After a moment of spirited running through the woods, Dorion and Laurëa came upon a small village nestled on a hill. Dorion surveyed the land before stepping out in the open. He stopped Laurëa.
"Do you have anything on you that may mark the realm of Hunvel?"
He knew he did, and with that he pulled off his wrist guards and placed them in his bag. The rest of him would be covered in a cloak, although it would look odd for him to be cloaked in the day time.

Laurëa frowned at the Prince as he removed his wrist guards, the only conspicuous sign of his nobility. She was irritated that he was ignorant enough to ask such a ridiculous question. "Well, I'll just remove the emblem of the house of Leeum right off my cheek then, shall I? Of course I mark the realm of Hunvel!" she snapped.

Dorion laughed. Indeed, she did. "We will have to hide your face, dear girl." He put her hair tightly around her face, making a sort of hood out of her white-blonde locks, much to the girl's protest.
Spotting an inn close by, Dorion took a step toward it, but before he could even think of what they were to do in the inn and what they may do afterward, a terrible ruckus came from inside the small building. Dorion pulled Laurëa to him and protected her from view. Three young people ran from inside and out into the woods. Dorion peered at them curiously; two had red hair.
"Gerard and Anita?"
With a surge of exhilaration, Dorion pulled Laurëa with him after the group. It seemed as he ran that Laurëa was confused, perhaps unsure if she wished to continue on another wild goose chase. He looked back briefly; a dark looking group of Men and Elves were on their tails…

Tirithiel ran after her master and his associates who were chasing the Prince and his cohorts who strangely seemed to be increasing in number as they ran. After a few hard minutes of running, the young group managed to duck amongst the buildings and they were far enough ahead that they could not be followed anymore.
"Search the town. We must get them before they get away," Authon snarled, pointing in the directions that his henchmen should go.
"Master?" Tirithiel said, timidly. He glanced at her and she took it as a cue to continue. "I think if I went and talked with them...perhaps I could delay them? Of course, I wouldn't tell them I was working for you, Master."
Authon considered it. "Very well," he grunted down at Tirithiel, clearly making an effort to hide his pleasure at her cleverness. "You will delay them. Do whatever you can. Kill them, if you must," he pulled from his cloak a long knife in a sheath and thrust it into her trembling hands.

Gerard was dragging his sister and Ronin behind him. When Laurëa and Dorion joined them in their race for escape, he couldn't help but smile. What a chase! he thought to himself.

Anita ducked under a beam and motioned for the others to follow. "I have been to this town before. I know of a way out!"

Gerard vaguely remembered coming here, but Anita had always had the amazing long term memory. He followed her blindly until she pulled up a well-hidden board. It was attached by rusty hinges to the ground, and it was situated beneath a staircase.

"This way." Anita pointed to the hideaway and disappeared inside. The others followed shortly, and she shut the trap door behind them. "Quickly!" She hurried along and grabbed a torch off the wall. They were all forced to hunch down, though they still went at a fast pace. Anita stopped shortly to light the torch, and continued silently.

Gerard was looking around intently. "How'd you find this, Anita?" he asked curiously.

The redheaded girl sighed. Her brother was never rightly worried; his optimistic outlook on life annoyed her greatly sometimes. "I was exploring under the staircase and the last user had left it open. I fell in," she said somewhat sheepishly. "The next trap door is out of the city gates, it's not far, we have to hurry though."

Dorion was somewhat surprised that Anita knew of this passage and that they had escaped so quickly. All of their breathing and the heavy darkness of the tunnel, despite the torch, weighed on Dorion.
Listening to the two redheads talking, he questioned, "Why would this trap door lead to the outside of Hunvel? What purpose does it hold?" He suddenly felt as if they may have wandered into a trap. What if Authon owns this place?

Ronin followed warily through the passageway. They were coming upon the exit soon.
"Wait!" he called to Anita, who was in the lead. "You should let me go out first. Dorion is right to question what this tunnel is used for. It could be a trap."

"No, Ronin," Dorion said in a whisper, "Let me do it. Perhaps I can play the element of surprise on them."
Dorion expected Ronin to obey, but in light of the recent events and the very fact that he had ran away in the first place, Dorion didn't believe that he would listen. Nevertheless, he stepped forward.

"Do you want to tell me what is going on here?" Laurëa demanded as she followed Prince Dorion. She touched her hair and pulled it out of the tight knot the Prince had put it in. "First you ridiculously plaster my hair to my face, you whisk me to some slum of an inn, then you yank me through streets claiming we're running for our lives, and now you're talking about some surprise attack on the ones who set us up in a trap. What will you do next, hold a knife to my throat and ask me to marry you?" she fumed.

Dorion laughed under his breath. "You silly girl, I wouldn't ask you to marry me even if you held a knife to my neck!" He playfully squeezed her hand, from which she drew away forcefully.

Laurëa scowled at the Prince and yanked her hand out of his vigorously, muttering curses under her breath. He had beaten her that time, she had to admit. They were even now, it seemed.
"I hope that as soon as you are done playing your little games you can return me home at once so I may inform my father of all this," she snarled. That was rather weak coming from me, Laurëa thought glumly as she continued to glare at the Prince in the dark.

With the knife tucked at her waist amid the folds of her skirt, Tirithiel rushed for the city gates.
There are only two ways out of this town. The gates and the passageway. They headed in the direction of the passageway last, but they could've doubled back. Reaching the gates as quickly as she could, and hopefully quicker than they could, she waited in between the gates and the trapdoor, trying to catch her breath and thinking quickly.

As Dorion and Laurëa squabbled, Gerard hurried past them. "Stay here, I have a bad feeling about something. I'm going up." He ducked back through the tunnel, and upon emerging was surprised to see the attractive barmaid standing there conspicuously. He took a deep breath and strolled over to her.

"Hi, Tirithiel, remember me? Geran? I was wondering if you've seen my friends, the sick boy that thinks he's a prince? A red head girl?" It was obvious that he had just come out of the tunnel, as there was nothing else down the street, but he hoped that his diversion would work.
His instincts were usually correct, and he had figured out that one mug wouldn't get Ronin drunk. There was something fishy going on, and he had a feeling that Tirithiel was somehow part of it.

Tirithiel was surprised to see that Geran had come out of the trapdoor when she wasn't looking. She managed to keep cool, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead as she tucked her hair behind her ears.
"No, I haven't seen them, but I don't think they've left town. I got a new job, you see. My father showed up at the bar soon after you left and said he didn't like the look of the place. I work here at the gates now. Kind of like a welcoming committee," she smiled, satisfied that she had come up with a cover story quickly.

Gerard nodded. "Alright…Your father seems to be kind of protective."
He felt that neither of them really believed each other, and yet they both seemed to want to continue the ridiculous facades. Her working at the gate? Right...Yet his excuses were no better. He needed to get out of there.
"Well, I'm going to go look for them. Strange, I was standing there in the town square and they all took off. Better retrace my steps and see if they're around there. You know if there's a short cut to the town square down that way?" He attempted a grin as he wandered off.
When Gerard reached the trap door again and found the others, he hurried them out. "I hope you have another idea Anita because we're busted."

Anita looked around, unsure. "The roof?" she muttered.

"Have you gone daft?" Gerard exclaimed quietly.

"No," Anita replied indignantly. "Nobody ever looks up. Come on." With that, she led the way to a nearby building, high enough to be hidden from view once on the roof but low enough to climb. Anita first climbed the stairs, then edged onto a beam that lay around the walls. She held onto the ramparts and swung herself up, then crouched on the edge of the roof motioned for the others to join her.

"She honestly expects me to climb up a building?" Gerard said to nobody in particular, though he hurried up the stairs to start the tricky climb.

Dorion looked back toward Laurëa, who was lagging behind and skeptically watching Anita scale the building. "Funny, we seem to be left behind all the time." He took her by the hand again and pulled her firmly to the wall. He watched as Anita made her daring escape to the roof tops while waiting to begin climbing.
"She is quiet agile for a human, is she not?" he questioned Laurëa casually. Without waiting for a reply, he said, "We should probably go up, although I am concerned about you. Can you climb at all, or do I have to carry you?"

Laurëa was becoming quite tired of being yanked along every which way by the arrogant Prince. She ignored his complimenting that red-headed coquette, but smirked inwardly. Trying to make me jealous, dear Prince? she almost asked aloud.
"As much as I know you would love to hold and cradle me in your arms again," Laurëa said to the Prince, her eyes glinting dangerously, "I think I can quite manage on my own."
She pushed her way in front of him rudely and looked for a sturdy foothold to begin her ascent. Once she did so, she grasped a wooden beam and---with as much dignity as she could muster---began an odd sort of shimmy up the wall, which soon became increasingly difficult as she realized she was still in her nightgown and had never shimmied, much less up a wall, in her life.

Anita almost laughed...almost, but she did manage to keep a straight face. Gerard and his sister were crouched low, and when Laurëa reached the top, Anita surprisingly helped her up, though the stuffy girl was rather reluctant to take her hand.
Once Laurëa was up and haughtily poised on the roof, Anita leaned over the edge, her red hair falling around her. "Ronin!" she called softly. "Come on! You too Dorion!"

Dorion began to climb. Made it look too easy, he thought with a glance toward his brother behind him as he made it up within moments. Dorion planted his feet firmly on the roof and settled down with the others. The view from up here was a splendid one; he could see the entire village, the forests all around, and a group of riders coming into the town. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the riders. Though they were cloaked, their dark dress did not hide the maliciousness that seemed to flow from them toward the village. Dorion inhaled sharply. The riders were advancing.

It had been almost a full day since the children had gone. Hunvel was in a state of shock; the residents were trying to go about their normal lives but no one seemed to be focused.
Lady Hiranneth stood on a palace patio facing the east sky. It was a beautiful day, but something inside of her told her to be on watch. A mother's instincts are never wrong. She knew well enough that the children were alright, but something else was askew.

Kiran came up behind her, close to her, wrapping her in his arms. He breathed her scent in deeply and sighed. "It's a lovely evening, is it not?"

Hiranneth said sadly, "All the more lonely than lovely."

Kiran nestled his head on her shoulder. There was silence all around…There was nothing.

Watchers, sat in the trees, scanning the area for the ambush. The troop leader, Brunien, was crouched in a near by shrub talking lowly to his men.
"Make sure that when we attack there are no hesitations. Authon will not want a weak link anywhere."
Murmuring agreement, all 150 outcasts, both Men and Elves, climbed their trees and hid. Their eyes caught the light of the sun that was slowly setting behind the massive palace.

Hiranneth looked longingly at the forest one last time before the sun would finally set. Suddenly she caught sight of a human form, glinting eyes staring at her. She froze.

Kiran felt her fear. "What's wrong?"

Before she could say anything, a terrible sound emanated from the forest edge. Harsh war cries stung her ears and made her heart stop. Elves in the square were being caught left and right. They tried to fight but there were too many attackers.
Both Hiranneth and Kiran were seized and pulled away from each other. Hiranneth's captor laughed in her ear. "Hello doll," he cackled wickedly.
She kicked at him and got away, running down the corridor and into the gardens. She tripped over a pot and landed hard. Getting up in pain, she looked up and saw horse legs in front of her. She strained her head up and saw a familiar but dreaded face...Authon.

"Hello, Hiranneth," he said sweetly. "Fancy finding you here." The men behind him laughed cruelly.

Hiranneth did not speak; she simply stared, mouth agape.
Authon got off his horse and gave her a hand up. She took it reluctantly. Authon was different in apperance now that he had lived a hard life in exile. His face was still young but a sinister glare came from his cold eyes. His hair was done in braids and knots. He also had a scar on his right cheek; that she did remember. In the heat of the battle of Authon's uprising, as Kiran and Leeum were both in a sword battle with Authon, Leeum had cut the rebel's face, making Authon wince in pain and fall. Authon and his followers had been successfully cast out of Hunvel because of that one stroke.
Blinking back memories, Hiranneth finally spoke. "What makes you think that your presence here will be accepted by us?"

Authon smiled and got back up on his horse. Pulling the reigns he called out, demanding the attention of all the Elves. The captors let go of their captives. A hush fell upon them all, tension hovering in the air like fog.
"Attention Elves of Hunvel, my friends and brothers alike," he called out in a voice of command. "It has come to my attention that something terrible has happened in the last couple of days."
The town was on edge. "The disappearance of your dear Princes...Does that ring a bell to anyone?"

The silence was unbearable. Hiranneth's eyes burned. If Authon had anything to do with this, she would personally kill him herself.

"I heard and came immediately to Hunvel to mourn with you, but on my way I found out something of interest...," continued Authon. He snapped his fingers and two burly men dragged a beaten up Leeum from out of the crowd to the front. A gasp overtook the Elves of Hunvel.

Hiranneth's eyes widened. "What have you done to him?"

Authon became grave, "Surely you must mean what has he done to you. And to all of us." Hiranneth gulped, but said nothing. "This man you call Steward," he spit in Leeum's face with a snarl, "murdered the Princes and plans to take the throne!"
The audience went into an uproar, crying in outrage and demanding proof. Authon whistled loudly above all the cries and a lone shadow crossed the sky above him and Hiranneth. Hiranneth looked up to see a large hawk, black with brown feather tips come soaring down onto Authon's arm and give a loud screech of a cry. Its eyes were golden, and in its black beak it held a small piece of jewelry. Authon took it the glittering metal and stroked the bird.
"This," he said at long last, "was found on the property of Steward Leeum and Lady Ahéawan, thanks to the help of my followers. Does it look familiar my lady?"

Hiranneth was handed the small ring the bird once held. With a start, Hiranneth realized it was Dorion's. This did show Dorion was present at Leeum's house the night of his disappearance, but what did it mean? Was Laurëa with him?
"This doesn't prove anything Authon," Hiranneth said firmly.

Authon frowned but motioned for the Elf maid that had first found the Princes missing to approach. She examined it for a moment, then exclaimed to the crowd, "It is Prince Dorion's ring! Why would he not be wearing his ring if Leeum did not want it for spoils!"
The crowd, confused by this evidence, began to cry out, most in anger, lashing out with words of insult at Leeum.

Hiranneth bowed her head and began to cry. "Valar, be with him," she whispered low.

After a moment Authon turned to Hiranneth and asked loudly of everyone, "Why does a mother weep for the murderer of her sons?"
The multitude of people gathered around them increased their shouts of anger, their accusations, and their demands of "Why?"

Hiranneth gave no answer.
A cry went up, piercing and hateful. "Hiranneth must go! She killed her sons in spirit!" The cry was soon joined until it overpowered all else.

What can I do? thought Hiranneth hopelessly. Her people were right to be angry. They had their right to be suspicious and uncertain. Leeum did have a haunting past. She was a mortal ruling Elves. With despair, Hiranneth hung her head in defeat. Authon had all the cards in his hands now.