Kinda yeah.

The Elves ride off.

Kiri stays behind being ineffectually soothed by her brother.

They're gone a long time.

Is there a coherent plan for what happens if they don't come back?

There is! Feanaro's children all rode out after him, but the majority of the Elves didn't in fact do so, and they're building walls and a fortress and buildings with actual ceilings to sleep under and they can try planting seeds but at a guess nothing will grow in the dark. And clearing away bodies. Lots of clearing away bodies.

That's not... exactly the sort of plan she had in mind, but okay, that's something.

...

Does anybody want to go with her to see if they have got into some extractable sort of trouble.

Lots of people are nervous and want to go. 

It's a very long way, and the people who left took the horses.

...somebody is going to have to carry her even if she is lighting the way with fire, she just cannot hike in this terrain.

So she can get an Elf-back ride to the site of the fighting. It's ugly. The ground is scorched all around and the Elves look very badly battered and there are giant things with vaguely demonic forms, made out of molten something, fast-moving whips slashing across the battlefield.

She does not like that thing.

It should unmelt. Now.

It - does.

It stops being on fire and then it is a very large demon-shaped non-moving thing.

All of those things should also unmelt.

And the battlefield is suddenly very quiet.

The King rises shakily to his feet and says they should go straight for Moringotho right now.

He is in sufficiently bad shape that his children can in fact drag him back from doing this.

Most of the fighters are very badly burned.

Kiri can cool burns, but she can't actually heal them.

There are healing songs. They don't do much. Before the fighting started two weeks ago most Elves had never seen anyone die.

A lot of people have died. More back at the camp than here, but here too.

So fucking many people -

Well. Back to camp.

The Elves will start singing. As they get closer all the Elves that hear them will take up the song. It is a deeply sad song. It is also a hopeful one. It says that the dead are parted from the living for a time, but will be reunited, and died in the service of a great need. There is singing for the orcs, too.

That's... well, that's nice.

The Elves will keep singing. They'll also, when the host gets back from Angband, start in earnest on building defenses. They'll sing while they do that.

"This is getting to be kinda overdoing it," Aleko remarks.

Someone eventually apologetically digs up really excellent sound-muffling fabrics so the humans can sleep. It makes sense that humans wouldn't sing for twelve days straight but it's how Elves cope so it's what the Elves are going to do and they'd be happy to do it elsewhere but that seems impractical.

If the sound-muffling is really excellent Aleko will be able to sleep! Important.

Yep, good sound muffling. The Elves won't even take offense if he wears fabric bunched absurdly around his head all the time, but they're definitely going to keep singing. Also can Kiri make this here sand into glass? Greenhouses might not work without any light but glass is still an insulator and they can do magic lights and try growing food.

Oh what a nice nonlethal application for her magic. Yes, she can melt sand for them.