Great ragged breaths tore Evelina's chest as she ran and her grip on the large basket began to slip.
"Wait up for a minute!" she called to Bandolin.
Bandolin wheeled around to find Evelina already collapsed in the soft needles fallen from a nearby pine tree. The lady Bandit motioned him to sit, too out of breath to speak. Poor Evelina was used to stealth, not mad escapes on foot through the forest! The lack of work and easy living in the hobbit villages did not help keep her in shape either. Even as she mused over this in her head, she tried to hide her exhaustion from Bandolin; it wouldn't do to show she was getting soft in front of her partners, such characters as she was used to dealing with could use any weakness to their own advantage.
Bandolin did notice, however, and could not suppress a small smile. He was hardly out of breath from the run and it amused him to see the tough woman fail to do something better than him. He began to root around the basket to see what Evelina had been able to grab. With a shout of disgust, he pulled out a long roll of streamers.
"Oh no," Evelina groaned, her breath fully recovered. She dug deeper through the basket and yelled with triumph, pulling a large box of candies from the bottom. She tossed a handful to Bandolin who caught them deftly and popped them in his mouth.
"Here you are, Jasper" she said, offering out another handful. It was only then that she realized Jasper was not present.
"Bandolin," she whipped around, glad to have someone present to vent her frustration upon, "what happened to Jasper? Didn't you make sure he got away?"
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