[Nurumaiel]

Leafa looked here and there, and seeing that no one else was very close by to them, turned her face back to Ædegard with a rather puzzled frown. She did not answer immediately, but continued to look up into his face, and after a moment her frown changed to a little smile and she dropped her eyes. How blissful it was to have his arm about her, and his eyes gazing down at her so fondly! Perhaps she had merely dreamed that he had said he could not marry her. It seemed so distant and vague now.

"I do not know," she said, straightening her face and recalling her mind to the matter at hand. "I am not one who loves wandering, such as Liornung, and while I am very fond of the company, I feel uncertain at times. Not of their loyalty, but... I feel uncertain especially when I am near the Elves. I fear I am nothing but a burden to them. I feel that they disapprove of all my clumsy ways."

She paused and blushed, glancing in the direction of the Elves, and hoping they had not heard what she said, though she had said nothing unkind. She had never felt very strongly that they disapproved of her before, but after she had fled from the camp and caused the men to ride out to find her, she had cringed whenever she noticed the Elves looking at her. No doubt they wouldn't have done what she did, even if their hearts had been broken. She had caused so much trouble, and...

"You found me amidst the wayfarer people," she continued. "Liornung was very good to me and took me away from them so eventually I could return to a life in a home, rather than wander about. My father loves to wander, and he also has a great love for the winds, the grass, and the trees. The wilderness, he says, always calls to him. He tells me the first song he really heard and thrilled to was the song of the winds playing against the harp boughs of the trees, and the gentle rustlings of the leafs. That, he says, is one of the reasons he named me for leafs.

"My mother and I are of a different sort. She followed him when he left with the wayfarers because she loved him; I because he was my father and I too loved him, and because I had nowhere else to go. I know no one back at my home, and certainly no one at Edoras."

She raised her eyes to his face. "The matter stands here," she said. "I feel I cannot marry you without my father's permission, which means we should have to wait some time until he decided it was best for his family to return home. And so if we returned to Edoras, or wherever it is you live, we would have to wait some time to be wed. Meanwhile I should have nowhere to stay, for I know no one. The only one I know who can take care of me until I enter your home as your wife is Liornung, and I do not think he will be returning until this quest is over.

"I do not say," she added earnestly, "that I cannot return now. I merely say that there are some obstacles to hinder us. But I will do what you deem advisable."