[Durelin]

It had taken Durelin quite a long time to get all prepared for a move to Rohan. It was a long way from Bree to Rohan, after all, and a long way meant a big difference. This was certainly a great change for this Shire loving young woman, and many details entailed in making this move complete. Now that these details, and other details of her life, had been worked out, Durelin decided that it was time to introduce herself to the goings on of her new home. And, as it was in any quaint, quiet, common sense little town or a bustling city without any signs of cheery faces on short, stout halfling bodies, the resident inn was the place to go to get ‘in the know’.

As a city such as Edoras, a city very much unlike Bree, she was finding, had several inns, it was important that she find the inn. Whatever population size a community had, there was always one place where any could go and see anyone. ‘Anyone’ was just reduced in size in cities. When Durelin’s feet had become rather sore in her soft, slipper-like leather shoes (a bad choice, she now realized, to wear that day), she finally came upon an inn with its doors thrown open wide with sounds of merry making that had been calling to her for a block now. Still, this had to be relatively quiet for the inn, this early in the day.

She paused for a moment to look at the sign hanging above the door. The White Horse Inn she read, thinking of how she should not have doubted that it would have ‘horse’ somewhere in its name. She pondered the meaning of a ‘white horse’ until her thoughts were disrupted by a tugging on her arm. The small hand in hers was gripping as tightly as it could, and the child the hand belonged to was seemingly trying to pull Durelin’s arm off. The child was of course hers; it was her only son, as she had only an infant daughter at home with the father (who was in no mood to be social, at this point!).

“Mamma!” he cried with an incredible amount of huffiness, “Can’t we go in?”

The boy was just barely eight, but he was already almost up to his mother’s chest. He was going to be tall, much like his father. Also like his father, he had very blonde and very straight hair, along with light blue eyes, almost a blue-grey. This was all due to Rohirrim heritage. This was his father’s home, and this was why Durelin was here. He had refused to allow his son to grow up any more outside his homeland. Durelin could not argue with that, nor would she wish to. She had left family in Bree, but this was her family now. There was no way she would ever be lonely, she knew, as she looked down at her son with a smile. It won’t be much longer before I am unable to do that. I will smile up at him, and it will be very different, she thought, as she was already beginning to feel that time was playing tricks on her.

“What did you say, Loar?” Her son was in no mood for smiles, but he knew to say “please”. Durelin’s smile widened as she let go of Loar’s hand and had to pick up her skirts to walk quickly enough to follow the boy, now running in his excitement. Durelin sighed as the boy disappeared into the crowds and stopped to look around. It would be quite embarrassing to be seen running with her skirts pulled up trying to catch her child. Besides, he couldn’t get himself into too much trouble, the amount of people here would not allow him to…would it? There was a good many, but not enough to hide him for long. But perhaps there was enough that they would not notice a young boy doing mischief… Durelin then imagined her young son slipping underneath someone’s table, reaching up to tip over a mug of ale and opening his mouth wide beneath it. Her head turned wildly from side to side, her eyes straining to search the entire inn. She sighed once again, this time much more heavily, and gave up for now. An inn like this, much larger than the Green Dragon back in Bree, was perfect for hiding someone as cunning as her son.

Calmly, but quickly, she walked up to the bar, and got the innkeeper’s attention. “Excuse me, miss. Did you see a young boy run by here just a moment ago? I seem to have lost him already.”