Chapter Six

With that concession from Garman, Aragorn nodded and turned to leave the building, gathering the other Rangers to him with a gesture. As they left the building and the Wolfe family behind, Túven asked what the others were surely wondering.

"One day? He certainly has high expectations. Why did you agree to that?..My lord."
The last two words were added as an afterthought. The anxious expression on Túven's face made it clear that he was re-thinking asking the question. He did not want to sound disrespectful or as if he was questioning his Chieftain.

"It is all we could hope for at this point," Aragorn said. "For the next day, he will not attack. That should give us time to find something promising to report. If we can provide them with proof that we are making progress, perhaps we can convince them all to give us more time. Besides, I have spoken with many of the people directly involved in this dispute, and I believe that the initial incident, Red's house burning down and his son's disappearance, did not happen like Red believes. We will need proof to convince him of this, but we must start at Red's house. A thorough examination of his house and the surrounding area may give us just the clues we need."

With that, Aragorn led them through the village to Red's house after sending Túven to the healer's house to gather Brégnir and Erthor. He left Rumen at the house to recover, with one Ranger to watch over him, and two other Rangers guarding Cedric to protect him from Red and his men. When the others re-joined Aragorn, he directed the five Rangers to carefully sift through the remains of the house to see if they could determine what started the fire in the first place. The method used might begin to point to the person responsible. For the next hour, the six Rangers pored over every piece of wood or metal they found in the rubble, examining every piece of intact debris they could find. They had mapped out where the individual rooms must have been, and tried to make sense of what might have been out of place.

Aragorn looked up from the debris he was studying when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Seeing that he had the Chieftain's attention, Túven asked, "Have you found something?"

"Perhaps," Aragorn mused. "Look at this burn pattern." Túven crouched down beside Aragorn to see what had caught his attention. Aragorn pointed out the pattern as he spoke. "I believe this point here was the start of the fire. The flames raced outward from this point to engulf the house, but this small area is burned deeper than the rest." Túven nodded, finally seeing what Aragorn had seen.

"What do you think caused it?" Túven asked.

Aragorn poked around in the nearby rubble until he encountered something metal. Carefully pulling it out from underneath the remains of what was probably the kitchen table, he revealed the twisted remains of a lantern. "This may be the culprit," Aragorn mused aloud. "A lit lantern in the kitchen that gets knocked over, toppled onto its side, could easily cause the burn pattern and destruction that we've seen here."

"Who do you think knocked it over?" Túven asked. "And who took the boy?"

"We should not speculate on that yet," Aragorn cautioned. "We do not have enough evidence to back up any theories we might have. It is best not to speak anything aloud until we have proof, one way or another. But…" Aragorn's voice trailed off as he looked out from the kitchen, to where the back door of the house would have been. "Anyone in a house where a fire has just started would have to flee quickly to avoid being burned along with the house. That door would have been the closest exit, the quickest way to flee the fire." So saying, Aragorn stood from the floor and walked carefully to the doorway, scanning the floor for any further clues as he went. A theory was beginning to form in his mind of what may have happened, but as he had told Túven, he would not speak it aloud until and unless he had proof. He reached the doorway without seeing anything else pertinent to their investigation.