At the Mercy of a Burning Coal

Disclaimer; I don’t own anything of Tolkien’s, which I always thought, was a huge rip off.
Note: This one is short, but never fear…the next chapter will be longer.

Quickly, she put the knife to his throat, and stepped behind him, pinning his arms down with her arm.

Lily gasped along with the other elves. Lathwen rolled her eyes…she knew that this elf was much stronger than her, and she couldn’t hold him by force alone. That is where the knife came in…if he moved in any way; she would be able to slice open his throat without a problem.

She looked at the other elves from behind the leader’s shoulder. “ Put your weapons over there.” She said, nodding toward a tree at the far end of the clearing. “ NOW!” The elves slowly obeyed, glaring at her so that the grass beneath her feet should have rightfully caught fire.

“ I’d like you to sit down over near Lily.” She suggested in a not so suggestive tone. Again, the elves obeyed, two or three murmuring among themselves. Lathwen tightened her grip on the dagger and the elf leader’s arms. She licked her lips and said firmly, “ Now, I want you all to be silent, and listen to me.” Nothing and nobody moved or made a sound.

“ Good.” Lathwen said. “ Lily, please go tell Rosethorn and Wildfire that I won’t be back unless they come and get me.” The elves looked alarmed; there were more of these maidens? Lily however, understood the unspoken message and nodded with a grin, “ They won’t stand for it.” She jogged out of the clearing, her golden curls bouncing.

Lathwen’s eyes scanned the elves sitting unceremoniously underneath a tree to her right. None seemed frightened by her obvious scrutiny. Lathwen frowned at them and began, “ I don’t know who any of you are or where you come from. But I do know that none of you are friends to us. Therefore, many, if not all, of you must serve the same master that sent all of the cloaked men and orcs to kill us.”

The elves began to mutter among themselves in elvish again. One of the elves snorted, but Lathwen glared at him fiercely. “ If you were any friends of ours, you would let us go on our way.” She pointed out. Lathwen felt the leader shift against her, so she pressed the dagger more firmly against his throat as a reminder.

“ As for the information I was about to give your captain…there’s nothing to tell. Or at least, nothing as far as we *will* tell. I don’t want any more of your kind, or anyone else for that matter, trying to follow, kill, or capture us, or whatever you were planning to do. Understand?”

The group of elves by the tree nodded sullenly. “ Thank you.” Lathwen said sarcastically.

She felt the leader shift his weight again. “ Do you have a death wish?” She asked him calmly. Lathwen could have sworn she heard him growl. She shrugged, “ Curiosity killed the cat. You’ll be lucky if it doesn’t kill you one of these days.”

“ I don’t understand why violence is necessary.” The leader said. Lathwen could fell the rumble of his voice vibrate through her chest. Lathwen sighed, “ I’d of thought that was obvious. You were very well prepared to use it on us besides.”

She turned her head slightly as she heard a pair of hooves not very far off. Seconds later, Lily appeared on Wildfire, leading Rosethorn. Lathwen nodded slightly toward her friend who nodded back and sped towards Lathwen at a gallop. At the last moment, she shot past, Rosethorn behind.

However, when Rosethorn galloped past, Lathwen quickly removed the dagger from the elf’s throat and pushed him off balance. She leapt towards her horse, and managed to grab onto the saddle horn. Lathwen leaned into the saddle as Rosethorn galloped through a tight space of trees. Lathwen hastily grabbed a fistful of Rosethorn’s mane as her hand slipped off of the saddle horn. She then put a hand on Rosethorn’s back and took a breath. Lathwen placed her foot in the stirrup and swung up onto the saddle, breathing hard. “ Quite the acrobat.” Lily called back. Lathwen smiled, but winced as she looked down at her hand, which had an ugly red burn across it.

Lathwen gasped in surprise as an arrow whizzed past her and thudded into a tree trunk at her right. Lathwen listened and found that she could hear the indignant and hostile shouts of the elves she and Lily had left behind. They were shouting in their harmonious tongue…or at least, one of them was. Lathwen listened more carefully and identified the leader’s voice.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Lathwen and Lily sped through the rest of the forest and burst out of the edge of the tree line where they plunged into the river. Lathwen let out a gasp as the frigid water soaked her clothing. Rosethorn tossed her head and trotted out of the river onto the bank where Lily already was, tying the rest of their equipment onto the saddles.

Lathwen pulled her map from the saddlebag and examined it. “ We’ll go halfway to the second split, then rest.” She shouted. Lily nodded and trotted Wildfire down the riverbank as they followed the rushing Hoarwell to its second split.

If they had elven sight or hearing, they would have noticed that a group of five figures followed them, while the other half went the opposite way to deliver a message to Lord Elrond.

***
Lathwen struggled to take a breath. It was the afternoon and the sun was shining bright enough to blind someone. Lily and the horses were camped under a huge pine tree. Lathwen however, had gone to the bank of the Hoarwell to (believe it or not) wash. Lily had scoffed, “ Come on Lathwen…you aren’t serious are you? We have more important things to do!” Lathwen shrugged as she walked away, “ I’ll be able to keep a lookout this way to!” Lily couldn’t argue with that, and she didn’t.

Lathwen surfaced and shook the water out of her eyes, taking a deep breath of the sweet, warm summer air. She hummed quietly the song her mother used to sing. Lathwen ducked under the surface of the river once more and resurfaced again. She reached up and wrung her hair out while she watched the puffy clouds float by. Slowly, she waded out of the water and picked up her clothes on the bank that had been drying on a rock after she had washed them. They were dry now, but she was not.

Lathwen used her cloak to dry herself off, and then she stepped into the fresh and clean smelling…well, almost clean smelling…tunic and leggings. She shoved her feet into her boots in a hurry, feeling that she had taken to long. Lathwen winced as her swollen ankle went down into her boot. “ I hate this.” She mumbled and stalked off in the direction of camp.

When she got there, she immediately sat down and began braiding her hair. Lily was yawning and twirling a single golden curl around her finger. “ Well, that was an interesting morning…now all we have to do is get to the second split, and we’ll be off.” She said.

Lathwen snorted and tied of her braid, “ Not that simple. They’re probably following us.” Lily looked shocked, “ How do you know?” Lathwen shrugged and nodded over to the trees on the opposite bank, “ Well its not like they’re just going to leave us alone, is it? Besides, I saw plenty of movement going on over there when I was washing.” Lily’s shock turned to disgust, “ They were watching—” Lathwen shook her head, “ NO! They were setting up camp. The leader I put the knife to is with them.” Lily frowned, “ THAT is bad news for us.” Lathwen nodded, “ Mmm…which is why we need to get moving…maybe we’ll be able to lose them at the second split.”

Lily protested, “ But we’ve scarcely rested at all!” Lathwen looked ruefully at her friend, then at the horses. “ Well, both us and the horses need to build our strength…why not start now?” Lily shrugged, but didn’t complain, thought she didn’t look at all happy about it.

***
Lily and Lathwen had the second split of the Hoarwell in sight at dusk. They hadn’t seen any sign of the elves while riding or resting, so they had figured that they had given up the chase. (Bad reasoning on their part…)

Lathwen called their journey to a halt once they reached the split. Lily sighed with relief and stumbled as she dismounted. Lathwen to was relieved to be able to stop once again. She felt the ache and burning in her thighs and knees clearly, but her back wasn’t as bad as it had been before. She limped as she led Rosethorn over to a tall oak and tied her reigns to a tree. Her ankle was inflamed even more than it had been in past days. Lily followed the suit and tied up Wildfire.

“ I think we should rest for a good day or two here.” Lily said firmly. Lathwen nodded wearily, “ I can’t take much more of this.” She answered in agreement. Lily took Wildfire’s saddle off and Lathwen did the same for Rosethorn. “ There you go girl.” She said softly, patting Rosethorn on the neck before taking their dinner of bread and dry meat from the saddlebag.

Lathwen took a bite of her bread and threw it into the saddlebag. “ I’m tired of dried meat. I’m going to see if I can find something else.” Lily nodded, “ Normally I’d want to come with you, but I’m going to look after the horses…besides, I need some rest to.” Lathwen smiled and picked up her bow, sauntering off into the woods at the other side of the river. (Stupid thing to do…) She crossed over a tree that had fallen over the river.

Lathwen walked cautiously through the foggy woods, wondering if the elves were going to pop out from behind a tree and murder her with one of those well-aimed arrows. A movement out of the corner of her vision caused her head to whip around. It was a buck…a huge one to, antlers a few feet long.

Lathwen licked her lips and put an arrow on her bowstring. She pulled the string back and was amazed to see that the buck didn’t move, it just went on eating. Lathwen let the arrow fly.

She expected to hear a meaty smacking sound, but instead, she heard another arrow sing through the air and watched in shock as the arrow carved hers in half and threw it off course in the process. The buck looked up, saw Lathwen, and ran away. Lathwen sighed loudly in frustration.

She swung around and put another arrow in her bowstring. Out of the mist strolled…grrr…the leader of the elves. How she loathed him.

His hair shone with a silverish tint from the water droplets the mist made. In his hand were his bow and an extra arrow. His quiver hung from his back. Lathwen backed up a few steps and allowed her quiver to slide down to her hip so she’d have easier access to her arrows…if there were a need for them.

“ You promised.” Lathwen said, the words bursting from her lips before she could stop them. The leader shook his head, “ My men promised. I did not.” Lathwen snorted, her sarcastic mask coming up once more, “ So you think you can follow us anyway just because you didn’t promise to leave us alone?”

The leader stalked closer, his eyes never leaving hers. Lathwen was beginning to get nervous. (Smart girl.) She could see that his eyes glinted with fury, but his character remained cool and distant. In desperation, Lathwen held up her bow and aimed her arrow at him, “ Stay where you are.” Her voice didn’t tremble at all.

The elf held up his hands and set his bow down, “ I don’t fancy harming you…I merely wish to talk if you’ll allow.” Lathwen made a split second decision and put her arrow back in her quiver. “ As you wish.” She answered. Then she bolted back to the river and crossed it, slipping once or twice but never falling.

Her legs burned and her ankle complained loudly, but she grit her teeth and ran towards Lily who had stood up and was quickly untying the horses reins seeing the fear on her friend’s face. “ Is it orcs?” She shouted. Lathwen shook her head and answered, “ SOMETHING MUCH WORSE!”

Lily grimaced and turned back to the horses. Lathwen was a few yards away from her friend when a heavy force tackled her and knocked her to her knees. Lathwen knelt there, panting. She turned around and saw the leader on the ground next to her. He stood up quickly and offered her a hand, which she took.

After she stood up, she gave him a glare and walked toward Rosethorn who was already saddled. Lily was snorting with laughter, “ *This* is the thing that’s worse than an orc?” Lathwen glared at her friend who only laughed harder. She mounted on Rosethorn and saw that the elven leader had followed her to her horse. “ WHAT DO YOU BLOODY ELVES WANT?!” Lathwen shouted.

The leader, not taken aback answered calmly, “ As I said before…information. But we can withhold on that for now.” Lathwen looked suspiciously at him. He merely gave her an amused look and said, “ Permit me to introduce myself…I am Glorfindel of Imladris.”