The Great Quest

The eagles landed on the ground with a gentle thud. About three fourths of the distance between themselves and Lothlorien covered with such speed and ease.

The eagle's leader looked at them with his sharp peircing gaze. "Farewell. Wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end."

"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun and moon soar," Faradin said.

The eagles looked at each other, and one of them rolled its eyes. They however opened their wings and flew off, intending to find a good place to land before darkness came.

Sethris was sitting, in his tower and at his desk, when he heard a sound behind him. He rose quickly, spinning about and hurling one dagger as he drew another.

The first dagger flashed across the room, bouncing off the chest of the broodlord, without even denting his armor. Sethris' eyes widened, and he said, "Why are you here? Have you completed the hunt?"

He got no response, but his amazement grew as a few of the broodlord's men filtered into the room behind their lord, weapons drawn.

Sethris spoke again, anger warring with fear in his voice. "What is your purpose here?"

The broodlord laughed, as he drew his own blade. "We wish to meet with your masster again. And, to insure an agreeable meeting, we thought to have some trophiess. While the rest of my men gather Lord Thaldssan - in the guise of his own personal guards, who won't be coming to his aid any time soon - I thought to fetch you mysself."

A short laugh escaped him as he and his men moved in.

Harnauro and the rest were soon ensconced in a campsite, and already relaxing from the flight. The eagles had vanished away already, and there was little sign of any inhabitants of this land. Most, at the moment, were simply sitting and thinking.

Harnauro looked about at the party, seeing the contemplation upon the others, and slowly rose and walked away, seeking his own peace in the woods.

Once out of sight of the fire, his shape blurred and altered, and soon he was wolf once more. He stretched, hating the release his body had been craving the last few days, amid the stone cliffs.

While the others garnered much needed rest, he was roaming the woods, and losing himself within the wilderness. His peace was not to last long, however, for as he returned, midway through the night, a new scent was nearby.

Stalking near the edge of the camp, he glimpsed Faradin standing about, bow near his feet, and watching the woods, alert and on watch as well.

Both of them were startled, however, when a strange winged figure stumbled into the clearing, staggered towards the camp, and collapsed in a heap upon the ground.

Faradin rushed forward, blade at the ready, with a cry rousing the others, only to stare at the strange form before him - a figure the size of a man, save with elfin features of face, and most of all, wings spreading from his back, and connected to him where a man would have hands. S****es and scratches covered his form, and light rivulets of blood ran across his form, which was clothed only by a pair of light trousers. His eyes were closed, and the figure was apparently unconscious - and no other signs of who he was, or where he had come from.

Faradin checked its pulse and stood quickly when he saw the wolf leave the shadows.

Harnauro quickly reverted back to his human form and helped Faradin move the large and bulky being back towards the camp.

"We found him in the wilderness," Faradin said in quick explanation.

"A spy of the enemy?" Slythre asked.

"Possibly. We'll find out when it wakes up."

"We can't use any of our water to awaken it," Elrov began.

"That doesn't seem like it will be necessary," Ayna interupted as it opened its eyes.

"You honestly believe that my master cares enough about either of us?" Sethris asked incredulously.

He pulled his wavy hair back from his scalp, revealing twin burn marks on the top of his forhead. "My master gave me these for a mistake, and it wasn't that big of a mistake either. Do you know what it is like to feel as if your body is on fire from head to toe, even when it isn't. Every pore burning, burning, burning . . ."

Abruptly he realized that one of the creatures was holding each of his arms, and they were dragging him toward the broodlord.

"You will tell your master that we wish to meet him. Act as if nothing were unusual about this meeting or you will be punished. By both your master and ours." The broodlord's grim smile made Sethris shiver, and its hand twitched towards its sword. But abruptly the smile faded and it snatched its hand away.

"I will contact him," Sethris gasped.

The two creatures released his arms and he collapsed on the ground.

"Get up," the broodlord said, kicking him ruthlessly.

A fire irrupted in the back of the room and the broodlord's eyes flicked up from Sethris to the fire. In its depths appeared the face of Vardor, his black hood shadowing his face in the flame.

The broodlord's eyes widened in surprise. "How . . ." He stopped himself and willed the surprise to vanish from his face.

Vardor's eyes moved from Sethris to the broodlord, and then back to Sethris again. A look of fury contorted his face. "You fool!" he roared. "You have revealed . . ."

"Sir, I had too . . . NOOO!" Sethris' eyes widened in horror as twin darts of fire left Vardor's eyes and peirced him, rapidly turning his body to ash.

Vardor snarled as his eyes flicked up to the broodlord again.

"We wanted to arrange a meeting . . ." the broodlord began cautiously . . . a bare instant before the room turned into an inferno.

The broodlords sword twirled up and around, iand the ruby in its pommel flared with a vicious light, growing blinding, as the flames flickered and wrapped about the room. With a last, furious flash from the ruby, the flames died away, and the broodlord heard a distamt cry fading away.

Even as he noted that at least some of the power was turned back upon Vardor, he cursed and had to drop his sword, which now glowed with heat. Looking down at it, he cursed again, for the ruby was dark, and doubtless would afford little protection for days.

Glancing about the room, all the men with him were burnt corpses, which meant he only had the four that were fetching Thaldsan. The broodlord looked at the corner where the fire had appeared. Now, only a charred crater marked that side of the room. The meeting had done little save to warn Vardor of his purposes, and Vardor's location was still unknown.

As the broodlord reached down, and picked his sword, now cooled, back up, he hoped that Thaldsan would know something of where Vardor made his lair.

The figure on the ground looked up at Faradin with shining, elven eyes. It blinked, and then looked about in confusion.

Its mouth opened and closed a few times, as though unsure of what to say. Finally, it spoke. Its voice was high pitched, and it chirped almost like a bird, "I am Seetoo. Hello. Where I am?" as it finished speaking, it cocked its head in curiousity and looked up at the group.

"We are between Lothlorien and Fangorn Forest, pretty nearby the Anduin," was Faradin's quick and accurate response. "We are headed for Lothlorien. But what happened to you?"

"And what are you?" Elrov's blunt and utterly untactful question butted in.

The creature seemed confused by Elrov's question, and responded, twittering, "I am a..a me..."

Shaking its head, it then turned to Faradin and said, "I was flying... over the forest, I think, and something... big... knocked me down, and sent me into the trees. That hurt."

"A tower?" Slythre asked doubtfully. "Or a pinnacle of some sort? Although I never saw one from our eagle mounts."

"This is pointless," muttered Gungar. "We're wasting valuable time. Those Nrakes can probably follow us even here, they seem to have very good noses, and all we can do is sit here and gabble like tinkers to a silly woodland creature?"

"You're too harsh, and never turn away what could be an information source," Faradin said quietly. Then, looking back at the creature, "Did you see any sentient creatures on the ground, while you were in flight?"

The creature blinked a couple times, and then shook its head. "Rabbits. Squirrels on trees. Nothing sent... senti.. no talking creatures."

Harnauro, from the back of the group, stared at the creature, wondering. He didn't like the thing, especially having at a time when they were on a bit of a run. But he couldn't sense anything harmful about it. Still, he thought, as he prepared to make ready to head out, for dawn was nearly breaking, he didn't like it.

Gungar stumped off, muttering something about primitives.

"Well come on," Slythre said to the others. "Gungar's right, and we don't have time to talk to every passerby, especially if they might be . . ." she hesitated before saying the word spies. This creature certainly didn't look it. But looks didn't necessarily mean a thing, and she'd never seen a creature like this before. "Well come on."

Faradin's gentle probing questions hadn't brought anything useful to the surface, so he quickly joined the others as they prepared to head out.

As they turned to go, the creature scrambled to its feat, and let out a plaintive cry. They turned back to look at it, and it, with a pitiful look, spread its wings. While the rest of its body seemed only scratched, one wing was bent at an angle never intended by nature.

"Help?" it sqauwked at them, shaking its wing.

Harnauro growled, but turned away, leaving the others to help it.

Faradin advanced, glancing over at the creature's wing, and then shook his head. "It looks broken, and I can do little to mend it here. There is nothing we can do for you."

"What about the elves in Lothlorien?" spoke up Ayna. "They could help it, right?"

Faradin glanced at it, and back at her, obviously not glad about the creature, possibly dangerous, knowing where they are going - but also unable to ignore its plight.

It spoke again. "Seetoo come?" the being said, blinking its eyes, brightly, and taking a step towards them.

Faradin sighed, and said, "Very well, come with us, and you might be able to get help in Lothlorien. Though beware - if you intend ill, the elves will not treat you gently."

As Seetoo advanced, and the party started moving again, Faradin quickly treated its arm as best as he could, and then they set out with the rest.

Elrov scowled at Ayna's back. What did she think she was doing? She had a great responsibility, and endangering it in this manner was utterly . . .

He shook his head. Ah well, she had always had always been like this. But she didn't realize that you can't fix everything, and sometimes when you do, it only makes things worse.

"I think we can make it in about three or four days," Slythre estimated. "One or two if we left Seetoo behind."

"One or two can make all the difference," Faradin said. "But it appears that the decision has already made, and if this creature is a spy or scout for the enemy, releasing it will allow it to give back its information. It should never have been told where we were going."

Spots of color appeared on Ayna's cheeks, but she said nothing.

"Good thing those eagles agreed to help us," Slythre said, glancing at Harnauro.

"If the enemy could catch up to us as quickly as they did last time, I have no doubt that even clearing that distance won't help us too much." Harnauro glanced over at Seetoo but said nothing about him.

Elrov glanced up at the sky. "I think we can make two or three more miles before making camp for the night."

*Just for note, it's the middle of the night for them...*

Lord Thaldsan was filled with outrage as he found himself in a room with the broodlord. Spinning around to ask his guards what was going on, his face paled as their forms melted, revealing the disfigured servants under the broodlord.

He spun back around, sputtering, "What is the meaning of this??"

A sword blade pointed at his throat quickly shut him up.

The broodlord calmly asked, "Now then, I doubt you know much of your lord, but regardless, you will tell me all you can. Such as where I can find him, perhaps?"

"I thought that you were on his side!" Lord Thaldsan blurted.

The sword blade pressed closer. Too close for comfort.

He gulped in the angry words he had been about to say. "I don't know where to find him, if he is not in his room in the tower. Sethris was my main contact with him . . . you know who Sethris is, right?"

The broodlord's face was impassive.

"All right," Lord Thaldsan hurried on. "Well, he has always been sort of in secret, so I find it very hard to pin him down. Sethris knew several of his plans, and he was my only contact with him. Lord Vardor . . ." he shuddered. "Lord Vardor forced me to work for him, in exchange for certain things that he claimed to be capable of procuring for me. So far, all of his promises have proved to be just words," he glanced around, as if fearing that the walls had ears. "I have been trying to get on as best I can without contact. He's been gone for some time, I think."

Seeing how the broodlord's face darkened in wrath, he quickly proceeded. "I can show you where Sethris is, and you could question him, if that would be acceptable."

*You know, I think it is more logical that it is evening right now. The eagles wouldn't have flown into the night, and the others would have set up camp as soon as they stopped if they had, instead of walking day and night. *

*Sure, the only thing is that I had Seetoo appear while they were camping - it doesn't matter much, however.*

Ulrog frowned. The flight on the back of the eagle had been bad enough, but now he was headed to Lothlorien. All that awaited his kind there was pain. And now there was this flying thing. Ulrog didn't recognise it, but there was somethiing disturbing about it. Still its presence made the journey to Lorien take longer, and so gave Ulrog more chance of escape. He had no options left. He would have to escape and soon. Every fibre of his being reacted violently just to the mention of Lorien. Ulrog shuddered at the thought of being dragged into its confines.

*Mathron, it's your cue.*