Mellon Chronicles 5 - Never Alone

Never Alone

AUTHORS: Cassia and Siobhan

DISCLAIMER: The Mellon Chronicles are the complete fanfiction works of Cassia & Siobhan. I make no claim to them or The Lord of the Rings.
It's respective plot is copyright of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The works posted here are purely for the enjoyment and remembrance of fans.

WARNING: Character torture and angst.
(Heck, this was written by the anonymous torture-fic writer...)

ADDITIONAL NOTES: Please note that when Tolkien says that Aragorn was 'raised in the house of Elrond' after his father's death when he was a child, we have taken that to mean that Elrond was something of an adopted father to his long-distant nephew, Aragorn, and Elrond's twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir were something like older brothers to the young ranger. We have taken the liberty of writing Aragorn's mother Gilraen completely out of the equation and in our series, *both* of Aragorn's parents were killed when he was young. Please do not take offence, or flame us on this if you see any of these things differently. Thanks!

ALSO NOTE: Some of the situations relating to Elrond's past are taken from the accounts given in the Silmarillion, greatly detailed and embellished by moí. :o) Information in the SIL is very scetchy and it's easy to fill in the gaps with all sorts of supposition and 'what if', which is what I have done. Please don't roast me if you don't like the changes and interpretations I've put on things. They are just my point of view.
Also, I really don't mean to vilify the sons of Fëanor, (although a few of them were absolute JERKS) especially since Maedhros and Maglor were actually the more decent ones of them all so hopefully no one will get too upset by my (very brief) interpretation of them in chapter two.
Oh, one more thing, this is a story-inside-a-story-inside-a-story encompassing three different but related tales in a very short span of time. Hopefully it reads easily as the flashbacks should be clearly denoted by / and italics. Don't get confused by the fact that in the first chapter you don't know happened to Estel, you will find out by the end.

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Never Alone

By Cassia and Siobhan

***

"Estel? Estel can you hear me? Look at me Estel," Elrond's voice was both worried and commanding, but the thirteen-year-old in his arms did not respond. The young human's eyes were half-lidded and glazed as he leaned limply against his elven father's chest.

"By the Valar what did they *do* to you Estel?" Elladan murmured in furious anguish as he pressed folded cloths against the freely bleeding gash that sliced the youngster's thigh raggedly. Estel was losing a lot of blood.

"Was... accident," Estel shook his head numbly, his swollen lips uncooperative as he tried to pull himself out of the stupor that he felt was drowning him.

Elrohir lightly touched the bruises on the boy's face and his bleeding lip. Obvious signs of a fight and not one that his younger human brother had done very well in. "Are you saying that someone punched you the face, repeatedly, on accident?"

"Not... the fight... fell off the roof... th-they pushed me, but they didn't mean for me to fall on the fence-spikes... I didn't mean to..." Estel's body trembled and he obviously was afraid he was in trouble.

Elrond and his sons exchanged glances. Off the *roof*? He assumed the boy meant the roof of the old mill house next to where the twins had found the young human, but... What in the name of Elbereth had Estel been doing fighting on a roof? And with who? Questions however, were going to have to wait.

"Hush, hush Estel, we'll talk about it later," Elrond brushed the boy's hair back from his face gently. "Right now we just need you to be still while we get this under control."