All That Glitters...

Travels by Night

The chaos of battle erupted throughout the valley, eagle and orc screams clashing together like the steel of blades. Battle cries tore through the land while swords swung down heavily upon enemies as a sickening symphony of steel clashing against steel, of war cries and the dying screams of orcs and men alike rang through the air. The sky above was a storm of movement as eagles dove from the heavens to tear through masses of goblins and orcs while arrows sliced through the air with deadly precision. The ground beneath her feet was thick with the bodies of the fallen, the stench of blood and fire clinging to the wind. This was war.

The young dwarven woman looked misplaced, as if she didn't belong, but her armor and weapons dictated differently. She moved through the battlefield like a storm given form, a combination whirlwind of sharpened steel and unrelenting fury. Her hammers swung with a bone crushing force, sending orcs sprawling to the ground as their skulls shattered beneath the impact. Each strike was driven by a fire in her heart, a desperate need to protect the ones she loved. But for every enemy she felled, another took their place in a tide of malice and death that never seemed to end. Her body was spent and her arms trembled with the exertion. She did not know how much longer she could hold her weapons, how much longer she could fight against this overwhelming enemy. Her vision blurred with sweat and blood, her breaths ragged as the battle raged on around her. And then suddenly, almost painfully, silence fell.

It fell like a sudden storm and swallowed the echoes of the war around her. The battlefield faded into nothingness and the sounds of clashing blades and dying men vanished as if they had never even existed. And as quickly as the silence came, a darkness closed in around her. She stood alone, the world around her swallowed by an emptiness that stretched endlessly in every direction. The only thing she could hear was her heart pounding in her chest. She turned, searching desperately to find something. Or someone. But there was nothing.

A sudden weight settled in her chest. It was an ache so deep it felt as though it might consume her whole. Her vision swam as her thoughts scattered like ashes in the wind. Was this it? Was this what it felt like? What it felt like to die?

It was then that she felt it. The unmistakable sting of hot tears as they carved paths through the dirt on her face. She hadn't even realized she was crying, but the grief overwhelmed her, seeping into her bones and her very being like an incurable sickness. Settling with it came a new pain, a feeling of deep striking emptiness. It consumed her until she was left with nothing, much like the darkness surrounding her now. This was the feeling of loss. She knew from the ache in her mind and the pain in her breast. They were gone.

Everyone she had ever truly cared for. They were gone.

Gone...

Ilona shot up from her bedroll in a cold sweat. The nightmare had not been terrifying in the way of ghastly creatures or looming shadows, but it had done enough to unearth that familiar, sickening weight of discomfort and dread along with the same gnawing sensation that gripped her chest each time the dream returned. She had had this same nightmare for many moons now but had yet to derive its meaning.as it continued to plague her on an endless loop in the depths of her unconscious mind. The battle, the darkness, the loss. Always the loss. She had traveled far and wide as she sought answers from sages and seers, traveling from the wisest of Belegost's scholars to the nomadic mystics that roamed past the dwarven colonies. But none had given her the clarity she so desperately needed. There was no meaning, no insight. Only cryptic words of fate and sorrow that did little to quiet the storm within her already tumultuous mind. And so, she suffered in silence night after night as she remained caught in the grips of a dream that would not let her rest.

The cool hush of night lay heavy over the lands of Middle Earth as it cast a comforting stillness across the landscape. Ilona inhaled deeply in an attempt to force her frayed nerves to settle as she tilted her head back to gaze at the sky. The stars stretched endlessly above her, the shimmering constellations she had memorized long ago painting stories across the heavens. It was almost as if the night was alive as the sounds whispered softly in her ears. The distant call of an owl cut through the quiet alongside the rustling of unseen creatures shifting beneath the underbrush. From far off in the lowlands came the occasional eerie howl but it was of no concern.