Meeting Lady Laurelai

Chapter 1 New friends

Niefel was singing as he walked the dusty road leading down the pass to the village of Needlehole. The trading with his dwarf associates had proven most satisfying, and he now had all the material he would need for at least six months of work. Gemstones, an assortment of rare ingots of silver, gold and platinum, all hidden under bags of vegetables and baskets of fresh berries. The real treat though, was two completely new recipies that had real potential to become favourites in the Bree market. He carried those under his travelcloak, next to his heart. And all this had cost him allmost nothing. He could barely believe his luck. You were usually angry, depressed or frustrated after doing buisness with dwarfs but not this time. No wonder he was beaming at the world as he went to the side of the road for a quick rest and a snack. The tea he had been experimenting with had been an instant hit with the dwarfs and his purse was still half full after buying supplies that should have cost him double of what he started out with. Sometimes, he thought, life was just good! As if agreeing with him, the clouds parted and rays of warming sunlight found their way to his resting place beside the road. He filled water in a bowl for his pony and started to look for his pipe when suddenly the horse got restless. Alarmed, his first thought was to protect his cargo, and his right hand found the mace at his belt. He stood silent for a while, trying to figure out what was causing the ponys reaction but there was no sound except for the buzzing of flies and the singing of birds. After a few seconds he was able too single out a strange sound though. Underneath the buzzing and singing there was something that sounded like growling from a very small animal. Curious, he walked a couple of paces further off the road and the sound grew in strength. The source, appearently, was someone snoring lightly. Niefel soon spotted that someones horse, calmly grazing further off into the bushes, but there was no trace of the snorer himself. Finally he spotted a shoulder sticking out behind a tree and he slowly walked towards it. There, in the shadows of a big oak, a man was sleeping deeply with his back against the tree. Niefel stood there for a long while studying the sleeping longshank, thinking, “how can something that big, look so small and peacefull?” After standing there just watching for a while it suddenly occurred to him that this was not a man after all, inspite of the heavy armour and the long sword resting across its knees. It also occurred to him that maybe he should be alarmed, being out here in the wilderness all alone with a very valuable cargo, but somehow he wasn`t. With the discovery that it was a women he had stared at for the last ten minutes, he got a bit embarrased and was just about to sneak back to his pony when the woman suddenly started to wake up. Startled, he couldn`t think of anything better to say than, “ehum, hullo and good day mlady….if that’s what you are”. At that she started smiling and he thought: “something that beautiful, cant be evil”. And he soon was proven right since she offered to share her food with him, a gesture that made her win his heart for eternity.