Red listened to all the people who had arrived in the last few minutes, and was quite confounded with the sheer multiplicity of them. Pio. Baran. Beorning. The girl, Mellonin, having come in the front door and stood behind his table. The inkeeper, Morien, intervened, and the tension increased! Pio, the elf woman, held a dagger. Somehow, Red was not quite sure, the tension dissipated, and then there were introductions. Auntie Bird. The Green Dragon in the Shire. Odrin. Fastred. Nerindel. Some of the names resonated deeply, as had the name of the king, Elessar. Red wondered why some names did so and others did not.
This place was more dangerous than where he had come from. No, he corrected himself as a strand or two of thoughts slipped and shifted into place, the danger was more straightforward than where he came from. Red decided that it would be wise to become proficient in some weapon or other. He turned and faced Melonnin, who seemed none too sure that all was now well in the common room.
"Pray, tell me, Melonnin," he said in a voice he hoped only she could hear, "do all peop- er - folk carry weapons here? Do you? Would I be wise to?" She opened her mouth to answer when a couple called her over. She gave him an apologetic expression and hurried off. Well, this is frustrating! he said to himself. Next chance he got, he would tell her that he had been given employment by the innkeeper, Morien. He hoped she would not be angered by that. Melonnin seemed a friendly sort, someone who could help him find north and south in this land, as it were.
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12-13-2003, 11:59 AM
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