tolkien100 | An Honourable Leader (cross-post)

Title : An Honourable Leader

Author : Himring

Fandom : The Silmarillion

Rating : PG13

Characters : Finarfin and his great-nephew Gil-galad

Disclaimer : Tolkien's characters, only implied to have met; Himring wrote a gapfiller (no offence intended, no monetary recompense received).

Spoilers/Warnings : War of Wrath

Summary : Double drabble (2 x100), written for a LOTR community challenge on the subject of honouring warriors and honourable leaders; now cross-posted here.

"I've come to save you", Finarfin announced, trying to appear confident.

It had taken so many negotiations to get him to Beleriand. He had had to convince his own people. Then he had to ask the Valar for leave, and then he had to persuade the Teleri to let Noldor set foot on their ships.

When he finally arrived with his army, nobody knew the whereabouts of his daughter. The only one Finarfin had managed to locate was his great-nephew on Balar. To his bewildered eyes, Gil-galad did not look very Noldorin.

"Thank you", said Gil-galad politely, a little stunned.

***

"Well, I must be going now," said Finarfin.

They had won. It had not been as he had imagined it, despite Valarin approval: fifty years of horror, destruction and far too much death, both among those he had led here and those he had come to save.

He had tried to keep them alive, fed, and talking to each other, everyone who was meant to be on their side, fighting the same enemy. As it turned out, his great-nephew had been right to be sceptical.

But Gil-galad surprised him, embracing him suddenly on the jetty. "Thank you, Uncle," he said.

A/N: Finarfin is King of the Noldor in Valinor and Galadriel's father. The war in question is the one in which Thangorodrim fell at the end of the First Age, as mentioned by Elrond in the council scene.