Life of Gold RPG

[Cordelia Harrison]

Marieme blinked at the dwarf's outburst. She looked around and saw the rest of the group. The only one that was really bad off was Arianna and she wasn't that bad off. She had just lost a lot of blood and was weak and the cut was over her torso, causing breath to be painful. She would survive.

"Have you no courage, man? Is it not the meaning of the life of a dwarf to fight for your comrades and family? Arianna will live. She lost blood, nothing more. You should be ashamed of what you proposed! Leaving a dwarf in need, that is waiting on us to rescue him! You can leave, but this is the nature of the beast. We will come across bandits and travellers and all the like. We shall fight and maybe one or many of us shall die. But isn't it better to die for a noble cause then to turn your back upon him and die from old age in your bed?!" Marieme argued back, her eyes were blazing.

[Glirdan]

Glirdingo arose and sighed in exhasperation at the screaming and yelling that commenced. He looked down at Arianna who had closed her eyes for some rest. Some rest she's going get with all this screaming going on. He continued to look at her, happy that she was going to live yet exhausted.

The yelling progressed to a roar behind him. He turned around in anger and yelled as loud as he could. "STOP!!!" Everyone looked at him in astonishment. He looked at the Dwarf with narrowed eyes. "I understand your frustration Darin. I too am frustrated. However, if we want to save Thin-Gloomy, and you cannot stand there and say that you do not, we must perservere and keep our heads held high. We will not turn back now, not after all of this. We must move forth as soon as possible."

He looked around at his comrads, hoping that they didn't notice the fear in his eyes. He looked over to Valesseka and Éomeléo and said "If you two do not mind, I would like you to watch over Arianna while Mariem, Darin and myself go around to see if any are alive for questioning."

Without waiting for an answer, Glirdingo turned and walked to where the man he had stabbed, the man who had stabbed Arianna, lay, hoping that he was alive. As he approached, he noticed that he was breathing. But there was something different about this man. He walked up beside him, turnd him over and gasped.

The man wasn't a man. It was in fact a young woman. He noticed her eyes were open so he didn't wait for Marieme and Darin to arrive to start the questioning. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Why did you attack us!?" Glirdingo asked her all in one breath. He sat in impatiently, waiting for her to answer.

[The Sixth Wizard]

"...But isn't it better to die for a noble cause then to turn your back upon him and die from old age in your bed?!"

Easy for her to say, she doesn't fear death. But some of us have only one life to shape and experience the world, and may not squander it unwisely... But Dárin knew she was right. He just had too much experience of young dwarves letting their passions get the better of them, and dying for revenge, or for a seemingly just cause, to orcs and worse. It was the right thing to do, rescuing Thin-gloomy. Exhaustion and shock had made him grumpier than usual, but he still disliked their journey.

He grumbled and coughed. "Fine. I've got nothing to live for anyway. I'm bankrupt and have no spouse or children. I'll throw away nothing if I die. At least this way we have some chance of a just deed." The wind whistled.

[Thinlómien]

The world was fog for Jenfried. There was a throbbing, tearing pain in her left shoulder. The pain took everything. She was vaguely aware of laying on the ground, her face to the dirt and the little stones against her body. There were some distant yells and clashes of weapons. There was a faint smell that reminded her of grass and blood.

She could not concentrate. She was unable to think about almost anything. Only one thought swam in the pools of her pain: Will I die? Will this be the end of my miserable, short life?

The noises were fading. There was still shouting, but this was different... It was like... like Arunga shouting to Théodfara after he had dropped the honey pot... or like mum when Jen had brought her the dead rat family so many years ago...

Someone grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. Some dark shape was between her and the starry sky. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Why did you attack us!?" the foggy shadow demanded. But it was not a shadow anymore. Through the tears of pain blurring her eyes she could recognise the shape of a young man. An extraordinarily beautiful young man with very deep and shining eyes.

Like Elves in the fairytales and histories, she thought, oh, am I having hallucinations?

"Who - are - you?" the man spelled slowly and impatinetly. His voice was eeriely melodic. "My name is Jen", she replied. The man looked at her with a puzzled, angry face. Only then did she realize that she had uttered the words in her mother tongue, rohirric, not in the common tongue the man was speaking. "My name is Jen", she said again, now in the speech of the western lands. Before the man could make any reply, she asked: "Are you an elf?"

[Valesse]

Valesseka had a moment to take in her surroundings while Eomerleo galantly rescued her from the dark horror that was the wayward way-laying band of bandits. One of the female elves had fallen in the skirmish, the one she hadn't spoken to much... Ariano? Confound it! Elves and their names! What if she needed someone's help in some ancient forest?

"I'm- I'm fine... just frightened" she whimpered some what melodramatically to Eomerleo, clentching her arm where the crude ax grazed her. Nearly about to inquire about his condition --Glamerr'o?-- the elusively named one addressed the pair: "If you two do not mind, I would like you to watch over Arianna."-- That was the elf-maid's name! Arianna!--"...while Marime, Darin and myself go around to see if any are alive for questioning."

Without another thought, or even an initial one Valesseka gave a dazed nod and stood up to move closer first to Eomerleo, and then to the elf. Running through her head was some of her basic knowledge of the medicial herbs native to Arnor... It'd do her little good here. From what she remembered King's-Foil leaf, one of the best salve ingredients to fight infection, liked the shade of trees which are 'apparently' few and far between in Rohan. "Are..." Valesseka stammered, unsure if Eomerleo could even hear her over the events nearby, "you alright, also? Thank you..."

[Glirdan]

"My name is Jen", the woman said slowly. She paused, looking long at him. "Are you an elf?" she finally asked, somewhat bewildered, somewhat in awe.

He looked at her and nodded slowly. "Yes, I am an Elf. And obviously you can hear me now. So lay still while I have my friend come and patch you up. And don't think of running awy for I shall be right here with her!" He hissed, narrowing his eyes. He looked behind him at Marieme and nodded to her to come here.

[The Sixth Wizard]

Dárin was enraged to find one of the bandits captured alive and talking. The nerve of these foes! The elf Glirdingo was speaking to the young female human. Patch her up!

"This is an elf, brigand, and a fierce one at that. And I am a Dwarf of the mountains, deep in wisdom, fierce in anger and slow to forget any grudge. You and your fellows attacked us without provocation, forcing us to defend ourselves forcefully," he said, bristling. "In my eyes you are lower than a cursed orc, grovelling in the sunlight. Have you no moral fibre? There is a reason we are put on the good earth, not to kill and burn, the tools of the Enemy!"

He was tempted to just finish the brigand, but the Elves would no doubt condemn him. Returning to the group, he said to Éomeléo, "What are we to do with this vagrant? My people would not be too merciful in the same situation. Leave her, I think.."