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Beren’s strongest memory of his great aunt Andreth was straightening up as she passed, trying to look diligent and well-behaved. Didn’t work, most of the time. When he was small he’d genuinely believed she knew everything – and hadn’t started to think of her as anything but a force not to be trifled with, until he was nine.
She had finished telling another story around the fire. The little ones were still awake, so a chilling true story about the things that came out at night was always useful. The more careful they were of the dark, the more aware of what might happen – the better they’d deal with it when it did. Such was the way of the House of Bëor.
As if to punctuate the tale, something swooped out of the night, skimming the head of the youngest – who screamed, causing everyone around her to reel back with shrieks as well.
‘Calm down!’ Andreth snapped. They did, surprisingly quickly, except for the youngest who couldn’t stop sobbing. ‘Look around you, keep your wits – what was the purpose of the story I told not ten seconds ago?’
‘It’s just a bat,’ said one of Beren’s cousins, soothingly to the little girl. But Beren had spotted it, fluttering above the fire.
‘It’s not, look – it’s the biggest moth I’ve ever seen!’
The tiny girl sobbed at that, which made her elder sister roll her eyes.
‘Bats sometimes bite, but moths can’t hurt you. Stop it!’
Wanting to be helpful, Beren got to his feet, circled the fire, and reached out to catch the moth between his hands. To his surprise, he got it on the first try. Probably due to its size – it felt strange and fragile, flapping between his hands.
‘There. It’s gone,’ he told the little girl.
‘Now what are you going to do with it?’ asked his cousin, unimpressed.
‘Umm…’ thinking ahead had never been one of Beren’s strengths. ‘I don’t know…let it go, away from the fire?’
‘Walking away from the fire? After the story we were told?’ said his cousin, in what Beren felt was an unnecessarily superior tone for someone younger than him. He glanced at Andreth – but for once she didn’t look disapproving.
‘It’ll come back, anyway,’ she said, eyes fixed on his hands. Her mouth twitched into a wry, humourless smile. ‘I suppose they’re foolish like that.’
‘What…what shall I do then?’ he asked her, after a pause to frantically think of the right answer.
‘Child, if I knew that…’
A few of the others gaped at the suggestion there was something Andreth Saelind didn’t know. But a few, like Beren, were caught by the distant look in her eyes, and the way she gently reached to part his hands, and free the moth.
It flew back towards the fire.