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

Blood/Injury- Daeron

“Daeron, what is the matter?”

Lúthien’s hand is soothing on his back, but Daeron cannot bring himself to look up. He wants to bury himself and forget the image that has imprinted itself on his eyes.

“Is the horse gone?” he asks, barely recognising his own voice.

“What horse?”

And when Daeron cannot bring himself to answer, she adds: “Yes, they are all gone. Will you now tell me what is wrong? You are not scared of horses suddenly, are you?”

“Only one horse. The black one. It… it only has one eye.”

Daeron feels sick even saying it aloud.

“Oh, yes. He is such a good boy, he almost never spooks anymore. All the training Oropher did really paid off. You don’t need to fear him at all, just be sure not to approach him silently from his blind side.”

“I don’t fear him, I fear looking at him.”

“But why?”

Daeron fails to voice it. The sunken hole where there should be an eye. He wants to cry.

“I cannot…”

To his surprise, Lúthien chuckles in a slightly exasperated way.

“Oh, please not you as well. You cannot bear any injury done to the face, can you? It makes you sick and panicky.”

Daeron looks up, amazed, Yes, that quite sums it up.

“Well, nothing to be ashamed of” she says, with a grin that tells Daeron that she finds it ridiculous nonetheless “As your King finds himself in the same predicament. Ada cannot even look at Oropher’s horse. Only for him, it is even more embarrassing.”

Whether Lúthien meant this to be comforting or not, it really rather does Daeron feel better.