I suppose journalling is a good idea, and there's no real reason to give it up after the bit I've left with Híril Cesistya – and that makes me think I need to try to make up my mind whether I'm writing in Westron or Sindarin. Well, my Sindarin doesn't need so much help, but I probably can't help using the words here. That's just how I think. People who care to read what I write are just lucky I'm not doing this in Dalish, or practicing my Quenya. Well, some of you – I suppose some of you would cope just fine, too, considering how many are Elves.
And speaking of some others, in particular, I sure hope Mister Butterbur remembered to deliver the letters I left with him. Well, he probably will eventually, at least, even if he hasn't yet.
Anyways, we made our way over Caradhras and down the Dimrill Stair, and saw the Mirrormere. If I weren't so anxious about getting my messages delivered here and then going on to Langhold, I would have diverted to camp there for a while. I've been trying to sketch it all some from memory for Owena, since I did promise to try to show her some of the sights that way. I'm also trying to draw the forest here in Lothlórien, but drawing doesn't do the job. I need to learn to paint – or find a way to get some local paintings for her, maybe.
I probably ought to keep my thoughts on the behaviour of the guards on the forest to myself – but having writ that, I won't. They need lessons in diplomacy. The effect of their approach is enough to do the Enemy's work for him, in that they might as well actually be trying to pick fights with those who ought to be their allies. But they'd rather be so insular as to divide people into 'this little group of mostly Nandor' and 'everyone else might as well be Sauron for all we care.' All right, that's not entirely fair – that latter group would just get filled with arrows on sight. But they sure seem to be working to make the ones they do let in want to join the other camp.
Ah, well. At least some of them weren't so offensive once we got inside – though I'm tempted to write down the exact path they led us by, just to show how useless their blindfolding was. I don't know all of what the twists and turns avoided, since I didn't always hear anything to avoid, but I did hear and even smell wild pigs once, a herd of which would be a sensible thing to bypass.
I've been running messages around, mostly delivering the ones Andrelanor wanted sent home – and some follow-ups from those folks as they send me along with even more. I've almost learnt my around this place, I reckon, by flet-running and not just the ground paths. But then, just like with knowing the path the guards led us along blindfolded – well, I am a scout.
Most of the folks I've given messages to seem glad enough to know that Andrelanor's still around, though some are grumpy that she never came back. Of course, Lothlórien isn't her actual home, unlike for them. Sure, she lived here for over three thousand years, but she also remembers Cuiviénen and Doriath – and has the sea-longing now. She doesn't feel so right about just hiding in this refuge any more. She wants to help with the fight against the Enemy, for so long as it doesn't seem so lost as to be pointless in trying to help.
At least, that's what she says. There are times when I think that's an excuse – that she's staying for me and some of her other friends, and it's more whether we survive than anything else that will determine when the cause is too lost. Well, I suppose if it actually somehow gets won, she might really sail West, too, but I'm rather less sure than some of that happening in my lifetime.
I'm not quite sure why Leoffrith was expected and summoned earlier, but if I had to guess – and for now, I still do – Mirwen's involved in that. Tomorrow I'll be running a few more messages around, and visiting Rascal and Aduial – and not taking guff about it from their stable-keeper. The goat needs my visits, I think, for all he tries to make nice with the horses, and the horse isn't bonded enough to me yet, despite my work before and during our journey so far. Then I'll see about maybe getting paintings or some such for Owena, like I said before.
