Tolkien Fan Fiction
| 23 |
| The road through Lossarnach |
Prompt: Rhosgobel: Write a story or poem or create artwork using one or more animals as symbols, omens, or metaphors. Use associations and meanings from any culture or source you wish (e.g., Celtic, Native American, Biblical). |
| For days, they encounter none but March hares boxing – Lossarnach's scattered farmland. And the clever hares stay beyond stone's throw. Meanwhile, Sunny's dragging, pained step and his own stomach's growls fill Ailos's ears 'til all his thought is hunger: though hare-hearted they've neither swiftness nor cunning! Nor food – after three days scarcely eating, Ailos remembers the generous hare of legend, who fed guests himself, and wants to cry or hit someone – mostly Sunny. He nearly does when Sunny wakes him two days later: “Na ahn zekhatisetokh!” “What?” Sunny points. At their feet lies salvation in a kerchief: lunch! |
Ailos and “Sunny” have caught up with “Heaven in the meantime,” though I didn't have the word-count to squeeze in anything more explicit than unexpected free food upon waking. To fill the prompt, I was looking for more timid, quick-in-flight type animals, and came up with “bunny.” But bunny-gods aren't very interesting or frequent; much more interesting is the hare, who is said to be cunning, fierce, brave, and ever-resourceful, and because of that nearly scuttled the “timid and quick” symbolism. Finally, though, the Internet came through for me: the story that Ailos thinks of was borrowed from a story of one of the Buddha's incarnations, found here. |