chapter 1- A Message
The once thriving trees of Mirkwood where indeed dark and murky. The bark was cold and rough to the touch, almost lifeless. The edges of the forests were encased in a layer of darkness. Noises of creatures that inhabited these woods were heard, but they were never seen. But Shayla Princess to shyarvans realm and daughter to king Beren didn't mind. In an odd way the forest was almost…calm. It was indeed the first time she had travelled inside the woods of Mirkwood. Instead of being scared of the woods she found herself fascinated in it, wondering how it may have look way back when they were full of light, with leaves of green and gold.
"He said they would be on the path." Shayla's companion said next her as they continued to swing through the never-ending expanse of trees. "They have strayed much." She added as an afterthought her voice emotionless, like Shayla she too was trained to be more deadly than an assassin by the monk Creania, and thus they had to do away with emotions, hide them from the outside world as it can be used as a weakness.
The two dropped down from the trees to examine the trail of 14 pairs of feet's that had scared the land and would soon wash away with the soon to come rain. It was true the dwarf company and hobbit where nowhere near the path that was set for them. They had been warned that the forest messes with you, and not for the first time Shayla found herself wondering whether it was indeed the tracts of the dwarfs. But so far the forest had done nothing to the two elven companions so they climbed back up the trees and quickly continued following the tracks.
"Since when do we deliver messages for Gandalf the grey anyway?" Shayla heard her companion ask from her left. This made her smile for the reason that the only emotion Her companion let show was either anger or irritation, usually a mix of both.
"Because dear Fraya" Shayla replied as she jumped a rather large gap and landed nimbly on a branch. "It's not like we were doing anything in the first place." She looked back down to see were the trail turned off as they continued to follow it. "Secondly, he is an old friend. And thirdly," she paused for a moment thinking of what to say, "Thirdly it is never bad to have a Wizard whom is in your dept." She finished allowing a proud tone to enter her voice as she had come up with three valid reasons.
Fraya looked at Shayla in annoyance she opened her mouth as if ready to come out with a snarky reply but the sound of voices shut her up. Instead Fraya looked at Shayla seriously and nodded once before they went towards the spoken voices.
They jumped down from the trees when they saw the owners of the voices. The Gruff voices, as Shayla found out, were not actually talking but they were arguing. They were in fact said dwarfs they had been searching for, as they got closer Shayla noticed they were covered in spider webs and were standing in a tight circle ready for battle.
Even though being elves the two had strong senses the Woods seemed to be numbing that ability to the point where their senses were as bad as that of humans. Analysing the situation and sensing no immediate danger, the two elves made sure their bows and other weaponry were secured as not to seem threatening they then emerged from the forest.
The two elves stopped a far distance away from the dwarf. A round Dwarf with a red beard platted around his chin saw the two new comers first .He raised his axe ready for a fight and the others around him noticed this and did the same thing. A stout dwarf came to the middle of the group, he had dark hair and a rough beard, He had an aura about him that said dangerous and leader, He was a born King. He was the king under the mountain.
"Greetings Thorin Oakenshield son of Thrain, We bring word from Gandalf." Shayla said before Thorin could ask any questions.
Some of the dwarfs lowered their weapons and let out a sigh of relief but others like Thorin kept their guard up. It was impossible to tell that Shayla and Fraya were elves as they had their hoods up, had they known about the purple robes they may have guessed, but to the dwarfs the two could be anything from mere travellers to rangers or elves. Shayla noticed that the Hobbit was not with the group of Dwarfs, but this time before she could mention it the Dwarf Thorin spoke.
"And who may yo-" But before Thorin could finish his sentence an ear-piercing screech filled the air. Shayla and Fraya both pulled out their bows and aimed them towards the trees. The woods had gone quiet and only the rustle of leaves could be seen. Blindly taking an educated guess Shayla let her arrow fly. Moments later a spider fell from the trees, dead and unmoving, that when it began. Hundreds of spiders appeared from the woods and screaking and beginning to attack the group. The Dwarfs let out battle cries and ran towards the group of spiders axes swinging wildly.
Shayla turned to Fraya who was shooting the Spiders In the trees. "Stay with the group, I will find the Hobbit and bring him back." She said to Fraya in Shayven. Fraya just nodded without turning from the spiders as Shayla disappeared into the woods.
Shayla crouched in a tree about 30 feet from where the battle was taking place below, she had managed to get into the tree without being spotted by any of the spiders, agility and quietness were a strong point for her. She sat there and concentrated intently. She could hear the sounds of metal from below and shouts and cries. Nothing that told her of the location of the hobbit. She was about to choose a different spot to perch from when she heard the cry of a younger spider. Intrigued she went to where the sound had come from only to see a small figured standing over a dead spider, small as the spider was it was impressive that a hobbit had killed it.
"Master Hobbit." Shayla greeted from behind the hobbit. Startled the hobbit whirled around pointing his sword at the young elf, unfazed by this Shayla then said. "I am a friend of Gandalf, I mean you no harm." To reassure the small being.
Unlike the Dwarf the young hobbit visible relaxed letting out a great sigh of relief and panting from the work of killing the spider, Shayla noticed that the Hobbit had put something into his pocket but said nothing of it, now was not the time.
"You must stay here while the dwarfs fight of the spiders." Shayla said as she knew the peacefulness of the race of hobbits.
"No, I should fight." The hobbit said half as a question but Shayla guessed it was meant as more of a statement. Although the younger being was small and a hobbit he had shown he could fight from killing the sider, besides it was not her place to decide if someone should fight, she thought even if she wanted to stop him the argument would be better spent killing spiders.
"Very well." Was all the elf said as she turned back to the direction of the small battle. Shayla ran fast across the ground and quickly drew near to the battle, the hobbit was trying hard to keep up, tripping over roots and branches.
As she reached the small clearing Shayla took in her surroundings. Fraya had resorted to using her sword as she was now in close combat, sometimes punching pressure points that they were both taught to know of all our enemies. The group of dwarfs had spread but still close together, three of which were fighting back to back. She started firing arrows at the spiders all true to their mark and killing the creatures fast and instantly. The hobbit had finally reached the scene and was bending over his knees catching his breath.
A spider was rearing up about to attack a dwarf, insensitivity Shayla aimed and an arrow hit the spider dead in the chest. But it was not her arrow nor was it that of a Dwarfs, the brown fletching's gave away the owner. It was a Mirkwood arrow.
"Into the trees." Shayla whispered urgently, But Fraya heard as her ears caught the Shayven language, although confused Fraya did as requested and soon both elves perched side by side in a tree above the battle.
"What-" began Fraya but Shayla clamped a hand against her mouth eyes never leaving the scene below. She turned to face Fraya and put a finger to her own lips, as a sign to tell the other elf to be quite, she then pointed down to the arrow. Shayla watched as Fraya's eyes turned from confusion to an unidentifiable look. Fraya turned to Shayla and nodded.
A Mirkwood elf then slid skilfully down a tree and under a spider landing in front of Thorin pointing his bow at the Dwarf as other Mirkwood Elves surrounded the Group. "Do not think I won't kill you Dwarf" The elf said threating "It would be my pleasure."
"The message was not even of great importance." Said Fraya beside Shayla, as the Mirkwood elves were distracted with the scene occurring below. "Let us leave before You do something foolish." She added.
"I gave Gandalf my word that the Dwarfs shall receive his message." It was true that the message was not important and it would most likely cause no harm if the Dwarfs do not receive it but true as that was, Shayla had given her word and that is not taken lightly.
Knowing that she could not sway her friend away from this, Fraya turned to look back down at the Mirkwood elves that had almost finished searching the Dwarfs for hidden weapons. "Just don't get us killed." Was all that Fraya said.
"It would take more than Mirkwood elves to kill you." Replied Shayla, smiling she added, "If that was the case we would have travelled to Mirkwood years ago." Fraya simply rolled her eyes. But their attention was grabbed when a young Mirkwood warrior approached the elf that had spoken first.
"We found these in many of the dead spiders, my lord." The young elf said in elvish, handing arrows with purple fleches to the elf Shayla still could not recognise. She had seen him before but could not place a name to the elf.
Next to her, Shayla felt Fraya tense ever so slightly. Showing no emotion, but that of questioning in her eyes, Shayla looked at her friend.
"The young lord, He is Legolas son of Thranduil, Prince of the woodland realm." Fraya said without looking towards her friend. Looking back Shayla realised it was true the prince's silver-blond hair was tied back in warrior braids, and he was wearing the silver royal amour of Mirkwood.
"Shayvens" the prince whispered. The elves around him that had heard looked at each other warily. "Where did you find these?" The prince asked Thorin, a hint of anger tinted his voice.
Thorin thought about this for a moment, having seemingly only noticed the absence of the two who had fought beside them only now.
"We found them on our Journey, we were low on arrows." Thorin replied coolly. It was a poor lie as Shayla noticed That the Dwarf archers quiver was not let empty, it seemed she was not the only one that had noticed this.
"Do not lie to me Dwarf." Prince Legolas said calmly bringing a dagger to rest against the Dwarfs neck.
'This must be my cue' Shayla thought to herself. She started moving when Fraya's arm caught her by the shoulder. Shayla knew her friend did not want her to do this; it was risky, deadly In Fraya's eyes Shayla could see that she thought this was a bad Idea and part of her knew this too, But she would not let some die unnessasarly for her.
"Do not do that of what I wouldn't." Fraya warned. Shayla gripped Frayas shoulder in return offering a smile before moving down the branch. As she neared the edge of the branch Shayla thought of something.
"Should the need arise, do not shoot to kill." She said as she dropped from the Tree.