Irresponsible
One beautiful spring afternoon five years later, a brown horse could be seen galloping across the plain with a tall, blonde teenage girl on its back towards the forest ahead. The girl was indeed Arrell, now fifteen years old. She was on her way to visit a very good friend.
Tying up her horse and stepping into the forest, she called out, "Weatherroot! Weatherroot! I know you're around here someplace! Don't make me have come all this way for naught-" Just then, she heard a lot of banging and thrashing around as a huge tree-like form walked up to her.
"I am here, hasty one! I am here. Now what did you come here disturbing my song for? I was singing, you know."
"I didn't hear. All I heard was a lot of grating and rumbling around."
"Yes, that was me. Hm, Hoom. Do you want to hear it? It may take a while, burarum. A lovely piece, made by the entwives long, long ago." He began "singing," though it sounded like…well, what a tree would sound like if it could talk. She never tired of hearing the Old Entish, though, it was a beautiful sound that very few living had ever heard.
For the past five years, she and the ent had been very close friends. She would go to the woods and listen to him for hours telling tales, both pleasant and dark, singing songs of ages past, and learning from him about all manner of things. He had even introduced her to several other ents, whom she found fascinating. She would sneak off to the forest as much as she could, even at night when she was supposed to be sleeping. She never got caught. It was harder to find time as she got older, since recently she had begun an apprenticeship with the village blacksmith and working took up a lot of her time. But this was one of the rare days when she did find time to visit her friend.
After he finished his song, they talked for hours. But soon the sun began setting and she knew she would be expected for dinner soon. She excused herself and mounted her horse, then took of across the pasture, leaving her tree-like friend shaking his head at this hasty girl.
When Arrell got up to her house, her mother was at the gate waiting for her. "Where have you been? We've been waiting for you for fifteen minutes!"
Even though she was fifteen years old, she still had the tomboyish knack for getting into trouble. "I was up on the hill," she lied. "I lost track of time."
"Well, go inside and wash up! And be quick about it," her mother said, swatting Arrell on the behind with the large spoon in her hand as she passed.
At the dinner table, more trouble awaited Arrell. Her father cleared his throat, and she looked at him expectantly. "The smithy said you didn't show up at the forge this morning."
"I had work today? But I thought-"
"Arrell, you knew you had work today. I don't understand why you can't keep up with these things! I think something needs to be done to teach you to be more responsible."
Those were the exact words he had used right before he landed her the job working at the forge almost a year ago. The job required a lot of physical strength and she was the only female she knew of in the trade, but it was better than toiling in the field with her family all day. Still, she would rather have done what she wanted to do, which was work with some of the young men raising and training horses to sell to the capitol, Edoras like her brother Estor did. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what her father had in mind this time. So she started talking quickly.
"I'm really sorry. It won't happen again. I promise I'll go every day from now on, and I'll even go on my day off if you want me to. It's just that we had talked about him giving me today off, and I thought he had decided-"
"All right, Arrell. All right. Just don't let it happen again, and by all means, stop chattering and let me eat in peace!"
She looked down, relieved. "Yes, sir."
Later that night, when she was on her way to the loft where she slept, she heard her brother and her father talking. It was her brother's voice she heard first.
"…you just need to give her some time. She just needs to grow up a little, and she'll do that eventually."
"But Estor, we were going through this same kind of thing five years ago, only she didn't have the same kind of responsibilities she has now. What do you want me to do, take away all her responsibilities until she "grows up a little?" She's not going to learn anything that way!"
"Just give her time," Estor reiterated.
"Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever grow up!"
Arrell hurried up to her room. She wasn't hurt by their comments, but she was mad. Out of habit, she started talking to herself as she got ready for bed. She heard Estor coming up, and immediately shut her mouth and slipped unto bed.
"So why didn't you go to work today?" Estor asked as he blew out the lamp then got into his own bed on the other side of the room.
She spoke through gritted teeth. "I told you, I thought he gave me today off. Of course, why does it matter to you since you think I need to grow up anyway?"
He grimaced when he figured out that she had heard the conversation between him and their father. "Arrell, we just meant that sometimes-"
"Whatever you say, Estor." She rolled over with a huff with her back to him, and he let it go. He shook his head and wondered if maybe her father was right, maybe she never would mature.
