1. The Anchoress
The Weigh and Anchor's right down in The Bottle, corner of North meets Southeastwest. Edge of everything Pelargir in the Row.
Hardship's Ranilo's lot: dead husband, hungry children, she drove their few horses south. Sold them and herself to Stonefolk. Good man, a taverner – dead next year in a tavern brawl.
There's lots of that these days: hard times mean hard drinking and loose fists. She keeps her girls in back, pays the greencoats off. No need of Trouble when there's troubles, and she's steady as they come.
It's horse-sense: "No other way to be," she says, "For that's life."
Author's Note: All of these drabbles can be seen as set in the same universe as Descent and A Very Rain of Sparrows and they take advantage of some of the names and ideas developed there, like "the Row," "Southron Street," and the Pelargir guardsmen being called "greencoats." Hopefully, context will be suggestive enough not to lose anyone who hasn't read those stories.
Prompt: bottle
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.
