[Aradaewen]

Radae gasped and turned back to Collete with a hurt look on her face. "If you don't trust Shade, that's fine," she said, "but I at least thought that you trusted me!" Collete looked up sharply. "Not you, Radae! Of course I trust you!" she ammended quickly. Radae nodded and looked satisfied.

Shade read the plans quickly and handed them back to Radae, who stuffed them into her vest pocket. "Right," he said, "yes, leaving soon is a good idea, and you'll take my advice as where to get your supplies.."

Radae nodded and he continued, "Horses- and ponies- will be hard to get, since the folk of Bree don't use them very often, but there is a farm some 10 miles out of town that will sell you some. You can start there."

"Food won't be much better. There were droughts and floods throught the growing seasons this year and the food crops weren't all that great. However, if you buy an apple or two here and a loaf of bread there, and come back to their shops every so often, and build up your stores gradually and carefully, it'll cost you moneywise and timewise, but you'll get food."

Collete folded her arms and turned away from Shade in disgust. "That's dishonest!" she said, "That's cheating people out of what little food they have!" Radae shushed her. "Yes Collete, but they'll get more than their money's worth if we follow through, and what choice do we have? We don't even have enough supplies to make it back to the Shire! And even if we did, we'd use them again all the way back and end up no better off..."