Gathering firewood

It had been a long day gathering firewood and storing it for the winter that was fast approaching, his daughter lay fast asleep on a rug he had brought her and their horses grazed a little way off in complete serenity. It had been a while since they had been able to not be tethered to something, something of this forest always spooked them.

Garion continued to cut wood, his muscles straining after a long day's work but he needed to get it done. He was shirtless, only wearing his breeches, belt and pants. A fine sheen of sweat covered his toned body, he was humming a song to himself as he worked when the horses whinnied and stamped the ground in welcome to someone.

He put his axe down and went into the small clearing where the cart was, his daughter woke up and scrambled behind him. She gripped his pant's leg tightly and hid behind him.

"Why, hello there!" he said merrily, realizing who the adventurer was.

Elrénia had been unwell for almost a month when she finally was told that she could go outside again. Something about the fresh air had always calmed her and the stuffy air of her parents small home was starting to get to her. She rode quietly most of the way to one of her favourite forests, before deciding to tie her mount to a tree and finish the journey on foot. There was a stream that filtered through an area that was sparse with trees, and after stopping to sit by it for a short while, the woman stood again and walked on.

Exiting a thicket of vegetation, she strode into a small clearing in which she found a young girl resting on a rug. Elrénia would have left the girl to doze and continues walking were it not for the excited horses making a racket. The girl woke up and immediately sought refuge behind the legs of a man who appeared from the woods. He was obviously working and she nodded a greeting in return, "Hello." Moving her head slightly to peer at the girl, she gave a reassuring smile and held her hands in clear view, to show that she meant to harm.

Garion smiled at the woman before him and moved his daughter out from behind his legs.

"My name is Garion," he said as he gave the woman before him a half bow, "I'm sorry if we have disturbed you, I'm merely gathering wood from the fallen trees that went down in the storm the other day. The wood has dried enough..." he mused, not sure if he was on private property or not.

Dropping a polite bow of her own, she returned the man's smile and said, "My name is Elrénia." Looking around the woods, Elrénia couldn't help but breath in the scent of freshly cut wood that seemed to have followed Garion. "Oh no, I was not disturbed. I do not live very close to here. I simply enjoy visiting the stream not too far from here."

Lowering herself slightly, Elrénia again smiled at the girl and held out her hand, "Hello. My name is El. What would your's be?"

Garion's eyes landed on his daughter, what was with the women of today and his daughter? They were all suddenly attracted to her, maybe they had picked up on.. no they couldn't have!

"My name is Ilwarenix. Nix for short..." she said, offering her tiny hand to the other woman. Garion knew it was different, very different for those of their time but her mother had chosen it before she was born.

"Very talkative, hope you know what you're getting into." Garion mused, picking up his axe again and began hacking at a tree.

"Oh, but it's a beautiful name. I think it suits you perfectly." Elrénia had noticed that most people avoided talking directly to children, instead opting to speak about them to the adult. She, however remembered how that had felt when she was young so spoke to children as an equal. Shaking the girl's small hand, the woman grinned at Garion and responded with, "I'm sure that talking to Nix would be quite pleasant."

When he returned to cutting wood, she turned to the girl and whispered, "How old are you?" After a couple more minutes, she stood and stepped closer to Garion, "Do you need help with that?" She often helped her father collect the firewood and didn't want to feel like she was a simple annoyance by being around.

Garion listened to the girls talk, his mind else where. He heard the woman ask how old his daughter was, he wondered if she remembered how many fingers to hold up. He looked over his shoulder as she held up five, thank god she remembered.

Going back to hacking at the tree, he heard the woman come up behind him but out of the way of the axe. "Sure, you can start collecting the ones I've already chopped up and place them in the wagon." he smiled kindly, not many people offered to help him nowadays.

Nix went back to playing with her dolls on the rug, her voice imitating voices of the animals.

Nodding at het instructions, Elrénia looked to the medium sized pile of already chopped wood. It didn't seem like it would be a hard job to get it all on the wagon. Picking up the larger pieces first, she began piling then neatly in the wagon. A lot of people where she lived simply threw the wood onto their carts, but she found that a neat and stacked approached allowed for not only more wood to fit, but also an easier unpacking at the other end of the journey.

The woman quickly caught up to him, and bit her lip. She had some food in her saddle back, and didn't want to leave her animal alone in the woods for too long. "I must be excused for a moment," she said, walking back into the trees in the direction that she had come, glad that her sense of direction was sufficient. Quickly finding the horse, she untied it and began to lead it back over a relatively smooth path threw the trees.

Garion watched over his shoulder as the woman stacked the cart correctly, at least someone knew how to do it correctly. He nodded as she excused herself and took a break, he collapsed down beside his daughter and took a sip from his water container.

The wind blew, making goose bumps appear on his bare torso. Nix laughed at him and poked him on the nose.

"Careful, or I'll bite them off..." he toyed, poking her in the nose.

Re-entering the clearing, her mare by her side, Elrénia smiled at the site of the man being playful with his daughter. Walking slowly so as to bot arête any of the animal companions, she tied Athreide to a tree as far from Garion's horses as possible. Reaching into the bag, she found a pastry from the batch that she and her mother had made the day before.

Elrénia prefered the fresh water from the stream to water bought from her home, and she had consumed some when she had stopped. Returning to near the two, she stood and waiting to be invited to join them. To simply sit would be rude, and to remain away would appear unfriendly. "Are you from around these parts?"

"Would you like to sit down?" he smiled at the woman, moving Nix over a little and answered her question.

"Born and raised on the other side of Bree, on the boarderlands. Family has been there for nearly 8 generations." he smirked, Nix flicked him on the hand and he looked down at her. She stood and whispered something in his ear.

"Would you like to join us for tea?" he asked, Nix giggled and launched herself at the woman.

"She's liking all the female attention she's getting recently..." he mused.

Elrénia smiled and nodded, sliding down until she was seated in the space that was made on the rug with the other two. "I would love to," she answered, wrapping her arms around the girl so as to catch her. Setting her right again after a moment, Elrénia laughed cheefully. Biting her lip she took her food out of it's satchel and laid it gently in her lap. Looking up at her two companions, the woman frowned, "Did you both bring food?"

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out another two pastries, aware that her mother always packed her more food than she could eat. "My parents moved around a lot, with my mother being half elf, she found that she liked the more open, foresty areas while father liked these types." Smiling at Garion, she nodded and said quietly, "Well, I can see why she gets it so much."