History's Ashes and Future's Flame
As promised here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy! Oh, sorry the last chapter was a bit dull, this has more interesting content. This chapter contains Elvish language, here it will be translated:
Amin dele ten' ho. Kwara sina ten'amin - I am worried for him. Hold this for me
Lle rangwa amin - Can you understand me
Esta - Rest
Amin mellon-nin - My friend
Tampa - Stop!
Esta, ion. Lle anta est - Rest, boy. You need to rest
Ya - Who
This was written: 30th Dec 2013
Chapter 3
Sindar Slaves
On and on they travelled
Never finding such a place
And the look of sadness
Just grew upon his face
It was already dark, Merlin noted. Behind the trees the sun was low in the sky and the trees threw deep shadows over them as they rode. The forest seemed to be just a chaotic tangle of hard to negotiate vegetation and added to the pain in Merlin's temple, was hell to travel through. In places either side was an impenetrable snarl of brambles and everywhere in the dim light were rotting, fallen corpses of trees, over grown with moss and ivy.
Arthur didn't seem to notice this, he was too busy talking. Merlin had fallen silent long ago, not just from the atmosphere of the forest, but to control the pain in his head.
"And Lord Astor's still alive, wouldn't you believe!" Arthur let out a roaring laugh that echoed through the trees. That was when Merlin realised the silence, no birds, nothing. Odd.
"Arthur shh!" Merlin ushered halting Cazadear. Merlin had defiantly heard the pad and shuffle of movement, he began to worry, "Did you hear that?"
Arthur opened his mouth to answer, but it was too late. Like a hurricane, they tore through the trees, orcs snarling and calling war cries, gargling on saliva and swinging weapons. Arthur instantly drew his sword and Merlin made a run for his, running at the nearest orc, Merlin sliced at it savagely, whishing he had his bow. He fought down many and by the sound behind him so had Arthur. Only a few remained and they were followed by what Merlin feared most, wargs!
The fighting went on and Merlin cut down orc after orc, arching his slim blade and cutting down the foul beasts as if they were reeds.
Just as he thought the orcs were gone, he glanced over at Arthur you was pulling his beloved sword, Excalibur from a wargs neck. "Are you ok Merlin?" Arthur asked urgently as Merlin swayed on the spot, his head wound had not healed, but Merlin knew he could tell Arthur now, so he just nodded gravely. As quickly as they could Arthur and Merlin had hoisted themselves on to their horse and rushed from the clearing, Merlin lolled in the saddle, senses dulled with the thudding in his head.
Suddenly a dark voice echoed around the woodland, it hissed in Black Speech "Do not move!". Merlin looked about wildly but could see nothing through the undergrowth, startled Cazadear leapt sideways, trembling. There was a whirr and to Merlin's horror and arrow darted through the leaves and imbedded itself in the stallions shoulder. He cried out and held his leg aloft and to Arthur's horror threaten to tip. Merlin cried out calling to the stallion and throwing every curse, in Sindarin and Man-Speech he knew. Then came another whirr and Merlin silenced, Arthur spun from his searching to see the end of an arrow embedded deeply in Merlin's abdomen.
In his wild state it took Merlin a while to notice the dark claws that grouped a Merlin's flesh and he suddenly felt the pain and he shouted out, the coiling dark snake was spreading all over his abdomen, suffocating it and sending it in to a point of unimaginable pain. Merlin felt himself falling, from his horse or conciseness he could not tell. Arthur shouted at his friend and leapt from his horse before feeling the hard jab of a well placed kick to his lower back, falling on his front his vision blurred and he managed to focus on the ghostly white shape of a fallen Cazadear and the dark figures of orcs hauling another figure from the clearing.
As if in a dream Arthur saw all life flee from the clearing to be left in silence on the rotting carpet of leaves . His vision hazing once more, he wondered if he dreamed the next occurrence. A man, tall and long limbed sprang down from a tree followed by many others landing lighter than air with little more than a whisper, straightening up Arthur could see the front man had chestnut hair draping over his shoulder and a stern, simple face. He bore and intricately decorated bow, and a white feathered arrow was set on the string and to Arthur's despair he found it was pointed directly at him along with all the other figures behind him. It was seconds before the man lowered his bow and approached, he hung back cautiously. He was dressed in moss green and as he lowered to Arthur's level his hair fell foreword to reveal pale pointed ears. Arthur couldn't help but smile…
"Amin dele ten' ho. Kwara sina ten'amin," He turned to Arthur, passing his bow to a near by elf, "Lle rangwa amin?"
Arthur nodded his head stiffly stopping as it thudded, "A little." He admitted.
"Esta, Prince." The elf soothed, that Arthur understood and he allowed his eyelids to drop as he felt the touch of the elves hand on his forehead.
When Arthur had woken he couldn't believe his eyes, all around was a glowing unearthly green. It was all an entanglement of foliage mainly strong branches holding up little rooms of platforms, he sat up realising he was lied on a bed on pure comfort. To his left sat a familiar chestnut hair elf and on his right and elven woman offering him a liquid, "For the pain." She murmured, he voice as sweet as song. And as if on cue Arthur noticed the pain in his shoulder and lower back and received the silvery liquid gratefully. "Amin mellon-nin," Arthur stumbled over the elven words, "Where is he, an elf like you!"
"You were alone my Prince." The chestnut haired elf ensured, his brow creasing with worry, "An elf you say?"
"Yes…" Arthur persisted worrying for his raven-haired friend.
"Ok, my Prince, I am Finrod, could you tell me what happened?"
Arthur nodded solitarily.
When Merlin woke his condition was very different to Arthur's, all around was dark dripping stone, slippery with moss and mould. He was in a cell, pulling himself with seething pain Merlin reached the front bars of the cells. All around was the dark stones. Eerie silence was broken with a heart-breaking scream.
"Tampa!" Responded the scream and Merlin frozen, dreading to turn his head, the voice spoke again softer this time, "Esta, ion. Lle anta est."
Merlin croaked a weak reply, "Ya…"
"Esta, ion, I will explain when you awake." Merlin stared blankly at the elf, the first elf he'd ever seen and he had insisted he must sleep. Feeling the strain and pain of his injuries Merlin obliged.
End of Chapter
I'm not sure when I can update again, hope you enjoyed this, our first encounter with elves! Please review, blah. If you wanna know where I got my Elven translations mail me and I'll send you the link. See you next time, but until then!