All Who Wander Are Not Lost

Chapter 9

She wailed, heart breaking at the sight. Tears flowed from her eyes as she stumbled to her feet and made her way among the slain, trying not to look at the faces of those she had known. But alas, it couldn't be helped, especially when she came upon a few of her brethren that had been torn to shreds, making her almost vomit at the sight. The orcs had clearly decided to make a meal out of their kills. Her mourning turned to anger as she continued her way, weaving between the dead looking for her mother's body. These orcs had no honor whatsoever!

Her eyes began to glow silver as she began to realize that her mother was not to be found among the bodies that lay at her feet. Rushing through, moving bodies, and muttering prayers under her breath she searched quickly, hope above hope that she had just missed her. When she had looked amidst the fallen twice over she shakily concluded that her mother was not there.

"Where could she have gone?" she wondered aloud, not wanting to think about the alternative before she had to.

Turning to the abilities that she had honed over the years of her existence, she began scanning the ground. It was littered with the tracks of the orcs, moving away from the group of dead elves she crouched low to the ground, observing the tracks and where they moved along the path. They were around a day, two at the most, old, going by the way that the dirt around them had settled and the small amount of water that had pooled in the indents. There were many larger footprints, some without the strange boots that the beasts made from the hides of their victims. Crawling along upon the ground she followed them, and soon noticed that there was one pair that seemed to have made a deeper imprint than the others. Amongst the matted soil in the area she saw that there were smaller, lighter footsteps, which she surmised must belong to an elf, of which she was certain was her mother. Further up the trail she found a delicate leather shoe, one that was defiantly a elleths riding shoe. She climbed up the side of the path, following the trail, noticing smaller indications that the Orcs carried a prisoner with them.
Heart in her throat she whistled for Talagor, shutting out the images that appear within her mind as she realized what the orcs could possibly be doing to her mother. Mounting up she used some of the training that she had received on a visit to Lothlorien with her grandmother. Whispering a few words to the wind that was swirling around her she sent a message to her brother's in hopes that they would hurry to her aid, she prayed that she would make it in time.

She had been late. Horribly, shamefully, deplorably, late.

Her brothers had joined her not long after her message was sent, somehow having known that something was wrong long before she had send any word. When she told them of what she had seen and where she believed that their mother had been abducted to, their anger had been like nothing she had ever seen. They had set out immediately, her in the lead having already been on the trail of those they pursued, riding at a fast pace. When they had come upon the place where the orcs rested, a pit filled with the bones of past prisoners and spider webs, the showed no mercy. None were left alive as the righteous anger of the three siblings raged before them like a well-oiled machine.

When they had rushed into the darkness, a light shining from the white crystal that lay upon Thennil's breast, they were rattled at the declined state of their mother. Her clothes were torn and bloody, her hair, ripped out in places. And the state of her fea that Thennil could sense was battered and had a shadow covering it, it was broken and the light that still tried to shine had quickly been fading.
They had cautiously crept up to the crumbled woman that they had known as their mother, trying not to startle her. She had come shakily with them out of the dark pit that the beasts had drug her to, clinging to her daughter tightly, like she was her only anchor. Thennil had held her and murmured calming words, all the while urging her stead on faster. She could feel how the darkness was seeping deeper and deeper into her mother's being, battling with the weak light that radiated out. When they were not far away she had sent Elladan to ride ahead to have their father prepare a room in the healing ward, fearing the worst.