Everything was going very, very wrong. It seemed that the Shire tossed in its sleep like a child beset by nightmares. What had started as minor glaces and raised eyebrows had grown into dark glares and angry mutterings across kitchen gates. The joining of Maura and Cami had been a welcome distraction, but the good fellowship that had sprung naturally from the joining of the two halflings was wearing thin.
Bird had wanted to leave as soon as the ceremony was done, but she would not leave without Pio and Mith, and Elf or no, her friend was in no condition to travel.
So the little skinchanger had reverted to jackdaw form, and had taken to the air, flying over the four farthings and beyond, clear to Lake Evendim and the lonely ruins of Annúminas.
There she had camped for a few days, brooding on the glory and folly of Men. While there she had watched as a company of Dunedain had visited the lost ruins themselves, dwelling over old maps and recording measurements and conditions of old palaces and towers.
Bird knew that the King intended to expand his realm again into Arnor that was, and supposed that this was the advance guard of builders, craftsmen and soldiers who would come to reclaim Annúminas for Elessar. She wondered darkly how they would respond to news that Mithadan, as well as other lesser men, were in the Shire, making the little country hum like a disturbed hive of angry bees.
From there she had flown south, over the Dim Hills and the Western Moors to Undertowers, where she had spent a few days with her old friend Holly. There she had told Holly and Olo all about the doings on the shores of Lake Evendim, and unburdened her heart concerning the troubles in the Shire and her own part in it.
But it seemed that the denizens of Undertowers were absorbing their own "Elvish airs" from their closer proximity to the Havens. The outlyers of the far West Farthing seemed more and more to disconnect themselves from their more settled, stodgy cousins in the Shire, and looked to the West more often than the East. Bird would not be surprised to find that eventually they would found their own separate country in time.
But despite these wanderings, Birdie would return again and again to Bywater and Hobbiton, checking in with Pio, Cami, and Mith, but refusing to change into human form at all anywhere within the borders of the Shire.
She blamed plain Elven and Mannish stubborness for her friends continuing presence in the land of Suza. Cami's appearance she regarded as bittersweet. At least she could claim this as her original home, but Bird felt that her coming back, even if it meant a long-desired reunion with Maura, was keeping her from her duties in the First Age. This whole, long, outlandish episode made the skinchanger nervous and fretful. She held her tongue, but continued to watch, and worry. But all the same, she continued to stay.
She had watched the meeting, a small black shadow hidden high in the rafters, and was flitting through the darkness to return to the opened window of the inn, when she heard the crash of the mug and the shouts of alarm from the halfling maid. a shadowy form, dark as her own, but definitely man sized, could be seen running for the shelter of a hedgerow and a small wood beyond. Bird cursed under her breath and shook her feathers in agitation. Then she took off after the figure, scanning the skies fearfully for predators.
"I suppose I'd best follow this brigand and see what mischief he's up to. But if I wind up as an owl's dinner from flying after dark, it will be all Pio's fault!"
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