The sunlight filters through the leaves of the tree, the cool air from the water washing over the shore. Humming to herself, Immalaine sets out the blanket, the picnic basket sitting on a nearby rock, filled with fresh meat pies, fruit pie and a bottle of wine. Smiling to herself, she turns to look for Rastellion. She hoped she'd given good enough directions in her note to him.
Rastellion comes up from the shallow ford. "There you are," he exclaims catching sight of her. He waves the note. "What's all this? This note is only half-finished and..." He catches sight of the picnic spread and grins. "What's all this?" he repeats, pleased at the sight.
Immalaine looks up as she hears Rastellion approach, waving the paper around. "Rastellion," she replies, standing up and giving him a hug. "I wasn't sure ... I've never been good at givin' directions to folk an' .. but your here!" She looks up at him, a wide smile lighting up her eyes. "You've been workin' too hard. I thought mebbe .." she looks back at the picnic before returning her gaze to him. "I thought you could use a break. So I spent all yesterday cookin', an' I remembered this spot that I'd seen once when I was out gatherin' plants an' .." Nervously she looks at him, wondering if he'd be mad at her for taking him from his work for something so silly.
"It looks wonderful." He pulls her into his arms for a long kiss. "And so do you."
With an internal sigh of relief, Immalaine returns his kiss before pulling back and smiling happily. "I'm so glad you like it! Come, sit down an' I'll pour us some wine while you tell me 'bout your day." She sets about pouring two glasses of wine she'd bought from the tavern, Barliman assuring her it was a fine quality. She hoped so, at any rate, for what he'd charged her for it. Turning, she hands Rastellion one of the glasses, before sitting next to him with her own.
"Oh, it was a great day today!” Rastellion waves a hand happily, as he replies. “Some investments I made way back before our Yule trip finally paid off. Why, I can buy your farm now, and even pay to rebuild the house and barns and all! We can move there and you can be the lady of the manor, with servants and stables and everything."
A giggle escapes Immalaine's lips as she listens. "Don't know as I want t' be a lady or have servants. But to be able to have my own home ... to be home again ..." She wipes a tear from the corner of her eye, misty with the thought. "An' we can grow chickens an' I can bake and take the goods t' the market t' sell. An' it's not too far from Bree, so you could do your trading still." She pauses her happy chatter, to take a sip of her wine, before leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
"Or spend half the time in Bree and half out on the farm. I don't need to be at the auction hall every day, you know, not any more. And we'll have more space with the farm. It'll be a great place to have friends visit, and to raise a family."
In the middle of reaching for one of the meat pies, she pauses and turns to Rastellion. "A ... family?" she asks and then her eyes grow at the thought. "Children ... our children?" she whispers, as she contemplates the thought.
Rastellion smile broadly at her. "Of course. You do want a family, don't you?"
Immalaine looks at him for a moment, her eyes slowly lighting up at the thought. "I ... I'd love to have one ... a little boy that looks jus' like you ...."
"And a girl who looks like you. But not the other way around!" Rastellion chuckles and reaches over and runs a finger teasingly across her chest. "If a boy had these, he'd never get out of bed in the morning!"
Immalaine looks down at her chest, blushing, then looks up at him with a grin. "Likely not, seein' as how much time you spend watching mine." She turns and picks up one of the meat pies, offering it to him. "I thought mebbe, after we eat, we could do a bit of fishing," she points to her rod propped against the tree, "Or we could take a walk .. or ..." she pauses and then blushes again.
Rastellion puts an arm about her and pulls her closer as he bites into the pie. "Mmmm, I love your cooking." He gives her hip a squeeze. "Or what?" he prompts.
His evident delight in the food with a twinkle of satisfaction brings a twinke to her eye, and she snuggles against his side as she take a bite from her own. Finally she leans over and whispers something in his ear.
Rastellion pops the last bite of the pie into his mouth, and takes a deep drink of the wine. "Cooking's so good though," he says, "makes it hard to decide if I want to wait until done eating or not."
"Well, I can imagine you're hungry after the long work days you've had. So, eat first." She reaches for a second pie, offering it to him, before continuing to eat her own.
"You know how your meat pies always give me an appetite, don't you?..." he asks, accepting the second eagerly.
"But save room, I also baked us a strawberry pie as well. An' I added extra honey in it, jus' as you like it." Finishing her own pie, she reaches for her glass and takes the last sip of it, before looking over at his glass. Nodding, she reaches for the bottle to pour them some more.
"Now Immalaine,” Rastellion replies with a chuckle, “if I eat all this, I won't be able to move, and then how will I serve you dessert?"
A tinge of pink spreads across her cheeks, though it might have been from the sun. "I've seen you eat twice as much an' still ...." she pauses and then amends "And still be able to race out th' door and up the street fast as a rabbit!"
Rastellion grins and licks his fingers clean as he finishes the second pie. "Well, mebbe ... if there's something worth running after." He wipes a bit of juice off the corner of her lips and licks his finger clean. "Strawberry, you say?"
"Strawberry, an' it took me a bit of pickin' to get them too. But I found a recipe for them an' I jus' had to try it." Reaching over, she pulls the pie to them, the crust golden brown and the subtle fragrance of strawberries and honey rising from the small cuts she had made in it. "I'll let you cut it, if you don't mind.
"Cut into it? Isn't this my piece?" He points at the entire pie, eyes twinkling.
Immalaine laughs merrily and reaches for the pie. "No! If you eat all of it you'd likely fall asleep ...." A faint scraping sound has Immalaine turning to see where it came from, everything briefly turning black and cold. Shaking her head, she shuddered, closing her eyes tightly and opening them again to the sight of his face watching her.
Rastellion smiles, oblivious to the scraping sound. "True... and we'd not want that." He pulls the knife from the basket and cuts the pie into sixths, then offers her first choice of a piece.
Shaking off the sound as her imagination, and the sudden chill as a breeze from the water's edge, she looks down and selects one of the smaller slices, pointing to it. "I'll take that one," she says with a nod.
Rastellion nods and carefully extracts it from the pan, managing not to crumble it too much as he slide it onto a plate. "There you go," he says, and pours her more wine before selecting a piece for himself.
Thanking him, she accepts the plate, reaching down to pick off a corner of the crust and taste it, giving a little noise of pleasure. "I think mebbe we'll have to add strawberries to the crops at the farm. I think I'll be baking a lot of these in the future." she says, before taking a larger bite.
"We'll have plenty of room for them. And orchards, and bee hives... and everything else you want for your kitchen."
As she thinks about the farm, and starts making plans for the gardens, her face relaxes into one of peace, the cares of the day fading away. "Oh, I'd like that. Apples an' strawberries, and lots of fresh herbs ... and the chickens fer the eggs .." she turns to watch him eat his pie, watching as the breeze ruffles his dark hair. Leaning over, she brushes a stray lock from his forehead, pausing to stroke it for a moment, before turning back to her half eaten slice of pie. "Mebbe we can even have some of those flowers, like what I've seen at some of the houses 'round Bree." she says, sighing wistfully.
Rastellion cocks his head as he continues to eat up his slice with evident enjoyment. "Flowers? Which flowers?"
Furrowing her brow, Immalaine shakes her head. "I've seen gardens full of flowers, all yellow an' purple an' white. I'm not sure what they all are, but they're pretty and look so sunny and cheerful. I can't help but smile to see them."
"We'll have window boxes full of them, and I'll get 'em to climb up the side of the house."
Immalaine turns to Rastellion, her eyes alight with delight at thought. "Oh! It'd be the prettiest house!" she replies, leaning up to kiss his cheek, leaving a sticky mark where her lips had momentarily been. "It'd be better than all th' gold in Bree!"
"Gold ain't much use at all unless you've got somethin' to spend it on. Seems t' me a house like that would be just the thing to build with that gold."
"Not a house ... a home," she replies. "A real home ... our home." A hissing sound comes from somewhere in the distance, whispering 'my home,' but Immalaine shakes it off and reaches up to brush back a strand of her dark red hair from her face. "Our home ...." she whispers back.
Rastellion puts an arm around her and pulls her closer. "Our home," he agrees.
Satisfied and full, Immalaine sets her plate aside and wrap hers arms around him, leaning into him with a nod. "Yes," she says, her voice filled with contentment as she imagines the farm full of life and laughter once more.
Rastellion sets down his empty plate, finishes off his glass of wine, and leans down to kiss Immalaine's forehead, moving his arms tighter about her.
Seeing he was done with his pie, Immalaine brushes a crumb off the corner of his mouth with her thumb. "So ... did you want to go fishing or take that walk ..." she says, her voice happy.
Rastellion grins at her, then looks around a bit. "Oh, we might take a little walk," he agrees. Then leans in to add, "maybe find someplace a bit more hidden?"
Immalaine smiles and nods at him, though she looks around at the area. "Well, I imagine there's always a chance of someone coming by ..." she replies and stretches in his arms.
Rastellion stands and offers her a hand "Should we walk a pace or two after that delicious meal?" Rastellion looks about. "Where should we walk?"
Looking up at him, she nods as she takes his hand and stands. "That sounds lovely." she replies, looking around. "We could walk along the edge of the river or .. " she glances back at the small islet nearby, "We could go over there. But that'd be wetter, I reckon."
"Only a little wetter... but maybe up the stream would be better, as you say." Rastellion asks with a grin.
"I'd like to see what's that way," she agrees and follows him.
Content, the two walk hand in hand for a short distance, watching the water lap against the side of the shore and listening to the sounds of birds singing overhead. After a while, Rastellion pauses, then steps into a patch of scrubby bushes. They tower overhead, and tiny white flowers on them let out a sweet smell. "How about this?" he asks, indicating the natural hollow the branches encircle.
Immalaine looks around, smelling the flowers and nods. "I think ... yes. I think it's perfect," she says..
"Perfect?" he raises one eyebrow at her and grins, as he spreads the blanket on the ground
Immalaine reaches over to Rastellion. "You make it perfect," she whispers, and leans over to kiss his cheek.
Rastellion smiles and pulls her onto his lap.
In the small, cold room, Immalaine smiles in her sleep … sweet dreams little farm girl ...
(Credits and love go to Rastellion, who provided the voice of himself in this story. *Blows kisses to Rastellion and grins widely*)
