New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King
Cross "The Silmarillion" with a second text or fandom in this month's crossover challenge.
A disabled young man is approached by a mysterious stranger. A triple drabble.
After capturing Finrod and his companions, Gorthaur attempts to discover their identities...
It was a custom done in scorn of death, Balan would tell Finrod later that night as they sat beside the fire in the hush of the midnight watch. He might come ever ravening among them, but they would scorn his maw. Even in their rotting they would lay claim to life.
Balan's people are on the road to Estolad. Finrod begins to suspect his own feelings, there is danger on the road, and we witness Atani burial rituals.
Finduilas had never thought she had been saved for a reason, until she found the woman in the river.
Maedhros and Maglor disagree about the education of the Peredhil.
In that moment he envied for the first time the mortality of Men. He coveted a death that came upon you softly, death that whispered and held out a hand and let you slip into his arms in sleep. Death that passed his fingers over your eyes and left a visage in peace. Balan’s death.
It's the Fen of Serech, more or less. An oath for an oath, blood for blood.
A fleeting moment in the last days of Celebrimbor's life, in the dungeons below Eregion. Even if it hurts to kill the one he loves, even if Celebrimbor has forever changed him, it is too late for Sauron to turn back.
Finwë and friends go West
Finrod felt the other’s panic strike his perception like a blow and was running even before Balan’s cry reached his ear. In a glance, his eyes took in the scene before him: the camp in sudden stillness, one of the Laiquendi staggering through the clearing, a limp body slung in his arms, Balan and Baran sprinting toward him.
It was Belen in his arms.
The Edain and the Laiquendi cross paths in the woods of Ossiriand and are faced with immediate conflict. Finrod and Estreth work to heal the damage, Balan (Bëor) tries to learn the communication of thought, and the Edain choose where their loyalty will abide.
It was danger only if the goal was avoidance, and Balan had no desire to escape. The urge to laugh returned and his heart dared Estreth’s cautions to be true so he might find himself ensnared forever, held motionless on this hilltop, a statue cradled within the other’s hands till the world’s ending. If his soul was consumed in the process, then let it be so. It was a fair price.
A few months after Finrod discovered the Edain near Thalos, he continues to dwell with them and form friendships. Balan (Bëor) attempts to learn multiple languages, some old folktales of the Edain come up in conversation, and Balan and Finrod discuss grief with a side of constellations. Balan has a crush.
“I convinced myself the situations were different. I built labyrinths within my reason to justify the pretense, and in their twisting ways I wandered blind till faced with her grief—the tribute paid in pain, as thou hast named it. Till then I could contend that I suffered so thou might be spared; I grieved so that thou might hold love in memory untarnished. That I learned at the feet of Doom to thus keep its step from thine own neck, and so should goodness come of it. Eru forgive me, I was wrong.”
After his conversation with Andreth forces him to face his own rationalizations and hypocrisies, Finrod realizes he needs to come clean to Aegnor and confesses to him both the consequences of his former advice, as well as his own secret grief that motivated it.
Maedhros' decision to cede his claim to the High Kingship drives a rift between him and the brother who held the crown for him through his captivity. Through their reconciliation, Maedhros grapples with shame over the feelings that Maglor's devotion awakens in him, before he at last accepts the balm for loss and failure that Maglor offers.
Melian's new Noldor charge has been disobedient. A loving queen must teach her a lesson.
The unexpected and mysterious return of Glorfindel, hero of Gondolin, to Middle-earth opens old wounds for Erestor. Can he overcome guilt and forge a new relationship with his old friend?
Written for 2023 My Slashy Valentine fic swap
Nerdanel had hoped to beat Feanor to Formenos, but she came too late.
Maglor wishes he could want less.
Boromir lives!
...but then what? What might one additional man desperate to return to the defense of his homeland accomplish after cheating death?
A jaunty (I lie, we go Angst, here) romp through canon-adjacency
Celebrimbor travels to Númenor and finds a new direction to his life.
Ñolofinwë’s eldest has always been flighty. Early in the First Age, Findekáno disappears three ways.
Written for the fan_flashworks challenge “storm”.
In which Maedhros dies and has some explaining to do to his family.
The queen of Númenor reflects on her past and future with a strange companion.
Voronwë leads Tuor across Beleriand and into Gondolin, and then faithfully serves and protects him and his family through all that follows. Which is just the natural order of things, isn’t it? All part of Ulmo’s grand plan, nothing much to see here, move along. Right? One day Tuor begins to suspect there might be more to it.
Elrond Half-elven is the newest addition to Gil-galad's court in Mithlond. One night separated from the fawning crowd, Celebrimbor confronts him about their pasts' unique relationship after learning something Elrond has tried to keep hidden.
Dwarves love gems, and the Elvenking bears a crown of gold. Thorin only wishes Thror were willing to admire it from afar.