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Old 07-16-2006, 09:31 AM   #726
Aylwen Dreamsong
The Melody of Misery
 
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: The Island of Conclusions (You get there by jumping!)...
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Aylwen Dreamsong has just left Hobbiton.
As the sun rose further into mid-morning in Minas Tirith, Bellyn would not be found in the Seventh Star. She left after picking at her breakfast meal, and she walked down past the fourth gate of the city, into the second tier of Minas Tirith. Bellyn knew what she was looking for, but the memories of the streets mixed and blurred in her mind, and she lost her way twice before reaching her destination.

Before her stood a wooden house, slightly dilapidated but in better condition than most of the homes that Bellyn had seen since arriving in Minas Tirith. It looked small, but in Bellyn’s memories it had perfectly fit three people; two loving parents, one small child. Now it only sheltered two.

Bellyn walked up to the door. She knocked. Her heart pounded, a loud drumming in her ears, as she heard light footsteps approaching the door. As it opened, Bellyn had to readjust her line of sight, for the person answering the knock could not have been taller than four feet.

“Hello?” The little boy questioned, his wide eyes matching the mahogany brown of his hair. Bellyn bit her lip; he looked so much like his father. He would not have recognized her, Bellyn knew it. She had left so long ago, when the boy had been less than a year old.

“Hello, my name is…” Bellyn’s voice trailed off as a second set of footsteps could be heard. “Rosa…”

“Oh my,” the voice was vaguely familiar. The woman now standing in the doorway let her hand fly to her mouth as she gasped. She then threw her arms out and enveloped Bellyn in a tight embrace. “Dear Bella, it has been so long! Come in, come in! Oh my! Bella! You have grown up!”

Bellyn followed Rosa into her home, and the little boy, Hallas, followed quietly. The house was smaller than Bellyn had remembered it, but then again, Bellyn was six years older than the last time she had been inside. Rosa led Bellyn to a seat at a large table in the front room, where it appeared that Hallas had still been eating a late breakfast. Rosa looked at Bellyn again, teary-eyed.

“You look just like…” Rosa sniffed, thinking of her late husband.

“It has been too long, Rosa,” Bellyn wanted to cry, she felt so overwhelmed. It had been one thing to enter Minas Tirith, to see all the sights, but quite another to see the family of her deceased oldest brother. “But everything looks the same.”

“How did you get here, Bella?” Rosa inquired, trying to busy herself by tidying up the dining table. “You still live in Rohan? Where is your father? What of your brother?”

“Father is out, mapping. He always is. You know that,” Bellyn replied. Rosa poured Bellyn a glass of water. Bellyn sipped before continuing her story. “Calen is still in Edoras.”

“Then how did you get here?” Rosa asked once more. Hallas had stopped eating, and instead stared intently at Bellyn. Bellyn ignored his gaze. He looked too much like his father.

“I met a man named Liornung. We followed a man named Ædegard, who was, in turn, following a crazy blacksmith who believed he was Amroth. Indeed, though, Mellondu is Amroth! Then we met Elves. We rode closer and closer to Gondor, searching for Amroth’s lost love. Then we somehow met up with Mellondu’s sister and a band of rangers and thieves,” Bellyn chose not to tell Rosa about the run-in with the dark elf of the swamps, but instead skipped forward in the story. “And here we are, still searching for Nimrodel.”

Rosa gaped at Bellyn. Hallas laughed.

"That is quite the story, Bella," Rosa scoffed.

"No, it is true!"

“True? An unmarried woman? Traveling with a band of men?” Rosa shook her head. “It is a good thing you are home, Bella. We have room here, you can stay until we get word to Calen to come take you home.”

“What?” It was Bellyn’s turn to shake her head. “I have to go on! I cannot stay here, Rosa, you know why. There are too many memories here. I need to go with them, and help Amroth.”

“What could you do to help? Bella, we cannot have you traveling with a group of men, it is not done. You can stay with us,” Rosa was adamant. Bellyn stood from her seat and walked around the table to where Rosa stood. She embraced Rosa and then kissed Hallas on the forehead before moving to the door.

“I will see you again,” Bellyn said before leaving the home of her brother’s wife. She walked quickly away from the house.

She passed the third and fourth gates once more, through the winding streets until she had once again found the Seventh Star Inn. She saw Liornung…she saw Leafa and Ædegard…she saw Nethwador.

“Three days truly is too long,” murmured Ædegard, just as Bellyn walked in.

“Did you see your sister?” Liornung asked in a low voice, and Bellyn nodded with a faint smile as she sat next to him.

“I am ready to leave, as well,” Bellyn agreed with Ædegard, who looked at her questioningly.

“Bellyn, you are in a safe place now,” said Ædegard, sitting next to Leafa. “You should stay here, where you can stay safe.”

“You could stay with your sister,” Liornung added.

Bellyn’s brows furrowed. They had traveled this far, and now they planned to leave her behind? They sounded just like Rosa.

“You want to leave me behind as well,” Bellyn murmured. “Because I am a lady. You have so much loyalty to help Amroth, but no loyalty to the women who have traveled so far with you? What about Leafa?”

Last edited by Aylwen Dreamsong; 09-13-2006 at 06:40 PM.
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