I'm hoping to update once a week I'm not totally decided on a day yet, this is my second attempt at this story I lost my inspiration last year but I'm not giving in this time. I appreciate any reviews if you care to give me any advice it's always well received good or bad. Only way to learn and that's what I hope to do. Thanks for reading I hope you like it.
Running, that was all she could remember, running and then running further. Why? She couldn't tell you, she had never seen anything like them before and she had never felt so much fear…
Almithara had been shielded from the cruelty and darkness of the world by her family, she knew that Middle Earth could be a dangerous place she had lost her mother to the ways of the darkness but she had never been so exposed. She was lost, alone and scared. After the death of his beloved Thara's father had kept her close, safe being the leader of her people it was easy for him to do that until now. Kaldarion had all but fallen. The home they had known was almost in ruin and the only way to save the remainder of the people was to ask for aid. How to get this aid? Thara knew that it was her duty as the daughter of the king was to be willing to marry to assure her peoples safety and now was the time.
The plan had been simple, the king had ordered his two sons to escort his daughter to Mirkwood, there the king Thranduil would be presented with a message from the Kaldarion King Dakath. If all went to plan the two kingdoms would be bound through the marriage of Legolas Thranduillion and Almithara of the Kaldari. Thara had been adamant that the plan would succeed, she was willing to sacrifice her freedom for her family but she believed in marriage for love wholly. Her parents had married for love. The only person who had spoken any opposition aloud had been Thara's dearest friend, the ellith was loudmouthed and brash, the bane of the King's existence in truth but her stories of the world outside of the castle walls had Thara enraptured. She was always eager to hear more from the warrior even if others frowned upon her continuously.
The royal children had set out from their desert home in search of the woodland realm with a relatively small guard of twenty, the journey would be long. After just three weeks that found the first of many obstacles.
"And the scouts missed this because?" Vesryn sighed, the elder brother was obviously weary. Cyran visibly squirmed. "Brother?" Vesryn repeated.
"Don't get me wrong Ryn, I wasn't fully aware of this ... setback. However I cannot, I simply can not be blamed." He answered with a smile as Almithara rode between him and his elder sibling.
"And now?" Was all she asked looking to the elder.
"Now we take the map and all responsibilities from Cyran who is incapable of reading the reports gained by his scouts. Then we find our way around, over or past the thundering torrent of water which he somehow, incredibly missed!"
It took three days to build the rafts to take them all safely across the river, enough time for Cyran to come up with countless excuses. On the second day, sitting down by his sister he tried the newest attempt. "I am very sorry Thara, how could I have known about the flooding?"
"It's your job, it happens every year and it is called the rainy season ... Shall I continue?"
"No, we live in a desert T, I have no knowledge of rains, I've never seen this much water in my life!" Noting her silence he added, "Ryn shouldn't have given me, the youngest all of that responsibility, I ..." He was cut off.
"Am a terrible liar with worst excuses who needs to move over and let me speak to our dear sister." Vesryn finished for him.
That was the last time the three laughed together on their home land, soon they were thrown into darker realms.
"And this is it..." The company stared out at the vast expanse of green before them. "No going back now." One of the men mumbled to his friend behind her.
Those words made Almithara think, no going back now, this is it she will be married off to a stranger in a land not her own separated from her family and all that she had ever known. Her life would be lived here from now on. Not a promising thought she believed as the continuous drizzle glued her travelling clothes to her body, fatigued from the travel.
Just two days later the first attack came.
Two men were lost to the hideous creatures that came in the night, Thara didn't see them but she heard them and she swore that the sounds would never leave her, especially the sounds of her trusted companions, elves she had known since childhood and lived to protect her, as they met their deaths.
"Orcs." She was told by one of the men the next morning.
After that more attacks came, day and night the company were forced to be on constant alert, no sleep came but Thara remained protected. Cyran stayed close to her having never seen these creatures before either the new threat surprised him. The rest of the men had travelled the green lands before, had met this foe before and knew that there was most likely worse ahead.
The final blow came 8 days before the first, the exhausted men fought and fell one by one until just the royal children and four others remained. That was the day she watched her brothers and friends bloodied, bruised and broken keep fighting desperately but still that was the day she was taken.
The battle had been short lived the small contingent whittled down to seven, 16 had been lost along with their vigour. The creatures forced the elves away from the princess, unintentionally the soldiers left her unprotected for just seconds but that was all it took, her scared horse reared sending her plummeting to the sodden earth where the grimy hands were waiting. Pulling, pushing and coaxing her further away from her protectors. Writhing around trying to escape the prying hands, to hide from the sounds of her friends and family falling, to hide from her failure thousands could die because she failed to complete her one purpose, to hide from the smell the pungent smell, blood death and orc. She felt a blow to the back of her head and then it all went black, she welcomed the peace of the abyss.
She didn't know how long she had been out. When she woke she was in a place she didn't know, damp a stone cave maybe, surrounded by the fearsome creatures with no recognisable faces to be found. Among the orc were other beings, men. She succumbed to the darkness once more not soon after that.
The next time she was awakened by a harsh jerk, she found her hands bound in chafing rope securing her thin wrists. She looked around surveying her prison finding that she was not alone.
"Where am I?" she managed to croak out.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak... elf but I expect you want to know where you are ? Do you speak Westron?"
"Yes, where am I?" She looked around frantically feeling a nauseous from the dull thudding in the back of her skull, "And who are you?"
"You are in a caravan heading to a destination that I am not sure of child." The woman smiled, she was elderly she looked haggard and worn obviously a hard worked woman, but she conveyed a sense of warmth a person worthy of trust perhaps. "My name is Jeane, I am here the same as you child, although when I was taken I was much younger and more than I am now." She smiled again before adding "If you have any more questions you should ask now, I wouldn't be surprised if we stopped soon and then the opportunity will be missed." She smiled again although sadly, this worried Thara.
"What is it?"
"What child?"
"What is the matter? What is going to happen?"
"Intuitive aren't you child. You shouldn't fret it will not aid you…"
"First of all I am 3,000 years old I have most definitely seen more summers than you do not call me child I am Princess Almithara of Kaldarion daughter of Dakath and I would know what is to become of me!" She snapped surprising even herself but she couldn't care less she was desperate to know what had become of her brothers.
"You are lucky... you were purchased from the orcs who found you, these are a travelling band of men, most them wanderers as nobody is quite sure of where they originated, outcasts some are fugitives and brigands and you are now their property, I am very sorry."
Thara was stunned, not out of fear but rather some men believed her to be property. She would prove herself here and she would complete her mission, her people would be saved if it was the last thing she did. She would do it for her brothers and the men who died protecting her, if she had survived it was for a purpose and she would make sure that it was fulfilled.
"My name is Almithara, you may call me Thara." She smiled to Jeane who was slowly calming after Thara's outburst.
The two women talked on about Jeane's life, her duties around the camp and what would be expected of Thara. She vowed that it would not be true no man would touch her without her consent but inside she knew that no matter what she had vowed, she must survive anything that was thrown at her and she would prevail even if she could not save herself. She was beginning to form a plan when her time was cut short, the wagon halted throwing her agains the doors, she was flung to the dirt when the swung open and exposed to several leering gazes.