Fic Rec Fridays 2018 - part 31

lordnelson100
Yep. It’s been brewing for a while.

Eight chapters, 16,000 words.

Post-war Legolas/Gimli in Mirkwood. And Thranduil. SO much Thranduil.

Gonna start posting this thing to Ao3 by tonight. To preview:

Title:

A Slow Thaw in Winter

Summary: Post-war blues, homecomings, culture clash, sex, epic family fights, Durin family history, shut up about about Thorin, nice Elven in-laws, Woodland Realm aesthetics, Dwarven gifts, horses, brigands, tempers are lost, Thranduil: No! Thranduil: Yes!

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lordnelson100
And the first two bits are up, the Prologue and first proper Chapter!

LINK

Preview:

My father, being rather magnificent in his own style, and much cherishing our Sindar heritage and his descent from the high court of Thingol, forefather of our people, was often frustrated by the carelessness and light-seeming of his younger son. Whether about dress, or other things. And so in this, and in many matters, they were long at odds.

Their great dispute was always how and whether we of the Woodland Realm should relate to the world outside our borders. Thranduil sought ever to protect us, both against enemies, and to preserve the rare and ancient treasure of our culture. Legolas had the heart of a pilgrim: he thought our fate would rest in our alliances with the other peoples of the world.

But more than that: he loved and treasured the many peoples he met in his wide travels, high Dúnedain and simple horsemen of the Rohan steppes, halfling adventurers and citymen of Gondor, wise wizards and mysterious Ents, and of course, the Dwarves. He had a taste for strangeness, and he would come to live a life that seemed very strange to many. Strange, and wonderful.

Well, back to the morning when he returned from the Quest of the Ring.

My father, I am afraid, had stored up an armory of bitter and unhappy words within himself, in the long wait for Legolas to come home.

It was a great talent of the King, the crafting of clever, angry sayings. He could out with speeches that cut and carved like the keenest of knives, leaving wounds that lingered on through the years, etched in the memory of the listener. It was not a happy gift to own.

On A03

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This has been complete for quite some time, and deserves to be read by all and sundry.

For instance, I'd like to tempt you to enjoy beautiful prose, observant characterization, wonderful OCs and a well-construed plot. Not to mention a perfect read-in-one-sitting length. (It's a skill, you know, to tell a complete story in less than 20k.)

And Gimli has all the best lines, as usual. And Thranduil is being very Thranduil, but it's actually a treat. (Although Legolas does not necessarily appreciate this.) And meeting the family is... complicated, as it should be. (It all works out in the end.)

[Text above line copied over from the author's original Tumblr post.]