[Manardariel]

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Eorlyn looked at the ranger. "No." She said flatly. He shrugged and continued to look at her.

"Do you think I´m a total lunatic now? And a stupid Miss Priss without a sense of humor?" It broke out of her. My tounge is totally out of control! A hint of a smile crossed her face, before dissapearing again. She stared at the ranger. Did he think she was a lunatic?

He shook his head and smiled. "And I´m not! She exclaimed. "I´m not crazy, I´m just- it´s just that-" she broke off, unable to express what she really thought. "I´m sure Rhys hates me now." she wispered. The Ranger laughed. It wasn´t a mean laugh, she didn´t feel he was laughing at her. She felt her own lips turn into a smile. "I´m behaving very daft, I know."

"Actually, you remind me of my own wife, and she certainly isn´t daft." He smiled again, busying him with Storm´s mane.

"I do want to talk about it." She wispered. It couldn´t hurt. In fact she was sure he would see right through her when she talked about herself as a ranger´s apprentice. She wasn´t even sure if there were such things! So she would have to tell him the truth. Eorlyn didn´t like to lie, and she would like it even less to be caught lieing.

"You know, I´m no really a Ranger´s student." She said shyly. The ranger nodded.
"I know."
"I´m... I´m just a girl from Minas Tirith."
The ranger smiled.
"And... I ran ran away from home.
Becuase my father, he- he wanted to- to marry me to this guy, I think he´s a captain or something, very rich, of course." She pulled a face. "I don´t even know him. He´s forty! And I´m not even twenty... and father said it was the best chance I would get, and everything was arranded... I have a splendid dowery, and of course that man was thrilled... so I ran away. And now I´m here and when Rhys said he would marry off his sister, I thought I was going to be sick. And I didn´t want to say what I did, it just broke out of me... I swear, I didn´t want to! And I´m sure Barak will send me home now, but I won´t go home, never! I´ll go to Rohan, or to Dol Amroth, anywhere where I don´t have to marry that old bloke! Never!"

She felt her face cruple with tears, but her rage was bigger. It forced them down again. She dared not to look at the ranger. Now she´d said it. Now her secret was out. And she knew it would be his duty to take her to Barak and send her away. But she wouldn´t go home. Not like this, no! And if this ranger thought he could tell her off, well he was wrong! Defensively she stuck her chin up at him and stared into his face,

[ May 26, 2003: Message edited by: Manardariel ]