What felt like a couple of weeks were actually much longer. Entire days and nights were spent in the Prancing Pony, getting drunk enough to even forget about his missing tongue. Lucifen isolated himself from everything during this time, resorting to drowning his sorrows away in drinks and wandering off into the many alleys of Bree, exploring the city as his mind wandered off in it's own path.
It was different for him not to wear his armor, almost difficult at some points. He usually just kept it on throughout the day and sometimes forgetting to take it off when going to bed. His sword on the other hand, he would keep by him at all sides. The one handed blade he acquired during his times in Gondor kept his mind going. Many people would like to name their weapon, giving them characters and personalities of their own. But for Lucifen, it was just named sword. Sometimes, when drunk from Ale's or from excitement, he would give it a random name to make it more interesting to others.
His memories of being a useless visitor of the pony were grey and separated by blanks, most of the time he would remember certain visitors he would stumble upon at his table. A few new faces, some he would hardly remember the matching names. Every now and then a hobbit would try to seat with him, but he would end up either ignoring it or shooing it away in a drunken rage.
A sudden memory would enter his head, a name and a face of a visitor. Dwenn. The lad he met only once, he seemed kind and interesting but quite new. Not new just to Lucifen himself, but to how things worked around Bree. The lad was curious about Luc and his missing fingers, and boy did that lead to some very interesting stories.
Another face would be one of his closest friends, Nimeway He remembers the journal Nimeway gave to him that night. His new tongue. He would tend to find her more than anyone else during his alone time in the Pony. Her literal poking to his tender sides and sly face would always force a smile on Luc.
Where ever Nimeway would go, Rossethor would surely follow. The two were quite the couple, but from Lucifen's inexperienced eyes to the subject, they were normal. The three would share each others company and laugh, finding interesting things to talk about and harass each other with. It was times like these that made Lucifen forget everything else.
Eventually, Luc had dealt with the pony enough. It was time to take a break from it, at least for a little while. Heading back to Bree, with his newly purchased house, Luc would find himself isolated some more, but this time, from Ale as well.
No longer wasting his time and silver on Ale, Luc would find himself having more time to think about things. His thoughts were spread out evenly to many subjects, but there was a reoccurring theme to the majority of them. Nimeway and Ross.
Somehow, the two have opened up a new field of thoughts that Lucifen has never really delved into before. He wondered of the two, of the adventures they've had and the experiences they've shared. Could this be envy? Luc wouldn't know, his mind is not smart enough to determine the source of this. As he thought about the two, a familiar face would conjure itself in Luc's mind.
Rangress, the ranger. It has been well over a year since he has seen her, and perhaps longer of just hearing the name. It's been so long that features of her face were missing, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't picture her perfectly. Just a hooded face with those eyes. Unaware how the ranger came to his mind, or how it was connected with his two bestfriends, he looked at his hands.
Seven fingers. It has been some time since he put on the wooden fingers that Rangress had made for him. He clutched them through his clothing, feeling them in his pocket. He remember putting them on while being drunk in the pony, but that didn't feel like actually putting them on. It was hard for him to explain, but those fingers are special to him.
He thoughts would trail off, finding it to difficult for him to continue thinking about the current subjects. Shortly after delving into many thoughts and faces, he would fall asleep.
Luc stayed in the homesteads for nearly a week before missing the scent of the pony. His new home is nice and large, but it feels vacant when it only holds Luc's and his memories. Leaving his home and the homesteads, Luc would travel on horseback towards Bree, taking his time to enjoy the scenary.
Upon this trip, Luc would begin to notice details he would normally consider worth thinking about. Upon the road back to Bree, a tall yellow tree would be surrounded by the path. It was here that Luc would pause his trip and look at it.
It was strange. To Luc, the tree would be nothing more than just a tree. But the more he stared at it, the more he felt comfortable. As if the tree spoke to him in words of rustling leaves. Not being able to put his finger on the reason as to why, he allowed the tree to steal his time and attention. Dropping off his horse, he places a hand on the tree before sitting against it.
His eyes would find his horse looking at him, calmly. He knew he was changing, even before he lost his tongue. He could put the blame on his trip to Gondor or just time itself, but Luc was not the man he was before. This horse has not yet seen the anger of Luc, and might never will. Lucifen no longer is tempted to treat the animal like dirt, but instead care for it. Unsure of many things, Luc is forced into accepting these changes.
Closing his eyes and allowing the wind to breeze through his hair, Lucifen would fall into a somber sleep. For what it's worth, the tree felt more of a home to him than his new house. But for what ever reason, Lucifen could not know... or remember.
