(no subject)

[nerdanel_the_wise]

It's quiet as she sits on the bed, her back propped comfortably with multiple pillows. She has a sketch pad in her hands as she draws rapidly.

She had been doing it for hours.

One sketch book had been discard, already full.

It had been centuries since she had last picked up anything to create art with, and now she couldn't create enough...

Comments

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

"Yes, of course you can have her for a day!" Gorlim grins. "Who is your friend?"

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Her name is Shufti. She is but a child herself, but she is near her time and so frightened." She tickles Kelly's chin. "I thought this beautiful girl would do her some good."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

"Who could fail to fall in love with a lass like Kelly?"

He sniffs again and rubs his nose with a sleeve, pulling his daughter up to his chest. "When would you like her?"

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Whenever it is good for you," she says. "She is usually in the bar everyday, so we have no need for it to be tomorrow or even the next day if you would like to wait."

She memorizes pose of father and daughter for her next sketch. Yes.

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

Another sniffle, another deep breath. He kisses Kelly's head.

"Just tell me when you want her, then."

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She chuckles.

"Love, you act as if I wish to snatch her, the way you cling."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

"Well, didn't you, with your children?" he asks, a snatch of laughter in his voice.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Very true," she admits with a chuckle. "Though by the fifth, I think I would have paid someone to take them out for the day and leave me in peace."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

Gorlim sniffs again as he laughs.

"Curse this nose," he mumbles. "That's what I'd like peace from! I'll not be able to breathe properly for an hour now."

It's how Beren had always known when he'd been crying. And the others... they knew. They knew something was wrong. Or suspected. And they let him keep his lies. It hurt all the more to know they must have suspected SOMETHING, if only that his heart was broken beyond repair.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel smiles with understanding, brushing back his hair and making goofy faces at Kelly.

Then she plucks the child from her father's hands and motions to one of the sketch pads closest to him -- the one that was full.

"It seems my art muse has returned," she says.

If Gorlim looks through the book, he will find perfectly rendered images of Mandos, of himself, of both of them, of Lee, of Shufti and Mal, of her own children at all various stages of growth, of Kelly, and various other people. At the back are two tigers, curled close, one pale, one shaded.

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

Gorlim chirps as his daughter is plucked away, but leans forward for the sketchbook. He flips through it, wide-eyed, sniffling at intervals.

"Oh, these are beautiful. I did not know you could draw."

He stops at the picture of Lee. And at ones of himself with Namo. His face is not turned towards Nerdanel, but his sniffling becomes noticibly more frequent as he looks through the book.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"I can draw, paint, sculpt, build, even perform the duties of a blacksmith," she remarks, not drawing attention to his sniffling. "At the moment, sculpting is not an option, so I sketch. And I do best with what I know and see each day."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

"I make carvings," Gorlim recites, his voice a little shaky. "From wood." ...duh. Sniff. Pageflip. Sniff.





...chirp.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She wonders if he has found the dove nested with the heron.

"I did not become adept at woodcarving, though I can make simple animal shapes. Nothing more elaborate. Perhaps you will show me your creations sometime," she says hopefully. "Maybe after the baby comes and we have hours to pass."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

He has.

Without turning his face to her, he hunts in his pockets and hands back a small wooden figure of a dog or wolf creature sitting on a circular base carved to resemble a crown. It's a whimsical sort of figure. The dog-thing is painted black and purple, the crown bright yellow with green and blue and red jewel accents on each tip.

He sniffs again and keeps searching his pockets, possibly for another handkerchief, having already misplaced the first.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel turns it over in her hands, thinking it wonderfully created.

"You have great skill, ionen," she remarks. "We should carve together soon. I would like to do that with you. Create little trinkets for the children."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

"We should," he agrees, his voice betrayting his tears as he sets the sketchbook aside and leans forward with his hand over his eyes.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"I thought you might like some of them," she says gently. "Whichever you like. There are also a few in the other sketch book: the Valar, homes in Tirion, the gardens of Irmo, some of the Teleri ships."

She had cried herself when sketching the dove and the heron. For some reason, it had struck a painful chord in her chest, but she was proud of the drawing. It was lovely.

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

It is beautiful. But a little much for him right now. He flips the page without looking at it again, and without loking at Nerdanel, he stands up.

"I'm... just going to go... take a walk down the hall for a minute or two. Do you mind watching Kelly?"

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Her eyes are a little worried, but she nods.

"Of course, dear one. It's not as if I have some pressing business I must do," she says with a smile. "I can entertain her for a bit."

She turns to the baby in her arms and coos to her.

"Can't I? Yes, I am sure we can entertain ourselves."

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

Gorlim nods, and is out the door in seconds.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She stands up, cradling Kelly carefully with arm and belly, and picks up both sketch pads. She puts them on the desk with her art supplies. Once that is put up, she bounces Kelly, singing a silly song in Sindarin to her about a spider tricking a cat.

Nerdanel walks around the room some to ease the backache that was always with her. Feaho kicked and shifted during the short time his mother paid attention to the baby and moved about, but when she sits again, laying Kelly on her back on the bed, Feaho settles.

She lifts Kelly's shirt and blows on her little belly, making the baby squirm and giggle. She does this several times before she plays peek-a-boo with her, not letting her mind wander to whatever Gorlim was doing.

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

After a while -- maybe ten, maybe fifteen minutes -- the door creaks open and Gorlim slips back in, announcing himself with a meekish sniffle as the coor clicks shut. His eyes and nose are significantly redder than they were when he left.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She looks up from teasing the baby, and lets out a quiet sigh.

"I am sorry. You seemed... I thought you would like to see them, that's all," she says softly.

[gorlim.livejournal.com]

Gorlim smiles at her, though. Bright and loving and grateful.

"They are so beautiful, Nana," he says scratchily. "That is all. I didn't want to upset the babies." He remembers that he had once felt Fea become unsettled when he wept at Nerdanel's side, and his daughter whines and squirms when her daddy cries.