Etyanárë, chapter one

The tall, red haired elleth looked around the carnage of orcs that surrounded her and the other Ellyn. She didn't know the elves that had fought with her, they had just dropped in shortly after she had been attacked by, and started fighting with, the orcs.

As she looked up, one of two dark haired Ellyn with identical faces stepped in front of her.

"May I ask your name, milady? I am sure I should have heard of you." He asked carefully.

"Etyanárë." Came the short reply. She didn't feel like parlaying with this ellon. He, on the other hand showed shock and made a point of asking for more information.

"Etyanárë? It is rare to come across a person named in Quenya, how come you by this name? It is an unusual meaning as well." Etyanárë gave him a flat look before bending down and beginning to collect her arrows, as well as knives, embedded in the orcs.

"My father was one of the Noldor exiled from Valinor in the first age, he always felt the pain of the exile keenly as his leave taking was at least partly from familial duty rather than want. My name was chosen in light of both my appearance and my history." She replied shortly.

By now, all the Ellyn in the group were listening in on the conversation.

"Who is your father then? My home, Rivendell is not far from here and there resides Lord Glorfindel of Gondolin. He may have known your father!" That got the ellon another dark look.

"Oh yes, he will have know my father. Probably didn't want to, but if he didn't know my father personally then he will have known of him. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go." She didn't wait for an answer and left of, jumping up into the trees and running off before they could detain her.

XXX

She hated orcs, she truly did.

The monsters were the scouge of the earth to start with and now they had resulted in her being followed by some nosey Ellyn who obviously could not work out what red hair and an exiled Valinorian Noldo for a father meant. Where they so uneducated as to not know that red hair only turned up in one elfin family? A family which were familia non grata throughout the elfin world.

Correction, the world in general.

She hadn't actually seen her father in millennia. He had either faded or was still wandering around singing his laments of the terrible crime he and his brothers had committed for the sake of some pretty jewels. Her mother was a human who had died when Etyanárë was only a little child. Her father had taken her and brought her up. When she was old enough she had left him for her own explorations, not really wanting to spend the rest of her life with a loony who spent most of his time singing songs of lament about his mistakes, big as those were.

XXX

IT was two weeks later and she still had this tail that refused to be shaken.

These elves clearly had a head of solid bone.

Now totally bored with the attention she turned round and waited for her tail to turn up and come into view. The two identical elves sidled sheepishly into the clearing. They had left their group to clear up and whatever they did to come follow her. They looked as if they were trying to conceal surprise at her noticing their presence.

"Are you ready to talk yet, lady? For, know this, we will not leave you until we have got you to return with us to our home and know who your father is." They did not get a friendly look from the exceptionally frustrated and annoyed elleth.

"If you cannot work out from my appearance and the information I have already given you then I don't recommend that you go in for any intellect or knowledge competitions." They looked confused. "Use your brains rather than your tracking skill, will you? And no, I will not return with you to your home, I don't like being kicked out of places in humiliation because I got born to the wrong father. Who are you anyway?" The two Ellyn had been looking at her in shock, but they jumped slightly at her question.

"We are the sons of Elrond Peredhil, Lord of Rivendell. And no one would dare attack you, especially for something you cannot help, with your presence within the haven as our guest." That comment simply earned them a cynically raised eyebrow.

"As greater elf as I am sure your father has grown to be, I doubt he would welcome me more than anyone else, bar as a possible form of repayment. If you are so curious about me, go talk to your father, I know he knows much more about me. Though, in all honesty I would say you take after your uncle rather more than your father."

They just about managed to get a 'how?' out through their shock.

"Elros was the one who was good a brainless, Elrond always showed rather more intelligence. Tell me, do you have any siblings? For if you do, then I can tell exactly who he passed on the intelligence to." They were left gaping at the implied insult and were too shocked to react when she spun and disappeared.

XXX

They followed her for two more days before they got to a river where her tracks simply stopped. At a guess, she had ridden a log downstream or something and had lost them.

It took much longer to return to Rivendell, though not as long as it had taken to get to the river as she had taken a distinctly scenic route in an attempt to shake off the persistent twins of Elrond.

When they got home they were greeted emphatically by their father who was, having already been reported to by the patrol, very curious. They were also greeted by an equally curious Glorfindel. Once they had cleaned up they joined the two elf lords and Lord Erestor in a sitting room to discuss the chase across the wilderness.

"Did the patrol group tell you her name father?" Elladan asked. Elrond shook his head.

"They said they couldn't hear what was said as you were talking too quietly to follow."

"She is called Etyanárë, have you heard that name? She seemed to think you would know it, it sounded like she knew you from something she said when we caught up with her for a short while." Glorfindel and Erestor looked confused but Elrond had gone pale and wide eyed. "You do know the name? Why did she think you would not welcome her unless as part of a dept."

"She was a tall red haired elleth with blue eyes?" They nodded.

"I would personally welcome her given a choice, but few other elves would. Her father's deeds are imprinted on the memory of every elf in the world. Many would hold her father's crimes against her and I suspect she found that out the hard way. I wonder what happened to her father, I have heard no reports of him in well over an age now." More confused looks from the other elves in the room ensued.

"Father, you make no sense. Who is she and who is her father? How do you know her? She apparently knew your brother, or at least she said she did. How?" The torrent of questions was stopped by a raise hand from the elf lord in the firing line.

"Yes she knew both Elros and I. We knew her before we entered the house of Gil-galad. That was a very long time ago. I have to admit I always wondered what happened to her, I never heard any reports of her and she does not deserve the stigma that comes with her blood. I always thought she must have died in the fall of Beleriand, the way she totally dropped from sight." Glorfindel watched his lord with narrowed eyes.

"She was one of Maedhros and Maglor's people? That is the only thing I can think of that makes sense in light of you comments."

"I suppose you could put it that way, though she was not much older than Elros and I so could not have taken part in the Kinslaying, even if she had wanted to. She is unfortunately tainted by it though as her father was a kinslayer. It is a pity, I was fond of her and she was probably the only elf that could have mad Elros chose elfin kind over that of the humans. It took them a while to grow to like each other but..." He trailed off, eyes distant.

The other elves looked at each other, what Elrond had said shed some insight into the mystery elleth but it was clear he was not going to give any more about her. It was up to them to find out more about the unusual elleth.

XXX

Etyanárë shook herself dry, sitting in a cottage that had become abandoned several years previously when the owner had died. She had buried the old hermit and taken over his house at his request. The old human had not had good eyesight and had failed to notice her race. It had been nice to be able to have some interaction without fear of being discovered for the daughter of one of the best known Kinslayers of the first age.

As she removed her sopping wet clothing and hung it over a railing she almost wished she had taken those twins up on the offer for a stay in Rivendell. She would probably have got a good bath without having to draw it herself, a change of clothes to something nice and elfin for once and a meal up to the standards to which she had not had since she had gone into exile for her father's crimes before actually having met Elrond and most probably got instantly kicked out.

It had been a long time since they had seen each other but she was one of the more recognisable elleth in the world and she did not doubt that he would remember her and recognise her immediately.

Once again, she mentally sent out a curse to her grandfather for starting all the horrors off that caused her this interminable exile and another to Morgoth for stealing the Silmarils in the firstplace.

Why did she have to suffer because of them?