Chapter XV

25th Norui 3002 T.A

The road was long and all that could be seen was a combination of green and rocky mountains as well as the rushing river that Eliel had been for following for quite some time now. She had followed Wilhelm's advice but she felt like she had been on an endless road to nowhere. Sonir was right this was not 3 day journey. She had even taken up to having full conversations with Daeroch, and sometimes it ended with full debates but realizing she was arguing with a horse and it went back to silence.

She was not crazy just bored and lacked company. "If only Lami was here Dae, I would have someone to talk to. Well at least someone else would be talking instead of just me all the time" Eliel did not know where to go or what she'd do if the river disappeared. This is the most farthest she had ever traveled in her entire life, she was loving every moment of it but still full of grief as to why she had started this adventure.

"Do you think I will find my mother?"

Silence

"Even a tiny bit of information about my mother or my father at that?" She had the rune stone in her hand and was studying it very closely

"I wonder what this means?" She asked Daeroch this question everyday as if he was just going to answer. She had memorized the strokes and practiced writing them down every day for no particular reason just something to pass the time.

"Do you think I can barter off those jewels? I heard dwarves love there gemstones, especially priceless ones."

She looked around again and it was the same scenery as the day before and so forth. Surely Eliel had to be close to the boarder of Gondor if she wasn't she was certain that her mind would start to fail on her, not to mention the lack of sleep and food was not helping either.

"Tauriel, I wonder what that means. I wonder where I got my name from. It sounds elvish enough don't you think?"

Silence

Eliel sighed and put away the stone, she grabbed a hold of Daeroch's reins and kicked him into a gallop.

"Might as well hurry our trip" She laughed as the horse started to speed up. They were in fast pace for a long time when Eliel saw them in the distance, two colossal heads resting onto of the mountains separated by the river below. She slowed the horse to a canter so she could marvel at the intricacy of the statues.

Argonath, Pillars of the Kings.

She had only heard about these and did not believe they were so tall. "People of Gondor like big intricate things, don't they?"

With sudden realization Eliel had reach the northern boarders of Gondor. "We've made it Dae." She grinned never had she been so happy to see statues in her entire life. She noticed a tree and decided it was time to set up camp, she got off Daeroch to let him have a rest for a while and grabbed her knapsack and climbed up the tree. Creatures are far more likely to kill me on the ground was her reason to be finding trees to sleep in this entire journey.

Reached Argonath today.

Something I could never of imagined seeing.

Daeroch and slowing down quickly, need to be easy on him.

Almost a month since I left home.

She finished her journey entry with the date and her practice markings and tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in to no prevail.

The morning was rough on Eliel, she had come to prefer riding all night then sleeping in a tree. There was also the choice of sleeping on the ground but that only came around if there was not a sturdy enough tree.

She jumped down and spotted Daeroch in the distance. 'Must have wandered during the night' she walked a fair way to reach him and it was good to stretch out her stiffened muscles. Eliel reached Daeroch and led him over to the edge of the cliff where she could view the pillars for a little while longer and eat the last of her bread.

Eliel finished eating and jumped on the back of Daeroch, she was so happy to be getting out of Gondor. The excitement was taking over her, running from her brain to the tips of her toes. The thrill of the unknown, the seeking of new answers. She needed Daeroch to get where she was going fast just to tame it and with that she had headed north to the next point of her adventure.