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Title: Wife of the Thain: Old Tales of the Shire (#3781)
Author: RazeNymphette
Chapters: 8
Archive: Tolkien
Category: The Hobbit
Description: "It was often said in other families that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, BUT...." - The Hobbit, Chapter One, Page 2
.... but what if it were true?
a series of drabble chapters
Published: 28 May 2008
Updated: 03 Jul 2008
Warnings: none
Type: Romance
Characters: Isumbras Took I; OFC
Chapter 1 - 01 The Song
He heard singing, a sweet melody on the air, silver chimes and reed pipes, summer rain and spring mist and winter snowfall.
Isumbras Took left his home one day to follow the song through the woods, through fields, crashing through darkness and stumbling through daylight. Dawn came, and dusk, and night found him, and day held him.
The rain drenched him, the wind chilled him. The sun burned him, the shade cooled him. The moon lit his path, and the stars gave him hope. He wandered the Shire, following the song that pulled at his soul...
...and he found her.
Chapter 2 - 02 Lady of the Lake
Hair like the light of the autumn moon falls, a cascade of windblown curls, down a swan white back. Silver-gray, feral eyes like some wild creature sears him to the bone. Clothed in silks like the twilight skies alight with pale stars, she dances as if made of wind and water upon the surface of the lake.
He worships with silent gaze, knowing the sweetness of hope, as well as the bitter taste of despair, for how can a plain and simple hobbit, Thain or not, tame such a lovely creature?
“Lady...” He moans, and despairs.
Chapter 3 - 03 Flight
"A dream of silver swans swimming in my mind, lost in isolation..."
- Spiral (Don't Fall), the Cruxshadows
She hears a yearning moan.
She’s frightened into flight.
Flitting across the water, she doesn’t look back to see what sighted her, what creature managed to glimpse one of the Hidden People.
A blue shadow against the darkness, stars and moon alight on the fairness of her skin as she glides away, like a pure, white swan touched silver by the night’s magic.
Suddenly she turns, catching a glimpse of the upturned face of the Thain, and for a moment, her heart stops in her chest.
Then she’s gone. A silver swan swims upon the surface of the lake.
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Chapter 4 - 04 Need
"Come live with me and be my love..."
- the Passionate Shepherd to His Love, C. Marlowe
.
.
Cast into the depths of his heart’s darkness, he languishes for want of her. Distraught, he returns home empty handed, without the maiden he would claim as his bride.
Day by day, he slips deeper into darkness, shunning the sun and all those who love him.
He longs ever for the steel edge of the knife to leave the mark of its sweet kisses upon his wrists, for how can he live without the swan maiden he has taken into his heart? Life is worthless without the lady upon the lake.
Surely he must have her, or die.
Chapter 5 - 05 Awaiting the Lady
"In winter when the fields are white... In spring when the woods are getting green... In summer when the days are long... In Autumn when the leaves are brown..."
- Humpty Dumpty's Recitation, by Lewis Carroll.
.
.
At least he decided he could live no longer alone.
He journeyed back to the lake that had held such a sweet promise, and waited. For many months, he waited. Winter came, and froze him. Spring came, and cheered him. Summer came, and burned him. The world around him changed from glistening white, to pale jade, to rich emerald life. Snow fell, rain fell, and the wind blew softly. Every minute was as an hour, every hour as a day, and every day as a year.
Autumn’s Eve came, and a silver swan landed upon the lake.
Chapter 6 - 06 Are You the One?
“Tell me are you the one? And tell me are you for real? ... And tell me who are you?”
-Are You the One? by Miranda Sex Garden
.
.
Maddened by love and longing, he flings himself out into the water of the lake. He burns with the cold of it. He is numb with it. His love sears his soul.
The silver swan starts in fright. The light on her wings is like pearl. Her eyes are wild, her wings move as if to fly away.
“Wait!”
Such pain. Such tender, gentle love. How can she deny him?
“Wait, please! Please...”
Slowly, she settles, her eyes upon him. She waits. This strange mortal creature, with his eyes bright with tears, his heart full of hurt... she will wait a little for him.
“Are you she? Are you the one? Long did I search for you- year upon year. Are you the one I have sought for so long?”
Chapter 7 - 07 Promises
“Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye...”
-A common children’s saying
.
.
He sloshes through the water.
His body is numb to the cold. His soul is on fire.
He does not feel it when he cuts his foot upon a jagged edged rock. The red blood is lost in the blackness of the water. He does not feel the pain.
His entire body cries out in pain and joy when she gazes upon him. He feels the weight of her regard, her curiosity, her every thought as it passes behind her eyes.
The Thain has never seen a swan with eyes like sea opals before.
“Please... if you are her... do not leave me alone to suffer and die... please...”
In her eyes, eyes like the ocean wrought into great, glittering jewels, he sees her promise just before she takes flight. As his wounded heart bleeds a little more, he clasps that promise to him like a healing balm, hoping he has not gone mad from love and grief.
Chapter 8 - 08 A Promise Kept
“How do I know this promise will be kept?”
- The White Witch, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
.
.
All the long day, he waits upon the shore, hoping she will come. He counts each second as the sun sets.
Night falls. His soul quails, for in his heart, he cannot believe in her promise.
Then... the trumpet of a swan. He turns towards heaven, and in the sky, moonlight glinting upon snowy plumage, are eight swans. The descend to the lake’s calm surface, and the white bird in their center dives beneath the water.
A wolf howls. The Thain looks toward the sound, then back.
His lady and love stands before him in the shallows of the lake.
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