New Journal, Entry One - New beginnings

My old journal is depleted. Beginning anew.

I was called but I did not answer. 

It has been days now since it came. A companion of Halbarad - of The Grey Company - entered my camp, I was not startled, only a kinsman knows where I camp or would approach so calmly. I was not unhappy for the company but his words filled me with dread, even as he said them with a smile. Our chieftain had called for us to gather and to ride, to ride south, to ride to war. 

Halbarad asked me to leave behind all that I have pursued here for years, to leave the north and home behind to take up arms in the name of the south, for Gondor. In that moment I was torn, my own wishes and my duty in a tug of war. I was sworn to serve my chieftain since I was a child, to come at Aragorn's call but still I felt conflicted, the answer had seemed clear to my kinsman but not to me. I had my own reasons for lingering in the north. 

But it wasn't just that which kept me here. That is what I told him and perhaps that is what I told myself in that moment. I declined the call, to his shock, and said that I would stay to uphold the task that I had truly sworn to serve, to safeguard the north against The Enemy. There was little more to be said, for the call of the Grey Company was a hasty one, and he could I see would not budge in my conviction. 

Now I ride west for Ered Luin to answer a call of my own, one I bear without joy. Yet this one I have no choice but to answer.