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Old 04-29-2004, 10:04 PM   #149
Orual
Speaker of the Dead
 
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Superbia
Posts: 901
Orual has just left Hobbiton.
North of the Limlight: Erundil

Erundil made a quick correction to his earliest estimate: there were two girls. This made...six opponents? The odds did not look desirable, but maybe it would not come down to a fight.

He knew that they had noticed him. It did not startle him when one of the men called out, "Hail, stranger! We are travelers who mean you no ill. Reveal yourself to us and show that you do not mean harm. We do not wish for things to go badly for you, outnumbered as you are!"

Erundil took a step forward. "The air in Rohan is thick with rumours of your passing," he called back. "If stealth is what you wish, I would recommend more caution."

"What we wish, at the moment, is for you to tell us of your intentions," the man retorted.

A small smile crept onto Erundil's face. He raised his hands halfway into the air. "You are correct in saying that the odds are not in my favour. A fight is not what I came to find." He approached the man who spoke, and extended his right hand. "Erundil is my name, of the Rangers. Strange tales from Rohan and Gondor sometimes mean that I should be concerned. And the tales that have been told of you are nothing if not strange. But I have learned to take what I hear as rumour or nothing, and what I see as illusion until proven otherwise. I merely wanted to see if the tales held any merit, and if there was cause for concern."

He looked over the rest of the company. The two girls were young, and one seemed to be of the wandering people, if he could tell at all. The two men were solid-looking fellows, but the boys...the boys both caught his eye.

One of them was beautiful of face, but with an odd about him that made Erundil uncomfortable. Even sleeping, he was possessed of a proud and regal manner. The other, however...

Wild-eyed and unkempt, the boy looked ready to bolt--or attack--at the slightest provocation. All thoughts of the first boy faded when Erundil's gaze lit upon this one. This was surely the blacksmith. So the tales were true...
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