The Forbidden Child

A New Apprentice

Eve clapped her hands enthusiastically upon arriving at the cabin. Her bold personality did not at the moment match her thin figure. Every little move she made caused pain in a different part of her body. Though her attempts to withstand the pain were bold, they were in vain.

Strider looked at his daughter worriedly and took her horse's reins. "I will tend to the horses and meet you in the cabin. I will be back." 

His speech was repetitive as he reassured his daughter, as though he was afraid to have her out of his sight.

Things had changed between them since that day when Eve had been injured. They were closer and Strider held all the more concern for his daughter. Eve was coming to love her father.

However, after the orc attack, she was not sure if she had made the right choice in going with him. She did not feel like she could make it far in this new life.

Eve could only ruminate on these thoughts as she looked around her new home, wondering how she could adjust the place to accommodate two.

She wondered where all of the other Rangers were, not recalling if they lived close or afar to each other. They seemed to have been a tight knit community so why were they here, in the middle of the forest, all alone? 

Eve was too sleepy to really figure it out. Maybe she would ask later.

When Strider finished tending to the weary horses, he went to meet Eve.

Inside the cabin was small, smaller than he remembered, as well as unexpectedly untidy. The room was also musty from all the weeks it had been left absent. A small singular wooden table stood dusty in the corner and a modest candle holder stood on the table with a meer nub of a candle on it. The dirt floor was grubby and uninviting. It was mixed with dust as well. A cabinet on the wall held a limited assortment of dishes and a single window welcomed in the late-evening sunlight. On Strider's straw bed lay Eve, fast asleep.

Strider sighed, fear climbing into his chest. She had been so tired since the incident but should it not have gone away by now? Maybe he was too critical of her wound. The consequences were dire here. He had just gotten ahold of Eve after seventeen years. Affection for your child was built into instinct. Strider's mere instinctual love had been replaced with desperation ever since he lost her. The grief of her absence was increased with the guilty feeling of failing Arwen. Now that he had met her grown adolescent self, he was feeling love in his chilled heart already.

Eve's pack was still on her back and Strider carefully took it off. When he had positioned his daughter in a way that was more comfortable, he realized that he was at as much peace as he could be with Eve in this state. He could not stop worrying. Was this what being a parent was like? This was what he had been missing the past seventeen years? 

He had to admit it was not what he was expecting but then again he liked it more now that Eve had been familiarized with him. He only hoped she would make it. He hoped she could survive the gruesome injury, especially after all of the intensive care he had put into healing it.

And there he went, worrying again before he drifted off in his wooden chair.

Strider was awoken by a low mumbling voice. It took him awhile to realize the sound came from his daughter. She seemed disturbed but still lay asleep, murmuring through her unconsciousness. Aragorn checked her forehead, not surprised to find it running hot.

He gave his daughter water and checked her wound. The swelling had gone down but the blacked bruises remained. Eve was in a much better condition, all except for her newfound fever that had her boiling. Strider hoped beyond hope that this fever wasn't caused by infection, or worse, poison. He hoped it was caused by her body trying to repair itself and that it would pass soon. The blade that had impaled Eve didn't look poisoned but all orc metal was evil.