[Nuranar]

Luinien had risen with concern when Piosenniel went to tend the injured lady, but she quickly realized that the capable innkeeper needed no assistance. Her heart warmed to the Elf and her compassion for all those around her.

When Pio returned, she resumed their conversation. ‘You had asked about our father. My father…my father was Amonhilion, He Who Follows the Hills. He and my mother were killed in a rockslide in the Misty Mountains.’ Pio murmured her sympathy. ‘But oh, while he was here he followed the hills, and he voyaged the rivers, and he roamed the plains. He loved this world, and he told us of what he had seen and where he had been. He passed that love onto us.’ Her eyes shone.

‘I can see that,’ Pio smiled. ‘Your mother must have been a rare lady.’

‘Indeed she was. She was an Elf of Mirkwood. Her name was Erinlothiel, and she loved the wood for the memory of what it had been before the shadow. But once she strayed alone and was trapped by the spiders. My father, making his own way through the forest, heard her cries and rescued her. Because of her he stayed some time in the realm of Thranduil; he grew to love her, and for her he gave up the life of the wanderer. And even when they left this world, they were together.’ Silence fell, the silence of remembrance, sweet and sad.

Tarondo sighed and took up the tale. ‘We left Mirkwood soon after, and for most of our lives we have traveled these lands. As Luinien said, Father passed on to us his love for the world, and we longed to follow his steps. But my father was not merely a wanderer,’ he continued, his face animating with pride. ‘Amonhilion was a warrior and the son of a warrior, and he and his father marched to Mordor with the host of Gil-galad.

‘Father returned alone. But with him he brought his father’s sword, that which I now bear. He taught me how to use it; indeed, he taught both us in the use of weapons and in the ways of the land. He wanted us to be fully equipped, to be ready for wherever fate would lead us.’

‘And after everything it has led us all here!’ Luinien laughed, dispelling the somber shadows of the past. ‘To the beautiful Shire and a most wonderful hostess.’