Part II

Prologue

February 9th, 1347

'Open the gates! It's Giden of Minas Tirith.' Giden hollered at the tower guard as he raced around the pond that laid in front of the main gate.
The gates swung open to reveal the beautiful city of Rivendell.

'Close the gates!' He yelled a guard.

Giden rode hard through the gates, halting at the horse stables.
He hastily dismounted as Elrond and a dozen guards rushed to help.

'Kroen?' Elrond asked.

'He's unconscious.' Giden replied as he lifted Kroen off the black stallion, laying him onto a grass patch.

'Edir! Get a physician.' Elrond requested.

The Elvish guards lifted Kroen on to a wicker stretcher, disappearing through the stone archway.

"What happened?" Elrond asked as he led Giden down a narrow archway to a marble balcony.

"We were ambushed by Orcs. Half the guard was destroyed, the rest ran to Mirkwood." Giden answered, his face stained with mud, and rain. Giden kneeled on to the hard marble, blood dripping from his face, staining the stone. Elrond stood silently at the balcony, looking at the elves making preparation to leave, his face was emotionless.

"The elves are leaving Rivendell, Giden. This world does not need use anymore. The age of the elves is over." Elrond replied in harsh tone. He doubled back to the east side of the courtyard.

"What are you doing? Crooch!" Thomas called. His eyes darting from one side of the the road to another.

"Come, quick!" The boy yelled from a hollow ditch. The dust kicked up by Tomes caused the young hobbit to sneeze, alerting a wolf in the area. Its red eyes locked onto the two. The twigs began to snap rapidly, the wolf was only a few yards away before it dropped to the ground, unconscious. The hobbits were stood, parallelized with fear, then a tall, dark skinned man come out of the bushes a foot, or two away from the two.

"Well, what do we have here." The man mumbled. He sat down on to the hard packed dirt, pulling out a ten-inch blade, slitting the wolf's throat with it. Then he turned his head to look at Tomes, and Crooch, who'd not moved an inch since to wolf had charged them.

"So are you just going to sit there, or come help me eat this?" The hunter shouted, slicing off a thin piece of meat, and stuffed it down his throat. The hobbits unfroze, looked at each other for a moment, then shuffled down the dirt mound, taking their places in front of the wolf.

"So what's were names?" The hunter asked as he sliced off several more piece of the gut.

"I'm Thomas Tomes, this is Joesar Crooch... may enquirer as to who you are?" Thomas replied sincerely.

"Namicsr. Now, may I 'enquirer' what two hobbits are doing half-a-dozen miles away from the Shire?"

To Be Continued