As Legolas and Anié walked into the room, they saw that many men of the court were already there. They all stood to greet them. With one polite bow of his head, they acknowledged their presences and they sat down. Anié smiled as she saw her friend, Maeglin, bow down to her with a smile on his face.
Maeglin was, without doubt, Anié's best and most loyal friend. She had known him for years beyond count and they had gone through many difficult times together. Anié's family had rejected her and Maeglin lived alone – as all his family had been killed by marauding Orcs – so they dwelt together in a little cave, often hoping for death. One day, whilst on a scout, Legolas found the cave and there found Anié, which was where they first met. Legolas took Anié to shelter, but Maeglin remained hidden, as he feared the outside world greatly, as did Anié for a time. Until a few years ago, Anié did not even know that Maeglin was still alive, but by chance, they met in Mirkwood after numerous years of separation.
The couple placed one hand on their chests and bowed to the King, who bowed his head back in return, gesturing to them to sit beside him. The bodyguard of the King, Idhrenion, a loyal elven guard, remained standing beside the King. Once Legolas and Anié had taken their seats, the council meeting began.
Thranduil stood to speak:
"I apologize for calling you all so urgently and my thanks that you have all come so loyally, but I have called you here to discuss an important and seriously grave matter."
"As you may have heard, all of the scouts sent out from the last scouting trip have disappeared. It is too dangerous to send a search party after them, but I am sure you will all agree with me when I say this has to end!"
Shouts and cheers of agreement filled the room.
"Erynion" called the King.
One of the Elves of the council, Erynion, one of the scout leaders, stood and turned his eyes towards the King.
"How many have we now lost?" asked the King, secretly dreading the answer.
The elf thought for a brief moment and then answered: "Countless, my liege, but an exact figure would be around thirty".
The King nodded and the elf sat back down.
"This is too many. We cannot risk losing anymore. We do not know what fate these brave soldiers are left to" the King continued, "nor do we know where they are or who is taking them, but I will not allow my people to be simply picked off one by one and taken from their wives and families!"
More shouts of agreement erupted from all areas of the Hall. Thranduil waited for the noise to die down before continuing:
"I wish to discover what is happening to our soldiers and sending out more troops to look for those already missing is futile and only sending more sheep to the slaughter house, but I see only one option: this afternoon, I intend to travel to the place where our soldiers keep disappearing and find out who or what is there".
"No!" was Legolas' immediate response.
He stood and faced his father.
"Ada, I must protest – we cannot lose you. Whatever or whoever is doing this, we could be walking right into the heart of their trap".
Thranduil considered Legolas' words in his mind before saying:
"Who will come with me to discover the source of this evil?"
Many were hesitant, much to Thranduil's displeasure. After a moment's pause, the voice of a wise member of the council spoke up:
"May I suggest, your Highness, that it may first be prudent to establish what exactly the threat might be before attempting to find it?"
"A wise suggestion" Thranduil responded.
"Any suggestions?"
Silence once again as everyone delved deep in thought.
"Well…" a more experienced member of the council began, "it is clear that it is not a single person doing this - they would've been spotted by now".
"It is possible it could be some evil from the South" another council member spoke up, an Elf Legolas recognised as one of the military leaders, "but we have seen no uprisings, save the occasional groups who constantly pose a small and occasional threat, and any advances would have been noted and reported by scouts".
Agreement rippled through all those present, save one:
"Is it not possible that each uprising has achieved in obliterating our defences, thus preventing any news coming from scouts?" asked a slightly cynical member who was more afraid of evil from the South than most.
"One or perhaps two events could happen" replied the military Elf, "but every single event is simply not possible!"
"Could sorcery be involved?" suggested a younger and newer member of the Council.
"But from whom?" another more experienced and more grounded member asked.
"The dark menace in the South is more than capable of performing such malice" the younger Elf responded, his seriousness and the truthfulness of his statement filled himself and other members with dread.
"Another important question that is not being asked is where the bodies are going" pointed out the same Elf who had suggested the members discuss those possibly responsible. The fact that he used the word 'bodies', implying they had been obliterated increased the gloominess of the ambience and the council's general dislike of his tone.
Another Elf agreed:
"They cannot simple disappear, and no-one has found any corpses, so one can only assume they are being captured and hidden somewhere".
"If we knew the answer to that question, we would not be here discussing it" Maeglin put bluntly but quite rightly.
Despite his chastising comment, numerous members of the council continued on debating where their missing soldiers could possibly be (some of the suggestions made were deemed absurd, such as the bodies being sent off downstream into unknown lands or being eaten) and who could be responsible. Their debating seemed to go on for hours and appeared endless; Thranduil contributed nothing – not even a nod or shake of the head to show who he agreed with – but just simply sat and listened to what they had to say. Anié looked across unobtrusively to Legolas, who almost had his head in his hands – this is ridiculous, he thought, we're doing nothing but wasting time.
Suddenly, completely out of the blue, a voice who did not often speak in such council meetings waited for an opportune pause in conversation, and then suggested an astonishing possibility:
"What about the ifanc gwanath?"
The Hall fell deadly silent and all eyes turned to the man who had spoken. The man's eyes moved from face to face, studying their reactions with great interest. It felt like a great length of time had passed before anyone spoke up:
"A myth" responded a council member, chuckling with nervous laughter.
"A fireplace horror story!"
"Do you think the families of the victims believe so?"
The chuckling stopped. Some of the Elves lowered their heads and most felt very uncomfortable. There was an awkward silence which no-one dared to break, nor knew exactly how. The man extended his hands sideways in a motion similar to shrugging with the words 'It's a possibility, isn't it?' written across his face.
The tale of the ifanc gwanath, reading literally in the Common Tongue as 'death child' – called so because of the size described by those who claim to have seen it, and the fate that followed in its footsteps - was one that no Mirkwood Elf ever spoke of anymore, as only the very naïve believed it to be nothing more than a 'fireplace horror story' – the evidence was too disturbing to ignore.
Some years ago, a millennium or so after the beginning of the Third Age of Middle Earth – the Elves do not count the years as Mortals do, so an exact date or year is very difficult to calculate – bodies began to appear in the forest, men who left their homes and never returned. They were not terribly numerous in number, but every few weeks the people would learn that another had been found. Their bodies were mangled and mutilated, drenched in their own blood. There was no pattern to the murders, no single location, no particular target of victims (although it was normally men, as it was they who ventured out most often into the forest on scouts) – anyone and everyone was at risk.
The situation became worse when a couple of people were murdered in their own homes. Stories and rumours began to spread, even to those in further-off lands by word-of-mouth of the occasional traveller. People said that the killer must have been small to fit through people's windows and to creep into houses unnoticed, so the Elves naturally blamed the Dwarves (though many quite rightly pointed out that Dwarves were so loud and 'stompy', they could not possibly enter a building unnoticed, especially not in an Elven land). Others said that it must have been a demon or someone possessed by an evil spirit from the darkness – combining the two theories, perhaps the ghost of a Dwarf seeking revenge on the Elves, a ghost that drank blood. Some claimed to have seen the child walking alone through the forest like a lonely phantom.
Regardless of which theory you believed, the tale spread and became embedded in people's minds, to the extent that people feared to scout too far into the forest, for fear of encountering the child of death.
Although seen only by few and never put down as fact, the tale ends with the brutal slaughtering of an entire family in their home – bodies hanging from the ceiling or lying mutilated beyond recognition in their beds, adults and infants alike. Interestingly, no-one to this day knows the identity of the butchered family and the killer was never found. Everyone in the council knew this tale all too well and no-one wanted the man's suggestion to be true or right.
"Enough!" announced Thranduil weightily, breaking the trance-like state that had come over the assembled group.
"Since there appears to be no other solution, I intend to seek the culprit out personally".
Legolas was stunned by such a notion, but support seemed to be heavily on the side of the King.
"I will join you, my liege" said Idhrenion clearly, standing tall and loyal beside his King.
King Thranduil smiled.
"Hannon le, Idhrenion, my loyal guard" thanked the King.
He turned back to the council: "I do not wish to take too large a group – people can go missing too easily that way. Therefore I shall no more than five. Who will join Idhrenion and me?"
Legolas stood:
"If you are to leave, I leave with you" he stated quietly yet clearly.
"And I" said Anié, standing beside Legolas.
Legolas looked at her with an expression saying 'Stay here' but Anié was determined to stay by her lover's side and never to leave it.
"It will be dangerous" Legolas told her.
"I know, Legolas" she replied calmly.
Eventually, Legolas gave in and agreed. As soon as he did this, Maeglin stood and also asked to come with them.
"That is enough" the King stated.
"We five shall go and discover what is taking our soldiers. We do not what form this evil takes, nor do we know where it dwells, but I promise you that we shall return victorious!"
Roars of encouragement were all that could be heard as Thranduil stood and left the Great Hall to prepare to ride out that afternoon.