Estarfin

It was late. It was dark that few noticed we two walking through their village, with our horses following closely. Those who did moved away, their eyes wide.

"We mean you no harm," Estarfin tried, having first spoken to them in quenya.

We stopped by a stone wall, and looked over the well tended fields. These folk certainly loved their land. 

"I cannot easily believe that Eru intends folk like these to suffer." I mused aloud, thinking of possible wars ahead... thinking of a contingent at Fornost in the past.

At the edge of the Old Forest, the two Noldor wait a while, and watch. Leaving their horses to graze, they consider the race that inhabit the lands before them. 

"Would you trade your knowledge of the evil that lies beyond these lands for a life as simple as theirs?" Estarfin asks Danel.

Danel ponders a moment, "If my life was a short as theirs, possibly aye."

They halt at the Last Bridge to give their horses a short rest before crossing into Mannish lands. 

Danel dismounts and walks down to the riverside.

"I would speak with you," she says to Estarfin. "There is something I would have you understand."

The two Noldor depart Imladris on their slow ride to the coast. It is not a path Estarfin has followed more than a few times, and they plan to make camp along the way to take in the scenery, and possible talk over a few things. 

Danel closed her eyes. "She asks too high a price for her gems. I will not pay."

For a moment Estarfin was silent. Then he said. "But you need them?"

"Not at an unnecessary threat to our lives."

He shrugged. I knew well what the expression on his face meant. We would search for the Dragon.

As they approach the front gates of Erebor, for a very short meeting with a Jewel-smith known to Danel, Estarfin reminds her that he likes the Naugrim 'not at all'. Both, however, are courteous to those they encounter.

"There is a foul stench on the air."

Although both are pleased to leave the oppressive forest, their discovery of the bones of a fair sized dragon fill them with revulsion. 

"This must be the remains of Smaug," Danel says, thinking of Glaurung.

Estarfin climbs on the bones, and shrugs. He still isn't taken by her idea they do a little Dragon hunting before they leave the north. 

"Have a care, Danel. You speak of the days of glory, and perhaps you remember our strength of old too well on this journey."