"So, where is it that you hail from?"
A vaugely amused grin touched Ariane's face for a moment. She waited to reply this time until swallowing down her last bite of food, clear to speak without sputtering all over the table. "Ah, here, there, everywhere," she said with a hint of a melodramatic flurish, mindlessly poking at a couple of small squares of meat on her plate. "I was born near Bree, in this area, really. Not the Shire, but you know what I mean.
"I suppose I'm not essentially from Bree, considering I've lived in a few different places, Gondor for a while recently. But then, perhaps it doesn't really matter."
She grinned. "I don't need to ask you where you're from, though."
Setting aside her fork, she picked a bit at some of the remaining gravy left on the plate before finally finishing up the bits and remains left and pushing her plate aside to follow Astilwen's example. A good large meal, she thought, was one of the underspoken wonders of the world.
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