[Nerwen]

The voice was not too low for Moonflower's super-keen hearing. She recognised those cloying, would-be musical tones immediately. The padding of the fleabitten hound who followed her aunt everywhere only confirmed her fears.

"Auntie Astalder! Here!" she gasped. All Moonflower could think of was that her family was looking for her, trying to take back her hard-won independence.

She shrank back into her shadowy corner, hoping to escape the notice of her least-favourite relative. Astalder had always pretended to sympathise with her blind niece, but never missed a chance to remind her of her handicap. Worse, Moonflower suspected that her aunt knew all about her unhappy love for the Balrog Slayer– knew, and secretly laughed at her.

Only when she heard the door close behind her aunt did Moonflower allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief. It was shortlived: Aunt Astalder might have gone, but her other problem remained.

She desperately needed someone to explain to her what was going on. For her, invisibility had no meaning; she did not understand why a simple hobbit's drunken singing had made a shocked silence fall over the common room. Yet she just knew, somehow, that danger was in the air.

Moonflower rose to her feet and made her way to the mysterious individual her aunt had rebuked.

Standing over the slumped figure, she increased the strength of her psychic "vision". With her power at its height, she could see more clearly than those with working eyes– but it was a terrible strain. For now, she made do with dimly recognising the outline of a hooded head and... could it be a beard?

Moonflower fought down her disappointment. For a moment there she had thought she sensed the presence of a kindred soul, but clearly this being was no Elf.

Still, she reasoned, anyone who annoyed her aunt so much couldn't be all bad.

Moonflower cleared her throat.

"Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo," she said. [Sindarin. = "Hi there."]