Title: After the Dragon
Fandom: Silmarillion
Challenge: Brave
Other prompt:
Rating: G
Length: 200
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: An extra scene for King Fingon's Menagerie which goes just before the end of the section "Meeting in the Middle" but can hopefully stand alone.
Thanks go to Zhie, Morgynleri & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: After his first encounter with Glaurung, Fingon reflects on what it means to be brave.


Brave was not the same as valiant. Fingon had known that for a very long time. He liked to think he was brave, and not merely foolhardy. Valiant he left for other people's assessment.

(One of his people was even now composing a song about the fight with the dragon. Of course they were. Maybe he should make one of his own, warn people not to let the wretched thing breathe on one. His chest still ached from that fume.)

The expected rain tapped lightly at the canvas overhead, a pleasantly damp breeze cooled his face and ruffled his hair. The Girabbit shifted to tuck it's nose under Fingon's ear. He breathed in rain-scented air and felt the ache finally ease and retreat.

Brave, foolhardy, brash, or valiant, the self-named dragon had been faced, and they had learned something for good or ill. Some people, however strange, had been rescued from the foe, and an outpost destroyed. No one had been killed. His was the worst injury, and that was passing. His and Celegorm's people had things well under control. He could rest now.

When Celegorm looked in later, Fingon was soundly asleep, the girabbit snoring gently under his chin.