Pollination, by Tehta

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Title: Pollination
Author Name: tehta
Summary: So, why did Galadriel depart for the West ahead of her husband? This double-drabble might help us understand.
Prompt: The one ending with “After finishing this song Treebeard walked on silently through the silent woods." (That is where I got my original idea of including Ents in a ficlet!)
Warnings: Some character assassination of great and noble Elves.
Rating: Teen
Beta: eveiya


Galadriel was brushing her hair at her vanity table when Celeborn walked in and sat down at his. She heard the clink of removed braid-clasps.

“Well,” Celeborn said eventually. “It was nice to see Treebeard again, if only briefly.”

“Yes!” Galadriel smiled at this good, novel topic. “Shame that he is so unhappy, though.”

“He misses Fimbrethil.”

“Yes, evidently. Although… It is amusing, is it not? Remember how he used to grumble about her repetitive anecdotes?”

“Well, they did take a day or three to tell... Which might be too much even for an Ent, on the thousandth telling. Also… Did he not complain that they had both lost interest in… pollination?”

“Yes. But then, they had been married for a long time.”

Their eyes met. Galadriel saw Celeborn’s widen, and looked away quickly.

“Have you,” she said, “heard the poems he has written in her absence? They are rather fervent.” She set down her brush. “You know, Cirdan offered me a berth on the next boat to Valinor. I believe I shall accept.”

“I cannot possibly leave now. The woods--”

“I know.”

She knew she would not have to explain further. They had been married for a long time.




AUTHOR’S NOTE:
This is a follow-up to my previous entry, “It’s a Puzzle”, where I offered ficlets to the first people to solve the puzzle. with_rainfall asked me to write a ficlet about why Celeborn chose to stay behind for a while while Galadriel sailed. I do not actually find his decision all that odd, in context. (Galadriel was clearly done with Middle-earth after the destruction of the One Ring, and badly wanted to sail. Celeborn clearly had remaining business and attachments in Middle-earth, and knew he could see her again once he decided to follow. They’re immortals who have been married for thousands of years, and can look forward to thousands more; I think they can cope with a few centuries apart, even if it’ll be a bit lonely.)

Comments

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I can buy that. I loved the Ent and Entwife part! It does reach a point where one has heard all the stories also. There is another good reason for a few years apart. New stories!

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I actually did have them discuss the importance of gathering new anecdotes in an earlier draft, but I thought removing it sharpened the story. (Well, it could have worked if I had gone for a longer format, and fleshed out many things. But it's nice to keep things light sometimes!)

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have to add that the first draft also included them having sex while in Ent costume. Well, references to such an encounter, anyway. I removed THAT for being too silly for fandom.)

[suzll.livejournal.com]

NOT TOO SILLY OMG

...though i am admittedly not the best judge for that sort of thing...