Rúmil to the Rescue

                                                                      Rúmil to the Rescue


“Haldir! Haldir!” Rúmil yelled, running towards his brother. 

“Yes, Rúmil, what is it now?” the Marchwarden asked calmly as he released a carefully aimed arrow into the target.

“Cirnellë has been elfnapped!” he exclaimed, out of breath.

Haldir turned and regarded his brother with a frown. “Elfnapped?”

“Yes, taken away from Lothlórien!” he further explained.

“I understand what elfnapped means. Who would take her away?” Haldir asked.

“It was a human from Gondor!” Rúmil shouted.  “Does it matter? We must save her!”

“A human from Gondor wandered into Caras Galadhon and elfnapped Cirnellë without being stopped?” Haldir asked, skeptically.

“Yes, she was seen leaving with him on horseback this morning.  Nobody seemed to realize that she was being taken against her will or something would have been done earlier!” he explained.

“And the reason that you know she was taken against her will is…?” Haldir asked.

“Is it not obvious?” Rúmil looked at Haldir as though his brother were an elfling.  “She is in love with me, so she would not leave voluntarily.”

“Ah, I see,” said Haldir, wondering how to handle this. “Rúmil, are you sure that she is in love with you?”

“Of course she is,” he stated. “She has been for years.”

“She told you this?”

“Many times,” he assured his brother.

“Recently?”

Haldir’s question was met with dead silence.  Sighing, he put his arrows into their quiver. 

“I shall speak with Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel to see what they think.  You may go with me if you can control yourself.  I do not wish for a show of histrionics in front of the Lord and Lady.”

“Me?” Rúmil asked, taken aback.  “Why, self-control is my middle name, or it would be if I had one.  I know exactly how one is expected to act during an audience with the Lord and Lady.”

~*~

An hour later Rúmil lay on the ground, arms wrapped around Lady Galadriel’s legs.

“Please, please, please let me go rescue her!” he cried.  “We are to bind ourselves together! She loves me and I love her.  Please!”

Haldir rolled his eyes and pulled his brother off of Lady Galadriel.

“Rúmil, you promised!” he said through clenched teeth.

Galadriel spoke with Celeborn quietly for a moment before addressing the two brothers.

“We have decided that the incident should be investigated further.  Haldir, would you be willing to accompany your brother to Gondor to find out what has happened?”

Haldir let go of Rúmil, who immediately fell to the ground in a heap, still mumbling to himself about how deep his love was for Cirnellë.

“You wish for me to leave Lothlórien to go to Gondor?” he asked, incredulous.  Stepping closer and lowering his voice, he said, “You must realize that the elleth left voluntarily.”

“That is what I suspect, Haldir,” Galadriel said, just as quietly.  “But Rúmil will never believe it until he hears it from her.  Besides, I do not like the idea that they left without letting somebody know. I would feel better hearing from Cirnellë that she left of her own free will.”

Haldir sighed.  “I will have to get somebody to cover our positions at the Northern Fences, but that should not be a problem.”

~*~

Haldir stood and stared at his younger brother, arms folded across his chest as he slowly shook his head in disbelief.  Rúmil was covered in armor and had various knives and swords covering most of his body.  Haldir watched as Rúmil made his third attempt to get on the back of the horse, once more falling to the ground.

“Too heavy, I guess,” said the elf from his prone position.  Of course, the words came out muffled since he had armor covering his head, too.

“Rúmil?” Haldir queried.

“Yes, Haldir,” was what Haldir thought that he heard.

“We are going to Minas Tirith peacefully.  We are not going to enter the city looking as though we are there to start a war. Get rid of the armor and extra weapons.”

Rúmil sat up and opened the faceplate so that he could be heard.

“Where did you get this armor, anyway? It looks Orcish!” Haldir said, reaching out to touch it.

“I cannot tell you, you will be mad,” Rúmil replied, slapping his brother’s hand away.

“Never mind, then.  I am probably better off not knowing.  Get rid of it.  I want to leave in ten minutes,” the Marchwarden said, checking his own discreetly worn weapons.

It took Rúmil almost the whole ten minutes to unload his weapons and then he couldn’t get the armor off.  Haldir stood nearby, shaking his head as he watched his brother stumble around while pulling at the helmet.  Finally, Haldir took pity on him and helped, stopping when Rúmil screamed.

“What now?” Haldir asked, growing quickly impatient.

“My hair is caught…in the faceplate!” Rúmil explained.  They spent another ten minutes trying to untangle Rúmil’s hair before Haldir rolled his eyes and cut a chunk of the hair with his knife.

“Look what you did!” Rúmil exclaimed, holding the clump of hair in his hands.

“It will grow back,” Haldir said through clenched teeth. “Now get on your horse!”

~*~

Much, much later…

~*~

The two elves approached Minas Tirith on horseback, but rather than ride next to Haldir, Rúmil stayed directly behind his brother as they drew closer to the city.

“What are you doing now?” the Marchwarden asked, exasperated.

“I am hiding behind you so that they will see us and think that it is only one rider approaching.”

“Yes, of course,” Haldir said, rolling his eyes, “because two riders would terrify them.”

“It is twice as many,” Rúmil explained.

“I see,” Haldir replied.

“Should we not wait for dark?” Rúmil wanted to know.

“No, why?” Haldir asked.

“So that we can sneak up on them,” Rúmil said in exasperation, “obviously.”

“Why would we want to sneak up on them, Rúmil?”

“So that we can rescue Cirnellë,” Rúmil said the words carefully as though he were speaking to somebody a bit slow.

“Rúmil, the entire city of Minas Tirith is not part of a giant conspiracy to elfnap your true love.  We simply need to speak with somebody that can tell us where she is so that she can explain herself.”

“Then what will I do with the rope?” Rúmil queried.

“What rope?” Haldir asked.  When Rúmil didn’t answer, the larger elf turned to look at his brother only to find him thoroughly tangled in yards of elven rope.

“I had planned on scaling the walls of the city,” he explained.  Haldir pulled his knife out again, sighing as he cut his brother free.

At the entrance to the city, they were led to Lord Faramir.  Haldir quietly reminded his brother not to make a scene this time and Rúmil assured him that he would be cooperative.

After the introductions, Lord Faramir finally asked what brought the elves to the city of Minas Tirith.

“We have come to inquire…” Haldir began.

“My beloved has been elfnapped by a man and brought here!” Rúmil interrupted.

“Rúmil!” Haldir exclaimed.  The Marchwarden assured a very concerned looking Lord Faramir that there was no need to be alarmed.

“In fact, Rúmil, would you please wait outside for a moment?” Haldir asked, his patience waning.

“Well, I would rather…” Rúmil began.

“Rúmil, it was not really a question,” Haldir explained.

“I see,” the smaller elf said, nodding his head, a knowing look in his eye. He whispered to his brother, loud enough for Faramir to hear, “You want me to guard the door, do you not?”

“Yes, that is it exactly,” Haldir agreed. He and Faramir both turned and watched as Rúmil left the room, sending Haldir a “thumbs up” sign before leaving.

Haldir glanced at Faramir.  “Please excuse my brother.  He tends to be a bit… overdramatic.”

“I see,” Faramir said, glancing at the door again to see Rúmil stick his head back in and mouth some words to Haldir before realizing that Faramir was watching and ducking quickly back outside.  Haldir just shook his head, turning to explain the situation to Faramir.

Faramir nodded.  “I certainly understand your concerns and I will have them brought forward so that we may both ask the gentleman and the elleth for an explanation.  He called one of his men over and explained what he needed.  Of course, when Rúmil saw the guard called over, he immediately started to grab his bow.  Haldir froze him with a glare, causing Rúmil to drop his hands to his side. 

It was only a matter of minutes before the Gondorian and elleth were brought into the room.  Rúmil quickly came to stand next to his brother, arms crossed and chin lifted high as he watched the human through slitted eyes.

When asked to explain, the Gondorian simply told Faramir that he was acting as a guide and had brought the elleth to Gondor to visit a human friend.

“I am sorry,” Cirnellë said, shocked that her unannounced travel had caused such an uproar.  “I never thought to let anybody know that I would be taking this trip.  I apologize.”

“Well, Rúmil, are you satisfied?” Haldir asked, turning towards his brother.

“Rúmil, did you instigate this?” Cirnellë asked.

“Well, I …” blushing, he looked down at his feet.  “I thought that you must have been elfnapped.”

“Why would you think that?” she asked, astounded.

“To leave with another when I know that it is me that you pine for,” he finally said, looking up.

The stunned look on the elleth’s face disappeared when she burst out laughing.

“You thought that you and me…that we…?” she burst out in another fit of laughter.  Rúmil did not see the humor in the situation and his eyes narrowed as he regarded the cold-hearted elleth.

“Haldir, I believe that we can leave now,” Rúmil said, looking down his nose at Cirnellë.  “I do not wish to waste my time here any longer when there is an entire realm filled with ellith who adore me.  Obviously, I have been wasting my time on the wrong one.”

Shrugging, Haldir turned and thanked Lord Faramir for his help as well as the others in attendance.  He nodded to Cirnellë and grabbed his brother, practically dragging him from the room by his neck.

“Rúmil, when I get you alone…” he growled. 

“It is not my fault, Haldir…” Rúmil was saying as they walked towards the city gates.  “If you had seen the way she fawned over me… seriously Haldir, the elleth is in love with me but she’s just too embarrassed to admit it.  Haldir? Haldir? Oh, I see, now I’m getting the silent treatment.  Well, let me tell you….”

The words rang on and on as the pair left the city.

~~The End~~