[piosenniel]

Pio barely raised her head when Maura came in to carry Cami to the wagon. Holly popped in, then, for the briefest of moments before leaving with her Da. The little one climbed on the bed and crawled carefully over to where the twins were sleeping. ‘Bye babies,’ she heard the tiny voice say. ‘See you a’morrow.’ She bent down and gave them each a kiss on the cheek. ‘I’m wearing my pretty dress,’ she whispered near their ears. Pio woke briefly and opening her eyes, smiled at the solemn faced little girl.

‘Bye, Holly’ she said waving her fingers at the retreating Hobbit, descending carefully from the bed. ‘We’ll see you tomorrow at the Party.’

‘Party! Party!’ came the high voiced, singsong chant as Holly ran off to join Cami and Maura in the wagon.

It was much later in the evening when Pio woke up again. Some dark dream had held sway with her, and she found it difficult to find her way from out it. The images were vague, threatening, and she felt helpless as events unrolled around her. Her arms were empty in the dream, and she could not find what she needed for them. Her sword was at her side in this perilous fantasy, and she drew it, but it was not enough to fill the aching emptiness, or push back the encroaching shadows.

She woke up with a start, her hand reaching instinctively for her children. And breathed deeply when she found them, sleeping soundly at her side. Alone in the quiet room, she sat slowly up in bed, testing the pain in her leg. It had grown less, and she eased it gently to the floor, standing up carefully her hand on the headboard of the bed for balance and support. The discomfort was tolerable now, and her head no longer swam as it had before.

Pio took a few hesitant steps around the room, testing out the leg. At the end of the bed, on the old wooden trunk there, fresh clothes had been laid out for her. ‘Gilly must have gone back to the Inn for these,’ she said, picking up the shirt from the stack. Pulling off the night gown someone had put her in, she pulled the shirt over her head, then pulled on a pair of breeches. She scooped the twins into her arms and walking slowly, exited the bedroom.

Amaranthas was the first to see the pale faced Elf walking stiffly out to the front room. She clucked her tongue at the apparition, but the look in Pio’s faced warned her away. ‘I am just going to sit out here for a while, Amaranthas. I shall go mad if I have to stay in bed a moment longer.’

Gilly came in, bearing a bouquet of evening blossoms in a tall vase from the flower garden, a look of concern on her face as she saw Pio struggling to bend her leg and sit in the chair. She placed the vase securely on the top of the writing desk, and rushed over to her side. ‘Here, let me have those babies, while you get yourself down!’ She made to put them in the basket by Amaranthas’ chair, but Pio shook her head no, saying she wanted the babies kept near her for now. As Gilly drew near and placed the babies by Pio’s chair, the Elf reached up and grasped her by the wrist.

‘I have had a dream,’ she said clearly, ‘that has made me uneasy. I know this will sound strange to you, but I want you to go to the Inn now, and in my bedroom, laid out in the chest to the left of the door, get my sword for me, my baldric and my knives wrapped in the soft piece of deer leather. Bring also my vambraces and my light mail shirt. And bring ‘Falmar, tied to the back of the cart. I am disquieted this evening, and I wish to see the night got safely through for me and my own.’

Gilly was half tempted to tell the Elf it was a passing dark fancy from her fevered state. But she had caught the edge of fear from Pio’s voice. Grabbing her cloak, she hurried out into the warm, safe-seeming Shire evening and made for the Inn.

[ June 02, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]