Inspiring Drabbles
Assorted Drabbles: 14. What the Lightning Said
For the Tolkien_weekly Weather: Lightning challenge on LiveJournal. MEFA 2010 award winner - Third Place: Genres: Character Study: Gondor Drabbles.
What the Lightning Said: 20th June 3018, Minas Tirith
Sultry night hangs over the White City, hot and heavy as velvet. Every casement stands wide open yet even here, at the Citadel's pinnacle, not a breath of breeze stirs.
A tall, spare Man gazes Eastward, where distant lightning flickers violently over the unassailable wall of the Ephel Duath. His knuckles tighten on the window's edge. My sons...
He turns suddenly on his heel, the sword at his hip glinting for an instant in the lamplight, and striding to a small table at the room's centre lifts a midnight-blue cloth, revealing a perfect sphere of dark glass. I must see!....
***
Author's note:
20th June 3018 is the night on which the Ringwraiths under their Black Captain assail the Anduin bridge at Osgiliath, an attack which only Boromir, Faramir and two of their company survive. Title filched obliquely - imitation being the sincerest form, and all that - from Altariel.
