Nightchaser

Nightchaser's POV

Orocarni, TA 2906

High up in the sky a hawk circled slowly. I watched it intently, bound to the earth, willing the bird to give me some information. I could almost see the sharp head turning, cocking a bright yellow eye at me. The hawk wheeled into a dive.

Abruptly I was with him, watching as if from the bird's back. The ground flew up to meet us, and blackness surrounded me. A silky, warm blackness, out of the midst of which the stars rose up, dividing the dark into sky and earth again. Now as the hawk itself I circled noiselessly in that night, staring down at the dark lands beneath. There was no moon.

Mountains and forests resolved themselves as I swooped lower, into a valley, and wheeled there on a height with the timberline of the surrounding mountains. There was a clearing, and in it, figures were fighting. I drew closer, feeling the wind under my wings, carrying me. I came as close as the hawk would let me…then I was too close, and the vision changed abruptly into starless blackness once more. Before I could swear, though, wingless, not even a spirit-shape anymore, I heard sounds. In a brief flash, I saw the two brothers, surrounded, in that clearing I had seen before. There were orc voices, screams of the dying – Raven's voice shouting, hoarsely, without words, and the clash of steel on steel. Steel…I saw Niy'ashi going down, clutching a ragged orc blade, screaming something. Wings beat about me, buffeted me, black wings and then brown, and I was carried upwards rapidly.

I woke in bright sunlight, under a shelter of twined branches. The soft sounds of the camp whispered faintly about me. Panting, I rolled out from under the shelter and got to my feet, feeling cold sweat prickling all over my body. With a startled screech, a small hawk fluttered from his perch in the neighbouring tree, driving himself upward with powerful wing-beats. He vanished into the brilliance of the rising sun. Shaken and very cold I stood shivering in the bright morning.

"Look for him!" Kelehan demanded "You must, you are khai'noch!" He was pale and drawn, and anger did not make him a favourable partner in dispute. I nodded, trying to remain calm in the face of the other's agitation.

"I am, and I will. But you must at least leave me my own time to do so, Kelehan. Right now-" I could not finish my explanation "Show me how to do it! Now. I will try then, I felt his death, but Raven at least lives still-"

"No" I snapped, silencing the other at last with my sharpness "You won't even touch malanela, ever. I was neither myself nor hawk when I saw what I saw. It was too far away, much too far. Malanela-herb for the Searching is poison to your kind, and you know it. I need this day, Kelehan, or chances are I wander too far to get back. And a fat lot of good that will do either you or Raven"

Kelehan turned away for a moment, reigning in his emotions "What can I do?"

"Help me find and prepare the leaves, and watch while I am Searching. If something goes wrong, you must call me back"

The shadow-paths had availed little, only a faint echo, a faint confirmation that he who I looked for still lived. But where, and how – I had to find out yet. Exhausted, I left the farthest edge of the shadow-paths, and floundered in darkness again. There was no hawk here to guide me anymore, the Other Wind that had carried me in the dream, that carried the Hawk, had failed here. I did not know where I was. This place had no name. There was nothing here except me and maybe the goal I sought. Only malanela could get me here, so far away from my body that even the hawk was gone. I would have to seek out and down at the same time, trying to see the lands that would only be shadow here. All at once, the blackness around me got cold and clammy, and what had seemed black before now became a nothing that already again was something. I recoiled. I could go no further, forward or back, as if frozen in water. Then the ice seemed to shatter around me, burst into thousands of sharp fragments. Screaming and in pain, I woke to Kelehan shouting for me to come back, shaking me. There seemed to be cold water in my lungs and I could not draw breath. I opened my eyes and the ice became light, the splinters sunbeams that sent lances of pain through my skull. I twisted away from the brightness but did not close my eyes again unless the cold darkness came back. I could hear my own ragged breath now and knew I had returned. From wherever. I clung to Kelehan's soft, frightened voice after the absolute black silence. Slowly, I realised I did not understand a word. I drew a deep breath, and forced my drained body to roll over „Kelehan, I can walk the shadow-paths and ask the Other Wind for news of him, but I still can't speak Khai'tho's language" I whispered, looking up at the other's face above me. Kelehan stared at me utterly blank for a moment, than gave a short, desperate laugh, realising he had spoken Quenya, after all these centuries. He leaned down and held me close until we could both breathe normally again.

"I'm sorry, shaman, I was blabbering. I thought I would never get you back. And it was me who made you go there"

I shook my head, now daring to close my eyes against the cruel sunlight "It is my obligation to go there, not your fault. But you were right, something was wrong. I did something wrong. I went too far when I could not find him where he should have been"

Kelehan was silent and very still for a while "What do you mean?"

"Not that he is dead, I do not mean that. He is alive, but that is all I can say with certainty. Where, how, I do not know. I am sorry"

"And what can we do now?"

"Bar of going out looking, nothing but wait"

Again, Kelehan was silent. I sat up gingerly and shivering wrapped my arms around myself. I looked at Kelehan "No, Kelehan, that is not a good idea. Not at all"

Kelehan stared at me hard, then relaxed "You're right" he said bleakly "I know nothing of the world out there anymore. Even less than anyone else of our clan. All I knew will be gone and changed now. So there is nothing I can do at all, is there, Nightchaser?"

"Stay with me awhile. I will ask for the Hawk again, but I can not do it for a time. I am weary"

"What…what happened?"

"I don't know. I really don't. But conscious searching avails nothing. I can only wait if the hawk will show me more. Sometime"

"We cannot…even do the Hawk Dance for him"

I looked at Kelehan for a moment, but he did not notice. Under the black pattern of the akhai he was pale and his eyes still red from weeping.

"Khai'toh" I said softly "Not yet. Not without Raven"

We sat side by side, silently again. The sun sank, and cool dusk turned into a cold night. Finally, I stirred "I am hungry, Kelehan. Come with me, and let us get something to eat"

Chapter notes:

Malanela: a herb, lit. "deep sleep"

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