Barren
Disclaimer: Tolkien's ground. Plants growing in Tolkien's ground are probably his too.
A/N: I felt sorry for that poor, barren piece of ground, OK? So I wrote this…
"…Ever black and bare was the ground where the beast was burned."- Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
In spring small flowers would make their shoots in me, peering daintily through the cover of dying winter grass and growing summer grass.
I enjoyed many things, the sun seeping through the foliage covering me; the breeze wafting through my grasses. In winter I would conceal the dormant ones, nurturing them in my bosom and learning their secrets as they slept, waiting for the sun and the day they would begin to grow.
And so it was since the Beginning, when first *Kementari blessed me and taught me the ways of the earth. So it was for many ages, waiting in darkness until the Moon and Sun set sail, when all the quiescent things sheltering in me finally reached forth with shy tendrils and grew into many and beautiful things. Few beings there were to disturb me until the Westerners came and carved their great cities in the stone.
When the Westerners had prospered for a time, and the Shadow in the East returned, there came a great battle, and my foliage was crushed beneath careless feet; stained with blood. Then the Nazgul came and I knew it would not be long until all the things I had known and loved would be taken from me.
The beast fell dead, its foul blood seeping into my goodness and robbing me of my blessings. The grass was dying, the flowers wilting and already decaying. And when they burnt the beast which lay upon me, I knew I was doomed.
Thereafter nothing would grow in my cursed soil, and I remained barren, burnt daily by the sun, nevermore to know the feeling of the breeze whispering through my grasses…
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*Kementari: Queen of the Earth, another name for Yavanna, one of the Valar (Gods).