"...so your father has opted to remain in Lothlorien for a while longer."
Lathrandir smiled. "I am not surprised. Will you write him and let him know I've returned?"
"I already have." His mother's smile faded a bit. "Though with the roads in such condition, you may reach him before the letter does."
"I won't be reaching Lorien for a while yet--a long while."
She laughed, and returned her attention to the flower beds. Lathrandir lounged on the grass nearby, gazing up at the stars.
"How's your ankle?" she said after a time.
He waved a hand and grinned. "Completely healed."
Her laugh was soft this time. "Perhaps dancing helped."
"Perhaps." He hummed a few snatches of song. "I met many good folk, and heard much in the way of new music."
She stood, brushed the dirt from her knees, and picked up her pruning shears.
"I would not have thought so short a time away would change you so much," she said as she moved on to the hedges. "For the better, I think."
Lathrandir shrugged and smiled. It was true--he had never been terribly social. And even now he tended to linger near the fringe of a crowd. But his mother was right.
"Men have little time," he said. "They are more swift in speech and deed than I had thought. I found it...exciting. When one has but a few short years to make friends, one must move swiftly."
She paused in her work and glanced at him. "But?"
"But..." he sighed. "It was good to return. I missed the woods here...the Bruinen...even the House and the Hall."
"You certainly missed several baths," she said, grinning.
He snatched up some fallen hedge-leaves and flung them at her, laughing.
