friendship and a harp by Aprilertuile

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friendship and a harp

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Oromë raised an eyebrow as he noticed Tyelkormo talking with hopeful wannabe hunters. He approached quietly, knowing that Tyelkormo at least would notice him straight away anyway.

He listened in for a while, the young noldo prince was an excellent teacher when he wanted to.

It still didn’t change the fact that unless he was mistaken or got so carried away with something he skipped time again, Tyelkormo wasn’t exactly supposed to be there this month. Or was it week?

Yes, he was pretty sure that Tyelkormo was supposed to be with his family currently and not teaching a bunch of near helpless wannabe hunters the basics of hunting.

Frankly Oromë considered that bunch to be a lost cause. Those who believed in the inner perfection of everything and didn’t see the point of hunting and imagined that Oromë’s people were doing something special and hidden to take care of the Woods never lasted too long among his people and those ones would be no exception, clearly.

He saw the exact moment Tyelkormo lost patience with one of the boys:

“For the love of all that’s holy, get over yourself. YES hunting involves blood, what did you expect?! EVERYTHING is in the name. This is the home of Oromë’s Hunt. We hunt. Meaning that we kill living things.”

“Yes but… It’s so… Violent.”

Oromë snorted of laughter as he caught Tyelkormo praying to him for patience. He could be patient. No hunter became any good without a good amount of patience, but it still wasn’t something one prayed to him for usually.

“Look, working with, or for, lord Oromë involves a lot of things, true. Some of it is basic care for the Woods, yes. Some of it is healing and protection for the Woods and whoever it protects, true… But a big part of it is hunting. Chasing creatures of Melkor, chasing predators becoming too dangerous for one area, chasing preys to eat and preys animals who get too numerous for the health of one area as well. If you can’t tolerate to hunt, if you can’t tolerate to have to take care of the dead bodies of animals, then you have nothing to do in these Woods.” Tyelkormo snapped.

“How rude. Who do you think you are to tell me…”

“Tyelkormo is one of my hunters and has been working with my people for years at this point. He does know what he’s doing and frankly I have no idea what you thought you’d find upon coming here. Please, go back home.”

The elf blushed, annoyed.

The elves who were hopelessly naïve were… Really, really… hopeless. Oromë had a feeling it was a direct correlation with their elders refusing to talk of the world outside of Aman, and some of his peers appreciated that the younger elves were innocent, a ‘proof’ according to them that Aman was a place of light and healing.

Privately, he just tended to call it sheltering idiots who went contrary to all laws of natural selection, but he’s been told several times that it was a good thing and he was too harsh on the Children.

Oromë didn’t quite get how it was supposed to be good, but he never claimed to be one of the wise either so, so long he didn’t have to deal with the elves in question, it wasn’t his problem.

The elf left in a huff, taking his belonging to leave the woods, and his peers followed suit:

“I’m almost ashamed of being the same age as them.” Tyelkormo muttered.

“I’m sure they have some qualities.”

“Yeah, deep down, well hidden, perhaps.”

Oromë snorted at that.

“So, might I ask what you are doing here? I was somehow sure you were busy with your family for… A while.”

He really needed to get better at remembering that time was actually considered important for the elves.

“A month. For the record. I was supposed to be home for a month.” Tyelkormo said amused, clearly having picked up on that.

“And you are clearly not home right now.”

Tyelkormo grimaced at that.

“So there might have been a slight, tiny, inconsequential incident.”

Oromë raised an eyebrow at that.

“An incident.” He repeated flatly.

“With a harp.”

Oromë crossed his arms, looking at the elf with a blank look.

“Oh alright, so Makalaurë was an insupportable pest as he ever is, because somehow artists always are and do not let one of them try to convince you of the contrary, they ALL are terrible, and so when he left his harp unattended in an unfortunate location there might have been a slight issue… That Makalaurë blames on me without proof.”

“hmhm.”

“The harp might have fallen in the fountain because of the wind, really. And the dog bites on the body of the harp might have been another dog. Might even have been a wolf for all he knows, you know. The law does say innocent until proof of the contrary.” Tyelkormo said wisely.

Oromë sighed.

“Did you have to incriminate Huan in your shenanigans?”

“Huan is innocent.”

Oromë’s look at that made Tyelkormo look sheepish.

“Oh alright, I should have done it all myself. But honestly, my lord…”

“Will it drive the rest of your family to invade my Woods like last incident?”

Tyelkormo grimaced.

“I… am not above going to visit your lady wife for the duration of their visit should they happen to decide to come here seeking a change of scenery.”

“Oh no you are not! If I have to tolerate a massive invasion of your family, you are staying right here in my Woods to deal with it. Last time was more than enough to last me an eternity.”

Tyelkormo chuckled at that.

“Nah honestly I don’t think so. Dad wasn’t too impressed and said to come back next month if I couldn’t tolerate Makalaurë’s insane dramatics.”

Oromë shook his head with a sigh.

“How can you be both as clever and skilled as you are, and so childish you’d destroy your brother’s belongings for being annoying?”

“That’s the sibling effect. We’re all the best to get on each other’s nerves and we never know where to stop.”

“You realise your brother will probably get his revenge somehow, right?”

“Of course, he wouldn’t be my brother if he didn’t. That’s just how our relationship works, don’t worry, it’ll be fine. Just… Allow me to hide here for a month, yeah?”

Oromë sighed.

“Of course, you’re always welcome in the Woods, you know that.”