*The following extract is written in a shaky hand, the letters often mishapen or blurred from drops of moisture fallen upon the page*
I turned my sights to Trestlebridge. If I could not find him in Bree-land then, I reasoned, perhaps he had passed through the border towns. None there could tell me anything, however.
Wearily, warily, Arantha and I turned back into Bree-land yet again. I must have missed something there. A man cannot disappear this utterly without someone knowing something.
I could not face the town again so soon however, thus myself and my tired steed went on long into the night, trudging on our way to the Homesteads and the house that Daigan had given me a key for.
I did not even have the strength to undress myself when I arrived. I simply unsaddled my mount, letting her wander freely, trudged up to the door, unlocked it, made my way to the bedroom and fell onto the bed. I was asleep before my head touched the pillow.
I was awakened some hours later by the smell of tea. He had found me. Not the he who I wished to see but that terribly obnoxious old man from Bree.
Tired. So tired.
We spoke a while, he and I. He mocked me, goaded me. He said the most terrible things. I tried to make him stop. I pleaded with him to be silent, I screamed, I covered my ears and tried to block out his words, but he just kept on. I could not make him stop, but I could not listen, not as he told me of how he killed a child so brutally.
He was lying. I knew he was lying, but I was... I am so tired, so exhausted. I was angry, upset, I could not think straight. I did not know what I was doing.
Now my hands are covered in his blood.
He is alive. I tended his wound, sewed him up again, but...
But I can never take this back. I stabbed a man. In anger, I took my small blade, the one that Baradar had given me, and I plunged it into his shoulder. I hurt him, I made him bleed. I...
Oh, Valar, what have I done?
I never wanted to hurt anyone. I never wanted someone to be hurt because of me.
I hurt him. I stabbed him. I can never undo that.
Oh, what have I become?
