[Amanaduial the archer]

Her mouth and nose still covered with cloth and her eyes narrowed against the smoke, Raeis supposed she probably looked like one of the Haradrim, and felt a bitter smile twist her mouth. How strange - a Southron with fair skin and pointed ears! And the Light, if any still remains within me...

She caught the man on her left, Zurumor, looking at her and turned her head to return his gaze with her good right eye, eyebrows raised questioningly. He looked away immediately, looking down at the ground then up at the ceiling, as if anything was more interesting than the elf. Underneath the dark cloth covering her mouth, Raeis felt her mouth twist into that bitter smile again. Was she really so hideous that he couldn't look at her? She would have anything other than pity. Yet something of her face certainly seemed to fascinate him - a freakshow then, like a stunted pigmy, dancing for bronze coins and the amusement of others in some sleazy tavern...

The thought made her angry and she walked faster, moving out of step with the man as she looked away from him, brushing her short, scruffily cropped hair behind one ear, covering the side of her face with her hand. But as she did so, her foot stubbed against a crack in the ground - a deep welt in the dirt, an irregularity that made her stumble. Instantly, the man was at her side again, catching her arm as she staggered and steadying her. She looked up sharply at him, her eyes fierce as she glared at him...but in his green eyes, she saw nothing of pity or arrogance - only kindness and...was that fear? No, not fear, but something close - as if a wild animal caught in a sudden light, or a small child amazed by the twinkling of a jewel or bauble...Awe?

Awe...in the back of her mind, a nasty voice laughed as soon as Raeis thought of the word. Awe? You imagine he looks at you in awe, ugly elf? Awe, awe, awe...like the cawing of the carrion crows. Ugly elf, awe leads to awful - far more appropriate...

Raeis stood up straight, twitching her head slightly as if to discreetly dislodge the voices, knock them off-balance. Zurumor still had hold of her arm, and she stayed completely still, watching his hand until he noticed and removed it slowly. "Apologies, Lady - I...I was...w-watch your step," he finished awkwardly, looking away again. Raeis continued to regard him steadily, her eyes raising to his face, but this time he didn't look away.

"Thank you." Her voice was soft, and still harsh from abuse and disuse, but from the man's look of surprise, it was as if the Valar themselves had come down and spoken to him. Do Men even know of the Valar? Raeis found herself idly wondering and made a note that maybe she would ask this man, Zurumor.

Feeling eyes on her, she glanced to the side and saw Morgoroth. He looked away instantly, so quickly that Raeis was not sure she had not imagined his gaze, but at the same time she knew she was right. The male elf was a strange, silent being - quite like herself, she supposed. But was she as intimidating? - all the Men avoided the male elf, casting fearful glances at him...and at Raeis, she now realised. Was she really intimidating. I hope so, came the venemous reply of her tortured mind and she smiled as they turned into a massive cavern. But even as she did so, she heard a screech - a terrible sound of pain and shock, a noise that seemed to rip through the eardrums like the air itself was tearing. The others looked around, back the way they had come, for the tunnel made sound seem to come from no direction at all and all directions at once, but Raeis didn't follow them, staring forward the way they were going into the cavern that lay in front of them, a space so vast that it seemed to the eyes of those who had spent years within a few square feet, that the whole of Minas Tirith could fit inside it. The wind of the sudden movement of something vast ahead ruffled her hair, whipping it around her face and the others turned also, stepping back a few steps unsurely, hands on their blades, moving into a small group in the centre Zurumor glanced at Raeis as if she would know what was happening - although she knew that he knew as well as she did what had stirred.

"She has found us," she whispered simply, her eyes not moving.

As if in recognition, a creeping, screeking noise, like the laughing of a nightmare sounded surreptitiously from above...and the whole ceiling seemed to dislodge itself and scuttle towards them. Raeis seemed paralysed, unable to move...until the huge shape dropped from above as if it would land on them.

Released from her coma, the female elf screamed, yelling almost incoherently at the others to run. Grabbing hold of one of Zurumor's hands, she did exactly that, sprinting without thought back the way they had come as the nightmare beast landed - anything to get away from those myriad evil eyes and that terrible skreeking laughter, like the sound of every nightmare she had ever had...