A Man Who Flies From His Fear May Find He Has Only Taken A Shortcut To Meet It by LadySternchen  

Insects- Thônwen

Ok, this chapter needs a bit of an explanation, I think. Thônwen is the name I gave to Elmo’s wife, and in my headcanon, she is not only Melian’s sister-in-law but also her best friend. My regular readers know her well by now, but I felt explaining about her in this story can’t hurt. Oh, and this scene is set in the very early years of Eglador, when there was still much Melian had to learn about Elvish life and Thônwen was not yet used to living a life in peace. 

“Get off!” Thônwen shakes off flies that have landed on her arm in disgust. “Valar, I hate these things.”

Melian looks at her in surprise.

“They are just little insects,” she says, in a rather bewildered tone “They do not even sting.”

“Some do. Maybe they are scared off by your aura because they will not bite one of the divine. But it is not the biting that bothers me, anyway. I heartily dislike flies in general.”

“But why?” Melian sounds earnestly intrigued.

“They are the bringers of ill news. ‘Tis a thing we hunters look out for. When we see them, we know we are going to find something… unpleasant.”

Thônwen does not find the right words to express the sinking feeling in one’s stomach, nor the nauseating buzzing sound of hundreds of flies that fly up from a corpse, the repulsion to go any closer, and yet the need to do it nonetheless, to see whether the deceased thing is an animal, or one of their own.

Melian seems satisfied with that explanation, for she does not question Thônwen any further, but stops in her tracks after a while, humming softly. Now it is Thônwen’s turn to be puzzled, to watch wordlessly as one of Melian’s birds lands on her shoulder. She holds it to her face, whispering words that Thônwen cannot discern, then hands the little brown bird to Thônwen.

“He will keep close to you, if you want him. He is the smallest of his siblings, and they will often steal his prey if he is not quick enough to eat it. He would love to be at your service and keep your vicinity fly-free.”