Long Lost Leaves

[Aikanáro]

Tabrîl gave Haldis an uncertain look. Was this what passed for humor, among her people, to offer insult with a smile? Tabrîl did not understand it, nor did she see why Haldis thought Abasi might desire her company. She did not mistake the easing of a threat for friendship. 'You must not insult him,' she said carefully. 'He does not speak lightly, to say he cannot let it pass again. And nor can I, for if you offend him you insult me also.' This last statement was perhaps debatable, for a m'had without a tribe was not, in the strictest sense, her brother. But he was the closest here to her own kindred, and as such she would defend him.

Perhaps Abasi would not appreciate her reiteration of his words, she thought then, but it could not be helped. 'I will stay for now,' she told Haldis, 'but only as long as I find it useful.'

She turned to Abasi then, switched effortlessly into their own language. 'Forgive my presumption. She does not understand.' Although Abasi should have known that, if he travelled with those who were uwindon as a matter of habit. 'You have been with them long?' she asked, a seemingly casual query.

[feawen]

Nami lifted her head and blinked at Aelfwine before dropping her head again. "Ashamed? Ha, What have i got to be scaried of?! To go an a quest where i know its destanation, and still go to face to fear i have no reason for. An irrational fear, a fools fear, which others face and overcome while i make a fool of my self and my kin." Nami sighed and kicked at the dirt on the floor as she walked.

[Curufin]

'It is nothing,' he said, waving aside Tabrîl's apology with a subtle hand-gesture. 'None of them understand, I fear, but I will not change for them. Although I do believe that she is attempting to be kind to us, albeit in an uwindon way. She does not understand that kindness is unncessary to m'haid. Nor does she understand the danger she has put herself in.'

Abasi shrugged, and drifted into silence for a moment.

'I have travelled with them but a few days. They disturbed the harinki in the woods, and it was necessary to pacify them. I fought with several, but one of the uwindi took it upon himself to 'rescue' me, and now I hold a debt to him, and I shall not leave until it is satisfied.'

Abasi's face was not full of gratitude, but shame. He turned his face from her so that she could not see it.

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf paced up behind the tail of the company, rejoining after no more than 20 minutes of branch-collecting in the woods. It had gotten dark, the moon rising to the occasion.
The elves Abasi and Tabril were still displaying some pretty odd uptightness, which for him was just entertaining. He hoped they would cool off after a while though, or the constant posturing might just become unbearably annoying. If they did not enjoy the adventure of the company, they might as well take off. Sticking together would surely be to everyone's interest.

But all the same, everyone were a bit fatigued, probably hungry as well.
Quickleaf shot a glance at Nami, seeing her kick the living dirt out of the ground;

"What's wrong Nami? Not still thinking about the depths of the underground are we?" He said half-mockingly, knowing well that he was equally intimidated by the pitchness and death seemingly seething out of the underground entrance.. Chillingly.

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Laddie." said Borin, riding up to Abasi "You should take no shame in needing anothers help. I've fought along-side King Dane himself and seen him ask for help."

[Aikanáro]

Tabrîl too fell into silence after Abasi had spoken. There was nothing she could say - the debt existed, even if it was to one of these uwindi, and while one of the wise could perhaps have found a reason that Abasi might discharge it, had he asked, Tabrîl could not. Abasi was bound to this group, she realized, and that was a dangerous thing.

The dwarf rode up to them then. He did not know, she supposed from his words, that the m'haid did not ask for help, did not require it. Yet this was for Abasi to explain to him, if he would, and so Tabrîl merely nodded to him in greeting.

Sensing Abasi's discomfort, his averted gaze, she knew she could not leave him alone with such thoughts as he might be entertaining. 'And when the debt is paid?' she asked lightly, as if it were not such a heavy and difficult matter. 'Where then will you go?'

[Willow Oran]

Haldis was no longer listening to the conversation taking place above her head, speaking to these strange elves was a lost cause for now, though she still intended to find out their homes in relation to the forest. That was important, but it could wait. Besides, a messenger wanted her attention.

Haldis had harbored some misgivings about leaving her home for so long as she suspected this search would take.
As a widow, she had a duty to extend the skill and magics with which she might have cared for and protected husband and children to her neighbors for two leagues around, or further if the gap between her and the next galdorwyf was very great.
But Radagast was her friend, and these companions chosen for him by his brother wizard seemed to lack much common sense, so Haldis had come, arranging for the surrounding galdorwyfs to share the stretch of forest that she normally watched over. And to watch over them she had set her bees.

There was one hovering at eye level just now, a dainty worker with much news. When its dance was done and the news received, Haldis inclined her head in thanks and held out a finger with just a drop of the honey she kept close for these tiny heralds. The bee accepted the gift and flew back north. Its news was routine, which was good, and informative. Bees noticed everything, the comings and goings of all two and four legged peoples, where the spiders and other fell creatures were lurking, which tress were producing the best pollen and so on and so on.

Haldis trusted her bees, but thought the tonight it would good to check with her own eyes. Well... her own eyes carried by something else's. She could not skin-change as the male kinsmen of the Chieftain could, but she could send her mind out with the less hostile animals and tonight, in an elvish encampment, it would be safe to do so.

[Curufin]

'Where will I go? I know not. Back to the forest from which I came? Perhaps I shall find death in battle, and the question will not need to be answered.'

Abasi's words were not said in hopelessness or depression - he was not despondent. They were simply the words of a warrior, spoken casually and without fear. To die in battle was an honourable death, one of which he could be proud.

Turning to face the dwarf, Abasi frowned a long moment, and spoke to him in the Common tongue.

'It is our way.'

Abasi's words were simple, but in them he expressed a great deal more than perhaps even the dwarf understood.

[Aikanáro]

'Perhaps,' Tabrîl agreed, but something in his words troubled her. Absently her hand went to her belt, her fingers ran over the silver rings clipped there, honors won in battles past. They were more in number than most had time to gather, but few had she gained in recent years. Tabrîl's duty now was to protect the remnants of her people, not to seek out her own glory, this she knew. It had its own honor.

And yet she desired it, the fearlessness she saw in Abasi, a relic from days when caution had not been their watchword, when Kindi m'haid walked the eastern forests with a half-dozen, a dozen to a patrol, and none would have dared approach their homeland.

Memory could be fickle, Tabrîl reminded herself, and there had been other perils then. But those times had been simpler, at least, than the world she found herself in now.

[feawen]

Nami heard the mocking tone in Quickleafs voice and her shoulders slumpped lowe. She moaned softly and wished the ground would open up and swollow her, which ironiclly was what she was scaried of!

The normal twinkle of laugher that lingered in Nami's eyes and left, leaving only the fear that she would somewhere endanger the group by her own foolish fears and missgivings. All Nami know for sure was the underground enterence gave Nami the chill's, as if the wind that blow was its evil breath chilling her to the bone, as eyes rooting her feet to the spot and its dark enterence, which swollowed the warming light of the sun was waiting to swollow her whole too.

"Give me a break Quickleaf," she wispered in her mother tongue. For the moment the fight had left her, where only days before she had shouted at Abasi for being suck up in battle, now she merely let the mocking go.

[Mari]

Ellysa looked at the group while following Radagast and the other new elves towards camp.

Abasi and Tabril seemed to have formed some sort of friendship, Quickleaf had disappeared for a while before returning with many sticks. What did he plan on doing with those? Surely the elves would have enough wood in their camp for a fire already? Oh well, what did she know about elves and their habits?

Nami was still down, but Ellysa felt that she couldn't help her with this one. Everyone needs to fight their own demons by themselves.

Aelfwine wasn't talking to anyone in particular. Ellysa felt some sort of connection because they both didn't understand all these elves. She slowed down until she came to walk besides her. She didn't know what to say exactly, so instead she just smiled when Aelfwine looked up at her.

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf smiled at Nami; "Don't feel so down. Why don't you take some of these branches I'm carrying, before I sink and the earth swallows me whole."

He wasn't particularly interested in sitting all night making arrows, but he knew he had to, having left behind his arrows in the first camp. So forgetful!
His biggest problem though would be scraping together enough metal for the tips of the arrows. That would be a problem wouldn't it. Oh well, he was too hungry to care for the moment;
"Is that the smell of deer? Delicious." Quickleaf mused as a captivating scent flowed right into their path.

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine smiled back, having dropped any kind of conversation with Nami when Quickleaf joined them and they began bantering in their native tounge.
"I don't think I'll ever understand them," she said to Ellysa, refering to the elves. She looked around at the others. Most of them were warriors, she could tell. And some of them liked to brag of their battles. She wasn't a warrior, far from it. She really couldn't understand why Gandalf chose her, a rohirrim girl whose closest thing to fighting was being in Helm's Deep during its seige.

[feawen]

Nami looked up at Quickleaf. An image of him slowing sinking into the ground, being weighed down by wood entered Nami's head and strangely enough made her snigger slightly. Someone would have to stay behind to make sure nothing attacked the enterence of the cave, who better than an elf with good eyes and a better shot. It was a stretch, but for the moment it cheered her up a little. She held out her hands to Quickleaf.

"What are you are going to do with all this wood?" she asked as she took her share of it.
Nami smiled, Quickleaf was the only other elf around here that was not suck up, and like the other two he didnot look down at the rest of group. Nami never understand why some elves, and she guessed it was true of humans, felt they were better than others simply because of they kin or birth place. Family and the past was important, but the world changes and so do people.

Nami picked up her head and mood at the smell of food. If one thing cheered her up it was food! The now not so moody elf decided she's stuck close to Ellysa, Aelfwine and Quickleaf. They seemed to care and they were good company. Not that the others weren't but the thought of listening to her new dwarfen friend talking about caves sent a shiver down her spine.

Nami looked back behind her as Aelfwine dropped back a bit to talk to Eyllsa. "It not fair them not knowing what people are saying, its bad enough not knowing what the two ego's over there are talking about!" Nami gave a quick gauster in Abasi and Tabrîl's direction before turning back to Quickleaf. "What's with them anyway?"

[Mari]

Ellysa agreed with Aelfwine. "Yes, I cannot understand why people choose to hold on to pride as the last drop of water in their lives. I prefer hanging on to possibilities that may lay around the next dune myself. But maybe that is not what you meant?" Ellysa frowned as she considered that Aelfwine came from a different culture and might not see the situation the way she did.

[Coffeehouse]

Walking down the path, Quickleaf could see the light of campfire behind the darkening trees. They must be close.

Glancing down on his stack of oak-branches;
"Hehe, well.. it looks like I was foolishness enough to forget all my arrows back by the camp where I joined the company. Silly I know.."

At least he hadn't forgotten his bow. That would certainly be stupid.
The cooling night was covering the woods in silence, except for the odd cricket every now and then chirping ceremonially.

"Tabril and Abasi.. I know not. They are elves, and my kin, but in this day and age elves can be as different amongst themselves than elf and dwarf, man and hobbit. My ears aren't even especially pointy!"
Quickleaf remarked jokingly, almost losing one of the branches from his cup-like hold.

[feawen]

Nami laughed, "The pointyness of the ear does not make the elf...although i must say i have very pointy ears!" Nami respected the way Quickleaf thought of others, "We may be kin, but that does not stop them calling us uwindi or whatever they say and looking down at our ways. It was not my self that left the jounary all them years ago, i was born to this place. What those who came before did should not effect how those who came after are seen. But i guess that is just the way i see things, everyone has their own view."

Nami smiled, the further away she got some the cave enterence the better she felt. She starting to feel more like her normally cheerful self."You want some help with them arrow?"

[Coffeehouse]

The parade of unusually different kinds of creatures must have left quite the imprint on the minds of all the birds and beasts witnessing the spectacle wandering through the woods. Yet as strange it was, the animals must have felt comforted that there was little bloodshed involved. These were not orcs or other beings of the darkness. At least that was what Quickleaf imagined the animals thinking..

Realising Nami was speaking to him, he shone up cheerily as she offered her help.
"Oh yeah that would be great!"
He agreed with her though on the attitudes of his own kin, and the state of things in this new world, post-Sauronish.

Quickleaf made a slight pause, getting a bit philosophical.
"The belief that creatures are somehow born into being certain ways, or not interacting with certain other creatures is exactly the sort of divisive and ill-natured acts which the forces of darkness nurtured for thousands of years.
It is what breeds conflict, and I don't want to be a part of that way. It's outdated, and unappealing."

[Curufin]

The others could not understand his language, perhaps, but Abasi could understand theirs, and his ears were good. He frowned deeply at the conversation that was occurring between Quickleaf and Nami, his hand unconsciously going to his sword-hilt.

They would never understand, the uwindon. They would call them outdated, unappealing, divisive, ill-natured; and whatever they wished, but they would do it in ignorance, not knowing what it was they berated, or who they insulted. Abasi felt suddenly very separate and very different from them, and was not sure that this was particularly a bad thing. They made no attempt to understand him; only to insult.

He turned to Tabrîl, his eyes full of disdain.

'They mock us. They mock what they do not understand and assume that we are less than they are. I shall tire of this quickly.'

[Aikanáro]

'I tire of it already,' Tabrîl replied. She had not been listening to the conversation of the others, finding it less than interesting, but it did not surprise her to hear from Abasi what they had been saying.

'Tomorrow, I think, I will begin the journey home,' she decided. Unlike Abasi, she had no compelling reason to travel with those who would insult her at every turn. He was right that the uwindi, when they did not understand a thing, would try to find for themselves reasons to discredit it. 'I will not tolerate this for very much longer.'