Friends of Nimrodel: Tapestry of Dreams

[littlemanpoet]

"Your unkind words to him, your behavior towards him... It hurt him as much as a blow, and he saw naught to do but return it."

Leafa's gentle hand did what could be done for his eye. Her sorrow over the fight touched him. But not even she understood. Could she, could they, not see that the Easterling boy was the one who had shed blood? that he had only tried to stop him? But she said that his behavior toward the boy had forced the boy to hit him? It made no sense. What place did such thinking come from? A man, even a boy, was answerable for his own deeds. That was the way of it.

"I do not understand you," he said to Leafa. "It is as if you think that my words balled his fists and made them find my eye. Was it not his own will? He chose to fight because it was in him to fight. I did not breed the fight into him, his own kind did that. Do you not see?"