Meadow Flowers & Butterflies by StarSpray

Jubilee

written for the 2023 Jubilee instadrabbling event

Prompt: An image of Notre Dame being rebuilt, with scaffolding covering much of the spire in the middle

The lower levels of Minas Tirith were a maze of scaffolding and half-rebuilt walls and half-repaired roads. There was much to do and all of it needed going sooner rather than later. There were far too many families who had returned to find they had no homes to return to within the city walls. The builders and masons of Gondor were skilled, but too few in number.

So it was that when a great party of Dwarves arrived, headed by Gimli the King’s Friend, a miniature army in themselves from the Lonely Mountain, a great cheer went up.

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Prompt: Gift-giving: From hobbits to Galadriel to Sauron (excuse us, Annatar), there is plenty of gift-giving in the Legendarium. Create a fanwork that features gifts or their givers.

Most gifts for the Company were easy—the Elessar, the sheaths, the bow, the little box of soil for the gardener—but Galadriel spent many hours in troubled thought concerning the Ringbearer. His road was the hardest and most dangerous. What could she give him to ease his way?

It had rained that evening, but as she watched the sky the clouds cleared, and Gil-Estel shone down. Ah, of course. Estel. Galadriel nodded to herself and rose from her seat. A small phial she needed, and water from her mirror, and a song of light and hope and strength…

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Prompt: “People rescue each other. They build shelters and community kitchens and ways to deal with lost children and eventually rebuild one way or another.” ― Rebecca Solnit

The coming of the dragon was a terrible thing to behold. The people of Esgaroth fled up the river into the forest where the Woodelves welcomed and sheltered them as they awaited the end of the dragon’s rampage. There was nothing else to be done, no way to rescue those caught in the flames of Dale and inside the Lonely Mountain, though the roar of the flames and the cries of the people echoed across the water.

At last, Smaug vanished inside the mountain and did not reemerge. Some few Dwarves that had been out in the hills surrounding when he arrived came stumbling to the western lake shores, already tearing at their beards and wailing for the loss of their home and kin. And Men, too, women and children and some few warriors had escaped into the thick reeds along the shore, hiding until it was safe enough to make their way farther west. Girion’s widow led them, grim-faced with grief, with her young son at her side and her daughter on her hip.

Slowly, Esgaroth filled up again. The Dwarves did not linger, but the Men of Dale remained, and though smoke still rose from the Mountain, and fear hovered like mist over the water, life went on.

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Prompt: Clean Up: Alas, the party's over, and someone has to clean up. We're playing Chip the Glasses Crack the Plates in honor of those brave souls. Create a fanwork that deals with cleaning up, whether it's routine chores, the aftermath of a party, or perhaps even the beginning of a new Age.

Sharkey—Saruman—was gone, and so was Wormtongue, and all the rest of the Big Men had been chased off thanks to Merry and Pippin, and the Lockholes were opened and everyone in them set free and returned to their families. Now the hobbits were left at last alone again. Sam looked around and saw that with so much to do no one seemed to know where to start.

Well, he had many ideas, but first of all: “Let’s get these horrid things torn down!” he said, pointing to the nearest crude brick thing that could only generously be called a house. “The bricks are all right; we can build proper hobbit houses and re-dig proper hobbit holes, so everyone’s safe and snug by wintertime.” There would be no one left out in the cold that winter, not if Samwise Gamgee had anything to say about it

The reminder of coming winter spurred everyone into action, and soon the whole Shire was busy as an anthill, harvesting bricks and chopping firewood out of the trees that had been left to lie. And once the snows thawed, Sam thought as he rolled up his sleeves, the real work could begin—there were quite a lot of trees to plant, and gardens to set right. He thought of the little box of elvish soil that the Lady had given him—he wasn’t sure what he would use it for, yet, but she had known what she was about, that Lady Galadriel!