Natural History of Middle-earth: A Tour by Himring

Far Harad and a Lot of Mud

South of Umbar, Third Age

Characters: Beruthiel and one of her cats

The image prompt showed the Bommi Fish, also called mudskipper. (link: The Bommi Fish)

Beruthiel could not suppress a yelp when the fish jumped into the air. She did her best to recover her queenly dignity, although in this patch of swamp there was nobody there to see. But she owed it to her ancestors to maintain composure, even as a shipwrecked exile. Even in a place so far south that the fish jumped and skipped, instead of swimming as ordinary northern fish would.

Well, maybe ordinariness was overrated!

The white cat batted at one of the mudskippers.

‘Bad cat’, she said automatically—even though the fish’s expression reminded her rather of her ex-husband’s…