About three years earlier....
The sound of the footsteps beneath her were slow but measured. Turning around, Taala smiled as the trapdoor in the floor of the tower opened and Celeod's head appeared. Soon enough he was at her side. A man of advancing years, his breathing a little more laboured than he would have liked.
“Again, I find you here, at this time of day, watching the men ride out on patrol, at least I should thank Béma that you are not trailing them as is oft the case. Your eyes betray a longing to be with them...why child? Why would a lass, barely 16 wish for the life of a soldier?”
Taala's shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Why is it, only boys may serve our king? Protect our lands? Die with honour?”
Celeod smiled, his eyes narrowing in a squint against the sun, “because boys and men, are stronger, braver and more skilled in these matters. Women are there to birth our children, serve their menfolk, put a hearty meal in our bellies...shield maidens are few and are the daughters of Thanes”. He strode to the edge of the tower, careful to hide the smile that played about his worn, chapped lips from her.
“I am as strong and as capable as any boy” Taala protested with a frown. Turning and giving him a steely look, her voice full of determination “set me any challenge, and I will meet it!”
Celeod studied her, then waved his hand dismissively “I do not have the time to waste child, war is not a game”.
Taala rounded on him “Do you not think I know that Celeod? Does my heart not sink each time fewer return than have ridden out?”
Celeod raised his hand with a wave of authority, silencing her with the sternest of looks, “See...you can not even afford me the respect of my rank, you have not even learned that, despite lingering around the men and pestering them to teach you their skills”
Taala forced herself to be silent, something she was not good at, instead she fumed inwardly during the long silence that fell between the aged, wise, experienced Captain and the idealistic but optimistic hot tempered young girl.
“Who would know, except you and the men, if I were allowed to train, to ride with you, to fight?” Her words were as much a question to herself as to the Captain.
Celeod considered her as she gazed out over the plains surrounding the small settlement of Eaworth. Her unruly angry red tresses blown around her face by the blustery north breeze.
“Alright child, answer me this, what is the purpose of this settlement?”
“The beacons have long served to alert the peoples of Gondor and the Mærc to the presence of an enemy and to call for aid.” she answered easily.
“Indeed it is” he nodded, turning his face north towards the tall tower, his eyes drifting upwards to the top that at times appeared as high as the clouds.
The Beacon of Eaworth
“Climb the Beacon one hundred times Taala, and that may grant you a further audience with me to speak on this matter again”.
It was days later, that a triumphant Taala found Celeod talking with the guardsmen on the gate, bursting with excitement she interrupted him whilst giving instruction, and was met with a frown...he knew why she had come to pester him.
“Did I not tell you, I would hear no more on the matter until you have climbed the beacon one hundred times?”
“And I have climbed it, not one hundred times, but one hundred and one times for good measure” she proclaimed proudly.
“Then all you have proved Taala...is that you can not follow a simple order” he turned his back on her in dismissal and resumed speaking with the guardsmen.
All manner of emotion shook Taala, humility the more prevalent.
Her bloody minded stubbornness brought her to the Captains side again later that day.
“I can shoot my bow as well as any man here” she countered.
“And what is it you shoot, young Taala? Practice targets?, trees?”
“Yes, and I can hit any mark you ask of me”
Celeod softened at her enthusiasm for a moment, “My dear girl, these mannequins of sack and grain, do not move, nor do they attack or shoot back at us. An Orc is thrice as strong as a man, primitive and hungry to part our skulls from our necks, what does't thou say to that?”
Taala looked at him, not a word was spoken. She turned on her heel and strode along the path to the stables and jumped upon a horse, bow slung over her back, her quiver full, determination in her eyes, she rode with great speed out of the bottom gate, past the spinning heads of the guardsmen.
It was dark when Taala found the Captain once more and threw down the cleaved head of an orc at his feet. “That, is how I would answer you Celeod”.
Celeod looked down at the Orcs head as it rolled to a stop, an arrow lodged deep into the creatures eye socket, black blood staining it's face. His eyes drifted towards Taala, her expression locked with his, a look of hopefulness and determination he had seen in his younger days, when he was but a ceorl in an Eored in the Eastemnet, sat atop his steed, pawing the ground and snorting in anticipation of the battle ahead. The men would look amongst one another, their faces holding the same expression that Taala's did now.
“A woman is not permitted to serve...you know that, and we are small in number, but I have not seen such hunger or bloody mindedness since I showed the same to my own Captain. Very well, young Taala, if this is your wish...the men have grown fond of you, for all you have insisted on following them whilst they patrol not withstanding the number of times, they have dragged you back. There is no containing you is there? It is more troublesome to deny you that which your heart desires, than it is to grant you it...”
Celeod sighed heavily, the weary old man afforded himself a smile “So be it...I will not give you any leverage because you are not a man, and if it breaks you, do not say I did not warn you child...”
“Thank you Celeod...Thank you” she almost sang with delight.
Celeod raised a brow, his earlier smile disappearing, “Captain...I am your Captain now Taala”
