[Bêthberry]

Bêthberry stretched back from her kneeling and crouched position. It was hot in the mid-afternoon sun and after days of weeding, digging, raking, and planting her fingers were stiff and her old bones ached. The warmth of the sun, though, felt good after the months and months of a long, cold winter that had just about rivaled the Long and Fell Winters of earlier ages.

Wyrd took this opportunity to divebomb her, gently, as he had been for the last two weeks, trying to peck at her hands in their gloves and playfully combing her hair with his claws. He returned to this several times despite her hand lightly batting him away. "What are you doing with the game, Wyrd?" she asked. "You've been doing this the entire time I've been planting the spring vegetables and herbs. You know I need to plant the herbs now so I will get a good crop of them before the frost returns."

Wyrd circled higher and higher, crying his kee-eeeee-arr as his circles widened and then he straightened his path and began flying south, towards Gondor. Just as he flew out of sight, he quickly turned and returned, swooping down again on Bêthberry, this time actually grabbing the clothes off her shoulders as if he would pick her up and carry her. He had never been that insistent before.

"Is there news, is there news, Wyrd, that I am called back to Gondor? Have the orcs been defeated? Are we called back to Gondor to celebrate?"

Wyrd nodded his head, emphatically and as if to emphasise his point he even scratched some soil over the trowel Bêthberry had been using.

Bêthberry rose. "Well," she said to him, "I have just finished all the planting. Let me water the herbs one last time, bathe and pack, and we shall be on our way. If you are leading me on a merry chaste for nothing, though, don't look to me for any special treats."

With that remark, Bêthberry rose, collecting all her tools and seedling trays, empty now, her tiredness forgotten in excitement at once again seeing all her Downs friends at a party. She hoped she would be able to borrow a horse or pony to make the trek shorter. And she hoped the party would still be going on once she got there!