Everlong

24

The relief from being unburdened by armour was truly something which Liruliniel had forgotten; this was the longest time she had been in it, regardless of the most time plus actually fighting. Temporary tents had been set up and situated across a stretch of land which had been untouched by the fighting. That in itself seemed like a small miracle. In the distance Lothlórien could be spied on the horizon, the tall trees were silhouetted perfectly amongst what sunlight was now ebbing away.

She sat on a bunk, scratchy feeling canvas with the simplest of beddings on it. Not that she minded, she was tired but not tired enough to need sleep. She suspected others weren't the same, she frowned and looked awkwardly over her shoulder. She was going to pitch a guess and say she was tented next to a dwarf, mainly because she didn't honestly know who else would snore like that. At least some weren't struggling to rest, she supposed?

She looked at her armour, which she had laid out beside her. She ran a finger along a seam and frowned slowly, she could feel the slight buckle. Both metal of her mail and shoulder plates had been damaged. She wouldn't be able to recall when exactly this damage was done, but done it was. She wouldn't be able to repair it until she was home. But even then she guessed the smith was going to have everyone else's things to sort out too.

She looked to the corner of the small tent, there was another bunk in here, but no one occupied it yet. But in the corner there was a stand with a basin of water on it. They were near the river still, so getting cooling fresh water wasn't hard. Cooling and fresh were definitely two words she'd use to describe the clear liquid. It definitely did the job of making her gasp when she first walked in and saw it. She wasted very little time ridding herself of blood and muck. She felt cleaner than what she was, but she still felt rather dirty.

In the grand scheme of things, getting home to bathe was short on the list. Just like getting her armour fixed. First things first was resting, if she could, followed by aiding in tending to the dead. As much as it pained her to think, they needed to find Oropher. They needed to. He needed to be taken back to his realm and be buried respectfully. Not left out here in the wastes, forgotten and abandoned in the cold and dirt. She couldn't think of an end worse for such a brilliant being than that.

Pushing slightly muddied strands of hair out of her face, she stood and walked out of her tent. She wished to see who else was still up and about, instantly walking out of her tent had her nose scrunching up though. Something was on the breeze which smelt awful, holding her tunic sleeve to her nose, she looked around. Stepping forwards, she paused on the boundary of where the temporary camp ended. They were burning bodies, she could just about spy the smoke amongst the greying blackness that was the night sky. The smoke was thick and heavy and twirling upwards into the sky above. They were doing it as far away from the camp as they could, without risking possible calamity; in either smoking everyone out, or an ambush happening away from help. But Liruliniel doubted there'd be an ambush now. Surely those within Mordor knew they were beat?

Turning away, she decided to head more into the camp. She hoped that by hiding amongst those still milling about, that she could escape the smell of burning orcs. It worked somewhat, although the smell still caught in her throat and had her choking out a cough. "Oh, aye, it isn't the best smelling of things, but it isn't that bad, I'll have you know!" A voice exclaimed somewhat heartily, Liruliniel looked to the side and blanched.

"I am so sorry! I wasn't...it isn't your cooking, it's just the fires..." Liruliniel held her hands up in defence. She really didn't want to offend the dwarf before her. He just laughed, even that sounded hearty. He didn't seem offended at all. He found her floundering funny. It seemed like he had been given the task by someone to cook.

"Calm down, lass. I know, I know. I was only joking with you." He ran a hand down his face, his hand tugging thoughtfully on his richly orangey beard before that same hand waved over to her. Liruliniel was a bit hesitant, to be honest everyone kept to themselves. And, well, who was she kidding? There wasn't exactly a friendship between elves and dwarves, was there?