Found:
I finally made it back to the grotty little mud hole known as Bree-land! It's still brown. Oh, so very brown! Seriously, who on earth could have possibly come up with this many shades of brown? It's truly mind boggling how terribly dull everything is, like the people woke up one day with an obsession for soil with varying degrees of moisture within.
Ugh.
Anyway, my first stop was Towerglan where I had hoped to find my dear darling, delectable Neyaa! Naturally, this being Bree-land, I was already disappointed enough to barely register the ensuing disappointment upon being told that she is currently absent.
Trestlebridge.
Why did it have to be bloody Trestlebridge?!
She couldn't have gone anywhere else? Mordor, for example! I'd be far more willing to walk through that land than that town! At least the critters and creeps in Corruption Central would only want to tear me limb from limb. They wouldn't be thanking me or doing that awful grateful smiling thing that people do when you help them.
The highlight of my day - my quarter year, in fact - was being happened upon by darling Toddir! Of course, he simply assumed that I'd murdered everyone and everything in Rohan because, well, isn't that what I do? Alright, that might be a little unfair of me. He simply assumed that I'd killed my brothers.
Why do people always assume the worst of me? When has he, or anyone else for that matter, known me to raise my hand against another living person? People-shaped corpse husks don't count!
Still, when a few misapprehensions had vaguely swept aside, he did tell me that Talaa and Eroforth are still up in Trestlebridge too. I need to go see her.
Unfortunately, the news he had to give of Rhaug was... minimal and less than jovial. It would seem that he took our argument far more to heart than I had anticipated. Not good. Excessive drinking was mentioned.
This is troublesome to say the least. At the time, I was hurt and hurting. He had deserved my ire. He had demanded it as surely as he had demanded those answers he took such umbrage with. However... it pains me to think that I hurt him so.
Should I buy him a cake? A new ribbon for his beard, perhaps? That's what people usually do at times like this, isn't it? That's how "normal" people express their regret and apologies, right? He doesn't strike me as the bouquet of flowers type, though. This shall require some pondering.
I imagine I'll have some time for that anyway. Toddir has a desire to seek out news of Rowan in Trestlebridge and, given the location of the two women I need to speak with, I have offered to travel there with him. As I recall from our last little jaunt together, he's not one for speed so it may yet be a while before we set foot to ill-laid flagstone.
In the meantime, I will wait and try not to worry that whatever trouble Toddir referred to concerning Rowan's venture will see the man come to lasting harm.
