What a pointless torturefic that was, and it wasn't even based on an original idea!

I like the vampire and vampire hunter combo.

Ah, I like seeing two former antagonists forced to work together. Hopefully Ruxanda and Edith get past that "antagonism" part fairly quickly. Incidentally, Edith isn't related to Magic: the Gathering's Sorin Markov, is she?

Glad we got the teenagers out of that story. I'm impressed that you were able to communicate the differences in their personalities through body language and level of talkativeness, even while both are suffering from the after-effects of trauma.

There are some spots where a characters words and actions are split into separate paragraphs. I probably missed some, because I was getting lost in the story, but here are the ones I noticed:

"Ruxanda raised an eyebrow.
'You do realize that after that amazingly suspicious reaction, I’ll stop at nothing to pry the story out of you?'"


"The girl pondered this question, and her eyes clouded over.
'I don’t think I have one,' she said."


"Ruxanda ran a hand through her hair.
'Right… makes sense, though, given the fic you came from. I think it’s time that you got proper names, then.' She looked at the siblings, who nodded in agreement, and then to Edith. 'And I think I know someone who can help you.'"

—doctorlit, insisting there are really three Xs

I sort of skimmed over this story to find the names (I was on my phone and in between tasks at the time), but what I saw looked pretty good. Anyway, on to the fun stuff!

I can confirm that Tuilinn is good Sindarin for 'Swallow' - rather delightfully it means 'spring-singer' - but Tavor is a bit trickier. There is a Quenya word Tambaro of that meaning, which certainly looks like it would become Sindarin Tavor, but Ardalambion doesn't provide the latter. A little hunting shows that it's actually a Noldorin (= Tolkien's early version of Sindarin) word, and that the Gnomish (= very early Sindarin) equivalent meant 'wood fay'. Still, so far as we know it's still valid in finished Sindarin, so I'm not complaining.

So: would names of this kind be used in Middle-earth? Among the Sindar, they would be - known Sindar include Amdir ('Hope'), Daeron ('Great [One]'), and Dior ('Successor'). But of course, T&T aren't elves.

Gondorian mortals do also use Sindarin for names, but more than that, they tend to use names of previous characters. Beregond the guard is named after Beregond the Steward, who ruled some 200 years earlier. Denethor is named for an Elvish king of Ossiriand. Faramir is named after the son of a King of Gondor (and prior to that it was a name Tolkien used for an elf of Nargothrond).

So for these to be valid 'inherited' names, all we have to do is postulate a pair of bird-named Elves back in the First Age. Maybe they're Tinuviel's ('Nightingale') handmaidens in Ossiriand, that would make sense.

So what about as new-coined names in Third Age Gondor? In that context alone, they look a bit sketchy; most of those names are of the kind you suggest. But then again, given that Ioreth the Healer's name literally means 'Old Woman', I'm not sure the Third Age Gondorians have much of a leg to stand on.

Ultimately, as Afternames bestowed by another, they can definitely follow the example of Tinuviel.

hS

PS: I'm curious what your source of the names was. Is there a list of Tolkien bird names out there, or did you find them from a vocab list?

Definitely liking the dynamic between Ruxanda and Edith, the 'mini-city', adopting the kids instead of simply writing them off as Sue-and-Stu...

No typos spotted on this run (though I expect I won't be the only one making that check), so overall good work!

Thank you very much for writing. :)

Dang, I almost forgot to thank Tomash for betaing this mission. Many thanks, friend Tomash.