White Water Flowing by StarSpray

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Chapter Two

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It was cool beneath the thick forests of the Pelóri’s foothills. There was little underbrush, but still it was difficult to see far between the thick tree trunks, for they were clustered together in many places, and the canopy overhead was so thick that below was little more than a green-tinged twilight. It was quiet, too. There were birds high up in the canopy, but their song was distant and muted. There were animals too, surely, but Celebrían did not see them. In her first forays into the woods and foothills of the mountains, just north of the Calacirya and west of Alqualondë, she had not gone far. The land knew Olwë’s folk, and knew better the Sindar that wandered through—there were many who were not content to settle in one place in Valinor, preferring the wandering life they had enjoyed in Middle-earth long ago. Their travels took them north past Elwing’s tower into Araman, no longer quite so barren and cold as it had once been, since the Sun’s rising.

Celebrían had met a few small parties; they were all very glad to see her, Celeborn’s daughter, and obviously curious about what brought her alone into the woods. She had told them she was merely exploring, having grown restless—and that, of course, they understood.

On this occasion, Celebrían was not alone. Taurendis and Elenel were with her. She had shared her plans with them, and Taurendis had several ideas about where they might go to find a a suitable place. She also had a habit of wandering ahead—scouting, she called it—while Elenel had a habit of stopping to examine the few plants that grew among the tree roots, or a particularly interesting moss or lichen. Celebrían didn’t mind, for Elenel had much to say about everything, and it was all fascinating.

As she and Elenel discussed the general dislike among elves for mushrooms, having just come upon a large cluster of edible ones that would be perfect for their supper that evening, Taurendis came back—at an unusually quick pace. “There is someone up ahead of us!” she announced. They had been following a game trail, more or less, but there had been no sign of any other elves in the area. “What do you say, my lady. Are we interested in company?”

“I am, if only to satisfy my curiosity,” said Celebrían. She hoisted her pack higher on her shoulders and fell into step just behind Taurendis. Behind them, Elenel grabbed a few more mushrooms, and hurried to catch up. “Did you actually see who it was?” Celebrían asked.

“No, I just heard voices—at least two, but perhaps three. And—sweet Elbereth!” She halted and yanked Celebrían aside just as an enormous creature bounded out of the tree-shadows just ahead of them. For a moment Celebrían thought it was a bear, but the color was wrong, and then she got a better look and realized it was a hound.

“Why, is that Huan?” Elenel exclaimed, having darted behind Taurendis, now peering around her shoulder.

Huan slowed to a trot as he approached them, giving all three women a thorough sniff before giving them each one big lick, up the sides of their faces and into their hair. Elenel squealed, and Celebrían laughed.

“Huan!” someone called from farther up the path. “Where are you, you blasted dog?”

Celebrían knew that Huan tended to split his time these days between Celegorm and her kinsman Dior, when he wasn’t off doing whatever it was he did on his own. She still had yet to meet Dior (somehow things had just not worked out as yet), but she suspected he was not the sort to call Huan a “blasted dog.”

Sure enough, it was a silver-haired figure in hunting garb who appeared, looking nothing at all like the line of Lúthien. Two others followed him, dark-haired—and one a familiar face. Celebrían glanced at her companions, but while they clearly recognized the sons of Fëanor, neither seemed bothered. Good; that would save a bit of awkwardness.

Huan barked—a loud, echoing sound that silenced even the distant birds for a second afterward. None of the three brothers looked surprised to see them, which Celebrían found a little odd, all things considered. “Fancy seeing you here!” she said, stepping forward. “It’s nice to see you again, Caranthir. And these must be your brothers.”

They all bowed. “My brothers Celegorm and Curufin,” Caranthir confirmed. After a slight pause he added, “And you’ve met Huan.”

Celebrían introduced Taurendis and Elenel, and then asked, “What brings you out here into the mountains?”

“We were going to Tol Eressëa to visit you,” Celegorm said, throwing her a charming smile, “and then heard that you’d gone off into the wild for mysterious reasons. We were curious.”

“Celegorm was curious,” said Curufin, who had remained quiet until that moment. “Please excuse our interruption.”

“You are not unwelcome,” said Celebrían. “And our reasons can’t be so mysterious to you; I’ve written about it to Lady Nerdanel.” In fact Nerdanel was the only one, besides those in her own household, or who had actually lived or visited Imladris, who hadn’t tried to talk her out of her plans. There was no need for a place like Imladris this side of the sea, and certainly not in an out-of-the-way place somewhere in the Pelóri foothills, they said. Why could she not just build a larger village near Alqualondë, or just outside of Tirion? Celebrían could list three dozen reasons without thinking, but that way lay arguments, and it was easier to just get on with her plans and ignore all the well-meaning but useless advice.

She didn’t think, though, that she would hear that same sort of thing from these three. “Have you seen any streams that we might follow back toward their source?” she asked.

“Yes,” Celegorm said brightly. “One not far from here. Shall we?” He didn’t wait for an answer, turning instead and striding ahead.

Celebrían found herself falling into step beside Caranthir, as Huan bounded ahead of even Celegorm, and Curufin was roped into a discussion of mushrooms by Taurendis and Elenel. “Well,” she said, “what do you think of building something out here?”

“I think you must really dislike cities,” said Caranthir.

“I would not have said so, before I came west,” said Celebrían. “I grew up in Ost-in-Edhil, you know. That was a bustling city, and I remember it very fondly. And I dwelt at times in Mithlond, and on the shores of Belfalas, and in Lothlórien in Caras Galadhon—as big a city in its own was as Ost-in-Edhil was, though very different from any other city I have known. But they all seem rather small and provincial, now that I have seen Tirion and Alqualondë. Avallónë is a little more like them.”

Caranthir’s grin was a little crooked. “So do you or do you not like cities?” he asked.

“I do! But not to live in, at least not all the time. I could never settle permanently in Tirion.”

“Was Imladris not a city, then?” This was Curufin, having escaped the mushroom discussion to fall into step on Caranthir’s other side.

“No, not at all,” said Celebrían. “It isn’t really even a town or a village. There are outbuildings, but the main building is large enough for everyone who lives there in addition to visitors. The valley itself can hold a great army, as we proved when the muster for the Last Alliance took place. But of course only a small fraction of that number lives there permanently. The Dúnedain have always come and gone freely, though their numbers greatly lessened after the breaking of Arnor, and Dwarves come too, sometimes…though less often since they had to flee Khazad-dûm.”

“I heard much of that place from the dwarves I knew in Beleriand,” said Curufin. “I always wished I could visit. It sounded marvelous. Do you know what happened?”

“No one knows, really, except something awakened there, something terrible. I passed through it twice—and I saw the making of the western doors by Celebrimbor and Narvi.” Celebrían glanced at Curufin, who looked away. “It was a beautiful place—incredible, and I am not sure my words could ever do it justice.” She sighed. “It is called Moria, now. The lamps are all broken and light only ever reaches the halls were great shafts were carved into the mountainside to let in the sunlight, but it will be pale and dim, shining on nothing but dust and decay.”

“Here is the stream!” Celegorm called. He stood on the mossy bank; Huan had splashed in and was drinking deeply. Celebrían knelt to dip her fingers, finding the water less cold than she’d expected, though she knew it must be fed by snow melt high in the mountains. She looked upstream, seeing it winding lazily down the gentle slope, its banks all soft dark moss, its bed all of smooth round stones. A curl of excitement unfurled in her gut, and she found herself grinning. “This is what you wanted?” Celegorm said.

“Exactly what I wanted,” Celebrían said. “Let’s go!” She sprang to her feet and raced up the bank, passing swift and silent over the moss. Huan bounded after her, barking and splashing in the stream, the others scrambling in their wake.

Over the next few days the lands grew steadily steeper; several times they had to find their way up and around small waterfalls, one or two of which had caves that they paused to explore, though there was naught in them but damp stone. Soon, though, they realized they were entering into a deep valley, with mountains rising up sharply on either side. Celegorm and Taurendis went off to find a place from which they could see the whole of the valley, while the rest continue to follow the stream—until they came to a sheer cliff face, down which a slender ribbon of water plunged into a deep pool. It was out of this that their stream flowed.

“I suppose you could build something here,” said Caranthir, looking around as Elenel kicked off her shoes and splashed into the pool, where silver fish darted out of the way, flashing in the sunlight. The woods were not so thick, and sunshine sparkled on the water, though the fall was not large enough to send up a spray suitable for making rainbows.

“Anywhere in this valley would be lovely, I think,” Elenel said, as she leaned down to get a better look at the fish. “Maybe up that stream a ways.” She pointed back the way they had come, where another stream had flowed down from higher up the valley to join theirs.

“Mm,” Celebrían said. They were close to where she wanted to be—she could feel it—but she did not think this pool or that other stream was the place. The only problem was that the perfect spot was one she would know when she saw it, but it was not something she could describe. She looked up the cliff, wondering where the source of the water really was. She’d had it in her mind that that was where she would build her house, but now she wasn’t so sure.

Then Taurendis returned to fetch them. “Come see!” she said. “I think we’ve found the perfect place, my lady!”

They followed her across the valley, reaching the vantage point up the mountainside near dusk. The stars were starting to appear, and the Pelóri cast their long shadows over the land, but across the valley they could still see the glimmer of the waterfall, like a silver ribbon falling down the cliff side. But what it fell from—Celebrían knew instantly that she had found what she was looking for. It was another valley, but situated on the mountain itself, as though a great hand had come by long ago and scooped out a great portion of the earth. In the gloaming it was difficult to see detail, but she could make out patches of trees, and grassy areas—and perhaps that was a small lake farther up? It was hard to say. Above the hanging valley a shooting star passed, a bright flash of silver.

“Oh, it’s perfect,” she breathed.