Long live the King by Aprilertuile

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Recovery

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Tyelkormo survived.

He woke up with a gasp of pain, having moved in fitful sleep, and found himself immediately surrounded by his brothers, all talking over each others, meaning that Tyelkormo didn’t understand a single thing they said, and they only achieved to give him a headache on top of the pain he already felt.

Something must have shown on his face, for Makalaurë’s voice rose above that of his other siblings:

“ENOUGH!” He called.

Silence fell in the room.

“Thank you. How are you feeling Tyelko?” Makalaurë asked gently.

And Tyelkormo blinked slowly. He knew the words. He understood them individually… But it didn’t seem to make any sense in his head. As a result, he chose to ignore the obvious question of his brother and to answer with one of his own:

“What happened after I lost consciousness?” Tyelkormo asked, “and where is Huan?” He added, upon realising that his dog was nowhere to be seen.

His brothers all exchanged looks at that.

“Sindarin, Quenya and…?” Ambarussa asked curious.

“Primitive Quendian.” Makalaurë sighed.

That had Tyelkormo grimace.

Did he mix his languages again? That happened so rarely. Only when he was really out of it. At least this time apparently he stayed in elven languages.

“Yes, you did.”

“Did I speak aloud?” Tyelkormo asked, focusing carefully on one language at a time.

He hoped at least.

“Yes, you did.” Makalaurë answered again patiently.

“Alright. What happened after I lost consciousness and where is Huan?” He repeated in the hope of being clearer and getting an answer this time.

He wanted to see Huan, he wouldn’t put it past his siblings to try to hide it if something had happened to him.

“The healers said his presence was not good for…”

“Huan is my companion. Huan’s presence is good for me. I want my dog.”

Curufinwë snorted at that but went to open the door of the room. Immediately a massive hound jumped him with a woof of happiness seeing Tyelkormo awake and aware, more or less.

“Hey boy, come here Huan, come!”

Huan sat on the floor, putting his massive head against Tyelkormo’s side and only then did the elf relax.

“So… I ran out of luck, uh?”

“According to your extremely aggravating second, the orcs were prepared for you lot. They came in numbers and set up an ambush. They noticed the weapons and better armour than average and the orcs clearly meant to try to take your party down.”

“They’ve learnt well.” Tyelkormo mused.

“… Please, don’t talk about those creatures like you speak about a hunting dog. We don’t want them to actually learn anything, least of all well enough to take you down.” Curufinwë snapped.

“And yet, we have to recognize that they have learnt enough to know exactly where to lay their ambush, meaning that they’ve noticed a pattern that no one noticed we were using. They’ve learnt enough to know what number would be utterly inefficient to take a party of us down. They’ve learnt to recognize some of us to concentrate their efforts on us. That means they’ve been watching us for long enough already.” Ambarussa said, realising what Tyelkormo meant and had difficulties to articulate properly for now.

“And so without us noticing them.” Makalaurë said with a frown, understanding his point.

“Yes, and that right here is a problem.” Tyekormo nodded.

Languages were hard. Whoever said the contrary was a lying liar who lied.

Makalaurë nodded and left the room, looking like wrath incarnate… And Tyelkormo relaxed and closed his eyes briefly, curling up against… One of his brother’s hand. He’d be unable to tell which one at the moment, but it felt… Like safety.

His head was swimming, he felt like he was perceiving everything through a thick layer of fabric, he felt both hot and cold, but his brothers were around him, Huan at hand, Makalaurë had listened to his concerns and he had been here.

He woke up again later to a healer screeching at the presence of Huan:

“You throw Huan out, I’ll follow him.” He said, making the healer splutter but shut up.

Oh, it was easier to think now. The pain felt sharper but everything else felt clearer and closer to normal. The drug they used to dull the pain must have faded away then. Good. He preferred to have a clear head and the ability to communicate properly. 

The healer nodded sharply, looking deeply unhappy as he glared at Huan as if he was a rat in his soup bowl.

Really, healers were far too concerned about insignificant things like dog hair and drool and dog weight and strength that could potentially reopen stitches on accident.

It’s not like it was a real concern.

Alright at least it’s not like it was a real concern with HUAN.

Tyelkormo didn’t guarantee anything for any other animal, thank you very much.

Huan emitted a woof of distinct amusement and Tyelkormo eyed him: “Did I talk aloud?”

The dog emitted a funny face that said it all and he groaned.

“Your mind is an interesting thing to be in, certainly. Do you often have nightmares?” Carnistir asked him.

“See, Huan, I never wake up the camp with my wailing. What a relief.” Tyelkormo mused.

“Tyelko, I was serious.”

“Often enough, if you must know. Why?”

“We had to wake you up twice but with the medication you weren’t… Really… Aware of things and… It made for an interesting time.” Curufinwë said.

“Did I injure anyone?”

“No. Not really.”

“’No’ and ‘not really’ aren’t the same brother.”

“Well no then.”

“Huan, was that a ‘no you didn’t’ or a ‘I say no even though you did because I just don’t want you to concern yourself about it right now kind of no’?”

A simple woof answered him, and Huan’s tail was beating the floor crazily.

Tyelkormo sighed, and looked at the healer:

“How bad is it?”

And that’s how Tyelkormo learnt to never challenge healers, for that one seemed to have decided to take revenge for the presence of the dog by going into technical details that had Tyelkormo going from utter boredom to absolute horror.