Trinkets by Independence1776

On the Straight Road

Two Elves of Aman find a dead mortal’s boat. Ficlet. Rated Teens for language and mature themes.

“Damn,” Veryacirië said. “There’s another one.”

Ilarwa peered over the side of the boat, not yet untethered from the short wooden dock, and sighed. There was a small rowboat drifting in the gentle waves, with both oars missing and a mortal man-- now dead-- inside. “So much for getting our prime spot today.”

But there was nothing else they could do; his body needed to be buried. Veryacirië jumped over the side, waded out to it, and grabbed the anchor’s rope to pull it ashore. By the time she beached it, a handful of people had gathered, two carrying a stretcher between them, and Ilarwa joined them. He peered at the dark-skinned Man. “Any identification? Anything to help us know who he was?”

Veryacirië shook her head. “He was just a fisher, probably out enjoying himself,” she said, pointing to the fishing pole in the bottom of the boat. “Makes me wonder why the Valar bother.”

“This is the third one in a dozen years, isn’t it?” Veryacirië shrugged and they stepped away from the rowboat, heading back to their own. Ilarwa continued, “I wish they’d stop. It’s not a good thing to be torn from everything you’ve known, with Aman possibly relegated to the realm of legend, and be confronted with the truth and a sight that means your death.”

“Maybe it is a reward. There are bad things happening in Middle-earth, what with more Eldar fleeing here. Maybe they just want to protect those who wouldn’t otherwise be safe.”

“Maybe…” Ilarwa looked over his shoulder at the group of people gently removing the Man’s body from his boat. “I still don’t think it’s much of one.”

Veryacirië clapped a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll at least be buried in a nice place.”

Which was accurate enough. The cemetery for those mortals who happened upon the Straight Road was on one of the rolling hills overlooking the Sea. Veryacirië spent a fair amount of time there, both as a caretaker and someone who recorded the mortals’ histories as best as she could. But Ilarwa rather thought they’d prefer to have been buried where their families could leave flowers or stones or whatever mortals preferred on their graves.

Chapter End Notes

This based on the last lines of the Akallabêth: “And tales and rumors arose along the shore of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favor of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches upon the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died.” It’s described solely as a rumor, but I wanted to explore the idea as if it were truth.