The elf Fingil couldn’t wait as worry kept him wandering around the room. It was his brother Celegil that was leading the caravan ”I can’t wait any longer! I must start my search.” Armanduil quickly followed Fingil out of the linen makers mansion and readied his horse. Fingil looked worried but confident “I am quite a good tracker, I suggest we split up. You go search by the river Armanduil. I will search the plains south of here”. Armanduil nodded and spurred his horse, galloping towards the Gelion river. It was still dark as he rode through the plains, he tried to see any sign of the missing wagon, but to no avail. Sun dawned and it seems to be a fine day again in Forlindon. Once he reached the river that was flanked by rather high cliffs he took a close look for any tracks that may indicate the wagon had fell of the edge into the river, but he found none.
Around noon he headed southwards following the river. Suddenly he stopped pulling the reigns of his horse. Left of him there was very tall grass, taller than he was, he saw cart tracks disappearing into the grass field. Armanduil dismounted and searched for more tracks. Near the wagon tracks he saw claws, rather large ones of many beasts. They were wolf-like but then bigger. Armanduil peered in the distance, far away he could see the forest edge on the foot of the blue mountains. He followed the track closely, pulling forth his horse along with him. For an hour he walked following the trail of a wagon through the bent grass. He walked up a hill and found one bag on the ground, it contained linen “This must have fallen off, he must have been chased”. Armanduil walked out of the tall grass and walked up a hill, in the distant he saw the wagon! He mounted his horse and rode towards the wagon as quick as possible. A feeling of dread made Armanduil stop and dismount. Something approached, he quickly grabbed his bow and loaded an arrow. He turned and peered to his left, something was moving through the grass, suddenly there was a loud growl as the beast jumped to its feet. Armanduil pulled the string, as he felt the feathers of his arrow touch his cheek. Focus. His vision turned into a tunnel where time seemed to move more slowly. He saw the hairy wolf-like creature running at him, snapping his jaws. Wait. The beast his fury was now a stone throw away. Now. The arrow released almost soundless from his bow with a lightning speed it pierced the beasts skull. With a high yelp it shoved over the ground. Armanduil checked his surroundings, there were no other. He walked towards the beast “A Warg!?” he saw the beast drawing his last breath “Wargs, here? How is this possible..”. Armanduil ran towards the wagon in the distance, he found two other warg corpses close to the wagon already decaying. They were pierced by arrows as well. Most Linen cargo fell beside the wagon, and a trail of someone chased by more warg tracks led into the forest.
Armanduil ran into the forest, another fresh track joined the tracks he was already following, It must be that of Fingil! As he ran, he passed another corpse of a dead warg with an arrow sticking out his neck. The tracks were becoming more vague. Armanduil kneeled searching for the right direction.
He heard a yelp of some beast in the distant. He ran towards it with a new arrow on his bow. Running fast while dodging trees, he suddenly heard a beast quite close to him. Another warg ran towards him that was lying in wait to catch his prey. The beast was too close, Armanduil quickly loosed his arrow that sank into its thick hide but the beast hardly reacted to it and kept on running for him. There was no time to load another arrow as the warg tossed the elf from his feet, they both rolled through the grass while the warg was snapping its jaws fiercely. Before Armanduil could draw his dagger, the beast was hit by another arrow in its throat. Fingil came running towards Armanduil who was getting back to his feet again ”are you allright!?” Fingil panted holding his bow. Armanduil nodded as he picked his bow own out of the grass “Yes, my deepest gratitude! Any sign of your brother?”. Fingil shook his head “be wary, there may be more wargs around”. Fingil beckoned Armanduil as they both followed the trail until it stopped at a tree with four dead wargs around it, all pierced by arrows. They looked up and saw someone lying motionless on a thick branch. They climbed up the tree and Fingil reacted shocked “Brother, its me, brother!”. Fingil looked nervous as he checked on Celegil's condition “He is still alive, but he has two festering warg bites, we do not have long!”. They got Celegil down and Armanduil helped Celegil's body upon Fingils horse “Ride to Forlond Fingil! Don’t worry about me, ride!”. Fingil nodded firm and rode out of sight. Armanduil made his way out the forest and found his horse still standing close to the linen wagon. He reloaded all the linen bags and attached his horse before the wagon. As he rode back to Forlond he looked once more towards the forest as an uneasy feeling struck him.
