But Maybe That Was The Light Of The Trees by Nekomitsu

Rhosgobel

In response to the March 24 entry at the B2MeM 2011 challenge.  Write a story or poem or create artwork using one or more animals as symbols, omens, or metaphors.

"The eagles!" cried the hosts of the martial tribe Maglor had taken residence with while war blocked his path down the winding coast of what had once been known as Middle Earth.  "The eagles have come!"

They had, Maglor, reflected wryly, even if several ages too late and on the wrong side of the fight as far as he was concerned.  The eagles of the IX Hispana and the XX Valeria Victrix gleamed dully as the enemy stepped into neat battle formations that would have made even the strictest Noldorin tactician proud.

There is a man at Maglor's right.  His face is painted and his hair is long and loose after the fashion of his people.  He shouts.  Maglor looks at him, and the man smiles, wide and bloodthirsty.

"For war!" the man screams.  "For war!  Those eagles have it coming!"

The men at Maglor's right echo his cry.  Maglor shrugs.  He raises his shield, and grips the sword tighter in his aching right heart.

'The eagles have it coming!' makes as much sense to his mind as any other battle cry in his life, and is easier to shout than his family's 'For a bunch of shining rocks!'