I don't know how many years it has been since I last saw her, I certainly never expected to see her in Bree. There I was chatting to what I assumed was just another lass, when she said she knew me. I didn't recognize her to start with, but then she told me who she was, it was 'Idhaell'. After all these years she'd come to Bree, for whatever reason it was. Well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy to see her, of course I was! No one forgets their first love, and she was hard to forget even before that. Truly beautiful, back home she put the other girls to shame. She had a bloody temper mind, like a forest fire! ay the wrong thing and you'd know about it, it got so bad there seemed nothing that I could do right while around her. Thing was, she was soft as hell at times, once you cracked that fury she used so well, she was a bloody soft girl, and all those years ago she was mine. 'Least till I left. I had no choice, parents had me enlisted in the local garrison and that was it, no chance to say goodbye.
She was still fuming from all those years when I saw her in the Pony, but I could hardly just walk away, not when she was right there! I got a slap and a knee to the groin for my troubles, but I'd have expected nothing less from her. As always some cocky sod tried to to stand between me and her, telling me to get lost and all that. It was always that way, even back home guys were forever coming to her rescue when the irony was I was the one in more danger. Finally she let us talk, and again I saw the soft side of her. We talked and laughed about the old times, of how her father caught me climbing to her window, and how I was forced to convince him I was robbing his house. Better that than seeing his daughter! How he chased me 'round the yard and carted me off to the jail, and hw she laughed at me the whole time, only to be the one to bail me out. They may have not been great times together, but they were exciting, and that's what made us work so well.
I've seen her twice now, both times I've nearly ended up stabbing some fool trying to ell me to leave her alone, or what to do with my drinking. It was as I was going to the second that she really attacked me. She told me I had a son. I didn't know what to do, I wanted to run and fight at the same time. I had to leave the room but she followed me. Damn it I nearly struck her down where she stood, but I never could, not in the past, and not now. She told me about him. His name is Jasper, he smiles a lot, loves adventure. Five years old, five bloody years! I've been a father for son long and never known, how dare she not tell me! She told me her reasons but they meant little to me, if she'd wanted me to know, she would have seen to it surely! I admit I'm not perfect, but it would have been better if the boy had a father at least, if only to help her out.
She promised I could see him, though I wonder what she wants from me, why she would tell me know. Is it to spite me? Or does she actually want something, me to help? I don't know. Since she's told me we've laughed, we've danced, we've fought, we've kissed and we've argued. That was the way it always was. She told me how her family were killed, how she left to live with family in Bree to start again, and raise Jasper with a fresh start. She hates me for those I've slept with since I left, thinking me some kind of whore. I wouldn't have said I was all that bad, but she won't have it. She hates me for my drinking and I hate her for her anger. I told Murna about this, I suppose I was going to have to eventually. I knew what she'd say, and I told her straight, we aren't killing the kid! She thinks it'll make me weak, give our enemies an advantage, but I told her again, no killing. Damn Idhaell nearly heard her saying this as well! I had to think fast on my feet to cover that one up. I'm also going to have to keep the pair separate, they'll tear each others throats out if they get too close.
I finally was taken to meet Jasper. He was with his aunt, and when she left, she ran straight to Idhaell who scooped him up in her arms. For a five year old, he's bloody fast. I don't think I'd seen her as happy as with that boy, something I never thought I'd see. She put him down, introduced me to him, his father, my son. He seemed nervous at first, and to be honest he didn't look like me much, the hair was black. But the eyes, the eyes seemed the same to me, or from what I was told. I didn't know what I felt as I knelt there with him, maybe I was never made for such things, I don't know. I couldn't stay long, but long enough to talk with him a short while. I don't know what she wants, or what I will do, but I know I'm going to see him again, and perhaps things won't be so bad this time.
