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Old 09-23-2003, 01:10 PM   #63
Ealasaide
Shadow of Tyrn Gorthad
 
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Sting

Kaldir

Once Kaldir had entered the shadows of Chetwood, he had only to hear the muffled sounds of weeping to know that Gilly had not gone far. He followed the sound only a short distance along a deer trail before finding her collapsed in a thicket and sobbing into her apron. Crossing his arms across his chest, Kaldir leaned one shoulder against a tree and watched her for a moment, waiting for her to notice his presence. After all, he had heard Benia shouting warnings from behind him to her friend up ahead. Surely, Gilly had heard them.

Apparently not, he decided after another moment had passed. Totally absorbed in her grief, Gilly didn't seem to have heard anything. Finally, Kaldir sighed.

"Come, come, Mrs. Banks," he said with just a trace of impatience. "Your friend has come to no harm."

Gilly stopped crying and raised a tear-stained face to look at him in alarm.

Kaldir pushed himself away from the tree trunk he had been leaning against and took a step toward Gilly, who seemed to have turned to stone. The only indication that she hadn't was the occasional soft sniffle.

"Let's go," ordered Kaldir, gesturing toward the deer trail and the meadow, but Gilly didn't move. Instead, she continued to stare at him with wide, red-rimmed eyes. Kaldir walked over behind her and picked the hobbit up by her elbows, setting her on her feet.

"Gilly?" It was Benia's voice. To Kaldir's surprise, it sounded remarkably close by. Startled, he looked back down the deer trail, and there she stood, balanced precariously on one foot and holding her sword tightly in her shackled hands. Just beyond her, he could see the non-descript brown coat of the pack pony. That explained it. She had somehow managed to get ahold of the pack pony.

At the sound of Benia's voice, Gilly came back to life. She would have bolted back down the deer trail to where Benia stood except that Kaldir caught her firmly by the back of her dress, right between the shoulder blades. Gilly struggled mightily, nearly ripping the back clean out of her dress, until Kaldir hooked his free arm around her waist and lifted her completely off the ground.

"ENOUGH!" he roared.

Startled, Gilly stopped struggling. Kaldir turned his attention to Benia. "Drop the sword," he ordered. When she didn't comply immediately, he released his hold on the back of Gilly's dress and drew his dagger. Seeing the steel of his blade so close to Gilly's ribcage, Benia dropped the sword and took a careful hop backward.

"Good." Kaldir nodded. He set Gilly back on her feet. Leaning over, he growled in her ear, "If you give me any more trouble, I'll gut you right here. Do you understand me?"

When she nodded, he pointed back down the trail toward Benia. "Walk." Gilly did as she was told and scurried back down the trail toward Benia with Kaldir close behind her. When she reached her friend, the two hugged each other like children, watching as Kaldir, again, picked up Benia's sword. He was angry, both at himself for taking so much trouble over these two, and at the two of them for being so stubbornly determined to elude him. Even so, he found that the more they fought him, the more determined he was not to let them go. It was beginning to be a matter of pride.

He stalked over to the pack pony and pushed Benia's sword back into its sheath, then whistled for Nico, the gray stallion, who trotted over immediately followed by the bay mare, who was still attached to the gray by a rope tether. It was time they stopped fooling around and found Naiore's trail before it went cold. The elfwoman was capable of moving like a dark phantom through the landscape. If he hoped to pick up her trail, it would have to be done before nightfall. Otherwise, all the traces would vanish and she would become like a ghost again. He had a feeling she was on a roundabout route that would take her to Bree. If he was correct, then all he would have to do is continue north along the edge of Chetwood until his path intersected hers. Recognizing her trail when he found it would be the hard part, but he was confident that he could do it. There was an oddity to the stolen gelding's footprint that he had noticed back in the dust of the Forsaken's stable, where one side of one of the horseshoes was malformed. If he could find a clear print of it, identification would take no more than a glance.

Turning his attention back to his current prisoners, Kaldir brought the bay mare around and, with a gesture, instructed Benia to mount her. Once Benia was firmly in the saddle, he turned toward Gilly, who was watching him with a look of dread on her face.

"You ride with me," he said, pointing her in the direction of the gray horse.

Gilly shook her head. "Oh, no, begging your pardon, Mr. Kaldir," she stammered. "I couldn't possibly... he's so big..." But her objections trailed off abruptly as she caught sight of the black anger rising in his face. "Well, I'll need a leg up," she finished meekly.

Kaldir ended the discussion by picking her up and depositing her into the saddle like a sack of meal. Nervous as a cat, Gilly grabbed the saddlehorn with a white-knuckled grip and held on. She and Benia exchanged curious glances as Kaldir tied the pack pony back on to the tether with the other two horses. Then he tied Benia's pack to the back of the pack pony and, taking hold of the tether, began to lead all three animals north along the edge of the forest. He jogged along on foot, his pale eyes criss-crossing the ground, searching for the place where Naiore might have entered the wood. They had traveled for quite some distance this way when Kaldir abruptly stopped.

The prints of a number of horses, probably three or four of them, led into the forest there. Dropping the tether, he walked slowly back and forth along the side of the new trail, studying the confusion of prints for one with a malformed shape. After a moment, he hesitated and bent down for a closer look. There in the rich dirt of the forest floor just to the right of the trail was a clear copy of the hoofprint he had first noticed in the stable. He had found Naiore's trail. Having satisfied himself that it was the hoofprint of the stolen gelding, he turned his attention to the other prints on the trail. Three large horses, from the look of it, all iron-shod, and a fourth with the delicate unshod hooves of an elven horse. Two of the shod horses continued on into the forest after Naiore, while the third turned south. Kaldir was surprised that he had encountered no one riding southward that morning. Whoever it was must have made a wide loop to the east and returned to the road. The unshod elven horse seemed to have arrived later than the others, as its prints overlapped all of the others. The faint and dainty shapes made by an elf's boots were also present, skirting the path, as Kaldir himself had done, their owner no doubt studying the tracks as he was now. The prints were very fresh.

"No doubt Amandur and his lot," grumbled Kaldir. He had wasted barely a half an hour playing chase with the desert woman and her friend, but it had been enough to put him at a serious disadvantage. If he remained behind the Rangers in the pursuit of Naiore, he knew he would be wasting his time, and his role in the unfolding events would be relegated to little better than spectator. Finding Naiore in Bree would be a challenge, especially what with Benia and Gilly to contend with, but, provided the Rangers had not closed in on Naiore already, it would be his only opportunity to regain the advantage he had lost that morning. Otherwise, he might as well pack it in and head for Harad with Benia.

Returning to the horses and his two prisoners, Kaldir swung himself up easily into the saddle behind Gilly. Since there was obviously no more need for stealth or careful tracking, they could move more quickly now. The trail the others had taken was open and wide. They rode for Bree at a gallop.

[ September 24, 2003: Message edited by: Ealasaide ]
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