To See The Cherry Hung With Snow by Himring

Chapter 2

Beorning challenged me to write an addition to the earlier story in which "snow" had the literal meaning.  In this piece, "snow" has the literal meaning, only it's not exactly "a small addition" or part of the same story.

As the two pieces are nevertheless connected, I decided to post this one as a second chapter.

Characters: Maedhros, Ceredir (OMC)
Setting/Time: East Beleriand, Fell Winter

It is the Fell Winter. Beleriand shudders under the onslaught from the North. The Pools of Ivrin freeze solid. In the East, the winter storms sweep through the Gap and down the Valley of Gelion, reaching far south. The wandering remnants of the House of Feanor are hard pressed.

Maedhros takes up his spear and goes hunting, together with Ceredir. They find no game anywhere, only at length half buried in the snow the frozen remains of a half-starved deer killed by wolves. They dig them out; the bones will still do to make broth with.

Wearily, they begin trudging the long way back to camp. About them, yet again, the wind rises, biting, howling, and the snowflakes begin their mocking dance. They pass through a clearing, the former site of an abandoned steading, it may be, and the icy bite of the wind intensifies.

Ceredir, who, being two-handed, is carrying the mutilated carcase of the deer, wades knee-deep through a snow drift, past a small cherry tree, out in the open by itself, groaning under the weight of the snow dragging its laden branches to the ground.  Suddenly, Maedhros’s body is no longer right behind him, lending him its meagre shelter from the wind. He turns and sees Maedhros, stopped beside the tree, brushing snow off with his gloved hand, carefully shaking branches free of their weight.

‘What are you doing?’ he mutters, sighing.

‘It seemed to be suffering’, answers Maedhros. ‘And, you know, it may yet bear fruit again.’