The Seventh Star Inn

[Bêthberry]

Bethberry lay curled up in a corner near the fireplace, a large rug wrapped around here. She had drifted into a long, deep sleep after her dancing, sensing the heady expectation which the rain had brought to the atmosphere but too overwhelmed to stay awake and respond to it. She hadn't even caught the conversations between several of the Inn's customers, so tired was she.

But now she felt a movement at her feet, pulling at the blanket. Was it time so soon to wake up, she wondered? She tried to sleep some more and ignored the patter of paws up the rug over her legs, but the movement was insistent. She could no longer hear the rain outside.

[Nogrod]

Suddenly Bêthberry heard the rain again, even if it was the cold wind dancing inside that awakened her in the first place. Nogrod slammed the door closed as soon as he was inside to keep the weather outside. It took a moment for the warmth of the hall to surround the people inside again.

Nogrod glanced around and nodded to everyone inside and then took off his soaked jacket and boots leaving them beside the door. After getting himself a goblet of warm wine spiced with honey, cardamon and cloves he took a free comfychair from near the fireplace and sat down. Slowly stirring the hot drink with a spoon and sniffing the flavour for a moment he finally met the few questioning eyes.

"Eh, yeah, I'm Nogrod, from up north... I thought..." he was quiet for a while like trying to find the right words to say what he meant to say.

"I'm Bêthberry, nice to meet you Nogrod", a woman welcomed him from the corner beside the fireplace.

"Oh, thank you." Nogrod answered gaining a few moments to formulate what he had in his mind.

"I was just thinking that maybe it was a high time for me to find company from here... I mean my little birds have just flown out from their nest and I've been quite curious as to how others feel about it..." He took a sip from the hot drink and gazed at the fire. "I mean is it usual to feel both empty and happy, is it usual to feel proud of what time does and betrayed by time at the same time?"

[Mnemosyne]

The door slammed open again, with another gust of wind and rain. In stepped two small figures, their cloaks and hoods thoroughly plastered to their forms by the rain. The one on the right made a strange thumping noise, suggesting by its gait a crutch. As soon as the door was shut (no easy feat), the other helped her out of her cloak, revealing a hobbit in her early thirties with dark brown ringlets and a crutch under her right arm. She, in turn, unfastened the clasp at the other's neck--a male, this one, a good head taller, with fairer hair.

Sodden cloaks draped over their arms, they looked momentarily back outside, where the rain was still raging, then walked over to a corner and wrung out their cloaks there. "Awnings," he said to her. "You'd think they'd have heard of them down here."

The woman laughed as water spilled about her foot. "Awnings don't look particularly grand, though, do they, Alaric? And much good they'd do us in this kind of wind!"

When the cloaks were as dry as they could be expected to be, Alaric turned around and noticed, for the first time, the presence of others in the inn. "See, Kira?" he said, touching her on the arm. "I told you it wasn't deserted!"

"Yes," said Kira, "but it's terribly quiet." Nogrod and Bethberry were talking in one corner, but they could see no one standing behind the bar.

Alaric shrugged, and walked to the two people sitting by the fire. "Excuse me," he said. "Do you know who is the proprietor of this inn? We need a room for the night--preferably on the ground floor, if you can call land this high up 'ground.'"

[Bêthberry]

'He has warm, quick and bright eyes, this stranger from the north,' thought Bethberry as she was called away from her sleep. It was as much the aroma of the man's mulled wine that finally woke her as his words. She felt a nudging at her feet and looked down to see an expectant wee mousey patiently waiting. While answering Nogrod's question, she searched her pockets to find the crumbs of bread she usually kept there for the animals.

"I suppose how one feels about time's effect depends on whether one looks behind or forward, or simply takes each day and moment for what it offers," she replied, with a slight grin.

Any further reply was halted by the arrival of a very drenched couple. "Why,' wondered Bethberry again to herself, 'couldn't we all enjoy the anachronism of umbrellas, which had been so plentiful in The Shire at one time?'

"I'm afraid the Innkeeper has been called away, so we are making do as best we can. There is mulled wine here and food in the kitchen. You both look like you could use some warming up. I think you can help yourself and do as Nogrod here did, leave some coin on the counter. I'm Bethberry, by the way. And you are?"

[Estelyn Telcontar]

A hooded head peered into the room, and the door, held firmly against the wind, closed quickly behind another cloaked figure. Estelyn looked around the room, taking in the people and the fire, and removed her wet cloak, shaking it gently before hanging it up on a hook. She smiled when she saw Bêthberry.

"Hello, my friend!" she exclaimed, holding out both hands to grasp those of the other woman. "No greeting hug today - I'm drenched!"

She walked to the fireplace, where the pot with mulled wine stood, and poured herself a beaker. Then she said, "I had hoped to find you here, Bêthberry! Will you introduce me to your drinking companion?"

Her friend turned to the man and said, "Of course - this is Nogrod, from the north. He asked if we feel of two minds like he does when the young fledgelings fly from the family nest."

"That is a good question," Estelyn answered. "Alas, I cannot reply properly, for I have no experience of my own in this matter. Yet it is often so, that change brings both joy and sorrow, for we must let go of one thing to have room for another."

She then turned to the two hobbits. "We do not often see Periannath in Gondor, though perhaps more than in earlier times. What brings you here?"

[Mnemosyne]

Alaric nodded distractedly at Bethberry's statements. Evidently he was still feeling the effects of the weather. "Yes, food and wine would not go amiss at the moment, though I doubt I'll be able to reach the counter as... Nogrod? ... did. Oh, and my name is Alaric Took, and this is my wife, Kira."

Kira stepped forward and nodded her head at each of the other two guests--for some reason, outside of the Shire and Bree few had heard of the custom of hand-shaking. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bethberry and Nogrod."

The door opened, and another lady entered the room, helped herself to a drink, and spoke. "We do not often see Periannath in Gondor, though perhaps more than in earlier times. What brings you here?"

Alaric was at the fireplace, reaching up to follow Estelyn's example, so it was left for Kira to speak. "What brings us here? There are many answers to that, and each one's longer to tell than the last. The shortest one, though, is that we're looking for the Thain's Book, the copy of the Histories that made its way to Gondor long ago, and we want to make a copy of it, since our original perished nearly twenty years ago and none of our own copies are complete. But for now, we're just looking for a place to stay for the night, out of this dratted weather."

Alaric pressed a cup of mulled wine into her hand and she sipped at it appreciatively. "That sounds about like the whole of it. Now, what's this about food in the kitchen? I, at least, am famished, and if there are some step-stools, I'd like to rectify that shortly."

[Nogrod]

Nogrod was just mulling at what Bêthberry had said when the two halflings made their entrance. He nodded to the halflings only to be caught up with yet another person coming in. After Estelyn had took her goblet of wine and given him some more food for thought he was forced to concentrate on the two hobbits again.

It was like they were two children with the hassle and buzz about them. It was dear memories time... Oh, the energy of the young..., he thought to himself while mulling about the comments Estelyn and Bethberry had made.

He raised his goblet towards the hobbits "To the health of all Periannath..."

After taking a short sip he glanced at the two: "I know nothing about any "Book of Tháin"... and I don't know anything about this place either as this is the frist time I'm here, but like Bêthberry said, I think you could fill your appetite from the kitchen, just leaving a coin or two to the counter when you leave?" He looked at the two women who seemed to be more at ease with the place and found them nodding.

With that he turned around to the two ladies. He toyed with the goblet for a moment before getting to it.

"Well, I thank you for your reasoned words, but to be frank, I'm actually not having that kind of a problem with myself... It's actually more like the contrary - if there can be a contrary to the middle-road?" He took a deep draught from the cup and then set it down to the table in front of him.

He smiled, but in a way one was not sure what it meant - maybe not even he himself. It seemed genuine though.

"I mean, I'm more than happy about it, I'm proud of it even if I can't claim to reap the laurels there... but something bangs in the back of my head saying I should mourn it. And I actually do feel like it every now and then."

He looked at the ladies, not sure if he had made his point understandable.

He frowned and leaned back on his chair.