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"Things he's used to," Luthien smiled. "So the trick is ..."

She leaned down closer to Lin so that she could whisper, which really was just for show since first of all, Ruel would hear anyways, and second of all, he wouldn't understand anyways since he didn't know the language ...

"... to get him used to you being around so that he's not annoyed anymore," she whispered into Lin's ear.

Ruel eyed Luthien and Lin warily, as if he knew that they were conspiring against him. He tapped Luthien on the elbow again and spoke with her quietly, asking her what they were talking about.

Luthien smiled mischievously and picked up her glass, taking a long drink so that she didn't have to answer.

Ruel gave up. He knew his wife's moods, and he knew she wasn't going to say anything.

Ruel blinked at Lin, then looked at her through narrow eyes. What in the world was she doing, just about sitting on his plate?

"E," he muttered darkly, making a motion as if shooing her away. "Mann en-im."

Lúthien giggled and cleared her throat softly. "Lin," she murmured, setting her glass down again, "I think that might be just a bit too close ..."

Following him was one thing, nearly sitting in his food was another.

Lúthien nodded, smiling with amusement as Ruel sighed and continued with his breakfast. "I think he needs his space while he's eating," she told Lin gently. "But once he's finished, you can stick as close as you want to until he goes to work. How does that sound?"

Ruel looked at his wife and asked her a question in Elvish, and she shrugged at him.

Luthien coughed slightly. "I ... don't think that would be a good idea," she said hesitantly. "It's rather dangerous ... even I don't go there unless I have to."

She wasn't very fond of the forges in general. While her in-laws were fine with fire (half of them were fire-casters, after all), she wasn't fond of it. She was hot enough (they were in a desert, after all!).

Ruel pushed his plate away and stood. He said something to Luthien, then bent over and kissed her on the forehead. Then with a curt nod to Lin, he started away.

Ruel heard Lin, but since he had no idea what she was saying he just ignored her. He figured she was just talking to Luthien again.

Little did he know that his wife was watching the little girl chase him down and laughing to herself.

Ruel paused momentarily. Was someone calling after him? He turned to look and saw that Luthien was now sitting alone. He blinked. Where had the girl disappeared to?

He shrugged mentally and turned and continued out of the room.






After a while, the group reached the dwarfish village. It was walled in by tall stone walls, upon which elvish sentries kept watch over the exiles. They were a bland gray, as was the rest of the settlement. Many of the houses were nothing more than huts built out of rocks, with either thatched or stone roofs. There were dwarfs all over the place, all of them shorter even than Gion, all of them stout and cloaked figures that shied away from the groupt of travelers.

Once in a while there was a human who was passing through the settlement with horses or donkies laden with goods for trade. Some of them had with them people who might have been their children; but they were dressed against the weather so well that they were nearly invisible beneath their layers of clothing. Some of them walked, many rode, but none of them spoke a word.

In fact, no one spoke a word in the presence of the strangers. In many ways, it was like passing through a ghost town.