[Amanaduial the archer]

Aman couldn't breathe as her head whipped around to stare at Snaveling, her hand coming up short in front of the horse's muzzle and her breath catching in her throat. "You...you would..." she struggled for breath and looked back at the horse, the most beautiful of it's sort that she had ever seen and gaped at Snaveling in a most unladylike manner. "Snaveling, I couldn't possibly take such a gift."

"Why not?" he replied, simply. Aman gave a short laugh. "Snaveling, he is..."

"Please do."

Aman looked across at him, uncomprehending, puzzlement in her eyes, and also a little hurt. Snaveling, this isn't fair: why mislead me with such a gift when I know it is not me who you love...

"Amanaduial, you showed me kindness when no one was prepared to, not even Roa, even when you did not need to. You could have thrown me out or handed me over to the Shirriff of the Shire, or to the Bree council - but you did the opposite. You actually tried to understand me. No one has ever done that before!" Snaveling's emphatic words almost laughed and he smiled widely across at her.

"It was the king's gift to you..." she replied softly.

"Aye, and not the first or last, Aman. This...this horse, this magnificent creature, is the finest steed I have ridden, the finest steed almost anyone could ever claim to have ridden. Think, Aman," Snaveling's voice was honeyed and smooth, wonderfully persuasive. "the finest horse in the West, descended from the line of the Meeras. Given to you, by me."

Aman had forgotten how to breathe as her eyes lingered on the horse, then, trembling, reached towards it's face. The beast watched her sombrely, great dark eyes conveying more than human intelligence, before it reached forward and deigned to touch her hand. His fur was soft as silk on leather and when he snorted Aman felt the breath of the Lords of the West sigh across her fingers.

"Who could name such an animal..."

"You." Given to you, by me...By me...." Aman turned to look back at the Man as he leaned nonchalantly against the side of the stall, his arms folded across the fine material of his black shirt as he watched her, a tender half smile on his darksome features, cast as they were half in shadow. His eyes glittered mischieviously although the stables were not dark, and Aman saw every complex facet of Snaveling both simplified and amplified in that instant into one perfect being as she watched him. He smiled again, blinking and breaking the spell back to reality - but only slightly. "What do you say, Mistress Rohan," he drawled softly, using the name he had once called her. "Will you accept my gift?"

Aman didn't reply, watching him with a delighted secret smile on her impish features. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back slightly, trying to remember the song that nagged at the corner of her mind: the song Snaveling had once sung, in a happy moment months ago in the Inn. The words crept around her mind and she grasped a few, her voice strengthening from a hesitant hum to a pleasant murmur as she sang the familiar, old tune:

"A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever...."

Snaveling had straightened up as she sang, his face dawning with a thousand suns in recognition and he moved forward slightly, his lips moving in time with hers. As he came towards her, Aman's hand moved up to his face, and his inadvertantly did the same. Eyes closing slightly, Aman's head tipped on one side as Snaveling leant his face down towards hers...

The great whinny from behind made Aman leap and spin around to see 'Falmar speed out of the stable. A thousand ferocious mental curses flew after the horse - and after only a split-second's hesitation, so did Aman, her skirts held up about her as she pursued the mare. "'Falmar! Rochfalmar!" Her cries did little to mute the whirling of her thoughts, a mad flurry of hope and regret and panic at what had almost happened there, and always the song in the background.

And here by thee will I sing and sigh,
For ever and for ever...