Ashes

Naergon and Telpenaro sneaked silently by burned farms and houses. Naergon whispered : 'Seems silent from here. But I doubt they left no guards for such road'.Telpenaro answered: 'Perhaps they think there's no need for that anymore' and Naergon felt like their voices will be heard by someone and decided to remain sillent further.

Dead bodies in cages showed the Yrch also tortured some villigers. Naergon felt sick from the smell of burned flesh that still stirred in some corners where the half-burning bodies were rotting. And yet when they advanced and the smell vanished he felt sicker: how fast such attrocities get covered by time. Another few months and the bodies will be nothing but bone dust. Another years and vegetation will cover the ruins. He felt like he had sticky blood on his hands, a imaginary blood that even ages won't cover or wash. When they returned, then, the others called their deed Yrch work. And indeed the burned town reminded him so much of the one he helped burn. He was a murderer. Would he do the same again knowing the outcome? Even not to let two of his own kind, prey to their madness, die? Would he do it again not to diminish the chances of success of the mission with the loss of two of the best fighters and scouts? But if he would not do that then what would he do? Was there another path for him that day? He cast his dark thoughts away and concentrated on any detail that would help the elves.

Telpenaro noticed: 'The birds are hungry'. Naergon nodded. 'We won't find anything that can burn if they had time to get hungry again. Is days since they finished their feast but not many enough so they fly to search another..'. Here was the outer wall of the town, with burned towers. Telpenaro stated the obvious: 'Ash everywhere.' Naergon rised his shoulders in frustration and pointed to a big ruin up a small hill 'There seems to be the main townhall'. 'Or what's left of it.' added the Lorien elf. Naergon nodded and stopped motioneless in the shadowed corner that hid them, pointing the fast creature that ran in the in the distance: 'A goblin rider.Let's not draw the alarm if we can'.

They advanced further among the burned houses more careful. Telpenaro noticed a small metallic chest on the ground and signaled Naergon to approach. He lifted the item and frowned at the emblem: Dol Guldur. Telpenaro recognised it too : 'I did not expect to see this here.I hear talk about it in Lórien all the time'. Naergon nods and turns the chest in his hands to find the opening mechanism: 'I saw it before too, back in Greenwood.' The box opens with a click and Naergon unrolls the thick scroll within: is a huge map drawn with little art but apparently effective, on thin quality leather and marked with many mysterious symbols he cannot read. He just put it in the box when he hears Telpenaro stumbling and cursing as he fells. The elf is back to his feet before Naergon needs to help him and points at the corpse he stumbled into:'I am alright, he is not...'. In the shadow the brown robe is barely recognizable but Naergon saw it enough times before in equally dim light: "Angmarim. A low rank sorcerer by the robe.. but they are good to make some unpleasant tricks." Telpenaro notices something which looks like an emblem and takes it from the corpse's hand. It is an Angmarim medallion, proof of their allegiance and rank. The man was showing it when he was struck down. Naergon kneels by the corpse and checks for wounds: 'Looks like he was showing this to someone.. and that someone split his head as answer. With an orcish axe most likely I would say. Did the orc come to them or the Angmarim searched him to complain or give him orders?..' Telpenaro says: 'If Lord Anglachelm was here, so far we have not seen his corpse.' Naergon stands up and points at the Angmarim with the tip of his boot: "This is one of our Lords captors unless the Angmarims visit Rohan often of late.. but indeed what of the captive and the rest of his guardians??'

A noise in the distance stops his reasoning and he looks careful from behind a standing pillar. A big orc apparently bored hit some trinket in his guard spot to the north.

Naergon frowns and continues in lower voice 'I wonder where they were stationed. Could be anywhere'. 'Or perhaps the captors were defending the prisoner from the orcs here?' Telpenaro suggest. Naergon shakes his head in disbelief: 'If they allowed it to go that far they were imprudent. But we would see more dead bodies of the captors.' Naergon walks further among the ruins searching for any clue of a group of travelers.Telpenaro beckons from a nearby ruin pointing the remains of similar plates with unfinished food. Rations-like. 'Someone did not finish their food'. The outer wall of the ruin lies crumbled towards the outside. Naergon goes near and looks at the ties of the wood pillars of the wall: 'Cut by sword and forced down'. Telpenaro says: 'Not something people would do when they had time.Maybe they escaped with the captive this way. To the East'. Naergon rises his shoulders: 'To the nearest way out of the town I would say in this circumstances. Should we try to find tracks on the other side of the wall?Even is quite a while since all this happened' Both elves sneak out trough the gap in the wall. The former shelter of Anglachelm and his captors was, by prudence or chance, just at the outer east wall of the town. Before the elves lie vast plains covered in thick ashes.Naergon looked down frustrated at the ashes, unsure where to start his search from, when a thin morbid shout broke the relative silence and a fast shape ran by them almost hitting Naergon. It returned in a matter of seconds but Telpenaro's spear found the warg's heart and Naergon's arrow killed the yelling of the goblin rider before the fiend reached them to strike again. Naergon frowned: "Trouble! This was the alarm. Let's get out of here, and fast". They both ran in the dark and turned towards the south after a distance. Nothing seemed to chase them. 'Let us find the others' said Telpenaro and Naergon nodded still catching his breath. He still had the Angmarim medallion and the map in the box with the Dol Guldur crest, and also the ruby eye brooch whose connection to the Search he dismissed, perhaps too easily.