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Old 06-08-2008, 07:01 AM   #133
littlemanpoet
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Edge of Faerie
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littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Rowenna

Excused from the tent by Æðel and Modtryth, Rowenna went first to the latrine before returning to her duties at the baker. To her left Léof, Thorden and Eodwine were working on the animal pens. Rowenna saw Garstan with Lys; Garstan was standing with his hands on his hips, looking toward the front road as if looking for someone. Beyond the ruin was Harreld at his temporary smithy, and there was Ginna sitting opposite him! Rowenna had thought that little flirtation had ended, but perhaps not. So the girl was back at it again, which seemed odd considering how many other men there were to choose between. Maybe there was more to that than had seemed so at first.

The latrine was back in an outlier of the scar, hidden from view on all sides by boulder and dirt and bracken - unless someone scrabbled up to the slope on his stomach on the other side and peeked down. It was quiet back here, maybe too quiet.

On her way back to the kitchen, she came close to one of the outbuildings of the ruin which had escaped destruction. It was hard to tell from the outside what it might be used for, whether as a meat curing shed or tool shed, or a crib for seed or harvested grain. This one smelled odd, which suggested it could have been the meat curing shed. The door was shut. She tested it, and found it unlocked. She opened the door and was struck by a terrible stench. She plugged nose and squinted through suddenly teary eyes into the darkness.

It was a dead body. Her gorge rose but she forced it down. It was half decomposed, half eaten. There was a small hole in one corner of the shed through which animals had apparently had access to ready food. It had been a man. She pushed the door shut and rushed away stumbling, and fell to all fours, panting for good air. The crabgrass growing in patches around her smelled sweet by comparison to what she had confronted.

Eodwine would need to be told. After regaining her composure, she got up and went straight to the animal pens under construction.

Last edited by littlemanpoet; 06-13-2008 at 09:51 AM.
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