View Single Post
Old 11-10-2003, 09:24 PM   #143
Ealasaide
Shadow of Tyrn Gorthad
 
Ealasaide's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: The Fencing Lyst
Posts: 810
Ealasaide has just left Hobbiton.
Sting

Benia

"Please eat something, Miss Benia," Gilly said, reaching out to Benia with a handful of dried fruit from her pack. Benia glanced at the food and shook her head.

"No, thank you, Gilly," she said softly. "I'm not hungry." They had been riding for over an hour since leaving Bree Hill and still her hands shook. She couldn't get the image of that single glistening bead of blood at the bounty hunter's throat out of her mind. He had given her the opportunity to kill him and save herself, but she had failed the test - as she knew she would every time if given the same test over again. Still, it wasn't the knowledge that she could not slay a man in cold blood, even to save herself, that made her hands shake so, but more the frightening reality of the bounty hunter himself. In that moment when he had held her hand in his and with his own strength pushed the point of her dagger into his skin and drawn blood, she had caught a glimpse of the man behind the scarred veneer. She knew in that instant that he was not mad. What she saw behind the bounty hunter's facade was a man so angry and driven that he knew no fear, a man who had been so brutalized that pain or the spilling of his own blood no longer affected him.

This was a man who had already been to the bottom of the abyss. In a way, he was like a walking dead man. All that had been warm or beautiful in him had been shattered, leaving behind only a molten core of anger and fierce determination, but she could see the fragments of what had been broken were still there, winking at her like splinters of glass through a layer of ash. That was what made her hands shake. He terrified her, yet, at the same time, she longed to reach out to him, to try to make him whole again.

"Please, Miss Benia," Gilly's voice broke through her thoughts. "You haven't eaten anything all day. Even Mr. Kaldir would have a bit of fruit."

As though coming out of a dream, Benia turned toward her friend. Gilly had ridden ahead and talked to the bounty hunter, hadn't she? He had not threatened or rebuffed her either, at least not that Benia had noticed. Perhaps they did have a hope of reaching him. She smiled suddenly. "Did he, now?" she asked.

"Only a few pieces of dried apple," answered Gilly. "But it was that much more than you've had. You'd feel so much better if you would just have a bite to eat."

"I suspect you're right," Benia said at last and took the fruit from the hobbit. She put a small handful of it into her mouth and, as she chewed, watched the bounty hunter's back as he jogged ahead of them. It was fast growing dark and his form was little more than a shade against the darker shade of the forest.

She felt torn. On one hand, she wanted to flee from him and get as far away from him as possible, yet her softer side counseled her to stay, to see if there were some way she could coax his shattered soul back together again. She had always been a sucker for a lost cause, the bird with the broken wing, the half-drowned kitten. Granted this man was as far from a half-drowned kitten as a wolf was from a field mouse, but she could sense the void that surrounded him, his lack of connection with anything but his own anger. He needed a soft hand to draw him back from the abyss. On the other hand, though...

On the other hand, she couldn't get the face of the other man, the ranger, Dulrain, out of her mind. She had only glimpsed him for a second, yet she found him constantly on the edge of her thoughts. She wondered how he fit into the bounty hunter's story, if he was a friend or a foe. Remembering the charge that had passed between the ranger and herself in that brief second that their eyes had met, she flushed again and looked at her hands. In the semi-darkness, the tattoos stood out against her skin like brands. She knew that he was well out of her league, what with her being a mere half-caste with one foot in Bree and the other in the deserts of Far Harad, while he was one of King Elessar's own brethren, but she hoped to cross paths with him again. Just to see his face, to see if that charge would connect them again, was all she wanted. Thinking back to the moment when she had raised her veil, she suddenly frowned. Why had he not reacted to her plea for help? Perhaps he had not understood. If she or Gilly or even the bounty hunter blew the whistle he had left with them, would he come? She looked again at the bounty hunter's back. It was a good question.

Turning to Gilly, she smiled again. "Thank you for making me eat. You were right. I do feel better."

"Troubles always seem less troublesome on a full stomach," answered Gilly with a gentle smile in return.

Benia wondered if that was an old hobbit saying from the Shire, but, instead of asking, she nodded in the direction of the bounty hunter. "When you were talking with him a minute ago, what did you say?"

Gilly shrugged. "Nothing much. I gave him some food and he showed me the tracks we are following. There seems to be a hobbit traveling with this Ravener."

"A hobbit!" echoed Benia.

"Yes, a hobbit," confirmed Gilly. "I can't imagine why, unless he's a prisoner and she's making him go along. She doesn't sound at all like the hobbit sort, if you catch my meaning."

"I do," answered Benia, nodding thoughtfully. After that, she fell once more into silence. The darkness had settled around them like a fog. Up ahead, the bounty hunter had stopped walking and was waiting to the side of the path for them to catch up.

"It's time we stopped for the night," he said, as they reined their horses to a halt beside him. "We'll make camp here."

[ November 10, 2003: Message edited by: Ealasaide ]
Ealasaide is offline