Finally extricating herself from her neighbor Mytle’s long and rather tedious discourse on Carl’s and the children’s activities at home, Gilly gained the door. She had assumed that Benia would make her way to her rooms in order to evade the newly arrived Ranger she had seen in the yard. Following this line of reasoning, the petite hobbit wasted no time in the commons room, but made her way blindly through; eyes slowly adjusting as she went.
Nearing the turn by the stair and catching sight of the hem of Benia’s skirts and one of her boots, empty. She stopped short of the corner. On the opposite wall, towering over the faint shadow of her friend was another shadow. Gilly quickly began searching the packages that she was still carrying for something that could be used to fend off an attack. Settling on a cast ladle she quietly drew closer, not even noticing the wet floor on her bare feet.
“I just wish to see if you broke it m'lady. Fear me not,” a man was saying as he tired to examine Benia’s ankle.
Gilly relaxed her grip, sighing with relief that the ladle was not immediately needed.
Aware of someone behind him Silvanis glanced over his shoulder at the hobbit. “Your friend has taken a fall it seems, but I cannot persuade her to let me send for a doctor.”
"It is broken," observed Vanwe as she approached. "Your ankle cannot be left like that...I amy be able to help, though I am no doctor. We must act swiftly, before the shock of numbness wears off."
A slight pang went though Gilly as she recognized Silvanius from Benia’s first day at the inn. But feeling a rather desperate need to get Benia off the floor and out of the hallway without drawing the attention of the other guests, Gilly replied, “Perhaps she would feel more at ease in her own rooms. Could you kindly help us?”
She hoped that she wouldn’t, but catching Benia glance she was already regretting the request.
[ June 17, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]
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