[JennyHallu]

Lin embraced Saeryn enthusiastically, only releasing her when Lèoðern ran firmly at her knees, wrapping her arms around them and throwing Lin off balance. Saeryn caught both Lin and the little girl, laughing, and held Lèoðern high enough to properly hug her friend.

"Goodbye, Lin! Come back soon, I'll miss you!" Lèoðern's goodbye was fervent, and it was clear that she was not looking forward at all to the absence of her friend. Lin smiled and hugged cheerfully back, wrapping her good arm around and under the child, taking the weight herself.

"Thanks, Saeri," she chuckled, lifting her wrapped arm with a grin. "Couldn't have gotten her up here." She reached out with the injured arm and clasped Saeryn's firmly in the Rohirric fashion. "I will miss you, friend. Do write to me! I want to hear all the gossip and goings-on while I'm gone."

"Stay here! Don't leave!" Lèoðern's urging made both young women smile, especially as the girl's voice was muffled from where she had her face pressed into Lin's shoulder. Lin turned solemnly to her, speaking with the same reasonable frankness she'd use with an adult.

"But I must, squirrel. My father is worried about me, and wants to know that I am safe, and it is far too busy in spring on his lands for him to visit himself. If you were with me, and your father needed to see you, I would do all in my power to make sure you could."

Lèoðern nodded seriously, seeing the logic of her friend's explanation. "You'll come back soon, won't you? I won't have anyone to play with."

"Yes, you will. There will be Garmund and that new boy you were playing with last night, and I bet Lady Saeryn here will let you help her sometimes...when I get back, you'll have so many stories to tell me you won't know when to start! And I'll be back as soon as I can. I won't tell you how long, but only because I don't know, but I'll write a letter to you when I find out, and tell you. I'll send it to you at the same time as I send one to Saeryn, so she'll bring it to you."

Saeryn smiled and agreed, and when Lin indicated the weight of the girl was getting to be too much for her, cheerfully helped Lèoðern get back to the ground.

Garstan had been listening to the conversation for a while, and as Lèoðern, worries assuaged (and excited over the rare prospect of a letter) scrambled off to play, he offered his own hand and his farewell. Lin took it tentatively, sparing a glance for Saeryn, who seemed determined to see her off, then took the plunge. "Did you--did you tell Farahil?"

Garstan's reply was equally tentative. "I did, lady."

"Ah." Lin was quiet for a moment, standing with brows furrowed, but her face cleared quickly, and the sincere smile she gave Garstan was a little rueful. "You did rightly, of course, and I thank you for it. Not wanting him to know was--childish. Keeping secrets wouldn't make anything easier. I wish you fond farewell, and hope your place here prospers you. Navaer, Garstan, until we meet again."

She then turned to Saeryn, ignoring her brother, who had their horses saddled now, and was gesturing at her to mount. "And if I keep no secrets from my family, I should keep none from you. Your brother--Degas and I are courting. I don't know what will come of it, and I've never had a sweetheart before, so I don't know what I'm doing, but I think I love him, and I hope we have your blessing. And I'm sorry I didn't talk to you right off."

Lin's brother rode up, leading Lin's little mare. "We need to go, Lin. I wanted to leave at dawn."

"I know, I know," Lin said, giving a somewhat stunned Saeryn a last hug and mounting the horse with a minimum of graceless scrambling. She couldn't wait for her arm to finish healing. "Farewell!" she called waving at the occupants of the courtyard. "Farewell!"

Then she turned a corner and was gone.