Title: Sythian's Gorge
Author: Chianna (oceans63@swbell.net)
Rating: PG – 13. You know, mostly the standard mayhem, slaying and maiming.\Main Characters: Aragorn, Legolas and there is one other…
Disclaimer: (Insert standard disclaimer here) I am poor and own nothing but my own imagination.
Summary: Blight has come to the house of Thranduil and threatens the life of the King and his line. A great seer sends the elven prince Legolas on a quest to vanquish the evil in Sythian's Gorge. But first, he must go to Rivendell and seek one from the House of Elrond that is not of Elrond's House.
Sythian's Gorge – Prelude to a Tale
Afore a path most dark and dreary
His horse pawed ground, perchance most leery.
The dark and hooded rider's needful deed
Wouldst him ignore warnings of the steed.
A prince of honor made request of his house
Before events of dark portent did rouse
A fabled evil, a contagion 'pon fair elven land
To only be quelled by steadfast heart and warrior's hand.
Called out in need, a wrong to mend
His strong arm and sword, his only tools to lend
An abiding bond of friendship he must forge
To drive the gathering storm from Sythian's Gorge.
Chapter 1
Evil stole in to the fair wood elf hold like foul wind. History does not record how the evil deed was committed. Only the signs and portents heralded the beginning of a blight on the princely house of this kingdom ruled by the wise and noble Thranduil.
Cassia was the first to sense the ill omens. One of the oldest and wisest of the wood elves of the Mirkwood forest, she chose to live separate from the rest of the elven community. It was said that within Cassia, the Sylvan elf tendencies for isolation and aloofness were honed to a level as in no other. Some speculated that her gifts had driven her from the company of most of her elven brethren. For it is said that to bear the knowledge of the fate of many is a soul-wearying task indeed.
Whether, because of her age or some other element of her making, Cassia was slight, with soft almost round features, lacking the angular planes and mien and limb of those around her. Many millennia had softened the features of her face, yet her eyes were a roadmap to the beauty of the soul and the triumphs and grief that she had seen. These youthful, sparking gray-green eyes reflected the dappled hues of her beloved woods and saw far beyond the mists of the forest, distance and time.
Cassia had first seen the darkening of the woods near the King's glade from her remote cottage three days ago. The last two nights she had dreamed dreams. In them she saw the house of Thranduil slowly, inexorably sinking. The light about the castle was fading, as what it illuminated was slowly swallowed by the evil quagmire that was sucking at its foundation. It was time that she returned to the company of her kindred. It was time to warn the prince…
No Legolas or Aragorn in this chapter – but they're coming...
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