[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Not wishing to be a witness to the executions, and judging himself in too sour a frame of mind to help divert the children's attention, Carl had gone off alone, to see about storing the things he had scavenged during the night. The wagon was sure to be almost as full of wounded when heading out, as it had been when bringing them into the camp, so if he was to salvage anything at all, he must find the extra space for it somewhere, or carry it himself. And the practicality of the puzzle appealed to him, serving to calm him considerably, even though he had kept up a fiery soliloquy at first, threatening to pack himself up, and leave the group in order to search for Stumps, who he was convinced had more common sense then the lot of them.

Still, making no move to carry out such a threat, he sat on his hunches searching through the bits of iron in the heap he had assembled, until he had found four good sized brackets with loops formed in them. They were just the sort of thing that a slaver might think to fix to his wagon, so that he could pull several lines of chained slaves behind it, while the slavers remained free to harry them. But the hobbit had a far better use for them. Crawling underneath the wagon he fastened one to each corner, singing so that he would not fall into the gloomy business of speculating on the nature of the sporadic noises of the camp that reached him. It was hard work, for he had to make his own bolt holes in the tightly grained wood, and that proved far from easy. But when he was done, he thought to tie a corner of strong tent maker's cloth to each of the four loops, letting it sag in the center like a sling. And into that hammock would go all that the cloth would bear without braking, the rest he would have to find another place for.

Unfortunately, his fingers weren't as nimble as they might once have been, and it was a struggle to attach the stiff cloth. After quickly dismissing his original idea of making small slits at the corners of the material, so that he could tie the two edges together around the bracket, he settled on stuffing the whole of each corner through the loops and making a knot the size of his fist on the other side of the loop, to hold it in place.

Once finished, Carl stretched and stood back for a moment to admire his handiwork, before he began the tedious business of sorting the scraps, and carrying them by the handful to the wagon. Absorbed as he was, he remained by force of will quite oblivious to unraveling of events that were unfolding all around him.