[maikafanawen]

The sun rose higher as the company prepared to leave. Ani Dao resolved not to fret about delay any longer and just accept the decisions made by Bali. She trusted his judgment. She walked down around Hobbiton, looking aimlessly for something she might need on the journey, If we ever start it. Ani Dao immediately shook the thought from her head and walked out of the town down the road to a little pond with a willow’s branches breaking the mirror surface. She sat beneath it and watched a few hobbit children play on the shore opposite her.

Her mind wandered to thoughts of Mirkwood. The warrior had been thinking of it often, ever since she agreed to go on this expedition. She remembered her house suddenly like a revival. She saw herself wandering through the intricately decorated hallways, glancing at the murals of their history on the walls. Clothed in the garb of her family’s status and not the warrior clothing she donned now, she glided gracefully across the smooth stone floor. She would wander out to the patios and the fountains, shadowed by the dense forest’s canopy. Ani Dao envisioned once meeting at the largest, most exquisite fountain with a friend of hers. They had planned to explore the forest on their own that night. Things had taken their turn against them and they had a nasty conflict with spiders. The two elflings returned safely in the end, but adventure scared. It had been the first time Ani Dao had tasted danger. It thrilled her, and made her yearn for more. Not a hundred years later, she had left.

Startled suddenly by a splash of water which turned out to be a rock thrown by some young hobbit nearby, she realized that she had dozed a bit. The sun was higher now, about mid-day. Hungry, Ani Dao made her way back to the Green Dragon for a spot of lunch, and news on any improvements, or resolutions.

[ February 23, 2003: Message edited by: maikafanawen ]