[Child of the 7th Age]

As the haunting cries of Gamba died away, Anee pulled softly on her hand, "Come, we must get some sleep, or we'll never survive tomorrow." She led her to a side cavern which was separate from the others, and laid down two thin blankets on the hard ground.

Inside her collar, Daisy heard the faintest of echoing whispers in response. "She's right you know. Go to sleep."

Anee yawned and looked groggily over to Daisy, "What did you say?"

Daisy froze in place. "er, Nothing. At least nothing important. I just said I was really sleepy." She glared down at the collar of her tattered dress, and made a nasty face. Then Bird stared back and buzzed off on her own.

As silence descended on the caves, Daisy curiously peeked around. The darkness about them was absolute and profound. Daisy had never seen anything like it. She coud not get to sleep and whispered over to her friend, "Why was Gamba crying tonight?"

Anee looked strangely at the girl, but then remembered Daisy had no idea who Gamba was or even what he'd been doing for the last four weeks. "He's one of the Tuk brothers, and he's been digging graves. After a while, that gets hard. And the guard is one of the few decent ones left."

"Who are the 'Tuk' brothers?" she queried.

This time Anee giggled. "You're funny. You must have been born on one of the stars up in the heavens, if you don't know that!"

Daisy's frustration boiled over. "I've never been here before," she retorted. "How do you expect me to know such things?"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," came a small, earnest response. "They're descendents of Maura Tuk and the singer Lindo. They will be loremasters someday."

Recognition flooded over Daisy as she remembered Cami's stories to her. "Ah," she smiled in understanding. Some things never change! "They're Fallohides, the "Tooks".

"Yes," said Anee, "That's what I told you."

Daisy had to bite her tongue to stop from blurting out the fact that she had been a servant in the employ of the Took heir, and had lived in Tuckborough for several months.

She lay awake for a long while after that. Perhaps, Bird would come back and speak with her. They'd managed to meet at dinner, but hadn't been alone for a single moment. Daisy didn't even know if Bird had found out anything important that day. Or maybe Anee would talk to her a bit more. She rolled over on the stony ground waiting to hear if anyone would break the bleakness of the night.

[ October 08, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]