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The smell of blood pervaded the small cabinet Maeglin was hiding in, seeping in from somewhere outside and filling the elfling's nostrils. It felt like it had been ages since his mother had placed him inside and made him promise not to come out until she or his father came for him.
He hadn’t known what was going on, but he'd heard the clashing of metal and screams coming from outside the room, and had clung desperately to his mother’s tunic, not wanting her to leave. She had not listened to his pleas however, and with an expression of sorrow on her face, had gently pried his fingers loose.
A kiss on the forehead and a promise that she would return, were all that Maeglin had been left with before she'd shut the cabinet door, and left him alone in the dark.
She hadn’t returned though. Maeglin had sat in the cabinet waiting as the screams and sounds of fighting had continued on, and then even as they'd died down and stopped completely, but there had still been no sign of her. Someone had entered the room once, after all the other sound had stopped, but Maeglin had known it was not either of his parents.
Neither his mother or father were the type to walk so loudly, nor make harsh grunting noises. They would have called out for him as well, and opened the cabinet doors to set him free. Instead, Maeglin had heard the sound of whoever it was pulling things down shelves and tearing apart the soft sheets of his parents bed.
He'd been frightened that they might start opening drawers and cabinets as well, and that they would find him hiding there. Even though he had not known what was going on, something in Maeglin’s gut had told him that he'd be in great danger if he was discovered.
And so he'd held his breath, hands clasped tightly over his mouth to stop any sound from leaking out. He'd been sure the sound of his heart racing in his chest would give him away though, for it had seemed loud enough to fill the whole room. Eventually however, the intruder had seemed to decide that whatever they were searching for wasn’t there, and with a loud huff, had given up and left the room.
That had been what seemed like hours ago, though Maeglin had no real way to tell how much time had passed, and he hadn’t heard a sound since. He wondered why his mother hadn’t come back yet, like she had promised. Had something happened to her?
She had told him to stay put, but what if something was wrong and she needed help? Since he hadn’t heard any sounds for a while, that probably meant it was safe to come out, he could go looking for her.
Taking a deep breath, Maeglin mustered up all the courage he could find within him, and pushed the cabinet door open a crack. As he peeked out at the room, he could see no sign of any dangerous monsters out there, just a big mess.
Pushing the door the rest of the way open, Maeglin climbed out of the cabinet and surveyed the wreck of his parents room. He didn’t tend to come in here often, his father had said that at fifteen years old he was past the point of being allowed to sleep with his parents, and he needed to stay in his own room. His mother would still let him sometimes though, when his father was gone visiting the dwarves.
Every time he'd been in their room though, it had always been neat and tidy, with everything in its proper place. His parents insisted on it. Now though, the room had been torn apart. The bedsheets were shredded, the contents of drawers and shelves had been dumped on the floor, and various items of clothing he knew belonged to his parents, had been scattered all around.
Once when Maeglin’s room had been a mess, his mother had asked him if the wind had been having a party in there. It looked now like the wind had been having a party in his parents room, and not a nice one. Maeglin was scared, he needed to find his mother.
Slowly, Maeglin made his way through the debris that covered the floor, wincing on several occasions as items stabbed into his foot. He had been in bed when the noise started, and had no shoes. Finally, he made it to the door, and standing on his tiptoes to reach the handle, he slowly opened it.
As the corridor outside his parents room came into view, Maeglin had to clasp his hands over his mouth to muffle his scream. One of his father’s servants lay slumped against the wall across from him, a patch of bright red blood staining their chest, and more pooling on the ground beneath them.
They were dead.
Maeglin understood the concept of death,his mother had taken him out hunting with her before, and taught him to hold a bow. She'd held as he cried after shooting a rabbit, and explained that death was the natural order of things for most races, but not elves. She'd told him about the Halls of Mandos and how elves would eventually be reborn into Valinor.
Knowing all that did nothing to ease Maeglin’s fear at the sight before him. He had known this elf, his name was Aewenor, and he would sometimes slip Maeglin candy when his parents weren’t looking. What had happened to him?
Maeglin’s desperation to find his mother grew, and he took off down the halls in search of her. The farther he went, the more and more bodies he saw. Some of them were elves, but there were also several grotesque looking creatures among. Maeglin thought they might be orcs, his mother had shown him a picture of one once. She'd told him if he ever saw one, he needed to immediately come and tell her or his father about it.
Why were orcs here though? His father had always said that it was hard for them to reach this part of Beleriand, thanks to the forces of the sons of Feanor. It was the closest he'd ever come to saying anything nice about any of Maeglin’s mother's kin.
Maeglin had almost made it to the entrance of their home when he caught sight of a familiar white dress, its wearer lying on the ground near the door. Such was Maeglin’s haste to reach it, that he tripped over his own feet, crashing down to the floor and banging his knees and elbow against it. Fighting back the urge to cry at the pain, Maeglin forced himself back to his feet, and continued towards his mother's side.
"Mama?" Maeglin called, as he sank to the ground at her side, and reached out to gently shake her shoulder. "Mama!"
She did not reply, she simply lay there, her glassy eyes turned up towards the ceiling. The front of her dress had turned red, and Maeglin’s lip began to quiver at the sight of it. He knew what that meant, but he didn’t want to believe it.
"Mama, please wake up!" He begged, but though his mother had always done her best to fulfill his pleas, this time she did not oblige him. She just lay there. Dead.
Maeglin began to sob, burying his face in her shoulder, and ignoring the blood that smeared onto his face. His mother couldn’t be dead, she had promised she would come back for him, why had she lied. Maeglin did not know what to do, and so he just laid there next to his mother, his sobs echoing throughout their home.
He did not know how long he cried for, though it seemed like hours, but eventually Maeglin’s voice could cry no more and his tears refused to fall anymore. Sitting up, Maeglin scrubbed at his eyes, feeling the gritty disgusting feeling of dried tears on his face. He was tired, thirsty, hungry and sore, but none of that changed the fact that his mother was dead.
He didn’t know what to do. His mother had always been the one to help him when he had a problem, but he would never be able to ask her anything anymore. Maybe his father would know what to do? He knew his father had gone to visit the dwarves, but he should be back soon.
His father was a smith, and while Maeglin was rarely allowed in his forge, he knew his father made and fixed things there. Surely he could fix this? Once his father got home, everything would be alright. He just had to wait.
And so wait Maeglin did. At first, he stayed near the front door, not wanting to miss his father when he returned or have him think that Maeglin might be dead too. As the hours passed by though, Maeglin grew more and more hungry, until finally he forced himself to leave his mothers side to head to the kitchen.
It had always been his mother or one of the servants who cooked, Maeglin had no idea how to make food, but he knew there was a tin of cookies on the countertop. If he dragged a chair over, he should be able to reach it.
That turned out to be easier said than done, the chairs in the kitchen were much heavier than Maeglin had expected, and it took quite a lot of effort to get one near the counter. He managed it eventually though, and proceeded to clamber up onto the chair and then the counter. The cookie tin was heavy and made of metal, forcing Maeglin to abandon his original plan of just bringing it with him, and he instead just grabbed as many cookies as he could carry.
His mother had always forbidden him to have any until after dinner, and even then he would only get one, but there was no other food around that wouldn't take too long to locate. He needed to get back to his mother, before his father returned.
Carefully, Maeglin made his way back down off the counter and to the floor. Shoving one of the cookies into his mouth, Maeglin made his way back through the halls towards where his mother's body lay, doing his best to ignore the other corpses and the way the sight of them made his stomach turn.
Nothing had changed since he'd left his mother's side, and though Maeglin knew that was to be expected, there had been part of him that had been hoping it would. Part of him had hoped he'd return and his mother would be alive again. She'd pull him into her arms and tell him everything had just been a bad dream, and then she'd carry him into the kitchen and make both of them hot chocolate and everything would be fine.
It didn’t happen though, his mother was still dead, and Maeglin was pretty sure all the servants were as well. He'd been too scared to check.
Sitting back down next to his mother's body, Maeglin forced himself to eat, even though doing so while surrounded by so many dead made him feel sick. He wished he could move the bodies elsewhere, he didn’t like the idea of just leaving his mother lying on the floor. He'd tried though, and quickly found he wasn’t strong enough.
His father would have to take care of it. And he surely would, just as soon as he got home, which surely would take much longer. All Maeglin had to do was wait.
And wait he did. But still, his father did not return