[Aylwen Dreamsong]

Everyone remained quiet. Not one of the company looked ready to speak. Bellyn knew it did not have to be her to speak first...

Yet the awkward silence bothered Bellyn.

So, she stepped forward before any other. Eyes followed her as she took one tiny step closer to the dead body. Bellyn did not meet any gaze. Instead she glanced downward at her own feet, her hands clasped together behind her back.

“I did not know Gwyllion,” Bellyn started with the obvious, her eyes flicking upward now and then to Marigold standing next to Aeron. “Things could have been different, though. It could have been me lying there – maybe it should have been. Or it could have been Leafa…” Bellyn risked a shy glance at her new Rohirric friend. “It could have been Mellonin.”

Bellyn shifted, hoping that the other mourning members of the party were not annoyed with her senseless rambling. Bellyn looked at Gwyllion, so innocently lying in the snow, her dark hair stark against the gentle white powder ice.

“She looks like mother,” Bellyn whispered, aloud but almost to herself as she sniffed and let her voice squeak. “And it’s not fair, Aeron,” Bellyn lifted her head and looked right at Aeron. “I know it is not fair. Know that I know that.”