Actions and Their Consquences

Of In-Laws And Hounds

The sun was up, and it was shining very brightly. Why? It never shone in her face when she was in bed - only when she was on journeys outside of twilit Doriath. 

"Dior? Are you awake?" She mumbled a sleepy assent. A chuckle, and a gentle shake of her shoulder. "Wake up." Why? What? She opened her eyes and woke up fully. "Good morning my Lady." Oh yes. She was in Himring, and it's Lord was her husband. Suddenly, she felt very very small and shy.

"Good morning my Lord." 

He was already up and dressed, his stump concealed by a strange false hand made of what seemed to be mithril, and she could see it flex and move as though it were a real hand, if stiff. What marvels the Golodhrim...Noldor, call them Noldor, made. 

Dressing was easy, though she spent the whole time excruciatingly aware that she had passed the night in the same bed as a man. That she had slept, quite happily, beside the Lord of Fëanor's House. The thought made her cold all over - perhaps he had been nice to her yesterday, but what about today, what about tomorr- No. That sort of thinking will not help. Dior slipped a long knife, a present from Daerada and Daernana, into a concealed pocket of her dress and smoothed the skirt. There. She was ready now. 

Dior took her husband's proffered arm, and they walked slowly through the corridors to the hall.  "Are you well Dior?" She jumped a little. 

"I...yes. And yourself?"

Awkward much? Apparently he thought the same. "Very well. My thanks." The doors loomed before them, and she clutched his arm suddenly. A small smile. "You have nothing to fear - they are my brothers." A host of protests rose to her lips, but she did not interrupt. "They will not harm you, I made them swear it." 

************

They were glaring again. Celegorm and Curufin. Maglor and Amras were nice enough to her, in fact, Maglor seemed ecstatic to have someone else who sang in the family, and Amras seemed happy not to be the youngest anymore.  Caranthir merely glowered impartially at everyone, but Celegorm and Curufin seemed to consider her a blight on the face of Arda. 

"Is there a problem, Tyelko, Curvo?" Maedhros' voice was calm and even, but there was an underlying current that said his brothers would be fools to cross him. Dior, who only last night had been terrified of him, found him rather more comforting this morning when faced with his glaring brothers. 

"No problem Nelyo. Nothing at all." The words seemed to physically pain Curufin, and Celegorm did not even reply. Wonderful. This would be such fun. And she had been so loking forward to meeting a hunter who had ridden in Oromë's train. 

"Then neither of you will mind greeting your law-sister as reasonable people do, will you?"

"Good morning, Lady Dior."

''Lady Dior." 

Surprisingly, she felt like poking Maedhros. This was not helping. Wasn't he supposed to be a diplomat? Summoning a smile, she inclined her head to them. "The same to you my Lords." 

Maedhros nodded sharply. "There. It is not so hard to be polite brothers. Now," seeing that she was finished, "if you will excuse us, I must show Dior Himring." Dior had never been so glad to leave anywhere before, even when she had to spend time with her poisonous parents. 

He led her out, and she discovered with a large amount of surprise, that she found comfort in his prescence. Perhaps it was because he was so tall and imposing, and he was defending her against his rather terrifying brothers. "Thank you. I...thank you."

He smiled that grave, troubled smile again. "I apologise for Celegorm and Curufin. They can be...troublesome, particularly so since, well..."

"Since my mother played Celegorm and my father nearly killed Curufin you mean?" He sighed. "I know what they did Maedhros. Some may consider them heroes, but they left a trail of destruction in their wake, and they refuse to acknowledge the consequences that their actions can have upon others. They choose to blame those people instead." 

They walked in silence for a time, before Maedhros remembered that he was showing his new wife around Himring. "Where would you like to see first?"

"Do you have kennels?"

"Well, yes. Not as fine as we would like, as we used to have, but we do have them."

"Will you show me?" 

The kennels were, in fact, far finer than any she had ever seen. Huge, airy and filled with all kinds of dogs, yapping and yowling and carrying on. ''Oh, they're beautiful. What are they called?" They swarmed up around her, wagging their tails and barking, and she laughed, patting and scratching and giving her hand to sniff and generally getting acquainted with the pack. 

Maedhros smiled a little. "I am not entirely sure of all of them myself. Morrigan, the kennel-master, could tell you better than I, but my own are Tollor, Glimben, Colchanar, Cemne, Pedor, Aßiel and Thurindes. Here,'' as they thundered towards him at the sound of their names, ''let me introduce you." Dior wrested herself from the other dogs, and was soon knee deep in her husband's hunting hounds. They were beautiful dogs, tall, clean-limbed and fast as the wind, as well as affectionate. 

************

"Nelyo? What are you doing here?" Celegorm...oh this could go very badly. He looked away from the pile of hounds and half-elf to see his brother, dishevelled and stained as though he had been in the training yard. 

"Introducing Dior to the hounds. Be nice." He saw when realisation hit, and the shutter that fell over his brother's face. Doubtless, Celegorm considered it a betrayal - Lúthien's daughter in his favourite place at Himring. "Come, you have not met Thurindes yet, have you?" Thurindes was yet a puppy, and quite arguably useless in the hunt, but adorable. 

It seemed that Celegorm agreed, for he quite forgot who Dior was, and Maedhros leaned against the wall to watch the two converse quite amiably about hounds. Yes, it was going remarkably well. He restrained the urge to cackle rather well.