[Imladris]

Finduilas: blind girl of Gondor

I set my lyre aside, my fingers brushing the strings. I didn't want to cease my practice, but Elentari had told me that the blisters on my fingertips had broken and that white water, mingled with blood, oozed from them.

A chill settled in my bones as a cold wind crept through the window. Crickets chirped, the coo of an owl on the hunt, the squeak of a rat scratching about in the walls.

I yawned and said, "I don't know about you, but I am goin got bed, Elentari."

She said goodnight to me and I heard the door softly close as she swept from the room. Groping my way to my bed, I curled up on the covers. It had been a good day...I had actually plucked a simple tune...an elvish tune

Snuggling under the covers, I wondered where Iris was. She could not be alone, sleeping under the branches of a tree with the dead leaves as a coverlet. I should go after her, and brave the stairs and the swarms of men still dizzy with drunkness of wine. But Iris could take care of herself: if she wanted to be here she would have been in the room already...