiling as she props herself against the tall pine threshold that leads into their little kitchen area. The smell of well-seared sausage and fresh bread lingers in the air. It seems that her two most precious people have busied themselves with making breakfast this morning. 

She takes all of it in for a moment, allowing herself to fully wake up as she watches the two of them. Lindómo is frying up a batch of pancakes while Olthariel patiently holds the serving plate for him to pile them up on. Her hair is neatly braided and threaded with little fresh-picked daisies - which Nerdanel takes to mean that the two of them have likely been up and busy for a while now. Her gaze flits to the table, where a little vase sits full of those same daisies, intermixed with bloomed daffodils and a single white lily. 

Long rays of sunlight filter in through the kitchen windows. Her robe is comfortably warm around her. Her husband and her little girl are safe and happy and here with her and they have nothing they need to worry about or do today unless they decide they want to head out into the forest to explore a little bit later. Nerdanel takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Contentment washes over her like a soft rolling tide. 

It’s perfect. It’s more than perfect, she thinks, smiling to herself as she steps into the kitchen. 

“Good morning!” Olthariel beams up at her, wrapping her in a tight hug. Nerdanel smiles and runs a hand through her daughter’s hair, bending down to give her a little kiss on the top of her head. 

“Looks like the two of you have been busy this morning,” She says, gently plucking one of the larger flowers from Olthariel’s hair and twirling it around between her fingers. Her daughter giggles at her, bright and free, and Nerdanel helps her set the rest of the table for breakfast.

Lindómo sets the serving plate down on the table, stacked high with a wide variety of oddly shaped pancakes, and Nerdanel cannot help but chuckle at the excited little grin on Olthariel’s face as she gestures for the two of them to sit down with her. 

Lindómo takes the daisy Nerdanel had pulled from Olthariel’s hair and tucks it delicately behind his wife’s ear, grinning softly as he leans down to press a kiss to her temple. 

“Atya said he was going to take me out riding later,” Olthariel says, her eyes growing wide as she watches her father dump a considerable amount of fresh strawberries and blueberries onto his own plate to go along with his breakfast. He offers her one and she takes it, placing it gently in the middle of her stack. 

“That sounds fun,” Nerdanel replies, her gaze meeting her husband’s across the table. His hair still glows like fresh-polished gold in the sunlight and that brilliant smile of his still fills her with an affectionate fondness.    

“Would you like to join us?” He asks, and Nerdanel cannot help the grin that crosses her face. 

“I think I’d like that.”