[maikafanawen]

"Whose here then?" Ceros asked out of the blue. He had been very quiet lately. Arië clung to the back of Ihwesta's tunic.

"Im here," Ainemetion called from somewhere behind Arië.

"And the others?" Arië asked, waiting for the rest of the elves to register their being.

There was no sound.

“Taurëwen? Reynion? Eruwen?” Ihwesta called short and loud, hoping the boom of her voice would penetrate the mist better than a long-held yell would. When no answer came, Ihwesta knew that they had been separated temporarily.

“Ceros,” she said hotly. “If you don’t object, I think it would be a good idea to get a rope that we all can hold on to so that the rest of us don’t get lost.” As much as she respected the elf two thousand years her senior, she had a problem with taking orders, especially when they were in a predicament. An elf passed her a coil of rope from her left. She took it and began to unravel, tying it to a loop on her belt. Then she gave it to Ceros, telling him to do likewise. The rope was passed around until Ihwesta, Ceros, Ainemetion, and Arië were attached in that order. At Arië’s small protests at being in the back, Ihwesta had politely explained that trackers should be at both the front and rear of the line. The matter was dropped and she didn’t have to explain why she had the front.

Fifty feet of rope divided Ihwesta from Ceros and the others were only six feet from their neighbor with twenty-five feet separating Arië and Ainemetion. This way Ihwesta could still go ahead a fair distance to scout out. Tied securely to the makeshift leash, the four elves felt their way through the forest in the direction Ihwesta was sure was south.

“But the others,” Ceros said tetchily, stopping Ihwesta before she went ahead.

“We can not find them in the mist,” she pointed out. “And if they’re the intelligent elves I hope they are, they won’t trace backwards looking for us, they’ll continue onwards.”

“Gilbereth is with them,” Arië said lightheartedly. Ihwesta smiled, but through the mist no one saw.

“So is Taurëwen. She’ll lead them straight.” No more words were said and the four walked on again.

The blackness that surrounded Ihwesta was frightening. She had always been able to see at least ten feet around her even in the darkest night. With this mist shrouding her vision, she was granted only a mere twelve inches and no ground was in sight. It was a very depressing sort of feeling and a sense of helplessness washed over her. Nostalgically wishing she had Reynion’s pipe, Ihwesta pressed on, feeling with her feet as she went.

The progress was slow and they covered only a hundred yards in about thirty minutes. To Ihwesta, who liked to move fast and assuredly, this was extremely frustrating.

She had let thirty yards of slack fall between her and Ceros when she felt him tug on the rope. Starting at the movement she hurried back, praying that nothing was amiss.

“What?” she said. “What is it??”

“What are we doing?” he asked tensely. “Where are we going and why?” Ihwesta opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out. She didn’t know. All she was doing was heading south like they had originally planned, covering the extent of their forest with only four of them left.

The thought wasn’t very appeasing but she wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the other four to just bump into them. They set out from the palace with a mission. Nowhere did it say they had to stay together and complete it as a whole. If that was so they’d already failed when Airelómë died.

“We’re pressing south like I said Ceros. If they’re still around they’ll catch up to us.” That covered she walked towards the back of the line to talk with Arië. She also had let slack fall and was backtracking to see if the others were anywhere behind them. Ihwesta jerked on the rope and waited for Arië to return.

“Have you had any luck?” Ihwesta queried when she felt Arië touch her arm slightly to let her know she was there.

“Nothing. It’s the silence of death, Ihwesta. It’s a wonder that the Mist doesn’t kill.” Ihwesta nodded.

“I agree. We’re going to try and move faster, I’m thinking that this is like a shadow that will pass over an area, leaving no trace behind it as it was.” Ihwesta doubted the theory and from Arië’s hesitation so did she. But no one really had another idea.

Arië continued to search behind them, coming up every once and a while to check back before going back again and Ihwesta led them on cautiously, but doubled the pace. Soon the mist began to thing ever so slightly and another foot was added on to Ihwesta’s vision scope. Hopefully the mist was beginning to clear...