<9/29/2004> The traffic here is light, little more then a cart or two, and a charming old man sitting next to a hobbit child explaining something to do with flowers. The sun is bright, and some folks are enjoying the switch in the weather, couples and families walking slowly together chatting.

Elias Heatherseed walks with a short man, several years his senior, who nonetheless bears a startling resemblence to the lad, with the exception of being wider across and shinier of scalp. The boy is nattering happily along, and from the bored, slightly irritated look on the man's face, has been for some time.


Another lad walks along this road as well, but he is anything but carefree. His ears are pulled down almost inside the collar of a new, clean, untorn shirt; His feet (still bare) wander as near the wall as he can get, and he stares intently at the road in front of him.


Another figure appears through the traffic, curls bobbing as she wanders quickly toward the Healing House. Something stays her a moment though, as the gaze falls on her sneaking cousin. A frown knots together brows as, taking a breath, she strides over. "Toby!" A note of uncertainty lingers in the called name, as if, upon taking a closer look, she wasn't sure it was him.. "Wait up!"


Elias's stream of babble grind to an abrupt halt (much to the evident relief of his companion) at the word "Toby", and he turns around and squints, cupping one hand over his eyes. The man takes the opportunity to hurry on, ignoring the boy.


Toby's shoulders hunch up, as if the call were a blow to be avoided. But he stops, waiting in the road for his cousin to catch up. Though he doesn't turn, Several others do - staring openly at the boy and the woman who calls.


And to the ones who stare, a gaze as icy as the depths of winter falls upon them from the curly-haired girl, before the gaze softens and warms as it shifts back to her cousin. "Toby!" She reaches him, the voice quiter now, gentle in the manner of a healer. "How do you feel? Are you better? And why're you skulking along the wall like this? Bit of sunshine would do you good! Only a bit, mind..But I have somethin' I need to talk with you about, concernin' the other night..."


Elias turns back to his traveling partner, and finding him well away, shrugs and cautiously approaches the two, pushing up his green cap.


"Yeah," Toby mutters. The lump on his forehead has subsided, leaving behind only remnants of itself as souveneirs: green and purple bruising and a scabbed over cut. "I ain't skulkin', neither..." His fingers toy with the fabric of the shirt, drop absently automatically to his hip and then rise again, empty. The knife so faithfully carried is no longer there and a scowl mars the boy's face. "Tell me what?" he demands, ungraciously.


"Well, you're sneakin' along the wall with your shirt drawn up.. Anyway.. I were talkin' to a friend, and he said maybe it was them folks from Imlaris which carried you away from the hill..." Megan certainly sounds like she knows what she's talking about, though there's a hint of hesitation in her voice before 'friend' and 'Imladris'... "And also, I were thinkin' of what you said, and think it must've been a dream and.. and.. I had the same kind of one, ages ago so I got a bit caught up.."


Elias gets close enough to see Toby clearly, and waves, trying to catch the other boy's attention. His lip sneaks into his mouth as he watches the two speak.


Toby turns a disillusioned stare onto his cousin. "Yeah," he says sarcastically. "Right. A dream with feathers that just /happen/ to turn real. All on their own." He turns a shoulder to her, and takes a step away, halting a moment later - words dragged unwillingly from his mouth. "Elves?" He still doesn't see Elias - for that he is most determinedly ignoring the presence of anyone else on the street.


"Aye.. a dream with feathers.. Sometimes dreams are so vivid you could think they're real. Like one time when I woke up and I thought mam had gone out and bought a whole flock of sheep, then I asked her about them, and she told me we didn't have /any/ sheep. But I coulda sworn we got sheep!" A glance is sent briefly to Elias, a frown follows, and then she lowers her voice just slightly. "Well.. my friend said it mighta been Elves, at least. And he knows a lot! More than me, or anyone I know, at any rate.."


The hand is slowly lowered, and the smile fades. Elias pulls his cap a bit lower, and resumes his walk.


Toby turns to face Megan full-on. "Right," he says again, bitterly. "An' why should I believe you? Goin' an' lyin' t'me like that." He turns away again, directly into Elias' path.


Megan scowls, visibly tenses, and takes a long, laboured breath. "Lied about what, Toby? Anyway, I don't care. A friend of mine died, and I'm not in the mood to try and convince you about your stupid dreams. You don't believe me no matter what I say. If I tell you it was real, you don't believe me, if I tell you it was a dream, you call me a liar." With another scowl, she turns on her heel and starts to stride off, stopped a moment later by a bustling healer. The face and mood changes to one of forced cheerfulness as she strikes up conversation with the young Megan.


Elias looks up and smiles cautiously at his friend, "Afternoon, Toby, don' mean to interrupt."


"I done!" Toby turns and yells, fury and betrayal in every line of his set shoulders and tense face. "You said it were a real bird an' you saw one too and you showed me that feather an' now yer tryin' to lie it away!" His name, spoken again, and so near; brings an renewed hunching of the boy's slim shoulders. "'Lias," he mumbles. "Din't see you.." Clenched hands are shoved into pockets.


Shocked whispers break the silence that echoes down the street after this outburst. Two hobbits break off their conversation to goggle, open-mouthed, at the furious lad. And further down the street, a woman nudges her neighbor, points and nods as if to say, 'I told you so.'


Megan cringes under the yelling. Eyes are wide and paniced, after all, he's nearly announced a closely-guarded secret to the whole town... Quickly she rushes over, to grab Toby by the arm. Hard. A grip of steel that speaks of nervousness and bewilderment. "Toby." She hisses, "Stop yelling, please. You said the other day that you thought it was just a dream, and I spoke to a friend of mine, and he thought it better if I didn't tell you all about it.. but.. You're my cousin.. I'll tell you what I know if you really want me to.. but you'll never be able to tell anyone again.. You're not even meant to know.. Just quiet down.." Wary eyes glance to Elias quickly.


Stepping back, Elias looks from Toby to the woman. "Afternoon, Toby." spills out of the boy's mouth automatically, and his mouth works to produce more words and fails for a short while. A swallow, and his adam's apple bobbles, "Good to see you." He manages, inadequately. "Sorry to innerupt."


Toby wrenches his arm away. "Don' wanna know," he says sulkily. A cautious eye swivels towards Megan and he adds grudgingly, his anger mostly gone as quickly as it had come, "Thought I /was/ dreaming, never saw no bird big as that afore. But it talked at me an' all.." He nods jerkily to Elias. "Y'ain't interruptin'. How... how you been?"


"Fine. I won't tell you then." Megan nods her head with a shrug, a short nod to Elias, and then she turns to walk back to the Healing House. Well, at least he's none the wiser about the true nature of the 'birds'... maybe he'll just forget about it, with time?


Elias turns to watch the healer leave. Tilting his head, the lad blinks a couple of times, before addressing Toby's question. "I've been good. Workin' again, an' that always a good thing." A bit more carefully, he adds, "How've you been?"


'Working again...' Toby's face goes blank and stony. "Fine," he says shortly, beginning to walk slowly along the road. His empty hand-made scabbard bumps against his thigh with each step. Brown eyes flicker towards Elias and then to the cobbled street. "Somebody hit me on the head," he adds, after a long pause. "Woke up off inna field by Combe, an' I dunno how I got there."


Elias skips to keep up with Toby, and cranes his head to examine his friend, as if looking for evidence. "You don' know who hit you on the head?"


Brown curls bob as the boy shakes his head, no. "Went up Breehill," he explains. "T'sleep. Next thing I 'member, I was laying in a field in the rain out b'hind Aunt Holly's. An' I got this huge bang on m'head and dizzy and hurt all over."


The other boy clucks a bit, "But you look alright, so you went to see a healer, right?"


"Yeah." A bit of bragging enters Toby's voice; his shoulders straighten a little and he no longer tries to hide his face from those around. "That ranger, the one you call Egg.. I still think that's a dumb name... he brought me in. I couldn't even walk, hardly."


"He's the only one who ever wanted eggs with his pies, when I was sellin' 'em in the market. I couldn' call him Silver, it'd get mixed up with Grey." Elias protests, while pushing up his cap, "An' I told you they were good folks."


Toby grunts. "I don't like 'em," he says stiffly. "Uncanny folk, following a body around an' making him say stuff he don't want to. 'Lias.. you live wi' yer brother, right?"


"Aye." Elias nods, and looks curiously at Toby.


..who is silent for a while longer. His mouth opens a little, then clamps shut, and finally, gruffly, he says, "C'n I sleep there t'night?" He stares at the street as if deciphering some vital message in its stones.


Elias looks at Toby, "Of course you can, anytime you want, for as long as you want. Didn' even need to ask." The boy makes the statement like the sun rising in the East.


Relief from unspoken tension loosens Toby's neck muscles and lets his shoulders slump. "I... don' want to go up Bree hill again, an' the healers say I'm taking up a bed that some /sick/ person might need."


There is a bit more spring to the Bree-lads step as he walks, and the smile shows dangerous signs of growing larger. "We'll have to share the extra room, Micheal only has one, if you don' mind. But I'll leave breakfast out for you before I go to work." He looks again at Toby, "Are your clothes new?"


Toby shrugs a careless shoulder. "Yeah, they took away my old ones, the healers did; and give me these. Said they was left over from somebody or some such thing." He stretches out a thin arm and looks dispassionately down at his shirtsleeve. "It's big enough, anyhow."


"So, you ain't at the stables no more?" Elias asks, eyes engaged in people watching.


Toby's mouth thins to a narrow line. "No." The single word is jerked out, and the boy's mouth clamps shut again. A sullen bitter anger darkens his eyes dangerously.


Elias looks up at the sun. "Shame, maybe you can come an' work at the bakery, an' I heard that Onyx Sandheaver's da is lookin' for help, he's a butcher." The boy shrugs as if it is no worry to him, but Elias sneaks a glance out of the corner of his eyes as he speaks.


His nose wrinkles in a sneer. Unmade pies, butchered meat, what worth or interest have these? And behind it, bitterness deepens into ice. "Wouldn't have me," he mutters, then louder, scornfully, says, "Don' want to work for ploddin' bloody people like them. I c'n take care of m'self."


Elias shrugs again, struggling to keep disappointment from showing on his honest features, "I figgir you can, just thought I'd mention it, is all."


Toby nods once, abruptly, and gives himself over to brooding. A reckless feral light flickers in his eyes.


The two boys make there way back in to town, each occupied in their own thoughts as the promise of spring is slowly fulfilled unnoticed around them.