Lusseriel was sitting at the entrance of the camp, just at the edge of the fireside’s light. She was facing the outside, considering her options, notebook in hand, drawing mindlessly plant shapes and dagger shapes on the page before she started to write.
“We had breakfast in the camp this morning and surprise, surprise, Tirnelion joined us there.
Tirnelion told us he spent some times among the wardens of Thinglad and found that evil have arisen just on the edge of the golden woods. Orcs and fell beasts.
Yes, we noticed that too. And I agree with him, it’s bad news.
I had some hope that he’d counsel perhaps Andrahir and Ilthirian to be careful of what they confide in people they barely met, but no… And here I’m starting to be very annoyed at all my traveling companions here… he greeted Salhael like a new friend.
We don’t know her, we don’t know her history, at most we’ve known her for 2 days…
Why do they just trust others like that? Why? How is that even logical?
We’ve already been betrayed once, we already saw one of our companions be killed, because we trusted the wrong person so why are they so annoyingly trusting, all of them?
Am I too paranoid? I’m starting to wonder.
Meh, no, it’s only paranoia if no one is actually out to kill us and we know for a fact that several beings are out for our blood.
They had breakfast together, I had mine earlier in the day, just before sunrise when I came back from scouting the area and as soon as they were ready, we went to scout the ancient battlefield of Parth Celebrant.
It was very interesting, between the spirits that don’t rest in peace and brigands who roam freely…
So we went and in the way, Rolegard noted his surprise that the place had been a battlefield considering the number of flowers. Apparently he didn’t quite enjoy my answer that plants were well fed by the various corpses.
Our poor hobbit friend told me that it was very morbid. Which… Yes, perhaps, but it’s still very true.
And I wasn’t the only one who answered the same thing.
And like yesterday night, the spirits were roaming the field, fighting their own demons, unable to find peace.
And here Rolegard showed his incredible suicidal habit to run first and check for danger later when he saw one of the shades fight against something we couldn’t see and ran to the shade first in the faint hope to save whatever the shade was fighting against.
Without checking first if there was someone in the first place or if he or we could actually help. He was lucky that we ran after him quickly enough and that we could actually chase the shades away.
Andrahir, bless him, decided that we should give the spirits a wide berth. At least one of them showed some sort of survival instinct. I encourage that whole-heartedly.
We crossed path with brigands and we came closer to the Gondorian ruin we saw from afar on our way to the camp. Rolegard found something perhaps worth bringing back to the camp, and we approached the entrance of the ruins. Sadly, we noticed quickly that the ruin was occupied by more shades.
Alas we had a job to do and it didn’t include checking out the ruins and braving those shades by simple curiosity. Sadly enough.
We walked back toward the camp and there, oh joy, Salhael and Ilthirian started talking while lagging in the back. About the whole company apparently.
Who knows what Ilthirian told Salhael, now. When confronted about it, Ilthirian told me she only told “good things” about me to Salhael.
Yes, she totally missed my point here. How nice of her to give private information about everyone in our group to someone that SHE’S ONLY KNOWN FOR TWO DAYS ! .
I mean, it's not like anything could be used against us or like any strength she says we have could also underline a weakness that could be used by anyone hunting us.
I really honestly hope that Salhael is not a spy, or it’s confirmed, we’re all dead.
So I kind of gave up and told her that I’ll thank her not to speak about me behind my back at all, in good or bad I don’t care, just don’t.
Obviously that offended her or something. She bowed to me and answered very properly as if we were at court or something: “as you wish lady Lusseriel”.
I answered in kind.
It’s petty, I know, but I couldn’t help it.
Honestly I couldn’t care less about her opinion of me right now but so help me if I die because she found nothing more clever than to confide about our abilities, tactics or history to the wrong person, I’ll stay as a lost spirit only to haunt her steps until she sails or dies, whichever comes first.
But, funny story here… Rolegard had the courage to ask if the Rohirrim ate horse as they have plenty of them around.
That’s absolutely hilarious. It’s also liable to get us thrown out if someone takes offense, but it’s hilarious, and Salhael looked utterly shocked at the idea.
Also I’m vaguely disturbed by the idea of eating horses. Yes, if I have no choices of course I’ll eat whatever I find, it’s called survival, but… Horses are travel companions. For many years my only reliable companion during my travels was my horse.
Why would anyone want to eat that kind of animal, it’s beyond me. Another hobbit mystery I guess.
But as the conversation came to food, Rolegard offered to cook for Salhael if she stayed long enough and Salhael told him that she didn’t know how long she could stay.
Hm… Trap incoming perhaps? Or perhaps she has enough information to give to whoever needs it?
I can’t decide if I’m happy that a possible threat will soon be gone or if I’m wary of what her departure means.
And yes, I’m aware that there’s a chance that she’s genuinely who she said she was (despite the obvious misdirection that is) and that there’s perhaps really nothing bad coming from her. But hey, it’s better to be prepared for the worst and to be able to survive than to hope for the best and be killed.
Salhael told us, well told my companions more to the point, that she no longer knew where she was needed the most. I’d have had an answer for her, but I doubted anyone wanted to hear it so I kept silent.
But alas as we mentioned briefly Edoras and the king of Rohan, Andrahir tried to know what the king recently said about his son.
I’m thinking of perhaps composing a ballad about the meaning of the word discretion. It’s bound to be easier to remember if it’s one of those annoyingly catching songs right? Because apparently it’s a totally failing and forgotten concept as a simple word.
So of course, as Salhael seemed suddenly suspicious of us, which now is a genuine reaction that was normal and should have appeared honestly far, far sooner, Ilthirian told her the truth about the death of the prince.
I just hope that, at this point, it won’t come back to the king’s ears before the formal announcement by prince Theodred’s company or it’ll be a serious diplomatic faux pas, but whatever.
Rolegard cooked mushrooms tonight. I’ll admit they were excellent. Hobbit cooking is good, I just hope he won’t ask if he can get horse meat to anyone in Rohan. Or perhaps I should hope that he does that where I can see people’s reactions for cheer entertainment value…
Though… Considering the situation I’m wondering whether or not I should even continue with the group. It’s obvious I only bring them discord as they all seem to be of the same blindly trusting mind.
Besides, quite frankly, I have no will whatsoever to be killed because THEY trusted the wrong person.
Also I do wonder where Ardirien went and if she’s alright so there’s that too. If she takes too long to reappear I'll go in search of her if only to make sure that she's alive and well.
And I doubt they really enjoy the idea of my company since Salhael arrived.
I’ll give it a few days, if only to think about it, but sometimes it’s better to admit defeat and part on relatively neutral term.
I can help the Grey Company in other ways, and perhaps join their scouts or something.
This way I can be as careful as I want without crossing the delicate sensibilities of anyone, and they can be as suicidally reckless as they want without bothering me. Everyone would win… Well so long we manage to survive that is.”
Lusseriel saw one of the rohirrim approach in the course of his guard duty and she closed her notebook firmly. She put it in her backpack and sighed. Perhaps she could mention her dilemma to Andrahir. He was certainly well placed to tell if she was creating tensions that could prove dangerous in the long run.
Deep in thought, it’s by habit that she used her backpack as a backrest and settled to watch the night sky, with a wonderfully open view on the fields around. She’d have plenty of warning if anything or anyone approached the camp on that side that night.
