Title: The Start of a Feast
Author: Hyel, bitchypochi@yahoo.com
Pairing: Ungoliant/Melian
Rating: R for violence.
Summary: AU for Silmarillion; what might have happened
if Melian's hope had faltered and crashed while she
struggled to hold the Girdle around her realm
Disclaimer: Silmarillion and all characters therein
are property of the Tolkien estate.
Warning: Character death, horror. 
Authors Note: This was inspired by the Library of
Moria's ever amusing random pairing generator.


The land was dying. She could feel it under her feet,
in the small rumbles passing through the packed earth.
The grass was prickly and yellow. There was hardly any
left; her toes touched bare earth. 

There was no more hope left. All tales she heard in
the wind now spoke of endings. She would look at a
newborn babe and see old eyes, near to death at the
start of what should be immortality. That was more
than she could bear. 

And she knew what she was going to do.

"I'm sorry, Elbereth," she whispered as she walked
through her Girdle. 

The treeless waste around her realm had spread since
last night, like a stain. She could still feel the
vibration of the Girdle on her back, her own magic,
which would soon be extinguished. 

The stars seemed muted. They were still there, she
knew, but they were too far to help her now. But the
darkness was close. It had been whispering in her
dreams and in the air, and she knew it - knew her - a
bedmate more constant than her husband, for she was
always there when Melian closed her eyes. 

She was waiting for her to speak.

"...Come then," Melian whispered. 

For a moment all was silent. Then the spider walked
out from the edge of shadow, bringing it with her,
pillowing like a cloak in the wind. 

Melian heard a whisper of cracking joints as Ungoliant
reached front legs towards her. Her eyes reflected
nothing but silence and shadow. Then stings buried
shallowly into soft maia flesh, and she was pulled,
slowly and gently, into an embrace. She closed her
eyes as she felt the blood dribble down her back, and
the stink of Ungoliant's breath wafting against her
face. 

A sinewy appendix pressed against her mouth, and with
a last shiver she opened her lips. Ungoliant plunged
her suction tube down into her throat.

Melian whimpered, and her fingers slipped against hard
cold skin.

_I'm sorry._


-end-