View Single Post
Old 05-22-2006, 08:32 AM   #322
Thinlómien
Shady She-Penguin
 
Thinlómien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,385
Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.
”Come on, Cnebba! We don’t have the whole day to waste! Your dad’s going to apply for a job to day and we’d better be there before noon. Hurry up now!” Modtryth shouted to her son who was examining a bug he had found from the roadside. Cnebba pulled a face at his mother and hastened to his parents’ side. Modtryth had lifted him to the wagon and took the reins of the horse. Her husband Stigend, who usually led the horse looked a bit surprised, but said nothing and began to walk beside the wagon. The boy immediately started questioning his father about bugs’ life. “What do they eat? Where do they sleep? What do they dream of? Why do they have shells?”

Modtryth was amused to watch the two strawheads very like in appearance, her husband and her son, side by side, the smaller one babbling all the time and the bigger one trying to answer the flood of questions a bit absent-mindedly. Stigend seemed a bit worried as he walked beside the wagon. Modtryth didn’t know if he was still agonising over how his family would be treated or whether he had moved on to agonising would he get the job or not. Modtryth, on the contrary, was confident. She knew her husband would get the place, especially since he had the recommendations from Lord Byrthold. Furthermore she knew that however arrogantly they would be treated, they could deal with it.

Prejudices. Modtryth herself had dealt with them all her life. Her dark brown hair, brown eyes and complexion that was darker than most of the Rohirrim’s had gathered ignorant, unfriendly, despising and even hostile glances wherever she had went in Rohan, her homeland. And all that only because she had happened to have a Dunlending mother.

As they passed by a crossing, Modtryth noticed a couple she had worked with in the Horse Fair. They were talking with a merchant, apparently negotiating about the price of a kettle they were about to buy. The woman noticed Modtryth and waved to her, smiling. Modtryth waved back and continued her way to the Mead Hall.

That couple, like so many other people before them, had first despised Modtryth and tried to avoid her, but in the end their prejudices had been won by Modtryth’s fluent rohirric – her mother tongue, her apparent friendly and humble bahaviour and her diligence. She was sure that if the people in Lord Eodwine’s Mead Hall would give her a chance, she would prove their possible prejudices wrong. It was not herself she was worried about.

It was little Cnebba, with his huge brown eyes and the ability to get involved in everything he should not that worried Modtryth. The boy had showed his tendency to get into trouble during the years. Furthermore, his curiosity and his endless hunger for knowledge could be able to make the things even worse.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Cnebba’s question. “Is it that big building over there?”
“Yes”, Stigend replied and thereby volunteered to be the target of the question flood.
“Why does it look broken?”
“It’s under renovation. That’s why we’re going there. We’re going to help to fix it.

As they reached the Mead Hall, they saw lots of people outside the building. “Why are they all here?” Cnebba asked. Modtryth and Stigend glanced at each other.
“Because Lord Eodwine is holding a court today, dear”, Modtryth said, taking the turn to answer.
“Why is he holding a court?”
Modtryth sighed. “That’s what lords do”, she said simply.
“The people need justice”, Stigend added. Modtryth catched a trace of sarcasm in his voice. Maybe he was referring to the Dunlending incident in the Fair.
“Why do they need justice?” Cnebba asked.
“So that criminals would be punished” Modtryth answered, at length. She felt a bit uncomfortable with the discussion so she decided to change the topic and turned to her husband: “Now we just need to find a place for our horse and our wagons.”
“Easier said than done”, said Stigend.
Thinlómien is offline