The Ainu Ficlets by Raiyana

The Storm Rises

Fall of Numenor as seen by Uinen & Ossë - (497 words)

“The storm is rising.” Uinen stands at the edge of an underwater precipice, staring into the impenetrable darkness. Around her, the currents play, the strands of her long hair undulating gently through the water and playing with the small silver fish that hide in it.  

“Good. It’s been too long since we’ve had a good dance,” Ossë replies, idly poking at a crab scurrying across the sandy bottom. The crab looks offended for a moment, hurrying off to hide under Uinen’s skirts. “A storm is just what we need.” Scowling after the crab, he enjoys following the curves of her body - she has legs, for once, with blue fins running along the sleek muscles – visible through the gaps in the weave of her skirt; it is made from nets lost at sea and carry the last breaths of the drowned in the seams.

Uinen’s face is grave when she turns to look at him, the crab in the palm of her hand glaring balefully from the protection of its mistress.

“Not A storm, my love,” she says, setting the crustacean on her shoulder and letting it scurry off into the recesses of her hair. Her eyes are dark, the bruised purple darkness of the storm-clouds forming on the horizon, and he feels the power behind it coalesce – at once familiar and foreign, subtly chilling. “THE storm,” Uinen whispers and her smile is terrifying in its savage beauty. Ossë shivers lightly. The grey scales covering her throat ripple slightly when she swallows, her gills working in perfect time with the waves he can feel far above them. Uinen’s connection to the forces around them is never wrong, and this time, she is uncommonly grave. “This will be the storm to end all storms,” she adds dreamily, “until the Breaking of the World at the End of Days.”

Ossë shivers again, moving towards her, drawn by a sudden wave of desire.

“So they have called upon the One…” he replies, turning his face towards the building forces presaging the hand of Eru touching His Creation. “Where will it land?” he asks, unsure if he wishes to hear the answer, though he already knows what it will be.

“Númenor,” Uinen replies, swimming towards the still-calm surface. Ossë feels his own mouth split in a grin those who think him a playful shore-lapper would never recognise, feels the echo of the building storm rumble through his blood as he takes her hand.

“The anger of the One shall be glorious to see...” Ossë grins, feeling the reckless wild energy of the storm spreading through his limbs as he chases her through the choppy waves, both of them laughing.

“An in the wake of His wrath, there will be much lamenting,” Uinen replies, splashing water at him with a whoop of laughter. “But you and I...” She smiles, her teeth sharp as daggers, and her eyes glowing with the eldritch power about to be unleashed.

Ossë’s smile widens.

“We will dance.”