[piosenniel]

Amanaduial's post

Aman’s eyelids flicked up suddenly and she sat up carefully in bed, awoken by some instinct that told her something was wrong. Apparently an instinct that worked purely on gut feeling or was triggered by birdsong though, the Innkeeper thought, sleepily annoyed, for at first she couldn’t hear anything. Then the soft murmur of a man’s voice, followed by the smooth, quiet melody of another, followed by the click of the door closing and a key turning in the lock, sounds almost inaudible if you weren’t listening for them, told Aman why she hadn’t been able to hear anything, and with a jolt she came to her senses. To be sure, elves moved silently, and Uien was one of the best at it.

Now fully awake, the Innkeeper grabbed her long, loose cloak off the end of the bed and swung it over her bed-clothes as she ran across her dark bedroom, the shutters still closed. Tripping on something left on the floor (Aman had never really been a big one for cleaning up – she simply didn’t let Cook into her room now), Aman added doing a quick sweep around her room before Pio saw the state of it to her ever-growing list of things to do as she stumbled, losing a few seconds. Then, making her way by touch and by memory of where she had left things and where things usually were, the Innkeeper ran down the stairs as quietly as she could without wakening the Inn’s denizens and guests, reaching the Common Room…to the faint sound of hooves.

Aman sighed and slowed down, realising she had indeed missed Uien and Falowik. Going towards the window which looked out on the bend of the path, still shuttered in the dark room, Aman brushed past the large central table, her fingers sweeping lightly across it, before the encountered something and stopped its passage. Picking up the letter inquisitively from its neat perch between two salt shakers, Aman opened the shutters of the window she had been going towards, and in the dawn light she read the flowing, elegant hand in which her name was inscribed on the front, immediately recognising it. Fumbling in her coat pocket as and glancing after the riders, now trotting into the middle distance, the Innkeeper slit the envelope open with a pen knife, and unfurled the letter inside it, smiling slightly.

She read the letter through twice, her eyes taking in every word of the even, slanting script first quickly, then more slowly, drinking in every word with a fond sadness, a smile hovering around her lips, especially when she read the part about ‘not even knowing whether I could tie my own shoelaces’. She realised how much she was going to miss Uien, but at the same time, her heart swelled with pride for the elf in the quest that she was going to do, along with Falowik. Looking up once more at the now empty path, Aman raised a hand in silent salute, smiling sadly. “Good luck, both of you, good luck and gods speed,” she murmured, adding afterwards with a slightly wider smile, “You’re a lucky man, Falowik, take care of her.”

Although she was not sure if she would have managed to communicate to the pair in mind speech, as she and Pio could, she somehow felt that they had heard her.

Well, I’m certainly not going to get back to sleep now… the Innkeeper rose from her perch on the windowsill, disappearing into her room for a few moments, and coming out afterwards fully clothed in a soft, cotton dress the colour of cornflowers, its skirt rustling slightly with a light, efficient sound. Making her way around the Common Room, Aman opened all the windows, woke the sleepers who she had managed to miss last night, and began to prepare for a new day, humming quietly under her breath (not loud enough to wake those upstairs, of course) a tune she had heard Uien once singing to the horses to calm and soothe them…

~*~

“Cook, is there anything left of breakfast?”

Aman called this from the kitchen doorway, popping her head around into the kitchen from the rather crowded Common Room. As she did so, a great cloud of steam rose from the sink as Buttercup left the bacon pan in to wash. Cook raised her eyes skywards and Buttercup winced.

“Well, we could have some more bacon, but now…”

“Sorry, Cook – ” Buttercup started sheepishly, before it was waved away with the steam by Cook.

“Just dry up and set some more on, please.” Buttercup hastened to do so, and Cook turned to Aman, her plump face rosy. “I don’t know, so many things to do of late.”

Aman nodded, grinning, opening her mouth to start speaking…before stopping, lips still parted as she stared through the cloud of steam out of the window. Good grief, it couldn’t be, surely… Darting to the window, the Innkeeper peered out quickly, looking around…just in time to see a rather mangy, shaggy rear end disappear sharply around the corner. Getting the unnerving feeling she was being watched, Aman looked up into the tree outside the kitchen window. She almost laughed.

“Getting paranoid, Aman…thinking you’re being watched, and thinking you’ve seen a wolf….in the Shire? I ask you…” Aman murmured, feeling foolish. Cook raised her eyebrows in askance.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, nothing Cook, nothing at all,” Aman replied quickly , then, hoping to avoid suspicion of her suspicions, she added, “Just…just tired that’s all.”

Vinca nodded, satisfied, and turned back to put on the bacon and some more toast. Rubbing her eyes, Aman went back into the Common Room to deal with the customers and, she hoped, get herself a cup of coffee...

[ November 03, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]