The start of a beautiful friendship by Aprilertuile

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Being noticed?

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As the end of the season approached, Tyelkormo was to meet with a member of his family to know where to go when he’d leave. 

That was the trouble of having a family that was often roaming the countryside: when you were separated, trying to find each others again in a timely manner was a bit of a game of chance and catching the right rumour unless someone coordinated things. 

Thankfully he had a sibling who excelled at coordinating things between all of them. 

Maitimo arrived two days before Tyelkormo was scheduled to leave, and so Tyelkormo stayed with him as an impromptu guide as he went through his days in the Hunting Lodge. 

“All that’s pretty interesting but… And here imagine I’m dad: What did you learn?”

“Birds are incredible snitch unable to partition something private from something asked of them and I’ll be forevermore very careful to not ever ask them anything that could be read as intimate in any way, shape or form.”

That had a couple people in the Lodge laugh despite themselves. 

“That… Is… Good to know I guess, but not what dad will want to hear.” Maitimo warned him. 

Tyelkormo rolled his eyes at that. Of course it wouldn’t be. No one who knew his father would ever think that this answer would ever be acceptable in any way, shape or form.

“Don’t do that Tyelko, you know I’m just trying to ensure peace at home.”

Tyelkormo smirked at that and put a pretty much filled by now notebook in his brother’s hands:

“An… Illustrated herbal?” Maitimo asked unimpressed. 

“Look closer.”

Maitimo blinked at that. 

“What are those…?”

“Plants growing only here, poisonous, poisonous but could be used to heal, and others that are edible or just are neutral for us elves. I tried to pick only the plants that grow in there but I might have picked up a few more common ones in the process. I don’t know all the herbs already studied in Tirion and other prim and proper places.”

“That’s nice. I think there already exist a few of those, but they’re not easily available since, you know, that’s dangerous knowledge.”

“Yeah, I know.” 

“Dad will be thrilled.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he will be.” Tyelkormo drawled.

“Do please avoid that tone of voice with dad for the next… Oh, few millennia. I do not actually want the house to explode under both your tempers.” Maitimo answered him with a frown.

“I’m not that stupid brother mine.”

“I hope so.”

The last day of their presence in the woods, Tyelkormo left his brother and went back to where he thought he’d find the Hound again. He wanted to tell him goodbye. 

He hoped he’d see him again next year if Oromë allowed him to return. 

He indeed found the hound, and this time the dog turned his head toward him with a sigh but didn’t even pretend to leave. 

“Hi, I’m glad to see you. You look well. I’ll leave that here. I’m sorry I wasn’t there the last two days, one of my brothers was here. I couldn’t leave him alone. Or, well, I could but he’s more of a politically oriented being and would have found himself quite easily lost. Or in an accident. And I like my brother too much to let that happen if I can help it, you know. More so when the solution is just for me to spend a couple days with him. He liked the plant study I did. I knew it was a good idea to have something to appease dad.”

The hound just sighed. That elven pup was a chatterbox and needed a muzzle. 

“Oh well, I’ll be going. See you later!” Tyelkormo said cheerfully, having noticed the sigh. 

As soon as he ran out of sight, the hound got up and went to investigate the young elf’s offerings. Heart and liver, pretty enjoyable cuts of meat and fresh too. As he ate, Oromë appeared at his side. 

"He's interesting, that young one."

"He's annoying and stubborn." Huan answered in a growl. 

"And yet you appreciate his offerings."

"And yet I don't understand why he bothers. The others all know to leave me in peace."

Oromë only smiled at that, tracking the young elf in the woods, and noticing him getting distracted by a bird momentarily. 

The next morning, as the two brothers were taking their bags to leave, Tilion approached them, looking slightly surprised at the order that came from Oromë:

“Tyelkormo, are you going back home today?”

“Yes. That was the plan. Maitimo said that the family would be there for once, so…”

“I see. Do you look forward to it?”

“Sure. I missed my brothers.”

“Hm… And if you had an opportunity to stay here longer? Say… a year?”

“Oh yes please!”

Maitimo at his side sighed: 

“You are NOT doing that without mom and dad’s agreement!” 

“Of course not. We however wanted to know whether it was even something Tyelkormo wanted before we presented this offer to your parents. Have fun on the way back, someone will join you in a couple of days to discuss things with your family.” Tilion answered with an easy smile. 

The two brothers started to leave the wood, riding side by side on the horses that Maitimo had brought when he came:

“So… You want to spend a year there, uh?”

“I would love to!!! I have so much to learn still and…” Tyelkormo stopped himself then with a slight grimace. 

“And?”

“And I have a very small and insignificant side project.”

“Alright, out with it. I want the truth and I want to know how much damage control I’ll have to do with our parents.”

“No damage control I think.”

Tyelkormo thought on it a moment and decided on an abridged version of the truth:

“So… One of the Hounds of Oromë is… Less than happy with us elves in general. I’ve been trying to… I don’t know. Get him to tolerate me? If you could see him, he’s beautiful. He’s the very definition of power and grace and…”

“So a creature made to hunt doesn’t like elves and you’ve been bothering it, alright, yes, that sounds like you.” Maitimo sighed. 

“Give me at least some credit here, I stayed away and just gave him little gifts from afar. And I must not have been bothering him that much or the question of whether or not I can stay a whole year wouldn’t be asked.”

Maitimo thought about that for a moment.

“Or the hound in question didn’t let it be known.”

“Nelyo… That’s Oromë’s Woods.”

“Yes. So?”

“You think he’s entirely unaware of what goes on within his woods? Particularly when something’s been going on for months, involves one of his hounds and I had to resort to asking directions to random animals several times?”

“That… Is an interesting point. I don’t know. Aulë is certainly not aware of everything that goes on in his forge.”

“OR Aulë pretends to not be aware of everything that goes on in his forge to avoid awkwardness with the elves in his entourage.”

“You know, I don’t think I want to contemplate the subject any further, thank you very much.”

Tyelkormo cackled at that. 

“Why brother? What happened in Aulë’s halls that you are blushing at the idea of Aulë knowing?”

Maitimo didn’t answer but sent his horse into a gallop, and was followed by Tyelkormo’s laughter.