[The Silmarillion] Romimus

Glorfindel thought a lot as he fell.

For example, how should he explain to others that he returned to Aman within less than a month after coming to Middle-earth? Will Vera suspect that he is passive and sabotage? Duilin and Agamos will probably settle this matter Things had been teasing him for a while, and the princess would probably shake her head and sigh, as expected.

For example, after he was reborn again, he might as well ask Vera how to become a bird, just like Elendil's wife Baiyu Erwen. After all, he seems to be incompatible with the cliff, and he will do this a few times He should be afraid of heights from now on.I was luckier than last time because there was a river under the cliff this time, even if I fell from this height, it would be useless even if there was cotton underneath.

Another example is what kind of attitude should he face Romimos when he sees her next time?It would be better if he could see her simply as an enemy like Morgoth.Or if he died a hundred times in exchange for her sincere repentance, then at least there is still hope, but speaking of hope, is there anything that can be more easily disappointed than having hope for someone like Romimos? ?

At this time, the sky was completely dark, and only a blurry black patch could be seen down the cliff, and the distance to the bottom of the valley could only be judged by the sound of running water.Glorfindel fell faster and faster, and the sound below became louder and louder. From time to time, the rampant water crashed headlong on the boulders on both sides of the river bank, and the echoes of the spray rumbled in the valley again.

When Glorfindel estimated that he was less than fifty feet below, he felt a sudden resistance on his body that prevented him from continuing to fall. There were two forces, one hooked his collar, the other A strand grabbed his waist, and Glorfindel thought he was caught by a branch protruding from the side of the cliff at first, but the "branch" soon became tighter and more pliable. Coming up, wrapping his arms around his waist from behind, at the same time, Glorfindel felt the rapid panting next to his ear, carrying a little bit of hot and humid temperature, which was quickly blown away by the icy wind in the valley up.

Then the two fell headlong into the rushing river below.

It took a little effort for Romimos to emerge. She certainly wouldn't be drowned, but she definitely wasn't as free as she was in the air.

In addition to being not very good at swimming, Romemos is also exhausted now, her whole body is cold and painful, the wound on her shoulder that has not healed opened again when she flapped her wings just now, and she almost fell into the water when she hit the water just now. He passed out from the pain directly, and the hand holding Glorfindel was also released at that time.

Now she was clinging to a protruding stone in the river to prevent her from drifting with the river, and finally she was able to catch her breath, and immediately poked her head out to look at other places on the water, but she didn't see any living people.

In fact, Glorfindel should be better at swimming than her. It is not Romemus' turn to worry about him at this time. The hit of Glorfindel should have some cushioning effect, but what if there is an accident?

However, no matter whether Glorfindel has landed or has been washed further downstream, she still has to get herself ashore before she can find someone. The question is how can she get from the middle of the river to the opposite bank?

It is impossible to fly over, so to move the muscles near the shoulder blades to a large extent is now equivalent to bloodletting suicide for her, so what if she swims over?

Romimos looked at the large expanse of fast-flowing black river beside him, and fell into deep thought.

To be honest, she didn't dare to overestimate her flexibility in the water, especially after betraying Vera, the river of Ulmo probably wouldn't be particularly friendly to her, and it would be terrible if she was caught in an undercurrent.

But she can't just hold on to the stone like this and never let go, no matter what the final result is, she must first try to slow...slow...let go...hand...

As a result, she managed to pluck up the courage and just let go, a huge wave poured over her head and face, rushing her several meters away in an instant, Romimos was a little dazed by the sudden blow, Subconsciously, he reached out to grab the nearby stones and branches to stop his body, but the stones in the water were polished extremely smooth by the river water, and some of them had a thick layer of moss. In his panic, Romemos not only grabbed She failed to catch them a few times, and slammed into them a few times instead. Every time the wound on her shoulder hurt, her eyes turned black.

Romemos felt that she had been floating uncontrollably in the water for a minute or two, maybe a century or two, and the water had not passed her head several times. She even suspected that she might have to keep going like this. Floating into the sea, speaking of which, she hadn't seen the pair of Ossie and Uni for many years.Like her, Ossie is not a very docile character. If she says something nice and begs for mercy, maybe the other party will turn a blind eye and pretend not to see her, but Uni's side is more difficult. Although Ossie He didn't listen to Vera every time, but he always seemed to respect Unni's opinion.You see, this is the trouble of love and marriage. From then on, you must first consider the wishes and mood of the other person in everything you do...

Just when Romemos began to think wildly, something suddenly grabbed her hand, which startled Romemus, because at first she thought it was cold, and after a second or two, she finally After realizing that it was actually hot, like a ball of flame wrapped around her hand, or maybe it was because she was as cold as a piece of ice, so anything with a little warmth could melt her away.

Then with a clatter, the temperature grabbed her hand and pulled her up from the water.

Romimos's body shook violently, something flowed down her arms from her shoulders, unlike the river water in early winter, the liquid was warm when it flowed out, and it was blown by the wind before quickly Cool down.

She wiped the water off her face with her other hand, and opened her eyes to find Glorfindel standing in front of her, staring at her expressionlessly.

They just stared at each other silently, the atmosphere was weird and awkward, until a gust of evening wind blew, and Romemus sneezed.

It's almost winter now, the cold wind at night mixed with the cool water vapor on the river, whizzing back and forth in the valley, and the two of them were drenched from head to toe, if it wasn't for Elf and Maiya, they would have had a high fever the next day. The foreseeable thing is certain, but even if you don't get sick, it's really not a good feeling.

Glorfindel rubbed his arms, and walked away in silence first, Romimore paused and followed, and they walked along the river bank one after the other, always separated by seven Eight meters.Glorfindel hesitated for a moment, but still slowed down slightly, because he thought that Romemus should have something to say to him, although he was in a very bad mood right now, and had no intention of communicating with Romemus, But he still hadn't forgotten why he had suffered this way, and Romemus' willingness to talk to him suggested that there was at least hope of negotiation between them, although Glorfindel suspected that this hope was only a mirage. .

However, Romimos has no intention of accepting his affection. No matter whether Glorfindel slows down or speeds up again, he is fast and she is fast, he is slow and she is slower, and there will always be seven or eight meters between him and him. left and right distance.

Finally Glorfindel couldn't bear it anymore, he stopped suddenly, and looked back abruptly, and as expected, Romimos stopped immediately, and even took a small half-step back, two steps One eye stared at him unblinkingly, full of vigilance.

alert?

Glorfindel was inexplicably amused, it turned out that she was also scared sometimes.But even if there were only the two of them here, when the situation was not good for her, wouldn't it be easy for her to just flap her wings and escape?Even if you can't get any cheap, what can you suffer?

He turned without looking back, and strode forward, and Romemus had to trot now and then to keep up with him.Finally, they found a shallow recessed pothole on the side of the cliff, which could barely block the cold wind outside.Glorfindel went in and found some dead branches in the hole. He gathered them into a small pile, and found matches and flint from the inner layer of the cloak. Thanks to the waterproofness of the elf cloak, these things were still dry. Glorfindel lit the dry twigs he found with them, and soon the blaze became a fire, small but warm and bright.

But Romemos stopped less than a meter away from the entrance of the cave, and did not go further in. She sat down there, and the fire could not illuminate the place where she was, let alone use it for warmth. .

Glorfindel glanced at her, and if Romemus had the cheek to come over to enjoy the fire, he would not stop her or laugh at her, but if Romemus wanted him to invite her to come over, then she really wanted to Too much, if she insisted on keeping a distance from him, then she could just stay there, anyway, it wouldn't do any actual harm to Maia after a night of freezing.

Glorfindel withdrew his gaze, took off his drenched robe, and laid it flat by the campfire to dry, but at this moment, by the light of the fire, he saw the bloodstains that had solidified on his hands.

He wasn't hurt, so where did the blood come from?

Romemos leaned against the stone wall, and the stone was also icy cold, but she really needed something to support her body now.

She is a Maiya, of course it is not that easy to die, a soak in the water, blown by the cold wind, it is not a big deal, her biggest trouble is the shoulder injury, not only makes her wings almost completely become and she has lost too much blood, now she feels her legs are weak and dizzy, she can only wait for others to come down the mountain to rescue, but that will be tomorrow morning at the earliest; but even if no one finds her , relying on Mai Ya's quick recovery ability, as long as she can rest here for a day or two, even if she still can't fly, at least she has the strength to climb up the mountain by herself.

And before that, what would happen if Glorfindel found out that she had lost a lot of blood and was extremely weak?

In the first case, Glorfindel would turn pale with shock and worry, as sad as if he had been seriously injured.This situation may have happened 2000 years ago, and now Romimos just thinks about it in his own mind.

In the second case, Glorfindel would be overjoyed, realizing that this is the perfect time for him to exact revenge on Romimos.This should be the reaction of most people, Glorfindel may be slightly different, give up taking advantage of the danger after a brief hesitation, but given that their relationship has just moved in a worse direction One step, Romemos is not very sure about this.

And the third situation, which should be the most likely one, Glorfindel will choose to turn a blind eye, he may disdain to add insult to injury, but he will not care about her anymore, he will leave everything to fate and let her Stand up again or shed the last drop of blood.And Romemos felt that this kind of indifference was even more unbearable than the strong hatred.

Glorfindel walked slowly towards Romimos, the elf's footsteps were very soft, Romimoth curled up in a small ball against the rock wall in the corner, eyes closed, as if he didn't notice his approach .Her hair was wet on her shoulders, and the water droplets dripped along the hair, staining the crimson dress into a dark color, but if you observe carefully with the faint light, you will find a dark spot on one shoulder. The red is particularly conspicuous, and the moisture there seems to be more sticky.

Glorfindel paused.So the blood was either from a new wound, or from the wound where the arrow had taken a few days ago.

He stood there in a dilemma, taking a step forward that seemed phony and weird between the two of them, but what if he turned around and walked away as if nothing had happened?Will Maia die after shed all the blood? ...wait, is she still alive now?

Glorfindel carefully checked Romimos' breathing, and accidentally wiped the tip of her nose with his hand. She was as cold as snow on the Herkalach Icefjord, lying there quietly and motionless.

"Hey..." Glorfindel patted her face, "Wake up! Don't fall asleep, Romimos!"

"That's enough, stop hitting!" As the strength in his hands gradually increased, Romemos finally opened his eyes unbearably, and grabbed him, "If you want to kill me so much, do it quickly! Otherwise you Just let me rest for a while!"

"I think you want to just sleep and die like this and never wake up again." Glorfindel said, but in his heart he felt that the words that the scourge would last forever were true.

"Isn't that just what you want?" Romimos closed his eyes wearily again, "It's fine if you're secretly happy in your heart, you also need to ridicule and ridicule your enemy when she's in trouble to get satisfaction gone?"

It was fine if she didn't speak, but as soon as she spoke, Glorfindel's anger crept up.

"Do you still have the face to say this? It seems that I caused you to become what you are now, but ask yourself, isn't all of this caused by you?"

"It's still my fault? If you didn't jump off the cliff without authorization, would I need to fly down to save you?"

"Then I'm really grateful. Why don't you reflect on why I jumped down? Could it be that I was looking for excitement? Isn't it you who insisted on killing people before giving up?"

"I didn't force you to jump! Although I didn't say it explicitly, you should know that you were never included in the range of choices I made."

"And am I not an elf?" Glorfindel stared at her closely, "I think you should have foreseen what will happen now when you set those inhuman and malicious rules in the first place .Because, even if I never said it explicitly, you know that if I have to sacrifice someone, it's my own life and death."

"The premise of your choice is that the sacrifice you choose is effective. Then in this round, you have won." Romimos replied, "But how can you guarantee all the problems you encounter in the future? Can it be solved like this? What if one day you have to face the choice of choosing one side and abandoning the other?"

"If you hadn't deliberately set the trap, how could there be so many dilemmas?" Glorfindel said angrily, "No one has the right to give up their lives for others, and I will not do that."

"It's too idealistic, Glorfindel." Romimos sighed, "I consider myself an extremely idealistic person, but even I know that sometimes you have to make a break, even if That choice may seem cruel and painful, but it is necessary, and someone has to make it."

"This is just a high-sounding excuse you made for what you did." Glorfindel said, "If you can still argue that you ignored Horudil's life and death at that time because of the safety of the entire Twilight Land, then How will you account of Gondolin? For whom have you betrayed so many who count you as friends and kin?"

"Nature is for myself."

"Ha!" Glorfindel laughed sarcastically, "Now you don't think the interests of the group are higher than the individual?"

"The group's interest is higher than that of the individual based on the fact that the judgment value of each individual in the group is basically the same, or at least the role of the individual is not irreplaceable." Romemos said, "But there are also some people who are special, such as those who die in war. The guards come to protect the general, not because the lives of the soldiers are not precious, but because the value of the commander is far higher than that of ordinary soldiers."

"Then, what makes you feel that your 'worth' far surpasses all the people in Gondolin?" Glorfindel barely held back his immediate outburst, and asked, "Is it because you are Maia?"

"Regarding the value of a person, different people naturally have different judgment standards." Romemos said, "As for my standard, simply put, it is power, the power to make Arda better through creation."

"That's why you betrayed Valar and went to Morgoth?" Glorfindel asked incredulously, "Do you think he made Yiya better?"

"...But at least he's still 'changing'." Romimos hesitated, and said, "Becoming better is a process, and temporary destruction is for better reconstruction. Gondolin's changes have stagnated Now, maybe you don't think it yet, but it's predictable, you shut yourself off, cut off communication with the outside world, and be content with what you have. The sight of Gondolin is the same year after year, and the wind that blows on your cheeks The trajectory is familiar enough to make me tired, although the city is not dead, but she has begun to age gradually, and the attack of Angband just made her destined end happen at her most glorious time."

"If you think that's why you can justifiably kill so many people, then I have nothing to say." Glorfindel said, "You have explained so much, and it boils down to one sentence-you see what you want weighs more than a thousand lives."

"I value the future of Arda more than a dying city." Romimos corrected him, "Besides, I didn't take those lives. Elves are different from humans. Although you seem to be dead, In fact, you have ushered in rebirth. Aren't you the best example? Although I can't figure out why you would abandon the well-being of Aman Continent and return to this continent full of trauma and pain. Could it be because of me..."

"You think too much." Glorfindel interrupted her imagining mercilessly, "I don't hate Middle-earth as much as you think, in fact, I love this land, and the good memories she brought me are far more than It hurts more. And you know very well that you are messing around. If you really think that being born again through death is a very good thing for elves, why did you stop me when I jumped down just now?"

"I didn't say that death is good for elves, but I just said that it's not too bad to be unacceptable, right?" Romimos muttered, "As for why I would prevent you from committing suicide, it's because here... you Whether to live or die depends on my mood of course, I didn't want you to die just now, if I wanted to kill you, it would be a matter of minutes..."

"Oh, are you sure?" Glorfindel raised his eyebrows and moved his knuckles, "Why do I feel that the current situation is completely opposite to what you said?"

"You, you, what do you want to do?" Romimos' eyes widened, and her body instinctively wanted to hide back, but with her back against the stone wall, where could she retreat.

It's too bad, I'm too smug to pretend to be so complacent, I ignore my current situation.

"Okay, I'm not as shameless as you. I won't take advantage of the fire." Glorfindel sneered, "As long as you let Elrond and the others go, I promise not to do anything."

Isn't this called taking advantage of the fire?Romemos cursed inwardly.Glorfindel you have changed.

But now people have to bow their heads under the eaves, not to mention that letting them go is actually no loss for her, so Romimos nodded and agreed without much hesitation.

"Just let you go," she confirmed, "but I won't release the illusion outside the Twilight Land."

Glorfindel said nothing, but pursed his lips tightly.

"It's really not that I made it difficult for you on purpose." Romemos sighed lightly, "You should have seen it when you came in. There are a large number of Mordor troops stationed outside the Land of Dusk. Sauron nominally said that this is his army. The person who was sent to protect this place was actually to monitor me, and he doesn't trust me as much as you think."

"In this matter, I can actually understand Mordor. Anyone who dares to trust the Twilight Lord is a true warrior." Glorfindel said.

"Because it is not my wish to join hands with Mordor to fight against the elves." Romemos said, "You may think that there is no difference between me and Morgoth and Sauron, but believe it or not, at least this is what I want." I swear to Iluvatar, I have no desire to rule over anyone, and I have no interest in controlling people's minds."

"I believe," said Glorfindel, "that you are not even willing to control yourself, and are willing to be a slave to your own desires."

Romimos was taken aback, but Glorfindel ended the conversation and stood up.

"The fire's almost done," he said, "and I'll go out and get some more sticks."

He walked out of the cave, and came back with a bundle of dead winter branches that he had gathered around in a short time. He rekindled the fire, and this time the fire was closer to Romemos, so she could finally feel a little warmth. temperature up.

She stared thoughtfully at the flames, stealing glances at Glorfindel a few more times, but their eyes never met again until she closed her eyes and fell asleep.