Curse it all!
I swear, I'd give my right hand to the fire had I the foresight to stay out of this whole affair. Thinking back to it now, I see the folly of my acceptance to their "quest". What was I thinking? What was I expecting? It was clear from the beggining there was more at work here than I suspected. Or later feared.
Yet now I am stuck. Ah, Earendil guide my steps, I am stuck just as I had been in that damned fog in the fields. I still cannot quite decide how I got lost at all. I know that place. I've been there before. I have set foot within the grizzled walls of the City and commited each ruined street to memory. Then perhaps it was overconfidence on my part. None now live that truly know that cursed place.
I thank the stars they were unharmed.
Thank the stars indeed, for it was the star-crested folk that saved them where I failed. And yet the grim-faced northerners proved to be difficult to deal with, even in all my previous business with their kin. Vallandur would help us understand each other, if only he were here to call upon. Yet he, as always, is about his own business, whose destination or purpose he believes is of no concern to his friends.
Why do I ramble on like this? There is something to be done and I will not be kept from it. Not by the fell spirits haunting my sleep and leading me astray, a lingering result of the sleepless nights spent in the Fields, nor the stern faces of the Northerners adamant in their own purpose. Yet, though I had always followed their path, even unwittingly, I am no oath-bound Ranger to bend my knee to their authority. As they are intent on going their own way, I shall go mine. I yet hope we will choose the same.
One thing stays clear, however. My charges will remain safe and protected and I will drag them unconscious back to Bree if I must, before any further harm can be done by their childish thirst for adventure.
May all the stars shine on our path...I sense we will need their light in the coming days.No in elenath hîlar nan hâd gîn
