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Lin pouted back at Eldrin, "Well... I said I would come up here, so I did, I won't get in the way or do anything silly."

And then she looked up at Elrohir adding, "What? I can honestly say I've never lied."

Eldrin bowed once again as Elrohir left, then looked down at Lin. "He's right, you know," he told her, equally as seriously. A moment later, he broke into a grin. "But I'm impressed that you did manage to make it up here - I admire your determination."

He knelt before her on one knee. "Come," he smiled, holding out one arm to her. "I'll take you to the prince."

"See what?" Eldrin asked curiously, tucking Lin comfortably into the crook of his arm and headed back into the compound.

Inside, there were rows upon rows of young men, all dressed as Eldrin but in gray instead of tan, all black-haired and copper-skinned, and all of them twice as sweaty as the Captain. They were moving in unison, going through a long and exhausting set of fighting moves without weapons.

Eldrin chuckled lightly for a moment, then, in elvish, he shouted a command to his trainees, who stopped what they were doing and started mingling together. Some went for canteens that were sitting along the walls, others went for towels to pat themselves dry, and others went and grabbed snacks from the sides.

Out of the crown, Eärendil appeared, his brown eyes bright with exertion and his face flushed, dripping sweat (altogether rather grossly, but after all he had been training in the desert sun for hours now).

"Hello, Lin!" he said brightly, his tone just a little bit disapproving. "Funny seeing you here," he added pointedly, raising one eyebrow.

Eärendil couldn't bring himself to be angry with his friend - for one thing, he was as tired as his uncle, and for another ... a part of him had secretly been hoping she would find her way up there on her own, so that he wouldn't be the one guilty of breaking the rules.

"So what do you think?" he asked, gesturing towards the mountain.

Eärendil chuckled at that comment. "Well, it is a mountaintop," he pointed out. "And there's a reason Ninako decided to build on this mountain, as opposed to any of othe others."

He swept his arm out behind him where, above the wall tops, the tips of other mountains could be seen. The mountain on which they stood was on the western end of a ring of mountains, and though the other mountains were also tall, the one they were on was the tallest by far.

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to see, now that you're up here?" the young prince asked his friend eagerly.

Earendil looked to Eldrin questioningly. After all, up here was Eldrin's domain: the only person with more authority than the Captain up on this mountaintop was the Queen herself.

Eldrin shrugged one shoulder, the one that wasn't the arm holding Lin.

"The barracks, my quarters, the training area," he suggested. "Not the weapons - the last thing we need is an accident with someone who isn't even supposed to be up here."

He raised one eyebrow pointedly and looked down at Lin.