[Amanaduial the archer]

Aman watched the boy from a few steps off, close enough to jump forward to prevent him coming from harm should he step too close or press to hard. But he seemed strangely at ease with the giant stallion - though dwarfed beside Taydoch's muscular eighteen hand figure, the boy's hand moved with gentleness and ease over the soft black coat. And, incredibly, the horse also seemed not to mind, nuzzling the boy's hand gently with his oddly angular face: as she had said, Taydoch was one of her three horses, but he was the youngest and most exciteable, barely a colt, and from wild stock - he was the product of a a Rohirrim stallion and an Easterling mare, and so was almost unique, beautiful yet serviceable, streamlined for running yet muscly and strong enough for combat, and with the fire from both his parents' stocks. The Innkeeper was fairly impressed, then, when she noted how calm both horse and boy were; he hadn't been exaggerating when he said he knew how to handle horses - even Merimac, the stablehand, wasn't particularly fond of dealing with Taydoch, simply because of the horse's size and the fact that, Merrimac claimed accusingly, 'it watched him'.

Aman gave the stallion a quick pat on the nose, then showed Tim around the stables, finishing with her own other two horses: a dappled grey mare whose very coat seemed to shiver into different tones like a cresting wave whenever she moved. She went by the name of Rochfalmar, and had been a gift, or maybe just a loan, from a good friend of Aman's - an elf by the name of Pio, the previous Innkeeper at the 'Dragon. And lastly, the most recent addition to her little team: Felarof, another black stallion but this time descended from the line of the meeras, and as such one of the finest horses in the South - a present from Aman's good friend and grandfather (as strange a wording as that may seem), Tar-Corondir.

As they left the stables, Aman felt it may have been safe to ask a few more questions about the boy - maybe he did not trust her yet, but he was more at ease. "How old are you, Tim? And your sister?"