Chapter fifteen: Fire and Fur
As soon as Thendryt regained consciousness he bolted up to a sitting position. It wasn’t one of his brightest ideas, as the wound in his abdomen opened and a searing pain made sure that if Thendryt wasn’t awake before, he sure was now.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Thendryt looked over the campfire, trying to focus.
“You have no idea how lucky you are, you bastard.” The man said. “If the mist hadn’t cleared for a second and I hadn’t spotted you falling down into that river, you’d be as dead as Bryn.”’
Thendryt’s eyes finally focused.
“You have a wonderful way of giving compliments, Odak.” Thendryt replied, smiling slightly.
“So you finished Bryn for good then?” He asked.
“Me? No, I was downriver and never even saw you through the mist until you fell. I just found his body afterwards, thought maybe you did it.” Odak replied.
“Me? No, I was fighting the rest of them, I…” Thendryt laid down and grunted.
“What?” Odak asked.
“Faorie. It must’ve been Faorie.”
“Faorie? That elven lass? She came back to look for you several times. Even brought members of the Warband.”
Thendryt raised an eyebrow and looked at Odak.
“And you never thought to tell them where I was?”
“I needed to talk to you, I had to wait for you to wake up.” Odak said casually, as he took a bite off some bread.
“First things first. Why am I alive?”
Odak put down his food and stared at Thendryt through the flames.
“Alright. I heard fighting, ran back, saw you fall off the cliff and down through the thin ice, and dragged your sorry hide out of the river and back here.” Odak took out a piece of dried meat, took a bite and continued. “Then I stripped you off your armour, bandaged the wound, put you in a few pelts, got a fire going, went back to search the site, found Bryn and the others dead and saw your Elven friends look for you. Happy?”
“Fair enough.” Thendryt replied. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”
“Ah, that.” Odak finally tossed Thendryt a piece of meat before continuing. “I need you to come with me to fight the Organization.”
Both men were silent for a moment before Thendryt started laughing.
“You’re telling me you need me to go with you to fight the Organization?” Thendryt looked Odak in the eye. “Me?”
Odak smiled. “Of course not, you’re clumsy and as agile as a dead orc!”
Thendryt smiled as he chewed on the dried meat.
“I am going though… I might need help if I’m ever in the area.” Odak said in a serious tone.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be around. If I hear that you’re around Eriador I’ll search for you. We both need to watch our backs.” Thendryt replied and laid his head on a pelt.
Odak grunted in agreement. For several minutes both men were quiet, until Odak broke the silence.
“I’ll leave in two days. It shouldn’t be a problem to get back to Rivendell from here, even with that wound.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about me. I’ve had worse.” Thendryt replied.
“I know… Speaking of that, I never found out how Heoran helped you escape when the Angmarim transported you to Isengard.”
Thendryt chuckled.
“Some things are not meant to be spoken of.”
