Holly had Olo pinned against a tree, the front of his shirt grasped firmly in her left hand, and her right hand gesticulating furiously. Her voice was low and insistent, and Bird could make out none of the mostly one-sided conversation. What perturbed her though was that occasionally Holly would look her way and point, and then seem to hammer some further point home to Olo.
For his part, though, Olo was holding his own in the interchange. Once again his experience of having many sisters to deal with kept him calm and firm in his insistence that he knew it was wrong what Miss Bird was doing, but he had agreed to help her anyway in hopes he could keep her out of too much trouble. 'And speaking of trouble', he said, 'there is a Ranger with her now, and it looks to be the same as kept us from going out of the inn last night. Perhaps we should go over and head him off.'
Holly took a deep breath and let go of his shirt. She looked to where Bird stood, and saw Vorondil had hold of her wrists. 'By the One!' she thought to herself. 'What does he think he's doing now?! And look at poor Bird, she's gone white as a sheet!'
'We'd best get over there!' said Olo. 'She looks like some poor rabbit facing a grinning wolf.' He grabbed Holly's hand and hurried her along.
Before they could reach the Bird, the Ranger had stepped aside, and now Gandalf stepped up to take his turn at the game. She saw a puff of smoke and the disbelieving look on her friend's face as eleven pebbles tumbled from the shell.
'Bird?', she said, trying to get the woman's attention, now focused on the bouquet in her hand. 'What's going on?' She looked at Gandalf, his eyes twinkling merrily with laughter; and then at Vorondil, who was having a difficult time maintaining a serious face.
[ August 10, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]
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Eldest, that’s what I am . . . I knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
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