Eorling Mead Hall - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Firefoot · 06-08-2006, 07:48 PM

Léof nodded. He knew how homesickness worked, alright. He murmured, “At least you have a home to go back to.” It slipped out before he could think, and when it did he felt his ears and face grow hot. Maybe she hadn’t heard -

No such luck. “What?” Léof could tell from her tone and expression that this came from surprise and not lack of hearing.

“Nothing. I just- it’s nothing,” stammered Léof before she could comment further. He felt trapped. After that little tidbit, she would surely want to know more, and he could hardly make up some nice-sounding story to go with the comment. He wouldn’t lie to her anyway… he had passed the point of wanting to lie about it – not that he was any good at lying anyway. Linduial still looked inclined to ask another question, and his voice took on a fiercer tone. "Really. It's nothing." She wouldn't understand anyway. Then he changed the subject, the only thing he could think to do. “Will you be needing anything else, then?”

JennyHallu · 06-09-2006, 07:56 AM

"Will you be needing anything else, then?"

Lin smiled shyly, giving him a negative answer with a shake of her head. She felt--hurt, somehow, that Leof had so clearly turned the conversation away from himself. Perhaps...perhaps she had not earned such confidences. It did not occur to her that the troubles of the young man before her would not have affected her a few short weeks ago.

"I think...," she paused, trying to phrase this new wish to provide comfort and friendship. "I think that Edoras--this Hall--could be a good place to call home. And surely now, with Eodwine's word today, it is your home? You're officially the head ostler now! Congratulations, Leof!" She grinned at him earnestly. "You should be so happy and proud! Celebrate!"

On a whim, she pushed off the haybale with her good hand, landing firmly on her feet. With a happy cry, she looped her dress over her weak wrist and firmly gripped and placed Leof's right hand on her waist before grabbing the other and spinning him around in a lively reel, to the time of her suddenly light feet, warbling an improvised tune.

Feanor of the Peredhil · 06-09-2006, 08:33 AM

Farahil carefully emptied what was left in one trunk before lightly folding gowns into shapes far more compact and travel-worthy. He left the packing of womanly necessities to Linduial, as was only appropriate, and took a final look at the trunk, smiling with fond remembrance of Adragil's sudden desire to carve Lin a chest and his immediate departure for country sides unknown wherein to learn the art. Farahil was certain that Linduial could have fit a half dozen more items at the very least had she been taught to pack for adventures at sea and he smiled wider, not minding at all that his baby sister had never learned of such things. She did well as a lady; her power did not come from intimidation by sword or by nightly stealth but by carefully chosen words and a demeanor that called for respect and wariness.

He sat on her bed, smoothing the covers that he had lain in place for her before they had gone downstairs, and he looked at his hands, remembering every scar.

He ran a cold finger over a dark red line that ran from his left forefinger to nearly the inside of his wrist. He'd been playing swords when he was young, gloating that the weapons master had never landed a hit. He was cocky, over-confident; a child, he remembered. The master had grown weary of his foolishness and whipped a dagger from his sheath and sliced carefully forward with it even had he distracted Farahil with his longsword.

I'm bleeding! What have you done?

I've landed a hit, young lord, and don't forget it.

But you cheated! That's bullying! It's unfair.

Is it unfair to use the weapons for which you have been trained? A time will come, Farahil, that you will face an opponent larger, stronger, and far more experienced. That time will be, by all odds, that in which you will be asked to use techniques that they have never learned, weapons with which they have no familiarity. Will you use them? Will you call your learning an unfair advantage and allow them to strike? Your life and those of others are in your own hands, boy. There is an honor among those you will fight that will not extend to you. Do not forget to use what you know. You will bear a scar now, to remind you.

Linduial would bear scars. She would not forget her ordeal. But she had learned more than she could have under the best teachers about what makes a leader and what makes a lady.

Farahil had come to bring her home and he would; but he would also bring her back. She had learned here that which those at Dol Amroth could only partly teach. These people were good people, honest ones, if a little odd. The lady Saeryn... she would be a good friend to Linduial, and the lords Eodwine and Degas... they would protect her from all they could. And Lin... little Linny... she could protect herself.

Firefoot · 06-09-2006, 08:58 AM

Before Léof even realized what was happening, he found himself swept away by Linduial. He laughed suddenly, not from the fair absurdity of the situation, but from the sudden relief of stress. Strangely enough, he found himself dimly recalling the steps to the dance, and as he spun Linduial, he remembered where from.

On a particular winter evening when Léof was about nine or ten, his father had pulled out his fiddle and begun to play – a rarity, even in those happy days. His mother had come in from the kitchen, and as his father struck up a lively reel, she had pulled him up from his seat and taught him the steps while his father played and Cerwyn laughed and clapped. “Someday you’ll be glad to know how to dance, when you’ve a pretty girl at your side!” his mother had told him. Reluctant at first, he had slowly picked up enthusiasm as the night waned away…

He never would have thought the ‘pretty girl’ would be a young noblewoman from Gondor. But why must she always just be the noblewoman? Why couldn’t she be… a friend? Have you ever really even given her a chance? An odd pair they must look, she in her finery and so light on her feet and he in his working clothes and only remembering the dance as he went along – but if none of that mattered to her, why should it to him?

The dance ended, and Léof bowed slightly as it seemed the right thing to do, but he was grinning for the first time that day. “Thank you, Linduial. I much needed that. I reckon I worry too much – Æthel” – he jerked his head towards his horse, who had poked her head on of the stall to watch the spectacle in the aisle – “could tell you the same. But I guess – I guess you might say that you reminded me what home is like…” And what it’s like to have people you can trust… learn to trust people again. “My mother – she taught me that dance,” he inserted with a slight smile, “died some five years ago. And I suppose home for me died with her.” He was leaving a lot out, but trusts are not built in minutes, and Léof still was not entirely sure of this new Linduial.

JennyHallu · 06-09-2006, 09:14 AM

Some newborn part of Linduial recognized that a confidence was best returned with a confidence, and as she swept Leof a graceful parody of a full courtesy, she offered her own, shyly, like a rosebud revealing a new petal.

"You're lucky. I really don't have any memories of my mother--Marenil's wife, Enna, she was really mother to me. She taught me to weave, and was the first person I ran to when I had some feminine problem I dared not bring to my father." She blushed, then sighed.

"I just found out she died. While I was gone. I don't know what it will be like, going home and not finding her there. It frightens me a bit." Suddenly she realized talking to Leof was taking a lot of the sting out of learning of it so late, and she settled back onto her haybale (this time with a hand up from Leof) somehow...content. "You don't mind if I stay here a while, do you? And watch you work? All those people--" she waved vaguely towards the rest of the building-- "just want to ask me how I feel, and whether I was scared, and what it was like, and if it's true I set my own arm, and this and that. And I just don't want to talk about it. I promise not to say a word. You'll never know I'm here." And then she smiled, and it was a joke again. "Just hide me from the adoring masses. I think the Rohirrim love me as much now as they do Lothiriel, and while I'm honored and such, I wonder how she stands it all the time."

littlemanpoet · 06-10-2006, 06:21 PM

"Yes, my lord?" Garstan responded.

Eodwine looked at him and smiled. There was a gravity about him, Eodwine decided, that maybe had always been there and maybe had not; at any rate, Eodwine could see it now.

"Garstan, when the search for the lady Linduial began, I swore you an oath that I would protect your life with my own. I did not have to hold good to that vow, for your life never quite came into danger-" Eodwine paused "-save once, when you saved my life with your own body. You swore me no oath. I honor you.

"I have called for you to stand before my court because I would have you remain as more than guest at the Eorling Mead Hall. I do not desire to bind you in fealty, but as friend. I ask you to stay here for a year and a day, succored by the protections I may offer you, a friend to this house. Though I have not work to keep a stone shaper busy for that long a time, let this Hall be your home, and find work where you may.

"I do not ask you to choose this moment what you will do, but I wish it to be known to all here the regard I hold for you. So take a day or more to think on it, if you wish, or tell me now if you already know your mind. I leave it to your choice, and will hold neither choice as telling me more than you say."

Eodwine ceased his words, which seemed to him had rendered him rather longwinded, and waited for the stoneshaper to speak.

Celuien · 06-10-2006, 07:10 PM

Despite Garstan's worry, Eodwine's words brought a faint smile to his face. His memory turned back to the evening before their departure from the Hall - Eodwine's vow, and his own secret promise.

"I have no need of a day, nor yet an hour, to think upon my answer, lord, for I know even now what my choice shall be.

"Yet before I speak, there is something which I would set aright." It was Garstan's turn to pause. He was unsure of how broach the topic of his secret vow to Eodwine's protection. "It is true. I swore no vow that was known to you. But an oath I took to your aid, Eorl, ere we left the safety of your Hall, though it was witnessed, perhaps, only by the breeze at the window. For I could not accept your protection without doing my utmost to guard you in turn. But I should have spoken long before this day, and I beg your forgiveness for having kept my counsel to myself until now.

"And now to your question! I will stay, and hold your friendship in care and in honor."

Having put more words together than he ever had before, Garstan stopped, uneasy under the numerous gazes of the folk of the Mead Hall, and searched Eodwine's face for a response.

littlemanpoet · 06-11-2006, 05:42 AM

The response Garstan sought was not long in coming. Eodwine wiped at an eye.

"Garstan, you are a good man," he said gruffly. "Let it be as you say. And I thank you."

Garstan smiled and bowed, and returned to his place beside Léoðern with a light step.

But now it was time for the one part of this court day proceeding that Eodwine did not relish in the least. He turned to Saeryn briefly.

"Watch and listen well, my lady. I would have your counsel in this." She nodded, her forehead knotting prettily in a frown of curiosity.

He turned from her wordlessly and sought out Gárwine with his eyes. It was time for the questioning of Manawyth.

06-08-2006, 07:48 PM	#1
Firefoot Illusionary Holbytla Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 7,547	Léof nodded. He knew how homesickness worked, alright. He murmured, “At least you have a home to go back to.” It slipped out before he could think, and when it did he felt his ears and face grow hot. Maybe she hadn’t heard - No such luck. “What?” Léof could tell from her tone and expression that this came from surprise and not lack of hearing. “Nothing. I just- it’s nothing,” stammered Léof before she could comment further. He felt trapped. After that little tidbit, she would surely want to know more, and he could hardly make up some nice-sounding story to go with the comment. He wouldn’t lie to her anyway… he had passed the point of wanting to lie about it – not that he was any good at lying anyway. Linduial still looked inclined to ask another question, and his voice took on a fiercer tone. "Really. It's nothing." She wouldn't understand anyway. Then he changed the subject, the only thing he could think to do. “Will you be needing anything else, then?” Last edited by Firefoot; 06-08-2006 at 07:51 PM.

06-10-2006, 07:10 PM	#7
Celuien Riveting Ribbiter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Assigned to Mordor Posts: 1,767	Despite Garstan's worry, Eodwine's words brought a faint smile to his face. His memory turned back to the evening before their departure from the Hall - Eodwine's vow, and his own secret promise. "I have no need of a day, nor yet an hour, to think upon my answer, lord, for I know even now what my choice shall be. "Yet before I speak, there is something which I would set aright." It was Garstan's turn to pause. He was unsure of how broach the topic of his secret vow to Eodwine's protection. "It is true. I swore no vow that was known to you. But an oath I took to your aid, Eorl, ere we left the safety of your Hall, though it was witnessed, perhaps, only by the breeze at the window. For I could not accept your protection without doing my utmost to guard you in turn. But I should have spoken long before this day, and I beg your forgiveness for having kept my counsel to myself until now. "And now to your question! I will stay, and hold your friendship in care and in honor." Having put more words together than he ever had before, Garstan stopped, uneasy under the numerous gazes of the folk of the Mead Hall, and searched Eodwine's face for a response. Last edited by Celuien; 06-11-2006 at 06:45 AM.

06-09-2006, 07:56 AM	#2
JennyHallu The Pearl, The Lily Maid Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: In my luxury Barrow, snuggled up in a pile of satin pillows, eating fresh fruit. Posts: 1,628	"Will you be needing anything else, then?" Lin smiled shyly, giving him a negative answer with a shake of her head. She felt--hurt, somehow, that Leof had so clearly turned the conversation away from himself. Perhaps...perhaps she had not earned such confidences. It did not occur to her that the troubles of the young man before her would not have affected her a few short weeks ago. "I think...," she paused, trying to phrase this new wish to provide comfort and friendship. "I think that Edoras--this Hall--could be a good place to call home. And surely now, with Eodwine's word today, it is your home? You're officially the head ostler now! Congratulations, Leof!" She grinned at him earnestly. "You should be so happy and proud! Celebrate!" On a whim, she pushed off the haybale with her good hand, landing firmly on her feet. With a happy cry, she looped her dress over her weak wrist and firmly gripped and placed Leof's right hand on her waist before grabbing the other and spinning him around in a lively reel, to the time of her suddenly light feet, warbling an improvised tune.

06-09-2006, 08:33 AM	#3
Feanor of the Peredhil La Belle Dame sans Merci Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: perpetual uncertainty Posts: 5,517	Farahil carefully emptied what was left in one trunk before lightly folding gowns into shapes far more compact and travel-worthy. He left the packing of womanly necessities to Linduial, as was only appropriate, and took a final look at the trunk, smiling with fond remembrance of Adragil's sudden desire to carve Lin a chest and his immediate departure for country sides unknown wherein to learn the art. Farahil was certain that Linduial could have fit a half dozen more items at the very least had she been taught to pack for adventures at sea and he smiled wider, not minding at all that his baby sister had never learned of such things. She did well as a lady; her power did not come from intimidation by sword or by nightly stealth but by carefully chosen words and a demeanor that called for respect and wariness. He sat on her bed, smoothing the covers that he had lain in place for her before they had gone downstairs, and he looked at his hands, remembering every scar. He ran a cold finger over a dark red line that ran from his left forefinger to nearly the inside of his wrist. He'd been playing swords when he was young, gloating that the weapons master had never landed a hit. He was cocky, over-confident; a child, he remembered. The master had grown weary of his foolishness and whipped a dagger from his sheath and sliced carefully forward with it even had he distracted Farahil with his longsword. I'm bleeding! What have you done? I've landed a hit, young lord, and don't forget it. But you cheated! That's bullying! It's unfair. Is it unfair to use the weapons for which you have been trained? A time will come, Farahil, that you will face an opponent larger, stronger, and far more experienced. That time will be, by all odds, that in which you will be asked to use techniques that they have never learned, weapons with which they have no familiarity. Will you use them? Will you call your learning an unfair advantage and allow them to strike? Your life and those of others are in your own hands, boy. There is an honor among those you will fight that will not extend to you. Do not forget to use what you know. You will bear a scar now, to remind you. Linduial would bear scars. She would not forget her ordeal. But she had learned more than she could have under the best teachers about what makes a leader and what makes a lady. Farahil had come to bring her home and he would; but he would also bring her back. She had learned here that which those at Dol Amroth could only partly teach. These people were good people, honest ones, if a little odd. The lady Saeryn... she would be a good friend to Linduial, and the lords Eodwine and Degas... they would protect her from all they could. And Lin... little Linny... she could protect herself.

06-09-2006, 08:58 AM	#4
Firefoot Illusionary Holbytla Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 7,547	Before Léof even realized what was happening, he found himself swept away by Linduial. He laughed suddenly, not from the fair absurdity of the situation, but from the sudden relief of stress. Strangely enough, he found himself dimly recalling the steps to the dance, and as he spun Linduial, he remembered where from. On a particular winter evening when Léof was about nine or ten, his father had pulled out his fiddle and begun to play – a rarity, even in those happy days. His mother had come in from the kitchen, and as his father struck up a lively reel, she had pulled him up from his seat and taught him the steps while his father played and Cerwyn laughed and clapped. “Someday you’ll be glad to know how to dance, when you’ve a pretty girl at your side!” his mother had told him. Reluctant at first, he had slowly picked up enthusiasm as the night waned away… He never would have thought the ‘pretty girl’ would be a young noblewoman from Gondor. But why must she always just be the noblewoman? Why couldn’t she be… a friend? Have you ever really even given her a chance? An odd pair they must look, she in her finery and so light on her feet and he in his working clothes and only remembering the dance as he went along – but if none of that mattered to her, why should it to him? The dance ended, and Léof bowed slightly as it seemed the right thing to do, but he was grinning for the first time that day. “Thank you, Linduial. I much needed that. I reckon I worry too much – Æthel” – he jerked his head towards his horse, who had poked her head on of the stall to watch the spectacle in the aisle – “could tell you the same. But I guess – I guess you might say that you reminded me what home is like…” And what it’s like to have people you can trust… learn to trust people again. “My mother – she taught me that dance,” he inserted with a slight smile, “died some five years ago. And I suppose home for me died with her.” He was leaving a lot out, but trusts are not built in minutes, and Léof still was not entirely sure of this new Linduial.

06-09-2006, 09:14 AM	#5
JennyHallu The Pearl, The Lily Maid Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: In my luxury Barrow, snuggled up in a pile of satin pillows, eating fresh fruit. Posts: 1,628	Some newborn part of Linduial recognized that a confidence was best returned with a confidence, and as she swept Leof a graceful parody of a full courtesy, she offered her own, shyly, like a rosebud revealing a new petal. "You're lucky. I really don't have any memories of my mother--Marenil's wife, Enna, she was really mother to me. She taught me to weave, and was the first person I ran to when I had some feminine problem I dared not bring to my father." She blushed, then sighed. "I just found out she died. While I was gone. I don't know what it will be like, going home and not finding her there. It frightens me a bit." Suddenly she realized talking to Leof was taking a lot of the sting out of learning of it so late, and she settled back onto her haybale (this time with a hand up from Leof) somehow...content. "You don't mind if I stay here a while, do you? And watch you work? All those people--" she waved vaguely towards the rest of the building-- "just want to ask me how I feel, and whether I was scared, and what it was like, and if it's true I set my own arm, and this and that. And I just don't want to talk about it. I promise not to say a word. You'll never know I'm here." And then she smiled, and it was a joke again. "Just hide me from the adoring masses. I think the Rohirrim love me as much now as they do Lothiriel, and while I'm honored and such, I wonder how she stands it all the time."

06-10-2006, 06:21 PM	#6
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	"Yes, my lord?" Garstan responded. Eodwine looked at him and smiled. There was a gravity about him, Eodwine decided, that maybe had always been there and maybe had not; at any rate, Eodwine could see it now. "Garstan, when the search for the lady Linduial began, I swore you an oath that I would protect your life with my own. I did not have to hold good to that vow, for your life never quite came into danger-" Eodwine paused "-save once, when you saved my life with your own body. You swore me no oath. I honor you. "I have called for you to stand before my court because I would have you remain as more than guest at the Eorling Mead Hall. I do not desire to bind you in fealty, but as friend. I ask you to stay here for a year and a day, succored by the protections I may offer you, a friend to this house. Though I have not work to keep a stone shaper busy for that long a time, let this Hall be your home, and find work where you may. "I do not ask you to choose this moment what you will do, but I wish it to be known to all here the regard I hold for you. So take a day or more to think on it, if you wish, or tell me now if you already know your mind. I leave it to your choice, and will hold neither choice as telling me more than you say." Eodwine ceased his words, which seemed to him had rendered him rather longwinded, and waited for the stoneshaper to speak.

06-11-2006, 05:42 AM	#8
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	The response Garstan sought was not long in coming. Eodwine wiped at an eye. "Garstan, you are a good man," he said gruffly. "Let it be as you say. And I thank you." Garstan smiled and bowed, and returned to his place beside Léoðern with a light step. But now it was time for the one part of this court day proceeding that Eodwine did not relish in the least. He turned to Saeryn briefly. "Watch and listen well, my lady. I would have your counsel in this." She nodded, her forehead knotting prettily in a frown of curiosity. He turned from her wordlessly and sought out Gárwine with his eyes. It was time for the questioning of Manawyth.