Bird sat in a quiet corner belowdecks, studying a small spider that was trying to make a living by going to sea. She watched as the small optimist tidied her web, straightening a thread here, battening down her hatches and belaying all lines, before she sought a secluded corner to wait for the flies that would certainly never come this far from land.
Bird watched attentively, but all her thoughts were on Pio's letter, and the strange reaction it seems to have had on all aboard the "Lonely Star". How could anything revolving around her lovely Pio have become so muddled. The reaction of Daisy was particularly vexing. She had trusted her life to the little hobbit when she had escaped from the ship to return to Beleriand, and yet it seemed that Daisy's acceptance of all on the ship was only skin-deep. Bird wondered again why the little stowaway had even bothered to come on board. If Fate was guiding her, she was certainly taking her own good time to show her hand. Bird shook her head in sadness, and played with a loose thread on her skirt.
And then she heard the sound of weeping. She tried to convince herself that it was not coming from Mithadan's cabin, but there was no way around it. Bird almost became exasperated! The mourning and memories of Pio were becoming well-nigh unhealthy. It had already led to dissension. Would it continue to effect the quest that Pio had died for?
Bird remembered hearing somewhere that the Pukel-Men of the White Mountains would remember and honor their dead for one moon-phase, and then never speak of them again. Bird was beginning to regard this as a most sane policy.
Slowly she stood, brushing off her skirt and approached Mithadan's cabin door. She knocked tentatively: the heir of Eärendil had always had an intimidating effect on her, but she heard him answer mildly "Come in."
Bird poked her head into the door of the comfortable, cluttered quarters, noting the large map laying on the table, and the quill pen thrown down beside it. Mithadan was sitting with his feet up on the table, a glass of wine in his hand. There was no sign of a tear on his face.
"Uh...Mithadan...I promised Kali that I would bring him some songs back from the journey. I heard quite a few while we were away, and I thought I would sing some of them for him now. Would you like to come up and hear them, as well?"
Mith looked away from his wineglass. Giving the the skin-changer a small smile, he swung his legs off the table and accompanied Bird up to the deck.
[ August 22, 2002: Message edited by: Birdland ]
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