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Old 12-30-2009, 11:03 AM   #24
Mithalwen
Pilgrim Soul
 
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,916
Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.
At Woodseaves Farm

"Mum? Where are you?"

"In here Seth.... I mean Silas". Sukey had seen the tall figure looming in the shadow of the kitchen doorway and not unreasonably had assumed it was her resident son not her first born. The two eldest were fairly alike having their father's height and lean build but their mother's hair.

"Can't you tell us apart yet, Mother?"

"Of course, I can dear - I just wasn't expecting you. What brings you here?" She left her wool and returned to the kitchen to put the kettle on the stove, correctly anticipating that tea was unlikely to be refused.

"We broke a haul chain this morning - I have been in the workshop trying to mend it but it's no good. I'll have to take it to the forge and get Bryn to fix it properly - I have to take a load of firewood to the Pony anyway later and I thought Seth might lend me a hand in return for a pint" .

"I think you can take that as a given - he is up in top field ploughing at the moment but they shouldn't be long now... why don't you bring Fern with you and she can stay with me while you go into town and tell me what she wants me to do with that wool. Then you can both stay to supper.. I have made too much again" she added ruefully.

"That sound's like a plan... what have you done with Jessie?"

"Oh she has gone to see Cal Boffin - you can round her up for me if she isn't back by the time you go". This information stirred something in Silas' memory but it was only later, back in his own cottage, when he relayed the invitation to his wife that he remembered that the Boffins had gone away to the Shire and that it would be odd if Jessamy hadn't known that full well.

On the Downs

Jessamy's imagination was too full of wolves to pass off the faint regular thudding noise as merely the sound of her own blood pounding as her heart rate increased with her fear. She knew the sound of a dog running well enough but now was convinced that this faint beat belonged to a larger fiercer version. She started to run full pelt no longer heeding the direction of woods or fading sun only caring to get as far away as possible from the beast that followed her. She hurtled along seeking a route between the mounds having dismissed the idea of sheltering in one... the skunk incident hadn't dismissed the notion that things more sinister might lurk within. She'd take her chances in the open.

However quick she was, two feet were never going to outpace four. The footfalls got closer and closer; she did not dare to look round yet even so, in her haste, she tripped and fell for the second time that day and as she fell she knew that the beast had caught her up. She closed her eyes and steeled her self for whatever was to come, curling into a ball her arms over her face.

The lick to her hand was not what she expected at all she uncovered her face and opened her eyes to see a dog, large and dark and a bit rough looking but still a perfectly ordinary dog. And one she thought she knew.... Prince was it? No.....

"Hullo Duke" she murmured stroking his ears, "you did scare me, you silly thing, what are you doing up here?"

Last edited by Mithalwen; 01-02-2010 at 10:11 AM.
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