Your Hands Are Cold

Plans and Strategies

When I explained to Maerwen and Faelwen that I wanted to take a day off, they both went into gasps. I knew it was an impossible thing to do, and if I was caught, there would be immediate consequence. As I tried to persuade them to tell the quietly sneak me off so that I was able to exit the kingdom without anyone noticing, they kept refusing and remained hesitant.

“What do you want to leave for anyway?” Faelwen asked, with a disappointed look on her face.

“Personal reasons,” I replied.

“But Thranduil will exile you as soon as he finds out,” Maerwen protested. “We enjoy your company and we can’t bear to see you leave this kingdom for some foreign place that’s possibly inhabited by strange elves or even orcs,”

“That is why we have to create a strategy so that palace guards will not become aware of my sudden disappearance, 

“How long will you be gone?” asked Faelwen.

“Just a few hours and no more,” I said. “I’m sure It will be fine,”

“Maeneth, that’s a mere hypothesis, you don’t know what will happen yet,” said Maerwen.

“Unless I do it, and then we shall find out, won’t we?”

“Hold on,” Faelwen said. “What do we get in return if you actually do successfully leave with no one knowing?”

I thought for a moment and said, “I’m sure I can get a little gift for you, since you have not been outside of the palace areas much. Maybe something from the town,”

Maerwen and Faelwen looked at each other, contemplating on whether or whether not they should help me exit the palace. “All right,” they replied in unison, as usual.

“What’s your strategy?” I asked them.

“Well,” Maerwen spoke now. “I was thinking that maybe you could exit from the door in the kitchens where food and wine are usually brought in. Maybe you could tell a guard that you had missed breakfast and was aching for food, and then when the guard leaves for lunch, you leave,”

“No, no!” Faelwen protested. “It’s impossible to sneak off through there when you have palace guards entering and exiting to drink wine,”

“Yes, but they’ll be too drunk and too blind to see that Maeneth has entered the kitchens,”

“I propose a better plan,” said Faelwen. “Near the armory is a small station for guards that is located in the west wing of the palace. It was supposed to be used as a hidden place for elves to leave the palace in the event of a surprise attack. Behind the door is a small path that leads to the town. Rarely anyone uses it now, and no one ever goes there, since it’s full of cobwebs and filthy with dust,”

“But there are guards near that area too, you know,” Maerwen spoke.

“There are guards everywhere in the palace, Maerwen,” Faelwen complained.

“Please stop arguing, you two,” I said. “I’ll use Faelwen’s strategy, and Maerwen, I don’t want to hear your complaints,”

“Fine,” said Maerwen, looking irritated by her friend’s victory. “You’ll have to don your cloak first, so that no one will notice,”

“You have an hour, Maeneth, and that’s it,” Faelwen said.

I nodded and followed her advice. As the orange sun set on the horizon, I donned a deep blue cloak and made my way through the eerie, quiet palace halls. I reached the guard station that Faelwen told me of, and indeed the place was filthy. I removed the cobwebs off my hair and sneezed repeatedly due to the overwhelming amount of dust in the room. Once I finally noticed the door, a smile appeared on my lips and then I was greeted with a path made of white bricks and the shadow of tall trees.