Broken soul. (A fanfic starring Adar from the 'rings of power')

9

As the night was beginning to settle in. The woods started to feel more intimidating. These were not the woods close to Eilith's home, unknown creatures could loom in the dark shadows. Adar was still driving the orcs on and so Eilith tried to focus on him. In any case, she could defend herself! And, she was quite certain should she need him, she could call out for help and Adar would come. She just really wanted to stay hidden until they were so far away from her home, that he couldn't just send her back. She thought about her home, by now she would have come to sit in her armchair next to the fire. Her stomach warmed and filled with a healthy stew or similar. But, in a way she was glad to be out here, she felt lighter, accelerated, almost as if she had shrug of a burden she had carried for a long time. This, her adventure wasn't going to be comfortable but she felt like a Fletching. The things she would encounter on this journey would help her to grow. She was well aware though that some of the experiences she was going to have wouldn't be good once, hope fully they were not going to be traumatising. She gave it over to the one that held her soul, the almighty.

Eventually Adar and the orcs came to settle. This came as a relief for Eilith because now she could cast the protective spell and than start to settle down too. She watched as they made a fire. If only she could sit amongst them, lean onto Adar. She longed for the warmth of the fire but even more so for the warmth of his body. Instead she wrapped herself closely into her cloak and leaned onto a rockface. The rockface was ideal really, it had a bit of a letch that could protect her a little from potential rain and best of all, it must have soaked up sunlight during the day and was still a little warm. She fell asleep relatively soon, due to exhaution but woke up in the night, cold. She cast a spell that warmed her but than it took a while before she could fall asleep again, especially because she thought to see a pair of red Eyes moving about behind the protective shield. Her longing for Adar was so strong now, that she cried a little. 

In the morning she was woken by the racket the orcs were making. She felt as if something very heavy had rolled over her. There wasn't going to be any washing herself or changing her clothes any of that would have to wait. No wonder that Adar had been so dirty when he first came to her. If there was a stream somewhere near by soon, she would take a moment to clean up. There had to be a little self-respect! It was different for Adar, she realised, he had very little self-respect or pride left, it had been taken away from him. Would the little time that he had had at her place be enough to carry him through until they were back or somewhere where his healing could carry on?  

They marched the whole day. Eilith did get a chance to wash up a bit but she didn't linger for long because she didn't want to lose the group. It was a rather warm day which was really good for her cause. The nature they passed through was changing though and the trees got less and less. This on the contrary was not at all good for her cause. It meant that she would have to hang back a lot further, to a point were she could just barely see them still. She hated the fact because naturally she wanted to be as close to Adar as possible. She had contemplated to just make herself known to him now but she feared he wouldn't be happy to see her. Initially perhaps but she would be a burden, because she had no experience and because if he cared for her she could be his vulnerable Spot. So for now it would have to be this way! There was a spell, she had once learned, with that she could transform an item into an invisibility shield but so far she couldn't remember all of it. So, instead she had to hang back, watching them get smaller and smaller until they were but the snts, only then she followed. When it was dark she would get closer though find a place to hide near by. She couldn't bare the thought of being more or less all alone in this vast countryside.

When it had finally gotten dark, she quickened her pace. They had made a fire and were easy to find this way. She supposed they had little to fear as the orcs were probably the scariest things out here. Not so much to her anymore, she had gotten quite used to them, the looks and the mannerism. There wasn't even a guard watching. Supposedly a single, sneaky she elf, well half elf, wouldn't be a threat and if it was a true threat approaching, one could probably not miss it. Eilith was glad when she was finally behind the bolder that was going to shield her. It was a close but hidden place. Adar had the fire extinguished for the night though in case a true thread was approaching while they slept. He couldn't know that Eilith's protection spell was anyways going to keep them safe.

Here in the open one could see the stars, magnificently they spread out above.  The moon was relatively light too. Eilith was just glad that it had only come out, after she had slipped behind the bolder. If anyone was to walk around it though, they would clearly see her but why should they... hopefully they didn't!

Before she went to sleep she cast the 'warm-spell' over all of them, as well as the protection. It wouldn't last the whole night though, it would fade as soon as her conscience had fully drifted off into a deeper sleep. Again she woke in the night cold, so she warmed them all yet again. Not so strongly though so that it wasn't totally obvious.

The forth day, Eilith finally remembered the rest of the invisible spell! She cast it onto her cloak, which made it possible that she could stay closer and felt more at ease.

She was beginning to smell, this had happened very seldom in her life, so now it was a little overwhelming. But it was as it was, nothing she could change about it right now. She had a change of clothes along but she saved it for whatever reason she needed it. She had no idea how far they had gone so far, she wondered what would Gil-Galad think and do? Would he come after her? There was indeed a chance. On horse and with a dog to track her down, he could maybe find her. Well, maybe he wouldn't, at least not immediately, he was the high King after all, with responsibilities and so on. Surely he couldn't just run of, like she had done, just to find her. Her mum would be very worried, for that she felt really sorry.
She would return and explain, hopefully.

On the morning of the sixth day she woke up with the sun really high in the sky already. It was warm and quiet. Too quiet! She turned towards the group but they were not there! Had she seriously slept through all the orc-sounds that had woken her for the last mornings? How was that even possible? She must have been really tired so that she had past out completely.
Hastily she got up, packed her things and wanted to follow.. but, which way? She decided that the direction they had been taking for the last three days would probably be the safest. Her heart was racing, fear was taking over. Had she lost them? Panic! It would be really bad if she had. She wasn't even sure if she would find the way back! She found a piece of dirty linen that had been torn of. This could be from one of the orcs. She clung to that hope! 

On she went not bothering to step lightly anymore, as soon as she found them she would resume to that once more. She didn't see the small figure running through the woods as well, towards her but from ghe side. Until they collided..