"Do you really care?" asked Ellie "You aren't just saying that? Sometimes you seem too nice, I don't want to bore you. It's a long story, my whole life and I know I talk a lot, too much you might say, in fact lots of people have said it before I-"
"I care" said Drago firmly.
"I was doing it again, wasn't I?" asked Ellie with a sniff and a watery smile. Silently Drago handed her his pocket handkerchief.
"Did your mother really say you were a fool? That's not very nice. I thought mothers were supposed to be lovely. I never knew mine." she added.
"I'm sorry" said Drago looking concerned.
"Everybody is. I don't understand it, really. I never knew her so how could I miss her? I had a really happy childhood, with my Aunt in the Smials, oh and all my cousins, second cousins, and third cousins twice removed!" Ellie laughed a little shakily.
"And none ever told me I was a fool. I loved it there" she added with a sigh. "Then my Aunt died, that was horrible. For a while I continued to live at the Smials, with my cousin Pearl and her family, but my father's cousins the Grinder-Chubbs claimed me, and all my Took relatives let me go. What was one more child to them, the Smials is bursting with them?"
She looked really angry and started pacing the room.
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“Sylphs of the forest,” I whispered. “Spirits of oak, beech and ash. Dryads of Rowan and hazel, hear us. You who have guided and guarded our every footstep, you who have sheltered our growth, we honour you."
the Forbidden Link
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