Havens by AdmirableMonster

Ulmo

The refugees keep to themselves, trying to avoid interactions with other travelers, Men or Dwarves.  They have seen no other Firstborn in a long time (and ought they even to trust those?  Maeglin and Salgant betrayed their own.) Pengolodh leans, as he has done for months, into his role—the sole surviving loremaster of Gondolin.  Never having intended to acquire such a portentous epessë, he feels he does not live up to his duties, but he tries. He is summoned, at times, by Idril, primarily to witness her councils with the remaining lord of Gondolin, and he takes careful and copious notes.

One day, during a particularly long march, Pengolodh spots a shrine to Ulmo on the side of the ancient road.  Everyone is moving slowly, and silver moonlight glitters on the still waters.  He has nothing to offer, and from hearing Tuor’s story during their long and lonely journey, he knows that the people of Gondolin have failed their god in any case, but Pengolodh is a child of Nevrast, and he misses the shrines and surety of his youth.

He kneels before the wide bowl of collected rainwater.  Beyond it is an ancient statue, made perhaps by a Mannish artisan, all covered in soft green moss and unrecognizable.  Pengolodh dips his head to pray and then realizes he has no idea what to pray for.  So for a long time, he stays like that, knees growing cold and cramped, and eventually, he dips a hand into the font of water and drinks from it, cool and clean and not salted at all.

Let us find peace, he thinks eventually, and he rises, walks away, and does not look back.