Both Morwyn and Nahai looked up as the woman, Aman, entered the room. They could hardly help it, for the room was so full of the voices of the two women, Pio and Aman, laughing and greeting each other. Overhearing Pio mention on the house drinks, Morwyn promptly ordered a large mug of spiced cider, and Nahai followed suit.
After the emotional conversation that had come earlier, the two found themselves sharing funny stories about their childhood.
Nahai's childhood, Morwyn quickly gathered, had seen few happy moments, so the woman of Rohan carried the main brunt of the storytelling. After a particularly humorous tale, in which Morwyn and another girl, Hilde, had escaped their chores and hidden in the hills only to be trapped by Hilde's older brother who convinced them he was a ghost and forced them to bring him a pie in order to escape a death curse; the two women were convulsed, laughing so hard that tears ran down their faces.
"What happened when the pie went missing?" Nahai asked between fits of giggles. Morwyn rubbed the tears out of her eyes with the heels of her hands and took a quick drink of cider to compose herself.
"Hilde's mother was so furious!" Morwyn rolled her eyes, "but when Cadfael came home with berry-stains on his mouth..." The woman snorted into her drink, remembering the look on the boy's face.
Nahai collapsed into another fit of laughter, hiccupping as she intoned in a hollow voice, "I am not Cadfael! I am the ghost of Aldor!" lapsing into her normal tone, "boys..." she shook her head.
Morwyn sighed, swirling the last of the cider around the bottom of her mug. Sides aching with laughter she rested her elbows on the table and shot Nahai a glance. "Your turn." she said.
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The seasons fall like silver swords, the years rush ever onward; and soon I sail, to leave this world, these lands where I have wander'd. O Elbereth! O Queen who dwells beyond the Western Seas, spare me yet a little time 'ere white ships come for me!
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