[maikafanawen]

Ani Dao awoke with a start taking in her dim surroundings. She had made camp the night before under a willow by a very small, slow moving river. She glanced up at the stars and interpreted that dawn was only an hour away. Her breath uncurled from her thin lips in swirls of mist verifying the cold temperature of her surroundings. The fact that she had half-elven blood, three generations old running through her veins was visible only through her red hair. The elf stood up and rearranged her disheveled clothing which consisted of a green wool tunic, the arms of which could be removed in summer temperatures, forest green pants covered halfway to the knee by beige boots, and a leather vest and belt which held her array of throwing knives. She let her deeply curled, long red hair lay about her shoulders and down her back to keep her ears warm. Picking up her traveling blanket from her make-shift bed, she adjusted her bow on her back overtop of her quiver, and draped her food sack over her neck and left shoulder and made her way out, following the little river downstream.

As she walked she thought of her life with her family in Mirkwood, and the life she had led as an elven hunter. She had been the best female in her class and almost best over all if not for the haughty elf, Legolas. She laughed remembering Thranduil’s prized son. She then remembered the decision she had made to leave and wander Middle-Earth on her own. Most of them had disapproved, but she left all the same. Her new life suited her well anyways.

Realizing that she was very hungry and hadn’t eaten since the previous morning, Ani Dao stopped and spied a small rabbit making its way down to the river a little ways from her. Thanking her good luck, she slipped into a crouch and brought her bow around in front of her. Easing one of her green feathered arrows out of its quiver she notched it and took aim. The rabbit was scared away just then by three riders emerging through the forest just between Ani Dao and the rabbit. The leader of the three nudged his horse slowly across the river and bade the other two follow. Since food was the only thing on the elf hunter’s mind, she decided to follow the three men? to see if their destination would prove well to satisfy Ani Dao’s stomache. Running swiftly and silently, pushing herself to keep up with the horse, the red-haired elf followed in the wake of the three horsemen.

They broke the forest in a rush and galloped furiously up an open road, leaving Ani Dao to stand baffled in their dust. At least there’s a road to follow now and not three mad horsemen. She began to walk up the road and peaked the hill to overlook a brilliant green valley. She spotted a nestled town on the sides of some hill and scattered homes that appeared to made of round doors that led right into holes in the ground. It was then that she had realized she was in the Shire. The famous home of Frodo Nine-fingers. She laughed in spite of her discovery and began to walk down the road.

She eventually came to an Inn called the Green Dragon. Deciding that a good mug of ale, and a room for the night wouldn’t break her she opened the door and went inside. A pungent smell of food and pipe-weed greeted her as the brisk morning air blended with the warm scent of the Inn. Chairs stood on tables and the floor, which had been swept the night before was bereft of any crumbs or dust. Silently complementing the Inn Keeper of the order of the Inn she shut the door behind her and went to get a room. The bar held a few early morning people, a colorful assortment of hobbits and dwarves engaged in conversations, slurred with dreary, early morning awareness. Ani Dao spied the Inn Keeper displacing the chairs from their nightly stance upon the tables and setting them with a thud on the rather clean floors. She approached the pregnant woman and greeted her with a bow.

“Greetings, Inn Keeper, my name is Ani Dao and I would like a room for one, perhaps two nights here.” She gave the best travel-worn smile she could muster and received one from the Inn Keeper.

“You are welcome, traveler. I shall arrange for one now. I am Piosenniel, by the way, Pio if you will.” She smiled warmly and got Ani Dao a room. Deciding as well she was hungry, she ordered a bowl of soup and some ale. After devouring the most palatable meal she’s had since Dale, she made her route to her room, discarded her equiptment, boots, and vest, and slept away the rest of the morning and afternoon, not to awaken until later that night.