~Abandoned Ways~

Beneath the setting sun, a chestnut mare galloped through an empty forest road in the half-light. Its rider was clad in white, a flowing stream of pearly white rippling in the breeze. On they rode, through the waving arms of tree branches, past unkempt clearings scattered with forest litter, and on. Without warning, the horse and rider burst through the last of the forest trees, and galloped out beneath the open sky.

Eventually, they slowed to a stop beside a running stream where the rider unmounted. She ran over to the stream and ran her fingers through the cool water, splashing it over her face, feeling the evening breeze on her skin. She went over to the mare and ran her fingers through her glistening mane to still her beating heart.

‘We’re free.’ Tîwele said simply to the mare, putting her silence into words at last, yet hardly daring to believe what she had just uttered. She sighed and reached over for her pack, preparing to settle down for the night.

[Someone pleeaase continue ]

Suddenly Tîwele turned, hearing a sound behind her. With a ruste of leaves a Man stepped into the clearing and approached her, stopping just out of reach.
"I'm not going to hurt you." he said, and he sounded as if he meant it. "I can see that you're scared and shouldn't be here. If I can help at all..."
Kestrar fell silent and waited for a reply, hoping the prety young woman would in her turn help him. She opened her mouth to talk, thought better of it, and was quiet.
"If you're going somewhere I can protect you." Kestrar tried again, seeing the pack on the floor by her feel was bulging with supplies for more than a short trip. Again she seemed not to want to accept his help, yet she did not seem to be ungrateful, only afraid of something.

Is Tîwele an elf- she sounds like she could be!

Tîwele hid her surprise at the approaching man and turned away. When he did not go away, she finally spoke.
'I...' She was reluctant to give away her purpose, since she didn't know whether her father had sent anyone unfamiliar to bring her back, or if it was a trap '... have been fleeing from my father's men. Have you seen a group of men on horses?'
She paused for a moment. Her eyes met his briefly, and she saw, or thought she saw, a hint of sadness.

'Who are you?' She asked. He did not look like an elf, or leastways like the princes she had known back at home, but she could not be sure.

[Yeh, Tîwele's an elf. If you read her character description I wrote, you'll find out more about her]

"I've not seen anyone but you for many days" Kestrar answered. "Are you fleeing your father? I have a horse, but I'm alone. I can keep hidden if you'd prefer it that way. I'm Kestrar. I've never known my parents, or a real family."
Her reply came swiftly this time; "You must not let anyone find me. If you stay with me you will be in danger when we are found, and I do not want to be held responsible for the death of a Man, for if I guess correctly, you do not posess the immortality my people endure."
They stood quietly, each pondering what they were about to do. Kestrar guessed Tîwele was runnung away from her father, but for what purpose he did not know. Not wishing to break her fragile confidence, he suggested building some sort of basic shelter for the night, for the sky was clouding over as they spoke.


OK, stupid me!!

Sorry- computer being silly !!

While Kestrar went to search broken branch fragments that they could use for firewood, Tîwele got a fire going. Soon they were both sitting under the cover of a large old oak, warming their hands in the light of the flickering fire.

As they sat, Tîwele spoke. 'I'm fleeing from my home,' she said, 'Órelindë, it is called, and from my father Lólindir, the king. I feel as if i have been imprisoned in that land all these years, and unable to be free. It was yestereve that he first spoke to me of marriage. He wanted me to marry Rasten, a young man I had never yet met, and take up the throne after my father when i grew older. But that's not what I want to do. I don't want to marry a man I haven't met, or rule. I am yet young, and have yet to see the world. I want to live, to do, to see!

'No one knows where I have gone But if i were ever found with you, you would be in danger, for my father forbids me to go near any outsiders, and you are the first man I've yet seen.' It was clear Tîwele could not hide her fascination that he was so alike the elves she knew. Men, she had heard from her father, were evil, uncaring, and brought ruin.

Kestrar stared at her, lost in silence.
‘What about you, Kestrar?’ asked Tîwele ‘Why are you out in the wild, a lone man and a horse?’

In the distance, both heard the sound of happy whinnying, as if the horses were happy to find a companion.

"I've never known my parents. I lived with some of my father's friends until the orcs came. They burned down the house. I was hunting, and came back to find the only family I ever knew burned inside."

Kestrar stopped, as if the memory was painful to him. He was a skilled actor, and few would have percieved the lie he hid in his eyes. The hut had been burned, and this small vestige of truth gave him the necessary edge to lie undetected. About his adoptive family, he would say no more, hoping Tîwele would ask no more.

"The horse is easier to explain. Rochir was with me when I went hunting that day." Almost as proof, he opened his own, rather smaller, pack and pulled from the inside of it a strip of dried meat. Placing this on a sharp stick and holding it over the fire to heat, he shivered slightly in the chill wind.

"Aren't the horses glad to have company?" he asked, and they did seem to be happy, grazing together, Rochir's dark tail swishing over the other horse's hear to protect against flies.
"I'm glad of the company as well" Tîwele answered. "If you can be true to your word after what I have told you, I will let you stay with me. Swear never to let our whereabouts be known to my father or his scouts!" There was an urgency in her voice that compelled Kestrar to answer in the affermative.

Am I OK to set this in the Fourth Age?

[Yep, even though these threads are meant to be before the third age, but it doesn't matter.]

Kestrar looked somewhat startled. Tîwele thought liked the look of him. He didn't seem like a nasty person, only a ranger in the wild. Tîwele turned and went over to her horse.

'This is Laeren, my horse,' she said to Kestrar, 'sometimes I feel as if she's my only friend in the world. We grew up together, in the confines of my home.' She gestured somewhere North, 'but home it will be no longer. I vow never to let them find me.'

Tîwele stroked Laeren's mane. Laeren whinnied in answer.

'I have journeyed far,' said Kestrar. 'Me and Rochir, and have not yet met a soul but you. Sometimes I wonder if the world hides things from us.' He fell silent.

Tîwele looked at Kestrar. 'You never knew your parents, and i never knew my mother. My father told me she died when I was born, but I have reason to believe that was a lie. I don't know where she went if she left, or if she's still alive.

'Your fathers friends... who were they?' She asked, 'where was your home?'

Far away Anithrawyn cursed the elf maiden quietly as the rain stated to fall. Calling over to the others they began heading for the forest nearby... Anithrawyn wondered for the millionth time why they were here. Surely the stupid girl would come home of her own accord, wet and tired, but ok. In fact, she had probably already returned and they were all wasting there time out here. He couldn't imagine her staying out in this whether. When ever he'd seen her with her father she had been dainty and, well, girlish... Maybe appearances were deceptive.
Miraure twitched restlessly beneath him and for a second he was brought back to the real world. Looking round he saw the others had halted 80 yards behind. In the gathering gloom it was easy to miss them, so he called out to them. "Come, night is falling!" his elf voice rang out, braking the silence. The broken silence accentuated the void of noise. Anithrawyn had a brief second to wonder exactally why the others had stoped, and to regret speaking out, before the cold, clamy fear washed over him, and darkness fell.

[hope you dont mind me joining in...and introducing a new character (he's supposed to be a servant out looking for Tiwele) you can go back to your two characters, and i'll bring him back in somehow... if thats ok??]

"I have lived with a family of Men for as long as I can remember. I have little knowledge of their bloodline, but they seem to be related to Beren of the Nine Fingers, or to have knowledge of his family from long ago. I know little of them but their names, Galenon and Orva"

Kestrar was uncertain of Beren's line, but was certain he himself was not a direct descendant of the great king. It was a name often talked of with great respect.

"I do not feel safe here" he continued, in an attempt to change the direction of the conversation; he did not, yet, want to talk about where he had lived, in case the rumours had reached Tîwele. "
I don't like being exposed in the middle of perfectly good cover." He stood up and placed another branch on the dying fire, totally in contrast to what he had just said.

"I like your horse" he continued. "I can see why you love her." She was now grazing again, but seemed reluctant to stray too far from her mistress. Her tail swished over her hind legs, and she raised her head to watch the firelit conversation. The light was fast fading from the sky, and the full moon was plainly visible in the starry blackness.

"Where are you going from here?" Kestrar repeated one of his earliest questions, hoping he had gained enough of Tîwele's confidance to obtain an answer.


It says "to the start of the Fourth age and onward" but we'll go second if you want!!
Bill- do you want another person in the search party?

[that would be great, if someone wants to write one...]

‘I have not given that much thought yet,’ answered Tîwele after a brief pause. She was growing used to Kestrar’s company. ‘I do not know the lands more than 50 miles out from Órelindë, but I long to go beyond that restricted border I have always stayed within. Wherever a road is able to lead, I’ll follow it on its way. Perhaps one day this searching will end, and I will settle down somewhere, but as yet I cannot foresee when that will be. There may even come a day when I come to learn the truth about my mother, and…’ she trailed off, unable to continue. She was hesitant about telling Kestrar what had been buried inside her all those long years before, something she vowed she would uncover the truth of, but had never told a soul, much less someone she had only met that night.

In all her long years, though young she was, Tîwele had, if nothing else, gained the wisdom akin to her people. If she had learnt long ago not to be deceived by her father, but she had also learnt that in every lie, there was a truth concealed, no matter how well hidden that was. She still did not know, or allow herself to be sure, whether Kestrar was one she could trust.

There was something hidden in his eyes that she could not place. He was concealing something, whether from his past or his present purpose, she did not yet know. Tîwele didn’t want to force him to reveal what he was reluctant to, and that if he felt he wanted to tell her when the time came, he would.

She let the dying embers of the fire dim in the failing light.
One thing, however, she wanted to know. ‘Where are you heading for once this night has passed? For it is late, and I think that soon, we should get some rest.’


[Oops sori, I changed it, I remember now. Don’t mind me, this’ll be set in the Fourth Age Speaking of the Fourth Age, I have this idea that after the third age, there were no more or very few orcs, so we shouldn’t wind them into the story (the orcs attacking Kestrar’s home had better not have been recent…) but there’ll be other things. That’s just my idea, so ya, tell me if you disagree…
Hey btp! Having another storyline’s fine. We’ll need someone to play the someone else in the search party if that’s what we want (you’ll have some company while you search … unless someone wants to do two characters ]