Return to the North [ Lord of the Rings x Silmarillion ]

Thirst for Vengeance

A/N: I have been waiting to publish the next six or so chapters for many many weeks. Enjoy the final section of Return to the North. But be ready- there're two sequels coming!

Sin so thick you can't see the stars
Can't tell good and evil apart

When it all goes up in flames (x4)

We'll be the last one's standing.

Up in Flames by Ruelle

Míril ran to Tinneth. "Stop!"

The woman was caught of guard. She spun around, twin blade defending herself. Then she saw her mother. Without even hesitating, she engaged Míril.

"Why, Tinneth?" Míril cried in despair. "Why are you doing this?!"

The silver-haired woman merely smiled devilishly. She ran at her mother yet again, twin blades flying to and fro, left and right. Miril blocked each attack soundly but didn't press back. She couldn't. This was her daughter.

"Fight, coward," Tinneth hissed. "Where is the legendary skill I heard about all those years growing up? Where is the woman who was a hero of the War of the Ring? Or have you grown too soft in your life at Minas Tirith?"

Miril narrowed her eyes. "Do not taunt me, Tinneth. I am not fighting not because I am a coward. I choose not to fight because you are my daughter. I swore to Maglor I would never become a kinslayer, and I intend to keep that promise."

"Then I suppose you won't do anything if I choose to kill my siblings, or Father?" Tinneth taunted her with teeth barred. "Will you let them die? Will you sit back and watch me kill them one by one before I finish you?"

Miril growled something inaudible and her expression hardened. Immediately she began to fight back, pressuring her daughter. For a split second, Tinneth was worried. She saw in her mother's eyes the same anger in her own. Her mother was stronger and faster than she'd expected. With footwork, Miril managed to trip her. She was trapped between the ground and her mother now.

"Don't make me kill you," Miril frowned. "Please. We can fix this!"

Tinneth spat in her face. With a kick, she threw her mother to the ground and hopped up. Miril scurried back up and grabbed Galmegil, her sword. Tinneth readjusted her grips on her two blades and stalked forward, never breaking eye contact with her mother.

They clashed again, fiercer than ever. Mother and daughter, uncorrupted and corrupted. Miril shouted as she was caught in the arm but she fought back. She managed to graze Tinneth's leg. But Tinneth was ready with a counter attack.

She wrapped her blade around her mother's and sent it flying from her grasp. Miril looked in sadness upon the anger filled face of her silver-haired and youngest daughter.

"I failed you as a mother," Miril sobbed, falling to her knees. "I am so sorry. So sorry."

Tinneth smiled cruelly and used one of her swords to lift her mother's face to hers. "I want to see the fear in your eyes as you face death."

Miril's gaze never wavered. But Tinneth was caught off guard as someone bowled into her. Still her left sword managed to land a devastating blow to her mother's side.

"No!" Aderthon screamed as he stood away from Tinneth and looked in horror as the blood poured from his mother's side. Scarlet rivers of blood, seemingly never ending.

Tinneth scrambled up and faced her brother. She glared.

"Aderthon. How perfectly predictable." She came towards him and swung her swords at his face.