[Child of the 7th Age]

Child and Rose had begun their search for supplies by closeting themselves in the depths of the ship, searching for things that had been overlooked before. They found a number of barrels of wine and some smoked meats which had been tucked away in Minas Tirith and then forgotten.

As they straightened and organized all the items, Daisy asked Child if she could tell her a tale to make the time pass more quickly. Child laughed and said, "I can do one better than that. Last night I went to bed and had a strange dream."

Daisy looked over and laughed. "Rose told me that sometimes you see Valar and Elves, and they bring you secrets from Valinor."

Child burst out laughing, "Don't believe everything you hear from Rose! Anyways, this was a different kind of dream. It was just about hobbits, and it was very silly. Or so it seemed to me."

Daisy was curious now and told Child to go on with her tale of dreaming. So Child described how she had seen two young lads having a fight. "They were about eleven years old. I think they must have been brothers, because they were fighting the way brothers fight. Both of them were in some kind of very dark place, and they were aguing over the strangest thing. One brother, the older one, kept insisting that he wanted to see "Nitir and Azra", and the younger one, who was a bit of a scamp, said he preferred "Pioseniel" since she at least carried a sword. The older one spoke very nicely and was a little shy. He reminded me of Lindo. He even sang a song in my dream."

"And the younger one?" asked Daisy.

"Oh, he definitely looked like Maura, or how Maura would have looked as a young lad. Only he seemed to be getting in trouble all the time."

Child went on, "Near the end of the dream, a teacher came in and scolded the younger boy for keeping the elder from his studies."

Daisy looked up with mischievous eyes. "So which one did you like better? The older one who defended Nitir, perhaps?"

Child shook her head, "What a strange question!" She laughed and was about to turn her thoughts to something else. But then she stopped and reflected for a moment. "You know Daisy, you're right. I liked both the boys very much, but I did feel something more for one of them. The littler one who looked like Maura and acted like a scamp, that is the one I would pick."

[ August 31, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]