Drabbles by Grundy

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Naturalist's Guide To Middle-earth, II

Naturalist's Guide To Middle-earth Image Instadrabbling

January 10 2021

14:00 UTC

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Yavanna was surprised at the summons. Uinen was one of Ulmo’s folk, not hers. But she was also intrigued, so she answered at once.

“You made protectors for the trees,” Uinen said, her form turbulent with concern. “What of the sea creatures? They too need their defenders!”

The Children to come did not live in the water, and Yavanna had thought that would be enough. But Uinen was quite certain it was not. And now that she shared her thought, Yavanna knew she had the right of it.

“Let us work together,” she suggested.

The seas would not be neglected.

 

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Celeborn could tell by the look on her face that Galadriel – still publicly Artanis, alas, but in private with him always Galadriel – was reliving some memory that was far from pleasant.

He had thought the north-lights would be something she would enjoy. Instead, they had wakened painful memories. The question he had meant to pose this night would have to wait.

“Will you tell me what bothers you, my love?” he asked softly.

Her eyes never left the dancing lights, but she leaned into him rather than away.

“We saw them for the first time on the Ice,” she explained.

 

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Eowyn gasped as she passed through the ancient wall. She had never seen anything like it in the Mark.

Then again, she wouldn’t have – there were no ancient Numenorian ruins in the Mark. If there were, they would have been unmade long ago, as quarried stone was rarer there, and the Eorlingas would have eagerly reused any to be found.

Someone – possibly even her husband – had driven in posts and run a rope so that anyone marvelling as she was wouldn’t absently walk off the path and tumble down into what might once have been a river, now a lush swathe of green dotted with wildflowers. The forested hillside seemed to be trying to run right down into it.

Faramir smiled.

“It’s beautiful!” she told him.

“Indeed,” he replied. “I have never been there, but the sons of Elrond say it is very similar to what they call ‘the garden of Maedhros’ on Himling.”

Eowyn hesitated only a moment.

“Perhaps we should visit there, if it could be done?”

For once, she had surprised him. His smile only widened.

“Yes, I think it could. I should like to see it. And when we return – would you like to live here?”

 

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“That is not a fish!”

Finderato looked indignantly at his Sindarin cousins. Celeborn kept his reaction to dignified amusement, but both Lúthien and Oropher howled with laughter.

“It is,” Celeborn replied mildly.

“It’s on dry land! And walking!”

“Yes, they do that if their pond has dried up and they need to seek a new home. Or if their current home is not to their liking. Or occasionally just because they can. They seem to have personalities much as elves do.”

Finderato might have argued had one of the creatures not chosen that exact moment to flick mud at him.