[Thenamir]

Thenamir walked to the edge of the village and looked down the road, musing on the path which had brought them there before joining his companions at Aspida's hut. He let the thoughts flow unimpeded through his mind, somthing he usually did when trying to clear up some mystery. Sometimes two thoughts would crash into each other and actually make a connection.

He muttered softly to himself as the ideas spilled and mixed. "The wizard Saruman...powerful, mysterious...seeking something...useful to a wizard...slaughtering innocents...using Dunlendings...striving for secrecy...king's counselor Grima...giving orders to those who killed my wife, her people...Saruman...what could he want..."

He went on like this for some minutes, but nothing came of it except the resolve that whatever this item was, it was probably important that Saruman not get it, not as long as he was in league with the men of Dunland who indiscriminately killed men, women and children in their pursuit. At length Thenamir sighed, turned and marched resolutely to Aspida's hut.

He rounded the corner and almost ran into Ulfwine, with Baranthol next to him. After the quiet of his thoughtfulness, he was startled, but recovered himself quickly. "Ready to go, I see," said Thenamir, seeing that they were lightly packed, carrying only a weapon and a water bottle each. He was also pleased to see that they had noted the coming change in the weather -- each had a rain-cover rolled into a small backpack. "We should not be gone too long -- the path they kept too is not far from here, right, Ulfwine?"

Ulfwine thought a moment. "Their track should have led them past here to the north, and a little east, about an hour's walk, maybe a bit more if we go with a bit of stealth."

"Good. With any luck we'll be back in three hours. I want to get a sense of the size of the group -- how many men, whether they are mounted -- and to see if they might have left a camp near. Any dropped item or throwaway might give us some ideas...especially you Ulfwine, since you have travelled with them for so long."

They tightened their belts and moved off at a moderately brisk pace to the east, led by Ulfwine, with Thenamir and Baranthol following.

Elwood, who never slept, espied them from the camp with his sharp elven eyes, even as darkly as they were dressed. Having no desire to cross paths with Aspida anytime soon, he took his knife and bow, slung his quiver on his back and followed them at a discrete distance.

[ December 13, 2001: Message edited by: Thenamir ]