No Man's Child - Chapter 4

'The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or for others,' said Aragorn. 'There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.'

TTT: The Riders of Rohan

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My head is crowned with the earliest blooms of the brier rose. Pink and white their petals flutter as I spin the stem between my fingers.

"Stop that," my aunt scolds mildly around the rose she holds pressed between her lips. With her small hands she weaves a stem into the braids that hold my hair from my face. "Thou wouldst think thou were a child of ten, not a grown woman," she says, the warble of her old voice accenting the Elvish words strangely. "Now leave off or thou shalt ruin them."
( Continued here )