Good news for my Gorthauro Estel readers - it looks like I'm probably going to be able to get out another chapter before I leave on my trip! I've been working my tail off on it and managed to finish the rough draft today. I should have time next weekend to get it edited and posted, woot woot!
Here's an excerpt for those interested :)
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They walked for a while in silence, and Sauron was starting to think Eldavan might actually let him simmer in his foul temper all the way to the quarry, but about half way there, he sensed Eldavan casting him an amused glance.
He turned to fix Eldavan with his most vicious glare. “What?” he snarled.
Eldavan held his gaze for several seconds, and Sauron noticed that he had the audacity to let his lips twitch with a barely concealed smile, as if Sauron’s temper was comical to him. Then he turned away, that obnoxious smile still dancing at the edge of his mouth and that cursed twinkle in his eyes. “Oh nothing, as I am sure you would tell me if I were to ask what was causing you to sulk like a jilted lover.”
Sauron gave him a glare more evil than the last, which Eldavan once again ignored, completely unfased. “So what,” Sauron sneered finally, “I’m not allowed to have a bad mood every now and then?”
Eldavan looked at him appraisingly then. “No one is here to take your bad mood away from you or tell you that you are not allowed to feel what you feel. However, such things left to fester can cause the wound that formed them to sicken. And I do wonder what wound lies under the surface of your petulance.”
“I fear that you will have to find other ways to earn your answers here,” Sauron said in a snidely mocking voice.
Eldavan actually laughed as Sauron turned his own words from so long ago back on him. “Very well, I understand,” he said. “This wound is not mine to heal. In that case, I would encourage you to consider who the correct person might be.”
“I once stitched my own open throat shut,” Sauron snarled back. “I am more capable than you think.”
“Oh, I am sure,” Eldavan said, and the words were entirely genuine. “We are all capable of performing amazing feats to survive when there is no other choice. There is a fire in each of us that does not give up on life or joy easily.”
Sauron felt him looking at him again, pensive. “But you are not alone, and stitching up your own wound is not your only choice today.” The words could have felt sickly sweet and sentimental, but Eldavan spoke them with such a conviction that Sauron could not help but feel the earnestness behind them.
Curse it, why was Eldavan so very hard to dislike?
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See you soon with a new chapter!
