Duinihir was walking through a dark alley in the midst of the slums of Minas Tirith. He was growing restless with the inactivity since the War of the Ring, and felt eager for some action.
His thought process was broken off by a sound he heard all to often during these...voluntary patrols, if you have it. The sound of a woman screaming.
He quickened his pace and rounded a corner, where he saw a young woman being attacked by a handful of ruffians. He quickly drew his bow and shot one of them in the face before grasping his sword and charging them. The band scattered, as they were armed solely with knives, and realized that this man was a
veteran fighter.
Nonetheless, a pair of his arrows dropped another couple men as the remaining three or four beat a hasty retreat.
The woman turned to thank him, and received, as typical, a short lecture on the dangers of this section of Minas Tirith before he turned and left. Duinihir needed action, and to be certain, the streets of Minas Tirith were a tad safer because of his lack of it. Slaying a handful of unarmed, unskilled ruffians, however, wasn't his idea of adventure, though it was as close as one could get to it in the blasted city.
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Duinihir returned to the slightly less unsavory area of the city where he made his residence. He entered and was about to retire when he heard a knock on the door. "King Aragorn requests an audience with you posthaste."
Without a moment's delay, Duinihir hurried to the court, not minding to put on his courtier clothes. Aragorn had known him when they were both naught but rangers in the frozen north and would care not how his friend looked.
Arriving quickly at the court, a guard made a motion to stop him from entering, when Duinihir showed him the notice. The guard looked at it, then turned at looked at the clothes Duinihir was wearing, still disheveled from his skirmish. Duinihir snatched back the summons, gave the man a scowl and burst into the room.
"Duinihir!" called Aragorn. The two embraced, and after a short period of banter, Aragorn cut to the chase.
"Duinihir, I have a mission for you," Aragorn began. "These dispatches are of the utmost importance, and it is critical they get to Eomer, King of Rohan. The mere fact that I have chosen you for this mission testifies to the utmost importance of the dispatches. I would that I had more time to inform you of the issue, but our prior inactivity on the issue insists that you leave at once and make as quickly as you can to Eomer. Once there, you will act on my behalf, and Eomer will inform you of everything in the dispatch."
"Yes, my king," replied Duinihir, bowing and turning to leave.
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The great
city gates flung open after midnight, gates that were never opened at night save by urgent order of the King of Gondor. Duinihir spurred his
black steed to a full gallop and began the trek across northern Gondor to Edoras.