The Green Dragon Inn #11 - The Last Chapter

[Arwen Eruantale]

She was ready to die. He was there. Not quite smiling, but she knew he was pleased. Was it pride that kept her from flying into his arms? Perhaps. He caught her eyes with his own as he approached. The closer he came, the deeper she sank.... Deep in the liquid warmth of his clear gaze. Here she was safe, as long as he was here, as long as he could breathe; his presence was her immortality.

Slowly, softly, everything became clear. Shame, loneliness, cold. How had she fallen asleep? How long? Her eyes flitted open upon the bustling inn. The lovely elven lady with whom she had been speaking was gone. She was alone again.

Niara shivered. At least she had no embarrassing faults that showed when she slumbered. She had merely leaned into the soft back of her seat and closed her eyes. Her hair had fallen all about her in chocolate ringlets, tinged with red that showed in the glow of the firelight. What a perfect mess she must look.
She gathered her hair up into the knot again, shivering as the air touched the back of her seemly neck, and lifted her hood. Shrouding herself with the shadows in which she had so long survived.

She wondered why he haunted her so. Feeling his love in every gesture, yet knowing not whether she could return it, nor whether she were worthy of such noble affections as his own.

She wondered what was for supper, but the sun was leaving, and the stars were calling... Just as they always had. She rose, heading toward the door, needing a walk, and fearing that she might be noticed before she reached it....

[Firefoot]

"Would you tell me a little more about yourself? Do you have any family? I mean, as in a husband and children?" asked Posco. The question caught Lily slightly off guard. Of all the things she might have expected to be asked, this was not one of them.

"Oh, no," said Lily. "I do not expect to be married for another several years yet. As for the rest of my family, I am the third child of six. I have lived in Bree for all of my life, where my father owned a shop. But when I was seven years old, there was a terrible thunderstorm. My father's shop was struck by lightning, and it burned to the ground." Here Lily faltered slightly, for she still could not abide rainstorms, but she kept going. "My parents, older brother and sister, and two younger sisters went to live in Archet, where my mother's family lived to start over. My brother, a year and a half younger than me, and I moved in with my Aunt Violet and Uncle Longo on the other side of Bree. You see, my older siblings were needed to help out my parents, and the youngest were two young. My aunt and uncle have been very much like second parents to me, and though I still see my real parents sometimes, I know my aunt and uncle much better. It was my uncle who taught me how to read and ride ponies. I got my pony from him four years ago." finished Lily.

"Now enough about me," she said. "What is your family like?"

[Nurumaiel]

"My family?" Posco held back a deep, frustrated sigh. He wanted to tell Lily all about his family but he did not know how without speaking very much. He hesitated, glanced towards her, saw the encouraging look in her lovely eyes, and felt confidence seeping into him. Firmly setting his tea aside, determined to no longer hide himself behind it, he began to speak.

"My family, the Bramdybucks, have lived in Buckland for as long as can be recalled," he said, and realized with the very first sentence that he had made a dreadful mistake. Lily might think that all the Brandybucks lived in Buckland, not just his immediate family. "I do mean my family," he said. She smiled, and he continued more feebly as he realized that most of the Brandybucks did in fact live in Buckland. "My father is called Posco, for I was named after him, and my mother was called Primrose Brownlock before she was married. There aren't very many of us in my family... there's Blanco, who you have not met but have seen, and myself. We are twins. Our elder sister is called Peony, but she didn't come. My father grows crops and raises cattle, and I suppose I'll do the same as him."

He said this without bitterness; he did not mind that he would follow in his father's footsteps, but it was rather a joy to him. He found no greater peace and contentment than what he found watering plants and watching them grow, and milking the cows and laughing in delight over their clumsy, adorable calfs, and even feeding the few chickens they owned. He glanced at Lily and a passing thought came to his mind, and he wondered if she would enjoy living on a farm.

"But my sister," he went on, "didn't want to stay home and help mother, because mother didn't really want help. She didn't mind the help, of course, but she had always preferred to do things without. So Peony went to the nearest tavern to work as a maid there." He hesitated. "She's having trouble with the family now," he said, "and that's why she isn't here." He wondered if he should continue and elaborate upon the trouble his sister was in, and had just concluded not to do so when he saw Lily's eyes again, full of encouragement and kindness. He firmly made up his mind to tell her all about the family trouble. "My sister, you see, has fallen deeply in love with a young hobbit lad who calls frequently at the tavern, and she wants to get married to him. I can't say if he's asked her or not, but if he hasn't yet he will any day. My father doesn't like the lad, though... Hal Brandybuck is his name. As I was saying, my father doesn't like Hal and thinks he's a drunkard, though I assure you Miss Lily, he is not. My father doesn't care much for... er... poetry as you might say, and Hal is so often speaking of sunsets and sunrises and Elves that my father concludes it's because he is constantly drunk.

"Of course my sister is heartbroken about it because she wants more than anything in the world to marry this Hal Brandybuck, but she doesn't want to go against our father's wishes. Mother doesn't approve merely because father doesn't approve, and both of us feel dreadfully for her. Originally my mother wanted to send all three of us to visit my aunt but decided to keep Peony a little longer so my father could speak to her without us interfering. Peony will be coming tomorrow, if all goes according to plans. You see, we have always interfered dreadfully with the conversations between Peony and my father when it strays to the subject of Hal Brandybuck, because if we let them alone my father would surely grow quite angry and then Peony would be made stubborn and she might go off and do something... er... rash. In short, she might go right on and marry Hal without a second thought."

He paused, stared at Lily in amazement, and dropped his eyes. It was frightening to think he had said so much, and he could hardly believe it. If truth must be told, Posco had ever been one to talk to himself when he was quite sure he was alone, and he spoke at great length without considering. At this moment he had completely forgotten Lily was there, so absorbed was he in the troubles of Peony, and he had believed he was quite alone and so speaking to himself. When he saw this was not so he felt as though he should be embarrassed and humiliated, but he realized with a pleasant thrill that he did not mind. In fact, he rather liked speaking so to Lily.

[Elora]

Uien's eyes widened at the last, Falowik's finger warm over her lips. She peered at him from behind it, face alight with a happiness that was incandescent and rivaled the Evening Star in its glory. Falowik's finger shifted, tracing over the line of her jaw to come to the base of her ear.

"No bird has known such joy," she whispered in return. Uien placed a hand over his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath her palm. It matched her own. "No arrows, no wound is this, no life stolen.... nay, a grace and blessing you are Falowik Lauréatan. Such did I dare believe when first we met and so do I know now that we have returned to this place."

"Melindo..." she said softly, speaking the word at last as it had been spoken in her thoughts: Lover. Falowik repeated it after her and Uien smiled to hear it in his voice at last. Surely she could contain no more than what filled her now. The years would come and go, ice would melt and the summer grasses rise only to yellow and fall into ice once more. Leaves would turn golden, then red and then fall to leave branches bear only to spring small and tender green, again and again. But this would not change.

Uien had not thought to have glad tidings to tell of upon her return to her childhood home. But she looked now into the face of her future and her heart and knew that she had much indeed to speak of. No matter where her feet wandered, her heart and her home would remain with the man who had filled her life with his presence. She needed no other shelter bar that of his arms and to that she now went, tucking herself close. The wide world was before them both, but for now they had the stars. Uien's thoughts ran away into all the possiblilities the years would have for them until at last they ran away entirely, leaving her lost in Falowik and happily so. She did not have the gift of foresight, and if she had would she have still brought Falowik blankets on a chilly night?

Yes, for with him lay a future free of the dread shadow of her past, a chance to live as once she had before, full and free in life. But, more than that, quite simply Uien could sooner imagine life beneath the great weight of the ocean than she could life without Falowik. He had become part of each breath she took, each step she walked, each smile that found her her. For so long Uien had felt as though part of what was her own had vanished, lost in a dark den forgotten beneath a cruelly iced mountain.

"What is melindo," Falowik asked, his voice rumbling deep through her. Uien pulled back and tipped her face up to look into his.

"It is what you are, Lauréatan.... lover and beloved. In that shall we both find eternity." Upon those words, the two drew together beneath the early stars and met in a kiss.

[nynnd1]

Bredan took a moment, he inhaled the air of the Green Dragon, it did not seem to smell as nice as it had since he learnt the truth of Aman’s thoughts. He looked around the inn, nothing seemed to be as it was when he first arrived. Everyone was laughing with one another, but instead of the mood making Bredan jolly, it made him feel an outsider among the people, but he would not leave, not yet.

Bredan decided to follow Aman, only to ask to borrow a horse and maybe some provisions, for he still intended to go after the wildmen that had attacked him. He went through the bar with big strides, trying to look as if nothing was wrong to anyone that may have took an interest into Bredan’s affairs. Bredan saw Aman near the stables.

“Lady Aman, may I have one more word.” Bredan called to Aman, and Bredan suddenly then felt the chill of the wind.

[Kitanna]

It turned out Peony did not have to go wake Deva after all. When supper finally rolled around he had dragged himself up from his nap and came down to join her. The two found a table in the corner and Peony sat across from her dwarven companion.

"Get enough sleep today?" Peony asked as one of the hobbit lasses brought her some soup.

Deva grumbled and took a sip of his ale. "Leave me be."

Peony rolled her eyes and looked around the inn. She was hoping that a less grumpy companion would present himself so she would not be stuck talking to Deva all night.

[Amanaduial the archer]

Aman turned the corner around the stables...before hastily backtracking out of sight. Bathed in the soft twilight as the sun set over the hills, Falowik and Uien held each other close, arms entwined around one another. Aman smiled to herself, wondering at their beautiful perfection: from the way Uien and her Lauréatan had found each other right from their first few days together, when a few words of kindness had warmed so tender spirit inside the body of an outlaw, Aman knew that the elf would not pass away with her people to the Havens. And yet still, in this frozen, silent moment of perfection, a pair of lovers paused on the cusp of the night, Aman was sure there could have been no couple more beautiful in all of the history of the Fair Folk.

Turning back around the corner, Aman resolved to take advantage of the respite she had stolen for herself before the supper requests would begin to flow thick and fast, and so turned towards the great stable doors, resolving to visit Rochfalmar. Her beautiful stallion, a present, or maybe just a loan, from her good friend and the previous Innkeeper, an elf by the name of Piosenniel, had remained at the Inn since Pio had left with her children at husband to Minas Tirith. For Aman, previously a Rohirrim horsemistress, having a horse at the Inn was like regaining a lost part of herself, and despite her busy daily life running probably the most unusual Inn in Middle Earth (or so the grumbly older hobbits would think, anyway), Aman made sure that every day, or at least every two days, she would take some time to excercise the horse - and a strange sight she often must have made, skirt hitched up and sleeves rolled back, one of the Big Folk galloping across the countryside of the Shire! Smiling at the thought, the Innkeeper turned into the stables...before she was arrested by a voice.

“Lady Aman, may I have one more word.”

Aman froze. There was a slightly unplaceable note in Bredan's voice as he called after her, and she was suddenly very aware that there was no one else out, that he was a much larger man than she was a woman, and that he was likely to have been rather offended. Turning slowly, she forced all other thoughts away and smiled at Bredan, raising her eyebrows in polite askance and resisting the shiver that the chill night wind blew in. "Good evening again, Bredan. What is it that you wish to say?"