[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

**** Harad/Umbar - Gramil ****

Gramil shook his head, smiling at the thought of the king as his booming voice disappeared down the hallway. He rubbed his shoulder where King Fuinur had heartily pounded it on his way out the door. 'As friendly as a puppy,' Gramil thought, 'And twice the trouble! No doubt Seth has his hands full in this playground.'

For so this port would seem to the untethered boistrous King, released from the daily grind of ruling his kingdom.

Of course, King Fuinur could find action in an empty field of coffee beans. And had, Gramil recalled, grateful their parents had never found them out. King Fuinur's father had been a forgiving man, indulgent with his son, prone to saying 'boys will be boys - the rascals!' ruffling Fuinur's hair. Gramil's father was more firm, and never had Gramil racked up more nights without dinner than when Fuinur visited their plantation. Trouble was, he could make the worst ideas sound like a grand adventure. Like the time Fuinur had talked him into trying out that catapult.

"It'll be just like flying! You first! Then I'll go." Fuinur had said eagerly. Fuinur had been disappointed with the lack of distance they'd achieved. Gramil hadn't even cleared the coffee fences, let alone made it to the haystack. By the time Fuinur picked Gramil off the ground and they'd pushed the coffee fences back - sort of - into place, Fuinur had a masterful plan to use a donkey to pull the catapult back further, to get a higher trajectory. But Gramil wasn't willing to give it a second go, to Fuinur's vast disappointment.

[ October 30, 2002: Message edited by: Marileangorifurnimaluim ]