Fire and poison raining down on them, a bizarre assortment of people raced towards an ocean that seemed impossibly huge. Luck had been with them so far, and none of their number had been injured, but just as they reached the water's edge, an enormous glob of foul red slime landed on a tall, fair-haired man. With a long, drawn out scream that terrified his companions, he slowly dissolved into nothingness.
The brief pause the runners allocated to watch the suffering and disappearance of their friend was enough for four more of the remaining thirteen to be struck by the falling toxin. The ones left unscathed dived into the ocean, but even there, safety could not be found. The poison penetrated the salty water, and five more of the sad group met their sorry fate.
Seeing the lack of protection the waters provided, the four companions left climbed back onto the shore to meet their doom in a more dignified manner. While climbing to dry land, a small drop hit one of them precisely between the eyes, and with a bloodcurdling shriek, he joined the rest of his fallen friends.
The only runners left were a powerfully built man with a thick golden beard, a small woman who had been the swiftest of the runners, and a tall woman with flowing hair like a blanket made of the spaces between stars. They dashed for the cover of a nearby cliff, hoping the overhang would provide some measure of protection against the mysterious falling poison. However, their hopes were futile. Enough wind blew to push little drops of the substance into their useless haven. In no time at all, the swift woman was struck and disappeared like the others.
"No!" a single word escaped the man's lips and he looked with desperate longing at the place where the woman vanished.
The other woman turned to him and started speaking very quickly, "When we return to this world, you will find all those who we lost today. You will reunite us, and we will reclaim what is ours."
The man opened his mouth in a questioning manner, but the woman cut him off by placing her hand over his heart and sending a small stream of light into his body. "That should keep you safe." she said.
This time, the man managed to ask his question, "Why?"
"I only had enough for one," the woman sadly replied, "and I knew you would be able to do the seemingly impossible task."
"Why not yourself? You could do the task you set out for me just as well, or perhaps better, than I could."
"Nobody would ever suspect me of leaving such vital job to one not even counted among our most powerful members. They would think I would save myself and undertake the task. You give us a secret advantage."
Just as she finished speaking these words of instruction, Varda Elbereth was hit, leaving Tulkas Astaldo the last of the Valar. He looked to the sky, expecting his doom to fall, but when the drop hit him, instead of feeling the terrible pain the others felt, he was merely enveloped by warm, tingling sensation. He felt the form he had lived in for so long dissolve away, and he knew that the light in him was the light of Iluvatar. Varda had given him her last defense to protect all of them. This gift could not be squandered. Tulkas moved in the way that only beings free of bodies can move. He would live with the children of Iluvatar until the Valar came back. He would wait as long as it took to get revenge on whoever had taken his family and home away.
Perched on top of an impossibly high mountain, Melkor laughed as his creation destroyed the Valar, his erstwhile enemies. Their arrogance had allowed him to escape from the Void and to use his new creation to bring their end. He laughed until he felt his sides would split. When he felt he could laugh no more, he noticed something. The wind, despite having lost its master, was blowing his own poison back at him. Melkor giggled one last time as the irony of the situation dawned on him, and he too dissolved into the nothingness that had claimed the Valar.
Author's Note: This is definitely a hugely ambitious story to be writing for a first sumission to the website. Constructive criticism welcome. Don't expect updates more than once a week.