The cool wind of the clear night blew around Rannie as she walked along the little road leading out of the village. It was late but sleep was being illusive for her lately. t hear the man till he started laughing.
She turned to face the man, accessing him quickly and as best as she could in the darkness. His manner of dress was nothing common of Bree Lander decent. The man looked her over as if accessing her as well. "I guess you'll do. Tell me little one, why are you out so late, so far from your order?" He spoke in an accent unfamiliar to Rannie.
She looked at him with surprise at the mention of the order, wondering how did he know about them or that she was one of them but being a gambler she knew how important it was to not reveal one’s hand.
She quickly masked her surprise with her typical smirk. “Rats tend ta be nocturnal and you?" She replied. He simply gave her a chilling smile that held about as much warmth as a midwinter’s night.
He leaned against the tree next to him as if he was quiet at home which unnerved her slightly. "I do not think that of your concern. Though, I know something that should be." He told her with the same relaxed manner that again seemed to make her as nervous as cryptic statement. She leaned to the side, keeping her stance relaxed, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Aye? Not sure ya know me enough ta know what concerns me or not" she told him, with an almost playful tone and her typical smirk then adding, "So tell me stranger...what do ya think should concern me?" The foreigner gave her another chilling smile before tossing something at her feet, causing her to almost leap back. Rannie glanced at the ground to see it was a braid of hair. She knelt down, picking up the braid but keeping the stranger in her sight. Something about the braid told her that she knew who it came from but no names came to mind.
"Well this is a first...ya know there's easier ways ta tell a lass ya fancy her" Rannie told him, her smirk taking a slyness to it with the purpose of goading him to gauge his reaction and thus him. Once more he simply offered her his frigid grin, tapping his chin as if he was thoughtful. Her goading didn’t seem to faze him at all.
"I wonder how the hunter would react to that,” he stated, confusing her even more. The Hunter, she thought confused. She didn’t know anyone as the hunter. Yes, she knew men were hunters but none with the name of such.
So once more to mask her clear disadvantage in this conversation Rannie simply offered her smirk as she stated in a dismissive air. "Hunter? Which hunter...and what would he care?"
This time he looked at her much like a hawk would its prey with an absolutely wicked grin on his face that made her blood cool at the sight of it. "The one whom gave you that little foot, the little black foot,” he told her. Rannie looked down to the little black rabbit’s foot that she carried with her. It was a gift from a man of her order, Cynraede. He had given it to her shortly after she had helped him find his friend Duramarth.
"Aye, what bout him and what's he got ta do with any of this?" She asked, unable to keep up completely her non-chalant bluff. The man gave a little laugh, apparently amused by her faltering bravado and tapped his chin, taking his time to answer her question.
"Well, when is the last any of you saw him?" He asked her and her nervousness and worry increased tenfold as several questions started to bounce around in her head but none of them she could ask, knowing all too well this man wouldn’t answer them.
After a moment she gave the stranger a shrug and forced her smirk back onto her face. “It may have been a while,” she admitted but with a causal tone. “Ya know somethin bout him?" she added.
“I know that you should be concerned, especially seeing as how that braid is no longer attached his head,” he replied, and she glanced at the braid, instantly recognizing that the color and style of the braid matched that of her friend. What trouble has that lad gotten himself into, she asked herself as she raced to think of the best way to continue her conversation with the man.
"Aye...that is a curious little thing,” she replied finally. “I'd bet me luck ya know the story ta that," she added wanting to know just how much information he was willing to give away. With another nasty smile he rubbed knis knuckles, purposely drawing her attention to them. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked at them.
After spending a childhood in Beggar’s alley Rannie knew that one didn’t get their hands in that shape unless they had been in a fight or at least having been beating on someone or something. Judging by the look of the stranger it was more likely someone. She sighed as if on the verge of boredom and gave him a mischievous grin. "And ya gonna tell me or ya prefer ta just stand there lookin like an ass?" She goaded him once more.
Once more the foreigner simply smiled his cold smile, still apparently not moved by her attempts to goad him. "That would make you the one staring. Are you sure you should stand here talking to me, listening to how he was beaten? Even now his life slips away” he told her, with a chilling calmness and she hoped that this was just him bluffing. Could Cynraede be on the verge of death?
With renewed determination Rannie tried to goad him into reacting or giving something away but after a few attempts it became clear that this man wasn’t like Emion. While she was sure both men enjoyed the pleasure of enacting their will over others, especially if pain was involved, this man appeared to be much more collected than the power hungry Gondorian. And Rannie wouldn’t get anything from him he hadn’t planned on giving her already.
“He is not dead, you are right…” the man told her after her failed attempts to push him into action. “However he soon will be, up on those hills, all alone,” he added, sending her mind racing. Hills, what hills…there were hills everywhere!
"He will be eh? On those hills eh? What hills?" She asked, with a smirk and a carless attitude but as she got was silence as he stared at her. His gaze made her skin crawl to the point she was relieved to hear him speak.
"It will be far more entertaining watching you and your order scurry about to find him. I think it best to keep it to myself," he told her but she still tried to get some more information from him but he simply stated. “I am merely the messenger of the master. I do believe your order has met him already. Though, I have said too much as it is. Fair well little Rat. Be careful were you wander, it might be your hair dangling from my belt next time,” he finished.
Suddenly Seaver’s arguments against the task she had been given earlier came to her and it appeared that he was closer to right than she had been willing to admit. Refusing to let her doubt show she waved her hand dismissively with yet another smirk. "Aye I'm sure you'd like that but I'm too fast for you...ya best be goin...or it may be ya hair that's in danger not mine."
He twisted his beard and gave her another smile. "I am sure you would wish of that,” he said before laughing and walked away, clearly not worried about any danger to his hair or any part of him. She watched him walk away with a frown, taking note that he walked off towards Bree. Rannie gripped the braid as her mind raced.
She looked off in the direction of Arrowhaven. It was dangerous to travel there tonight and clearly she had risked much by her little walk as it was. She’d go to the Order first thing in the morning and tell them the dire news of her friend.
