Girl

"Damn it all."

The traveler watched as the girl ran back up the hill towards Bree. He didn't follow her, and didn't call after her, but watched her go. He hadn't intended to hurt the girl's feelings, but just make sense of her. He shouldn't have pried into her affairs as he did, he knew too late.

He stood outside the door of the Scholar's Archives for a good while after the girl had closed it behind her, leaning against the stone wall across from it. When he'd decided that no one had followed them back from the beggar's alley, he slung his rucksack over his shoulder and wandered back to the market square – and to his brooding.