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Hope all of you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Twenty-Four: Hopeless

Donavon

Morning slipped over the mountains. The night faded and for that, I was grateful.

In the darkness of night, Orcs had moved noisily though the mountain passes. I had tried to continue to travel, yet I had not gotten very far before I finally succumbed to my fear of the creatures and found hiding in a hallow incline of the mountain.

Now dawn had passed and the morning sun was going high. I had made good time, I noted.

The horse below me snorted and I tensed.

Black had not favored me much at all when I raced him from his quiet stables into the sharp terrain of the mountain side. Gronig had spotted me and if he'd had the chance, he would have stopped me. But, with Black's racing stride, the man had no chance.

I was now glad for the lessons Ashk had given me for riding. If she hadn't, surely I would have fallen and broken my head right open with this fast horse and horrid land.

I couldn't help but feel as if Black knew what I wanted. There were times when he took great breaths of air as if smelling for something. It was as though he knew I was trying to find his mistress and I'd given into that hope, allowing the animal to led much of the night before.

I had convinced myself that I wanted Haldir to suffer as my uncle did...Would the child of a family murdered not want vengeance?

But, I didn't want Ashk nor her son harmed. If only I could convince my uncle and his men to let them be free, then I didn't care what they did. I'd turn my back.

And if they disagreed - what then would I do?

As the ground evened a bit, I allowed Black to run onward at a slow canter.

I would have to wait to see what my uncle chose. If it was true that he would harm Ashk and Onduras, not even my hate for Haldir could overcome my love for them. If I could help Ashk, I would. No matter what.

Ashk

"She will carry the child today," the man with green eyes said. "Maybe that will keep him quiet."

I felt relief trickle into me. All night I had been afraid of anyone taking my son from me and now that day had risen, I feared they would separate us again.

"Good idea," Ermone grumbled, glaring at me as I was uncuffed from my chains. I felt adrenaline rush through me as I saw how the man who freed me had a dagger I could so easily grab.

I was desperate to escape, but I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. If I was caught, Valar only knew what would happen.

"Tie her hands," Ermone directed, "And put her on a horse."

Was he a fool enough to put me on a horse alone?

I felt my heart pick up again as I tried not to let my eyes widen in hope.

Onduras stirred in my arms as I was pulled to a stand. They bound my hands in front of me so I could still grasp my son, and I was getting more and more certain I could manage to escape if they continued to think me harmless.

Valar, keep their eyes blind to me, I prayed quietly.

They shuffled my son and I enough to put us on a well built mare. My eyes trailed over her and judged her both fit and young. These men were travelers - outlaws as well, most likely. They needed fast horses.

Would this horse fly me to escape?

"We don't have much further to go, Meriel," said a Ermone to the green eyed man who was staring at me with an uncomfortable intensity while the other men readied to leave.

The man's eyes stayed on me as he nodded and I looked away, feeling my stomach begin to churn with an ill feeling in the empty pit.

I frowned at the thought. Onduras remained clung to me and whimpered now and again. I couldn't help but wonder if those whimpers were from fear or from the pains of his empty stomach. If we were not fed soon, escape would be forgotten and survival would be all that mattered.

Sometime Later

Haldir

"I cannot see with these blasted rocks and hills!" Ferevildir growled. The Elf had exceptional sight and I had hoped that he would be able to catch a glimpse of the men we tracked, but as of yet he had been unable.

"It is all right, Ferevildir," I told him as he nimbly skimmed the rocks he stood upon and came back to whatever level ground this horrible place had. "They don't attempt to cover their tracks." And I knew why. They wanted me to follow...

Orophin shifted in his saddle beside me and I glanced his way. He looked distant in thought before his eyes shuddered back to reality and he looked at me. I raised a brow in question.

Orophin shook his head. "It is nothing, Haldir," he told me. "I just worry of Ashk and Onduras."

If only he knew, I thought bitterly.

We'd ridden through the night to try to amend for the day the men had on us, and every time an Orc was heard or spotted, I vaguely wondered if those humans were smart enough to stay to the south roads and not the north. If they traveled any closer to Kazahad-Dum, Orcs festered like disease.

"They cannot be far ahead," Lord Celeborn said, returning with another Warden from scouting ahead. "There is a used camp perhaps four leagues away."

My misery lifted a moment. "How long ago was it abandoned?"

The Warden Pellanore shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Perhaps three or four hours ago," he told me. "They cannot be far. However, by the tracks, they have turned south."

A breath I did not know I was holding released itself. Had they gone north, men crazed by grief were the last thing I would be worried about.

"South?" questioned Kenmar. I looked at him for the surprise in his voice as did others. The Elf who had been among the Galadhrim for nearly as long as I had looked at me in dismay. "They will get no where fast if they go south," he told me. "There's a massive canyon there."

He was right, now that I thought about it. There was no way past that canyon…Unless they were naive enough to try to cross over the few bridges there. But, the bridges were old and had been abandoned due to Orcs years before. The only logical choice would be to turn west and cross at the river town of Endell. However, that town was many leagues from here.

"We can cut them off at the canyon then," I said aloud. "They will have no where run to after that," I added, a fiery bite in my voice that had the occasional wary glance passing through the Galadhrim.

I glanced to Lord Celeborn a brief moment before wheeling my horse about.

Noon

Ashk

Surely my stomach had begun to eat my spine. There was no other way to explain this horrible pain of emptiness. Several times I had fought not to crouch over the saddle in hopes of relieving the horrible ripping feeling.

We had stopped now and it had to be nearly noon. The sun was high even though it was shaded with grim clouds that swirled in the sky. The men were eating and looked as though they didn't have a care in the world as they joked amongst themselves as they ate mid-meal.

Ermone had allowed a small piece of bread to my son and I.

...I had forced myself to take only a bite before watering the slice down and feeding it to my tired and weeping son. Bread and water would be good for him. It would trick his stomach into feeling full.

It had worked apparently. Half-way through with the bread he had stopped crying and I was grateful for it.

My poor baby, I thought as I held him close. He didn't deserve this. He'd done nothing wrong.

A noise trickled through the rocks nearby and my eyes darted to the sound.

For one horrifying moment I thought it would be Haldir to appear from amongst the boulders. I could just see him walking forward...These men would kill him and take joy in it. Could I stand down and watch? If even he begged me to stay aside, could I?

I knew I couldn't wrestle these burly men down, nor could I beat a race against an arrow. A sword would only do me so much good and I was useless with a bow. If I did muster the courage to try to save my husband there was no doubt in my mind I would be joining him in the dead lands and for that, I knew our son would as well.

I shuddered at the thought and looked at the men still having a jolly time. Silently I wanted to curse them to a painful and brutal death and I didn't know if that shamed me, frightened me, or satisfied me.

Again there was a noise in the rocks not far away and this time it caught the attention of the men. I felt my breath freeze in my lungs and my heart trip over itself.

Please no...

I watched with the same avid intensity that the men around me did. Some slowly reached for their swords or bows and I felt panic edge its way at me.

Suddenly, a shadow moved beyond the rocks and a doe bounded forward.

"Meat!" a man shrieked loudly, launching himself for a bow and arrow. Others chorused him and shot wildly at the animal. She jolted in shock before sprinting away, foolish men filled with their ale racing after her, clumsily putting arrows to bows.

Go, Ashk!

The cry within my mind was so sudden, I nearly jumped right off the horse I was on. It was Galadriel who commanded me and I wasn't fool enough not to listen to her.

My horse was tied to a tree by a rope, but her reins were right near my hands. I glanced at the men either chasing after the deer or laughing at each other before I snatched the leather hide reins and rammed my heels into the mare's flanks.

She shrieked in surprise and bolted forward, the rope that had tied her to that tree snapping effortlessly against her panicked sprint.

"No!" I heard Meriel's enraged cry behind me as the mare bolted by the other horses.

My stirrups were too long and the mare was wide under me, but years of riding bareback across lands in sibling races had taught me well enough to ride the half-crazed animal as I was then.

Sprinting up a wide path, I kicked her again and again - demanding she run faster. Her breaths came out in sharp snorts of effort as the wind streaked by us with a razor sharp snap.

Onduras's tiny hands clenched the fabric of my clothes, but he didn't cry no matter how frightened he seemed to be. And if he was nearly as frightened as I was, I knew it was a lot not to weep in bitter fear.

I heard shouting voices behind us and I knew my captors were following. I felt like my chest was being stabbed with a dozen knives every time I breathed in ragged gasps of panic.

"Come on!" I urged the mare as my heels collided with her flanks twice more when she slowed around a sudden turn. She strained and put her head down as we sprinted on an incline.

I glanced back when we bounded to the top and I felt myself gag as I saw a half-dozen men pushing their own horses to speed along after me.

We couldn't be caught - We couldn't!

Something out of the corner of my eye caught my hysterical attention. It was a groove into the mountain's side. Dark, shadowed...A hiding place.

Whipping the mare's head around towards the only safety I could find, I barreled her into the shadows and turned to look at the ledge we'd passed. I backed her as far as I could into the safe hole and it was just barely enough to keep her head hidden.

Though it was cold out, I felt sweat trickle down my back and face. My heart couldn't be controlled and my entire body trembled and quaked as I waited.

When the first of my pursuers came past the ridge, I barely contained a gasp. I clenched my son close as if to shield him. But, the riders dashed up the next veering incline without pause.

I waited, listening as their horses' hooves beat the earth until I couldn't hear them anymore.

Slowly I urged the mare forward again. She flinched and trotted into the light again while I looked up the stone climb my captors had just made.

Turning the mare, I trotted her down the path we had come from and watched the world with a terror-ridden eye as I turned her south past the ridge we descended from.

For some minutes I galloped her at a steady pace. The constant up and downs of the land were sickening, and my heaving breaths made me only remember my fear as the cold air bit against my sweating skin.

Were we safe? Had I outrun them?

The thought was a bare hint of hope as we remained riding alone for some time.

Feeling some light of hope that we'd escaped our captors, I slowed the mare to a trot then a walk. She was breathing heavily and sweat soaked her chestnut coat. My hands were still bound and I could not reach forward to pat her neck.

"Good girl," I murmured breathlessly. "Good girl."

Slowly the afternoon sank deeper and the day grew colder. I fought with my bonds of rope but could not free myself. I was too scared to stop and attempt to rub them free on a sharp stone or whatever else I could find.

I couldn't stop. Something was still screaming for me to continue on.

Haldir

"Haldir," Orophin said quietly.

The company we were in were taken well needed rest. But, the Galadhrim seemed uneasy. I knew many of them had at least one foul experience in these mountains. Valar knew I would put this to the top of my vast list.

However, my thoughts were broken as Orophin nudged me and I looked at him before following his pointing hand.

Some sort of noise left me, what it was I didn't know. However, as I stared at that dark horse and its young rider, I felt something in me churn.

Donavon was tracking his uncle just as we were. And with the way the boy was staring into the distance, it was obvious that he had not found him nor his group of troublesome men yet.

"Should we apprehend him?" Orophin asked quietly.

I paused before shaking my head. "He has his demons to deal with," I murmured just as softly. Orophin gave me a look as though he would disagree, but he didn't argue. I cleared my throat. "He has reason to be angry," I said, "But he is a good person at heart...He won't cause us any problems."

Orophin frowned. "I don't know, Brother. Under the influence of that mad-man who is his uncle, the boy may be a threat."

I looked back to the ridge the boy and Black had been on, but it was now empty. I only shook my head. "No," I replied simply.

Orophin sighed but looked away and silence fell.

However, in that silence, my thoughts bloomed again.

Somewhere in me, I nearly understood these men. Their families had been killed brutally and it was very much my fault ... Wasn't it? Was it not my arrogance to the men who had come in question that led them astray?

It made a horrible sense that they had every intention of making me feel their pain as my punishment. It made sense really...Sickening but true.

My child was just that...A child. Innocent, pure, unstained by the world we lived in. There was no reason for him to be harmed by all this. Would there not be days to come when he grew into adulthood and make me proud? Would my secret longing to have him following his family's tradition to be a Galadhrim become true?

Foolish, I thought with a bitter smile. Yet, was it not nearly every father's dream for his son to one day take his place in the world? I would not be March Warden forever and I'd once looked to my brother Orophin to take my place, but now I secretly wished for my son to rise to the challenge.

And when he was disgruntled by missions or when he felt the bitter sting of losing soldiers under his command, I would sit with him under the great trees of Caras Galadhon and tell him stories that would give him hope once more;ales to give him back his purpose. I'd encourage him as a father should.

Would that not be a beautiful fate? In a perfect world, would that not be the path I walked? If he was killed because of my mistakes - because of me - I would never forgive myself.

And if his mother was killed because of me, never would I even be able to breathe her name.

What a bitter fool I was. She didn't ask much of me. She didn't press me to commit anything I didn't want to. Unless, of course I thought with a smile, it was something around the house. Ashk particularly enjoyed it when I grumbled my way out to the barn to clean out her horse's stall.

Dishes, the garden, the animals...I had always silently enjoyed the times we worked alongside each other. I knew she did too. Why I had not acted when I had the chance was a stinging blow to me now. Why I had locked away any remote feeling I had for her was a question burning me.

I feared fading away as my mother had. Though now I couldn't help but wonder if this pain of knowing I had brushed aside what I needed most in the world was not greater than the grief of withering away. Did it not sting more that I had never held her just for the sake of loving her - never having kissed her just because she laughed?

"Haldir," Lord Celeborn's voice reached me as he stood at my side.

"My lord," I replied, looking to him and shaking away my thoughts.

Celeborn cleared his throat as if he was uncomfortable a moment before he finally took a breath and said, "They're not gone forever just yet, Warden. Do not linger in dark places where a troubled mind takes you. Your wife and child need you to be strong and focused for them now."

I couldn't manage to say anything in return as he stared at me, boring his wise eyes into mine. Finally, I shifted my weight and nodded. He nodded in return and motioned to the Galadhrim.

"We are waiting on your command, March Warden," he told me, pledging his loyalty to me in words gone unsaid.

It was me this time to clear my throat uncomfortably. "..Thank you, my lord," I said quietly. "For a great many things."

A bit of surprise trickled into his eyes before I turned away to ready my horse.

My brooding and troublesome thoughts left behind, I felt some sort of calm weight bare over me and any doubt of not saving Onduras and Ashk fled my mind. There was no possibility for me that they would not be all right after this. They had to be safe again soon. They had to.

Ashk

It was nearly dusk. The sky above was a deep grey now and the air had a biting chill now. I could see my breath with every exhale and I trembled in cold having no cloak on to break the frosty air.

However, the farther I got from where I'd run from, the more paranoid I became now. There had been a dozen times where I would swear that I'd heard something behind me. Times when I swear I heard whispered voices trickling along the mountainside were driving me mad.

"..M...Ma...Amam. Ama."

I looked down at my son with a sudden and bittersweet smile. He peered at me and I had the ridiculous urge to just sob. I was so tired and cold and hungry...And now my son just said the only name he'd ever call me by and I was in the middle of nowhere with no one to share the moment with.

"Silly boy," I whispered quietly, tears brimming as I kissed his head. "You had to wait until now?"

He stared at me and I heard myself laugh softly at him, his bright blue eyes piercing my misery for a moment.

However, that moment was shattered as I heard the sound of horses not far behind me.

I turned in the saddle just in time to see Meriel speeding his horse down the steep mountain slopes I had just descended. He was hollering something at me, or perhaps at the men who followed him.

The mare under me jolted, knowing she had to run.

I let the reins down to her neck as she leapt forward. However, the day of hard riding had left her tired and the other horses gained fast.

Desperate, I steered her back towards the steep mountain slopes hoping I could lose Meriel and his men in the mountain paths once again.

The mare's muscles quivered as soon as we hit the incline. To my horror, the ground moved and revealed in the shadowed dusk that it was not solid, but gravel instead.

I heard myself cry out for her to push on and she tried, her prodded screech echoing as she strained to move upward in the sliding rocks. There had to be mining tunnels nearby if there was gravel. Surely if we made it up the slope, I could hide in those!

The mare screeched again as her back feet slipped out from under her and she collapsed.

I screamed as we were flung from her back - stirrups too long to hold me down. Desperate to protect my son, I took the brunt of our fall on my back.

The gravel moved like racing water under us and we skidded downward, my terrified eyes spotting Meriel just waiting to slid into his grasp.

I couldn't reach out to grab anything with my hands tied around my child. He was wailing in fright as we slid to the bottom of the slope.

I hadn't even stopped before hands reached forward, yanking my child from my arms. He screamed and it was motherly instinct that made me lunge of the man who took him. However, strong hands grabbed me, crushing me to a broad and hard body. I wheeze for air as everyone was yelling and cursing.

"Curse you, you little whore!" the man who clutched me shouted, throwing me to the ground. Something collided with my gut only a moment later and I gagged, gasping for air before I was hauled to a stand again.

"I warned you! I warned you!" Meriel shouted at me and the sound of my son crying seemed to be distancing before I realized they were taking him away. "Why did you run!"

"I will not be a prop!" I shouted back, wriggling wildly to get away from his grasp. "You can't use us!"

"Fool!" he hollered, shaking me and throwing me to the ground again. "I warned you!" he shouted again, baring down on me and the back of his hand clipped my face with a throbbing heat. Blood immediately assailed my mouth and my ears rang.

"I will teach you to take my word for granted," he hissed at me, his fists clenching.

In the shadow of the mountain, the echo of his beating silenced everything.

Night

Haldir

We were all silent in the quiet night we hid among. We watched without words or movement. The humans did not even know we were near.

Kenmar had been right, they did collide with the gorge.

However, I had been wrong. The gorge did not stop them. They had crossed its shadowed ravine somehow, though I didn't know how.

When Orophin and Ferevildir returned from higher ground, they told me just how those men had crossed.

Westward only so many yards from their camp, hidden in the shadow of their fires, there was a rope bridge. It was newly constructed, my brother and Ferevildir both agreed.

Any ideas of crossing there were hopeless. The land before the gorge was fairly flat now that we were near the outside of the Misty Mountains. No one could approach that sliver in the earth without being spotted beforehand.

However, there was no moon out this night; it was instead veiled with thick clouds. In the covered shadow of night, it was possible that one could pass over the land without being seen until it was too late.

"Do we risk it?" Kenmar asked quietly as I peered through the darkness at the men who were casually camped on the other side of the gorge, obviously not expecting us quite so early.

I didn't see Ashk or my son anywhere.

"Depends on if we have the choice," I replied.

The husband and father in me wanted to charge across that field and slaughter every one of those men for what they'd done; for the fear they'd put in my family.

However, the part of me that was and always had been March Warden stayed put to watch the situation. If there was immediate danger to captives, swift movement was a must. If there was no danger, patience was key.

Time crawled by and the night grew deeper. The clouds above us all rumbled and churned. Occasionally a flash of lightning would better reveal the campsite we watched.

And as an hour turned by, I still did not see my wife and child. It was as though they simply were not among the group.

Had those men cast them off? Had they been killed - Perhaps escaped?

Another quarter of an hour trickled by and slowly, rain from the skies began to drum down onto the earth. The occasional lightning streaked the sky or merely lit the clouds in a late autumn storm. Puffs of air vented from us with every breath as every second slowly dragged by me.

"Warden, look!" Ferevellon hissed suddenly, smacking my arm and pointing towards the outside of the pack of men. The sound of a child's cry stabbed me as if grinding through my ribs and piercing my heart.

A man lifted my son from next to what looked like a saddle on the now muddy earth. Onduras cried again and I felt myself shift as if an animal about to pounce. Celeborn's hand clamped on my shoulder but his eyes were strained in the direction of the men and my son.

"I don't see Ashk anywhere," Orophin breathed in dismay.

Relief battled with anxiety as I saw my son. He was alive - yet where was his mother when he cried?

"We need to get on that side of the gorge," I said lowly, my voice a cold vibration like steel. My eyes darted along the landscape before Ferevellon nudged me, his eyes on the mountain steeps.

"I think I know how," he murmured to me.

Ashk

At first, I felt numb and didn't know if I was still sleeping, or if I was just waking.

Yet, as another convulsion of trembling quivers shook over my body, I knew I was awake. And, good lord, everything ached.

My muscles were coiled painfully in the cold air and it took me a moment to realize that I was also soaking wet. It was raining. No, it wasn't just raining. It was sleeting.

My hands were behind my back and wrapped around the only possible tree in the area. There were boulders and dried stumps, but I was positioned under the only tree I could see. Freezing water dripped from the large leaves and crashed onto me.

I shook uncontrollably and I could only hear my captors nearby, but I couldn't see them up the hill from me. The reflection of their fires cast off into the night making me only shiver more.

I could hear my son every few minutes, gurgling or saying things unintelligible even when the pounding of my heart drown him and every other noise out.

...We would die here. That murderous rage in Meriel's eyes would haunt me in my nightmares if I happened to live through this. That uncontrollable hate he had was devastating and it shook me to the core.

Valar, will you not protect my daughter in years to come? I asked silently, Will you not see to it that she leads a great life?...And that she and her father keep each other company and in good spirits?

Silence was my only answer and I felt suddenly so very alone. My mind trailed to my sisters, my parents, my daughter, my brothers-in-law, my husband, my son...And I drifted in and out of the waking world.

And then, some small glimmer of light shimmered in the darkness. In night, a bright light slipped through the rain and ice. And as the shadows of the night pulled away, they revealed a figure nearing.

I tried to focus on him but sleep and my battered head kept me fading in and out. All I knew was that I stared at some perfect creature nearing me; elegantly etched with a fluent beauty only the greatest of craftsmen held; Pure and bright in the night when I could see nothing but shadowed darkness.

Surely this was my answer from the Valar. They'd sent me an angel.

My eyes closed and time must have lapsed as, suddenly, there was a presence close and I felt the air shift as someone moved near me.

"Ashk."

His whispered voice shook away the fogs that clouded my mind and I opened my eyes.

My body quaked in shock. "Haldir," I gasped as he stared at me as if in as much shock as I was.

"Ashk," he whispered again, his hands rising and brushing against my face that blared with pain the moment he touched. I jerked away. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I'm sorry."

His eyes darted behind me before he said, "I am going to untie you. When I do, you must run as fast as you can straight behind me. Orophin and others are waiting for you."

"Everything's going to be all right," I murmured, not to him but to myself. Hope flickered in me.

"Yes, everything will be fine," he told me, his hands gently probing down my arms and reaching the knot. Tender flesh rubbed into blisters and blood made me jolt with surprised pain. I saw Haldir grimace as he worked the knot free as fire flared up my arms.

Finally, the rope released and I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned forward, surprised when Haldir's arms slid around me rather than pushing me to a stand.

"You're all right," he said quietly. And even as I soaked in his tender affection, I couldn't help but feel he was assuring more himself than me. "You'll be fine."

A cry of a child shook me and I pushed myself away from him. "Haldir, our baby – You'll save our baby?"

He nodded. "Yes, Ashk," he told me. "But you must go now. Do not stop running until Orophin has you, understood?"

I nodded and he stood, bringing me with him.

Yet, even as we stood a shadow passed from the fire light upon the hill.

"Ermone - Meriel! Someone's down there!"

The deep voice cracked through us like a whip as the hill above us suddenly dotted with men.

- - -

Erm...Well? I'm getting nervous now. I'm only pages away from being done with this story and I feel so ... odd. Lol!

Hope to hear any thoughts and comments!

Next update: Sunday, January 16th