All Shall Fade by Narya

[narya_flame]

B2MeM Prompt and Category: Prompt No. 7, Initial Prompts
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Character study
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Characters: Mîm
Pairings: N/A
Creator’s Notes (optional): "But the songs wither, and the world worsens." ("The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm's Son")
Summary: An old dwarf gloats and grieves in Nargothrond.

Stale air blew through the Elf-king's halls. It tasted of sulphur and stone and gold. Mîm clung to the shadows, wary, alert – yet each passage was silent, every cavern an empty black yawn. Glee sharp as poison surged through him. Where now was Finrod, the valiant and wise? Where the bright-armoured warriors and sweet-voiced maids? Dead, he thought, and he chuckled.

The echo scuttled around the cave. Dead like your sons. Dead like the beautiful boy you betrayed.

He moaned.

I am the last. I will die, and we will fade from history and song.

Alone in the dark, Mîm knelt and wept.

Comments

[kayleearafinwiel]

I really feel sorry for Mim here! What a tragedy, to be the very last of one's kind :(

[narya_flame]

I feel sorry for him too - I know he did some terrible things, but so did most characters in the Silmarillion!

[shirebound]

*sniff* Beautiful and heartbreaking.

[narya_flame]

Thank you so much!

[ex_mithrial116]

A few choice words, so that now I want to go and re-read Mîm's tragic tale.

[narya_flame]

Ahh, thanks Mithrial, I'm pleased it worked for you.

[independence1776]

I like this.

[narya_flame]

Thank you! :)

[dawn_felagund]

This is sad but also ... satisfying? That he gloats over the deaths of others--including innocents--only to be reminded of his own losses.

I have to say again that you have such a knack for stronger imagery: the taste of the caverns, the "empty black yawn," the scuttling echoes. Beautiful.

[narya_flame]

Thank you, I really appreciate that :) I actually do feel sorry for him, even after what he did. Another victim of the tragedies of the First Age.

[hhimring]

What a lonely and bitter home-coming to ancestral halls, however he hated the elves of Nargothrond!
And he will die even sooner than he thinks, too...

[narya_flame]

Yes, he will...I do feel a little sorry for him, even after what he did. Thank you for commenting, Himring :)

[zdenka]

I like this a lot. It's a great use of the prompt. I like Mim's changes of mood and how you convey the tragedy of his fate.

[narya_flame]

Thank you so much! I really enjoyed writing it; Mim isn't a character I'd normally pick to focus on, but the prompt just made me think of him.