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Date Posted: 19:46:22 04/05/03 Sat
Author: Leila, Gelan, & Adaron
Subject: Traveling
In reply to: Leila, Gelan, & Adaron 's message, "Leaving Arden Vale" on 19:43:03 04/05/03 Sat

South they rode--Leila, Adaron, and Gelan--along-side the frozen Tumble River running through the deep cleft of the vale. Pines covered the valley floor, and craggy stone palisades could be seen rising steeply up into the Shadowlight. Narrow was the vale, at times pinching down to widths less than a furlong from wall to wall, and in these places the river panned the full vale width. In these narrow gaps, pathways could be seen carved upon the faces of the stone bluffs, but the trio shunned these icy ways, choosing instead to go upon the frozen surface of the river below. Long they rode down the vale, yet when at last they stopped to make camp, they were still between the high stone walls, for Arden Vale was lengthy. Some thirty-five miles they had ridden south, and Adaron said that perhaps fifteen more miles lay ahead before they would leave the gorge. Their supper consisted of Elven wayfarer's food: dried fruit and vegetables, hot tea, and mian, a delicious Elven waybread made of oats and honey and several kinds of nuts.

"I will take the first watch," she said simply while she sucked upon a piece of dried fruit until she was satisfied that she had all of the sugary taste from it before it was swallowed. She sat upon a fallen log, examining the side of her boot a little too intently. Her hands rested, forearms upon her knees, hands resting limply together.

Gelan had given a nod to the Woman. But he would not be put to bed just yet. He sat with his back to a tree, gazing silently at the red eye-patch in his hand. "Lord Adaron, speak to me of the last hours of my father." Gelan’s voice was low, nearly a whisper.

"Call for me when you are both ready to sleep," she said, wandering off nearly past the realm of firelight to rest among the horses, stroking each of them and giving soft scratches to their necks.

Ocean blue orbs lifted to follow the track of the edainme before his gaze turned to the High King. "When there we stood upon the final parapet of Challerain Keep and chose that last desperate course--to break through the Rupt ring and win free--I felt a deep foreboding, and this I said to your sire: 'Beware, Aurion King, for beyond the gate I sense a great Evil lurks, an Evil beyond the Horde at the door, and I deem it bodes ill for you.' Little did I know that at the north gate of the first wall would we be met by Ghulka led by Drego.

After a while, she found that she only grew cold and walked back slowly to the fire, the cloak she wore drawn around her once more, the hood pulled over her head, the gray fabric nearly concealing her face completely in the shadow that the fire cast upon her. Feeling safe as though he could not see her, or rather would not look, she allowed herself to watch the Elven Emissary as he told his sullen tale.

Silently his gaze shifted to Leila when she entered the circle of light that the fire cast. When no response came from the King, Adaron continued. "Your sire ran through the north gate after you and your band broke the Ghulka ring. Yet he was sorely beset, and had taken many wounds. But still he fought with the strength of many. At the last he was surrounded, and pierced through by Ghulken spear. Even with the lance in him, he slew two more foe ere he fell forward to Wildwind's back."

Still she watched him, the slighted up turn on the corners of her mouth at the tale and how valiant the former King had been, even in his death. A soft sigh whooshed from her lungs accompanied by a wracking cough. Uh oh. That did not sound healthy. A hand came up to cover her mouth, her head bowing until she had cleared her throat, swallowing for a moment.

Two sets of eyes turned to the coughing female, waiting to see if she was all right.

Once more she fell silent, though her head remained bowed, slow breaths drawn to suppress any further that would come though she could feel the tickle in the back of her throat and the pit of her chest.

Upon seeing that she was well, at least to his eyes, Adaron turned back to the King, drawing both his sword and a long-knife and thrust them out before him. Each held a blade-jewel, one blood-red, the other ocean-blue, and they glinted in the firelight. "Even with these two blades, Bale and Bane, still I could not win to his side in time to save him. Yet the scarlet fire of Bale and the cobalt blaze of Bane drove the Ghulka back, for they fear these weapons forged long ago in Lost Duellin, forged to battles evils such as they. When they fled, I caught up Wildwind's reins and rode free of the melee. On a nearby slope, I eased Aurion King to the ground. He said but one thing ere he died: 'Tell Gelan . . . Igon . . . I choose freedom.' Then he was gone. What he meant, I do not know."

Then the young gypsy spoke up. "I know of what he meant. The Darkday I rode out with him, bearing his colors to the enemy, Drego's minion told him that he could surrender now and serve as his slave 'til the end of his days, or he could die. Aurion said unto him to tell Drego that Aurion Redeye chooses freedom," her voice was soft, and then once more was it silent.

Adaron’s head tipped, sheathing the blades once more before eyes lifted to the cloaked and hooded one, Leila. "That was Drego. It was he who taunted the King before the gates. He uses hideous powers to command his Horde. This, then, is one of them: though the Evil One sits afar in his Iron Tower, still he can look out upon distant scenes through the eyes of his emissaries, listen through their ears, speak through their mouths, and at times slay with their hands. None knows how far he can reach out to possess his pawns, but his power is great. Yet perhaps it diminishes with distance."

She sighed softly then and looked up to him. "What if Drego can not be stopped?" she asked. "What if the Midland does not have enough strength to battle him back?"

Yet it was Gelan who would respond. His gaze shooting up her, fierce determination in his eyes. "He will be battled back by the Host. The Sun will return. Drego will be stopped."

Leila was silenced then by his words and his look. Forget she asked the question, she was not going to argue with the King, though she felt hopeless for the moment, and she could only hope that all sometimes felt as she.

For long moments no word was said, and the only sound was the crackle of the fire. At last, Adaron stirred. "I cut loose the eye-patch so that none would know him or defile his body, and so that Drego would not know that Aurion King had been slain. Then I laid his sword beside him, composed his hands over his breast, and remounted Arauka to return to the fray. But Vidron at the head of a band had broken free and raced eastward. Catching up Wildwind's reins, I followed. East we ran through the foothills, with Ghulka hard on our trail. But Helsteed has not the speed of horse, and we finally escaped their clutch. Far to the east through the Everdark we had fled, unto the Signal Mountains, but now we circled southward, heading for the rendezvous to join with any others who might have broken free. Our course swung just to the north of the Eternalwood, and while Vidron bore on west and south, riding for the Battle Downs and Stonehill beyond, I turned aside into the forest to seek tidings from the Eternalwood Alliance and to bear them news of the downfall of Challerain Keep and the death of Aurion. There I discovered from one of my kindred that you had passed through on the trail of the Kinstearlers. I asked that word be sent to Vidron in Stonehill, and I left Wildwind in the care of my kith, an Elf recovering from a battle wound, and came after you, one 'Darkday behind your track when I started, though I had nearly overtaken you by the time we came to Arden."

~*~


After an uneasy rest, they broke camp and continued southward through Arden Gorge. High stone canyon walls loomed up to either side, at times near, but at other times two or three miles distant, beyond the limits of Gelans’ vision in the Shadowlight. Some fourteen miles south they went, enwrapped in snowy silence, saying little or nothing. Suddenly Adaron’s voice came, unexpectedly to all in the silence, but that is how he was generally. "We are less than a mile from the end of Arden Vale. Around the bend we will come to the camp of my kindred standing Arden-ward. We shall take a meal with them." The river curved around a bend, and now a distant roar of falling water could be heard as they rode through the pines. Adaron pointed ahead, and before them the gorge squeezed to a narrow celt that seemed to be filled with a white mist streaming up into the Winternight sky.

Leila would be grateful for the repast, already weary of riding for the day, and they had barely gone anywhere at all compared to how far she and Gelan would travel in a day. Green-gold eyes looked up to watch Adaron for a moment before they went back to the trail at hand. All day had she coughed, but no words had passed between them, which was probably best.

Adaron maneuvered the grey stud over to walk along Leila's steed. He watched her silently for many horse strides before he spoke. And when he did, his voice was quiet, as if now wishing to disturb Gelan. "Many times today and last evening I have heard you cough. Are you not well, Leila?"

Her head inclined to speak to him, though he could not see her face for the hood of her cloak. "I am well, Adaron...I just..." she cleared her throat a bit. "The air is cold and it goes from humid to dry, it merely bothers my throat." Which was a lie if he'd ever heard one. It made sense, and she knew it did, but that was not what caused her body's rebellion.

A dark brow arched in question. He was not so sure if he believed her. But, she had no reason to lie to him and believed that she wouldn't So he simply nodded, though she might not have been able to see it and continued on riding alongside her.

The softest of sighs left her again and a hand disappeared into her hood to rub at her eyes before it dropped back down to rest limply against her thigh, the other hand holding the reins for the horse that strode under her.

~*~


Flowing under the ice, the swift-running Tumble River emerged from the last walls of Arden Gorge and fell down a precipice in a wide cataract. Swirling vapors rose up and obscured the view of the cloven vale, and where the mist settled unto the frigid rock, strange, twisting shapes of ice formed. Behind the roar of the water the trio went upon a hidden icy road, the stone clad in thick sheets of frozen mist: here was the secret entrance into the hidden valley--an entrance concealed by the fall of water. At last, they emerged from behind the cataract and twined through crags to come at last to the woods of Rell. The horses were spurred to a canter, and south they ran.

Gelan looked back over his shoulder toward Arden Gorge, back at the final cleft where high, sheer stone walls split out of the earth, but the perpetual white mist veiled all beyond Arden Falls: neither pine forests nor stone walls were visible through the mist.

A deep breath was taken by the young gypsy as her horse transitioned into a canter, though she did not bounce upon the horse in the strides, her body flowed gracefully as though she were one with the animal. It was a lot different than riding her mare, as the stud she now rode was far bigger than Duila had been, but controlling this beast was much easier than her former steed whom she sorely missed. After their meal with wards of Arden she had sang for a while as they neared the edge of the vale, but no longer was that possible at a run if she didn't wish to wind herself and start another coughing fit.

Less than one mile south the Tumble turned westward while the trio bore on; and just after, they passed over the Crossland Road, the main east-west pike reaching far overland from the distant Ryngar Arm of the Weston Ocean to the nearby Grimwall Mountains. Although this tradeway was extensive, most commerce in this part of Midland flowed on the watercourse of the Isleborne River, or came by road from south and west. Beyond the Crossland Road they went, south through the folds of the land, another fifteen miles before they made came. Some twenty miles or so behind them lay the Tumble River, beyond Arden Ford: the Drearwood, and beyond that the River Claire that wound its way north to rush along the city in Elvenhome.

~*~


Although Elves pay little heed to hours and days and even weeks, seeming to note only the passing of the seasons, still they know at all times where stand the Sun, Mood, and stars. And even the murk of the Everdark changed not this power of theirs. And though at times the dim disk of the Sun vaguely could be seen as it passed through the zenith, still it was Adaron who kept track of time's flow for the trio. Three more 'Darkdays they bore southward, riding parallel to and ten or so miles west of the Old Rell Way, an abandoned trade route, long fallen into ruin. The land they passed through was rough, high moor with sparse trees, there being barren thickets or lone giants clutching with empty winter branches at the Everdark sky. In the folds of the land grew brush and brambles, and old winter snow covered all. Yet across the upland they went, bearing ever southward. Five 'Darkdays past they had left the Elvenhold in the northernmost reaches of Arden Vale, nearly fifty-five leagues behind. Elven leagues a 'Darkday they rode, more or less, thirty-three miles each leg, for haste was needed in dire times. Yet though they had pressed long and hard, neither Jet, Arauka, nor the white stud Leila rode, Solos, nor the packhorse running behind Adaron’s steed, seemed to be tiring and their endurance was a wonderment.

The startled eyes of both Adaron and Gelan turned behind them to the female before they glanced across to each other. The trotting steeds were slowed to a walk and finally halted. Where normally they had ridden thirty-three miles a day, so far they had only gone twenty. Reluctantly Gelan had nodded while Adaron sought out a place that would cover them in this barren land. Pointing ahead of him silently he urged Arauka towards a dense thicket, the pack horse following along behind, Gelan behind it.

She sighed softly. "We do not have to stop, King Gelan...I...just forget I said anything. We should continue."

But still they headed to the thicket. Adaron was the first to dismount, leading the dapple grey steed to a miserable looking bent tree, tethering him and then the packhorse before setting out removing their tack.

A leg swung over Jet and Gelan dismounted, shaking his head. "No, perhaps we do need to rest." Now Gelan was leading the black to be tied near the others, a toss of his head silently telling Leila to do the same, there would be no more protesting.

She sighed in frustration and then did as he motioned, resting her head against her stallion's forehead for a moment and sighing before she gave a pat to his neck. She then removed Solos' tack, her fingers combing over where the saddle blanket had been. Finally she joined Adaron and Gelan and what would be camp. "I am sorry," she said simply before she turned to go and find wood suitable to build a fire.

Gelan's steel grey eyes lifted as she passed him by, on her way to get fire wood. "Do not apologize, Leila. If you are weary then you are weary and there is naught to be done. Your strength is needed for I need your eyes alert and not lazy from the ride." All their dried fruit and vegetables had been spent and now they were down to the mian, the Elven waybread, though that wasn't all too terrible in itself.

She returned only after she'd gathered a large arm full of wood that looked like far too much for the little one to be carrying. Once more she stopped at his side to put her two cents in. "You are not weary, Adaron is not weary. Not even the horses are weary. It is me that is slowing our journey. I think I have every right to apologize for that. We have barely ridden more than half of our pace from the last five days." A light sigh before she carried the firewood to where she deemed the fire would be and then dropped it just to the side, scraping away snow and anything that might catch fire near it.

When Gelan looked to Adaron in askance the Elf said nothing to the High King but turned his words to Leila. "You cannot help that you are weary. Do not be upset by it." His face had been void of expression before when he had spoken, yet now a light smirk touched upon his lips, almost not there. "Were we the horses and carrying riders, we would have been."

She didn't respond, but pulled a couple of branches to where she would make the fire as well as some kindling she'd drawn from the inside of a fallen log and there a fire was begun, the glow coming to light her cheeks. Leila glanced up at the sky and sighed. The lack of sun, the constant night, it was all beginning to take its toll on her. She wanted to scream, but deemed that inappropriate, so the next best thing would be to cry, but that was not an option either. Now that the fire was started she knew not what to do with herself, so remained their helplessly staring at the fire with eyes clouded by tears she was fighting. Stupid war.

Gelan had the last watch and so quietly he bid them goodnight before taking to his bedroll. Since they had stopped early, all would be granted a few extra hours of sleep. And sleep quickly came to the High King, his breathing slowing and becoming even and steady.

Adaron had kept ocean blue orbs upon her as he waited for her to answer. When he realized that she would not, his gaze dropped to the mian in his hand before he stuffed it away. Finished. The Emissary leaned his back against the stump that he sat before eyes absently gazing across the expanse of the fire to the tethered steeds.

After a few moments she looked up to him. "You should sleep," she said quietly from across the fire. Her eyes watching him now appeared like winking jewels like stars would in the night sky. He was so beautiful and it broke her heart to see him unhappy. Leila had made sure not to get very close to him as it had been more than five days since she or Gelan had been able to bathe, and Talarin had done well enough to give her a complex about it that she didn't want to be too close to her still purely beautiful elf.

His gaze turned towards her, his head following after a moment. He spoke just above a whisper, yet his voice came clear, reaching her easily and unfailing. "I will soon, yet if you are near unto exhaustion, I will take your watch as well as mine, sleeping in the way of the Elves." His gaze did not stray from her, but remained locked, almost burning into her own.

Finally her cheeks visibly flushed and she could not maintain the eye contact, hers finding the fire once more. "I do not want you weary. You need to sleep deeply, though not as much as the edain, you still need it." Finally her eyes ventured back up to him once she'd composed herself. "I have not been the best company to you or Gelan in the last days. I am sorry for that, it is...just these times. There is something that weighs heavily upon my heart, well, more than one thing, but perhaps the one that drains me most is unknown, it is just a feeling of foreboding. Not so much fear, but as though I know something terrible will happen, but there is no way for me to know what." A light sigh. "Tell me if I am prying, but I wish to ask you the same question I asked Talarin before I changed sleeping quarters. Have you ever been in love?"

"Times such as these are notorious for despair, Leila. It comes upon us all." Was he trying to reassure her that it was all right? Yes, and he hoped that had been conveyed through his words, for he did not know how else to go about it. "As for sleep, I can go many days in such a rest without the actually deep sleep." When she had earlier taken her eyes from him, it not cause him to look away, and when she had looked to him once more, she would have found that he still sat with his gaze resting upon her. A dark brow had lifted and one side of his mouth coiled upwards into an amused smirk. It was then that his eyes finally left hers, lips splitting now to allow the smirk to grow into a grin that played fully over his features. This was an interesting question. He would not lie to her. "Yes, once."

She would address each of his comments in turn. "I know, but...I was...before Challerain fell all the men looked up to me for...something. Ugh, I cannot even make words come tonight. I was...well, as much as they looked up to Lady Astariel for her light in such a dark time, she was not out there singing to them day in and day out, so I suppose I was a dimmer version of her to them." Moving on to the next comment. "Do not argue with me, I am short, but do remember that I can hurt you very badly," a playful wink, her smile turning then into a soft laugh. "You need your sleep, so says me." And then finally, raising a brow at his expression. "Oh really? Did you ever tell her?" the smile remaining in place.

"I was foolish to not alert you of my presence and therefore mistakenly allowed you to attack me." He retorted as if there was simply no other way to the story. He had allowed her to hurt him. Though, perhaps he was joking. His legs were stretched out before him and they crossed at the ankle, hands coming to a fold in his lap. Now his head rested against the tree stump and shook slowly back and forth. "No."

She would let him think that, realizing that it would be painful for his ego to admit that she had beat the stuffing out of him. "Did she ever find out? Why did you not tell her?" She then rested upon her own log, resting her forearms upon her knees and resting her chin on the bridge her arms formed, still watching him, noting the way the firelight cast shadows upon the sharp features of his face.

"To this day she has not found out." That was truthful. She was asking more questions and he had to concentrate now on how he answered her questions, though the concentration did not show upon his features. His head lifted away from the stump after a moment to place its eyes upon her. "As for me not telling her, there are many unfortunate issues that would damn our future and keep it from running smoothly." He paused watching her silently before simply putting it. "It would be best for her never to find out."

She tipped her head slightly and shook her head, for she too found herself in the same situation. Uncanny wasn't it? "So you would abandon your love because you fear the trials and tribulations that would come with it? And what if she loves you, Lord Adaron? What if you are the one that hung the very moon and stars to her? You would let that slip through your fingers like sand?" A pause then as she reflected on her words. "Forgive me if I sound condescending, or anything of that sort, it is just...something that strikes close to my heart in a complicated way." Not all that complicated, merely that she felt the same for the one that held her heart.

He did not seem surprised by her words nor offended, yet once more his face became stoic and he spoke as though he had considered just those variables. "If that is the case, Lady Leila," inwardly there was an ever soft sigh, though he made no outward indication of it, "then I have yet to hear of such. And if; indeed, what you say is true, that she feels such a way for them, then she too must realize the difference between us and deem it is best for both of our destiny's that nothing come of it."

His inward sigh was manifested through her, for she did not hide hers. "I am quite confidant that there is no way she could feel any way but," she said and then a hand came to scratch with her pinkie just under her ear where a piece of hair tickled. "Mayhap she is afraid to tell you because she knows what would result, or mayhap because she fears you do not feel that way, then again, maybe she has a little more faith in love than you know and realizes that there will come a day, perhaps not until after you are both placed within the earth, that you will be together." Her eyes had not left him as she spoke. Did he know that he spoke of her own heart?

Well she certainly spoke a whole lot and had apparently been thinking about a problem such as this for some time. He was curious as to her plain way of stating that this one that he so cared for could not feel any other way. "If she is frightened to tell me because of the result then she, as I stated before, is probably aware that nothing can come of those feelings: that it was not supposed to." One thing seemed to have had an effect on him. It was her last statement. "If she realizes that there will come a day that we will be together, after we are both placed in the ground, than she is mistaken. There will not come a time when I am placed in the ground, Leila."

"I suppose you are right, however, there were many elves that have lost their lives so far. There is naught that is beyond the reach of death one way or another, although I pray that for you, you can elude its grasp for so many millennia that he forgets to come and look for you in wars and other such situations." Her heart was broken though. He had said what she had told Talarin time and time again. 'It is not even supposed to happen.' Though it had happened on more than one occasion, and Leila knew it would do nothing but hurt them both, not that she was in such a situation, for Adaron certainly had not been professing his love to her.

That was almost an audible click. His gaze that had glanced at the soundly sleeping Gelan returned to the edainme. He stared at her for a long moment, eyes unblinking. His chin tipped up, eyes slightly widening, brows gently lifting before his chin dipped once more, to lower then it had been, head turning to the side to looked at her slightly from out of the corners of his eyes. "Pray tell, Leila, how is it that you are so certain of her heart for me?"

"Because I do not know much about you, Adaron, but if she knows only half of what I know then she could not help but to love you..." a blush rising into her cheeks at her words as she tried desperately to think of a way to make it sound less...obvious. "It is like I could never imagine Talarin not being able to win the heart of anyone he so pleased. And besides," a smile came to her face then, a pure one, not so shy, nor embarrassed. "I imagine that you truly are your father's son in a way more than your appearance and he has held Lady Rael's heart for I imagine well over three thousand years. It would be hard to imagine you not claiming her heart without even really trying." That didn't seem much better and she looked frustrated with the little word game she was obviously losing. "Maybe you were right about my going to bed. Nothing seems to come out right." Or perhaps she meant that everything was coming out too right.

The slip in her song, the words she spoke to him now. It was all too coincidental. He had kept his eyes locked up her gold-green hues as if he would say something. Yet finally his gaze dropped back to the fire that burned low before him when his voice finally came. "Indeed, you are weary. You will not ward tonight in order to regain your strength." And that was all he had to say about that.

She could have just kicked herself for saying too much, but either way she stood slowly and stretched out her form before retiring to her bedroll and lying down upon her stomach, pulling the hood over her face to hide from his eyes or to keep warm. Perhaps a little bit of both…

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