Light from Shadows

Chapter 3

Mîrrómen's POV

"Can't catch me!" Iltani sang out as Elrond, Eros, and I tried to catch up to her in a rowdy game of tag. We laughed happily as we chased her from room to room. "Come on slow pokes!" She squealed joyously.

Suddenly, we saw saw an elf with red hair coming down the hall. It was Uncle Maedhros, wandering about and lost in thought. Elrond, Elros, and I skidded to a halt. "Iltani! Watch out!"  Elrond cried out in warning.

But Iltani was going too fast and ran into Uncle Maedhros with a loud smack! Both Iltani and Maedhros fell to the floor. Elrond, Elros, and I hid behind pillars and curtains, peeking out from them in worry. Uncle Maedhros rubbed his head with the stump that was his right hand, before glaring angrily. Iltani shrank back in fear, as this uncle was particularly bad tempered.

"Mind where you're going!" He nearly hissed at her as he picked himself up and resumed his walk. "Yes, Uncle Maedhros." Iltani said, still not moving from the spot she had fallen. After Maedhros had left, Elrond, Elros, and I came out of our hiding places.

"Man, Iltani," Elros said we helped her up. "You are lucky!" "Yeah," I agreed as I brushed her off. "Sauron didn't name you Iltani, 'lucky,' for nothing." "You call slamming into Uncle Maedhros lucky?" Iltani demanded as she straightens her headband.

"No," Elrond laughed. "We're calling what he did to you after that lucky. Elros, what would he have done to you if you had ran into him?" Elros pretended to think for a moment before he said. "That would have been a slap to the face, with possible bleeding from the ear."

"He would have thrown me down the stairs for looking at him wrong." I said as we continued our walk through the house. Elros looked around and whispered. "I'm going to run away to King Gil-galad." Iltani and I gave a start of surprise.

"What?" Elrond whisper-yelled at him. "Why?" I asked him as we walked through the gray stone halls. Elros glanced about a shudder before replying.

"Maedhros scares me. I told you how Elrond and I are hostages for a Silmaril. Well, Maedhros grows impatient. I fear he will do us all some harm." Elros explained to us.

"I'm afraid you'll have to make that trip alone, Elros." I told him, he scowled at me. "Why?" He demanded of me. "Have you turned soft? Why won't you come with me? Elrond will come, won't you?"

Elrond looked surprised and blurted out a simple. "No!" Elros got angry and Iltani soothingly grabbed his shoulder. "Calm down, spitfire," she told him kindly. "Let our brothers explain before you get angry."

"For one thing," I began to explain to him. "King Gil-galad is not among our close kin. We have no way to know if he will welcome us and no grounds to claim his protection." "Another thing," Elrond told him. "It's almost winter, it is too cold for travel."

"Yet another problem," I said calmly. "Three big ones actually. One, you have no creature to take you. Two, you have no food to take with you. And last, but certainly not least, you don't know where King Gil-galad is. Only that his city is somewhere west.

Elros snorted and said. "Gil-galad has no reason to turn you away." "You are mistaken," Iltani told him softly. "Mîrrómen's father is the reason Gil-galad's father died. Which is another reason Uncle Maedhros doesn't like him."

"That was no fault of ours!" I hissed, trying to stop the coming story. "We weren't even born when it happened!" "Why else does Maedhros hate you two?" Elrond asked curiously.

"Because our fathers captured him and tortured him. Mîrrómen's father cost him his right hand." Iltani said simply as we stepped into the lush garden. It was full of sleeping rose bushes, lily stalks, and maple trees with fiery red leaves. We sat down on the browning grass in a small circle, our clothing making a rainbow on the dull colored earth.

"What's torture?" Elrond asked us. "When someone hurts you for fun." I said coldly. "Our fathers would have made us torture elves if we had stayed, so we ran away."

"Do you miss them?" Elros asked Iltani. "I do," she told him softly. "They treated us well, for all the evil they have done." Then we fell silent for a time, considering what we had said. Suddenly, Elros pounced on Iltani and yelled. "Tag!" And we resumed our long abandoned game of tag in the safety of the garden.