Long Lost Leaves - part II

[orithil]

"Excellent, much obliged" he walked over and stood next to Borin and Quickleaf.

[feawen]

"Well the more the merrier! Do don't expect Ellysa and i to say above ground while you lot have all the fun do you!" Nami turned to give Ellysa an encourageing smile. Nami caught the look Quickleaf gave her, it didn't matter how much she smiled, the look he gave her reminded her that people still did not know how she would react once she as in the dark.
I am not going to be alone and it was a long time again, come on Nami your a lot older than you where than get over it.

Never mind the bright smiles, Nami avoided looking at Quickleaf she didn't want to answer the question his face asked.

"If we're going, lets get going already!"

[Earniel]

"Yes," Radagast said. "Let us go. It is already noon." Taking a lighted torch with him, the wizard went ahead to the entrance of Dol Guldur, the others followed.

[Mari]

Ellysa readily followed Aelfwine and Radagast. She muttered a thank you to Abasi and Tabril guarding the entrance before going in as well.
She turned back to wait for Nami and stretched out a hand towards her in case she wanted to take it. She could pretend it was to make sure she wouldn't fall.

[Midge]

Aerin's stomach growled loudly in the silent dark. Looking down at her stomach, she slowed her pace and sat down against a wall to open her pack and fish out a wafer of lembas. The faintly sweet scent of bread drifted up toward her nose and her mouth watered at the thought of eating. With the first small bite in her hand, she leaned her head against the wall.. .. ..

Shaking herself awake, she looked at the bit of sweetbread in her hand. She realized that her hunger was the only thing keeping her awake at the moment and found she didn't feel safe sleeping in this corridor which seemed to stretch on forever. With her stomach growling and her mouth yawning simultaneously, she put the carefully wrapped lembas away, stood up and prepared for another trek down a long hallway.

[Willow Oran]

Haldis and Truor entered the tunnels behind the larger group, lighting their torches with daylight at their backs. The passage dropped steeply only a few steps in forcing the explorers to pick their ways down crude carven stairs till the only light was that of the torches and they stood in a high ceilinged chamber.

The walls were mosaiced with scenes from elven history, defaced by orcish scrawl. The tiles of the floor were chipped and soiled and three archways on the far side of the chamber led into the tunnels proper. The two Beornings had fallen behind on the stairs and could see only the torchlight as their companions disappeared down two of the passages. Clearly this was where to split, and at a nod from Haldis, Truor led the way down the still dark eastwards tunnel.

They came to the next branching point almost immediately. Two ways. Haldis hesitated, then chose the left. Truor marked the way they had come and they moved on, not speaking still, for the tunnels bred silence.

At the third branching they came to Haldis would have taken the middle of the five passages. But Truor stopped her, "That one smells foul," he said, "The air down the right-most tunnel smells fresher, if somewhat dusty."
Haldis was not about to argue with a skinchanger's nose. They took the right-hand way, again marking the way back.

They took a middle tunnel at the next point, for Truor was certain the scent of old parchment was down that way.

The fifth pause came just as Haldis was beginning to feel a bit funny, from the closness of the air, she thought, for she didn't think they had come too far yet, and at it they found only a door at the end of their tunnel and through the rotting wood shadows of scrolls could be glimpsed.
"I don't smell anything dangerous in there," Truor offered.
Haldis listened closely to the room beyond the door and had to agree, "It seems safe enough," she said, "Will you go before?"
"Aye."
The door was opened. Truor stepped across the threshold, and Haldis saw beyond him walls lined by pigeonholed manuscripts. Surely here they would find something useful.
She stepped after him, torch held high -

- and found herself in yet another crossroads chamber. Turning slowly she felt a shiver of frustration and a little fear run down her spine. Truor was nowhere to be seen. Nor were any of the arches marked. Nor had they ever encounter a place with seven branches. She was alone. And at the moment, utterly lost.

Ah well. The binding spell was surely to blame for this.

Trusting to knife and torch and spell, Haldis picked a tunnel at random and started walking.

[Midge]

About an hour or so after she had not eaten, Aerin was stumbling around the tunnel, so sleepy she hazily thought she could have gone ahead and eaten if she wanted. It didn't seem like it made much difference now.

Looking up, she saw a tiny bobbing light twinkling in the darkness ahead of her.

"Oh, great," she thought. "Now I am seeing things!" Then, "Oh, NO!" she cried out, surprised. Her concentration on walking (albeit crookedly and rather drunkenly) broken by the light, she stumbled over a break in the tunnel floor. Her pack bounced off her shoulders and came to rest a foot or two away from her. She was fast asleep by the time the ends of her long hair first brushed against the tunnel's rocky floor.

[orithil]

Hedrim raised his eye brows and hefted his back back, "right, well away we go" and with that he walked down into the dark tunnels.

[Willow Oran]

Haldis froze as a cry and a soft thud broke the silence of the tunnels. She had been walking for she knew not how long, save that her second torch was now half burned, nor how far and the spell had interfered with her direction twice more since she had first lost Truor.
However, she was not yet beginning to tire physically and she had packed enough food for the time being. Mind free from worry on that count, she was at liberty to jump at shadows and fret over each small, half imagined sound.

Sound. Yes. There was precious little of it here and that had not sounded imagined. Cautiously coutinuing she approached the source. One, two, three, four... another four... eight paces, still nothing, Haldis kept on moving, counting, twelve forward, there! Her torch illumened a prone person. Hair hid the face. Visible breathing. Haldis looked closer. Another elf and not one of the company. How strange. Placing her torch in a rusted sconce she crouched by, waiting for the stranger to awake.

[Earniel]

Having reached another point where two passages run in different directions, Radagast consulted his map briefly. They had come to the unexplored territory. "We'll take this way, you take the other." he said to the others.

With a short goodbye the wizard and Branwyn, the Gondorean scholar that accompanied him, turned left, their torches dimming from sight as they walked on into the dusty and dark corridor.

Radagast ponded the directions of the document that had been found the day before. While he had a clearer idea of where to look now, there was one thing on the document that still puzzled him.

One room had been marked as 'prison', but what should be incarcerated among the papers and documents within the library? Clearly the dungeons on the other side of the underground complex would have been more suitable for locking people up. He wondered that perhaps he had translated in error, the mixture of languages the document had been written in was difficult enough to make out. But still...

He shook his head. It did not matter much, they were looking for letters and papers, not misplaced prisons.

"Come on, Branwyn," he said and went on.

[feawen]

Nami walked up to the dark enterence, watching the bright light of the others torchs bob down the stairs. Standing now between the two guarding elfs Nami looked at Ellysa's offered hand. "I'll be ok Ellysa." Looking up at the sun one last time Nami breathed deep, "To whatever end." and stepped in the dark.

Dark quickly surrounded Ellysa and herself. The light from the enterence grow small and vanised, so the two traveled in the small pool for pale night.

"Well," Nami turned to Ellysa voice barely above a whisper, not wanting to break the silence of the place. "Its not too bad. Sure its dark and oppresive, and the air tastes of damp and mold, but still!"

Coming to a fork in the road, Nami strained her eyes. But no matter how hard she looked, the light of the others torches could not be seem. Looking around Nami looked for a sign for the others passing, but nothing could be seem though the thick encrusted filth. Nami stood in her pool of light and looked over to Ellysa, the only other source of light she could see. Her heart and breathing quicken, the circle of light wavered slightly from her hand. "Erm...i think we're lost."

[Mari]

Ellysa looked up when Nami said something about being lost. She'd been so busy thinking of her vision and what could possible induce her to betray everyone that she hadn't paid much attention.
"Lost? But how?" She wondered how they had gotten lost so fast. Maybe elves lost direction underground?

"Don't worry though. We are still together so my vision hasn't started yet and the air is not entirely still. Maybe it's best to keep only one torch lit and to do some exploring?
I quite like caves, though the caves I know are quite different. Of course this is not a cave, it used to be a fortress or something right? It's smart to build them underground. Harder to attack and much cooler."

Ellysa knew that she was babbling, but she was a bit nervous about what was to come and she was worried about Nami. She didn't look too good.

"I lived in a cave for a while. But that one had a hole in the roof for some daylight. It was quite comfortable living and it was easy to catch small animals who came to rest there. I tried cultivating some greens there too, but I had to leave again after some... problems. I wonder what happened to them? If I get home I should try and find that cave again. But maybe it has been covered by sand by now. That's the natural course of things in a desert. Things are never the same for longer then a few days. If you have no sense of direction and knowledge of the unchangeables, you'll get lost and be dead within a day. Not that that ever happened to me, I always quite know where I am.
Except for when I got to your forests, they are so confusing!"

Ellysa turned to look back at Nami. "Uhm... Nami?"

[feawen]

Nami bit her lip as she looked from one path to the other. She frowned as she tasted a metalic taste in her mouth. Putting her free hand to her lip she felt the hot stickyness of the blood she had made spring though her bit lip.
"Oh great!" Nami sighed. She vaguely hard Ellysa talking away, but she was too busy trying not to pass out so she could find a way out of this place. Feeling a slight wind from one of the paths Nami took a few steps towards it, holding her shaking torch up infront of her.

"Maybe...maybe down here is the way?" Nami peered into the dark as she waited for Ellysa to reply. "Ellysa?" The girl had gone quite all of the sudden.
Nami turned slowly around. "Ellysa?" Nami's light shone on its own, "Ellysa its not funny, where are you?"
Paniced Nami span around in a circle trying to throw as much light as she could around her. "Ellysa, answer me!"

Nami came to a stop, her breathing quick, her heart pounding so fast she could hear it in her ears. Her heart sank as old fears and memorys closed in around her. Nami was alone with only the dark and her memorys as comfort.

[Midge]

When Aerin's eyelids fluttered open, there was a guttering light above her which had not been there when she'd passed out. Trying to put things together in her head, she sat up to find a strange-looking woman sitting beside her.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Falling asleep had not been intentional, and it had proved to be just as dangerous as she'd imagined, apparently. "How long have I been sleeping?" The latter question she'd not meant to ask this silent person; it just slipped out.

As if trying to emphasize her queries, her stomach growled loudly.

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine held her torch in front of her. The mustiness of the caves was invading her nostrals. Soon she, Quickleaf, Borin and Hedrim came to a fork.
"So which way shall we go? Or do we spilt?" Aelfwine turn to the others. "Where's Nami and Ellysa?"

[Aikanáro]

It came as a relief to Tabrîl that Haldis did not press her further about going underground, deciding instead to let Truor accompany her. She had not expected the woman to understand her apprehensions nor the reasons behind them. It seemed, though, that she had accepted Tabrîl's decision without argument.

It was still Tabrîl's opinion that going anywhere near Dol Guldur was not a good idea. Moving their camp closer to the place, as Radagast had said they must, seemed wrong to her, but she supposed he knew what he did. She was in no mood to be helpful, however, and so simply followed after the others and stood outside the entrance to the tunnels until they had all gone in.

The place still felt evil to her, and she wondered if they would be able to cope with its dangers. If Haldis would be. The idea that she might die because her existence was tied to that of a mortal woman foolishly seeking out strange Mysteries in dark places was not at all appealing to her, and she hoped it would not come to that. Yet she knew also that there was nothing she could do to change what would be, and so she did not let the thought trouble her.

Instead, she sat down by the entrance, and took up a low chanting, a tale of the deeds of her tribe in days past. She did not mind that Abasi heard. If it bothered him, no doubt he would ask her to stop. Silence by Dol Guldur, however, was not calming to her, and it felt right to her to break it.

[Willow Oran]

Haldis shrugged, contriving to look non-theatening, this elf had clearly been down here for much too long. Now that she (Haldis was relatively certain of the stranger's gender) was awake, the gaunt limbs and hollow cheeks spoke of a being at the end of their endurance and in need of food and reassurance.

Haldis could provide the food, but though she vaguely recognized the lilting dialect as of Lorien, she did not speak it.
"I have no way of counting time here," she said, hoping the elf would understand her Sindarin, "But I do not think it has been for too long, I have only just had to light a new torch. Here," she held out a honey cake and a handful of dried fruit, "Eat slowly."

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf held his torch up towards Aelfwine "They're here..", turned around to make sure, but behind them.. emptiness. Pitch black. Huh? "Ellysa? Nami? Can you hear us?" but there was no answer.

"They must have taken the right turn earlier, eastwards. Hedrim and I did not go that path last time. This is not good."

Quickleaf looked to Borin, to Hedrim, to Aelfwine, worried.
"Should we go back to get them? Radaghast and Branwyn are ahead of us, as is Haldis. I say we look for the girls, the wizard will know what to find. But we must seek them out quickly, for our torches will die out, and Radaghast will be disappointed that we aren't spending our time wisely.."

The air was heavy. Every breath a poison, traces of evil.
"Master Dwarf, Lord Hedrim, Aelfwine? What do you reckon? Search for the girls? Search for the library?" Quickleaf felt not the least at ease down in this abyss of Dol Guldur.

[Mari]

Ellysa was staring in disbelief at the empty space behind her. Nami didn't follow her?
"Nami!? Can you hear me?! Please answer me!" No one answered.
She didn't decide it was too dangerous to go with me and turn back, did she? No, that's nonsense! Nami is my friend. She wouldn't leave me! She must have gotten lost somehow. Quickly Ellysa suppressed her fear. She needed a clear head.

She looked at her torch. It wouldn't last forever, so she'd better put it out while she was thinking about what to do.
In the dark she sat down, waiting for her senses to get used to the silent darkness while clearing her head and to think.

I'm underground and I'm alone. Nami must have gotten lost somewhere between the place we first noticed we were lost and here. Sofar nothing happened and from what I've seen of this place it looks sturdy enough. And Borin said as well that it wouldn't cave in. So I need to walk back slowly, checking the crossings for footsteps of Nami and find her. If I can't find her, I have to get back to the surface to find someone who is apt at tracking.
Yes, that is what I have to do!

A small voice in the back of her head kept screaming "Nami is going to die! They are all going to die! You killed them! All your fault!" but she pushed it away.
Her vision would not come to pass. She would not allow it. As long as she didn't leave everyone, all would be fine. It had to be!
She remembered the way back to the point where they'd first noticed they'd gotten lost. And she was confident she could somehow find the way back from there as well.
Determined Ellysa got up and started walking back.

[feawen]

Nami dropped her torch and slowly took steps backwards until she hit the wall, her back against the wall she slid down until she was sitting on the floor, head in her hands, torch flickering on the ground.

Closing her eyes and covering her ears to the imaginaed sounds and red eyes in her head Nami tried not to think about the dark.

"I am going die, i am going to die! I am to be crushed to death, alone."

As the darkness crept in around Nami she lost the track of time, two minutes, two hours it was all the same.

Slowly a forgotten memory come to her, first as a soft flickering in the back of her mind, then a slow hum, then words and meaning and a loving voice from long ago singing a young Nami to sleep.

Nami looked up around herself, the light of her torch flickering its last rays of light, as if bring blown by a wind from one of the pathways.

Nami stood up and slowing walked over to the torch, bending to pick it up she felt a slight coolness on her skin. Where theres cool air theres a way out. Nami took out her spare torch, lighted it and dropped the dead torch to the ground.

She had survived the dark before she would do it again. Torch in her shaking hand Nami started off down the cooler path, her free hand run along the filthy wall, leaving a small path of cleanish wall where her hand had been.

As she walked Nami softly sing her mothers song to her self.