Xanderian slipped effortlessly from the back of her steed as she arrived at the Prancing Pony and with a tap on its hindquarters sent the beast off to stable itself. Adjusting her surcoat a bit vainly, the elf took the worn stone steps two at a time, already murmuring to herself as was her wont.
She was planning to gather more arrows in her chambers before seeking out Fille and Cyndwin in order to continue their preparations and set out towards Lake Evendim as soon as possible. After reconnoitering the route and discovering yet more indications of brigand activity, she had taken a leisurely road through the Shire and purchased a dozen of the small halfling cakes she knew Fille favored. Cyn, being younger and a child of the horse lords, was far less particular as to what she breakfasted on. As far as the Monk could tell, her only requirement was "not moving".
She grasped the door and was about to swing it wide when she stopped...a strange sensation on the back of her neck. Turning she looked across the fountain and spied a woman...little more than a girl really. A slightly sad, somewhat pretty, very nervous girl. She was at the vendor's stall near the hobbit stage, purchasing fruit. Certainly a commonplace sight here in Bree....yet something was...not. Xanderian watched the girl move away from the vendor...still, she was in no way, shape or form remarkable and everyone else near the fountain seemed not to even notice her. But the Longtracker DID notice her...her pale eyes grew fixed on her until it was clear the girl was growing uneasy but did not realize why. If only she had known, she had the mousey appearance of someone who may well have run...perhaps she would have been wise to.
Releasing the door of the Pony, Xanderian hopped back down the stairs and across the courtyard, past the fountain and right up to her quarry. The girl froze in mid bite of a apple and stared...her eyes traveling first to Xanderian's sheathed sword, up to her distinctly foreign features then back down to the sword and up again. She swallowed hard, forgetting to lower the apple from her mouth so she looked a bit like she was waiting to be roasted on a spit, save that there was very little meat on her dainty form.
The she-elf bowed ostentatiously. "Hail woman child, I do beg your most humble forgiveness however I cannot avoid the realization that you are in some manner familiar to myself. Have we met in the past and that encounter has somehow been pushed from my mind by black sorcerers or an abundance of cares to render me insensible of it save for the dull throbbing feeling that I know you, or should know you?" She bowed again.
The girl stared and the apple fell from her mouth and rolled to the fountain. She did not notice it. "What?"
Xanderian sighed...."I asked, woman child, if I might know you..."
The girl still stared but glanced behind her. "Who are you speaking to?"
The elf sighed again..."You of course...do you see another woman child."
The girl raised herself up into what she was quite certain was a very adult posture. "And you are asking if you know me?" The elf nodded and the girl snorted. "No you do not...good day to you!" She spun to stalk away in her best haughty manner, mimicking any number of her former teachers, but somehow the elf was in front of her again. If she had another apple she would have dropped it as well.
"Yet something about you is most familiar...I cannot quite think what it may be. Are you a local of Bree, woman child or like so many others are you an orphan of the storm?"
The girl huffed again. "Perhaps you have met my sister, but not me. Anyway, what business is it of yours....where are YOU from, eh?" For some strange reason she thought that would end the discussion. She was indeed very young.
The elf bowed again, even MORE ostentatiously. "I am Xanderian of Belfalas, sworn to the Lady Arahen, Daughter of Orodreth. Though born In the fair Valley of Imladris I now reside in sordid, sweating Bree...however between birth and now I have lived in a vast kaleidoscope of places, not all of them pleasant, but as those I love are in Bree I must call Bree my home....however you did not ask my home but rather where I am from, and therefore I feel I must reply that I therefore am FROM myself."
The girl stared. "What?"
The elf smiled and ignored the question. "And YOUR name, woman child?"
"Margyth...." She answered automatically before she could stop herself...if she could have bitten her own tongue off she would have.
Xanderan nodded..."Just so...now where do I know you from dear Margyth." That was when she noticed something...the corner of a small, battered notebook sticking out of the girl's breast pocket. With an exclamation of triumph her slender hand darted forward, far faster then the girl could follow, and snatched out the thin volume.
She quickly leafed through the pages happily as the girl thought for a moment that this strange elf had a notebook just like hers...then realized with a cry that it WAS hers. "GIVE THAT BACK! THIEF!!!"
Xanderian was fascinated by the carefully entered notes and tiny sketches...meticulously taken down as she pursued her studies. The girls frantically reached for the notebook but the elf caught her hand, noting the many layers of ink stains on her fingertips. Looking self satisfied, the huntress then easily replaced the book in Margyth's pocket, precisely as she had found it.
"THIEF!!!!" the girl cried again, looking for a watcher.
"And what praytell did I steal." Xanderian smiled sweetly.
"My notebook!!!!" The girl patted her pocket and discovered the notebook there, just as normal. She stared. "What?"
The elf smiled again. "What did I steal?"
"You stole my private thoughts!!!" The girl recovered quickly. It didn't help her much.
"What kind of scholar doesn't wish the world to hear her inner most thoughts and analyses?" Xanderian asked.
The girl spluttered. "How do you know that I am a scho..."
The elf smiled again. "The ink and the lovely notebook, obviously...but what is MOST important is that I now know who you resemble and it is most uncanny."
The girl stared. "What?
Xanderian looked ecstatic. "The scholarship, the dreams, the fact you are filled with self doubt and a yearning to learn your true path, your innocence and eagerness to prove yourself...and now a sister. It is all so clear...you resemble ME as a girl!"
The girl stared. She would have said "What?" except she noticed the lengthening shadows and panicked utterly. "I...I am...late...and I..am late." She started to run towards the Scholar's Stairs but her ingrained manners pulled her up short. "Goodbye...perhaps we will meet again." She deeply hoped not.
Xanderian simply smiled and started back up the stairs to the Pony again. "Oh I am quite certain that we will dear Margyth...whether you wish to, or no."
The girl nodded and started off again but stopped and spun back to stare at the elf's departing form.
"WHAT?"
