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[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel walks beside her cousin, the smell of hay and horse invading her chilled nose.

"This has been wonderful, cousin," she says, her breath icing in the air. "Relaxing and delightful. Your charges are such gentlemen, and they make me laugh. I can see you in them."

Her eyes move to the white horse, smiling when she sees him.

"He is beautiful, Glorfindel. Gorgeous. How long have you had him?"

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[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel produces the slices of tart apple, cooing and laughing as she feeds them to Asfaloth. She had not grown up around horses, as her father is a smith, and she married a smith, so horses? Not so much with her family. All her sons had owned one each, but they had cared for them and she had other things to worry about.

And horses were not among them.

"I hope you will teach Feaho to ride. He deserves to be around horses as his brothers were."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"I shall bring him his first pony, when he is old enough to sit in the saddle unaided." While the Sindarians and the Green Elves might be able to ride without saddle or bridle, Glorfindel is Noldori and Vanyar, neither of which are given natural affinity to horses. Since the child would have Noldori for his elven heritage, it stands to reason he will not be charging about bareback any time soon.

Besides.

Saddles and bridles and reins mean one can add gems and silver bells and such.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Of course.

"He will love horses," she predicts as she scritches the horse's muzzle. "A white one. With warm eyes." Nerdanel shakes herself from her little vision of her son, and grins at Glorfindel.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"So certain? But you are biased by this beauty here. You should see the roans and bays and blacks of Rohan, and the greys of Dol Amroth, before making any such decision." He laughs, scratching along the base of Asfaloth's mane.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Mandos will want him to have a white one."

She just Knows this.

"He also thinks the child will look like him." She smirks. "He will be in for a surprise. A child is a mixture of mother and father, though he doesn't seem to realize that."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"I do dearly hope he inherits your hair." He announces, idly. Partially this feeling is because he loves the color, the uniqueness of it.

The other reason is he would love to know another red-haired elf that he does not either feel uncomfortably awkward with, as he does Nerdanel's father, or an uneasy wariness towards, as he does her sons with Feanor.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"I have seen him. Feaho, I mean. In a vision--"

She stops, her eyes widening a little as her hands fly to her belly.

"Oh," she breathes, looking from her stomach to her cousin. "Glorfindel..." She winces again, staggering back a little.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Nerdanel earns a puzzled, worried frown, and he steps forward quickly to catch her arm to keep her from falling.
"Cousin?" He asks, eyeing her with concern. Asfaloth whinnies imperilously at this sudden loss of attention.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Now she whimpers.

"Something isn't right," she pants, more out of fear than pain. "It feels... it feels like the cramps I experienced just before my labour with the twins."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

He does not let her go, instead wrapping an arm around her waist to support her.
"Come, there is room to sit down over here. It is still some months until he is due, correct?" His tone is suddenly very calm, giving lie to the spike of fear he feels. He told Lord Mandos there was something wrong!

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Three more," she agrees as she sits, rubbing at her belly. She takes some breaths, a few minutes passing where there is no contraction, then she makes an odd sound as she feels another of the pains. "But, Glorfindel... I think I am in labour!"

Which was not right! It was too soon!

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Instead of answering, he stands and whistles sharply, an odd fluttering whistle that sounds something like birdsong. A few moments later, farther off, something or someone whistles back, and he nods in satisfaction.
"Your son will not come today, Nerdanel. Not if there is any strength left in Imladris. The twins will be here soon." He assures her, confidently, kneeling at her side. With one hand he holds one of hers. The other he gently rests on her belly, his gaze gone abstracted, as if he were focusing on something other than what is right in front of him.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She feels tears prick in her eyes as she waits for the next contraction. She expects the next one to come sooner, with more strength, but when it does, the pain is just about the same as the previous one, and just as far apart.

"This isn't right," she murmurs. "It doesn't feel right, cousin."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

His expression slowly shifts to one of confusion, as if he found something he did not expect. Then a dark-haired elf pelts into the stables, running at a dead sprint. A second follows hard at his heels - the twinborn sons of Elrond have answered the call.
"Glorfindel?" One asks. "My lady?" Asks the other. They had been at arms practice, and are now dressed alike in light tunics and breeches.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel looks up, her face terribly pale and her eyes swimming.

"I--something is off--" Shee looks back to Glorfindel. "Cousin, make it right!" Another minor wave of pain ripples along the front of her belly, but it only causes more fear to blossom.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

If this was modern Earth, there would be talk of ambulances and hospitals.

If this was Minas Tirith, or Edoras, there would be calls for a healer or a carriage to the Houses of Healing.

But this is none of those.

Without a word between them, one twin settles at Nerdanel's right side, his pair at her left, Glorfindel staying put and offering her a reassuring smile.

It is hard to say who starts the melody first - possibly Elladan, possibly Elrohir. The other twin picks it up, and Glorfindel follows soon after. It is a slow song, slow and deeply reverent, sung in Quenyan. Songs have power, in Arda, and this one carries the strength of two elves that have in them the blood of Sindar, Noldor, Vanyan, and Maia, and the power of an elf reborn who has seen the light of the Two Trees.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

The red-haired Elf focuses inward, allowing the song and the power to wash over her, and she hushes her body. Quiets its unease, the fear and the pains. Slowly, the pains become less -- further apart.

She opens her eyes and stares at Glorfindel.

"We don't do this type of thing," she breathes. "We don't have pains three months before a child is due!"

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

He doesn't answer for a moment, focused on lending what strength he has to the twins, for them to use. When it seems they have things well in hand, he retreats, letting the twining trio become a duet.
He blinks heavily, then finally his gaze focuses on her.
"I know, dearheart." He murmurs, taking both her hands now. "Be brave, for just a little while longer, and then once these two can assure me they have done all they can, I will take you back." He does not go on further - back to the tavern, and Namo, not wanting to excite questions from the twins that have no honest answers.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She nods.

Not that she holds much hope of feeling safe there -- between the Hunter's interest, Melkor's teasing, and Mandos' indifferance, she figured she would be mad before the child came.

And... she wanted her mother.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

That being one person Glorfindel most certainly cannot produce with a whistle, he carefully moves around the twins so that he can scoot in behind her, urging her to lie back against him.

Mandos will care about this. He will hear of it, and he will care, even if it is the last thing Glorfindel achieves in life.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She leans back, her fingers childishly knotting in his hair.

"The twins didn't come early," she murmurs. "They were hard to birth, but they didn't come early. No one has ever had a child before their birth date." Nerdanel looks up. "Why do I feel like I am a maid again, having her first babe?"

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"Because this is the first, dearheart, and your worry is nothing to be ashamed of." He whispers back, rubbing her shoulders in an attempt to get her to relax. "Look, they can tell this child is something new and different, though I shall not be the one to satisfy their curiosity - they can wait until they sail, the pair of them." It is true, the twins both wear identical expressions of faint confusion even as their song winds to a close.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel looks at them.

"It would only raise further questions," she says softly.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Glorfindel chuckles, something more felt than heard.
"I never said I would answer them even then - just that they could wait as long as that, at least." He murmurs as the last note fades away in the crisp winter air. Then Glorfindel finds himself faced with two identical expectant expressions, demanding answers.

It is going to be a long wait for all three of them.

"The lady needs rest, and you two need a bath. My thanks, Elladan, Elrohir." He notes, forestalling their questions.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel gives them grateful smiles.

"You have my thanks as well, my Lords," she says with a smile. "As you do my son's, though he is too young yet to realize that he should give them to you."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

The twins wave off Nerdanel's thanks, with the usual 'it was our pleasure' and 'glad to be of service' types of phrases that come out most often in situations like this. They head off towards the main hall, but before they leave the stables one of them comments to the other that the other does indeed smell much like an orc, and their stately retreat turns into a chase. Glorfindel laughs at his charges while offering Nerdanel a hand up.
"I despair of them ever learning decorum. Perhaps you might say that I am a poor influence, but their father certainly was not lacking on that score. I no longer believe that it is an inheritable trait."

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"Decorum?" She chuckles and rests against him with her eyes closed. "Elladan did smell awful. I have never smelled an Orc, so I cannot compare, but I must admit he smelled... distasteful. A bath was needed."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"I pray you never do smell an orc!" Glorfindel is quick to point out. Since she seems so weary, he also decides that perhaps the long walk back up to his home isn't called for, and picks her up instead. It is a little harder than it was before, but that is something he is glad of - the child is still safe.
"I must admit I am sorry this excursion seems to have worsened your health, rather than improved it." He notes sadly as he makes his way through the maze of pathways.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"I think," she says, arms around his neck, "that this would have happened no matter where I was. At least here I do not have a dozen people swarming around me." Nerdanel closes her eyes again, sighing quietly. "This has been so hard."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"I know, dearheart." Word spreads fast in a community as small and talkative as Imladris, and more than one elf had heard Glorfindel call for the twins' aid, and the song that followed. Though none are so rude as to approach and demand exploration, every once in a while a voice will raise in song, twined with the power of the Song of Arda - Green Elves, who have long made Imladris their home, sending what strength and blessing they can.

Elflings are precious, no matter who's kin they are.

"I will stay with you, if Mandos allows it, and do all I can to make this easier." He promises. Though he will dearly miss Arda, and the stars, and the green earth, he cannot just abandon his cousin.

Not again, anyway.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She shakes her head.

"You can come and visit, but I forbid you from remaining for more than a day or so. You need this world more than I, and the bar makes you unhappy. The stars there don't sing. I will be fine, as will Feaho, if it I am not -- I will have Mandos fetch you, cousin. I promise."

Nerdanel hugs him a little tighter with her promise.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Now there is a charming prospect - being 'fetched' by a stressed and likely irate Mandos. He does not comment, however, contenting himself the thought that if such a thing were to happen, Mandos would probably be too distracted to try and kill him.
"My dear, wise cousin. As you wish, then - I will be sure to visit often." Only a short climb between them and the house now, the shingled roof just coming into view.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She is dozing in his arms, already exhausted from the scare.

"Thank you," she mumbles. "I think Mandos would have been displeased if I birthed his son in the stables of Imladris with only you to attend."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Glorfindel does not say that it would only serve the Death-Lord right.

It is a very near thing, however.

"Whatever displeasure he would have felt would surely have melted in the face of his newborn son." He assures her, sounding much more sure than he feels. No matter if it is true or not, they are at the house, and a cautious and careful check of the door shows that it does indeed lead once more into the tavern.
"Are you ready, cousin?"

[nerdanel_the_wise]

Nerdanel nods.

"Yes." She glances at the interior. "Gorlim and Lee will be worried to hear of this."

She wonders briefly if they could just... keep this from everyone.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

Glorfindel does more than wonder. He pauses at the threshold, giving her a curious look.
"Why tell them then? The edain will require lengthy and possibly repeated explanations, as I have heard this sort of thing is normal among their kind, and they will need to be convinced to worry. Then, once they start to worry, there is very little there to get them to stop. It seems more trouble than it is worth, cousin."

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"I cannot hide it from Mandos," she points out.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"Then let him deal with the edain and their questions, since he is so overwhelmingly fond of them." This comes out a trifle more exasperated and bitter than he meant it to, and he winces. "I am sorry, Nerdanel, none of that was meant for you."

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She looks up at him.

"Are you still angry with him about your jaw?"

Because she is.

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

He takes a moment to form a coherent reply.
"When I was sent to his halls, he was very different then - cold, and somewhat distant, in truth, but he never did harm to those in his care, never showed anger at our bewilderment, pain, or demands for explanation. To be confronted with what he is now... a broken jaw is the least of the injury done."

[nerdanel_the_wise]

"He is much changed," she agrees, looking into the bar. "Gorlim has changed him."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"It appears to be his specialty, changing things." Glorfindel notes drily. The blond elf is not a fan, considering that Gorlim's messes have harmed his cousin, if indirectly.
"Either way, it has been done, and must now be dealt with. Shall we go on?" After all, they cannot stand in the doorway forever.

[nerdanel_the_wise]

She smiles, snuggling a little closer.

"Yes. We should not linger here, on the threshold."

[gondolin-noble.livejournal.com]

"Should not, though perhaps the attraction could prove interesting..." Glorfindel smiles, suddenly, but moves on anyway, the door closing behind them as he walks back into the tavern at the end of the universe.