Nimuviel’s Diary: Page 12

Iavas day 21, Needlehole So I am alone on the road once more. And with a Task. After dinner, a few days ago, Aldalin, Liwurien, Serathuil and Galvathalion took me to sit with them near the fireplace in the Wanderer’s Rest and informed me kindly that I am to travel to the Lone Lands, there to examine the presence of White Hand soldiers. After I have done that, I must return to them in the halls and bring out report. The next morning they gave me a cloak, a cap, a travelling robe, a backpack with provisions and a pouch with money, and set me on my way. They were all smiles and kind words but for some reason I cannot help but feel as if this is all part of some kind of game that I do not know the rules of. Now I am in the Shire. It is cold, it is raining, and if it had not been for that kind Hobbit postman who offered me to sleep by the fire in the post office for the night I think I would be every bit as miserable as before Aldalin found me. I hardly know the way to the Lone Lands, they told me it is quite simple and I only have to follow the road west, but I know there are many towns and fields and forests in between and the distances rather worry me. I’ve not had much time to practise with my new weapons and fear that they will not be much good to me if I were to meet an adversary, for the simple reason that I am not skilled enough to wield them properly. Tomorrow will be a long day. I can see a swamp stretching out before me at the bottom of the hill on which this village lies and the rain does not do much to lift my spirits. Perhaps I should have asked Aldalin if I could have remained in her service as help in the household, not as an actual member of the company. After the swamp it will be a long road past Hobbiton, Bywater, Frogmorton, Budgeford, Stock… and by that time I’ll only have reached the borders of the Shire and I will have to travel twice as far again before I reach the Lone Lands. I can only hope the rain has cleared before I get there.