Survivors: A Pair of Drabbles by Himring

Maglor takes shelter from a storm in a tunnel under Mount Dolmed. The Dwarven mine farther in has fallen into decay. He remembers they were here after the Dagor Nirnaeth Arnoediad. How desperate they were—and yet lacking in foresight how much more might yet be lost, how much farther they had to fall! In the dark, he hears the thundering sound of breakers borne up from the coast below. He closes his eyes and pretends defiantly that what he hears is only the gale in the branches of the forest, that not far off Caranthir’s keep still stands unconquered…

Haleth is still getting used to the fact of her survival. When she and Caranthir have finished barking at each other, as they do, she crosses the camp to find her orphaned nephew. Haldan immediately crawls into her lap, as soon as she sits down, like a much younger child. She shares the honeycomb with him that Caranthir brought with the rest of the supplies from his keep somewhere farther north, a small piece for herself, the larger for him. He needs feeding up, after all that. She finds herself swallowing tears down with the sweetness, although Haldan doesn’t see.