(Elanor)
"Wretched creature!" Father growled, jumping to his feet and charged at the intruder, who only snarled back and disappear from view. "What do you want?!" he shouted after it, who was darting on all fours toward the cave's exit.
It was the creature we had been chasing, I was sure of it. The shock in my body was still fresh from its ghastly appearance, my hand still clutching the jeweled necklace in a deathlike grip, while my other had impulsively hovered toward my knife.
A heavy growl rumbled behind me. Slowly turning around, my eyes widened in horror and breathing quickened in tiny squeaks at the looming shape of a large, canine beast. Hackles raised and long fangs bared, its muscular body half-starved to the point where bones were shown, I knew right away that this was a caravor. In the flesh, right before my very eyes, four or five feet away from biting distance. And with my vulnerable position on the ground, between my father and said creature, I was in deep peril.
"Elanor," Father hushed voice from behind filled with caution and a tiny hint of fear was directly toward me, though his eyes were only fixed on the caravor slowly stalking toward us, "do...not...move..."
Eyes yellow with wild hunger and foam dripping from the muzzle, the caravor snarled. I found myself frozen, trembling with the coldest fear, thinking only of the maw that could easily tear my head off. A whimper escaped me, a tear running down my cheek to my gaping mouth. Help me, the tiny voice in my head pleaded.
"Look at me, mongrel!" growled Father, directing the beast's gaze over my head at him. "Here! Come at me!"
"Papa..." I breathed, terror and panic filling me. "Papa, n-no..."
The caravor parted its dripping mouth with loud snarl that roared through the cave, its eyes now lit like blazing, predatory flames...and without a running start, it pounced.
Before I would scream, in almost the blink of an eye-
-the caravor launching across the air with jaws opened wide-
-a bright, white bolt flashed from over my head and hit the beast in the face. The impact the creature backward with surprisingly heavy force, causing a whiplash of wind blowing the hair strands from my face. When the body crashed the ground, the sound making me jump, I felt Father's cold hand grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet, pulling me to his side. I buried my face in his chest, gasping and sobbing.
I did not know what feeling was consuming me: relief for managing to avoid death, or frustration for freezing when I should have defended myself (shoot an arrow, or something). My hand was still gripping the emerald necklace, the edges cutting into my palm.
Father turned toward the exit. "Quick! It is escaping!" he exclaimed aloud. Rushing us toward the edge of the cliff, to my surprise, he stopped, swung me behind him, and leaned over. "Get on!" he ordered, even though he was already pulling my arms over his shoulders, and soon hoisting my legs around his waist.
"Father, WHHHAAAAAA...!" Before I knew it, Father then leapt off the cliff with me clinging onto his neck and torso as a horrified scream left my mouth, the rush of gravity whipping my braid into the air as we dropped. My face pressed to his back neck, eyes shut, expecting a painful crash...only to feel a slight thud of my father's boots landing on solid ground, jerking my eyes back open with surprise.
Hearing a chorus of caravor growls echoing the cave behind us, Father gripped me more tightly as he continued sprinting toward the light of the exit without a pause of breath.
Peeking over my shoulder in disbelief, a crowd of wolfish yellow eyes watched us leave from on top of the plateau in the darkness, making no more attempts to follow.
Did we actually survive that without the slightest injury? That cliff was at least twenty feet high! By all rights, Father should have broken a leg from the landing.
And...and that light? The light the hit the caravor...recalling the rush of events more slowly in my mind, I could have sworn my eyes made out the shape of an arrow. A bright, white arrow.
"Papa, what happened?" I cried as he continued running with me on his back. "We didn't crash. What was that light? What did you do?"
"You will have to save the questions for a more convenient time, child," the elf wraith's voice rang out, seeming to echo in my head. The cold seemed to seep from my father's body, connecting with my limbs and chilling them to the bone. "The creature has not gone far."
"I know where to find him," muttered Father, finally slowing at we faced an isles mountainous rocks. "He hiding there, I know it."
"But if we're to lure him out, we have to play this carefully."
"Make him believe he has the advantage," agreed Father quietly, slowly putting me down, still looking ahead with narrowed eyes. "Elanor, keep your eyes and ears open. Look straight ahead and do not say a word. Leave the rest to me."
"Yes, Papa," I whispered, staring at the path where the creature went. Feeling the emerald necklace in my hands, I let it dangle from my fingers before looping the lace around my neck, moving my braid out of the way. Tucking the emerald under my clothing with my pendant, I then started walking side by side with Father down the path, keeping my expression calm and relaxed, eyes straight forward and ears wide open, for any sign of movement. My hand remained on the hilt of my knife, ready for defense if necessary.
I did not like this one bit. I wasn't even certain if I was going to like what Father was planning. His intentions made me nervous. I had seen his military side plenty of times in my lifetime while living at the Black Gate. I had seen how focused and intense he can be in battle or hunting strategies without forgetting his containment of ferocity or even his slight sense of humor….but that had been the father I knew before our life had fallen to shambles. Before Mother and Dirhael had died.
Now it felt like I was stalking side by side with a different man. An unpredictable weapon. And it honestly scared me nearly as much as the mysterious threat we were seeking out.
(Third Person)
Glowing eyes appeared in the darkness of the burrow beneath the cliff.
"He will remember, Precious…" hissed the creature known as Gollum. "We will make him. Yes, yes, yes! We must have it back! We must have it! Quiet! Quiet, Precious!" His eyes narrowed with glee as he spotted the man and the child walk right past the exit. When they were gone from view, the creature began to crawl out, drawing his haunches to prepare for an attack from behind.
Perhaps if he went for the girl first. He grinned wickedly as his head surfaced from the burrow. He could wring her scrawny little neck…..
A larger hand sudden clamped around his his neck, squeezing the breath out him, and was sent upwards and harshly against the rocky wall. The darkened face of the ranger loomed in sight, baring his teeth. "You think you can sneak up on us so easily, eh?" he growled.
"Father!" exclaimed the dark-haired girl in the background, watching the scene with wide eyes.
"Stay back, Elanor!" gritted the ranger, tightening his hold on the creature and shoved him against the cliff again. "Be still, wretch! So who did you plan to attack first? My daughter? Hm?"
"No! No, don't hurts us!" screeched Gollum, grappling at the tight grip around his throat while kicking out his feet in the struggle. Then his air-supply was cut off with a croak when the hand tightened.
"Father, stop, you'll kill it!" yelled Elanor, who looked torn between fear, suspicion, and pity toward the thing.
Talion hissed through his teeth and loosened his grip slightly, enough for Gollum to start coughing wetly. The elf wraith appeared, bright and glowing with determination. "Ask about the jewel," he told Talion, staring at the creature with determination. "What does he know of it?"
The creature's eyes widen with awe. The light of the wraith reflected from his frog-like orbs. He outstretched his gangly hand toward the inanimate being. "Bright Master!" he gasped. "Yes, we knows! Bright Master came to us...in our dreams."
(Elanor)
I blinked, noticing that the elf wraith looked completely lost for words when staring at that thing. The only time I had ever seen him like that was when….I gasped, realization hitting me like heavy iron from what I was witnessing. The creature can see the him!
The elf wraith stared at the creature, completely astounded. "You...see me…?" he whispered slowly.
Suddenly, the creature's features twisted up as he leaned over and sank his teeth in Father's hand.
"Hey!" I yelled.
"AH!" Father dropped him, grasping his hand. "Filthy creature!" he snarled, while the creature huddled back in the burrow. I watched as the elf wraith was now kneeling before the hole, completely focused on receiving an answer from the creature, who crawled back out with round, entranced eyes. The white-blue light of the phantom shined over the gangly creature, bringing out the hollow, skeletal look from the bone to the flesh.
"The Precious, it showed us!" the creature said in a breathless tone. "It showed us treasures of the Bright Master."
"No more riddles," said the elf wraith in low, threatening tone. "Do not play me a fool, I warn you."
"Yes!" exclaimed the creature. He bowed to the elf with merely a nod of his bald head. "We swears! We swears to serve the Bright Master! We takes him to our treasures. Gollum! Gollum!" He coughed with wet, croaking noises that made me flinch.
Gollum, I thought, as the creature gagged. That's what, or who, he will be called.
'Gollum' then let out another rasp, before slinking back into the shadows of the crevice and turned tail.
"Wait!" I exclaimed, but he was already gone. The elf wraith stood back up, still looking toward the crevice, grim and thoughtful.
"He will find us," the wraith murmured, before turning to face my father.
Father was panting with barely contained rage. Glaring the elf, he pointed at the burrow where Gollum was.
"I do not trust him," he said, before turning around to stalk away. I quickly caught up to his side.
The elf wraith met his stride, looking more urgent as my father's reluctance. "But we need him," he insisted quickly, before adding more forcefully, "Do you not wish to know who I am?"
The elf wraith gave me a glance, before he disappeared into light. Biting my lip, I reached up and felt the emerald necklace that I had put around my neck earlier, bumping alongside my star pendant.
It was true. As much as I didn't want to admit it aloud, the vision from earlier made me even more curious. Even if my father was not motivated in finding out who this elf was, especially when it seemed like they will be stuck together for who-know-how-long, I certainly felt the need to know who exactly it was that was leading us on this treasure hunt and helping us gain our revenge.
From the beginning, I always felt suspicious of the wraith. To clear my conscience, I need to know if I could trust him, especially with my father's life entwined with his soul.
Who was this "Bright Master" the creature seemed to know more than we did?