Summer's End

“Ada,wake up, please!” The urgency in Elboron’s voice would have awakened Faramir immediately, even if years of training and service had not.

“What is it?”

His son’s warm breath tickled his ear. “Ada, I believe a wizard has come in the night, and stolen all our fields.”

Well, this was interesting. “Why do you think so?”

In response, Elboron tugged at his father’s hand. Slipping out of bed, padding barefoot down the flagstone hallway, Faramir could not help but feel a surge of pride as the four-year-old led the way to the kitchen. Elboron was by nature an imaginative child, nurtured from birth with the legends and songs of both Rohan and Gondor, but to be so utterly certain of what he had seen showed both insight and determination beyond his years.

The back door stood slightly ajar, and Elboron dashed ahead to fling it open. “Look! Everything’s gone!”

Faramir caught his breath. Certainly, the dense morning mist gave the appearance of cold nothingness, yet the sunrise was even now beginning to tint the sky pale pink and gold. The morning air was rich with the fragrance of damp pinewoods and the barest hint of autumn yet to come.

Joyously he swept his son up into his arms. “Listen!” The wrentit was just beginning its wake-up song; as other birds joined in the chorus Elboron laughed aloud.

“I think it was a good wizard, Ada, for an evil one would have stolen the songs from the birds, wouldn’t he?”

“I don’t believe an evil wizard would have wanted to leave such cheerfulness behind. But why do you think a good wizard would have hidden our fields?”

The child thought for a moment. “I think he wrapped everything in cloud to remind us that summer is ending, and then we will have harvest time, and the autumn rains, and then winter! The cloud is like a blanket, to remind us to get our warm blankets ready, for winter will be here soon.”

A precious child, a born Steward, Faramir thought to himself. “And so it will, but we will spend what is left of our summer getting ready. The chill wind of winter will not take Ithilien unawares, and during the long nights the promise of spring will warm our hearts.”

***
A late summer gift for Lady Branwyn and Foxrafer