Gold
Aravilui

LENDEN

My name is Aravilui. I patrol Eryn Lasgalen, wherever I am told to go, but I am the youngest to ever have done so. There really is not much to my life, or my history. I was born only a few years before the War of the Ring. All I remember of that time is my father leaving my mother and me and that it seemed to take him forever to return. I was a very shy, reserved child, and never had any friends. I spent my time learning to fight, and to use a bow. My father disapproved, I think because he did not wish for me to become a warrior as he was.

Hmm, this is interesting. I see my persistence finally got him to write this… my, not much to him. Oh dear, here he comes, better act as if I had not seen this… maybe he put it aside to give up…

Well, I see Carmelor found this, and of course he had to make some comment on what I have written... I think I shall leave it there as proof.

Anyway, as I was saying, my father did not wish for me to become a warrior. My wish, however, was to fight. I think it was because of my father, and a son's natural desire to be just like his father. However, another part of my feeling was I was going to be better than he was. He had not been a good enough warrior to make the patrols; I was going to make it, and I was going to be the youngest to do so. My own personal ambition, I suppose.

Ah, so he continued working on this. Nice to see. I did not know there was so much to his being in the patrols. I thought he had just made it, not that he had fought for it. That is interestin… oh, here he comes again.

I should stop leaving this out, or soon he will make some comment that is very insulting. Either that or something that will cause me no end of embarrassment.

I became good enough to defeat my father when we sparred. I remember the first time I did that… oh, he was mad. He said he was mad because he had slipped, but I knew it was because I had become a warrior, exactly what he had not wanted for me. I was nearly one hundred at that point, and as soon as I was old enough, I attempted to join the patrols. I failed several times, and my father hoped I would give up. I think he might have had something to do with the fact that I did not get in to begin with, but I could be being ridiculously suspicious as well. I did finally get accepted. For the next fifty years I worked without more than a day or two of rest. That is what prompted my captain to "suggest" for me to run for some errands King Thranduil, taking letters to important people in Middle Earth. That is when I met Carmelor, and when my real adventures started.