[Child of the 7th Age]

‘And what business would it be of ours to care about the fate of those people in the Castle. Or yours, for that matter. What good will it do you?’

At first Andreth didn't respond to Holly. Why should she trust the hobbit or her friend enough to give an honest answer? Maybe, it would be safer just to shrug off the questions, since she scarcely knew these folk.

Yet then, why did she feel as if she'd come to a fork in the road, with one path leading in one direction, and the other going off someplace different. And that her choice of which way to go had importance not only for herself, but to the company as a whole.

Andreth thought it might come down to the basic question of trust. She'd seen so little of that within this band since they'd left the Inn. They'd been badly divided, spending more time complaining than learning how to work together. The Elf’s hidden anger had spilled over everyone, and set the whole camp to bickering.

Now that she thought about it, she wasn't much better than the rest. For all her high sounding talk, she'd kept to herself and eyed the others with suspicion, silently berating them for not caring enough about the people inside the Castle. But how could they care as much as she did, when they'd never seen as she had seen, night after night?

She was certain of one thing. Shooting an arrow or unsheathing a knife would not, by itself, bring them victoy. Unless their band stood together, backing each other as friends, they would never survive the doom of the Castle and those inside would remain imprisoned.

Yet, it was one thing to make a speech about folk putting aside differences. It was quite another to try and do it yourself. Yet if someone didn't start trusting someone, this adventure would end in disaster.

She quickly came to three decisions. Gandalf had chosen Poppy for a special task. She'd trust that choice and offer the hobbit any help she could. She'd keep chiselling away at Nardol who often seemed more like a block of ice than a real person. Somewhere, underneath all that, there must be more going on than what he showed to the world.

Finally, she would try to gain the confidence of Holly and Bird. She had no idea why they'd come on this journey, but at least they understood what it meant to be a good friend. Not that any of this was going to be easy! She'd never known anyone like Bird who could simply turn around and fly away if they didn't like what you were saying.

Andreth leaned cautiously over to Holly and pulled her close so no one could overhear, "You are a hobbit, so you should understand this. Adella, the mother in the Castle, long deceased, is kin to me. The descent came through her older brother. My father is the only living heir of the family, since there were no surviving Elven lines on the other side, at least not in Middle-earth."

"I've lived with that knowledge since I was a child. I've heard many sad tales about the Castle, and sometimes at night Adela's children visit us in dreams. It is not a pleasant sight."

Andreth hestiated for a moment, struggling to find the words to tell her story. "So you see it does have special meaning, and, if I was impatient, I'm sorry. But it's hard for me to be calm about this. Our tale is well known in Bree among our nosey neighbors. We've heard no end of jibes and taunts about the family who has ghost relations and who carries a curse upon their head."

[ December 22, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]