Gasping for breath and shaking slightly, Eledrim came to rest on a bar stool. "Great Heavens, man!" he croaked out between breaths, and, regaining a bit of composure, he shook his head slowly. "Dear, dear, I must curb this temper of mine. Hah, no, I'm not really as brash an old codger as you think I am, my good fellow. I can become unusually cranky when something is irritating me or when nobody will tell me what is going on. Hrumph! And the fact that you, you of all people were sitting there and staring at me, grinning like a fool!... Well, I was just a bit perplexed as to how you managed to show up here, you see! I certainly didn't expect whatever-it-is you just did to me, and I always prefer a friend to an enemy... Ah, me, I'm hardly the belligerent type, you see. Just a bit of a facade, I suppose."
Stretching his stiff arms, he pulled back his heavy hood, revealing a worn face, creased and leathery. A reddish-brown beard enveloped his chin and neck, and it was streaked here and there with strands of white and grey. His hair, the same color as his beard, was balding a bit around the top and might have been mistaken for a badly done tonsure. His eyes, though, were clear and seemed to radiate calmness and quiet wisdom. Managing a hopeful smile, Eledrim held out a hand.
"A truce, perhaps?"
[ November 20, 2002: Message edited by: Melichus ]
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"The other [theme] had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony...and it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern..."
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