Trouble in Twos

A stunning, clear night. The air crisp, the sky a brilliant spread of glittering stars, a refreshing taste after a hot summer that hints of the winter to come. Merenglir is carefully walking a balancing act along the rim of the fountain, his arms held out as he takes swaying steps around the pool of cold water. \"So what have you been doing for the last few weeks? When did you arrive here in Minas Tirith?\"

\"I don\'t know...\" Menelglir replies, watching his brother from his vantage point on the ground. He leans back against a white stone wall. \"Must be two weeks now. Settled in here, unpacked. Walked around the city a bit, but not so much. Was waiting for you, honestly. I don\'t like being in a new place myself, I decided.\"

\"Believe me, I would have been more than happy if the boat got here that much faster.\" Meren responds with a rueful smile. \"But what did you find in the city? What is there to see? It\'s so big! We should go explore.\" He pauses and turns about, nearly losing his balance, but his arms wave about for a moment and he manages to keep his footing with the small acrobatics.

\"Not too much,\" Menelglir frowns. He shifts, stretching his legs out in front of him. He\'s sitting on the ground this evening, back against a white stone wall, and another young man, his twin by their looks, balances along the rim of the fountain.

\"There\'s the usual--taverns, inns. Stables. There\'s barracks...though way up on top of the city, that might be something to see. I think you can look down off the mountain, but I didn\'t get to go there.\"

\"Though..if you are wanting to explore, I get the feeling we should do it while we can...that is...at night. I cannot say for certain, but I keep getting the feeling things will be different here. We\'re sort of under everyone\'s thumbs, you know?\"

Merenglir looks up, up, and further to the highest point of the city. He stares for a moment, then looks down at his brother again with a wide grin. \"You couldn\'t go up there, or you haven\'t had a chance?\" The youth asks as he hops down from the rim of the fountain.

\"No chance to yet. Likely we can go whenever we want. No challenge to that,\" Menelglir grins at his brother. \"Even going at night it\'s not a challenge. Well..not much of one, at least.\"

\"Soon, though...\" He\'s off on another topic, yawning. \"Next month...you know, once we\'re Squires, we won\'t be serving the same Knights. Well, it\'s not likely, at least. You nervous about it? I mean, nervous about who you\'ll get stuck with?\"

\"I don\'t know who any of the knights -are- yet. Arashen isn\'t so bad. And that other man we met.. Sirion? He didn\'t seem a bad sort. If I get someone terrible, I\'ll just pretend to be you.\" Merenglir says with another grin. \"I haven\'t thought about it much, yet. Are -you- worried?\"

\"No...but that\'s what got me worried. I don\'t know any of them here. It would be nice to know who to try to avoid,\" Menelglir frowns.

\"Sirion...Isilrim. Did you notice he could tell us apart already?\" He doesn\'t look pleased at all by that. \"Though..I want to go talk to him,\" he says, poking a stick at the ground. There are flowers in the way of the stick, but that doesn\'t stop him.

\"Yeah, I saw that. But that was easy enough since I had just come off the boat and we were barely moving around. It won\'t be so easy for him later. I wouldn\'t mind talking to him again though. What do you think he meant by it when he said that Isilrim\'s doors are open?\" Merenglir moves to sit on the rim of the fountain now, reaching one hand down to scoop up a palm full of water that he flings at his brother.

\"It won\'t be easy, no, as long as he doesn\'t throw us on a boat to see which of us gets sick first.\" A clump of dirt flies toward Merenglir just seconds after the water splashes on Melen\'s face. There\'s a flower in the clump of dirt, but Melen doesn\'t seem to care about what he digs up and flings his twin\'s way.

\"I don\'t know,\" he answers, irritably. \"Maybe he hates Telpekhor and wants to tell us how horrid we all are. Maybe he wants to take us on as Squires. How should I know. Though...he said he was a twin?\"

\"Something like that.. \" Merenglir replies just as the dirt hits him. He scowls and brushes the soil away, the ripped up flower falling into the fountain. The page reaches down to splash more water at his brother, trying to get him good and wet now. \"People only say that because they wish there -were- Telpekhor.\" Meren replies with an arrogant smirk.

\"You\'re a jerk, you know that?\" Menelglir snorts, lobbing another clot of muddy dirt toward his brother\'s hair. \"He\'s half Telpekhor or something like that--Arashen\'s mother is his cousin? I don\'t know. I can\'t keep it straight.\"

\"Augh! Stop it! Water dries.. you\'re getting dirt all over me!\" Meren protests, then leans over and cups both hands into the fountain together and dumps the water into the nearest bed of flowers, providing himself with a new form of ammo. Mud.

The twin scoops up the wet dirt and flings it at his brother as he stands up. \"Maybe, he just wants -me- to be his squire. You were the one he was scowling at.\"

\"Hey!\" Menelglir barely rolls out of the way in time to avoid having the clump of mud land square on his tunic. Of course, he rolls out of the way in the dirt, so the effect will be pretty much the same. \"You\'re the whiney one that made him irritated about being seasick or riversick,\" he snorts. \"How you going to be a Squire to any Knight if you lose your dinner every time you set a toe in water?\"

\"Oh sure, you can throw dirt but you can\'t take it. Aren\'t you the honorable knight to be?\" Merenglir asks in a taunting voice, moving to stand in front of the fountain, looking down at his brother in a mocking fashion. \"Don\'t worry, you can still be -my- squire when I\'m a knight. I\'ll take pity on you when no one else will, brother. Even if you did pick fun at my suffering on a vile ship.\" Do the taunts really need to be logical at fourteen?

\"You\'re still a jerk,\" Melenglir grins as he gets to his feet and tries to brush the dirt off his Page uniform. It just makes it worse, but in the dark, it\'s hard to tell. \"And you\'re a jerk with dirt in your hair, too. I\'m going to see if I can try to talk to Sir Sirion this week. You interested in coming along? And for once...\" he sighs in frustration as he grin fades, \"for once, can you think before you open your mouth?\" Not that Menelglir isn\'t guilty of the same, and frequently.

\"Of course I\'m interested! I can\'t let you have all the fun.\" Merenglir answers quickly, reaching up to shake the dirt from his shaggy locks. \"Think before I speak? Oh, I\'ve been reformed, brother! Sir Asshole has straightened me out right well. I don\'t know what -ever- possessed me to argue with his supreme authority on anything and everything.\" Can a person get any more sarcasm into his voice? There\'s enough dripping to overflow the fountain.

\"You hungry?\" Menelglir answers instead, though. \"I\'m famished. Think there are kitchens we can find our way into this hour of the night?\" He flashes his brother a grin. \"I\'m willing to find out, and then I want to hear more about the past five months.\" He doesn\'t wait, but turns to track muddy footprints into the building.

Merenglir takes another moment to shake the dirt off, then hurries after his brother with a matching grin. \"Food sounds good!\" He crows, cheerful once more.