Okay, here's my first post.
“Ajada! Jaedyn! Wake up NOW!” Mistress Halena called from the bottom of the ladder to the attic. She was too broad to climb it and wake her husband’s two female writing apprentices.
Jaedyn rolled over in bed, and Ajada groggily got up off her bottom bunk. Climbing the small ladder to the top bunk, Ajada could only see Jaedyn’s mouse-brown hair through the mess of blankets. Shoving Jaedyn off the bed, Ajada prepared for the loud thump that followed as Jaedyn hit the wooden floor.
“I’m up! I’m up!” Jaedyn cried, though her voice was muffled through the covers. Ajada rolled her eyes and got dressed, pulling on her comfortable breeches and an oversized tunic, borrowed from Josham, another apprentice. This was the day that she would set out for Isengard. Somehow, the Master of the house, Leo, had found out about serious problems involving attacks from the forest. Master Leo had been given leave by the King to send someone to document the journey to straighten out everything. Leo chose Ajada, not only because her father had been close counselor to the royal family, but also because she was his best reporter.
Grabbing her pack, Ajada looked around the dark room, which was only lit by the slight rays of sun showing through the round window. She had everything she needed for the journey to Isengard and Fangorn: her pen, ink, papers, clothing, and extras of everything. She also brought the things needed to brew ink, though few would be used to the stench if she tried to make it on the trip. Dismissing the memories of all her ink-making days, Ajada walked back over to the heap of Human and blankets that was Jaedyn.
“I have to go now! Don’t forget to finish the report on the new Gondorian Sewer Systems! Leo will have a fit if it’s late by more than ten minutes!” Ajada said goodbye to the other girl, and in return received a smack in the face as Jaedyn rolled over on the wooden floor. Ajada sighed and rolled Jaedyn towards the floor-door that entered down to the attic-ladder and towards the second floor of the home. Shoving Jaedyn through the hatch, Ajada watched as the girl bounced off the ladder and hit the second floor with a deep, resounding thunk.
Going down the steps of the attic ladder was no problem for her, and she walked down the upstairs hallway of the Record Master’s home in Gondor, stepping carefully over a grumbling Jaedyn. Walking by the first open door, Ajada waved to Master Leo’s son Marlen and the scribe’s other apprentice, Josham. Walking into the room, Josh was writing something, and Marlen was looking over his shoulder.
“I’ve got to set out soon, I’ve come to say goodbye!” As Ajada spoke, both boys looked up from what they were doing. A sad look overtook Marlen’s face, and Josh got up to hug his fellow writer. In her four years of apprenticeship, Ajada had become quite fond of Josh in particular. Mar began to fold a parchment and handed it to Ajada when she and Josh were done giving goodbyes.
“What’s this?” Ajada asked, and was about to open it until Josh stopped her and shook his head.
“Don’t open it until you get on the road! It’s a poem, for you. Good luck, and bring extra paper, for you always run out!” They said farewell one last time, and Ajada left the boys and went to say goodbye to Jaedyn, who had just walked down from the ladder to the attic.
“Halena is going to yell at you when you get down there, so you may as well go and get ink ingredients. Leo has almost run out of blue ink and has no more black. I have to go though!” Ajada informed Jaedyn and the other girl sighed.
Then, Ajada said one more goodbye, to Leo, the man who had taken her in after her father and mother died, and expanded on the things her mother, a well-known Gondorian writer, had taught the girl. He was a kindly, middle-aged man of humbler origins than those of Ajada, and he regretted inwardly the need to send her on the ‘adventure’ of sorts.
Continuing on to the kitchen, Ajada was given a tight hug from Halena’s eight-year old daughter. Halena sent the girl off to do chores and to get Jaedyn and the boys to work, and then the sturdy woman gave Ajada some food for the road.
“Now, Ajada, we paid caravan of Rohirric entertainers a tidy sum to let you ride with them as they return home, since we can’t afford a horse. But once they stop in Edoras you need to walk north to Isengard.” Halena ended as she shooed the girl out the door.
Great. Ajada thought.
A trip with old clowns.
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] *Cough*Mattius*Cough*
If a post bringing Ajada closer to Isengard is preferred/more appropriate over this, no problem.
Here, I guess, is kind of what I thought Ajada would look like, only with more Middle-Earth-like clothing!
Here, but with blue eyes and more freckles. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
-Aylwen
[ April 01, 2003: Message edited by: Aylwen Dreamsong ]