Chapter Text
Chapter 1:
It didn't make any sense, none of this made any sense. He wasn't supposed to be there, standing on a green meadow, under a night sky with no stars or Moon. His place was the fire of the heart of Arda, where his body would turn to ashes and his spirit heading towards the halls of Mandos, awaiting judgment and penance for his sins towards the world, towards his own people, who under a cursed oath slaughter indiscriminately.
Nelyafinwe wandered about his fate for a long time, faced with this new injustice, not towards him, but towards the countless victims of his pride and ambition, those men and elves who died by his hand. He deserved a punishment, he deserved the darkness of the abyss, for his oath, for all that misery and pain he instilled in the world, all the slaughter in the name of some gems.
And so it continued for a while, the eldest son of the house of Feanaro could only stare into space, standing, naked and oblivious to the world.
He would have continued like this had it not been for the fact that the smell of burning flesh broke the self-imposed trance, he no longer held the gem in his left hand, the one of three that began the entire fall of his family, it did not rest inside his fist now almost black from the burns, the intense heat that showed the world how truly unworthy he was to hold such beauty and claim it as his own.
"Why...?" His throat felt rough, his voice hoarse. Old, silver eyes looked up to a black sky, to no moon, to no clouds, to no stars. It felt akin to a mockery of Middle Earth, his own personal hell. Yet, the more he wandered, the less convinced he was of this.
"Why... Why deny me? Haven't I done enough!?" In Nelyafinwe's mind the events were repeated. The Akualonde massacre, The Burning of the Teleri Ships, The Sack of Doriath, The Children of Dior, The Massacre at Sirion.
He began laughing, his hysterics bordering on cries. This was becoming a cruel joke, that to him the Valar would not have his life. He would not be granted any judgment.
Tears soon shed from him, and he curled himself against a tree. "Eru, please... please…"
His scream finally seemed to reach the heavens and they responded, but not in the way Nelyafinwe expected. Suddenly the shattered full moon appeared over the horizon, illuminating the dark and lifeless night with an immaculate white light, behind it the stars emerged, bright, tiny in perspective, but fascinating. But the prince of the Noldor did not calm down, his mind was focused elsewhere.
"Eru… Where have you abandoned me?".
Sometime later.
"You know you won't get anywhere if you keep walking in circles."
Nelyo ignored his Father's advice, as he had done for the last few centuries. Once he got over the shock of seeing Tilion's failure, he looked in the sky for the star of Earendil, and for a moment he was relieved to find it in the same position. Now he had a direction, but it seemed that Feanaro had another perspective.
"I imagine that inside that dense head you have already realized that we will not get anywhere if we continue walking in circles. " Nelyafinwe did not bother to respond, but internally acknowledged that Feanaro was right. He recognized the stars in the sky, but looking around, it was too quiet. He had never been as in tune with nature as Turko, but he had never been deaf to beasts and flora. There were no animals here, even the nocturnal creatures were absent, and the trees did not speak, being perfectly silent. Something wasn't right.
Nelyo took a moment to think, he did not recognize the forest, the air was fresh, but not freezing so he assumed that the season was autumn, the moon was at its highest point so it would be hours before dawn, the eldest son Feanaro hoped that Arien had done a better job than Tilion and that the sun was still intact.
The problem now was seeing where he would have to go.
"It took you a while to get to that question,Dear Son." The tone with which he said those words did little to make Nelyo deign to make eye contact. Where should he go, the answer was obvious, Valinor. The Valar had denied him his death for a reason, there was no chance of escaping their judgment.
"If they wanted to judge you, then they would only need to wait for you in the halls of Mandos." He was right, that didn't make sense. Whether by ship or in death, Prince Noldor could never have escaped judgment. So why? Why was he still in Middle Earth?
"Questions will get you nowhere…".
At that moment a chill ran down the back of Nelyafinwe's neck. A feeling he had only experienced when the two trees died, an all-consuming darkness was near. Then the sound of the forest reached his ears for the first time since he woke up, the sound of footsteps, of claws hitting the ground and of wood breaking.
Then that thing came out of the shadows of the trees, the glowing red eyes the first thing Nelyafinwe could visualize. It was an insult to all of Eru's creations, something that could only have originated in the heart of the abyss, by the hands of the Enemy. Nelyo's stomach churned and nausea threatened to make him vomit.
The beast was about 12 feet tall, with fur so dark that it did not reflect light but rather absorbed it in such a way that Nelyafinwe believed for a moment that it was a Troll. But as it approached, the creature made it evident that it was not a Troll, as it was wearing a white bone mask with red markings, of a pattern whose delicacy was not typical of a troll's fingers. The enormous thing's back was protected by numerous thorns that were half as tall as the elf himself.
The shape of the snout, the small round ears, the paws, and its quadruped stance, there was no doubt in the Noldor prince's mind, the thing before his eyes was intended to be an imitation of a Bear.
The bear-shaped aberration was getting closer, but he couldn't move. How did the Valar allow such an abomination to exist? Just seeing how the thing unsuccessfully tried to emulate the breathing of a living being was already a blasphemy, a mockery of everything Maedhros believed in.
Slowly, the redhead took a step back, putting a little more distance between himself and the monster, but seeing the unnatural hatred radiating from those red eyes, he knew that the ursid already had its own plans. Rising on its hind legs, the thing roared toward the elf with such intensity that he could feel the ground around him shake. When the declaration of challenge ended, the bear returned to its four-step posture and started towards its prey.
In any other situation, Nelyafinwe would have taken a combat-ready stance, but those situations required his sword and armor. Now he was as naked as the day his mother brought him into the world.
There was no time for strategy, for the ursid had its claws raised. The ground shattered on impact, missing Nelyo as instinct override his maddened state, his muscles flaring as he began a backpedal. Its assault was relentless, for every swipe followed swiftly as fast as rushing air. The elf soon saw a predictable pattern in its clumsy steps, and he acted accordingly.
To a tree he dashed toward. Upon another swipe, bark shattered with harden splinters scattering numerous branches into the air. Nelyafinwe, with inhuman reflex, snatched one large splinter in its fall, and with the improvised dagger forcing it directly into the creature's baleful eye.
Unfortunately for the prince, the stake did not bury itself as deep in the creature's skull as he had planned, but stopped halfway to impaling its brain. With his weapon jammed, the ursid took advantage of the situation, charging at the elf with his enormous body, crushing him against a tree.
The impact plus the subsequent pressure of being crushed by both solid bodies caused all the air in Nelyo's lungs to come out. It didn't end there because he began to feel how his ribs were beginning to weaken, threatening to break at any attempt. Before the creature took advantage of the situation and ripped him apart with its claws and teeth, he was the one who acted first. He extended his left hand towards the beast's back, grabbing one of the protruding thorns on its back and with the force of his grip he broke it and embedded the tip in the thing's neck, the fur offering more resistance than he could imagine. , but still the action served its purpose and the beast was distracted long enough for Nelyo to wrap his right arm around its neck, while holding on with his left.
When the muscles of his arms began to press against the thick, rough fur that protected the creature's neck, he immediately noticed the lack of a pulse. Not only that, the thing seemed to have no need to breathe, which put it in a state of disarray. The situation was more complicated than he had planned.
The ursid began to respond and reached for it with its claws, but the nature of the grip made the inflexible creature unable to reach it. Consequently, the beast began to crash one by one against all the trees in the area, and many were felled by its force. When that didn't work, he threw himself against the ground, causing all his weight to crush Nelyafinwe, and then begin to roll on the grass.
So the prince decided to end the fight once and for all. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, and putting aside the pain in his muscles, he lifted the creature onto his body. The attempts to resist were painful, as such an action left him vulnerable to the claws of the ursid, which he took advantage of to tearing part of his back and chest, cutting through skin and muscle with burning pain.
Finally, Nelyafinwe knocked the beast down by hitting it to the ground, and using force even greater than anything seen before, he squeezed its neck in such a way that a resounding "CRAK" echoed throughout the forest, and the beast stopped moving. .
When the corpse fell to the ground, it took the elf with it, crushing him under its entire black mass. Nelyo was about to push the creature's body aside when he noticed that it was becoming lighter and lighter at an accelerated rate. Crawling over the ground and rising to his feet, he freed himself from the weight and observed the unusual occurrence of decomposition.
The fur and flesh began to bubble like oil, the muscles melting into a liquid but viscous substance like ink as they fell away from the bones. After a few minutes everything but the bones were scattered on the floor like a black puddle from which vapors emanated that Nelyo's nose found unpleasant like a Troll's blood.
The elf relaxed his posture and knelt down to inspect. He picked up a branch from the ground and with it extracted a little of the substance, which resulted in a useless act, since it evaporated much faster while he undid the tip of the improvised tool, disgusted, he boldly threw it away.
Like sand, the bones dissolved with the force of the wind, into dust, and in a few minutes what had been an abomination now remained only a memory in the minds of Nelyafinwe and the forest.
With the beast permanently dead, The Elf inspected his own wounds caused in battle. His back had some superficial cuts that healed in a short time, other than that, he only had some bruises on his skin. It seems that he would live, much to his misfortune.
"That could change, look around you…"
It was then that the silence was buried under the bestial moans and growls that only cried out for blood, his blood. In front of the elf's eyes, dozens of dark creatures emerged from the shadows of the forest, just like the dead beast but with different shapes, because they were similar to the animals created in Eru's mind, but they were like orcs, only mockery of life.
With red eyes, black fur and long tongues, the beasts similar to wolves but with a posture more similar to that of men, slowly approached growling, and Nelyafinwe then responded with her own anger. For the desire for destruction of those aberrations could not compare to the pure hatred in the silver eyes of the prince, who had faced the monsters of the enemy, slaughtering trolls, orcs, wargs and anything that Angband could spew into the world.
"Come! Come! If this is the design of the Valar then so be it, because you are less than orcs, because Nelyafinwe son of Feanaro still breathes! I will return you to the abyss and you will send me to Mandos! Come, I tell you!".
Then the carnage began.
Kingdom of Vale: Autumn.
Amber had seen a lot in her short life. It was normal when you were a student at Beacon, the life of a Huntsmen was full of events of all kinds. She had participated in tournaments, fought hordes of grimms, saved villages, and apprehended criminals in no more than 5 years. Maybe that was why she never stayed away from home for long.
Amber was a country girl, she always had been, and no matter how far she chased the grimms, she would always return to her aunt's farm. And that was supposed to be their fate, if it weren't for the enormous cloud of smoke that came from inside the forest.
In her years at Beacon she had learned to recognize natural phenomena and their qualities, so she was able to realize that it was not a fire of any kind, the consistency of the smoke was not something caused by fire, and the smell revealed that the burned wood was non-existent. This wasn't a fire, it was Grimms, many Grimms.
She urged the horse to slow down as it headed deeper into the woods, and once the smoke began to obscure her view, the huntress dismounted. She took the steed's head gently and calmly whispered an order in his ear. The noble beast snorted but obeyed and galloped away, leaving the area.
The hunter's golden boots planted themselves on the ground without making a sound. Upon checking the area and noticing that there were no threats, Amber headed deeper into the forest, armed only with her staff.
After a minute of walking in complete silence, her ears caught the sound of something dissolving. In the darkness the amber eyes visualized through the putrid vapor an enormous black hill that devoured the light of dawn and the few stars in the sky. But closer inspection caused the maiden to lose her breath and stare in shock at the truth before her eyes.
It was mound after mound of dead grimms, an agglomeration of corpses the likes of which Amber had never seen, rising above the trees, melting and converging into a black mass of ever-evaporating darkness. The fumes were so heavy that the maiden had to cover her nose and mouth with her hand for fear of ingesting some of the cursed substance.
That was something unheard of, only very few huntmens had the ability to do something like that, Beowulfs, Ursas, Boarstuck and even she could distinguish several Nevermore of considerable size in the mountain of decomposing corpses. From the speed at which it dissolved, Amber estimated that it would be gone by noon.
Her eyes began to sting from the black particles in the air, but she stayed because the curiosity of knowing what or who could have performed such a feat intrigued her too much. She circled the mound carefully in case any of the beasts were still alive, but there was no reaction. All Amber could see were broken skulls, severed limbs, ripped out viscera, and pulverized bones. Under any circumstances she would have been horrified by such carnage, but these were creatures of darkness, not truly alive, much less worthy of any kind of sympathy or compassion.
It was then that an unpleasant sound enveloped the silence of the fores. Well, the situation in front of her was somewhat more twisted. From inside that mountain, something began to move, pushing the corpses to one side, which fell apart upon contact.
He fell to the ground in a pool of black blood, completely covered by that liquid. He was missing a hand and was quite tall, probably the tallest person Amber had ever seen. He tried to stand up but the ground was slippery with the remains of the dead Grimms, and almost fell to the ground, if it weren't for Amber's quick action. She cast aside all notions of hygiene and grabbed him before making contact with the ground.
Although the substance covered his body, the maiden could still notice that the stranger had bright silver eyes.
"It's okay, breathe, you're safe...". She couldn't finish, because the stranger vomited a black liquid on her clothes and fell to the ground anyway, completely unconscious.
"Great, now I'll be late for dinner." Sometimes she hated her adventurous spirit.
Mae Govannen Eruhini~✨
Salutations!~✨
Hello everyone!. I hope you are well wherever you are. This is my first serious attempt at writing a fanfiction. And starting with a crossover no less. Any criticism is welcome, especially because I first wrote the draft in Spanish, English is not my first language so any errors you point out are greatly appreciated.
In other matters, Tolkien's works have had many adaptations throughout history. In this case, the three books that make up The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Simarillion will be taken as the main canon. I can also use some of the material shown in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales and Letters. As for adaptations of movies and games, just expect simple references. And there never was an Amazon adaptation.
Namárië!~✨