It had been a long day, I'd been walking since sun up and still had a way to go. I could feel the dust of the road clinging to me like tar, and no matter how much you dusted yourself off, there was always more after. I'd had enough. I decided to rest below a tree, a monster of a tree it was, tallest I'd seen in Bree, great golden leaves above me, it was a perfectly good resting spot.
I was verging on falling asleep when a stranger approached the tree as well, a young girl, blonde hair, vacant smile. I was going to let her pass by, I had no interest, but she stopped anyway, looking down at me with a puzzled expression. She asked me if I knew the name of the tree. Obviously I didn't, how would I afterall? I told her so, but she seemed so downhearted I decided to try and give her some form of information. I told her it was a very special tree, though I didn't know why. It cheered her up right enough. She told me her name was Ellynore, a hunter she claimed to be. As a matter of fact she'd been hunting that very day, though the daft thing had been distracted from her prey by bloody flowers! I couldn't help but laugh at her innocence, her naivety. It's rare to find such a thing in this world now, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant. She asked What I was doing in Bree, and I told her I was also a hunter, a trapper to be precise. This wasn't so far from the truth, afterall I had been a hunter in Ered Luin, it was a safe lie to tell. She talked virtually none stop and we laughed, I told her that I'd have to teach her how to hunt properly, someone was going to have to anyway!
We talked for longer than either expected, and the sun began to disappear before I knew it. We both left in separate directions, both having to reach our destinations before nightfall. As I left, I felt my spirits lightened by that strange meeting. Her optimism and innocence almost gave me hope. Maybe things wouldn't bee so bad, Maybe what I'd set out to do wasn't really what I'd wanted afterall, maybe I could go back to leading a simple, easy life. I felt like my faith in the world had been restored that little bit by that strange, talkative girl.
