Well now this is rare, two chapters in a week, I hope that quality does not go down
so I have an idea of where my story is going now, but Sunal is still forming as a character so we are all on that journey together
And again still looking for someone to beta if there is anyone you suggest or if you would like to do it please DM me :)
She went like this for a few days, hunting and climbing trees in the mornings and evenings following the patterns of the trees until she reached an old ent who spent many years at a time sleeping. She went to the nearest creek she had passed in the last day and rinsed the blood and caked bits of soot and dirt off her body listening to the birds who had resumed their chirping around her, as she did her pants laid drying them on a rock before she put them back on. She carefully made her way to the ent, she found him, his face sunken in, his eyes almost... almost unseeable covered with large back moss and wispy webs, and his once separate legs fused into one as though at one point he was once two separate trees that grew into one bark and limbs twisting around his body, on his face moss grew from up his leg and over his mouth like an oversized design on his body that melted into his large eyebrows. She was a few feet from the old tree and she could hear its eyes crackling open as bark broke and libs rustled. There was a quiet moment as the tree looked at her slowly opening its mouth to speak.
Sunal was used to the slow manner in which the ents whatever they had to say was worth waiting for, or at least deserving of respect. The ents were the keepers of all the forests in middle earth. They were some of the first creatures the Valar brought into existence here, not their parents or their ancestors but the trees themselves, it was rare to come across a sapling that had learned to or was willing to speak. The ent she had met in previous trips through the woods accredited the elves for their ability to speak, some even pointed to it as the moment they began to think and were no longer basic creatures.
As the ent began to speak low and gravely his voice was like it was grumbling from the earth itself and she pondered whether or not it was truly the elves that were responsible for the ents ability to communicate thought. "I...do not….. get many …. Humans here…" he took long strained breaths between every few words, " especially females… and even less…. Of them… on their own… why are you so badly dressed… child of man?"
Looking down at her bare upper half she nodded, in brief understanding before pulling her old tattered tunic from her bag throwing it over herself, with a glint in her eye she met the dark holes that were the ents eyes and replied " I am simply a traveler, I was invited to meet the elves of Mirkwood." she also took this time to gather her hair into a twist before throwing it down her back. "These woods though cover a large expanse and the elves are very closed off from the world. You are the protector of these woods great ent, could you aid me by directing me in the area I might encounter them as I do not own a map of these woods?"
The ent did not move for quite a time and for a moment or two she believed that he may had gone back to rest as she was going to take a step further towards him he began, "So you… young thing…. Search….. for …. The elves…. Of these woods."
She knew this could be a long conversation, so she responded before he started his next thought, "Yes," a few more moments passed by again, " you are calm… perhaps … have you met…... our kind…. Before… that is uncommon… for most children of men… if you are…. Indeed a child of man…." a long silence passed as she knew now he was waiting for a response, yet she chose to ignore the last statement, the ents perceived little things in creatures, it was their jobs to protect the forest from orcs and other creatures of Morgoth, though she was unsure if she even counted herself among those creatures.
"I was honored to meet the ent Fladrif also known by the name of Skinbark, he resides in the Fanghorn Forest beneath the southeastern flank of the Misty Mountains, the woods named after the oldest of your kind Fanghorn, also known as treebeard to those who speak the common tongue. I do not know if he is still there but he used to reside on the slopes to the west of Isengard. He guided me to some abandoned caves along the mountainside and warned me that the forests were still guarded."
There was another great pause. Sunal remembered conversations took a long amount of time with the ents, everything moves at a different pace than other creatures for the ents they were the creation of Yavanna the queen of the Valar, lover of all things that grew from the earth. She always imagined Yavanna as the most beautiful of the Valar she loved the image she had created of her. Long flowing brown hair sparkling green eyes, with curves matching the relaxing flow if the hills of Arnor, tastefully covered by her thoughts were interrupted as the ent began to speak, "My…. name is….. Known as Roothrough…. I have been a part….. of these forests for… ages… yet…. not as long as…. Fanghorn." a joke, that was a good sign Sunal thought or was it just a statement, it was hard to tell. "After the last war the elves of Mirkwood went below the trees…... and now make their home in the roots of the forest…... They protect their area with a watchful eye…..., though they are aloof…... they do not entertain creatures in their part of the wood… when you are there…. They will find you… head towards the river… when the sun sets follow its path…... You will come across the path of spiders…. They are not poisonous … but they are large and not safe…. Especially for a lone human…... woman…... travel down the river… around the spiders. It should be a few day walk… now young one, " she could see the large bark over his eyes begin to hang low, " I am here…. The elves are far….. Go now….." She looked over her shoulder the sun was low but not yet setting. She looked back to see Roothrough eyes closed and parts settling into his body once again until he looked more tree than ent.
She bowed her head and moved in the direction the ent had told her, of course, it took her less time than the ent thought it would, she reached the river by the time the sky was turning and the forest became dark. She could see small beautifully weaved webs beginning to pop up around the area, hanging over limbs and between trees large and small. She looked at the river and then back at the darkening forest ahead she thought that there was no real danger and ventured on into the darkening wood. As she moved forward she felt the fine hairs on her arms prickle. She could smell the creatures behind the trees, it was not the fear of killing them that gave her pause, but the fact that they only watched as she went further in, their numbers growing as well as their size. As the sun was gone and the forest was shrouded in darkness and the must of night filled the air.
Stopping in her tracks she mused for a moment, what was the point of making camp here, she knew she already had a hard time sleeping. She would for a while yet, till her thoughts of home and gold let her be. The feeling of being watched, no matter the treat, was not a feeling that she particularly enjoyed. Looking back the way she came she turned and headed back towards the river. Shaking her head she chastised herself for feeling a bit like a coward, even though she knew that the spider's themselves wouldn't be a problem. The aftermath, on the other hand, would be, if she got overpowered in her human form she would not shy away from setting the little side dishes to flame, but it could lead to questions if there was any investigation to where she came from. She didn't know what she would do, it was her nature to burn anything in her path to the ground, but if she started a fire in the middle of the Mirkwood not only would it seem suspicious, but it would also anger the shepherds of the forests.
Stomping on the ground harder than she had before in frustration she reached the river again vexed that she had waisted her own time by not simply making camp earlier, she knew she didn't want to take the chance of shifting in any way, just on the off chance she missed something. It was so easy to become overconfident and miss the littlest of things, she knew if there was any fault with her father that would be it. She smiled wistfully thinking of him as she put her things down along a large root. Her father had warned her that the elves were keen and that they kept a watchful eye over their forest.
Cold she laid herself down on the ground, she was used to resting on the ground. She rested on her back looking up at the dark canopy above, each blink becoming slower and slower till her eyes rested as well. There was the calming trickling of the small stream she was near and hoped that it would be enough to still her mind. Yet, no matter what she did her mind jumped restlessly from one thing to another not able to stay as still as her body was. She missed the coolness of the gold on her skin and the void it let her fall into, followed by the silk of sweet sleep it promised.
Quickly opening her eyes in an attempt to shake the longing she blinked hard trying to shift her state of thought. Only a few more weeks of this she internally pleaded with herself. As a tactic she closed her eyes trying to recall the last time she had laughed, there were many things she had found funny, few moments where she had truly and joyously laughed, the kind of laugh that erupted from the belly and made the entire body clench to the point in which it felt sore the next day. She remembered entering an old tavern it was in some human trading post outside one of the dwarven villages. She didn't know they were celebrating, but she grabbed some mead and sat in the corner watching as the Dwarves drank most of the men under the table, playing drinking games, and having little fights over the simplest of things. At one point the drunken attendants took turns either telling old poems or drinking stories atop the main table as the others sloshed around adding to the tales of supposed glorious adventures.
Yet even trying to find repose in happy memories did not ease her mind for long, sleep only came that night in brief and sour moments until finally, she could feel the change in the air that comes only when morning was approaching. Getting up she could feel her body ache from lack of sleep. Rolling her neck she felt it crack in several places before grabbing her bag and trekking on her way.
She could feel the ever constant state of spiders on her growing more and more in number the further in she trekked, and her once chirping birds also ceased again. Grabbing her sword from her side she drew it holding it by her side as she walked using it to cut through branches and webs. She felt a tingle on her shoulder and made a decision not to look up, she could feel their stares and did not want to tempt them to descend on her. She heard no birds in this area of the forest and it felt darker and more condensed than normal. She grinned a toothy grin as she could hear the rustling around her. She propelled herself to the top of a large six-foot tall root above the ground. Not wasting a moment she then pushed forward at a startlingly fast pace that would be impossible for any man.
She heard more frantic rustling as she moved forward she came across brown and black spiders some the sizes of dogs others the size of small horses here and there they came out of the trees and shadows descending into her path. Cutting through them with ease she spared herself the energy of any long drawn out fight that would risk a herd of them gathering around her. Landing on the ground running she used her feet into the wet earth moving forward still, she could see ahead another spider lowering ahead of her, then a second and a third next to it. Jumping to a tree near her, she grabbed one of the branches swinging herself up and onto it and jumping higher to another branch on a further tree now higher than the lowering spiders. They started climbing back up their own strands of webbing.
Looking at their trajectory she held her sword tight as jumped down cutting the strands of two of the spiders she then sliced the third halfway down its head killing it quickly. She had missed one of the spiders grabbing hold of a nearby web and it cut her leg deeply as she fell to the earth. Hissing at the pain she could feel the steam from her flesh on the air trying to heal itself angry she landed a few feet from where the other spider had both now injured she looked back to the spider that had cut her in the trees quickly some others descending others crawling towards her with a small army of black and brown spiders of various sizes. "You are one lucky creature." she whispered up at it, then looking at the injured spider in front of her she said "but you not so much." she could see a few of its legs had been broken in the fall, it charges at her and she rolled to the side missing its attack and plunged her sword into its backside as it passed her. The creature retired in pain, and not missing a beat Sunal sliced clean through the rest of the creature its innards falling to the ground as it screeched in pain.
Not caring to waste any more time she began moving again towards the end of the spider territory, she was growing weaker she could feel the pain in her leg grow with every pounding step she took. Even with the pain, she did not stop moving, it would have to take a lot more than a damned spider to bring her down as she fell one after the other that came into her path. She noticed the number of webs quickly decreasing as the forest also grew much lighter as well as the pressure of the many watchful eyes of the spiders stopped as they also realized she was no longer in their reach.
The smell of the woods was cleaner or at least not as stale as it had been the way here it vibrated with life. She could hear the birds again as well as other animals. Much slowing her destructive pace she paced herself to a brisk walk before slowing down to rest on a fallen tree Placing her sword on the mossy grass on. She reached into her satchel to grab her goats sack of water and after taking a slug of it she heated it in her mouth so that it was boiling and spat it onto her injured leg cleaning out bits of dirt, spider debris from it, and washing the blood from it momentarily. It only cut about an inch into her calf and it ran not more than a small daggers length across her. Opening and closing it with her hand she observed the wound, before deciding it had to be stitched, as blood filled the wound again and began streaming down her leg. Cursing quietly to herself she searched her bag and at the bottom found an old hood and some fishing string. She put the hook in her mouth holding the end of it and puffed her cheeks out with fire holding it for a few moments letting the hook heat up before she let the steam roll from her nose and mouth. She pulled out the hook from her mouth looking at the redness of the metal, she put the string through the section she had held in her fingers tying a small knot at the end.
Looking to her side she grabbed a branch from the fallen tree breaking it off she bit down on it hard as she looked down and inhaling sharply she plunged the hook into her leg. Steam leaving the wound as trickles of blood ran down her leg. The stitches were far from even, but as she finished the last stitch and tied it off there were only small traces of the blood streaming down her leg at the bottom of her foot there was now a substantial pool of blood. Spitting the branch from her mouth she took a large breath of air into her slowly letting it out. As she grabbed her bag again she grabbed an old pair of trousers and began ripping them into bandaging with her teeth. After she had a fair amount she grabbed some more water running it over the wound again hissing as some of it seeped into the stitches and the rest ran the blood off the wound, she then tightly wrapped her leg tying it snugly at the end.
After leaning back, on one hand, she looked at her leg, relaxing into the presence of the forest. Closing her eyes she noticed a quiet presence coming closer to her, she could barely hear them. Their smell was almost indistinguishable from the forest itself… almost. She closed her eyes and as she felt them approach she heard them draw their bows and as she opened her eyes she held up her arms as they almost appeared from the trees themselves. Five-eleven men with long brown and raven hair, three in front of her with bows and two to the back of her.
"Greetings Elves of Mirkwood," she raised an eyebrow as she looked at the elves around her, their faces were unmoving, eyes unyielding, and their features were sharp. "I mean no harm to these woods or your people. I was actually invented here by," she paused trying to remember the elf's name she met in the valley snapping her fingers. The two elves behind her moved forward, one taking her belongings and the other patting her down for other weapons taking one dagger from her boot. She groaned before the name came to her, "Ah! Yes, Fainion…that was his name?" she tried as she saw one of the elves not to the other. One of the elves in the middle looked her over assessing before asking coldly if there were any more accompanying her through this part of the woods. Replying in the negative the one elf nodded to his compatriot behind her and a bag was thrust over her head, and she could feel them tie a slim rope around her hands as they were pulled behind her back.
So what do you think? Comment Below! I would love to know. and constructive criticism is always welcome!
