Chapter Two

I awoke, hearing five other bodies moving around, almost restlessly. I opened my eyes and saw that they were all packing to leave. The fire was out but there was a huge leaf with food on it, still steaming, beside me. I ate it, thankful that I hadn't rolled onto it in my sleep. Isal noticed I was awake and came over to me. He gestured to my leg, and I guessed he wanted to check on it. I nodded, and he unwrapped my leg from the splint carefully. Once he was done he put the splint back on and wrapped it up again. Then he moved on to my left arm, then to my ribs. He smiled comfortingly when he was done, to reassure me everything was okay for now and left, taking the mat I'd slept on, with him rolling it up as he walked to his pack.

I felt useless sitting there, crippled, as everyone else ran around me (ever so gracefully, I might add) gathering everything together to leave. I wasn't sure if they meant for me to go with them or not, either, and it was becoming ever clearer how much of a burden I was going to be to them when I tried (and failed) to stand up. Just as I was thinking how bad this day was going to be, I heard a shrill whistle that seemed to echo out for miles and miles. Everyone else kept doing what they were doing, so I assumed it wasn't something bad. Legolas walked into the clearing then, and seeing my inquisitive face, chuckled.

"I called my horse, he always wanders nearby when I go into the forest in case I get into trouble."

"Oh," I replied lamely. "Is there anything I can do, I feel rather useless just sitting here…"

"The only thing you can do right now is heal, sorry," he smiled. Damn.

I heard the hooves then and guessed the horse was only a few hundred yards away. Everyone else seemed to hear it too, which I found strange at first, then remembered I was with my own kind again.

I'd grown up with humans in a town called Ciril. I think it had been originally founded and built by elves but a human saved an elfling of great importance many years ago, and the town was given as a gift to the human and his family. I had no recollection of how I had gotten to Ciril, nor where I had been before. I was now only 22, a mere child to elves, but almost grown to humans. I was regarded as strange by many at first but eventually they got used to me and I was as adopted by the entire town as I was by my father and his family. It hurt to think about them now. I still didn't understand what happened, or how it could have happened. The wargs had been driven far away, into the deepest darkest corners of Middle Earth. Perhaps the mistake was not killing them all when we had the chance. There hadn't been a warg sighting in over a century near my village and at first, no one knew what was attacking. Only those with long memories understood. I had been at the lake just outside the village practicing with my sword when I heard the first screams. I froze. Then I saw the smoke. The ward riders had started burning the village with everyone still in it. I ran faster than I ever had to my house, my home. My father, my sisters, everyone was gone. A warg rider came into the house and I slew him with rage. Then the warg came. I tried to fight it at first but I was crashing and inside with gathering speed, so I ran.

I was shaken out of my reverie as a grey horse came into the clearing, breathing hard, as if he was worried about his master. Legolas walked over to him and he calmed down almost instantly. We were all packed up by that point and I expected the elves to hoist the packs on to the horse, but instead they carried them on their backs. Legolas walked over to me.

"May I?" He indicated to me as I realized they were going to put me on the horse.

"Uh… sure," I said, recognizing how imperfect my speech was compared to his.

He gathered me up as if I weighed nothing and placed me gently on the horse's back, which had kneeled down to make the process easier.

Then we set out. Most of the elves chatted easily as they darted around the horse who kept up a steady canter. Only Legolas kept silent as he ran beside me.

"Um… where are we going?" I asked, not wanting to sound rude, but feeling as if I had anyway.

He just chuckled again. "We are going to the palace in Mirkwood, where you can be treated by better healers than Isal and I, if that is alright with you, that is. If there is another home we can take you to, we will be happy to do so." He smiled amiably.

"No, wherever you are going is fine. I have no home," I stated simply. I did not feel the need to elaborate.

He nodded and then continued to look straight ahead, thinking.

By the time night fell, we were still travelling, and the dark seemed to press in on us from every direction. The trees blocked the sky, and it felt like a massive black blanket had just been pressed into every nook and cranny of the forest. I was getting a little paranoid. Now Elindir stayed beside me while the others darted every which way.

"Does the dark bother you?" He said, surprising me. I guess I'd been wrong when I thought the others only knew Sindarin.

"Not usually, but the dark here is suffocating. I don't know how you can stand it so easily."

"I grew up here, m'lady, and I haven't left in all 578 years of my life, so you could say I have gotten used to it." He smiled, "besides we are less than one league away now."

The trees thinned abruptly after another twenty minutes, and the sky was visible here and there. I felt like I could breathe again. Then the trees stopped completely and we were running over a vast field expanse. There were mountains nearby, most of which had increasingly strange shapes in them. When we got closer I saw that an entire palace had been carved into the mountain, along with dozens of other buildings. There were walkways way up in the sky that were almost invisible under the trees, but not to my elfin eyes. Everyone seemed to speed up now that their home was in sight, even Hwesta, the horse. Another minute and we were just inside the main palace doors. It was amazing inside. There were marble floors and brilliant chandeliers that made the place explode with light. There were two enormous stairways that curved up either side of the part of the palace we were in. Elindir helped me off the horse and supported me as another elf came and led Hwesta away to, I assumed, the stables. Legolas spoke to everyone in Elvish and took Elindir's place supporting me, as the others nodded and left through the same doors we'd come in, chatting tiredly to each other.

"I told them to go rest, we have to go meet with my parents before I can let you rest," he smiled again apologetically and led me slowly down a passage way under one of the magnificent stairways.