Ferrahn buried his face in Kamahn's hair. "He's driving me crazy," he growled.
Kamahn sighed and curled up tighter against his warmth. Ferrahn wrapped his arms and legs around the small body in his embrace tighter.
Some feet away, Evien sat with his face buried in the crook of Luthien's neck, his eyes closed and his arms holding Luthien's empty shell to him.
"Where are you? Where are you?"
Over and over again he cried out to Luthien in despair.
His frustration, his anger, and his grief echoed endlessly in their heads.
"I don't see how Luthien ignore him like this," Ferrahn growled. He wasn't blocking out Evien successfully at all and from the way Kamahn was curled up protectively in his arms, he knew the boy was having as much trouble.
"Do you think something bad happened to him?" Kamahn asked softly.
Ferrahn paused. He knew something about Luthien that might have caused his disappearance. But would telling Evien help at all? After all, Luthien had kept it from him; to find out now might drive him towards even more despair, if that was possible. He sighed as he weighed the possibilities.
"Ferrahn?"
"No," he said after a while. "Well, something might have happened to him. He might have decided it's better for him to deal with it alone."
"But they're always together. Evien does everything with him! How could he leave him just like that?"
"We'll have to ask him that when he's back."
"I hate him," Kamahn said with some heat.
"You hate everybody, you brat."
"I hate you too."
"I know. Now keep quiet. My head is beginning to hurt."
But after a while, Ferrahn wondered if talking had been a better alternative to listening to Evien cry his heart out again and again throughout the night.
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