"Because my Land is Fair" and other drabbles by Himring

Inspiration

A first meeting between Rian and Annael, just after she has arrived in Hithlum as refugee.

Written for Amy Fortuna, for her prompt: I would like a story about Rían discovering her talent as a singer and songwriter as a young girl. Did she sing any songs about events we're aware of?

Extra warning: possibly triggering for arachnophobia.

The girl was looking fixedly at the cobwebs, her frown almost fierce with concentration. It was just an ordinary spider web, though, neatly framed between two stalks of grass, gleaming with moisture in the drizzle. Annael—who had crossed the meadow to check whether she was all right, crouching there so quietly in the grass, all by herself—was puzzled.

Rian looked up. ‘It’s pretty,’ she informed him, forcefully.

Annael nodded. They had not met before, but this girl seemed to have no fear, talking to strange elves. He still had the feeling that he was missing something—but what?

He crouched down beside Rian, waiting, gazing at the spider web.

Rian said: ‘When we left home, crossing the mountains—there was a cobweb, a big one, made by a spider much bigger than this… I was caught. Morwen cut me free, just in time, with the elven knife she got for her birthday.’ She gulped. ‘I still want to find it pretty,’ she added defiantly.

‘Sing it, then?’ Annael suggested.

‘Sing it?’

Did Men not do that, maybe? Annael sang, improvising, praising the symmetry of the web, the gleam of the suspended drops.

‘Oh! I’ll try that,’ said Rian.

Chapter End Notes

Annael and Rian do meet in canon, but not until later. It is not stated anywhere that it was their first meeting, as far as I know. The great spiders are canonically supposed to breed in Nan Dungortheb, but some could have moved further north into Dorthonion when it fell into darkness--and Emeldir, Morwen and Rian could have encountered them during their dangerous escape.

Also written for the prompt "Cobwebs" in the Signs of Autumn Challenge.