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Old 07-05-2004, 10:23 AM   #265
Ealasaide
Shadow of Tyrn Gorthad
 
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Kaldir

Kaldir awoke late with a throbbing headache. The pain seemed to start in the damaged side of his face and spike upward like a stiletto behind his eye, almost as though a splinter of bone had come loose in the night and worked its way around to stab into the flesh. It gave his cheek muscle a slight twitch and caused his eye to tear, but at least his head was clear of the nightmares that had beset him all night. That was a bonus, anyway, perhaps a benefit of his surroundings, the influence of the Eldar.

He changed into the fresh shirt that the elves had provided and, in doing so, was pleased to see that the wound to his shoulder had improved greatly and no longer hampered his movement. In fact, the headache gave him worse pain than the shoulder. That was good. He would need his full strength. He had a feeling that Naiore was still nearby, though he had no tangible proof of it... only the nightmares and the headaches. The word he had heard late the evening before, upon the return of an Elven scouting party, was that Naiore had fled into the west on heels of her retreating orcs. Tracks had been found. And a single strand of golden hair. Even so, Kaldir had his doubts. Naiore would never be so careless as to leave such an obvious trail. If so, she would have been captured years ago. Having tracked her for years himself, he knew full well of her ability to disappear into a poisonous nothingness. If a hair had been found, it had been planted. He was sure of it.

The hobbit, Toby Longholes, had said that she hunted Menecin, her former lover and the father of her child. Her orc assault on the stairs had been an attempt to get at Menecin. Would she give up so easily? Kaldir thought not. And now Vanwe was in Imladris as well. All the more reason for Naiore to linger. But where? He had seen her on the rocks below the stair. She must have crossed the river again in order to plant the tracks and the hair, but where had she gone after that? Kaldir had a strong suspicion that it wasn't far, else why the persistent throb in his face? Else why the nightmares? Naiore Dannan could not have gone far.

With his nerves feeling jangled and raw from both the pain behind his eye and the restless night, Kaldir went down to the great hall for breakfast. He was disappointed to find neither Benia nor Mrs. Banks in attendence, Benia having remained with Dúlrain in the Hall of Healing and the hobbit lady having already put in an appearance and gone. He then spent a quiet hour or so eating and speaking with the elves of the scouting party, who had come down to breakfast as well. He was interested to discover that many of them shared his doubts, though they were equally as non-plussed as to where Sauron's Ravenner actually had gone, if not into the west. The Elves had gathered up some stray orcs as prisoners but, upon trying to interrogate them, found them patently unhelpful, more prone to growling and spitting than saying anything of value. In the end, the prisoners had been executed and burned, their weapons and armor buried. With all leads exhausted, the Elves had found themselves with no other choice but to return to Imladris. Kaldir listened to their words with interest, but upon taking leave of them found himself no wiser than he had been before.

With his face still throbbing and having nothing pressing to do, Kaldir went outside to catch a breath of fresh air and to think. The Elves of the scouting party had hinted that Elladan and Elrohir planned to call a counsel for that evening, but, until then, Kaldir found himself at loose ends. He found a large stone in the clearing behind the main hall and sat down upon it, turning his face up to the sun in the hope that a touch of sunshine might draw some of the pain out of his face. He was sitting like that, pondering the questions of both Benia and Naiore, not to mention what had become of his horse and other belongings, when he heard the approach of a firm footstep on the path. Turning, Kaldir saw Rauthain. He nodded to the old Ranger.

"Good morning," he said purely out of an obligation to say something. He still regarded Rauthain with distrust and, admittedly, some dislike, but the fierce resentment that he had once felt toward his former brother-in-arms had faded somewhat of late. With that in mind, Kaldir felt that he could spare him a little courtesy.

Last edited by Ealasaide; 07-09-2004 at 07:16 AM.
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