<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hobbitus Emeritus
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The First Wight
Valdavar struggled to conciousness as Calimir sang over him.
His eyes opened suddenly as if startled from sleep. He looked about him as if seeing something else, other people or things in another place. It was as if he dreamed with eyes wide open.
Calimir did not discover what afflicted the Beorning, for at that moment, Armiel came singing into the barrow and joined her in her song.
Then, gradually the Beorning became aware of himself and his surroundings as the elves sang.
Suddenly, they felt an unnatural chill from the inside out, starting deep and working fear into the fiber of their beings.
Calimir looked up in horror...
Armiel's singing faltered...
Valdavar finally learned the meaning of fear...
Before their eyes, a ghastly corpse light began to glow, taking hideous form as much in the mind as in the eye. Putrescent as rot and yet dry as bone it seemed, both corrupted and desicated at once. It's voice issued from a mouth of foul decay and it's eyes burned with a freezing fire that pierced the soul with blinding cold.
His withered hand held aloft a sword both straight and long. It stepped toward the prone and petrified Beorning and the quavering elf maiden. She did not fear the spirits of dead men. She now learned that this Wight was the spirit of no man.
It was the faded remnant of an ancient Elf Lord, gone over to the service of Morgoth ages ago. A thing of lingering power, strengthened by the horrors of ages of dark contemplations and wicked desire for the end of all things in a blackness of utter evil.
The Wight began to chant, and his whispering voice came clearly to everyone in the Downs. It was uttered in words of an ancient tongue, and yet it's meaning carried clear and cold to their minds. Armiel stood her ground over the fallen Beorning and sang in reply.
The Wight:
Dark as nothing in the Night,
Black as deadly shade of fright,
Sightless force of Melkor's spell,
To blind thine eyes in lightless hell!
Armiel:
Colder still was Helcaraxe,
And deeper than the bite of axe,
Was wind that blew before the Sun,
Thy spell of blindness is undone.
The Wight:
Colder yet is void of space
Where greatest of the greatest Race
Waits in Darkness for the Day
When Light shall fail and pass away.
Armiel:
Greater still is He who made
Arda, where, although we fade,
We live here free in Truth and Light
And fear no Evil in the Night.
The Wight:
Listen to the cry of Doom
And harken to thy calling tomb.
Now nears end of thy long wait;
Come to me and meet thy Fate.
Armiel:
I'll come to thee with Elvish steel
Thy deathless heart its touch will feel.
Mortal Men die once they say,
But thou shalt die again this day!
And with that, the shambling Wight brought down his great blade with a strength beyond the strength of men. Armiel barely parried and attempted a riposte, which was whisked away with the lightning speed of an elven warrior in his prime.
He swung again, nicking her arm as she whirled lightly aside.
Calimir tried to pull and drag the petrified man to safety.
Valdavar struggled to regain his courage. It would not be meet for these maidens to meet death while he did nothing! His fear was soon swallowed by his wrath, as Armiel stayed only a breath beyond the great blade of the hideous wight. A growl rumbled deep in his throat, as the Beorning felt the familiar rage building, pouring a rush of fury in his heart and a mighty power into his limbs...
</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000006>Gilthali on</A> at: 5/11/01 10:17:33 am
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