[Child of the 7th Age]

Maura pulled the door open and walked slowly over towards the hearth, throwing his body haphazardly into a chair and stretching out his legs. Cami went behind him and leaned over, gently massaging the muscles in his neck."

"Tired?"

He nodded slowly. "I spent half the night patrolling the roads with Frodo and Hob, and then all morning with Rose, teaching several of the younger lads how to handle a bow. There are so few of us here who've had any kind of training or experience in fighting. And we can't even use the two people who have the most skill of all."

"Maura Tuk. We've discussed this before. There's no way the shirriff would let Pio or Mith come striding onto the party field with a bow or a sword. He'd assume they were up to no good."

Maura began muttering a few choice words under his breath concerning the shirriff and his myopic vision, and how it would serve the fellow right if the bandits came and personally carted him off. Then, seeing the tired look on Cami's face, he stopped short, and turned to look hard at her.

"You don't look good. Ever since that week in Buckland, you've looked tired. You're not eating. Maybe I should have made the journey on my own."

"Don't be silly, Maura. I'm fine. That time in Buckland and the Marish was beautiful, and the trip was helpful. At least we got some information about what these prowlers look like."

"That may be," Maura nodded, "but you've left your plate untouched again. I'm going to cook you up a fresh batch of eggs, nice sunny side eggs."

Visions of unpleasant yellow yolks danced through Cami's head. She didn't know why the healers called it morning sickness. As far as she could tell, she was sick morning, noon, and night. But Pio had told her it wasn't unusual, and it should pass in another month when all her energy and appetite would return in full force. The news about several kidnappings in other parts of the Shire, mostly in the Marish, had also done little to increase her appetite. But at least it had been quiet in Hobbiton and Bywater.

She sat dutifully in front of the eggs Maura had fixed for her, using her fork to push them from one side of the plate to the other. Meanwhile, she nibbled on a small cracker in hopes of diverting her husbands' attention. When he turned his back momentarily, she managed to spoon one of the eggs into Holly's mouth, so there was at least a small dent on the plate.

Once or twice Maura turned and gave her a very strange look. He seemed uncertain what to do, but finally spoke, "Promise me something, Cami. Promise me you'll go see Pio and have her check you over to make sure you're alright."

Cami beamed back. She could readily agree to that, since it was something she was already doing on her own. "I'll go this afternoon, and I'll ask the boys to make sure and come for dinner."

"Good. Could you take Holly with you? I promised to go over later and look at some knives one of the deputies found stashed away in an old cupboard in the Locks."

Cami nodded in agreement, and the two kissed goodbye. For the moment,the mystery of the leftover eggs was forgotten, as they both set out to take care of business. They had no idea that the afternoon would turn out to be drastically different than what they had planned for.

[ April 09, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]