Ship
She sighs, arching her back in an exhausted stretch, rubbing the weariness from her eyes with numb, callused hands.
She has been working all day at her loom, weaving the pure white sail with care and love.
She rises, stretching her arms up to the sky, as high as they can go, before meandering down through the warm soft sand towards the group of neri laboring lovingly over the ship they are building together on the sand, pitcher of cold pure water balanced on her hip with a long, slender arm.
"When this ship is done, our fleet will be complete." sighs her brother, almost regretfully as she hands him a cloth dripping with the cool water to refresh himself with.
"Oh, look, it's Airesare!" cries a dark-haired ner, looking up from his bucket of paint and smiling excitedly at her.
"How is that sail coming, girly?" another ner asks her amicably, sidling up and putting an arm around her small frame.
"Nearly there. Amme and I have been exhausting ourselves over it."
He smiles, laying his head on her shoulder with satisfaction.
"We have built ourselves a fleet of swan-ships to last us for eternity." Olwe's eldest son, prince of Alqualonde, sighs happily, patting the half-finished prow of the ship fondly.
"Yes." she agrees, blushing with pride at their accomplishment.
It's amazing, she thinks now, how fast all of that can be ripped away.
How fast it can all be destroyed.
This one was inspired by that part in the Silmarillion at the Kinslaying of Alqualonde, where Tolkien laments the loss of the great fleet of swanships, built lovingly by the men with sails woven with care by their wives and daughters. That part always made me so sad, at not only the loss of the swanships, but at the loss of all the love, the family, the community, the happy little civilization that could so quickly be destroyed.
Sorry for the angst, but it's hard to write anything about the Silmarillion without getting angsty, lol...
Anyway, please review and have a stellar day!