rangerthings

A triple drabble written for SWG’s 6/6/2026 instadrabble session using the prompt ‘but here I go again / back the way I came / into the coldest / into the coldest water.’ Also on AO3.

Voronwë nearly drowned as a child.

Most of his early youth he spent on the water, sailing with his mother and uncle beneath the warmth of the young sun. Voronwë was slow to walk compared to other children his age; his mother never watched him closely, there was nowhere he could go. He should have been safe.

When he fell, it happened so quickly there wasn’t time to cry out before he hit the surface.

The frigid water sent his small body into shock in an instant. His muscles seized, his mouth opened to gasp for air and pulled seawater into his lungs.

When Voronwë looked back on that day, he always struggled to parse the truth of what happened next from the false memories conjured up by childhood nightmares. What he knew for certain was that in one moment the walls were closing in, the glittering sunlight receding as he was pulled ever deeper into Belegaer’s grasping depths, and in the next he lay sprawled upon a rock half a mile from the sailboat, coughing and retching and wondrously, incomprehensibly alive.

A miracle, his mother said when she found him an hour later, frantic in her shock and relief. A blessing, proof of the mercy of Ulmo in all his unknowable wisdom. This brought her comfort, so Voronwë let her believe it, though the answer never quite satisfied him.

Centuries later, the ocean took him once again into its frigid arms; and again it spat him back out, unharmed, shaking and waterlogged upon the shores of abandoned Vinyamar. Then the next morning there came Tuor, bright-eyed and shining, a miracle unto himself, and only then did Voronwë believe. Only then did he understand.

Tolkien Siblings Week rides again!

Immeasurably happy to announce that Tolkien Siblings Week, your annual hub for fanworks of all types centered on all sibling sets in all Tolkien works, is returning for its second year in fall of 2026! It will be running from the same dates as last year (November 23rd-29th), and operating on the same guidelines.

In terms of logistics, optional prompts will be released on June 23rd, leaving you a bountiful five months in which to brainstorm and work your creative magic. An ao3 collection will go live in the last few weeks leading up to the event; we ask that if you plan to add to the collection, you hold back on posting your work until then (although sharing previews or snippets is just fine).

Not much to say at the moment beyond that, except that it's great to be back, and we're hoping to welcome many new faces this year among our beloved returners. In the meantime, any burning questions can be sent via the askbox, messages, or in replies. And all reblogs are of course awfully appreciated as we work to get the word out ♡

Much love till the 23rd! We hope you're as excited as we are.

— mod @riding-with-the-wild-hunt

a double drabble written for the 6/6/2026 SWG Instadrabble session for the prompt: Green, Gems, Sunlight, Idle

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Celebrían had never been content to be idle—even the much needed rest of Lórien had chafed at her after a time, as she missed Elrond, missed her children, missed her home. It would be easier to bear, this long separation, if she could just be doing something.

Now she sat on a beach outside of Avallónë with her uncle, watching the sunlight play on the waves. Across the bay the gem-strewn beaches of Alqualondë glimmered like rainbows, red and green and blue and gold. “Well, what do you want to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She stretched out her feet so her toes just brushed the waves as they whispered up over the soft sand. “Well, I want to go home.”

Finrod hummed quiet acknowledgment. That was why Celebrían loved him most—she could say things like that, and know herself understood, know that he would not try to convince her that it was better there, that she should try her best to put Middle-earth behind her.

“There are many here who remember Imladris,” Finrod said finally, “who miss it.”

“You think I should build it anew, here?”

three hunters ↔️ three kings swap

bonus (who put these idiots in charge):