savetheearth | Now I see fire inside the mountain [closed]

[It's well past lunch but also well before dinner when a car pulls up outside Eliot's house, and the doorbell rings only a bit later. Outside is Thorir, looking... not bad, not at all, but someone who knows him well will be easily able to tell that he's shaken in some way.

He'll hold up a box from a bakery when the door opens. He brought cake for the tea?]

It's late at night, or maybe even already early in the morning, when Gabriel's phone rings.

Definitely not a time of the night when Thorir would usually be up, unless a grandchild or child brought it on by being sick, and even more definitely not a time when he would call Gabriel - Eliot he has called at times like these once or twice when one of the children had gotten sick; John and other parents might have gotten a call once when one of his kids didn't come home in a timely manner - but not Gabriel, who is a friend of the family but has never really been involved with the children.

Yet here he is, sitting in the kitchen with the door closed, phone in hand and ringing Gabriel, because - really, he wouldn't know whom else to go to about this. At first he thought that he just had a weirdly clear, detailed dream, but when it didn't go away and instead just started to replay over and over... "a memory that you cannot forget", like that strange feeling of truly knowing hunger in himself and those that he is responsible for. Something that isn't quite his, yet also is. He's very glad now that he didn't wake Mardís in his sleep of when slipping out of the bed to go to the kitchen and get himself a glass of water. He doesn't want to have to retell... this. Doesn't want to worry her either because he is still in shock, the feelings of the him in that memory hard to shake.

Maybe talking to someone whom he can tell will help.

[Despite the fact he had been in his library deep in study, it doesn't take long for Eliot to answer the door. He frowns with concern when he sees the state of his old friend and holds open the door in welcome.]

Please, come in. I have started the water for tea. It looks as if you could use some.

I brought cake for it.

[He'll gladly step into the house, though he doesn't seem inclined to talk about what bothers him so just yet.]

Were you going to have a break anyway?

Edited 2014-02-05 20:20 (UTC)

I was, I've been studying all morning so it was much needed as well.

[He doesn't ask, he will let Thorir talk when he's ready to. Instead he leads him into the kitchen to prepare tea for them. He smiles at that, grateful. ]

Perfect, I will get plates for us.

[He's grateful for all the little things here, but mostly for Eliot not asking - but then that is why he came to him. That and it's a family thing, and he needed to speak to someone who is not a part of their family yet knows it very well, or almost is.]

What are you currently studying?

[Eliot takes out plates and forks for them before serving up pieces of a cake for them.]

I am looking for a name, one I don't know but yet it I cannot forget. It's a strange thing, as if I read about it somewhere but there is no reference I can find. I am sure it must be somewhere in my library, somewhere.

"A name?"

It's not even surprise so much that makes him ask; going down odd tracks of sudden need to find the answer to something specific is something that he's found in a few friends. Still, he thinks, maybe he can help.

[Eliot pauses to take out a pen and a piece of paper, writing down a single name in clear letters. Speaking the name aloud only bothers him more, bringing up that memory he still doesn't understand.

Isildur.

He slides the paper over to Thorir before turning back to pour them both tea.]

[He looks at the word, considering it for a while, but eventually shaking his head.] You are sure that it is a name?

Yes, I'm sure.

[As much as he trusts his friend, he's not sure if Thorir would understand if he explains how he knows this.]

It's been nagging at me, this feeling I've heard it before, read this name somewhere yet I cannot put my finger on it.

I'll keep an eye out for it. [Because it seems to be something that truly bothers his friend, and he will help, even if he can't quite understand - because Eliot would do the same, he's sure of that.

and then-]

I've told you about Killian, right? Our new employee.

Yes, I remember him. [Eliot nods as he serves his friend the tea once it's ready before taking a seat on one of the bar stools.

He keeps his eyes on Thorir though, concerned since he wants to know what is bothering him, listening intently.]

He's my nephew.

[There is no doubt in his words; he did a bit more of crosschecking, using what little data he had of his brother and his ex-fiancée and her family and Killian's contract as well as memory and his own family's history, and... well. He felt the need to make a decision on what he was to believe. It feels like one of those cases where even a bit of hesitation is too much.]

Do you remember Hjalti? He was sometimes home until about twenty years ago. [They were already friends by then, their children playing with each other, and Thorir is positive that Eliot know about the fallout. But he's not sure he he has ever actually met the man.] Apparently he is his son.

Yes, I vaguely remember him, it's been awhile though.

[Eliot looks thoughtful for a moment as he stirs his tea. He remembers Killian, having met him a few times though hasn't talked to him extensively.]

I am sure it must be a shock but now you have the chance to get to know your nephew, a chance you may never have had.

I do not regret having met him. [So much is for sure.] He's grown up well, and as his uncle, I should have been there for him much earlier. [A beat.] But even if it was twenty years ago, my father will refuse to speak his son still, and I'm not sure how he will receive a grandson from this relationship.

It will upset dragons that have been put to rest a long time ago. I don't wish Killian, nor any of the children, to be caught up in it. [All that brought it on, the prejudice and stubbornness, should stay in the generations that it belongs to. He knows that that won't be possible, but he wishes.]

Over the years, Gabriel has been a late night friend to many troubles. When they were younger it was often 'I think my boy/girlfriend is cheating on me' or 'S/he left me!' or even 'My parents threw me out and I have no where to go!'. Somewhere along the lines that morphed into 'my child won't sleep/stop crying help', and then into 'they didn't come home last night what if they're dead in a ditch somewhere!'.

Point being he can now roll over and answer his phone while still being in the process of waking up, which is exactly what happens now. Just as well this is personal one, the one that he only gives to close friends (but this is also part of the reason why he decided to get two). "Hello?" His voice is groggy, still sleep worn, but he's slowly sitting up as he speaks. There's a click as he switches the lamp on and then a yawn as he finger combs his hair out of his face. He has no idea who it is, but he's good at recognising voices. Even if he's expecting someone panicked and possibly shouting.

Neither one is the case, even if panic and shock still run through his veins. Thorir's voice might sound collected, but it is a bit more forceful than normal, a hint off to the side. The same calm that he would employ as a youth when things went wrong with their group of friends or partygoers or whatever and someone had to take the reigns and pull everyone together - yet not, the hint of a tremor to it that he remembers last of himself the day that one of the schoolbuses crashed, killing most of the children in it, and they thought for a long and anxious hour that Inger had been on that one. It's been a very long time.

The volume is actually on the lower end of the scale, mostly because while the door is closed he's still in an apartment with a number of other people who are still asleep. "It's Thorir."

That tone is enough to shock Gabriel into full awareness, suddenly alert and swinging his legs out of bed. He's ready to get up and get over there as soon as he can, to be at his friend's side for as long as he needs him. "What happened?" His eyes flicker to the clock on his bedside table - just past 1AM. At least the roads should be quiet.

He's not sure, and that is almost as heavy on him as the memory itself - for he assumes that it is one. "An echo, I assume." Which should also explain why he has to wake Gabriel from his slumber, and cannot go to Mardís.

Ah. That settles Gabriel somewhat and he sits down again, tucking his feet underneath him to keep them warm. "In a dream?" He's heard of echoes like that, but not experienced one himself. Not that he's had that many memories anyway. "Do you need me to come over?" He adds, voice soft. He doesn't mind, and he'll stay on the phone either way, but if Thorir needs someone there physically then Gabriel will willingly give up his bed to be there for him.

"I thought it was a dream at first, but I'm sure that it is not now." He wouldn't have called Gabriel under any other circumstances. But at the offer he pauses a moment. He'd like to have Gabriel here now, talk to him in person. It feels ridiculous, to want that over what is just a memory, but then he has always preferred to talk in person on principle.

"If it won't trouble you to come." He would offer to come over himself, but... he's not sure he he should drive right now, even with barely any traffic on the streets.

"I know what you mean. Or rather - I've heard of it." He stands again and puts his phone on speaker so he can start to get dressed. He's not putting too much thought into it, just putting on yesterdays jeans and keeping his nightshirt on, and a warm wooly jumper over the top of that.

"Put some tea on, I'll be there in twenty minutes." Why would it be a trouble to be there for a friend when he needs him?

"I'll get you at the smithy-side entrance."

Until then, he'll swap his PJs for actual clothes, put on shoes and go down two stories to the smithy's tea kitchen and heat water. It's the furthest away from his family that he can get in the more or less private parts of the building, and he really doesn't want to wake anyone.

He'll be at the side entrance in time, though, standing outside with the door closed behind him to let no warm air escape.

It's a little less than 20 minutes in the end. The roads really were empty, and Gabriel was already almost ready when he ended the call. He parks the car as far from the house on the drive as he can and he hurries down towards the door, eager to get inside. Despite everything he smiles to see Thorir and pulls him into a quick hug. "You shouldn't have waited in the cold, come on." They should get inside so they can have their tea and talk.

Now I see fire inside the mountain [closed]

Eliot; afternoon

Gabriel; some time after midnight

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