Come to Morning Through The Shadows

Into Bondage

Home is behind, the world ahead,

And there are many paths to tread

Through shadows to the edge of night,

Until the stars are all alight.-J.R.R. Tolkien

The tree branches scraped against her skin as Lyla plummeted towards the ground.

The screeches and howls of the wounded fell beast pierced Lyla's hearing as colors blended, and the world distorted as a lower hiss, a command, sent her shoulder burning.

She caught a flash of a dark object above her before her ankle caught against a large branch, pinning the hobbit upside down among the branches and dead leaves still clinging to the wintery world.

Lyla would have let out a growl of indignation had her leg not protested her current position and the fear of the fell beast still sent shards of ice through her veins.

The hobbit contorted her head, peering up towards the sky as she tried to wiggle her ankle. Lyla caught the large shadow of the fell beast, closer this time.

The hobbit gritted her teeth as her heart pounded in her ears, the pain in her arm flared with a renewed fire.

And then a crack. Branches splintered, leaves sprayed around her as the beast descended, tearing through the wood, its dark, beady eyes trained on its prey, trained on Lyla's panicked form. The creature craned its neck downward, towards the hobbit, snapping its jaws together tightly, as the hooded figure sent out low hisses as commands.

Lyla tried to swing herself away as the beast lunged closer, but her ankle was pinned too tightly against the branches and she didn't have the momentum to swing herself up to loosen it.

This was, decidedly, not good.

The creature lunged, again, towards the hobbit, its jaw opening wide once more as it tore through boughs and leaves to get to her. However, the fell beast did not account for the branch, that held the hobbit, breaking as well.

'Brilliant' the hobbit thought dourly as she fell. Her shoulder slammed against another branch, flipping the hobbit about so that she faced the rapidly approaching ground.

Mercifully, her rapid descent to the forest floors was softened by the large bush that lay beneath the tree. Lyla collided with the uppermost branches of this bush, breaking her fall enough to prevent no more than a moan of discomfort to escape Lyla's winded person.

She ached fiercely, but all things considered, she was relatively unscathed.

Which was a miracle.

A few smatterings of debris from the broken branches above, rained upon the hobbit as she tried to catch her breath and ignore the way her arm burned as the dark creature hissed a long screeching command towards its winged beast as they searched for her, trying to claw through the thicket of branches and leaves that created a barrier between the hobbit and her hunter.

Lyla's hand shot out, her fingers wrapping around a long branch that lay nearby. She prepared herself for the creature's descent, knowing that she couldn't outrun the beast and its rider any longer. Her chest ached and she tried, dizzily, to control her movements as she sat up.

To her surprise and relief, though, the creature did not descend, but let out a shriek of pain. Beating its wings, it let out another cry of pain and pulled upwards, further from the tree line and again into the sky.

Completely flummoxed by what was happening above her, Lyla arched her neck upwards, narrowing her eyes. What...?

Peering through the lower branches and the leaves of the bush surrounding her, Lyla caught sight of the fell beast and its rider, rapidly ascending as arrows rained upon the creatures.