I’ve been so busy that I’ve only just had time to catch up on some of the challenges. So there’s a few here.

Title: Afternoon Tea
Word Count: 100
Characters: Hopefully you can figure that out…
Notes: Started out for the introduction challenge, but since nobody really got introduced, don’t know if it fits.

Afternoon Tea

“More tea, Gandalf?”

“Mmm hmm. I must say, this is quite the party.”

“Too many bothersome relatives. But the younger crowd has some spunk.”

“Tell me about the quiet one in the corner?”

“Frodo. My nephew. His folks drowned a couple of years back. Smart lad. Been teaching him some Elvish, he’s got a knack for it.”

“There’s a look of the Eldar about him…”

“From his mother. Folk say she was fairy-born, but that’s nonsense. He’s pure Baggins. I’ve been thinking about inviting him to live with me.”

“Hmm… I think, old friend, that might be a wise idea.”

Title: Lost and Found
Word Count: 100
Characters: Gollum
Notes: Once again for the introduction challenge, but it’s more of an exercise of getting the voices down.

Lost and Found

It calls to us, precious. We lost it and it calls.

Nasty orcs takes us and hurts us. But we escapes, just like we escapes from stupid elves and their ropes.

So we wanders, lost. Forever lost without the precious. The bright eye burns, so we hides in dark mountains.

And we finds it, precious. We hears noises and hops for sweet meats. Then….The precious. So smooth. So beautiful. ‘Round the neck of thieving hobbit. Robbers! Another Baggins….

But he’s surrounded by big men. And we remembers. Fire and threats. So we watches and waits.

The precious will be ours!

Title: Taught to Love
Characters: Eowyn, Faramir
Notes: For the teaching challenge

Taught to Love

Absorbed, she did not notice his approach, until his hand folded over hers.

“You are troubled.”

She did not reply. Then, “My lord, I fear… I thought I loved Aragorn, but it was shadow. What now? Do I enter a pledge with thee, unsure if this too will dissolve into mere fancy? How do I know what my heart feels when it deceives me?”

“You do not yet know your heart. Each day, I shall teach you anew to love me. Though I need no lessons to know that you, White Lady, shall always be mine.”

She smiled, comforted.

Title: Reminders
Characters: Denethor, Finduilas, Faramir
Notes: For the “Mistaken Identity” Challenge.

Reminders

“My Lord, what shall I do with the babe?”

He glanced briefly at the squalling infant, mottled skin still damp from birth, pinched in discomfort. The birth had not been easy; for long moments, the child had laid limp and blue in the midwife’s arms. Then, lusty cries, deep gasps drawing life. None had noticed, through the tension, Finduilas’s own breath fade in turn, her reservoirs of strength given that he might live. She died sighing his name. Faramir.

The child quieted and opened cornflower blue eyes wide. His wife’s eyes, the same reproach.

Denethor turned. “Take him from my sight.”