[Amanaduial the archer]

The rider clattered through the street on her large, brown stallion, 17 hands but as gaunt as the rider herself. As he rode, several of the townspeople stood to tell the rider that she must not ride through so when there were children playing, but their fears were soon put to rest, for this rider was more than a little skilled in 'tricksy horsemanship' as it was often called. As he rode, the children who had been playing shrieked in delight- the rider made his horse raise his feet and legs high as he trotted lightly through the cobbled streets, letting the children run beneath him. A smile lit his thin features to hear their laughing and the sounds of the merriness caused a woman from the Inn to poke her head out from an upstairs window. The rider waved jauntily to her, slowing his horse and allowing him to walk in a more usual way, and the young assistant Innkeeper grinned back.

"Miss Dreamsong! Didn't I tell you I'd be back in town?"

"Not this town, you great lummox, Tar!"

The rider held one gloved hand to his chest, a look of immense hurt on his face and he pretended to slip from his horse as if shot, making Aylwen gasp, before catching himself at the last moment, with trouble even for him, and completed his unique dismount a little more clumsily than intended. Aylwen laughed and ran down the stairs.

By the time she reached the door of the Inn, the rider was hastily brushing himself down. Aylwen leant on the doorframe, watching him, and eventually he smiled sheepishly and bowed to her a little, sweeping an imaginary hat of his dark, floppy hair. Aylwen grinned and shook her head, and Tar moved forward to hug her lightly. Aylwen moved back first, shocked at how bony his hug had been. "What's happened to you?"

Tar smiled wanly. "I went on a diet, of a sort?"

"What sort?"

"A sort of...forced sort. But that's a story for another day. Anyway," he rushed on at her shocked expression, not willing to answer questions here and now, in the middle of the street, and held open his arms again, as if about to say 'ta da!'. "I'm back, alright? Rode all this way to see my favorite cousin, and she keeps me standing here like a fool..."

The young assistant Innkeeper laughed. "Tar, I would invite you in, but it's...well, it's a little chaotic around here. As I'm the assistant Innkeeper-" She stopped suddenly, eyeing Tar with suspicion. "Hang on, how did you know I was here?"

"I have my ways, little cousin. Anyway, its chaotic because...?"

"Party- for Child and myself, as we're new to the Inn," She said, proudly.

"Child...?" Tar was getting more mystified by the minute. Aylwen shot him the exasperated look that had always quelled Tar as a child, and he put his hands up. "Alright, alright, I won't ask any more questions. How can I help?"

Aylwen's face became more relieved, and she smiled at Tar, still business-like, but gratified at the offer of help. She put on a mock serious look and voice for a moment, wagging a finger at him. "I should think so too- keeping me here, distracting me- for shame, Tar!" As he laughed, she joined in, then beckoned him in, to do some job.

Tar gazed around the street before he went in, and at his horse, who was standing, bemused, among the enchanted children, stroking his fur and reaching up to his mane. Aylwen had always been a good friend to him- she wasn't actually a blood cousin, more an incredibly close friend. She had taken him in when he was just a tall, lanky kid, helping him out with the other kids when they laughed at him. But he wouldn't tell her why he was so thin- not yet. Turning and ducking under the door, her followed her in.