[Valesse]

If Valesseka could see the sun, she would have been disappointed in how late she was to wake up, but even still she was relieved to note that Éomeléo remained asleep. I'll get ahead of him today. I'll get out of this dark and creepy place. She shuddered and pushed on. The forest was dark, and true to it's name "mirky'. Growing more regretful to pass through the woods in the first place, Valesseka found herself unable to focus on the rather eerie setting she had found herself in.

Now the trees were larger, and each breath she took felt like there was a film clinging to it. The trees were growing more and more massive, and with concern that she might have difficulty staying her course Valesseka took care to walk slowly. The Arnorian found telling time hard in the bleak light of the trees... minutes felt like hours; hours: eons. As she became worried that perhaps she had missed lunch already, but decided that she would only stop to eat when she felt hungry; simply put, the terrain was suspending her appetite for now.

Even further into the slimey darkness, Valesseka could recall a slithering like sound. Her grip on the stave could bend metal almost, spinning around in search for the snake that made it... there was none. This happened twice more before she told herself that it was just her stressing out over probably nothing. Night was fast approaching, but under the thick canopy Valesseka was not aware of any difference... what she did notice was first a sudden snapping sound, then a long low hiss coming from above her.

Before Valesseka could raise her head to see what in Middle Earth could have caused it, nearly an entire branch fell beside her- nearly on her. The bough dented into the mildewed earth and again the trees echoed a slow, hateful hiss. Valesseka shuddered.

With an strangely grotesque balance of grace and malice, a giant Mirkwood spider dropped infront of Valesseka. Both shrieked, though obviously with different purposes in mind. Even after her careful planning Valesseka was not at all above running. Though it was smaller than her, only about as tall as a halfling, it was still a monsterous spider... something Valesseka didn't like even at a healthy scale. Quickly she found out that it could and would over take her at her pace, so she turned. It turned, and swung around infront of her. Screaming again, the spider leaped at her, knocking the girl down onto her back.

With white knuckles wrapped around her stave, Valesseka tried to pull her arm back far enough that she might be able to stab the monster's underbelly. Though she was unable, she managed to hit the spider's stinger dead on. Furiously it writhed, trying to shake the staff, but the Arnorian kept pushing back.

In a rage it lunged to bite the girl, tearing a gash on her forearm before she instinctively jerked her hand down and away from the pinchers... then it hit her, literally (and in the elbow). Valesseka still had her throwing axe, and even if it was rather small, there was definitely a use for it now.

Breaking the strap that held it on her belt, she panicked and in the end savagely ripped into the spider's entire biology. Tired, scared, and covered with gore, Valesseka numbly trodded around in circles, trying to recall her flight path, or traces of her footsteps, but instead found the large branch that nearly crushed her. With another shudder she moved only as far away from the dead monster as she could bear. I shouldn't be here. I should be in Arnor. I shouldn't be here. Her arm ached, her back ached, and all she had right now was her cash of athelas. I shouldn't be here.