Written for the "Fear" challenge at Tolkien_weekly.

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"Ride light. Carry food and fodder to last until Mundberg; we need look no further.” Their captain glanced around the encampment. “Leave the tents; take only your bedrolls. Let us sleep behind the City walls, if that is our fate.”

The men sorted their gear as they packed. They had brought small comforts from their farmsteads--

Cooking pots, a sack of walnuts,
Feather pillows, oil lamps,
Folding stools, a painted chessboard.

As they set these goods aside, they bid their homes a last farewell. Then they turned the horses to the south. No longer encumbered, they rode the more swiftly.