[piosenniel]

Endamir brushed his lips against his brother’s cool brow. Orëmir’s head was cradled in the bend of his arm as he knelt beside him, the bulk of his torso balanced against Endamir’s thighs.

I remember this look. Endamir thought, looking at his brother’s peaceful face. As he slept…so deep in the arms of Lórien was he that none could wake him. He brushed the stray hairs back from Orëmir’s forehead.

‘Let me follow you this time, Orry. Into your dreams,’ he whispered, rocking back and forth slowly on the cold stone floor. ‘’Don’t leave me behind; I couldn’t bear it,’ he murmured, turning his reddened eyes upward, as if a way might be found to make it so.

There were sounds of footsteps nearing the room where he and his brother were. Endamir’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing as he fixed on the approaching intruders. He laid Orëmir down gently on the ground and stepped carefully over his brother’s body, drawing his sword as he did so.

A certain madness crept in about Endamir’s eyes as he stood guarding his brother from those he was certain would take him away. ‘Go away! Leave us be!’ he shouted in a voice husky with sadness.

He stepped forward, raising his blade to fend them off . . .