Keldean\'s Sister Visits Bree

It\'s morning in the Prancing Pony. Past the time when patrons have had their breakfast, still early enough that lunch isn\'t in full tilt yet. If there was ever a quiet time to catch the inn, the only better time would be in the middle of the night. The teen with the auburn curls is hauling wood over to the hearth, stacking it up for the day slowly, the pile far from high enough to pass inspection of his superiors.

Keldean looks taller, quite a bit thinner, and his clothes are nearly worn out, more than a few rips and tears that have gone unmended. His hair is a tangled mess that could use the attention of soap and a comb, but he\'s hauling the wood quite well, having built up a lot of muscles in the last couple of months.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] The teenaged girl would rub at her eyes slightly as the cart she sits passenger alongside pulls up to the Prancing Pony. Her eyelids are heavy from lack of sleep and she would look up at the sign of the inn almost longingly. A word of thanks would be offered to the farmer who had so graciously allowed her to join him on his passage into Bree. Jaquelyn would slowly step down from the cart, pausing a moment to pick up her sack and sling it over her shoulder before making her way to the door.

�She would press open the door to the inn, taking a few moments for her eyes to adjust. She would appear to have been travelling for some time, dressed in a thick travelling cloak that was soaked through on the bottom hem from having been dragged through the wet snow. Her long auburn hair braided down in two pigtails down her back, her cheeks lightly dusted with pale freckles that barely showed in the wintertime.

Keldean drops his load of wood rather noisily, not too concerned with disturbing anyone, then begins neatly stacking the chopped pieces. He turns, arm lifted to wipe sweat from his brow, and stops dead. His brown eyes are as large as saucers and there\'s a look of absolute shock on his face.

Jacquelyn(#26425)] The look of shock on Keldean\'s face would be mirrored upon Jacquelyn\'s, her own eyes widening and her mouth falling open as she stares at him with those matching brown eyes. Clearly she hadn\'t expected to see him here just standing there. \"Keldean Pinewick! How can you be standing around here stacking wood like you havn\'t got a care in the world! Our mother has been worried sick for three months and here you are with not a scratch on you. You didn\'t even send word!\" The girl was clearly upset, her cheeks flushed with anger and her eyes narrowed at Keldean.

Keldean doesn\'t move at first, too stunned. All that\'s been on his mind all morning has been the dwarves that left on that rescue mission. The last thing he expected to see was Jacquelyn. \"I.. uh.. Is father here?\" He asks as he moves to close the distance to her, glancing around nervously.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"No, I came by myself, but he\'s going to be so angry when he hears that you\'re here. I\'m going to have a letter out first thing tomorrow morning and we\'ll be on our way back home. I can\'t believe you.\" Jacquelyn was practically seeting, the tone in her voice a little harsher than she would have been typically. She appeared tired and from the state of her clothing she had been travelling for at least a few days.

No! I can\'t go back! He\'ll tan my hide if I go back!\" He looks around, relieved that the other girl has disappeared into the kitchen. Keldean chews on his lip, brow furrowed. \"I have a job here, and it\'s much better than the farm. I don\'t want to go back. Please, Jacquelyn, don\'t send word.. it\'ll ruin everything.\" His tone is pleading, his big brown eyes begging.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"You deserve it! Do you know that mother\'s been crying practically every night since you didn\'t come back? She was convinced that you were eaten by wolves. I figured it\'d be like you to take off and do something stupid like this. She was about ready to have a funeral for you before I told her I\'d go looking to find out what happened to you.\" She would have her hands on her hips in what would almost look like the stance their mother took when she was really serious about something.

Keldean looks surprised, \"Really? They thought I was dead?.. I never thought about that..\" He looks down, a guilty expression fleeting across his face. \"Then don\'t tell them where I am. Just say that I\'m okay. I don\'t want to be a farmer, you -know- that! At least you\'ll marry and get to go somewhere, but I\'ll be stuck there until the day I die!\" Perhaps a little overdramatic, but this is one of his biggest fears since moving to Bree.

Jacquelyn\'s eyes would soften a little as she would look at her younger brother. \"It\'s not -that- bad Keldean, really. Father just wants what\'s best for you and for the farm.\" Jacquelyn would sigh a little, shaking her head a little as she looks down at the floor, some of her angry appearently leaving her. \"How am I supposed to just tell them that you\'re somewhere and you\'re okay but that you don\'t want to come home? It\'s going to break Mother\'s heart and Father is just going to be even angrier.\"

\"I want to see the world. I\'ve already seen so much. I got to go to the Shire and I\'ve met dwarves, and elves! Jacquelyn, I saw real elves! And so many interesting people come to the Pony. It\'s exciting!\" Keldean reaches for her hand so he can pull her towards a chair by the hearth. \"Mother will be okay. She\'ll be happy that I\'m not dead.. Father.. well, he\'s always mad at me anyway. Don\'t I get a say in what life I want?\"

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] Her demeanor would change a little at his tales about having seen things. Her eyebrows would raise a little and her brown eyes would watch him curiously. \"Really? real elves? I\'ve never...\" She would let her sentence hang a moment as he takes her hand. She would follow him to the hearth, dumping the pack on the floor before sitting down into the chair. \"Wait.. you\'re getting me off track!\" Her eyes would narrow again \"You can\'t just avoid them and everyone forever. You\'ll have to see them eventually, and besides you\'re too young to be out here all by yourself.\"

\"I\'m fine.. I have a bed up in the attic, and I get meals if I work hard. They\'re nice here. I got really sick, but Nob didn\'t take my job away, he just waited until I was better. Cordelia, she works in the kitchens, you\'d like her if you met her.\" Keldean sits down in a chair next to her. \"Cordelia\'s been talking about trying to leave with the dwarves in the spring. I was going to try and go too. Ovor, he\'s one of the dwarves, said I couldn\'t. I think I can convince Frarin, though.\"

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"You were sick?\" She\'d say with a gasp of horror, apparently not having heard a word of any of the other things he said. \"And you\'re travelling with dwarves? No no.. Mother is going to be so worried. You just can\'t Keldean. You\'re going to have to go home..or.. or..\" The next words would come quickly as if they just passed almost instantaneously from her thoughts to her mouth without thinking them through first \"I\'ll just have to stay and watch over you.. so everyone knows you\'re okay. Since -you- won\'t send word to anyone.\"

\"No no, I was but I\'m fine now.\" The boy is thinner from the illness, but it\'s been a week and he\'s been eating with a renewed appetite to make up for the week of nauseating misery. Keldean pushes back some errant curls have have fallen in his eyes. \"Yeah! Stay here! You could sleep up in the attic. Nob will never know if you\'re quiet.\"

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"You mean you wouldn\'t tell him? Keldean Pinewick that\'s lying and deceit. You might as well be stealing from the man if you do that!\" Her little brow would be furrowed again in that frightening image of their mother. \"The only way I\'m staying is if everything is on the straight and narrow. You can help me find a job here too, I\'m capable of working you know. It\'s either that or I\'m going to send word to Father to tell him exactly right where you are so he can come get you himself.\"

Keldean looks startled at her ferocity, then he grows defense. \"Stop talking to me like you\'re mother. You\'re not even two full years older than me.\" He\'s always been extremely touchy about being treated like a child. \"He won\'t care if you stay up in the attic. It\'s huge. Cordelia is the only other one who sleeps up there. You could help her with -her- work though. She broke her arm. Okay? Don\'t tell father.. please don\'t.\"

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"Someone\'s gotta talk to you like a Mother since you won\'t even let ours know that you\'re alright.\" Her words would be biting with that sibling snippiness common to family spats. She\'d take a breath however, obviously not wanting to be too much like their mother. \"Fine. I\'ll stay then, so I can keep an eye on you. I\'ll tell them that we\'re both okay and that I\'m going to stay with you to keep an eye on you until you stop being so stubborn and decide to come home.\"

\"I didn\'t think of that, honest.. I just figured that father would be angry.\" He sinks back into the chair, frowning. It\'s not until she agrees to stay that he brightens up. \"Really?! Excellent! You won\'t regret it. It\'s so much better here in Bree. You\'ll want to stay too. I\'ll introduce you to the dwarves, and Acelen.. He works in the stable. Oh, and Nob of course. He\'s the one that hired me.\" Keldean is grinning now, suddenly realizing how much he\'s missed his family.

Jacquelyn would sigh a little and nod her head some in defeat. She had come to find him and bring him home after all. \"I had better not regret it or I\'m going to blame it all on you. You can help me find someone later on who can write the letter for us so they don\'t have to worry any longer than they have already.\" She didn\'t seem nearly as enthused about this idea as he did, but she would look over at him with a little smile at the corner of her lips. \"I am glad that you\'re alright though. I was worried too.\"

\"Would you have cried at my funeral?\" He can\'t help but ask, the entire thought too weird too ignore. \"They actually thought I was dead?.. I did get lost in the woods out in the Shire, in the Old Forest. That was creepy.\" Keldean won\'t tell her how scared he was -that- night.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"Of course I would have you idiot!\" She\'d scowl at him for that very question, offended that he would even ask that. Jacquelyn would let the scowl go though when she answered his question \"Yes. Well Father was too angry to say anything, but Mother would cry every night wailing on and on about how the wolves had eaten you. I didn\'t think you were that dumb myself... but apparently I was wrong what with you getting lost and all\"

Keldean flushes in embarrassment. \"Yeah, well.. it was dark, and it\'s a big forest. I\'m sorry that you were all worried. I would have sent word if I had thought of that.\" He sounds honest, his gaze dropping to the floor again. The mood passes quickly, as a smile works it\'s way onto his face once more. \"I\'m so excited that you\'re here! This is going to be fun! I\'ll talk to Nob and see if he can let you work here too.\"

Jacquelyn can\'t help but to smile a little at her brother\'s excitement, finally giving up on the mean mother tactic and reaching over to just embrace him tightly. \"I\'m just glad you\'re alright. I\'ve missed you so much.. you missed my 16th birthday you know. It wasn\'t the same without you there.\" Her voice was a little softer with those words, sounding more like her sister than his mother now. \"I\'m really tired though Keldean, do you think you could show me the attic so I could take a nap? I travelled through most of the night.\"

Keldean returns the hug, \"I\'m sorry. I\'ll make it up to you.\" Then he jumps to his feet. \"The attic is through the hall and up the stairs. I can show you.\" At least he\'s doing well enough to be so energetic. It\'s likely been a while since she\'s seen him so excited about things. The boy really was miserable as a farmer. \"I can\'t wait to tell you stories about everything I\'ve seen.\" He grabs up her pack to carry, still grinning.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] \"I can\'t wait to hear them.\" Jacquelyn would say honestly as she stands up, getting ready to follow him to the attic. She would rub at her eyes a little sleepily, but at least she didn\'t sound exactly like their mother anymore. The girl could only hold out for so long after all. \"You\'ll make sure it\'s all right won\'t you? I don\'t want anyone to get upset.\"

\"Yeah yeah, I\'ll talk to him. It\'ll be fine. If you saw some of the things that go on around here, you wouldn\'t be worried.. believe me.\" Keldean speaks casually, trying to keep his sister happy and relaxed. When she starts hearing what he\'s been up to she\'ll like want to strangle him. He hefts the pack over his should, then gestures for her to follow him, guiding her up to the attic.