Long Lost Leaves - part II

[feawen]

Seeing Aelfwine call over to her Nami stood up and went over to the two humans. Settling down next to them, her feet out streached towards the fire.

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf listened to Nixie, and curiosity awoke when he heard of a second traveller, whom had returned home.. Strange it seemed, and he was eager to hear why. It was an unfortunate business to come so far, beyond the Misty Mountains and into the lush Greenwood Forest, only to return.
Waiting to hear Radaghast speak, Quickleaf lay back on the grass, his silver hair soaking the dew that hung on the tip of every straw. And the sun hit his face, Quickleaf content to get a moment of peace among his companions again. No cold underground, no lost friends.

[Curufin]

Abasi shrugged nonchalantly at Ellysa's apology, not quite understanding exactly why she felt the need to do so. The years that he had lived had made his patience near infinite, and if the others - including the seth'enati felt that they needed to search for Mysteries, then it was not his place to object.

As long as they did not ask him to follow, that was.

With a fluid movement, Abasi stood, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at her for a long while.

'You are too soft,' he said simply - the words a statement of fact, not a question or a challenge. 'You need not constantly apologize.'

[Mari]

Ellysa got a slight twinkle in her eye before replying: "Sorry Abasi, I'll try not to apologize as much."
She became serious again and the thought that Abasi might not appreciate cheekiness flashed through her mind. Abruptly she changed the subject and looked towards Tabril.
"Will you two join us for breakfast? Or can I get you anything? Maybe you could tell me about your weapons. I've never seen such weapons before though I've seen many different kinds from different races."

[Willow Oran]

After waking Haldis had immediately gone about ridding herself of the remaining grimes gathered the day before, and by the time she exited her tent she found her compnaions gathered around the cooking fire, apparently greeting yet another elf.

Haldis stopped a moment, bemused. This business of acquiring new traveling companions at the rate of an elf a day was getting faintly ridiculous. But it seemed Radagast had already accepted this newcomer so that was that as far as Haldis was concerned.

Not yet hungry she spotted Ellysa with the first two randomly acquired elves and went to join them sitting quietly beside Tabril.

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"So...." said Borin. "What now?"

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf, waking up from hazy day-dreaming, heard Borin's voice balloon into the air. The blindness made him keen at sounds and smells, but confusingly enough forced him behind a veil of sorts, as if Quickleaf stood watching his companions behind a vast white curtain, the sounds of their voices playing like shadows before his eyes. Raising his hand, and smiling contently, Quickleaf remarked, "I have an announcement!" and he put his right hand on Aerin's shoulder, getting shakily up, "Nami... this is a particularly fine sample of mushroom! Much pleased dear elven maid!"

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine couldn't help but smile at Quickleaf's "announcement".

[feawen]

Nami, mushroom half to her mouth, looked up suprised. She blushed slightly not used to complaiments, espically ones from Quickleaf. Remembering her self and her company, Nami laughed and made a mock bow, "The honour is all mine good sir!" Nami smiled cheekly to herself, "If only your bow skills were as good as your flatterly, when your sight comes back we will have to have bow classes!"

[Midge]

At Quickleaf's announcement, Aerin decided to quit the company for the morning. She would much rather have sat with Haldis, who seemed as though the things she said were worth listening to, or the two elves, who had stood like sentinels outside Dol Guldur as they emerged, obviously full of history, unlike Aerin herself. However, to Aerin, those people almost seemed like one needed an invitation to approach, and seeing as she had received none, she got up and walked away from the chattering group around the fire towards a bit of forest that was near and quiet.

[Aikanáro]

Tabrîl had kept her distance from the group since their return from Dol Guldur. They had brought out with them another elf, and she could not see why they allowed this Aerin to remain here. Nothing that came from that place could be trusted, certainly not an elf.

Yet Tabrîl said nothing of it, it was not her place to do so. She simply made sure that she kept safe what she wished to keep safe, the rest did not matter.

Quickleaf's blindness, too, bothered her. It meant that he was no longer a threat to her or Abasi, true, but she did not see the point in keeping him with the group when he would undoubtedly prove to be nothing but a burden to them. If he had a home to go to, surely he should return to it. But this opinion too Tabrîl had kept to herself.

She stayed with Abasi for the most part, and it was when she was sitting with him one morning that Ellysa approached her, said something to her in that language of hers. Tabrîl could tell from the girl's rising inflections that there were questions, but she understood little else.

Turning to Ellysa, she gave her the slightest hint of a smile before addressing her in rapid Avarin. 'If I had learnt your language I might answer you. I did not. While I am almost certain you mean well I have very little idea of what you say to me. Possibly no more than you can understand what I say to you now, if that gives any indication. Does it?'

She glanced over at Abasi to her left, and then at Haldis who had decided to sit to her right, and then looked back at Ellysa, expectantly.

[Willow Oran]

Haldis shook her head slightly at the expressions of confusion brought about by languages obviously not mutually understood, "Speak Sindarin, Tabrîl. I will translate then," she said before a misunderstanding could occur, "What were your questions, Ellysa?"

[Mari]

Happily Ellysa looked at Haldis, glad that the woman would help her speak with Tabril. She liked the two elves and wanted to know more about them.
"Oh, wait a minute Haldis! I'll go get us food, so we can talk over breakfast!" She almost ran towards the fire and the food, nodding and smiling at the people sitting there while grabbing 4 bowls and filling them up.

After giving everyone a bowl she sat down. It had been hard to decide on the order of giving everyone their food, because she didn't quite know where to place Tabril. As a woman she was below the wise woman Haldis, but as a warrior she was above her. She had solved the problem by placing the bowls in the middle. It wasn't correct, but at least it wouldn't offend anyone.

"Okay, Haldis, could you please say good morning to Tabril and ask her about her weapons? Maybe you could teach me some of their language later."

[Aikanáro]

'I will speak what language I please,' Tabrîl answered Haldis – a little petulantly, but in Sindarin. 'She seems to do so, and expects to be understood, I see no reason why I should not do likewise.'

She was silent then until Ellysa set the food down before them. Perhaps she had only been asking if she wished to have some brought to her, Tabrîl thought then, and if that was the case, there was no harm in it. She had even set the bowls down instead of handing them out, a gesture that among Tabrîl's people might in some circumstances mean no obligation, and although Tabrîl was no longer as insistent on self-sufficiency as she had been some days earlier, she appreciated Ellysa's thoughtfulness in the matter.

Taking up one of the bowls, she checked to ensure that there was nothing there that she should not eat. There was not, and so she tried a little. It was, if not up to the standard of the food she would get at home, fairly pleasant, and so she thanked Ellysa for bringing it. Her words may not have been understood, but her sentiment was clear.

[Willow Oran]

"Westron, however accented, is a common trade tongue," Haldis lightly chided the elf, "Your language is not. She wishes you a good morning and wants to know about the blades you bear."

Switching from Sindarin to her native Westron, Haldis turned back to Ellysa, "Thank you for bringing us breakfast. I've asked her for you, I'm afraid if you wish to learn her language I can't help. I only speak Sindarin well out the elvish languages."

[Earniel]

While everyone was eating breakfast, Radagast told Nixie of their travels, their departure from Rhosgobel many weeks ago, their fight with the spiders and how they picked up some companions on the way.

He pointed them out to Nixie, so she could remember the many names, Radagast's companions were quite a large group now.

He also told her what they were looking for in the bleak ruins of Dol Guldur and how they had fared in their search, some better than others he said, thinking of Quickleaf's accident.

[Mari]

"Oh." A slightly disappointed look crossed her face, but got replaced by a smile quickly. "Well, if you could perhaps teach me some... Shindarin? then perhaps Abasi could teach me some more? In any case, thank you for translating Haldis!"
She gave Haldis another happy smile, enjoying the morning sun and having a conversation with friends.

[Aikanáro]

Tabrîl gave Haldis a slightly confused look. 'It is a high language then that you all speak, one preserved to aid communication between peoples far sundered?' She hadn't known that such a language existed among them, but then it had been a long time, in their terms, since she had paid mortals any attention.

At the mention of her weapons Tabrîl smiled slightly, thinking of the t'rai of Abasi's she carried. She was unsure, however, of how to answer, it was a strange question for Ellysa to ask.

'Tell her that the blades are the traditional weapons of our people,' she said slowly, 'and they are called t'rai.' She paused for a moment, looking at Ellysa searchingly. 'Why does she ask?'

[Willow Oran]

Haldis quickly relayed Tabrîl's reply to Ellysa and then turned to attempt an answer to the questiong of language, "I cannot say if westron is a high language or not, or if it has been preserved and spread deliberately to aid communication. I know that all kindreds of the Edain seem to speak a form of it and that such dialects have not changed so much as to become fully different languages. But my Westron and Ellysa's do sound strange side by side and I have noticed are not quite the same language as Aelfwine's Westron or that spoken by our companions from across the mountains, so I think it came to be widespread naturally and preserved as language of trade by accident and convinience. Radagast may know better..."

Haldis trailed off and looked back at Ellysa, "I was trying to recall how it is that Westron is so widely used," she explained, and then asked, "What did make you ask about their knives?"

[Mari]

Ellysa listened to the strange sounds of the conversation between Haldis and Tabril. It sounded melodic.

"I was trying to recall how it is that Westron is so widely used, what did make you ask about their knives?" Haldis asked her.

"Westron isn't used at all where I come from. Only the leaders and the wise are allowed to learn the language. Baba taught me when I was little. Perhaps she knew I would one day travel this way." She contemplated that thought. She had asked that question herself many times, but she never got an answer from the old woman.

"I asked about the weapons because Tabril and Abasi seem to care about them, because I've never seen anything like them. I guess I was just wondering about their importance."
She thought back to the exchange of weapons she had seen earlier. She still hadn't figured out Tabril's position.