At the Mercy of a Burning Coal

Disclaimer; How many more of these do I have to write? Eh…well you all know the drill. I don’t own Tolkien. Not doing this for money.

“ You did WHAT?!” Lily screeched in shock as Lathwen described the scene she had witnessed and how she took part in it. Lathwen sighed and said, “ Lily, I couldn’t just leave him there! He was suffering!” Lily snorted. Lathwen glared at her, “ It’s not my fault my heartstrings are easily pulled!”

Edhelwen said softly, “ But Bess, because you did this, he’ll know we’re still in the area…he’ll try to find us.” Lathwen shook her head, “ Not after the conversation we had. Girls, you have to understand…he was actually pleasant and friendly during our conversation! I couldn’t let that opportunity go.” Nestariel frowned, “ But he may still be a foe. That could have been a trick Bessie.” Lathwen started…she hadn’t thought about that.

Lathwen slowly sank down on her bedroll near the fire, “ I’m so sorry girls!” She said, “ I hadn’t thought about that.” Lily, who had softened up, waved the apology away, “ It’s what any of us would have done Old Bess. Don’t worry about it.” Lathwen shook her head firmly, “ But I do worry about it! He knows we’re close!”

Nestariel answered, “ But we’re in a small forest that is always overlooked. He’ll expect us to be traveling away back to Imladris or Lorien. And Bess, I’ve been thinking…” She sat up straighter and looked at the other three, “ What do you think about staying here? We could establish headquarters here…”

Lily clapped her hands together, “ Perfect idea Nessie! No one will suspect we’re here!” Nestariel blinked at the nickname, but then grinned slowly. Lathwen smiled to, and said, “ You know what? When I was talking to Glorfy there, he asked what the leader of the ‘Outlaw Maidens’ was doing there. Seems like we’ve also established a name for ourselves…like it Lily?”

Lily grinned, “ It fits.” But she quickly lost her smile, “ What will we do if our headquarters are here? Will we build a shelter? And how will we build it? None of us are carpenters or architects.”

Nestariel sighed, “ We’ll have to build a permanent shelter…there’s no other way we can survive the winter without going to a different settlement and risk being caught.”

Edhelwen nodded and said, “ Well for starters, we’ll need to choose an area that’s hidden and not easy to find…and who ever said we needed to build a shelter ourselves? I’m sure there’s some caves around here.” Lily snorted, “ Yeah, but Valar knows what lives in them.” Edhelwen shrugged, “ We’ll find an empty one.”

Lathwen sighed and looked around, “ We should wait ‘till morning though. No sense in getting ourselves in deeper trouble because we couldn’t see in the dark.” Edhelwen frowned, “ You know what? We really need to find a way to make candles or torches or the like. We can’t be stumbling round in the dark forever.”

Lily answered excitedly, “ I know how to do that! I made candles for my father all of the time!” Nestariel nodded, “ Good. Now we’re getting organized.” Lathwen said, “ We also need to make sure we leave no traces of where we were behind…no telling what Glorfindel might find if he should come looking.” Edhelwen nodded, “ That’s a good idea…he has unusually keen eyes…even for an elf.”

***
“ In here! Come quickly!” Edhelwen shouted, waving her drawn sword at everyone. In the small forest were many cliffs, most with huge caves in the sides. They had yet to find one that was empty and had many passageways, which would be a huge advantage.

Nestariel and Lathwen jogged over to Edhelwen and Lily. There was a bunch of caves next to each other, each with many weeds, brambles, and bushes in front of them.

Lathwen forged through the plants and stepped inside, bow drawn and ready for anything…well, almost anything. “ Hello?” Lathwen called, her voice echoing down the hollow passageways.

She motioned everyone inside, and looked around. The entrance was big, and it branched into three passageways. Lily asked, “ Which one will we go down first?” Lathwen answered, “ The one that runs straight and deeper into the caves…this one on the right side is a dead end…I can see it from here.” Nestariel nodded, “ Lookout point maybe? We could post people in there who would alert us, and capture those who came in.”

Lathwen nodded, “ Question is…will we have enough people to capture the people who come in here?” Lily waved away the subject, “ Of course we will. Let’s go girls!”

They hiked deeper and deeper into the cave, the floor sloping downwards. Off to the sides there were many rooms, which could be very useful. Finally, they came to rest in a ballroom-sized area, which, surprisingly, had light filtering through from a hole in the top of the cave…the roof. Lathwen looked around and grinned, “ No bones, footprints, or carcasses in this one…I guess it’s uninhabited.”

She turned around and smiled, “ What do you say girls? Can we set up here?” “ YES!” Came the rousing cry of agreement. Nestariel took hold of the situation, “ Firstly, we’d better figure out what we’ll use all of these rooms for.”

Lathwen nodded and lay down her pack against the rock wall, but kept her weapons with her. They all traveled together in a group, examining one room after another. They found that the room closest to the ballroom sized one, which was the main living area where they would eat and relax, held a stream. This room was larger than the other rooms on the sides, but much smaller than the main room.

Lily stooped and put her hand in, but instantly drew it out with a yelp, “ It’s freezing!” She gasped. Nestariel nodded, “ It must be fresh mountain water. We could use this as a bathing room…very convenient, wouldn’t you say?” The others agreed.

They went back to the entrance and walked down the left tunnel, which led to the back of the caves, where there was another opening that led outside into the other side of the forest.

After they finished exploring, they all trouped back to the main room and sat on the sun-warmed floor. “ So,” Lathwen began, “ Do we all agree that this is the main room, the bathing room is to our immediate left, the other rooms on the side will be bedrooms where a few girls will stay, and that the room to the side of the entrance way will be a lookout post, and the other tunnel on the instant left of the entrance will be used for evacuation and hiding out?” “Yes.” Edhelwen said, Lily nodded, and Nestariel said, “ Absolutely.” “ Good.” Lathwen replied.

Nestariel said, “ But we’ll need to furnish the rooms to.” Lathwen nodded, “ I know. We’ll work on that.” Lily added, “ We should come up with defenses we can put up if someone happens to come here.” Lathwen said, “ We already have the plants on the outside…”

Edhelwen answered, “ That won’t stop them for long though.” Nestariel agreed, “ We should make a gate of some kind.” Lily frowned, “ A gate? All the way to the ceiling and one that they won’t be able to topple down?” Nestariel shrugged, “ Worth a try.”

Lathwen held up her hands to signal quiet, “ But when they see the gate, they’ll know someone lives here. Perhaps having no defenses is our best defense.” Edhelwen nodded slowly, “ Words of wisdom…and very true ones.” Nestariel agreed, “ They’ll expect us to put up defenses…Bessie’s right…we’ll leave it as is I suppose.”

Lily said, “ Now all we need to do is get going with the furnishings if we’re going to live here long…fall isn’t that far away once you think about it.” She was right…the wind had become bitter, and the flowers were beginning to fade.

Lathwen sighed, “ Well…maybe we’d better make blankets first, you know, things that will keep us warm.” Edhelwen nodded, “ Maybe one of us could go in disguise into Rohan and buy the things we’ll need.” Lathwen nodded, “ We can use some of my gold.” Her voice told the others not to protest. Lily nodded slowly, “ Well then girls’,” She said, “ Let’s get started.”