Summat important must be in this fornost place. Now yer would expect that a dead city - full of bone-men, corpse-walkers and shadow-men wouldn't be full of live 'uns like me an' Gyth an' Bawde. But ...
We gets up to the gates - right up to 'em mind, past some snarly pucan and wolves ... an' then out o' the walls themselves, up stands that bloody grim-faced helm-giffer and two o' his chetwood lads, like they'm bin waitin' fer us! Or followin' us. which seems ter be more likely considering. Now, seems ter me that this Araenion, he's up ter summat, and now these three brigands turns up from nowhere in their green an' brown. So whatever Gyth's Burnt Man knows about this place, an' whatever the map is showin' in this city is more important than even some good songs and tales fer Gyth.
Bawde aint having none o' their interference and is up an' at 'em quick. He may be a thistle in my arse, but he'm a brave lad none the less an' I daresay could take all three o'em at once. But there he is a swingin' his spear, and gyth gets all screaming saying these chetwood lads are speaking the aelf tongue an' Bawde yells they'm aelf-thralls an' Gyth goes a-running in case they curses us an' Bawde threatens 'em and they comes forward an' I dursen't know aelf tongue but I knows the helm-giffer, fer all he's an ugly mean faced old big un he has allus treated me fair ... so i jumps up an' tries ter talk to him... but his two lads rushes us... and then I'm a running ... an... well... we don' get much talkin' done and he bloody well tries to shoot off my damn ear!
So we loses Gyth an' I lost what i got down m' leggings - feh. An' me an' Bawde end up in their camp. Odd eh, that the chetwood brigands have a camp all up here? What do they know about whats in that city, that means they camps up here too? Now, I said affore to the Helm-giffer that I aint interested in Bree an' he and his lads can have what he likes of it. But the way i sees it, I been fair now, and this dead city aint theirs, no more than it belongs ter any of us. So i got to go an' see him and tell us ter leave us be - I aint giving in now, especially as there must be summat in the city iffen everyone else wants it too.
I knows they'm up ter summat. Once they gets us into the camp they splits up me and Bawde.One of 'em, Oldgrove, he gives me some ale and a bit o' biscuit, calls it aelf-bread - tastes like the butter biscuit my aunt makes- iffen you ask me it aint ever seen an aelf, and everyone knows they just eat leaves and babbies. But he smells nice, an' he smiles nice an' he starts being friendly and askin' me questions an' holding m'hand. Now I aint stupid.
