To Whatever End by Grundy

“Don’t tell anybody!”

It was hard to keep track of time here, without being able to see the stars clearly. The cycles of the trees were a different rhythm than the song they knew, though Finwë suspected they would become the basis for the new timekeeping once they settled in.

But before that could happen, they had to go back.

And to do that, they had to convince Ingwë to leave his beloved Treelight and the company of the High Ones, if only for a short while.

“But you could convince everyone without me!”

“We could not,” Finwë snorted. “In the first place, we need all three of us to return so it is plain to everyone that we have all seen this and agree on it. Not to mention, to prove there is no trap or snare.”

“If you and Elwë go back, it will be plain it’s safe enough,” Ingwë protested. “If there was any trap or danger, he’d have been caught in it!”

“You might both have been caught and I could save only one,” Finwë pointed out softly.

“But…”

“It is only for a short while,” Elwë reminded him. “We go to tell the others that they should come. We’ll make the journey back, and this time you won’t ever have to leave again if you don’t want to.”

“All right,” Ingwë grumbled. “Just don’t go telling anyone you had to bully me into going back.”

“As if he would,” Elwë muttered.