Bree

“Did you not have friends in Archet with whom you could confide in such gossip?” Piper asks me over the rim of her mug of cider. We had been talking long at the table in the center of the tavern. (She had caught me outside in the rain, relishing in it, and invited me inside for a drink ere I caught cold).

I fume even as I storm into the home of my brother; “I shall never again stay out so late!” I declare as if an impetuous teenager with little thought of consequence, and make myself scarce and hidden in my niece’s room. My niece, Jennefer, is already outside playing while her mother washes the laundry. It is early morning, and again was I out all night, and for such a dreadful reason to boot!

Last night, I got to see everyone again. In sooth, I was so excited to finally speak to Mister Arthur Hazelwood about his portrait that I might have been a bit over-enthusiastic. I had piles of papers of sketches and concepts, and I think he was overwhelmed by all the ideas I presented him with.

The four of us encircle Gondrinn. I stand high upon a rock so I can look down into the camp. Gisuna, ever the bear, is hidden in some deep thicket.

“You are far too beautiful to love me.”

Oh, my mother would certainly be rolling in her grave this time. I fear I may have offended everyone at the same time. Let me try to recount my day from the beginning...

Oh, to be a lass in Bree! The men fall over themselves for one's attention here just as they did back home, rather for a quick feel up your skirt than an arranged marriage. I cannot tell which one I dread more. (The arranged marriage. At least here it would not be so frowned upon to throw fists at a man who feels you up without your desire). 

As good of an elf as he is, sometimes I wish to smack Amathlan upside his pretty head. Hardheaded and proud, he is. He is prideful to a fault and apparently does not like others to help him, even when he is seriously injured!

Here is what happened...

My father would be rolling in his bed if he knew where I was and what I am doing now.  After our departure from our family homestead outside of Archet, my father and I settled in with my brother and his family in Bree. I miss the farm and the homestead, my father toiling in the soil and me helping him worok nearby with the farmhands. I miss the long field of flowers that I would pick through, now burned.