[Nurumaiel]

Robin awoke and sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She didn't want to wake up. Couldn't she just sleep until all the troubles had passed? Climbing out of bed, she got dressed and went into the other room to have breakfast.

She saw many of the hobbits were already awake, but Dinodas wasn't there. "Where's Dinodas?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

Nobody seemed to know, so Robin decided he was just sleeping in. She sat down to have some breakfast. She was hungry enough to eat anything... well... As she looked outside and saw the trees covered in snow, she thought differently. "I'm hungry enough to eat almost anything," she said quietly, not wishing to be overheard. "I wouldn't eat a tree."

But she was overheard, for one of the hobbit lads burst out laughing. She grinned back and began to dig into her food.

Robin was beginning to feel seriously worried when breakfast ended and Dinodas still had not shown up. She stood up and began pacing back and forth, and then happened to glance out the window. With a cry that startled the others, she ran to the door of the inn and flung it open. Dinodas was trudging through the snow towards the inn, holding a stack of branches in his arms.

"Dinodas Green, what were you doing out there?" demanded Robin angrily. "It's dangerous! What if you had been killed?"

"I'd have been killed sooner or later if I didn't go out," said Dinodas tiredly, setting down his branches and sitting down. "I'm nearly out of arrows, and I'm figuring we might be attacked by something soon, so I went and borrowed an axe from the innkeeper and cut myself some good branches. After I get some breakfast into myself I'm going to get out my knife and turn these branches into fine arrows."

"Why didn't you tell someone you were going?" Robin asked.

"I did," Dinodas protested. "No one was awake except Bullroarer and I told him where I was going. He didn't like it at first, but finally permitted me to go, after I told him why I was going where I was going."

"'Why I was going where I was going,'" said Robin. "You need to start making more sense, Dinodas. Just make sure you tell Bullroarer to tell me next time."

"Do you worry about me, Robin?" asked Dinodas with an impish grin.

"I worry about everyone in this company," replied Robin.

"Just like a girl."

"Be quiet and eat," said Robin, sitting down. "You could have taken me along."

"Too late," said Dinodas, and he said no more until his head finished his breakfast.