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Rhyselle's Library  by Rhyselle

CROOKED:  Talking with Atto

"Atto?"

The fair-haired ellon who was leaning back in his chair gazing out the window that overlooked the family garden and the rolling green foothills of the Pelori beyond, a quill resting idle in the fingers of his right hand, turned his head towards the door and smiled at the small fair-haired elleth who peeked in through the open door of the sunlit study.

"Is it time for luncheon already, my Melinarė?" Glorfindel turned in his chair and laid down his pen before opening his arms in invitation.

"Ammė says soon but not yet." She scrambled up onto his lap and snuggled against him, batting one of his warrior braids out of the way so she could lean her head back against his shoulder.  "What are you doing, Atto?"

"Oh, just writing a letter to Lord Elrond and Lady Celebrian."  Glorfindel shifted her slightly so he could pick up the document and held it before her.  "Can you read it for me so I can know if I forgot to say anything?"

He listened as his daughter painstakingly sounded out the tengwar, enjoying the childish piping of her voice, and nestled his chin into the soft unruly curls on the top of her head.  Once Melinarė proudly recited the last word, he took the parchment back from her and laid it on the desk.

"You need to sign it now, Atto."

"Well, so I do." Glorfindel picked up the quill and, carefully loading the tip with ink, signed as Melinarė directed, allowing her to sprinkle the sand from the pounce shaker over the glistening letters before wiping the pen and dropping the quill into the rather lopsided pottery beaker that rested next to the inkwell.

Melinarė wrinkled her nose. "Atto, why do you keep that thing? It's… well… it's not… it's…"

"Ugly?" he suggested mildly, sitting back in his chair and turning her to face him.

She blushed a bit and nodded.  "It's crooked.  Uncle Sador made me squish up my crooked bowl and start over again until I got it right."

"Oh, I squished up a lot of clay before I could do it right too, but he made me keep this one just as it was and insisted that I glaze and fire it to keep."  Glorfindel smiled as the memory of that day came clear to his mind.

"But why?" Melinarė asked plaintively.  "It's… " She tilted her head endearingly to the side, glancing sidewise at the beaker, "It's got pretty colors but…."

"It's still all crooked."  He kissed her on the forehead.  "Well, dear one, it's to remind me to do something important."

"What, Atto?" He reached forward, tipped the quills out and put the beaker into her small hands.  The light from the window made the glaze shimmer, and the colors of the sunset—or sunrise, as he preferred to think of them—glowed warmly between them.

"To remember that something--or someone--doesn't need to be perfect to be loved."


A/N:  Written for Leaf and Stone's The Tolkien Tango Prompt: CROOKED. Thank you to Fiondil for letting me borrow Sador from his Valar-verse. :)





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