Lost and Found

Bri as she was called, had been nearby in Orthrikar delivering a stack of tanned hides to the dwarves when the Lady's wren found her and summoned Sybri to Esteldin.  There she was instructed to find Buliyve, an old friend in the Order, to get a first hand account from the grizzled warrior regarding the Cynraede.  The hunter, Cynraede, had not been heard from in quite some time, and Alkawen felt it was imperative he be found, but did not say why.  With sketchy information and only the will to honor her oath, Sybri did not question the order.  The master scout immediately rode out of Esteldin, making fast for the Trollshaws.

 

The ride was long, dusty but uneventful from Esteldin toward Rivendell.  Sybri reined her horse into the pass from the High Moor to cross through Giant Valley.  The valley was named for the inhabitants, not the size of the valley.  It was thick with club-carrying giant kin, huge worms and fiery drakes.  The huntress had been through the valley many times before and knew how to slip through virtually unseen.  It was on the other side of the valley, on the winding trail leading into the Hollin that a tawny glen buck suddenly appeared and intentionally began following Bri and her horse, Mogul.

 

Accustomed to the Iaurmenel's unusual agents, Sybri greeted the deer with a nod of understanding.  The majestic buck dropped a folded parchment at Mogul's hooves and stayed nearby while Bri slipped off her horse and retrieved it.  Unfolding the parchment and reading, the woman pressed a long, low sigh from her lungs.  The message was from Alkawen.  It told the tale of Rannie, who had encountered a dark skinned stranger, which confirmed her Lady's fears, Cynraede was indeed in trouble.  It was likely at the hands of their ruthless enemy from the East and that the hunter was thought to be held somewhere in Eregion.  Sybri was to find him, fast.

Sybri swinged herself back into the saddle and continued onward, their destination, Gwingris, the buck in tow.  Gwingris, the Elven ruins now inhabited by a handful of Elves, was located in the north-west of the region, setting atop a rocky outcrop.  As Sybri was approaching the ruins, she noticed the deer was gone, no doubt it had at some point silently disappeared into the wilds.  The sun was just about to set, casting a rich red light on the landscape.  What luck!  Bri saw a familiar figure highlighted by the glow of the setting sun, as she passed under the ornamented columns.  It was Frithswith! 
 

Lady Frithswith, a Rohirrim woman, was known throughout the Order as a brave warrior and skilled healer.  As Sybri wasted no time in asking Frithswith to assist her in her mission.  What the scout needed was the healer to be prepared to attend to wounded, if needed.  The Rohirrim woman agreed and set off immediately to prepare a camp where the two women of the Order rested for the night.

 

Pink and amber light was only a line on the horizon when Sybri woke.  Quietly, she tacked her horse and headed out into the holly forest of the Hollin.  Frithwith would stay at the camp, as the point of contact.  Having no clues nor trails to follow, it was going to be tough.  The Elves at Gwingris had not seen or heard anything that would be of any use, so Bri would need to depend on her experience in tracking. 
 

Two days after leaving Gwingris, Sybri was covering the region methodically, moving from north to south, east to west.  On the morning of that second day as she was heading westward up a hill through a thick stand of holly trees, she spotted it.  There snagged in the sharp leaves of one of the holly was a strand of crimson thread.  Cynraede, she knew, always wore a crimson hood!  Being a skilled hunter, he knew how to leave a trail and she had found it!  Continuing stealthily up the hills, westward, she found more red threads mingled in twigs broken by foot falls and bend grasses where someone had passed. 
 

Unfortunately, Sybri and Mogul weren't the only ones moving in the forest.  There were strange tree like trolls roaming under the holly.  In fact, even some of the holly was roaming.  The further west the two moved, Sybri now on foot leading her horse, the more trolls they spotted.  Just as they were rounding the top of one hill, the scout spotted two large trolls standing virtually still, like sentries.  Ground tying Mogul and whispering him to be quiet, Bri sneaked in closer to see what the two monsters might be doing by using the cover of vegetation.
 

Moving forward on hand and knee, Sybri peeked through some high grass and saw what looked like it might be the entrance to a cave set back into the rocky hillside!  That was what they were guarding!  Making her way to the mouth of the cave unseen, she slipped inside.  After her eyes adjusted to the very low light, Bri pressed her back to the cave wall and slid along deeper into the cave.  Then she heard it.  It was a peel of laughter from Cynraede but it wasn't joyful, it was painful laughter.

 

Sybri, thinking quickly, pulled out her handkerchief and a bit of charcoal from her belt pouch, then sketched a quick but accurate map of the location.  She then sneaked back out of the cave, back to her horse, removed his bridle, tied the cloth to a ring on the saddle then whispered again into his ear.  The horse, both ears now flicking upward, turned and galloped northward.  The master scout prayed he would make it back to Frithswith.