[Arien]

“Right, now I guess it’s my turn!” he laughed placing his glass down onto the table. He leaned back casually in his chair and fumbled with his belt unconsciously. “Well, what can I say?” he said softly looking up at Tiruviel. “I am travelling North to visit the rest of my kin, I left Ithilien a year ago and spent some time in villages along the way. In fact I have just come from Bree where I stayed for a month. It was interesting.” He smiled.

“It is nothing of course compared to your tale, but come tell why did you leave such fair woods a Lothlorien? I have dreamed of going there, but alas it is now empty. And the radiance that once was there has gone, fled over the sea from this forsaken land.”

“Forsaken?” Tiruvial question with concern, “I do not think such a thing! These lands are just beginning to blossom, joy and happiness will come from them. That is certain. As for Lothlorien, yes its radiance has fleeted and the mystique that Galadriel and Celeborn held over it has gone with them.” Her eyes glistened, so she missed her home, but she defiantly defended the world she had now taken on. He admired her. “I left to explore, it is not enough to be shut up I want to feel free, to adventure. I did not pass over the sea with my mother and I still stand by my decision.”

Tiruviel dropped her head slightly and then looked up at him again. “You speak bitterly, why so?”

“Aye, I do. Maybe too bitterly, but I have had some experience of the darkness of the world. That I do not wish to tell you, maybe because I hate to relive it. Or maybe because I do not want you to hear it…..I can not tell….but..”

“It is ok!” she smiled, “I would not have you tell me, here we are complete strangers I have no right to know!” she laughed, and he smiled back in thanks. They sat and talked for a while he liked her company immensely and she was a pleasant change from the company he normally found himself keeping.

“Excuse me?” a voice came from behind him, he turned round to see the maid with a bowl of soup and bread in her hands, “This is for you.”

“Oh, thank you!”

“Aman thought you might be hungry,” she said.

“Well thank her for me, it seems she may be able to read my mind!” Ruby walked off and he turned back to Tiruviel. “Will you have some?”

She shook her head, “No thank you, I have already eaten, although it is lovely soup,” he took a sip.

“ ‘Tis indeed!”