The Lining of the World (LOTR drabble, PG)

[browngirl]

I wrote this, based on this poem *waves to sageness*, for danachan; I intended it for the "North" challenge at tolkien_weekly, but the references that would have qualified it ended up being edited out.

Title: The Lining of the World
Fandom: LOTR
Rating: PG
Warnings: Blood and death. Not grim, though.
Disclaimer: Tobold Banks may be mine, but hobbits aren't, nor is the rest of Middle-Earth.


Tobold Banks lies on bloody grass, eyes open to the sunny sky. Beyond him Captain Merry leads the lads after three Ruffians; beside him two more lie where they fell. Odd and yet not, Toby muses, his life soaking into the soft earth, that six months in those Lockholes didn't kill him but one gut-stab will?

Well, thereby its giver lost his greasy head, one less Ruffian to trouble the Shire, and if Toby might lie here forever, all he loves saved from harm... the sky shimmers open, impossible stars flaring, and his final breath is a laugh of wonder.

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

awww...Oh, this is just heart-breaking! Poor Tobold!!

[aprilkat.livejournal.com]

Oh, how sad and how transcendant.

[katarik.livejournal.com]

"Sad and transcendent" is a lovely way to describe this. "Joyous," too. Not happy in the least, but *joyous*? Oh, yes.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

This is lovely, Ruby. A perfect drabble, and a wonderful, inside look into the ultimate sacrifice by one who died for the Shire. It has resonance for many, I think, and this one will stay with me for a long while. Thank you for sharing it.

Catherine

[danachan.livejournal.com]

Oh Toby. Oh. Toby. I.

I feel broken open, for I know Toby and I would not have ever thought that this as his end. But the joy he experiences at it, at the very end... perhaps that is what breaks me, fully, and I sit here sobbing with great gulping breaths as I comment.

I'm okay but not fully okay. This is going to stay with me for a while, and I want to thank you for that.

(For all it breaks my heart.)

[sophinisba]

Oh that is so great. It gave me chills.

[dreamflower]

Oh my! This is amazing! *sniff* Poor Tobold!