The darkening of hearts

Powerplay

The tents were easy to erect and Mablung even dug a fire pit and prepared a bonfire for later. He was both swift and efficient and she could clearly see that this was something he was used to do. He had routines for everything, even for where he put the dry wood for later. It felt safe knowing that he was so used to this and she started to compare his kind of wisdom with the rather theoretical knowledge of the noldor and vanyar. Her conclusion was that his knowledge was way more useful than theirs, for it was based on real things.

When the tents were prepared and her stuff put into one of them he went over and picked some nuts in a woven basket, he did find several types of nuts and Lerina got some berries. There were a huge cluster of bushes not far from the small camp and several species and she filled a bowl to the rim. Then it was time for the fishing and he had found a long thin stick and attached some line made from hair to it and used some pieces of dried meat as bait. The river was not very wide, but it was rather deep and the current strong and she felt a little uncertain yet again. With everything they did she revealed just how inexperienced she was, how different she had to be from the females he was used to. She longed to be like them, sure of herself, strong, confident and proud but she knew she was lacking a lot if she compared herself with the Sindarin females she had met.

He tossed the bait and the hook in and showed her how to hold the rod and move the bait through the water and after a little she forgot about her doubts for this was both fun and exciting. He told her of the different types of fish which lived in the rivers and lakes, of how to catch them and how to cook them and she listened with her ears wide open and a sort of trustful naivety that was rather endearing. He had never had such an attentive student before, she was like a sponge, soaking everything in and eager for more. Mablung did land a couple of rather small trout and Lerina continued to try for she wanted to contribute too and suddenly she felt that something jerked at the line and she almost fell in for the fish seemed to be very strong indeed. She yelled and started pulling and soon it became apparent that this was no mere trout, this was something much larger and way more aggressive and tough. The fish was fighting her and she didn't want to lose, no way.

He stood there and watched as she swore and struggled and something within him did find it kind of fascinating that she was this stubborn, and strong willed. It was just that her strong will had been subdued and choked by the environment she had lived in and he was quite surprised by the small glimpses he got of her real personality when it emerged. Finally she managed to land the fish and she was panting and her eyes were shining and Mablung whistled and grinned. "That is a huge thalakk, a sort of salmon. They are delicious but hard to catch, well done indeed!"

She stood there beaming with pride as he killed the fish and started gutting it. It was enough meat on that one fish to feed them for two whole days and when he was finished with the gory job he hung the fish over his shoulder and they returned to the camp. He got a fire going and now he showed her how they roasted nuts with some salt and honey on a flat thin piece of slate over the fire. The fish he cut into several pieces and wrapped them in the leaves of a plant which added some nice flavor to the meat and he did also wrap some herbs around each piece and then he took some clay, flattened it and wrapped it around each piece. Lerina just stared and he grinned and understood that she knew nothing about how to fend for herself out in the wild. "When the fire dies down a little I will put each pack into the embers, it will cook the fish rather fast and when we hear the clay crack we know it is done"

She felt a spark of pride, she had managed to catch a huge fish, and land it too and she was looking forward to some food for she felt famished. It was odd, usually she didn't have such good appetite. While they waited for the fish to be cooked he entertained her with stories about the things he had seen over the sundering sea and he described the animals and the people. She was very curious about the second born and the dwarves and the fact that dwarf females had beards made her giggle and gasp. Mablung realized that she in many ways was like a child, completely ignorant and like a blank page and in other ways she had a lot of baggage and he suspected that little of it was good. He could see that in her sometimes shy glances, the way she said something and then doubted her own words and excused herself for having said something stupid. She was used to being scolded and held down, to be treated like she was a thing, someone who wasn't supposed to have a voice or a will of her own and he felt angry because of that. She reminded him of a falcon with its wings cut, trapped in a golden cage. Sooner or later it would perish and he wanted to see if he could free her and make her test her wings yet again.