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Old 12-23-2009, 07:24 PM   #23
Durelin
Estelo dagnir, Melo ring
 
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Join Date: Oct 2002
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Durelin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Durelin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Karl caught up with the dog to find it staring and sniffing in the direction of one of the barrows in the Downs. It had caught the scent of something, and Karl now could smell it as well.

"Duke," he called, "shut up and get away from there. I'm not bringing you home again if you go after a skunk."

With one more urging, the dog gave up its sniffing. Karl grumbled under his breath about Duke being "worthless" as the dog attempted to follow him from ahead rather than behind. He had a single rabbit in the sack over his shoulder. He had almost had a bird...

Since the cur had broken the edge of the forest into the Downs, Karl decided one rabbit was enough to last him. He was comfortable in the Old Forest -- though obviously he avoided it at night -- but the Barrow-downs made him shake and feel like a hundred eyes were on him.

So he stopped dead in his tracks when he thought he heard a voice. Duke gave a short bark in response and Karl hastily shushed him. The man scanned around him, focusing especially on the barrows, but saw nothing. While he was straining to find whatever it was that was causing goosebumps to rise on his skin, Duke took off toward one of the barrows a good way off.

"Duke! Get back here! Duke!"

~*~

Edwin heard Karl berating his dog, and breathed a little easier for the moment. Part of him wished to leap out of the barrow and beg the man to take him back to town, but the rest of him was more concerned with what the man might think of a boy in the middle of the Barrow-downs smelling like a skunk...and what the others might think when the man brought him home.

He steeled himself, trying not to inhale too much and keeping his eyes on his feet until he was sure Karl and Duke had moved on. He rushed out of the mound, kicking up dust and stone. Perhaps he could find somewhere to wash up...though he dared not enter the Old Forest. If he managed to get lost in the Downs, he could only imagine how long he might find himself wandering that tangled, unfriendly mess of trees.

Last edited by Durelin; 07-22-2011 at 12:36 PM.
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