Pine-Brother
By: Eärillë
She yearned for him all her life. Was it so wrong to want to know about one's brother? What was so terrible about him that people never deigned to talk about Evanzadí, firstborn son of Evandar and Islanzadí?
10.
Arya insisted fearfully that they were being followed, right from a little beyond the last reaches of the Guarding Forest. But Brom insisted back that she was new to the outside world and therefore understandably paranoid about it. To think that she had privately rage that her mother – no, the Queen – had treated her like a three-winter-old!
They were past Ceunon and riding towards Gil'ead when it happened.
Nightingales were twittering happily that night, or so she thought, and the melodious chirping somehow made her drowsy. So she pleaded out of the first watch and made a quick work of snuggling into her bedroll. She felt safe and secure and even comfortable, but her mind was too sleepy to notice anything wrong or unusual.
Even when a pair of strong arms cradled her instead of the night air and her own blankets, she felt that nothing was amiss. She felt just right, especially with the wet pine-needle scent filling her nostrils and slipping into her dreamscape.
The next morning, she found Brom sitting white-faced and rigid on the edge of their camp, stealing fearful glances at her. He would not answer her why he had failed to wake her up for the second watch of the previous night, furthermore. In fact, he was strangely silent for the rest of their journey to Belatona, which Brom had informed her before would end the first leg of their trip to the Varden.
Surprisingly, she found that she could care less about Brom's new attitude towards her. A part of her vindictively pointed out that it was payback for what he had done to her, but the other just dreamily recalled the hazy experience from the previous night.
Real or dreaming, true or fantasised, she believed that her brother had been there, loving her, taking care of her, guarding her, just like he ought to have done since thirty years ago.
It was enough to brighten her mood till they reached Belatona, and sour Brom's.