Long Lost Leaves - part II

[Coffeehouse]

Down in the deep Quickleaf saw his sword glimmering brightly from the few streaks of sunlight that reached its cold metal blade. It lay there on the riverbed amidst the fine sand and Quickleaf looked at it for a moment with admiration.. it reminded him of his father, his past, the elder days in Lorien.

Quickleaf went to reach for it but at that moment there was a quick succession of arrows. One arrow struck right below Quickleaf's neck, tearing his grey Elven cape off, and the other through his leg, sending the elf into a state of shock.. followed by an eerie silence. Quickleaf drifted out of consciousness as the dark red blood swirled around his light body and he lay motionless in the river while the canoes of above moved past him..

The grey Elven cape rose quickly to the surface and was carried away by the wake of the fast current behind the canoes and drifted downriver. With that all of Quickleaf's possessions that he had ever so long had since leaving Lorien were gone and the elf drifted alone in the cold Celduin river.

[Coffeehouse]

For nigh 7 days Aladji had sailed his dhow down the Celduin since he left the Dwarves and the Lake people. As he was sailing Aladji looked down into the river to judge the depth. His black eyes twinkled from the sun's reflection in the clear water and he saw his reflection.. chestnut skin and a grey beard adorning an aged face.. a bald, but tanned head and wise, knowing eyes. For a short while he looked, yes indeed he had grown older.. but although an elderly man he still thought it was not all too bad.. with age came wisdom such as his younger days had never known. Looking for hidden rocks and shoals in the river Aladji contemplated the trade he had accomplished up north. Trading had been good and the muscat and other spices had emptied out after only four nights. So far he had eluded any river-bandits and if fortune was with him he would make landfall at Dorwinion in less than 12 days. The prospects were bright for a handsome trade of the precious metals he had hoarded once he came upon the market in Dorwinion.

The glimmering white sails on Aladji's dhow blew gently while he steered with care between a sudden narrowing in the river. A long stretch of naked riverbed lay on his right and left, while the midst of the river itself here plowed deep down for many meters. On the banks of the river were scattered variously shaped rocks, and being that he was alone on his dhow he knew that striking upon one of these was no option. His dhow was heavily ladden with gold and mithril and while he was intent on getting quickly downriver to the wider and safer passage of the Carnen river, he was equally careful not to hurry himself. Aladji looked up from his seated position at the back of the dhow, where he was steering the stern rudder. "Gumbul kaikoor kuumen ye mel maghar, finoor jûla thu" ('Make no haste, and arouse no suspicion and no trouble will come to you' Aladji thought to himself and hummed merrily while he carefully maneuvered the dhow forward.

The seasoned trader looked again down into the clear water to judge the depth but in the fast stream below thin, slivers of something red appeared. One, two, four, and then seven streams of red. Aladji cupped his hand in the water and raised it to his nose. It was the unmistakeable smell of blood.

[Earniel]

The fight still went on. Haldis' swarm of little allies was rapidly thinning. And while they disabled quite a number of raiders, every sting they dealt came at a costly price for themselves. Most of the raiders' archers had been taken out by either arrow or sting. Hand to hand combat was now happening on two of the rafts and while the raiders still had the numerical upper hand, the fierce resistance that was offered had diminished much of their enthousiasm.

It was about to receive another blow.

There was a sudden rush of air and only one raider had time to utter a strangled warning before a large boulder crashed into a clutter of raider's canoes from the air. The two Ents who had followed the company along the river bank, since they were too large to fit on the rafts (and so almost forgotten by anyone), had decided to enter the battle. It had just taken them a little time to find a suitable boulder in these open grasslands.

The boulder destroyed several canoes and upset a handful of others. Even on the rafts some people lost their footing due to the waves, generated by the impact. Another boulder fell from the sky, expertly aimed at the densest gathering of canoes, shattering and sinking several more.

But for the raiders, not the boulders but the appearance of fearsome, tree-like giants broke their last bit of resolve. Repeated shouts for retreat went up in the air. The raiders hastily abandoned the fight and the rafts, crammed themselves into their few remaining canoes and hastily paddling upriver.

[Willow Oran]

The humming in her mind was fading, a note silenced with every string till Haldis released her hold on the bees, thanking them, promising them recompense for their fallen. A last swirling chord and they were gone.

Haldis stood, holding her knife away from her body, point down, as she found her balance - but the raiders were already fleeing, leaping off the rafts to swim to the shore opposite the ents, fear seeming tree-men, armed with boulders and so out of place on the river plain.

She sheathed her knife. It would not be needed Looking over the rafts, she asked, "Are we all here? Is anyone hurt?"

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine jerked her knife from the raiders chest and let him fall into the river. She spun around ready for the next raider only to find them jumping from the rafts and making their escape. She saw the ents holding boulders, ready to throw again. She had the raiders blood on her, along with a few cuts. She feel to her knees, her leg suddenly feeling weak. Looking down she saw a large tear in the left side of her split skirt. Pushing the torn fabric aside, she cursed. A raider had broken through her defense.

[Varnafindë]

Barufiniel stopped shooting momentarily, gaping at the cloud of bees descending on the canoes. But she soon realised that even this wasn't stopping everyone. She would need her dagger soon, but there was still a chance to shoot a few arrows into the canoes with the boarding raiders.

One of the Elves she hadn't spoken much to so far, Nami's friend Quickleaf, drew a proper sword and wielded it eagerly. Barufiniel managed to shoot a couple of the attackers who were trying to go for him. But as the raft was upset and Quickleaf fell into the water, despite Nami's efforts to rescue him, one of the raiders came for Barufiniel. She only barely had time to switch weapons, and then, for the first time in her life, she was in close combat.

Again, Ainon's teaching proved invaluable. He had trained her in using a dagger against a sword, which is a nasty business, but not impossible if you know a few tricks.

Barufiniel knew them. It took all her concentration to use them, but finally she was able to slide underneath the sword of her attacker and wrench it out of his hand. The second of his surprise gave her the necessary time to drive her dagger into his chest.

Before she had time to realise what she had done, a wave upset the raft, and she lost her footing. As she fell - safely on the raft - she saw the Ents throwing another boulder into the gathering of canoes. The remaining raiders on her raft shouted out in fear at the tall creatures and threw themselves into the water - or into their canoes, if they could reach them.

Barufiniel scrambled to her feet, watching the raiders flee. She heard Haldis asking whether everyone was there and not hurt. She spoke up.

"Quickleaf - he fell in the first time the raft was upset, a little while ago. I - I don't think he has made it back onto the raft."

[The last sane person]

Carnehillon cursed his lack of a bow, having left it with his pack aboard the horse-rafts. So he just drew his sword, waited and occasionally ducked, the only thing in his arsenal that he could have flung back were insults (which he did).

After a bit, and letting his (majority) elven companions do their bit of bowmanship, what was left of the raiders drew forth for combat. Once again Redplate cursed himself; for fear of falling into the river, he had not donned all of his armor and was dressed in a light leather tunic and his trousers, with only his vambraces and swordbelt to aid him.

"Come on you misbegotten rabble! Stop tossing your darts and see if you can match steel to steel!" He ducked a volley that was aimed for his face.

"Ha! You can't even hit what you are aiming at from safe in your canoes! Is that the best you have?!" Yet another volley, causing him to hit the deck.

Finally the raiders reached his raft and he eagerly dispatched the two bravest, that had clambered onto his raft. A quick thrust the the stomach ended the life of the first raider, his blood dying the river as his life quickly ended. Then, a block and parry later, the second's head followed his detached body into the river as well. Warming to his work, Carnehillion had gutted yet another, less enthusiastic, stream-theif that had leapt onto the raft, and very nearly joined his corpse in the river as the Ents started hurling boulders.

CADOOMCH!

A boulder had landed in the concentrated mass of raider canoes just off the bow of Carnehillion's raft with such an upset, causing him to fall to his knees and dig his sword into the timbers, lest he take a plunge. This was the signal for a pelmel retreat to be sounded by their attackers. He stood and shealthed his weapon, and heard Barufiniel, an arms breadth away on another raft, say that Quickleaf had gone overboard.

"Great, lost one already. That elf has a knack for getting injured!" he thought to himself as he started scanning the river for signs of the elf, water already stained with blood as it was.

Without using his brain, as usual, Carnehillion leapt to Barufiniel's raft and took off his sword belt, handing it to her. "Hang on to these then, the rest of you are armored. Where is he? Here, hand me that length of rope!"

Though, the question was for naught as Carnehillion saw what looked like Quickleaf's sleeve, and then his upturned face, a goodly length ahead and floating too swiftly away from the rafts. Tying off the last of the rope, Redplate took a running dive off of the raft and started swimming with the current to Quickleaf, eventually catching up to the shocked man.

Spluttering a mouth full of water, "Quickleaf! Where are you hit?" he said as he caught the other traveler up in his grasp and kept the elf's head above the water, and started the slow goings back to the raft.

"Someone! Lend me your hands and pull us back! The current is too swift!" Carnehillion hollered back to his comrades as he struggled against the current.

[Varnafindë]

Barufiniel suddenly found herself with a sword in her hands.
Granted, it was sheathed and on its swordbelt, but it still was a sword - she had a healthy respect for such objects.
At least when she wasn't fighting someone who was using one.

With the swordbelt in one hand and the end of Carnehillion's rope in the other, she wasn't really well equipped for doing any pulling. She could hold the rope and make sure the two who were now attached to it, got no further away - but she had to wait for someone else to help her pull them back to the raft.

[Willow Oran]

Haldis had started moving to the edge of the rafts as soon as she had heard that Quickleaf had fallen in. That elf had the worst luck! Shaking her head, she took hold of the rope and added her weight to Barufiniel's, hoping that the human warrior- Carnehilion- would be towing a live body with him as they pulled him back.

[Varnafindë]

Together Haldis and Barufiniel managed to pull their two friends back to the raft. Carnehilion climbed onto it, and together they lifted the unconscious Elf out of the water. Unconscious, but alive.

Barufiniel began to do the things that Elrond had taught her to do when someone had been close to drowning, when she suddenly shouted out:

"But this isn't Quickleaf! This is Rándil - I know him - he's one of the Raft-Elves - I talked a lot with him while we were waiting for you to turn up. Where is Quickleaf then?"

They all stared at each other, realising that there was nothing they could do, and that they would only have to hope that somebody on one of the other rafts would find Quickleaf eventually. Now Rándil needed their help - he was bleeding from a wound in his head, and he had probably swallowed a lot of water.

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine staggered over to where Barufinel was working on and tore a strip of her skirt off and bound Rándil's head.
"How bad is his wound?"

[feawen]

Nami stared out into the direction they had just left. The fighting had ended and she had managed to not get hurt in the process. With one last look in the direction they had come from she signed. No time to morn fall comrades she thought as she turned to her fellows to see if she was needed, one comrade remained on her mind.

[Varnafindë]

"His wound is quite deep," Barufiniel answered, "here, across his forehead, going in to the bone, but fortunately not cracking his scull. I've got most of the water out of him now, but I think he's got a bad concussion. I don't think there's any great risk of infection, though. But we need to keep an eye on him until he wakes up."

[The last sane person]

Soggy and starting to chill, Carnehillion bent over the unconcious elf, whom was NOT Quickleaf and looked him over. He had quite a nasty gash on his forehead, and Redplate knelt down and proped the elf up while Barufiniel tended to him.

"Whom else is overboard? Is there anything I can do, seeing as I am already wet and up for a swim?"

[Varnafindë]

Sirandion came running towards them.

"I saw you helping someone out of the water!" he said. "Would that be Rándil? Praise the Valar, it is! I just realised he had fallen in. He hasn't been with us for long, you see, so he isn't quite as steady on his feet as the rest of us. And you dived for him? Thank you - we're much obliged to you."

Barufiniel explained about Quickleaf, and Carnehillion repeated his offer to dive for anyone else.

Sirandion answered that no more Raft-Elves were missing, and Haldis was finally able to ascertain that Quickleaf was the only one missing of the Company. And that it would be too late now to try to dive for him.

"Then I'll take over here," Sirandion said to Carnehillion, "while you go and dry yourself up and get some warmth back into your body. Nay, do not protest! I can see that you're beginning to chill. There are blankets on the raft next to the horses' raft. Go get yourself one of those - the blankets, I mean - and hang those wet clothes of yours up to dry."

[Earniel]

The fight now over, Sirandion started issuing out orders to clean up the aftermath. A horn was blown to recall the horse-rafts that had been sent on ahead for safety. The remaining rafts were cut loose again from one another, and quickly steered toward the shore where the Ents stood waiting. One of the rafts that had been damaged in the attack was pulled ashore for repairs.

A camp was established within a few moments and a large fire started. The wounded were helped ashore and bandaged up. Those who had been pulled from the water were wrapped in blankets and put before the fire. The raiders had received a far greater blow than they could have dealt their opponents. Apart from Quickleaf who was presumed to have drowned, only two of Raft-Elves had fallen in battle. But many others had been wounded as no one had been wearing heavy armour.

Those uninjured were assigned guard-duties. The raiders were likely not to return this day, but as the company was now weary and diminished in strength, Sirandion did not want to take any chances.

[The last sane person]

Redplate put his hand to his heart, and acknowledged Sirandion.

"Pleased to be of service, if you need any further aid I'll be hanging around. Perhaps also a bite to eat will do me some good too, now that the bloodrush of battle has left, I feel somewhat empty. That and I missed breakfast." He grinned as he got up and surrendered his spot propping up Randil to Sirandion.

Carnehillion went raft hopping first to his pack to change into his dry change of clothes, and did so beneath his cloak (seeing as privacy was rather sparse in coming). In doing so he caught the sight of a limping Aelfwine over in the raft by Barufiniel and Randil, and he made his way over to her once clad and his pack in hand, to see if he could offer his aid.

Preferably without getting slapped. Women are finicky critters...

[feawen]

Nami had spent much of the fight firing arrows and seemed to have escaped the harm that had befallen some of the others. Being one of the uninjured, nami was assigned guard duty. Quickleafs adsence had been notied but no one seemed to speak further of it. Namis heart went out to the fallen raft elves, but her heart ached at the lost of one of their own. They had traveled so far in such a short period of time and the travellers had become more family than friends.
She looked out at the dark, fast moving waters and wondered if it was now the home of an eterally sleeping Quickleaf. A tear for a lost friend sliped down her pale cheek. She raised a gloved hand to wipe it away and continued to watch the unforgiving waters.

[Mari]

Ellysa felt guilty for having been useless during the fight though she knew there had been nothing she could have done other than staying out of the way. Maybe she should reconsider her preference for not wielding weapons that could do harm...
She had offered to stand guard and was now standing beside a tree, a shadow watching the surroundings while making sure to know where everyone she knew was: either inside the camp or standing guard near her.

Well, what's been done has been done. I'd better stick to my position to keep watch and make sure tonight all will be safe.

Determined she tightened her grip on the long bo.
Then she thought of the people who had died. Most of them she had not spoken to, but they had all died a death worthy for a warrior. The shinigami would welcome them. Quickleaf... something in the back of her mind was tugging at her conscience. If he had drowned, that would not have been an honourable death and there would be no one to plead for his spirit.

"Quickleaf... I hope you either died by enemy hands or are still alive. I dare not think of your fate if you've drowned." Ellysa whispered, disconcerted by the thought.

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf lay motionless, face down, on the sandy riverbank.

The cold current still tugged at his feet and legs whom still floated lifelessly in the water. His long silver hair glinsed in red blood as a shred of sunlight broke through the cloudy sky, and from the wounded thigh a steady stream of blood flowed into river. The arrow that had penetrated the lower part of his neck had broken off and now only the metal shrapnel of the arrow's edge remained in the wound.

A stonethrow further down the riverbank lay bits and parts of a shattered canoe and the body of a dead river-pirate, missing one arm and an arrow deeply embedded in his right eye.

A small yellow frog sat watching a few feet away from Quickleaf, occasionally sending out a low-pitched garp, as if to wake up the lifeless elf, but really it was more interested in the many flies that had come to feast on the carnage along the Celduin. Indeed, if a bird of some kind had taken interest to fly this part of the river it would soon see a disturbing sight.. a long-winding litter of bodies and debris dispersed along the river's edge, marking the sight of a bloody afternoon.