STARLIGHT ON LEAVES

by Soledad

5: AUTUMN GOLD

Rating: General

Summary: Lálisin, Queen of Mirkwood, watches her newborn daughter sleep. Double-and-a-half drabble, exactly 250 words, without the title.

Dedication: for JastaElf, with love. Happy birthday, Jasta!

Beta read by Lady Masterblott, thanks!

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She had never met the royal kindred of her husband, but she knew they would be outraged that she and Thranduil had decided to have another child, this late in their marriage. The noble Eldar of the West and the Sindar of Doriath had few children as a rule – or sometimes none at all.

But she was one of the Faithful, and her valiant older sons had gone to the Halls, slain in the Last Battle; and Celebwen, her silver maiden, had gone to the Havens, ravaged by the Curse of the Sindar; and Laegalas, her youngest, had gone with the patrols to defend the borders of their shrunken realm. And she could stand the sight of the empty nest no more.

At last Thranduil, unable to watch her suffering any longer, had given in. It was a risk, for creating a new life always drains an Elf’s strength, and in these times, the King of the Greenwood could not afford any weakness. Yet now, as she was watching the peaceful sleep of her golden little bird, she was eternally grateful to have such a generous spouse. After four sons who came after her, bearing the traits of the Faithful, and a silver-haired girl who bore the proud heritage of Oropher, now, in the autumn of their shared life, they had been given a child with her father’s golden hair and the blue eyes of fair Nellas of the Nandorim.

Whatever might come, for now, she was happy.