FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

Disclaimer: The characters, the context and the main plot belong to Professor Tolkien, whom I greatly admire. I’m only trying to fill in the gaps he so graciously left for us, fanfic writers, to have some fun.

Rating: given individually to each piece.

Archiving: my own website, Edhellond and Gildor’s Library. Everyone else, please, ask first.

FOREWORD

Flickers on the Water is a series of Silmarillion-based drabbles, featuring characters from both the First and the Second Age. There is no connection whatsoever between the individual pieces, save the fact that they all take place in my personal settings. Theoretically, they should be canonical, aside from the emphasis on characters or events I found particularly interesting.

FLICKER #1: THE EASTERLING’S WIFE

Rating: G

Summary: Aerin’s thoughts after Túrin had slain her husband, Brodda. Told from the beholder’s perspective, not from her own. 105 words.

Author’s note: J.E.A. Tyler assumed that Aerin was slain by the enraged Easterlings after Brodda’s death. The UT contradicts this, but I found the theory intriguing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Túrin fled in the night, driven by rage and sorrow, leaving Aerin behind with the bloody corpse of her husband. He had had his vengeance, and she was now utterly alone.

Brodda had been a harsh man, enemy of the Edain, willing ally of Morgoth. But she had found a purpose in his house, helping her own people – Túrin and his mother among them.

She had never loved him, nor the children he had sired, but now she had no-one left.

She heard the uproar from the outside and knew they were coming. She rose and opened the door, welcoming the first strike.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #1: DRAGONBIRTH

Rating: G

Summary: Celebrimbor is forging the Dragon Ring. 106 words.

Author’s note: The backstory to this drabble can be found in my story Visits in Eregion. I assumed that Celebrimbor made one of the “lesser rings” as a gift for Narvi.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Ring was taking shape; a small golden dragon, curled up around himself, head resting upon his tail. The tiny rubies lining his snout burned like flames, his diamond eyes glittered as if alive.

Now all the smith had to do was to give the creature – his creature – life, so that it could fulfil its destiny.

Celebrimbor focused on the powers that lived in the earth and all creatures populating it, on the gift he had inherited from his sires, on the deep friendship that bound him to the Dwarf. He waved all these powers together and released into the Ring.

The dragon’s eyes flickered briefly, then faded. It was done.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #3: ENCHANTED

Rating: G

Summary: Thingol finds Melian in the starlit woods of Nan Elmoth. 105 words.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The song came from afar, serene and full of some elusive beauty that made his heart ache with longing.

Forgetting his people, forgetting the goal that had led him so far, he followed that far-away voice as if under some sort of spell.

And all of a sudden, he came to a starlit glade among the dark trees, and there she stood, tall and slender, upon the silver glass, her face pale and beyond all beauty he had ever seen, her hair dark like the sky and the light of stars in her eyes.

And he stood there, thunderstruck, and could move no more.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #4: THE END OF STARLIGHT

Rating: G

Summary: The Avari watch the rising of the Sun for the first time. 112 words.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There was starlight and soft darkness in the Outer Lands, and the Faithful, the Starlit People, knew it and moved under its protective cloak like nimble, bright-eyed shadows.

It had always been like that, a life under tall, dark, ancient trees that were their homes. They did not want to go over the Sea, into the Light from which one cannot hide.

But there was no escape from the all-consuming plans of the Valar, who never asked anyone if they wanted their “blessings”.

 And on the day when the harsh, golden radiance of the newborn Sun tore the starlit night to shreds, the Faithful hid under the trees and wept.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #5: MARRED

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Gildor finds Celebrimbor’s mutilated body among the ruins of Ost-in-Edhil. 105 words.

Dedication: for Tessy, with love. Happy birthday!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Gildor swept through the burning city like a summer storm. There was still fighting, but even the Orcs fled from his fury, leaving their prey behind on the steps of the House of Mírdain.

Gildor fell to his knees, cradling the broken body in his arms. The fire that had once burned so brightly in those eyes was now quenched by red-hot iron, those skilled fingers crushed beyond healing, the beauty of that noble face marred, forever. Dozens of black arrows pierced the body that had been strong and fair, tearing the fëa forcibly apart from its housing.

Too late. He came too late.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #6: JUDGEMENT

Rating: G

Summary: After Sauron’s fall, Aulë is standing in the Ring of Doom, answering for his once closest associate. 100 words. This idea has been sitting in Edhellond’s Plotcritter Nest for quite some time.

Warning: Valarin names and weird footnotes. They are – with one exception – from the Ardalambion website. Knowing my story “Breaking the Light” might help.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Mâchanumâz sat upon their thrones in Mâchananaškad, the Ring of Doom, and Achûlêz stood before them to answer for his House. For Rušuranaškad, his closest, had fallen into Darkness, and now there was great upheaval in Aþâraphelûn.

“How could that be,” Mânawenûz asked, “that he whose fire had burned the brightest, would fall for the Darkness?”

And Achûlêz replied in sorrow, “I know not, my King. But his heart was troubled, seeing the Lamps, the work of his hands, broken, their fire spilled and their light quenched.”

Yet Mânawenûz said, “’Twas his pride that caused his fall.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes:

The Mâchanumâz are the most important Valar, called Aratari in Quenya.

Mâchananaškad, the Ring of Doom, is the place where the Aratari sit upon their thrones to judge those brought before them. It’s called Máhanaxar in Quenya, possibly based on the original Valarin name.

Achûlêz is the Valarin name of Aulë the Smith.

Supposed meaning for Rušuranaškad: “Ring of Fire” – yes, it is Sauron, though I have serious doubts that the name was created correctly. I am no linguist at all, so please bear with me.

Aþâraphelûn means "appointed dwelling" = Arda

Mânawenûz is the Valarin name of Manwë.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #7: CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT

Rating: General

Summary: Elwing’s thoughts before jumping off the cliff in Tol Sirion. 116 words. Written for the 100-Drabbles-Challenge of Edhellond.

Note: Regardless of any other consideration, I’ve always found Elwing’s choice fairly outrageous… a sign that she was under the spell of the Silmaril, just like everyone else.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All was lost. They have besieged them once again, driven by their terrible Oath, desperate to fulfil it, do be done with it, to be finally free again. They were Kinslayers, murderers of their kind, the bearers of Mandos’ curse.

But was she so much better than them? Her little sons were crying in their room, calling out to a mother who could not – would not – come for them. She would not come, for all she could think of was to bring that cursed jewel that led to all this bloodshed to safety. She was enslaved by it, just like they were.  Yet she could not part with it.

Thus she took the only way out.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #8: THE ABANDONED

Rating: G

Summary: Sequel to “Caught in the Light”. Elros’ POV. Double drabble. Exactly 200 words, sand title. Written for the 100-Drabbles-Challenge of Edhellond.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The sounds of killing and dying came closer and closer by the moment, but his mother was not coming to get them away from this terrible place that was their home for a short time. Why did she not come for them? She had said herself that their attackers were monsters in Elven shape, Kinslayers, murderers of their own people.

They were coming closer, and yet his mother did not come for him. His brother, so eerily calm for his young age, was looking out of the window to the Sea, as if there were any hope to escape that way – unless they threw themselves from the high cliff.

“Mother is gone,” his brother said in a voice too calm, too collected to belong to such a young child. “She chose the only way out. We are alone now.”

Elros wanted to scream, to deny that she could have left them without a thought, but he knew his brother was right. They were alone, two young children, without help, without protection.

The sounds of fighting were very close now, and the children clasped hands, eyes dry and cold. They were alone indeed, but they still had each other, at least.

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #9: REGRET

Rating: General

Summary: Maedhros and Maglor have an argument among the ruins of Elwing’s house in Tol Sirion. Sequel to “The Abandoned”. 119 words, sans title. Written for the 100-Drabbles-Challenge of Edhellond.

Dedication: A late birthday present for Jillian.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Maedhros, his hands as red from the blood of his kin as his fiery mane, glared at his brother with disbelief.

“You want to keep them?” he asked, too shocked to truly believe it.

Maglor, standing protectively over the abandoned sons of Elwing, glared back at him.

“Why are you so shocked? Have you not tried to save Elwing’s brothers in Doriath?”

“I have; yet it brought me no good,” Maedhros replied. “Or do you believe that saving these children would save you when the day of reckoning comes?”

“I know not,” said Maglor sadly. “All I know is that I cannot leave them to die. Too many innocents have been caught in the web of our curse already.”

FLICKERS ON THE WATER

by Soledad

FLICKER #10: DOUBT

Rating: General

Summary: Sequel to “Regret”. Elros has a question for his foster father, Maglor. Double drabble. 202 words, sans title. Written for the 100-Drabbles-Challenge of Edhellond.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

They were sitting in Maglor’s study, just the two of them. Elrond was on the roof, staring towards the Sea longingly as was his wont, as if hoping their father would return one day.

Elros had given up that hope long ago. He did not even want their father back anymore. Maglor had been their father for a long time, giving them all the care and attention Eärendil never had. And Elros was terrified to lose the Elf whom he had come to see as his father.

“Why can you not forget that horrible Oath of yours?” he asked angrily. “It had never brought you aught but sorrow.”

Maglor looked at the youngling whose face was full of anguish and whom he had come to love as a son, and he wished he could forget the Oath. But he knew he could not.

“We cannot go back on our Oath,” he said. “That would exile our fëar into the Everlasting Darkness.”

Elros looked at him, eyes dark and serious.

“And you believe the keeping of your Oath would not?” he riposted, his voice full of sorrow.

At that, Maglor had no answer. He shook his head and they spoke no more.

~The End~