In search of the past: The midnight visitors

The Chetwood

The forest here seems darker and fouler, and the trees seem to grow crookedly at strange angles. There is a small stream through the forest here that runs east-west. To the east, the stream plunges down into the rank Midgewater Marshes, its clean water mixing in with the brown muck and mire of the swamps. There are several paths here that lead away into all directions, but the most well-worn of them leads to the west.

A small hut has been built into the woods an anvil sits in front of the door.

Obvious exits:

West

================================== Bree Time ==================================

Real time: Mon Jun 01 14:41:13 2009

Bree time: Late Night <03> on Sterday of Winter - January 28,1447

Moon Phase: Full  Moon

Breelands Weather

The late night winter air is cold and dry around you. A light drizzle trickles from the sky.

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[Caelwen(#24844)]

The black of midnight is miserable in these parts, at least outdoors. The rain is falling into the snow, making it all a chilly slush, and all of the wet intensifies the smell of the marshes.

Which is odd because someone is outdoors and speaking. Two voices it seems, in musical elvish, if it can be heard over the rain, approaching from the south. But soon enough they fall silent, and now there is only one.

Caelwen is walking straight up to Gidon\'s house, making for the door.

[Nob(#16122)] The little house is dark and quiet, only a dull reddish glow seen from one window: the fire, banked against the night. Gidon is sleeping in the cot he always has slept on - tucked against one wall of the main room. He has given Brev some blankets from his parents\' bed, and offered the man the floor.

Brev is not the choosy type, and Gidon\'s hut is dry and warm. After many nights spent in the wild, the floor is pure luxury. Thus it is he sleeps, his cloak beneath him and a blanket atop. Even in slumber, one hand rests near the dagger at his hip.

[Caelwen(#24844)]

Caelwen stops by the door and seems to listen for a while. She then boldly eases it open to peer inside. The sound of the rain grows, and so does the cold from the winter\'s night.

[Nob(#16122)] The little house is well-made. The door doesn\'t creak, but the noise and the cold make Gidon stir, half-wakeful.

Something - perhaps the sudden cold, perhaps the skittering of the rain, jerks Brev from his slumber. As the man passes from sleep to wakefulness, his right hand clenches around the dagger-hilt, and his eyes glitter in the dim light from the banked fire.

[Caelwen(#24844)]

Caelwen looks over her shoulder at something and nods with a smile. She then gasps quietly and turns back. Her eyes focus on Brev even through the darkness, and she freezes still.

[Nob(#16122)] And the other man\'s motion, added in, bring Gidon sitting up, sleepily. He peers through the darkness at the door... the open door. The white figure standing in it. And comes instantly, fully awake.

Brev is not blessed with elven eyesight. At first he sees only the outline of a figure - a tall figure, at that. The dagger is eased from its sheath as he queries, with deceptive softness, in his singsong Common. \"Who goes there?\" Clearly he does not believe it to be Gidon\'s parents. \"And what-\" Something, perhaps that sudden turn of the head, halts his words, and after a hesitant pause he ask doubtfully, \"Coll-wen?\" Oddly, his fingers have dropped nervelessly away from the dagger-hilt.

[<#24844>]

\'Naneth?\' calls a voice from the rain, musical like hers, but higher. \"\"

Caelwen takes a half-step back, her hand still on the door, and calls quietly back, \"\" And then she is looking back within, facing Brev directly. A breath, and suddenly she releases a long string of irritated syllables, like chimes banged angrily together. \"\"

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon is standing wearing just his long shirt - it comes down nearly to his knees. He had reached for his bow, but never completed the gesture, and now he pads forward, frowning a little. \"What do you want?\" he asks, and, perplexed, \"Do you need a place to sleep?\" Surely not... they must have been sleeping quite well on their own before they ran into him.

The musical tongue means no more to the Dunlending than previously. The tone, however - that conveys anger well enough. Brev stands, the knife at his feet, and responds impatiently, \"I don\'t understand.\" To Gidon, more softly, he says. \"I\'m there if you need me - it\'s /your/ house.\"

[<#24844>]

Caelwen huffs several breaths and then passes a white hand over her brow. \'Me,\' she begins slowly, \'I, house, you.. ai!\' she cries, then calls behind her, \"\"

Caelwen continues watching over her shoulder, and then a small voice closer says, \"\" \'I wish for your home to be safe\' \"\"

Caelwen\'s skirt rustles and her hand drops to cup something behind her back. \'I wish your home to safe,\' she repeats, and her accent is nearly bewhilderingly thick compared to the younger voice\'s.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon listens to all this with a growing bewilderment. \"It is...\" he says, and glances at Brev. And then sudden alarm brings him a swift step closer. \"Is something happening?\" he demands. \"Is something coming?\" He looks past Caelwen out the door - it can\'t be a forest fire, not in the rain and snow like this. \"Wolves?\"

Brev\'s eyes narrow as he notes Caelwen\'s hidden hand, but he says naught, watching the Elf with awkward wariness. Only once, as his gaze flits to the youngster behind, do his tense features relax into something akin to a smile.

[<#24844>]

Caelwen takes a sudden step back as Gidon steps forward, both hands behind her now, and rain falling onto her hood. \"\" she asks, a single confused word in response to Gidon\'s quick speech.

\"\" the smaller voice says-- and there, beneath Caelwen\'s cloak, dark eyes are reflecting firelight to one side. \'What is \'wolfves\'?\' asks the child, but his mother is shushing him and he hides behind her again.

Caelwen takes a breath. \'Not comes.\'

\'Nothing comes,\' corrects the small voice in a whisper.

Caelwen sighs and looks to the roof of the house. \'Not-thing comes,\' she amends.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon watches all of this, fear ebbing, and interest sparking. He steps back, and motions. \"Come in?\" And then he shivers, standing there in his thin shirt and bare feet. \"And shut the door! Please.\"

Only when Gidon has given his verdict does Brev move he picks up his dropped dagger and tucks it quickly away. \"There\'s blankets, if you need,\" is his own contribution to the conversation - though he stares doubtfully at Caelwen\'s wet cloak. Do these beings even feel cold or hunger?

\"Wolves are beasts,\" he says absently in the direction of the young one. \"No more, no less. But it is still best to be wary of them.\" Absently, aye, for his gaze keeps returning to Caelwen herself, and that bright fall of copper hair that catches the faint glow of the banked fire.

[<#24844>]

Caelwen flinches back as Brev darts down, and she hesitates warily for a long while. \"\" she murmurs. She stands in still, listening readiness out in the wet, like a doe poised before something.

The cloak bulges sideways and there is the child, rib-high on his mother, still beneath her cloak but watching Brev. His fair and musical child-voice comes, but quite solemn now. \'You desire harm to my mother?\'

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon\'s eyes go very wide and he turns to stare at Brev. And then with a very firm voice (despite his utter inability to physically stop the man from doing anything he would wish), he says, \"No one will harm you in my house.\" And he looks hard at the man.

The child\'s question, at least, is easily answered. \"No,\" Brev answers softly, watching Caelwen\'s hesitance. Almost he reaches out a hand - the motion is started, but then he halts it, swallowing. \"No,\" he repeats again, then looks to the elf-child, his own voice equally solemn. \"I wish her no harm. Tell your mother I wish her not to harm me or this boy whose hospitality I have taken.\"

He turns then to look to Gidon, in time to catch the end of that hard stare. \"I\'ll bring no harm unless they bring harm to you,\" he qualifies.

[<#24844>]

Caelwen\'s eyes are wide, and perhaps this can be seen in the darkness, as she looks at Gidon, then last at Brev.

The child is all obedience, and speaks after Brev. \"\" But the mother is already laughing in shock, her fingers lifting to cover her mouth as the bubbly sounds spill out. \'I not harm.\'

\'She cannot harm anyone,\' the child attempts to clarify, but Caelwen looks aghast at this and murmurs to her son. \'And, ah, she says good night, and forgiveness for-- ah... f-- frightening you.\'

Caelwen curtsies just a litle toward the house, lithe and fair as ever, her hair tumbling out of the hood. And then the strange pair turn away and are soon lost to the night.

[Nob(#16122)] The hard stare changes and for a minute, there is uncertainty and hesitation in Gidon\'s face. He looks at Brev for a long minute - did the man really just say he meant to protect him from harm? He turns away to hide his face. Just in time to watch both elves vanish into the night. \"Hey!\" he calls after them. \"Come back...!\"

Brev, caught up in watching Gidon, nevertheless smiles at Caelwen\'s musical laughter - a slow curving of the lips. He is equally slow to respond to the Elves\' vanishing. \"Wait!\" he calls into the darkness, and there is a sigh on his lips.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon glances towards Brev, disappointedly - something of magic seems to have gone with the elves - and slowly shuts the door.

Brev stands quietly as the door is shut, his expression distant. Then he shakes his head. \"Kiern, but she\'s beautiful,\" he murmurs softly, then amends it hastily: \"They both are.\"

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon is not quite as susceptible - yet. But he is looking somewhat overwhelmed, possibly star-struck, as he stands by the door with his hand loosely on the handle. He shakes his head as well, and blinks, and then yawns enormously.

Brev\'s mouth twitches at the yawn. \"Want me to stand watch?\" he asks. \"I can wake you if they come back ...\" The words trail into silence. Somehow, that does not seem likely.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon shakes his head. \"No...\" he says, and yawns again. \"I mean, if you want to, but... I don\'t think you need to?\"

Brev shrugs at that. \"I\'m awake now,\" he answers. \"Unlike you seem to be. Sleep will come in a bit. Till then ...\" He sits down with his back to the wall, where he has a clear and uninterrupted view of the door. His gaze, however, keeps slipping toward the dim glow of the fire, its ashes a red so deep as to be almost copper.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon nods and pads back to his cot, curling up in the blankets. But he too lies there, awake, his eyes watching the fire dreamily. After a while, he asks, \"What\'re you looking for, east?\"

Brev pulls his gaze away from the embers. \"Huh? Someone. And something.\" He is silent a while, then amends, \"My folk are seeking out distant kin. Like-minded others who\'d help us in a fight. And I .. I want to know what happened to my father. Uannve\'s the key.\" He falls back into a morose silence.

[Nob(#16122)] The boy digests this in the quietness. The fire shifts on itself, collapsing a little. A little while later, he says, his voice sleepy and thin, \"Me too. Want to know...\" There are no more words. He is asleep.

Brev watches the youngster in silence for a while unguarded the tense wariness slides from his features, leaving them oddly gentle. \"I know,\" he murmurs. A little longer, and he goes back to staring at the faint coppery glow of the fire. Soon he, too, will sleep.