When the halt was called, Arthain stayed hopefully on his horse as she drummed her feet impatiently on the spot. She was a beautiful steed, named Meren after the hill nearby a small, little known village near Gondor upon which, on a windy, rather wet morning, when he had strayed up there to get some solace for his thoughts, Arthain had met his wife.
The captain was as eager as the mare to get going, but it soon became obvious that Menelya and her gaggle of friends intended to stay for a longer than a little break and, trying not to let his impatience show for fear he would be accused of being rude, as some of the other men were, for no apparent reason, Arthain dismounted elegantly. Dorlas led Meren and his own horse away to where other squires were watering their horses. The squire looked relieved to get away with something purposeful to do, as that meant he was not left open to comments from the twittering elven women, and Arthain would have liked to go with him, but he sensed some attention on him, and turned to see Menelya and a few women looking at him and speaking quietly to one another. One of them looked sharply at Arthain, then seemed to exclaim incredulously something in elvish which Arthain did not catch, and the others laughed in what seemed to be a nasty way to Arthain. He refused to let it bother him though- the little gaggle of women just had their feathers ruffled because they hadn't been able to bring all of their flouncy dresses and expensive jewellery. The man instead nodded his head courteously to Menelya and in return recieved a similar nod in reply, and a flicker of a smile, before she returned to her friends.
Turning, Arthain looked around to where Melost and Anwanelme were standing together. Arthain let his gaze drift down and saw they were holding hands tightly. The captain smiled- Melost was indeed holding onto what he still had. The captain just hoped fervently, for his close friend's sake, that he would indeed take Arthain's words to heart, and would continue to hold onto the precious gem that was Anwanelme.
[ July 01, 2003: Message edited by: Amanaduial the archer ]
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I am what I was, a harmless little devil
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