The abandoned city of the once Kingdom of Arnor was now before her. It had taken her months and too many unsuspecting arrows to finally reach her fellow kinsmen from the safe haven of Imladris. Estenthêl sighed with relief as she and her traveling partner, Angston, finally met with the camp that was reported to be there. The few Rangers there were already laying out areas in the city to make posts. Estenthêl and Angston were given a hasty briefing about what to expect before being shown where they could lay down their bed rolls.
“Bread?” the elder man asked, joining her by the fire. She knew Angston had a soft spot for Bree’s bread. Why he enjoyed the town, she would never understand. They had climbed over the wall of Bree to sneak in. Angston walked into the Prancing Pony to buy his needed bread before finding her in the abandoned home of her love. They would wait until night before sneaking back out of the town.
“Thank you.” She responded with a smile, “You can still turn back. I know you are not much of a fighter and while we are only guarding our sacred abandoned city, if a fight were to come we all would need you to be ready.”
The bald man laughed softly, “I could not leave you here alone. You already made the difficult decision of leaving your son and his father back with the elves to come here. There should be someone here to help you.”
“Could I say the same about you leaving Master Walnut behind?”
The peaceful man laughed again, “Annúminas is no place for a squirrel. Besides, Master Walnut would not like it here. There are not enough trees here for him to eat from. He is quite the round squirrel and I fear that my pouch of walnuts will fade away sooner that he would wish for.”
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That night, Estenthêl was wide awake in her tent rereading the response letter from her father. The constant nagging worry ran through her mind as it usually did when danger was near. While she was personally still working on how often she worried, the situation around her did not help. It had been over a year since she last fought anyone, having given up the life of a Ranger for becoming a midwife and later a mother. She understood that Oldgrove would worry about her as he and their son Cardhuin were safe with their elven hosts.
Now, because of growing up in the land around the city, her name was mentioned for this undertaking. She had no doubt that her father was asked. Laeben, she knew in her heart, preferred to stay away from others.
In the morning though, she would have some time to rethink over everything. Someone would be picked to be their leader and then more planning for the city over watch would continue. She knew there was far more planning to do.
