[Child of the 7th Age]

Azra looked at Mithadan and over towards Zira and Maura who had gathered near Raza in the adjoining room out of earshot to help tend his wounds. She lowered her tone, and spoke in a voice grown older and more solemn. "Nitir is right. I am no child anymore."

She gazed at Mithadan and said, "There is no safety anywhere tonight, not with you nor here with this family. But there is right, and there is wrong. Some things do not change, even in warfare or battle. I have sworn an oath to Kali, to help find his hidden kin. And there will be no kin to find unless the kuduk people live another day."

"Nitir and I have a job to do, and it is one no Man or Elf can share in. For a people must have hope, and that is the one thing we can bring in some small way. I will stay here."

Maura stepped through the door just as the girl's last words were spoken, and went over to put his hand on Azra's shoulder. He said quietly to Mithadan, "I will take your oath as my own, to take the maid with me and my family, and to guard her life as though she were my own daughter. I swear this to you."

"And although the danger tonight is great, we have had knowledge passed to us that the enemy wants not our heads on a platter, but, for some reason unknown, to drag us off into servitude. And hobbits are no fools, nor are we even Men who lay such high stock in dying for an honorable cause. We will fight on now while we may, but when the odds become too great, as I fear they will, we will lay down arms and feign submission to live and fight another day. For I too have been instructed that our duty as a people is to hold on and survive that we may someday play our role in a matter which will have great meaning, perhaps even greater than what has happened here tonight."

[ August 11, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]