Elendor
Strange Behavior
Henleg runs into Keldean, and the young man is acting -very- peculiar.
Sort Date: no date set
Location: Bree
Description: It's late in the evening and very dark. There's a heavy cloud cover that hides the light of the moon, and only the dim lights of a few lanterns around Bree light the paths for those that are out on such a gloomy night. There is some activity in the yard of the Pony, however.
Keldean pushes the door open from the back of the inn, making his way down the steps in a rush and hurrying halfway across the snow-covered lawn before he whips around again with a searching expression. "Just leave me alone!" He says in a harsh whisper, looking agitated and seemingly not speaking to anyone.
[Henleg(#20696)] The door to the stables creacks open, and out comes a man garbed in dark clothes, tall and thin. Nothing adorns his raiment... well, there is something, like a brooch, that seems to emit a faint light from the torches at the stables, but that is soon extinguished as the door is closed. Cast in shadow, the features of this Man are difficult to see.
At the sound of a creaking door, Keldean frantically whips around. Only the dark, ominous shadow of a figure stands there and the teen gives a strangled cry of fright. He backsteps quickly, his face white in the dim light. "Just stay away from me! Get back!"
[Henleg(#20696)] "Well, aren't we jumpy this night?", comes a deep voice, yet nothing like the old gammers say in their ghost stories... it is, actually, a friendly voice, yet a bit firm. "I can hardly get away from you, young man, since I am going to the common room of the Pony after having checked my horse", the tall figure says. "I think old Barli hasn't changed the rules here, and still an owner can check his own horse, right?"
Keldean's hands are shaking, and when he finally recognizes the voice of the ranger he slowly unclenches squeezed fists and lowers them to his side. "Oh.. It's you." He says in a relieved voice. He gives the man a forced smile. "I just.. I thought you were someone else." He adds in a lame tone, glancing around the yard again warily.
[Henleg(#20696)] "Someone else indeed", comes the Ranger's reply. "Perhaps I should alert Master Nob, as you seem to be quite contrary to the idea of this person being near you... and I think Master Nob ought to know who this person is, and the fact that one of his employees doesn't want anything to do with that person", he adds.
"No!" Keldean objects quickly, whipping his face back to Gray. "It's not like that. I was just mistaken! I'm sorry." The apology sounds far more an afterthought than anything sincere. Before he is even done speaking, the youth presses his eyes closed and shakes his head, speaking in that harsh whisper, "Stop!" There's no one else in the yard other than the ranger. Something is not entirely right with the stablehand.
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger looks at Keldean, and there is pity in his eyes now... and a little curiosity. "Well, if you don't want me to", he says, and then stops as the youth cries to stop. "Stop? Stop what?", he then asks, seemingly bewildered by Keldean's reauesdt.
The teen opens his eyes again and for a flicker of a moment there's terror in his gaze, but then he's shaking his head and looking at Gray again with clarity. "I.. thought I saw some ice.. " He mutters, though his tone is extremely aggrieved over such a minor potential accident.
[Henleg(#20696)] "You were asking the ice to stop, huh?", says the ranger, shaking his head a bit. "Boy, if you're gonna lie, then you'd better make it convincing. Asking the ice to stop... right!", he says, as he shakes his head again.
Keldean drops down to his knees in the snow, pressing his hands to his head now. "I can't think! Just stop talking!" The cold snow soaks into his clothes, he's not wearing any outdoor gear. In a quieter, more reasonable tone, "Nevermind. Just forget that I said anything." Maybe he got into some bad pipeweed. It would make more sense.
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger shrugs, yet he does not leave. "Want me to help you out?", he asks, extending a hand... yet perhaps the ranger not only means getting up.
Keldean looks up at the ranger, uncertainty on his face at first. He doesn't immediately focus his gaze, but when he finally does he reaches to take the man's hand so that he can climb to his feet again. He's shaking, but his hand is still warm despite the snow and he doesn't look terribly cold yet from being outside. "I don't know what to do.. " He says in plaintive whine. "I spent the money. I can't get it back."
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger frowns at this, yet his voice is kind when he apeaks to keldean. "And I guess someone is now trying to get that money back, huh? Is that so? And... how is this person trying to get his money back?", he asks.
The teen gives the ranger a long gaze now, a guarded expression on his face. It doesn't last long. He shudders and twists around to search the yard yet again. "He won't let me sleep. He's driving me crazy.." Keldean looks back, "At first, it was just once in a while, but now it's all the time. I sleep in the afternoons when I can, but.. sometimes that doesn't matter either."
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger smiles and nods as Keldean explains his predicament. "And who is this mysterious person, pray tell?", he asks. "Perhaps I can have a word with him, to buy you some time".
"You can't.. It's.. " Keldean hesitates, "It's a ghost. He's dead. He talks to me, I can hear him. No one else can." The teen rubs his wet hands on his pants, then brushes away the snow that's sticking to him. "You can't tell Nob!"
[Henleg(#20696)] "I can see why you don't want Nob to know", the Ranger replies. Incredibly, perhaps, he doesn't react as if keldean were mad, and his skin turns a bit pallid at the mention of a ghost. "What exactly did you take from this ghost? And, more importantly... where?"
Keldean watches him carefully now, waiting for some ridicule or disbelief. When none is forthcoming, the teen's brows lift. "It was.. well, some gold, and a couple of gems. I pawned them, spent the gold. I still have a bit of it." The youth's gaze wanders in a southerly direction. "I got it from the downs.. south of town. There was a dead man, on a hill. It's stupid to just leave money lying on the ground."
[Henleg(#20696)] "It's even more stupid to filch money from the Men of the Barrow Downs", the Ranger replies gravely. "How long ago was this? And... did you see this man you speak of? has he come to bree searching for his gold? or do you just hear his voice?", he asks, his voice growing a bit agitated.
"It's not stupid when you're making a handful of coppers a week to live on." Keldean argues defensively. "I was hungry and Nob isn't exactly over-generous with his wages. He.. " The teen trails off, his body tensing again and his breath catching. His voice grows weak. "There he is again. He wants me to bring it back. I never saw him, but I hear him."
[Henleg(#20696)] "I see", the Ranger says, as he bends a knee to look at keldean straight in the eye. "I can do something for you... in this instance only. But you have to brave, and also promise to never go again to the Downs... and even less, take anything you might find there", he adds, as his sea-grey eyes regard Keldean with an intensity seldom seen in him. "Do you promise this, keldean? And are you prepared to brave the anger of this wight, who claims his own?"
"What.. are you going to do? Tell me first." Keldean asks, shrinking back from the man, now. The guarded expression returns. He's had bad experiences with the rangers before, in the past. "What do you mean about braving him? I can't even see him. He keeps saying he could make my heart stop while I sleep.. can ghosts do that?"
[Henleg(#20696)] "All shall be clear to you once I'm done... but if you don't want my help, tell me. I have offered it in good faith, though", the Ranger replies, his eyes not leaving Keldean's face. "And what i mean by braving the ghost... well, it's exactly that", he adds.
"Is it going to hurt?" Keldean -isn't- the bravest of people. He's gotten into trouble a few too many times to blindly accept things anymore. Abruptly, he sucks in another breath and his brown eyes search the shadows again. "Ok, fine! Just make it stop.. please!" His hands are shaking again and the youth looks as if he might cry soon.
[Henleg(#20696)] "No, it won't hurt", the Ranger says. as the youth pleas for the ghost to stop haunting him, pity is reflected in Grey's eyes. "I shall try to do so... but I need you to look me straight in the eye. Come now, lad, steel your heart! 'Tis but a ghost that haunts you, and he has no power over you, other than that you give to it! Now.. look at me!", he adds, and grabs Keldean's shoulders, while he gazes into the youth's eyes.
Keldean doesn't immediately comply, but when the ranger takes him by the shoulders his brown eyes return to the man. That terror is reflected again, and the teen says in a whisper. "He's getting more angry." Keldean cringes under Gray's grip, but meets his gaze, finally.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey's eyes look into the young man's, and his face grows ashen, as he murmurs something that is unintellegible. It is as if the Ranger is fighting a strenous battle, yet there is iron in his eyes, as he continues to do... well, whatever it is he is doing.
Keldean holds still, watching the ranger in silence now. He doesn't dare move after Gray was so stern about him being brave and staring. He tries to listen to what the man is saying, but can't make it out over the noise of the angry wight. "He's still there.."
[Henleg(#20696)] "Now, Keldean, I need you to be very brave", the Ranger remarks, his eyes still looking straight into Keldean's, "and try not to hear what the voice says in your head. Listen to my voice instead", he adds, as he again begins to murmur, yet now in a more audible way. keldean might not understand what the ranger is saying, yet the Ranger's words evoke the Sun, and warmth, and even the distant unending song of the Sea.
"Not hear it?.. " Keldean asks with a nervous sort of laugh. "You think I haven't tried?" His brows furrow and he recognizes that the man is beginning to speak some form of elven, but it's one that he can't understand. "Narthalion spoke like that.. But I don't understand what you're saying."
As the sensation of sun and warmth begins to flow over him the young man gasps. He looks very much as if he wants to say more, but focuses on concentrating instead.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey continues to speak on this strange tongue, and his face turns even more ashen. Still, there is strenght in his eyes and in his words, and the iron will of the Ranger shows on how he does not release keldean from his grasp or from his gaze.
Keldean remains motionless, silent as the man holds his gaze. More than once he fliches as his invisible tormentor attempts to lash out verbally and distract him from the ranger. Finally, either Gray's strange chanting drives the ghost off, or it gets frustrated enough to seek easier prey elsewhere.
"It's gone." The youth says in a barely audible whisper.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey continues to murmur for a moment more, and then he stops. His face is ashen, almost beyond recognition, and he shakes a bit as he stands. "That... is good", he manages to say. "I'd require something from you now, master Keldean, in exchange of this what I have done... Your promise that you shall not tell anyone of this deed, even onto your dying day, unless I permit you to tell about it", he adds, standing tall beside the boy.
Keldean shivers as the flow of elven words fades, feeling the cold more poignantly now. He looks around slowly with that same unease, as if afraid to believe the creature is really gone. He lets out a slow sigh of relief, beginning to gradually relax. His brown eyes seek out the ranger's face again. "What you did.. Only the elves have done things like that. Can anyone learn it?"
[Henleg(#20696)] "I know not if you can learn this", grey says, as he takes a couple of steps back. "I know that you need to grow more before attempting it, Keldean. Now... what about that promise?", he asks.
You say, "I won't say anything.." Keldean says quietly, but there's a spark of intense interest in his eyes now. "How did you learn? Is it the language? That's not Sindarin.. " The teen speaks softly, but with an insistance."
[Henleg(#20696)] "That must wait for another time", Grey replies, raising a hand to stall the young man's questions. "I am weary now, and must rest. Be well, Keldean". And without further ado, the Ranger leaves, his long legs carrying him quickly to the door towards the innyard, and soon he disappears, leaving Keldean alone.
Keldean pushes the door open from the back of the inn, making his way down the steps in a rush and hurrying halfway across the snow-covered lawn before he whips around again with a searching expression. "Just leave me alone!" He says in a harsh whisper, looking agitated and seemingly not speaking to anyone.
[Henleg(#20696)] The door to the stables creacks open, and out comes a man garbed in dark clothes, tall and thin. Nothing adorns his raiment... well, there is something, like a brooch, that seems to emit a faint light from the torches at the stables, but that is soon extinguished as the door is closed. Cast in shadow, the features of this Man are difficult to see.
At the sound of a creaking door, Keldean frantically whips around. Only the dark, ominous shadow of a figure stands there and the teen gives a strangled cry of fright. He backsteps quickly, his face white in the dim light. "Just stay away from me! Get back!"
[Henleg(#20696)] "Well, aren't we jumpy this night?", comes a deep voice, yet nothing like the old gammers say in their ghost stories... it is, actually, a friendly voice, yet a bit firm. "I can hardly get away from you, young man, since I am going to the common room of the Pony after having checked my horse", the tall figure says. "I think old Barli hasn't changed the rules here, and still an owner can check his own horse, right?"
Keldean's hands are shaking, and when he finally recognizes the voice of the ranger he slowly unclenches squeezed fists and lowers them to his side. "Oh.. It's you." He says in a relieved voice. He gives the man a forced smile. "I just.. I thought you were someone else." He adds in a lame tone, glancing around the yard again warily.
[Henleg(#20696)] "Someone else indeed", comes the Ranger's reply. "Perhaps I should alert Master Nob, as you seem to be quite contrary to the idea of this person being near you... and I think Master Nob ought to know who this person is, and the fact that one of his employees doesn't want anything to do with that person", he adds.
"No!" Keldean objects quickly, whipping his face back to Gray. "It's not like that. I was just mistaken! I'm sorry." The apology sounds far more an afterthought than anything sincere. Before he is even done speaking, the youth presses his eyes closed and shakes his head, speaking in that harsh whisper, "Stop!" There's no one else in the yard other than the ranger. Something is not entirely right with the stablehand.
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger looks at Keldean, and there is pity in his eyes now... and a little curiosity. "Well, if you don't want me to", he says, and then stops as the youth cries to stop. "Stop? Stop what?", he then asks, seemingly bewildered by Keldean's reauesdt.
The teen opens his eyes again and for a flicker of a moment there's terror in his gaze, but then he's shaking his head and looking at Gray again with clarity. "I.. thought I saw some ice.. " He mutters, though his tone is extremely aggrieved over such a minor potential accident.
[Henleg(#20696)] "You were asking the ice to stop, huh?", says the ranger, shaking his head a bit. "Boy, if you're gonna lie, then you'd better make it convincing. Asking the ice to stop... right!", he says, as he shakes his head again.
Keldean drops down to his knees in the snow, pressing his hands to his head now. "I can't think! Just stop talking!" The cold snow soaks into his clothes, he's not wearing any outdoor gear. In a quieter, more reasonable tone, "Nevermind. Just forget that I said anything." Maybe he got into some bad pipeweed. It would make more sense.
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger shrugs, yet he does not leave. "Want me to help you out?", he asks, extending a hand... yet perhaps the ranger not only means getting up.
Keldean looks up at the ranger, uncertainty on his face at first. He doesn't immediately focus his gaze, but when he finally does he reaches to take the man's hand so that he can climb to his feet again. He's shaking, but his hand is still warm despite the snow and he doesn't look terribly cold yet from being outside. "I don't know what to do.. " He says in plaintive whine. "I spent the money. I can't get it back."
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger frowns at this, yet his voice is kind when he apeaks to keldean. "And I guess someone is now trying to get that money back, huh? Is that so? And... how is this person trying to get his money back?", he asks.
The teen gives the ranger a long gaze now, a guarded expression on his face. It doesn't last long. He shudders and twists around to search the yard yet again. "He won't let me sleep. He's driving me crazy.." Keldean looks back, "At first, it was just once in a while, but now it's all the time. I sleep in the afternoons when I can, but.. sometimes that doesn't matter either."
[Henleg(#20696)] The Ranger smiles and nods as Keldean explains his predicament. "And who is this mysterious person, pray tell?", he asks. "Perhaps I can have a word with him, to buy you some time".
"You can't.. It's.. " Keldean hesitates, "It's a ghost. He's dead. He talks to me, I can hear him. No one else can." The teen rubs his wet hands on his pants, then brushes away the snow that's sticking to him. "You can't tell Nob!"
[Henleg(#20696)] "I can see why you don't want Nob to know", the Ranger replies. Incredibly, perhaps, he doesn't react as if keldean were mad, and his skin turns a bit pallid at the mention of a ghost. "What exactly did you take from this ghost? And, more importantly... where?"
Keldean watches him carefully now, waiting for some ridicule or disbelief. When none is forthcoming, the teen's brows lift. "It was.. well, some gold, and a couple of gems. I pawned them, spent the gold. I still have a bit of it." The youth's gaze wanders in a southerly direction. "I got it from the downs.. south of town. There was a dead man, on a hill. It's stupid to just leave money lying on the ground."
[Henleg(#20696)] "It's even more stupid to filch money from the Men of the Barrow Downs", the Ranger replies gravely. "How long ago was this? And... did you see this man you speak of? has he come to bree searching for his gold? or do you just hear his voice?", he asks, his voice growing a bit agitated.
"It's not stupid when you're making a handful of coppers a week to live on." Keldean argues defensively. "I was hungry and Nob isn't exactly over-generous with his wages. He.. " The teen trails off, his body tensing again and his breath catching. His voice grows weak. "There he is again. He wants me to bring it back. I never saw him, but I hear him."
[Henleg(#20696)] "I see", the Ranger says, as he bends a knee to look at keldean straight in the eye. "I can do something for you... in this instance only. But you have to brave, and also promise to never go again to the Downs... and even less, take anything you might find there", he adds, as his sea-grey eyes regard Keldean with an intensity seldom seen in him. "Do you promise this, keldean? And are you prepared to brave the anger of this wight, who claims his own?"
"What.. are you going to do? Tell me first." Keldean asks, shrinking back from the man, now. The guarded expression returns. He's had bad experiences with the rangers before, in the past. "What do you mean about braving him? I can't even see him. He keeps saying he could make my heart stop while I sleep.. can ghosts do that?"
[Henleg(#20696)] "All shall be clear to you once I'm done... but if you don't want my help, tell me. I have offered it in good faith, though", the Ranger replies, his eyes not leaving Keldean's face. "And what i mean by braving the ghost... well, it's exactly that", he adds.
"Is it going to hurt?" Keldean -isn't- the bravest of people. He's gotten into trouble a few too many times to blindly accept things anymore. Abruptly, he sucks in another breath and his brown eyes search the shadows again. "Ok, fine! Just make it stop.. please!" His hands are shaking again and the youth looks as if he might cry soon.
[Henleg(#20696)] "No, it won't hurt", the Ranger says. as the youth pleas for the ghost to stop haunting him, pity is reflected in Grey's eyes. "I shall try to do so... but I need you to look me straight in the eye. Come now, lad, steel your heart! 'Tis but a ghost that haunts you, and he has no power over you, other than that you give to it! Now.. look at me!", he adds, and grabs Keldean's shoulders, while he gazes into the youth's eyes.
Keldean doesn't immediately comply, but when the ranger takes him by the shoulders his brown eyes return to the man. That terror is reflected again, and the teen says in a whisper. "He's getting more angry." Keldean cringes under Gray's grip, but meets his gaze, finally.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey's eyes look into the young man's, and his face grows ashen, as he murmurs something that is unintellegible. It is as if the Ranger is fighting a strenous battle, yet there is iron in his eyes, as he continues to do... well, whatever it is he is doing.
Keldean holds still, watching the ranger in silence now. He doesn't dare move after Gray was so stern about him being brave and staring. He tries to listen to what the man is saying, but can't make it out over the noise of the angry wight. "He's still there.."
[Henleg(#20696)] "Now, Keldean, I need you to be very brave", the Ranger remarks, his eyes still looking straight into Keldean's, "and try not to hear what the voice says in your head. Listen to my voice instead", he adds, as he again begins to murmur, yet now in a more audible way. keldean might not understand what the ranger is saying, yet the Ranger's words evoke the Sun, and warmth, and even the distant unending song of the Sea.
"Not hear it?.. " Keldean asks with a nervous sort of laugh. "You think I haven't tried?" His brows furrow and he recognizes that the man is beginning to speak some form of elven, but it's one that he can't understand. "Narthalion spoke like that.. But I don't understand what you're saying."
As the sensation of sun and warmth begins to flow over him the young man gasps. He looks very much as if he wants to say more, but focuses on concentrating instead.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey continues to speak on this strange tongue, and his face turns even more ashen. Still, there is strenght in his eyes and in his words, and the iron will of the Ranger shows on how he does not release keldean from his grasp or from his gaze.
Keldean remains motionless, silent as the man holds his gaze. More than once he fliches as his invisible tormentor attempts to lash out verbally and distract him from the ranger. Finally, either Gray's strange chanting drives the ghost off, or it gets frustrated enough to seek easier prey elsewhere.
"It's gone." The youth says in a barely audible whisper.
[Henleg(#20696)] Grey continues to murmur for a moment more, and then he stops. His face is ashen, almost beyond recognition, and he shakes a bit as he stands. "That... is good", he manages to say. "I'd require something from you now, master Keldean, in exchange of this what I have done... Your promise that you shall not tell anyone of this deed, even onto your dying day, unless I permit you to tell about it", he adds, standing tall beside the boy.
Keldean shivers as the flow of elven words fades, feeling the cold more poignantly now. He looks around slowly with that same unease, as if afraid to believe the creature is really gone. He lets out a slow sigh of relief, beginning to gradually relax. His brown eyes seek out the ranger's face again. "What you did.. Only the elves have done things like that. Can anyone learn it?"
[Henleg(#20696)] "I know not if you can learn this", grey says, as he takes a couple of steps back. "I know that you need to grow more before attempting it, Keldean. Now... what about that promise?", he asks.
You say, "I won't say anything.." Keldean says quietly, but there's a spark of intense interest in his eyes now. "How did you learn? Is it the language? That's not Sindarin.. " The teen speaks softly, but with an insistance."
[Henleg(#20696)] "That must wait for another time", Grey replies, raising a hand to stall the young man's questions. "I am weary now, and must rest. Be well, Keldean". And without further ado, the Ranger leaves, his long legs carrying him quickly to the door towards the innyard, and soon he disappears, leaving Keldean alone.
Players: Keldean, Henleg
