Venturing Ever Closer
Ataria couldn't remember the last time she had laughed that hard. The spectacle was hilarious.
"AAAHH! There he is! There!" Manara screamed at the top of her voice and waved her hands about wildly.
HE was a small hare that had been sitting in the grass, eating untroubled. Involuntarily, he had become a playfellow for two romping, noisy, persistent children. Needless to say he didn't see the fun of it.
"Hoppel… Hoppel…" Glawor squealed happily.
„Hoppel" bolted while Manara was hard on his heels. Ataria settled for watching them from a distance. She was happy to see the little ones so carefree. Therefore, she let them do as they liked.
But then Hoppel raced around a gentle, elongated hill towards the Golden Wood and the children followed him without missing a beat.
Ataria sprinted after them. When they had been walking along the riverbank and later on alongside the wood, they had always kept a seemly distance.
Despite her greatest efforts, she found herself at the border of Lothlorien once again in order to catch two children gone wild!
Ataria groaned inwardly. There was no doubt that the Valar had a hand in this.
They clearly had a sense of humour!
When she had walked round the hill she paused to marvel at the sight she was presented with.
A meadow dotted with white and yellow flowers was nestled in the Golden Wood and the hill she had just walked round. Close to the edge of the wood there was a rock formation that protruded from the long grass.
Excited squealing reminded Ataria why she was there in the first place. Manara and Glawor were crouching on the ground on their hands and knees not far from the rock formation. Obviously, Hoppel had led them to his lair.
Feeling uneasy, Ataria edged her way towards them carefully. They were much closer to the wood now than they had been this morning. The elves had tolerated them near by the border but she wouldn't dare presume it would stay like that. Nervously, she glanced at the trees but nothing happened.
"Manara, Glawor", she whispered when reaching them. Ataria touched each child on the shoulder in order to catch their attention. Manara turned around and looked at Ataria questioningly. She seemed to sense the woman's unease and nervousness.
In a calm voice so unlike her normal hyper one, Manara enlightened the young woman. "Ataria, Hoppel has run in there and now he doesn't come back out again!"
Her grave expression and her reproachful sounding voice made Ataria laugh shortly but loudly.
"Well, maybe he's tired and needs some rest", she thought aloud.
Manara pouted but then her face brightened abruptly. "I'll make a flower necklace." She darted off, sat down among the flowers and set to work.
Ataria watched her for a moment before she looked at Glawor. He had crawled away from the hare's lair by now and curled up to sleep.
She heaved a sigh of relief. Gradually, the tension left her. Apparently, the elves were willing to tolerate them in the vicinity once more.
Encouraged by this realisation she dared approach the rock formation and took a seat on one of the bigger rocks. Keeping one eye on both children she let the beauty of this place enchant her once again.
"Why are they tolerating us? Granted, we are no threat but we are trespassers in a sense."
Pensively, Ataria contemplated possible reasons when suddenly she had an idea. Smiling impishly, she thought about it before reaching the conclusion that it was indeed a possibility.
"Who knows, maybe they pity me."
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Contrary to Lamiel, who considered it all to be so very amusing, and Faeron, who frowned disapprovingly, Rúmil had no idea what to make of this situation.
When Lamiel and he had been hurrying to where the child's scream had come from, his heart had seemed to constrict painfully only to loosen when he had realized that there was no threat at all.
Neither to the Golden Wood, nor to the children, nor to… her.
Conflicting emotions warred in his heart.
There was irritation and his sense of duty… but there was also astonishment and curiosity. He felt an unknown kind of attraction to this human woman.
He had no explanation for this feeling but he felt it distinctly. She interested him; her demeanor was fascinating. For that reason he hadn't gone back to the talan with Lamiel. Instead, he had chosen to stay with Faeron in order to watch her closely.
"You know that if they go any further we have to intervene", Faeron said and glanced at Rúmil from the side.
"Yes."
But this didn't happen.
The children played while the young woman kept watch until they had to return to their camp in the evening. The next day she returned and sat on the rock again.
So close…
But she never went a step further.
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