Snippet: LotR, Gimli
23 September
So brighidestone wanted "drabbles or comment porn", which I don't usually do, as I generally "should be working on something else."
But I did anyway, and I'm re-producing it here, because the *last* time I did this (which wasn't in the last 12 months, I think) I didn't, and never found the link again, which is just annoying when you decide that's exactly the bit of story you need to fill up a gap.
Anyway.
***
They stopped again, late in the day, and again Legolas went to the crest of the ridge while Aragorn and Gimli stayed below with the two mounts. Gimli paced, as best he could in the small space between the beasts and the rise.
"Rest, my friend. The journey will be long yet, though we have these gifts to ease the way."
"It is no easier for me," snapped the dwarf. "You and the elf may find your perches relaxing, but not I. Indeed -"
He broke off as Legolas called down, his voice sharp. "All the Mark can hear you, friend Gimli, will you not be a little more silent? Aragorn, come see. There is smoke ahead."
Aragorn scrambled up the hillock, leaving Gimli to crane his head and mutter into his beard ends. Against the fading sky, both Aragorn and Legolas were a piece with the stones.
If they fall, it will be their own affair, he thought, and turned to begin pacing again. A touch brushed against his shoulder, all unheralded, and the dwarf spun about, his beard floating on the wind of his motion and the curve of his ax a silver arc in the twilight -
- that stopped, quivering, a hand's breath from the grey nose of the smaller horse. Arod snorted and bent his head to sniff the metal. All along the honed edge his muzzle went. Then Aragorn's mount stepped forward and extended his nose as well. Amazed, Gimli watched as the horses first sniffed, then lipped at the bright metal.
"Hold now, foolish beasts," Gimli hissed, mindful to keep his voice low. "That ax has cut the wind into a thousand fragments, and cloved the roots of mountains. You will do yourselves an injury!"
When he lowered the ax, however, they stepped forward, following the metal.
"Have you no sense left to you? That is steel, and no fodder for such as you. Here," and Gimli hung the ax on his back. Swiftly - for the horses seemed intent on licking whatever of the ax they could reach - he bent and ripped up handfuls of the grass at his feet.
"Here, this, not my blade, is for you." He thrust the grass into the horses' very faces, fingers tightly clenched around the bundles of fodder.
First Arod, then Hasufel tugged at the proffered grass. It seemed only instants before the grass was gone, and Gimli bent to pluck more.
For all the size of their teeth, the horses of Rohan were passing gentle in their feeding. Gimli felt the strands of grass whisked away by a touch lighter than a drift of dust on a stone. The horses were gentle in their sounds as well - quiet snorts and snufflings, scarcely louder than the grind of their teeth.
They were on the third handful, with both horses standing so close that Gimli feared for his toes, when stones rattled down the slope behind him.
"Friend Gimli, what are you doing to the horses?" Gimli dropped the last of the grass. As he did so, Arod stepped forward, nipping after the scattered leaves. Gimli danced backwards, brushing his hands on his jerkin. He was brought up short abruptly by the elf's slender form.
"Pray, do not poison them, for we have far yet to go." The elf's words were stern, but Gimli's ears heard a note of laughter.
"I do no such thing. It is just that they were growing faint, waiting so long. As have I. Have we a heading, then, or has our quarry slipped away?" For he did not care to speak more on the horses, or what he had been doing with them.
Aragorn slid down the slope then, and said, "We have a course, yes - more to the west now. And we will be pressed to make time in the dark."
Legolas said, "Let us be off, then. Gimli, are you still with me?"
"Unless you have some magic by which we can fly, and not ride, I am." But when he was firmly set on Arod's back, he took care with the set of his heels, and did not, as Legolas had said, cling so as to distress the horse.
So brighidestone wanted "drabbles or comment porn", which I don't usually do, as I generally "should be working on something else."
But I did anyway, and I'm re-producing it here, because the *last* time I did this (which wasn't in the last 12 months, I think) I didn't, and never found the link again, which is just annoying when you decide that's exactly the bit of story you need to fill up a gap.
Anyway.
***
They stopped again, late in the day, and again Legolas went to the crest of the ridge while Aragorn and Gimli stayed below with the two mounts. Gimli paced, as best he could in the small space between the beasts and the rise.
"Rest, my friend. The journey will be long yet, though we have these gifts to ease the way."
"It is no easier for me," snapped the dwarf. "You and the elf may find your perches relaxing, but not I. Indeed -"
He broke off as Legolas called down, his voice sharp. "All the Mark can hear you, friend Gimli, will you not be a little more silent? Aragorn, come see. There is smoke ahead."
Aragorn scrambled up the hillock, leaving Gimli to crane his head and mutter into his beard ends. Against the fading sky, both Aragorn and Legolas were a piece with the stones.
If they fall, it will be their own affair, he thought, and turned to begin pacing again. A touch brushed against his shoulder, all unheralded, and the dwarf spun about, his beard floating on the wind of his motion and the curve of his ax a silver arc in the twilight -
- that stopped, quivering, a hand's breath from the grey nose of the smaller horse. Arod snorted and bent his head to sniff the metal. All along the honed edge his muzzle went. Then Aragorn's mount stepped forward and extended his nose as well. Amazed, Gimli watched as the horses first sniffed, then lipped at the bright metal.
"Hold now, foolish beasts," Gimli hissed, mindful to keep his voice low. "That ax has cut the wind into a thousand fragments, and cloved the roots of mountains. You will do yourselves an injury!"
When he lowered the ax, however, they stepped forward, following the metal.
"Have you no sense left to you? That is steel, and no fodder for such as you. Here," and Gimli hung the ax on his back. Swiftly - for the horses seemed intent on licking whatever of the ax they could reach - he bent and ripped up handfuls of the grass at his feet.
"Here, this, not my blade, is for you." He thrust the grass into the horses' very faces, fingers tightly clenched around the bundles of fodder.
First Arod, then Hasufel tugged at the proffered grass. It seemed only instants before the grass was gone, and Gimli bent to pluck more.
For all the size of their teeth, the horses of Rohan were passing gentle in their feeding. Gimli felt the strands of grass whisked away by a touch lighter than a drift of dust on a stone. The horses were gentle in their sounds as well - quiet snorts and snufflings, scarcely louder than the grind of their teeth.
They were on the third handful, with both horses standing so close that Gimli feared for his toes, when stones rattled down the slope behind him.
"Friend Gimli, what are you doing to the horses?" Gimli dropped the last of the grass. As he did so, Arod stepped forward, nipping after the scattered leaves. Gimli danced backwards, brushing his hands on his jerkin. He was brought up short abruptly by the elf's slender form.
"Pray, do not poison them, for we have far yet to go." The elf's words were stern, but Gimli's ears heard a note of laughter.
"I do no such thing. It is just that they were growing faint, waiting so long. As have I. Have we a heading, then, or has our quarry slipped away?" For he did not care to speak more on the horses, or what he had been doing with them.
Aragorn slid down the slope then, and said, "We have a course, yes - more to the west now. And we will be pressed to make time in the dark."
Legolas said, "Let us be off, then. Gimli, are you still with me?"
"Unless you have some magic by which we can fly, and not ride, I am." But when he was firmly set on Arod's back, he took care with the set of his heels, and did not, as Legolas had said, cling so as to distress the horse.