Found:
1 lost child.
A lot of unnecessary irritation.
More midgets.
There's something oddly creepy about these small people, these Hobbits. There's a naivety to this land and its inhabitants that looks innocuous enough on the surface but ultimately comes across as forced and carefully cultivated. I find myself caught between wondering what it is that they're hiding and whether they actually possess the cunning to do anything of the sort. When they're not regarding me with outright suspicion for the crime of being tall, they're waving and grinning like tiny cannibals eyeing up their next meal. It's really rather disconcerting.
Somehow, in the midst of this beautiful scenic nightmare, I happened across a familiar face. The boy, Aidennan, sat asleep in a small roadside ruin. How he managed to get this far uncaught is a mystery. How he managed to get so far ahead of Toddir and I is another matter entirely. Be that as it may, he's here and hot on his heels was a small army of angry people.
Naturally, the blame for Aiden's antics was placed squarely upon my shoulders. Laayla, paragon of maturity and motherhood, instantly declared that he was my son now, turned her horse and rode off into the evening. Aiden ran away again and only one thought to chase after him. The others were too busy wracking their withered brains for nonsensical accusations and growing mutated fingers to point in my direction. Of course their inability to watch over a wayward child is my fault. I have such sway over the boy that I can command his mind from leagues away and dictate his movements with but a passing thought. Silver the Mystic! I should take that for a title. None of this would have anything to do with a young man who, having been on his own for several years before even I found him, has developed a mind of his own and might resent the sudden overbearing presence of people watching his every move or telling him what he has to do. Oh no. No, of course not. It must be some heinous plot concocted by the very woman who left him in their care. Because I don't have anything better to do than mess with their little heads. One even went so far as to suggest that I had returned to Bree and stolen away the boy in the night! Foolishness of the highest degree.
Aeruthuil and I at least managed to come to an agreement over the whole affair. I did make it quite clear, however, that if I return to Bree and find myself faced with kidnapping charges because a certain pissy skirt changed her mind, I'll go out of my way to make all of their lives a misery. In the meantime, I'll keep the boy close and see if some conclusion can be reached as to exactly what he wants.
I've yet to introduce Aiden and Toddir. The former requires further investigation before we move on, I think, whilst the latter awaits in the next town a little further along the road. In any case, the days ahead should be interesting.
