Stone Houses
At the base of the Bree Hill, about a hundred stone houses line the small and
winding road that clings to the lower reaches of the hill. Red brick chimneys
are built alongside of each house and several of these chimneys spew forth
smoke. A handful of skinny trees grow between some of the houses. Many folk,
both big and little, walk along the street or in and out of the stone
buildings, bustling about their business.
The day sky is clear with only slight wisps of clouds overhead. The mid morning
spring air is cool but pleasant around you.
In front of one of the many houses lining the twisty narrow road, a girl sits.
A book is open on her lap, but she is not reading it - instead, one elbow is
planted firmly on the pages, her chin rests on the palm of her hand and she
gazes down the lane somewhat disconsolately. An erratic breeze plays with her
curls and ruffles the pages of the book. All around, people bustle up and down
the streets, in and out of the houses; all taking advantage of the clear spring
day.
Off-tune singing warbles above and below the soft sounds of spring morning,
flat and sharp notes clashing against each other and drawing out in long
dischord. This sound might be traced to a hobbit lass, gripping the hem of her
skirt and twirling back and forth as she walks, stubby toes pointing now and
then as if she were dancing gracefully in her mind. A doll, made of cloth and
yarn and a bit scruffy from use, is her dancing partner, even though the toy is
held out sideways. Thus she meanders down the lane.
Walking down the road, a tall girl is seen with her mule. However, the pet
seems to see this as a lark, while his master struggles with a large yoke on
her shoulders. Vainly, she tries to blow overgrown bangs from her face.
Tathar's eyes hunt for the sound of singing, and finally fix themselves on the
hobbit child. A smile begins to tug at the corner of her lips, growing ever
wider, until she begins to giggle and then to clap her hands on the book as if
it were a drum. "You need a bigger partner," she shouts.
But now the mule and its antics creep into her field of vision and she stops
drumming to watch. After a minute, she jumps up and runs towards the animal.
"Can I help you?" she asks breathlessly. Behind her, the forgotten book lies
upside down on the step where it had fallen.
Mercy's dancing halts all at once at Tathar's shout, and after an abashed
silence, she calls out defensively, "No I don't." She lifts up her doll,
holding her beneath the arms and studying her. "We dance good together, don't
we?" she lilts to the toy, then starts swaying again and sings,
"We dance good,
Like we should
'Cause the song is sweet
And your dress is neat.."
She loses interest in her play and wanders curiously toward the older girls and
their mule, chewing idly on the doll's hair.
Again blowing her hair away, the girl squints at this eager helper and tries t
shrug, nearly losing the the yoke. "No, I'm almost home." However, she slides
the yoke to the ground anyways, mumbling about a lazy so'n'so. Doing a
doubletake, she studies the other girl's face. "Do I know you, ma'am?"
Tathar snorts a little. "I'm not a ma'am." Dark brown eyes return the scrutiny
with interest and after a moment, she offers, "I'm Tathar.." Stopped as they
are, in the middle of the street, people squeezing by on either side tend to
frown at them for blocking the road. "Is he yours?" she asks, nodding at the
mule. "I can ride..." Her sentance is cut off abruptly as a boy slouches out of
the crowd and stops beside her, draping one long gangly arm over her shoulder.
Their faces are alike: the same curly hair waves in the wind, the same brown
eyes watch the world go by, the same freckles scatter across identical noses.
"Yer not studying, sis," he says around a mouthful of apple. "I'm telling Ma."
The girl's expression dissolves into horror. "You wouldn't, Toby! Would you?
Oh don't, please!"
And he laughs and takes another bite. "Naw. Who's yer friends here?"
Mercy flops herself in the middle of the road, where she can keep an eye on the
proceedings with the mule, and also where people are likely to step on her. The
doll is made to bounce along before her on dirty cloth feet, and the lass talks
to herself beneath her breath. "Oh, no, I don't like to dance on an empty
tummy," the doll bows.
"Would you like some buttered mushrooms, Miss Kylustriella?"
"Why, yes, /please/. Only a little before supper." Stubby little fingers feed
the doll and Mercy's mouth mimics chewing.
"My name is Keeliri Appledore." Patting the mule, who has fallen asleep, she
adds, "He's mine, the old fogie. I bet he hasn't been rode since I was a babe."
Her face sombers slightly. "He was real sick this winter, so I've been taking
it easy on him."
The worry that colors Tathar's eyes disappears. "I knew you wouldn't," she says
happily and then her dark eyebrows snap together accusingly. "Besides, you're
supposed to be helping Father. I should tell on you!" But this sisterly retort
lacks venom and a grin erases the scowl almost at once. "This is Keeliri
Appl..." she starts to repeat and stops mid word. "Appledore! My name is
Appledore too! We must be cousins. Where do you live? Why have I never seen you
before?" Words tumble out one after another, like little pebbles rolling
downstream. "Oh and this is my brother, Leopold."
"Toby," growls the boy. "What about her?" He jerks his head towards Mercy,
sitting in the middle of the road and in dire peril of being squished.
But the little hobbit girl is gone from the middle of the road, if one were to
look again. It might take a bit of hunting to see around the knees and skirts
of adults, but a small blue-clad figure is wandering up the lane now. It seems
the amusements that might be found from one mule and three young bigfolk have
waned for one Mercy.
Though at first shocked by the barrage of questions, Keeliri begins to slowly
answer them. "I used to live in Archet with my my mother, but I movd to
Combe."she smiles bashfully. "I don't come to Bree Proper very often." turning
to Tathar's brother, she adds, "Hello, Toby."
"Oh. I grew up in Bree." Tathar nods as if all is explained, and perhaps it is.
The sun shines down warmly and she wiggles her bare feet luxoriously in the
soft dust of the road. "I have been to Combe, but I never saw you there. Of
course," she adds, "I wasn't looking. Are you going back there now?"
Toby nods his head and (for a miracle) swallows before returning Keeliri's
greeting. "H'llo," he says gruffly. And as an afterthought, perhaps helped
along by an elbow in the ribs, "Nice ta meetcha."
Glancing at the sky, Keeliri says, "I suppose so. There's a flock of geese that
should be coming soon, and they tend to be a bit rough..." Looking back at
Tathar, she asks, "Do you have a job?"
"You have geese?" Astonishment enters Tathar's voice now. "And they just fly
around?" She considers this, her only acquaintance with geese up until now
being those that hiss besides gates; or the wild ones flying high and swift
overhead with their haunting cries that echo across the countryside. "Don't
they... run away?" She giggles a little at herself. "That sounds funny, geese
running away."
Toby takes this opportunity to interject an entire sentance. "She's supposed to
be helping Ma. Studying and such. Learning to cook." Several sentances in fact,
and a grin spreads across his tanned face. "Then again, I'm supposed to be
learning to turn the lathe, so I can't say nothing. We're both playing truant a
bit, I guess."
Keeliri nods. "Same here, except I'm hiding from crazy birds. They're not mine,
they just stop at my house in the spring. I take car of animals, along with
farming." As if sensing being mentioned, serious of squeaks emit from a pouch.
"Make that a lot of animals." At the mention of cooking, she shudders. "Ooh,
now there's something I'd like to forget; learning to cook never turns out
well."
"Mine is dreadful," Tathar admits dolefully, and glares at her twin when he
starts to laugh. "You needn't laugh, I'd like to see how well you could do!"
The squeaking erases her complaints from her mind and she edges forward a bit,
craning her neck to see the pouch. "What is that? A mouse?" Behind her, the boy
tosses his applecore carelessly away, eliciting a startled yelp as it bounces
off of a man's bald head. "Hey, you!" he begins, but Toby is sauntering off.
"See you, sis. Don't stay out too long." He waves an idle hand at Keeliri and
melts into the crowd, leaving the scolding man with his mouth agape and no one
to yell at.
"Yes, it's a spoiled mouse." She starts to pull it from the pouch, but draws
her hand back, revealing a tiny spot of blood. "And apparently it's a hungry
mouse." Watching Toby's escape, Keeliri murmurs, "I take it your brother gets
in trouble too."
Tathar grins widely. "Yes. He is a wicked, wicked boy." A thought runs visibly
across her face and brown eyes turn anxiously towards Keeliri. "I don't mean
that he is bad or anything.. he wouldn't steal or .. or anything really awful.
He just..." she stops, her thin brown face troubled. "I guess he just doesn't
really care what people say. But he is very kind, truly. We're twins," she
confides, "but he is older. Not by very much though." In another lightning
switch of thought, she asks, "What does it eat?"
"Whatever he finds, including a nice store of wine I had this winter." Keeliri
gestures to the many other pockets on her belt. "I've been injured more times
by that little rat than my snake!" Veering back to the subject of brothers, she
adds, "both of mine are older, and my sister. My oldest brother and sister
turned out to be the perfect children; my brother even has a daughter who can
read now, and she's barely four. But my brother and I...don't have as nice a
reputation in Archet."
Tathar laughs. "A drunken mouse," she says gleefully. "That must have been
funny. Mother would never let me have a mouse though. She hates them." A thin
high cloud momentarily dims the bright spring sun. The girl runs one thin hand
through her tangled curls and then her eyes widen amazingly. What her
reputation might be is evidently something that has never entered her mind, for
she stares blankly at Keeliri for several moments in utter silence. The babble
of the throng around them dies away as well, and in the distance, a bird chirps
questioningly and then breaks into song. "That's what people think about you? I
can read, some... I even sort of like it. I just didn't like staying inside to
learn," she adds parenthetically and then veers back to the original subject.
"I never thought of it."
"I'm not sure who had it worse in Archet, but the family motto is now, 'At
least Keer didn't forsake his family." She leans against the sleeping mule,
thinking. "Technically, my brother was the wild one, and I was the
lunatic." Coming out of her somber mood, she laughs, "I guess you are a bit
crazy if your family job was talking to squirrels!" She smiles at Tathar. "I'd
think reading would be fun."
"Do you really talk to squirrels?" Tathar wavers between disbelief and awe
before reaching out to pat the dozing mule. "It's.. interesting," she says
then, a small vertical line appearing between finely drawn black eyebrows as
she thinks. "Some of the books say things I have never heard of before in my
life." A grin flashes out, smoothing her brow again. "But I don't like staying
inside and sitting and staring at letters. I am glad I'm too old anymore to be
sent to school. Not that I went all as often as I should have.."
Keeliri shrugs. "It was more like my uncle getting me climb a tree a coax a
squirrel out of it before he chopped the tree down. Ya see, one day my cousin
decided the squirrels might get hurt if they fell with a tree, so I had to get
them down. And heights are terrifying to me..." she stops and looks at Tathar
curiously. "HOw old are you, anyways?"
"I think the stuffy man doesn't like heights either," Tathar says thoughtfully.
"He wouldn't even climb out of his window when he was a boy because he was
afraid he would fall. I climb out of mine sometimes." A mischeivous twinkle
lightens her brown eyes. "When I don't want to practice, ugh, sewing or
something." The last sentance comes with a disgusted wrinkle of her small
freckled nose. "I am fourteen, why? How old are you?"
From the house distinguished from its neighbors by yellow curtains instead of
white, and a forlorn looking book on the stoop, comes a high shrill call, as of
a voice that is normally low being forced into loudness. "Taaaathar! Aren't you
finished yet? I need you to help me..." The girl looks over her shoulder
guiltily. "Goodbye, I have to go," she says hastily, already skipping backwards
even as she waves. Turning mid-skip, she runs towards the house, scooping the
book from the step without even pausing and disappears. The door bangs shut
behind her.
"I'm fifteen," Keeliri says, as someone yells to Tathar. She watches the door
for a minute, then struggles to lift the yoke. Finally shrugging the burden
onto her shoulders, she walks home, her mule following obediently.
