================================== Bree Time ==================================
Real time: Fri Aug 13 18:50:38 2004
Bree time: Early Afternoon 1:31 PM on Sterday of Winter - December 4,1432
Moon Phase: Full Moon
===============================================================================
Breelands Weather
The early afternoon winter air is cold and dry around you. The day sky is clear
with only slight wisps of clouds overhead.
Archway
A small enclosed area rests underneath an archway overhead. There is just
enough space for four or five ponies to be lead abreast below the arch. The
area here sits between the two wings of the Prancing Pony, one each to the
north and south. East leads to an open yard between the two wings, and the
stables, which are in the southern wing. The Great East Road waits just outside
the archway, to the west. Facing the hill, on the left under the arch is a
large doorway reached by a few broad steps. Over the door the following is
painted in white letters: THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR.
With the lunch crowd leaving, the couryard his turned quiet on this pleasant
early winter's day. Any people still around the Pony are inside sitting near
the warm fireplace, the smoke from which, and it's many cousins around Bree,
has filled the air with it's distinctive tang.
Elias is the solitary exception. Wrapped up in an oversized wool cloak, the hem
of which is dragging on the ground, the boy paces the courtyard, unusually, his
brown eyes are not squinted, but opened wide.
The clip-clop of a pony's hooves ring on the cobbles of the road beyond the
archway, and eventually the slow-moving beast comes into view. A teenaged boy
walks at its head, holding the headstall carelessly, but the animal shows no
desire to bolt and obediently turns into the courtyard and heads towards the
stables. Toby's head is down; he sees nothing of his surroundings save a few
feet of pavements. Though his feet are still bare, and his pants ragged and
thin, a new-looking thick woolen coat is wrapped around his upper body.
At the hooves echos, Elias looks up. Squinting, he can barely make out the
Toby's form, but a figure so often looked for is easy to recongnize. A broad
smile crosses the smaller Breelad's face, and he calls out, "Toby!"
Toby's head jerks up and the pony stops abruptly, flattening its ears with
displeasure. A rare smile flickers on the boy's lips, then vanishes into a
frown. "'Lias..." He urges his charge forward, closer to Elias.
"Toby." Elias looks carefully at the other boy, his face scrunched up in trying
to bring his wayward eyes to focus. "How have you been? I havn' seen you for a
while, I was gettin' kinda worried."
"Fine," is the dismissive reply. Toby pats the pony absently, rubbing behind
its ears and soothing it into standing, and the beast heaves a sigh and shifts
its weight onto three legs. "How come you went talking to him what I tol' you
t'stay away from?" he asks a minute later.
"I didn' know it was him, at first. He started it." Elias replies promptly.
"With his coin, an' his talkin'."
A moment longer Toby subjects his friend to a hard gaze, then nods acceptingly.
"Tath learned that coin bit from 'im," he offers.
"It's a good trick, how does he do it?" Elias ask, his brow furrows, "First it
was in his hand, then in my stew."
Toby shrugs a shoulder and grins. "I dunno. I never learnt, Tath did. Gave her
a silver penny to do it with to, only Ma made her give it back. Said it was too
much to pay for just an apple." He leans against the pony, who leans back - and
being considerably heavier, wins. Toby is shoved a few steps sideways before he
straightens and pushes the animal back.
"It is, was the most coin I'd ever seen." Elias watches Toby struggle with the
pony, "Do ya need a hand?" The Breelad asks.
"Naw, he's just playing." Toby slaps the pony affectionately on the neck. "You
been busy or something?"
Elias flushes a bit, then nods, "Aye, with the baking and the pies, I haven'
been out much. But you coulda stopped by the stand."
Curious brown eyes linger on Elias' red cheeks. "I done," he says, then turns a
little red himself. "Didn't stay though... was one of 'em yours?"
The boy nods, "Aye, two of 'em actually. One of the apple pies, and the meat
pie." He looks down at his shoes, and moves his foot around on the pavement.
"Sorry, I been checkin' up on you, I just get worried."
"Ate 'em, I think," Toby says. "They was good. Did you taste that one with all
the crusts burnt?" He sniggers a little at the memory, sobering swiftly at
Elias' confession. "Checking up on me..?" There is a bit of hardness, a hint of
danger in his voice. "Why?"
"'Cause you keep fallin', and then Mister Grey told me that Thorn was a bad
man, and you mentioned him, an' I got worried." Elias steps away from his
friend's anger, and hangs his head even further, "I knew you wouldn' like it,
but I had ta."
"...Grey? Who's that?" Toby questions. He scowls at his friend(?). "I told you
about falling. Hadn't nothing to do with him."
Elias shakes his head, "One of the ones who kept followin' ya around. He
started askin' questions, an'-" Elias keeps shaking his head, "I'm sorry, Toby,
I jus', I jus' don' want you gettin' hurt. I'm sorry."
Toby is silent as he stares at Elias and tries to puzzle his way through the
jumbled explanation. Finally, he shakes his own head. "I know he ain't always
nice, Thorn ain't. That's why I told you t'stay away from him." He casts a
cautious glance over his shoulder, but no one is there to hear. "Grey's one of
them rangers? What all'd he ask you?"
Elias nods, "He was askin' about how you got hurt, he was worried, Toby. He
wanted to know what was goin' on, but I didn' tell him." He swallows, "I almost
tol' him about how ya got hurt the first time, but then it didn' matter, 'cause
I saw him talkin' to the one ya did tell. Mister Egg, with the silver eyes."
"Egg?" Toby asks incredulously. "That can't be his name, no wonder he don't
want to tell it to no one." But anger darkens his face and he waits for no
answer. Leaning towards the other boy, his face taut and menacing. "You was
gonna tell him?" he asks dangerously. "After you told me you wouldn't never say
nothing to no one?" For a minute longer he stares at Elias, then pivots on his
heel and heads towards the stables, pony in tow. A small muscle in his clenched
jaw bunches and jumps.
Elias runs after Toby, after he bursts in to the sables, he says, "I didn' tell
him. An' I thought he was Mister Egg, who ya did sorta tell." The small lad
stands facing his -friend-. "I can' see 'em Toby, they are all just tall, ta
me. I didn' know thier voices yet. When I figgured out he didn' know what I was
talkin' about I stopped talkin'."
Toby's ability to trust has been stretched and almost broken several times over
the past weeks. He stares unseeingly at the shorter, stouter lad before him. "I
believed you," he says slowly. "Thought you was my friend..." There is an
anguish in his voice, a desperate desire to accept Elias' explanation warring
with a fierce clutching to loyalty above all... and fear for those who could
hear it. Fear of being betrayed yet again.
Elias steps closer to the other boy. "I -am- your friend." He almost sobs,
"Tha- that's why I'm tryin' to help ya, don' ya get it. An' I wouldn' tell
anyone anything that ya tol' me an' not them. Not on perpose. I didn' even tell
Thorn who I was talkin' about, an' he knew, an' I knew he knew." The small
lad's breath hitches, and he continues in a whisper. "I'm sorry Toby, I'm
sorry, if I wasn', I wouldn' a tol' you."
"...You can't see," Toby says it tentatively, testingly. His blank gaze breaks
up and he looks at the younger lad and sees him. "But... why'd you go to
Thorn?" The matter of Grey is set aside for the moment. "He.. told me you was
worried.. I c'n take care of myself."
"'Cause I needed to see 'em." Elias answers, "'Cause I needed ta know if he was
like they said, if he was bad." He looks at Toby, stepping even closer, slowly
to bring the other boy in to focus. "'Cause ya don' look after yourself to
well, so I need ta help sometimes."
But Toby has reverted to the earlier subject. "They are uncanny," he admits.
"Make you say stuff if'n you want to or not..." He nods once. "I think y'ought
to stay away from them, too.."
A narrow glance pierces Elias' fogged vision. "And..?" he asks. "He's good t'my
sister. Brought her home after.. she was hurt. I ain't saying he's all good or
nothing, but I don't want her t'be hurt no more. He's good to her," he repeats.
Elias scratches his face, and pulls down his cap a bit. "But, he hurt ya,
right?" He asks tenatively.
Toby shrugs. "Only a bruise. Less'n what that Strider done. He didn't hit me or
nothing, if that's what you mean. But he might've. He ain't nice, 'Lias. But I
ain't exactly nice either." A sardonic smile quirks his lips.
"Ya did try an' stab Strider." Elias points out. "Did ya try and stab Thorn?"
The boy's eyes widen at Toby's smile a bit, "An' your better then ya seem ta
think."
Toby shrugs again and lets it go. "Look," he says patiently. "I don't care so
much about him, see, but I care about Tath. She... he ain't..." He gives up on
the impossible task of explaining. "Just leave him be, right? B'sides, he maybe
give me a bruise or two, but he give me money t'buy this coat too." In his mind
it seems, things are fairly even between them.
Elias looks miserable at this half logic. "I can' leave him be, Toby. I woulda
given ya the jacket for free, ya know. It wouldn' been as nice, but I'd been a
jacket." He reaches in to his pocket, and pulls something out, he opens his
hand, and four copper pennies rest there. "It's all I have left, after given'
Ruine her share, an' buyin' the butter, but ya can have it." Elias thrust out
his hand. "An' I won' bruise ya."
"But you didn't," Toby points out. It isn't accusing, merely matter of fact. He
shakes his head, turning to open a stall door for the (exceedingly) patient
pony. "I ain't taking your money." The animal heads eagerly for the sling of
hay and the door is swung shut behind it, latching with a click. "Please," Toby
says then, an almost unheard of note of pleading in his voice. "Leave it? I
don't want you hurt neither..."
"Ya never asked, an' I ain't seen ya." Elias says, he looks down at Toby's bare
feet. "Buy some shoes, maybe, if it ain't enough, then ya can have mine. They
are too big anyway. I'll get some more, I've got to go home soon anyway." His
eyes follow Toby, squinting in the dim light. "I ain't gonna leave it, you're
in danger, an' I ain't gonna just abandon ya."
"No." The word is flat and unarguable. "I ain't taking your money. I don't need
shoes anyhow, not until it snows." But unyieldingness turns swiftly to
exasperation. "Why?" Toby demands. "I ain't in no danger, let it be. Please,"
he says again.
Elias turns his head upside down and the four coins fall to the floor. "I don'
need it. There are people who look out fer me, that make sure that I ain't ever
hungry or cold." He pauses and looks at the coins, then back at his friend.
"An' your my friend, so I do the same for you."
Brown eyes watch the glittering fall of coin as they tumble to the wooden floor
and bounce and roll. Something spasms in Toby's face, and he shuts his eyes
briefly, as if in pain. But when he opens them again, there is nothing in his
face at all. "I got a job," he waves a hand about the stables. "If'n I don't
choose t'spend my money on coats and stuff, it's my own fault." Drawn like a
needle to a magnet, his gaze strays again to the pennies. "I don't wanna owe
you too... I won't take it."
"Ya won' owe me, friends don' owe each other like that." Elais says quietly.
"Take it if ya want it, it don' matter to me. "I look after ya, Toby, someone's
gotta, without askin' nothin'." He swallows, "I've gotta go, Mister Dunleaf
needs me back at the bakery."
Toby wrenches his eyes away from the coins, their glittering enthralling
presence, and makes one last attempt as the other boy leaves. "Elias... let it
be. Thorn, I mean. I don't want you getting hurt because of me. You're the only
friend I got, 'side of Tath. I'll be all right, honest."
Elias flashes a smile at his friend, "I know ya will, after all, I'm lookin'
after ya." He slowly leaves the stables, and the coins glitter on the ground.