Do you cut down down blossoming trees in the spring for firewood? by Himring

Do you cut down down blossoming trees in the spring for firewood?

‘Do you remember those trips to Nisinen in spring,’ murmurs Lindorie, leaning heavily on Amandil’s arm. ‘All that fragrant blossom—flowers and shrubs on the shore in bloom and the scent of the trees wafting on the breeze… How untroubled we were!’
Lindorie is very old. Amandil thinks she may be blending such memories with memories of visits even further back—with his father perhaps, in more peaceful times?
‘We cannot go there now, can we?’ she says and sighs.
‘No,’ he says. ‘I am sorry. We cannot.’
Leaving Romenna, even to go admire spring blossoms, would cause immediate suspicion.

They love Numenor, so they want to keep it forever, the King’s Men say.
But the Nisimaldar, those trees famed for their scent in song, are destroyed even before the whole island sinks under the Wave. In the bay of Eldalonde many ships of the King’s Fleet anchor, as all along the coast. Any wood not felled as timber for upkeep and repairs on the ships is gathered and burned as fuel—blossoming branches and fragrant breezes are now become smoke on the wind.
The King’s Men shrug off the damage. Their sights are set on the conquest of Valinor.

Chapter End Notes

Written also as a prompt fill for the prompt "Blossoms in the Breeze" at tolkien100 on Dreamwidth.

A pair of fixed-length drabbles of 100 words according to MS Word.

The title is adapted from a rhetorical question by Gimli (from the chapter "The Road to Isengard" in The Two Towers).

The first drabble is meant to be set quite some time earlier than the second; nevertheless Lindorie (sister of Amandil's great-grandfather) would be very old indeed by then. But I decided that was still just about feasible (*handwave*).