Butterfly Wings by StarSpray

Chapter 1

In the many gardens of Tirion there bloomed thousands of flowers, of all colors of the rainbow and more. And fluttering to and fro between the flowers and the trees and the shrubs were butterflies, little jewel-winged creatures that lived on sweet nectar and did little else, as far as Míriel could tell, except to show off their wings for the delight of the Elves and the Ainur. She spent hours sitting among the red roses and the pink and purple hyacinths and the golden laburnums with her sketchbook, carefully painting in painstaking detail not only the flowers but the butterflies too, in her mind already thinking of the dyes she could use to recreate them all in silks and cottons and wools—and gold and silver and copper, too. Finwë joined her and sang songs that Vána had taught him to bring butterflies by the dozens to land on the flowers around them and on his arms and in his hair, where they might sit patiently so Míriel could look as closely as she liked, though when she laughed at the sight of him, as she always did, they rose up like a brilliant cloud to scatter in the breeze, fluttering away to find other flowers in other gardens, leaving behind a light dusting of pollen on his sleeves and in his dark hair.

"What are you planning?" he asked, leaning over to peer down at a sketch Míriel had scribbled onto an empty page, a rough sketch of a gown with wide sleeves, much wider than was the fashion in Tirion. "Are you going to turn yourself into a butterfly?"

Míriel laughed. "Just wait and see." And she kissed him on his pollen-dusted lips and disappeared with a soft rustle of silk back into her workshop.