Since there was little but intrigue outside as the sun sat, I noted the soft footfall in the stable, and recognized it from years past. Kaldir was there watching, and probably trying to decide who was worth more? Truly a life of Rangers disenfranchised after the war, whether by capture and torture by the enemy as Kaldir, or the waning of the world changing and all he had known such as myself, could lead one to take up varying careers and trades such as bounty-hunting or being part of a secret army unofficially sanctioned, but publcly denied by the King. Yes, Kaldir and I are much alike, yet much different in the roads taken, and only time will tell if any binding of the code of the Dúnedain they once shared still held between them.
I saw the glow of Vanwe's candle as she seemed to pause in the twilight by the well. She maybe did or maybe did not know I approached her from behind. Stepping purposfully on a twig to alert her, she did turn about and I stopped, maybe a yard from her. Unsure if she drew a weapon, I was prepared, and also kept an ear to the stables, for surely Kaldir watched...
'The sunset and twilight is a becoming sight here in the Shire, and it is no wonder the halflings settled these lands so long ago.'
My eyes signalled her that Kaldir yet watched and listened in the stables, and I went on...
'I will be spending the night up there this night for Inns are both expensive and too enclosing, but I believe I have something you have dropped ere days ago.'
I was curious to her reaction to this, and wondered what was really in the pouch which I now held before us. I looked at her and asked,
'What is this worth to you?'
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