[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Gilly

“Ah this is much better!” Gilly sighed as she helped Benia through the wood. “Fresh air, new day…. I’ll tell you Miss Benia; I’m not so good at waiting. No more than I used to be, but I was sure that scoundrel had to have been down there too! And here I waited nearly too long!”


“No matter,” Benia said soothing her friend’s anxieties. “We are both no worse for it, though I dare say that we shouldn’t speak much until we are further from this place.”


“Ah… yes,” Gilly murmured nodding in agreement. And as she walked she imagined herself Benia’s walking stick, for when crossing over stream or rock or fallen tree a delicate tattooed hand would come to rest upon her shoulder as Benia steadied herself. It was remarkable how well she was getting on despite her ankle, though Gilly feared that Benia’s boot might not come off easily after their walk.


Finally, having come to a long hedgerow hard by a lonely road, Gilly bid her friend to sit by some the large rocks there, while she searched for the stowed bag and sword that she had hidden there in the night. She appeared again after much rustling and good-humored threats against the shrubs, carrying the sword and dragging the bag behind her like a child dragging a pull toy. “I’m sorry Miss Benia,” she apologized. “I simply can’t carry it, I’ve no strength left!”


“Come,” Benia said simply, taking the rucksack and sword and hobbling over beside the hedgerow to sit down. Patting the moss beside her she said, “Sit here for a moment.” The hobbit obeyed watching the desert lady as she opened her bag. “What was it your mother used to say? ‘A full stomach lends ballast to the heart’, wasn’t that it? I think that at present we both could do with some ballast, don’t you agree?”


Gilly smiled at the mention of her mother, and the old days. Benia had used to tease so about how much Gilly ate, saying she was like a bird always looking for food. And Gilly’s mother never did understand how the Nightshades could eat so little and yet remain healthy. It was the subject of many a good-natured argument in the Burrows household.


Benia pulled out bread and figs, raisins and an apple, setting them on Gilly’s knee, while she herself settled on a small piece of bread. “Eat!” she said. “You will fell better for it! And then we must press on with all haste.”


The hobbit eagerly complied with the request, both out of hunger and fear of Kaldir. She was trying to figure where to go from here -she didn’t know anything about Breeland- when she realized that surely Benia would know the way to Archet. “So we are off to Archet then?” she ventured. “I don’t know more than the name myself. Do you think you could get us there Miss Benia?”


“Yes, I know the way.” Benia smiled. “But we can not go by the roads. And not all of the way is wooded. It will be hard traveling for a hobbit and her injured guide.”


“Then we had best be off!” Gilly said returning the smile and stuffing the remaining food in her pockets. Together the two made their way away from the hedgerow and the road, deeper into the woods.