Aching Wings by Narya  

Oh gosh, I thoroughly enjoyed this view of Melian and her experience through the Ages of Arda. Each little detail is such a delight. Too many to list, but some lines and concepts I particularly appreciated:

"She is strange, Kementári. Kind, yes, and generous, and gentle when she wishes it – but wild, and not so meek as the Children's tales might have one think."

I love this multifaceted view of Yavanna, and so true to how tales tend to simplify and tone down the unfathomable wildness of the gods.  

"Her voice was weary, as though she had spent her very essence in calling the Trees from the earth"

I like how you brought in the aspect of how she'd never be able to create their like again.

"My kind do not perceive Time as the Children do. There is an echoing back and forth"

Ahh! Yes, time as non-linear for them!

"I reached for the minds of Estë, and Vána, and felt only reassurance, like gentling hands on a startled fawn. Melkor walked their lands, I understood – but he had repented, and was not to be feared."

Your comparisons are just so fitting and clear and at the same time very beautiful. And also, how pure of heart and trusting these Valar were, like they could still not comprehend how Melkor's mind could work...

"Perhaps the stones listened, for even to me it seemed they took on the feeling and hue of a woodland at dusk."

Just love this! Ahh! I won't look at caves in quite the same way.

"When my daughter was born, she sang back to them before she could talk."

Oh yes! But of course, now that you mention it is seems obvious. Simply adore this baby Luthien singing!

"I vowed it would not happen to Doriath. When I set my enchantments at the bounds of our lands, I wove them into the very songs of the birds and trees themselves, pouring forth my own Music as I had not done since the birthing of my child. I called on the echoes and shadows, and the whispers of the forest, and the allure of the nightingale's song. I wove it together, as I had heard the Lady and the Healer and the Young One do, long years ago, binding the threads of Song into something different and wondrous and powerful."

This... very powerful. And the idea of calling on the shadows and echoes, as if they're beings in themselves.

"The child frowned. 'Old one?'

'No,' I told her. 'I belong to myself.'

The girl grinned. 'I belong to myself as well.'”

Just lovely!

"They had built a vast network of bridges and flets beneath the forest canopy, and fashioned living houses that burst into bloom after rain. Their stories were woven into the bridges that linked their homes, with this knot or that one meaning fire, or birthing, or death."

So beautiful! I want to live there!

(After this point I became too absorbed to remember to highlight lines.)

I love that Tom protects the Entwives (and by extension Goldberry hangs out with them, I totally see them getting along beautifully — and maybe even with the Willow Spirit!)

"somehow, I was the size of one of my nightingales, being cradled in the breast of a great warm tree."

Ahh! This makes me so happy! I switched off my light at this point and went to sleep feeling the same.

The present day always makes me feel so sad (in rl and fantasy!) The idea of the world grown old and weary... I get the idea that it, too, envies the Gift of Mortals. And yet, the cycles continue, nonetheless.

And who knows, maybe she did visit the Zoo, and hangs out in some of your favourite nature spots...

Thank you for creating this! ♡