Rowan — Refuge, by Himring
Nov. 27th, 2024 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tolkienshortfanworksAuthor: Himring
Title: Rowan--Refuge
Characters: original character (early victim of Saruman's breeding experiments); Orofarne (one of Quickbeam's beloved rowans)
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: ficlet
Source / Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: Teens
Warnings: non-con implied (probably canonical); high levels of angst
Word Count: c. 285 words
Summary: A victim of one of Saruman's attempts to interbreed orcs and humans becomes fully aware of the reality of her situation and manages to escape into the borders of Fangorn. The pursuit is close behind and she is panicking.
Author notes: For the November challenge (refuge; tree sounds)
She scrambled up the slope and in among the trees. Driven as much by the horror of her overwhelming realization as by fear of her pursuers, she stumbled blindly onward. There was no plan; she was only running from unbearable existence. Disoriented, she ran straight into a tree trunk. The bruising impact left her a little stunned. The old rowan tree should have been easy enough to dodge around; not that there was hope of escape whichever way she turned. The Old Man had trackers on her trail. Beyond rational thought, she started pounding against the bark with her fists, as if it was a locked door or a wall that might yet give way.
Orofarne, already half-awake, was startled out of its leafy dreams by the furious knocking. Someone in need, seeking shelter? Orofarne opened a crack, just wide enough for her, and she tumbled in, feeling it close after her.
The trackers milled around at a loss among the trees, unable to guess where she might have gone, even under the repeated lashing of their overseers. There were no tracks, no clues. It was as if the grove had swallowed her up. Only, if any of her pursuers had known how to listen to trees, the voice of one of the rowans had changed.
Orofarne was softly singing to a desperate young half-orc in its close embrace: hush-sh, hush-sh-sh, hush-sh-sh-sh.
But all they felt was the gathering resentment of Fangorn and they had become far too used to ignoring that. Even Saruman could not detect how this subject of his experiments had eluded him, but he knew well how to bear a grudge and nevertheless henceforth nursed a strong dislike of rowan trees.
A/N: I think Saruman is probably not really implied by Tolkien to have targeted rowans more than other kinds of tree, but I thought it would be interesting to explore this as a what-if. I also was thinking of this as a kind of inversion of the scene with Old Man Willow (and also of those hints about the Huorns and the orcs). As such, I hope it doesn't invoke too much claustrophobia; I was unsure whether to warn for it.
Title: Rowan--Refuge
Characters: original character (early victim of Saruman's breeding experiments); Orofarne (one of Quickbeam's beloved rowans)
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: ficlet
Source / Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: Teens
Warnings: non-con implied (probably canonical); high levels of angst
Word Count: c. 285 words
Summary: A victim of one of Saruman's attempts to interbreed orcs and humans becomes fully aware of the reality of her situation and manages to escape into the borders of Fangorn. The pursuit is close behind and she is panicking.
Author notes: For the November challenge (refuge; tree sounds)
She scrambled up the slope and in among the trees. Driven as much by the horror of her overwhelming realization as by fear of her pursuers, she stumbled blindly onward. There was no plan; she was only running from unbearable existence. Disoriented, she ran straight into a tree trunk. The bruising impact left her a little stunned. The old rowan tree should have been easy enough to dodge around; not that there was hope of escape whichever way she turned. The Old Man had trackers on her trail. Beyond rational thought, she started pounding against the bark with her fists, as if it was a locked door or a wall that might yet give way.
Orofarne, already half-awake, was startled out of its leafy dreams by the furious knocking. Someone in need, seeking shelter? Orofarne opened a crack, just wide enough for her, and she tumbled in, feeling it close after her.
The trackers milled around at a loss among the trees, unable to guess where she might have gone, even under the repeated lashing of their overseers. There were no tracks, no clues. It was as if the grove had swallowed her up. Only, if any of her pursuers had known how to listen to trees, the voice of one of the rowans had changed.
Orofarne was softly singing to a desperate young half-orc in its close embrace: hush-sh, hush-sh-sh, hush-sh-sh-sh.
But all they felt was the gathering resentment of Fangorn and they had become far too used to ignoring that. Even Saruman could not detect how this subject of his experiments had eluded him, but he knew well how to bear a grudge and nevertheless henceforth nursed a strong dislike of rowan trees.
A/N: I think Saruman is probably not really implied by Tolkien to have targeted rowans more than other kinds of tree, but I thought it would be interesting to explore this as a what-if. I also was thinking of this as a kind of inversion of the scene with Old Man Willow (and also of those hints about the Huorns and the orcs). As such, I hope it doesn't invoke too much claustrophobia; I was unsure whether to warn for it.
