The Small and Secret Things by Dawn Felagund  

Difficult

Maedhros on acclimating to Himring after life in Tirion.

The acclimation should have been more difficult: from Tirion to Himring in fewer years than--once upon a time--it had taken my father to complete a commission. Stepping onto the balcony in the morning, where once was a balmy breeze (in Tirion), I am slapped across the face with a whiplash wind. So cold it burns.

It should have been difficult, leaning upon the railing with my hips, my skin already frozen fast to the steel.

But with time, I grow numb to all feeling. Happiness and love. Sadness, grief. Pain.

It should have been difficult.

It was not.

Chapter End Notes

Today's word:

acclimate uh-KLY-mit; AK-luh-mayt, transitive and intransitive verb:

To accustom or become accustomed to a new climate, environment, or situation.

Acclimate is from French acclimater, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + climat, "climate," from Late Latin clima, climat-, from Greek klima, "inclination; the supposed slope of the earth toward the pole; region; clime," from klinein, "to lean."