Lusseriel was sitting near the water in the little gondorian town of Morlad, enjoying the sun. They had just gotten back in the town, and she decided to give some care to her notebook that she had very pointedly ignored for a little while.
So there she was, sitting with her back to a tree, in front of the water, under the somewhat suspicious eyes of the town guards.
She opened the notebook with a sigh, and picked up her pen and ink:
“Many things have happened since I last picked up that notebook. Nothing too bad for us. I mean, we're all alive still, despite many… Risks taken.
To speak plainly, Rohan was attacked. We ended up in Helm's deep in the middle of the siege. Because of course we absolutely had to intervene, instead of doing the sane thing.
Because of course Rohan absolutely needed the help of a ragtag group of 6 individuals more. We made such a difference after all…”
Lusseriel sighed at that and shook her head. What was done was done, no point going back to that specific argument.
“In any case, the battle was a nightmare as all battles are. Messy, like all battles, many orcs died, for which I rejoice. Many men died, for which I can’t say I really care, but I will not say it aloud else someone takes offense, and many men survived.
I’ll admit I couldn’t care less so long my current company survived.
The people of Rohan have proven themselves to be a rude, obnoxious, prideful lot and deeply biased against my kind on top of that. Because of course, elves are used to kidnap men or something. That totally makes sense.
I can’t say they deserve the fate Saruman would have given them, but I can say honestly that had I been alone, I’d have let them assume the result of their common decisions. Between those who decided to stay in their home because it’s their homes and they can’t fail and those who decided to follow their king to a deathtrap…”
Lusseriel huffed at that, and raised her head from the diary, looking at the landscape in front of her. Really the people of Rohan had been an aggravating lot from the moment they entered their land.
“Right. Somehow the night was a nightmare, the so called safe place that Helm’s deep was supposed to be fell little by little and it’s only by luck that we all survived at all.
In the process, Brunnadan discovered and as importantly acknowledged he is Arcangar when he confronted the men of the falcon clan that were part of the attack.
He could avenge his own death in the process.
I’m not quite sure he took the news well or that Ardirien took the news well to be fair.
Right, back to the relevant information: the survivors gathered in Dunharrow, and we learnt there that Aragorn gathered his people, without Andrahir, the poor man was left behind again. Traveling with us apart from his company does him no favor apparently and crossed the paths of the dead.
Also we learnt there that some children of the men of Rohan have no survival instinct and that to save ONE child with the intelligence of a slug, the leaders will sacrifice whole groups of soldiers.
In the current circumstances I’m not sure it’s the right decision, however sad it can be for the parents. But then again, if they had done a better job leashing their child, said parasitic life-form wouldn’t have found it a brilliant idea to try to enter the paths of the dead.
I mean, the amount of entitlement and stupidity apparently contained in such a small body is rather incredible, but doesn’t bode all too well for his survival in the long term.
Back to the grey company and Aragorn, I do wonder if they’re perhaps a bit suicidal. However, we ended up crossing the paths as well, and considering there's still spirits in there that were not friendly, I should probably say nothing on the matter.
But I can think it loudly.
Of all our mounts, only my horse followed us, so my companions are for now stuck walking.
I wonder why Ilthirian at least didn't try to work with her mount better so he'd follow her. I suppose she'd say she had better to do of her time, which... May not be wrong. It's not like we had those horses for long, to be fair.
Even if it seemed longer due to the amount of events that...
So to go back to what I was saying, we crossed the path of the dead and we're now in Gondor. We stopped in a little town called Morlad. I rather like the way the architecture is adapted to the mountain. A bit too stuffy for my tastes, but it's not bad.
I mean, I wouldn't stay here if I could avoid it but still, I've seen far worst.
Andrahir told us it’s a peaceful region, near the principality of Dol Amroth, and under the protection of its knights.
Sadly the area isn't quite as safe as we could have hoped, but then, considering that they’re neighbor to the path of the dead, that was perhaps a given.
The people here speak of out of control beasts and asked us to go and kill a few to check.
Well we did, but I must insist: I've seen no such things as an out of control, strangely behaving animal. I mean, there might have been a bear or two but then, I've never seen it as a fun game to try and poke a bear. And if you bother a WILD animal, you’ll get what’s coming to you and it’s perfectly NORMAL.
And Andrahir suggested that we should avoid the teeths and claws of those creatures if we crossed path with them.
Really? I mean, I wanted so much to check the teeth of an enraged bear. What shall I do now…?
I mean, it’s generally a good suggestion, no mistake there, but I do think we were all experienced enough not to be told that.
In any case, after sending us on a rampage against perfectly fine animals that didn’t deserve to die just because men can’t make the difference between a sick animal on a rampage and a perfectly fine one, the man, whatever title he claimed in this little town, asked us to check the hill of Erech.
Apparently some people claim that the dead are present on the Hill, and the man’s sure that some evil left the path of the dead, and could we check?
So of course we did.
But night was falling, and instead of waiting for dawn just to map the hill and get a feel for what we could find at night in the relative safety of daylight, we went at night directly, in the hope to find the shades if they were there.
All things considered, perhaps it wasn't our best idea and probably we should have gone during the day at least to check the area to have an idea of what awaited us at night.
As was logical.
I mean, the humans among us don’t have the best vision at night. I mean, as an elf I don’t have the best vision at night but it’s worst for humans.
No idea for hobbits, perhaps I should ask Rolegard one of these days.
The hill of Erech was full of those of the spirits unwilling to go on with Aragorn. The ones who will not accomplish their duty yet and will stay cursed there for longer, until a descendant further down the line of kings call on them again, or until someone finds a way to get rid of them.
Everything is possible after all.
But for now they’re alas just the spirits of cowards happy to kill the living for a revenge they have no right to take.
Their presence is deeply felt, and would be enough to affect all life forms around. Animals and humans first...
Alas, the hills also has short little drops that are not easy to see during the night, and as our luck had it, of course, when we heard someone call us, one of our party fell down one of those.
It was Ardirien. At least she didn't seem to be injured too badly. She seemed to favor a leg above the other and she seemed a bit out of it at first.
I suspect the fall shocked her a bit, but I noticed nothing truly grave.
I could however be wrong because once again, she’s human and I can only make vaguely educated guesses regarding human’s health.
She insisted to go see who had called us, so I think she’ll be fine. Surely she’d have other priorities if she felt really bad.
So we did. I stayed near her just in case while we were walking around the hill but Ardirien really seemed… Well not alright to be fair, but not too bad either.
I’m almost confident she’ll be fine.
So we went on the other side of the hill and met a man. Apparently a knight of Dol Amroth or something, and Rolegard... May have somewhat managed to sweet talk him into lending Ardirien his horse.
I had no idea he had such power of persuasion.
Ardirien rode back to Morlad when the man agreed to lend her his horse.
It’s not something she could have done if she was badly injured, so there's that. Also, Arcangar was gone again this time. I suppose he’ll have a good excuse, as usual.”
Lusseriel raised her head from her diary to the landscape she could see from there. The area was really beautiful. It’d be worth visiting again later perhaps if she survived their journey long enough to do so.
