[Orual]

Arethin walked silently through the streets of Dale. The night had fallen, and it would've been difficult to navigate the streets had Arethin not been so familiar with the area. He had been born here; he had been raised here. Dale was the only place that Arethin knew. Did he really want to leave?

He waved dispiritedly to a few of his friends as he headed home. He'd miss them. He'd miss all of it. But the question wasn't really did he want to leave; he realized now that the question was, did he have a choice?

He saw a flickering light in the window of his house when he arrived. Elethil, his seventeen-year-old brother, would undoubtedly be reading by the light of the lamp. He was an avid reader. He read anything that he could get his hands on. So much so that Arethin doubted if he should tell his younger brother that the thing he was searching for was a book at all. He chuckled at that thought, and knocked gently on the door.

"Come on in, Ari," Elethil called, and Arethin could see through the window that he hadn't looked up. He opened the door and went in.

"Where've you been all day, Ari? Mom was worried." Elethil actually looked up from his book, so Arethin could tell that his mother had really been concerned. Arethin winced.

"I went to run an errand for Avaran, and got caught up in something. Is Mom asleep?" Arethin asked. Elethil nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, I'll just tell you. I'll have to leave tomorrow morning."

"Leave? What?" Elethil, to Arethin's great shock, closed his book and pushed it aside, focusing all of his attention on his older brother. "Where are you going, Arethin?"

Arethin took a deep breath and explained the entire thing, not leaving out a single detail, from the moment he stopped by to listen to the storyteller. Elethil didn't interrupt him once, but listened intently to every word Arethin had to say. The boy's face was solemn and progressively grieved, until finally, at the very end, he let out a little cry.

"You're really leaving, Ari?" he said in a hoarse whisper that Arethin realized was probably an attempt to cry out. "You're leaving me alone to take care of her? I'm seventeen, Ari!"

"I was younger than you when I started taking care of you and her," Arethin objected. "You're seventeen, you have a job, and if that one doesn't pay enough Avaran would be glad to take you on. Besides," he added, reaching into his pack, "one of my companions gave me this." He produced the sack of money that Anuion had given him. "This ought to help you."

Elethil stared, wide-eyed, at the money. And with some reason, too--this was a considerable amount of money for their family, which had never been wealthy, even when their father had been alive. (They had been considerably more comfortable, but never truly wealthy.) "Ari..."

"Just do it, El. Please. I have to do this. For Mom--and for both of us. Do you realize that if we both married, one of us would have to still live here and take care of her? If I do this--if you let me--then she can take care of herself, for another...oh, forty years. This could be our only chance, El. This could be the only chance we ever get to do this."

Elethil didn't respond for a long while. His youthful face was deeply troubed, and he looked like he was battling with himself. "Fine," he finally blurted. "Do it! Go find it, Arethin! But don't talk to me again before you leave. I can't bear it."

Arethin looked sharply at his brother, and realized that the battle was with tears. The youth's blue eyes were filled with tears, and he was trying to stay strong in front of his brother. Arethin pulled him into a tight hug, and they stayed there for a long while, until Arethin got up to pack. It would be a busy morning.