Old Tales of the Shire: Wife of the Thain

by LA Knight

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. Nominated for MEFA2008.

25. A Painful Task

Chapter Twenty-Four

A Painful Task

"Take back your heart... hitting hard, muscles twist in agony..."

- Dance Floor Metaphor, the Cruxshadows

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Her father is wrong- she can still weave.

Luckily, she is finished carding. It would've been vicious agony to pull brambles and burs from the fur, then card it so that it is clean and soft and combed.

Now she has help- her little brother, Nencarion, and her sister Nimlothel, are twisting the fur into little fibers so that she can, painfully, spin it into thread.

If her father finds out, he will have them whipped bloody.

As she spins, she can hear the bones of her fingers grinding together everytime she moves her hands, and tears roll down her cheeks. She bites her lip till it is crimson and wet with blood, but she keeps spinning.

"I love him," she says to herself. "I love him."

She spins, and when the spinning is done, she will weave.