Submitter: Date: 2006/1/2 Views: 390 Rate: 5.00/2

A/N: I make no pretense about being an expert in Sindarin. I’m not. Please be kind to my errors, and if you can correct them, please comment. Thank you.

Boundaries of Mirkwood
Chapter 14
Running in Circles



Arielle had a plan. The operative word being had.

The cave was further North, and a ways from the river; deeper into the forest and somewhat hidden by some shrubs and boulders. Tyelco had told Niobe he was certain there were eight of his companions trapped in the cave, but had no idea if more edhel had been captured or how many might be dead by now, though she found herself assuming none were. Arielle’s only glimmer of hope was that there couldn’t be many spiders left to feed on them, although, she didn’t know what to make of the urk. She would have liked to ask him what those things ate, but decided getting Niobe to moderate was too much of a hassle.

For some time early on in the venture, Arielle ran above with Tyelco, occasionally experiencing the sensation that she was being followed; every so often, she saw a shadow move, wherein this morose forest there was no wind. Momentarily, she was joined by Neko which put her at ease.

Jogging alongside the flying bicycle, Arielle explained what she had in mind to the two English speakers. It consisted of a lot of killing while she, Tyelco, and Abigail did what they could to drag or levitate the remaining edhel out. Of course, the contrary Abigail disagreed with this, as she wasn’t secure in her spell casting abilities and insisted they had no secure location to put the captives once they were removed.

The treacherous Niobe agreed. She felt that much of the attack would have to be improvised to suit the terrain. At least Niobe was in concurrence with Arielle’s attack configuration; she and the jedi in front for short range attacks, Yumiko and Abigail in the middle for long range, and Tyelco covering their rear as he seemed adept at fighting both near and far.

This still left the problem of eight possibly unconscious edhel to rescue. No one had any idea if Yumiko had the power to wake them all; it was unlikely, considering their last spur of the moment escape. Even if she did manage to get the poor captives alert, they would be a band of loopy, uncoordinated baggage wobbling around in the middle of a very nasty fight.

Any angle Arielle looked at it from they were hopelessly doomed to fail this mission. Not that she’d let that stop her from trying, but she felt everyone ought to know.

“Does anyone have any idea of how we might get them out of the cave?” Arielle put forth. Their time was running out, and they weren’t far from where she, Yumiko, and Tyelco had emerged only the day before. The area was recognizable by the lack of vegetation and smoggy gloominess.

“I’m afraid I am fresh out of ideas,” Niobe said apologetically.

“It might be easier to get them out if there were a diversion,” Abigail pondered aloud, “except, we don’t know how large this cave is, or where the spiders are, and there aren’t enough of us to carry everyone out at once, even if all five of us were to go at it which isn’t plausible due to the spider count.”

Arielle decided she hated Abigail’s logic.

Out of nowhere, Niobe added, “I suppose now is not a good time to suggest that the urk are not harmed?”

Arielle ground her jog to a complete halt, and for a few moments, Niobe kept peddling along.

“Stop.”

The overloaded bike wobbled and then landed.

“Niobe, if the next words from your mouth aren’t ‘so I can maim and torture them later,’ I will put you down for loosing your Goddamn mind,” Arielle threatened.

“Those monsters, Niobe?” Abigail said, surprised.

Niobe affirmed this by nodding her head as Yumiko dismounted off the back and Tyelco dropped down to join the party.

Arielle gesticulated wildly. “Did you not notice that one of them tried to kill you last night? That they tried to kill all of us? Are we supposed to get cuddly with the spiders and the rest of the carnivorous fauna running loose around here?”

Niobe held up her hand in difference. “I realize that you did what you must in self-defense. You were attacked; your friends were. And I agree that the spiders are wholly of darkness and not to be reasoned with. Nonetheless, the urk I encountered was not like them. He was. . .minimally intelligent, mostly instinctual. But he was not [/i]wholly[/i] dark. If I could contact the light within him—”

Arielle cringed and began shouting. “Do you even know what you’re saying?! Contacting his light, that he’s minimally, MIN-I-MAL-LY, intelligent and we’re supposed to let these things run loose?”

“Calm yourself.” Niobe sternly chided, her violet eyes lit. “I would not kill Tyelco, not if he were shooting at me, without first offering a peaceful resolution.”

“Those things aren’t like Tyelco. They’re not human!” Arielle shouted back.

Niobe’s eyes narrowed. “Neither is Tyelco. Had you and Yumiko not rescued him, had he felt the slightest threat, he would have dispatched you, or at least made the attempt.”

Arielle remembered the way he’d nearly shot Yumiko, and doubt began to erode her argument.

A finger ever so lightly touched her shoulder. Tyelco must have heard his name being thrown around and obviously was concerned about the argument. His head tilted, and he eyed both Niobe and Arielle unblinkingly, but he waited for his answer not from the one who could speak with him directly, but from Arielle. “He was cornered and it was for show.”

Niobe raised her chin. “Do not be so certain. Before I spoke with him last night, I do not think we rated much higher than the spiders.”

Of course, Arielle knew this had to be an exaggeration.

“Please, Arielle.” Niobe pleaded, doing a very convincing impression of a kind, understanding older sister. “You must allow me to test the boundaries of my powers. You must trust me.”

Arielle pursed her lips, and shifted her feet in agitation, until finally relenting. “Fine. Do your Jedi thing, but I swear if they start going after—”

“In such an instance, I will not hesitate,” Niobe assured. “Defense and rescues are my priorities.”

“I cannot believe,” Abigail interjected, “that you’re both agreeing to let those things run amok without consulting the rest of us!”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Arielle was tempted to tag “little girl” to the end of that question, but wisely refrained.

“I,” Abigail pressed one hand against her chest. As though they’d forget to whom she referred. “wish you would both stop pretending this is your group to run and include all of our opinions in your little decisions.”

Yumiko yawned and sprawled herself across the ground as if to take a nap.

“We don’t, because yours suck.” Arielle informed her.

“Arielle!” Niobe snapped.

Abigail set her shoulders back. “They do not. For one, we shouldn’t even be going in the cave.”

Arielle closed her eyes. “Because that would made so much sense. . .”

“It does!” Abigail crossed her arms and turned to Niobe. “You said that the spiders were acting funny.”

Niobe was listening attentively, and Arielle wanted to hit the Jedi upside her head. “That was what Tyelco told me, yes.”

“And these urk things, they don’t normally hang out with the spiders? And they’re intelligent?” Abigail prodded.

Niobe raised her head as if starting to catch onto Abigail’s thread, much to Arielle’s chagrin. “Correct.”

“Then they must know that the edhel would eventually figure out something was going wrong, and they must have known the edhel would eventually come looking for them when word got out, and when it did, do you really think these things would hole themselves up in a cave? Oh no, the attacks were organized. Niobe, when we were discussing Tyelco’s capture, you said his platform was an outpost? A military one?”

“Yes.” Niobe confirmed.

Arielle was horrified that this was so damn logical.

“A military post isn’t a place for opportunistic attacks. So, unless these things are all stark raving mad, they wouldn’t have gone at a place where the whole army will know their soldiers have gone missing within a matter of days. They just wouldn’t, not unless they had an exit, and not without what they came for in the first place. And since they’ve encountered us, who know where they are and what they’re up to and since we’re liable to tell and put up a nasty fight, I doubt they stuck around last night.” Abigail was rocking on her heels, thoroughly pleased with herself. It was sickening. “Come to think of it, that’s probably why they passed by our camp last night.”

“And you didn’t mention this earlier because. . .?” Arielle prompted.

“Well, no one was asking me, and you’ve been grouchy and unreasonably argumentative all morning—”

“Have not!” Arielle shouted back.

“Enough!” Niobe silenced everyone. “I will explain this to Tyelco and then we must get to the cave, immediately, to see for ourselves.”

No one argued this point. Niobe must have been brief and excluded her plan to reason with the monsters, in conversing with Tyelco because they were off shortly.

“Tyelco told me that the urk, if they’ve left the cave, could not have gone far. They hate the sunlight and would have found cover at daybreak. They would be especially slow if weighted down with captives.”

“Hate sunlight? Like vampires?” Arielle inquired, jogging alongside the bike. “And these are the things you want to do peace talks with?”

Niobe said nothing, but her jaw was set firmly in place.

It was a few minutes later when Tyelco dropped from above into their path, stopping them again. He locked eyes with Niobe and began speaking again.

“Mmm.” Niobe said.

“What does that mean?” Abigail asked.

“It means that Tyelco has noticed that the area of forest before the cave entrance is laced in spider silk. Apparently, it acts as a tripwire for the spiders in the cave. They will undoubtedly know of our approach.”

“Can he see the entrance from here?” Arielle asked.

Niobe conferred. “Yes.”

Arielle thought for a moment. “Is there a bunch around the mouth?”

“He says there are.”

Arielle frowned. “Yesterday there weren’t any. Not at the mouth, not in the forest.” An idea struck her. “They weren’t trying to capture anything outside. It was trap, but one to keep us in. They didn’t want anyone outside to know they were in there. . .” then it clicked. “and now that we know where they were, they’d like us to waste our time trying to get back in, but Abby’s probably right. There won’t be a damn thing in there. Niobe, ask Ty to get a good look around here. A big troupe like that must have left some tracks.”

Niobe nodded approvingly, and Abigail was, in Arielle’s opinion, gloating with her upbeat skipping about. “You’re staying here. I’ll go with him.”

No one seemed to care. Yumiko was yawning again and rubbing Neko’s tummy lazily, as if the whole adventure were quite boring. Arielle supposed that if you couldn’t understand anything anyone said, this trip would be.

“Arielle,” Niobe called, and motioned her over. “Tyelco will sweep the surrounding area, but in light of our discoveries, he suspects the urk are heading in the direction of where you ran into us last night. With his post down, there is a blind spot in the border watch for them exit through.”

Arielle wanted to smack herself. It was so very obvious now why a bunch of kidnapping urk and spiders would take out a border guard post. So that no one was watching the stupid border, of course!

“Merde. We’re all idiots. Lead on, Ty.”

Tyelco didn’t need any more encouragement. Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to locate the trail left by the band of retreating urk. With his excellent senses and tracking skills, he was able to determine that there were eight urk, a band of spiders, and that they were leaving with items (or people) wrapped in cocoons from the footprints and bits of solid silk snagged off the cocoons on twigs.

They set off in all haste east, following the trail. There was no way to know how far the creatures may have made it in the night. Arielle was fairly certain, as everyone else, that they’d made it out of Eryn Leasgalen by now, especially if that party last night had been a division of the one exiting the forest. At least they could move faster than those things, and with everyone fired up for being on the right track, they were also motivated. Still, to Arielle it felt like a wild goose chase. Especially since they were going in circles. Or triangles, as it were.

They reached the river around noon. Before they could cross, (they’d decided to use the flying bike as a ferry) Tyelco stopped and reexamined the tracks.

“He says something happened here. A scuffle amid the group. It appears the spiders were unwilling to cross—” Niobe stopped as Tyelco bolted mid-explanation, back up into the woods, shouting incomprehensibly aloud.

“Stay with them!” Arielle shouted to Niobe, pointing at the other girls and hurrying after him. They were darting through the trees a bit, and Arielle could see the silken line going back the way they’d come. Again. Just as she was starting to fear their trip would lead nowhere, Tyelco dropped out of the canopy like an anchor through floorboards.

There was no sound here. Half way down her freefall, Arielle saw what was so very, very wrong. She felt ill; physically ill. Four cocoons lay shredded, and the necks of corpses sticking out of them were riddled with puncture wounds. Their faces crowned with blond hair so very much like Tyelco’s were impassive, paralyzed, and their eyes were closed. They were all dead.

Tyelco knelt beside one, and drew the limp form closer, brushing the hair away from the wan face, murmuring to himself. At first, his face displayed unmasked disbelief. Then he touched the blood. He gazed upon the others and knew. He doubled over and cried out once as though he’d been punched squarely in the stomach. He stayed that way, silently agonizing, hiding his face from Arielle.

She wanted to cry. She really did. Heat was rising up in her face, and with it came all her frustration and anger, but she didn’t. In all her mild, Cedar Brookian life, there was no comparison. She couldn’t know what it was like; how it felt to lose so many friends all at once. But she knew Tyelco, and seeing her very proud, very arrogant friend in so much pain, so openly in pain, hurt.

Arielle’s only way of dealing with this kind of pain was to give it right back again. Somebody, those urk and those so-called spider-creepies, were going to pay. They’d pay for the pain, for the bodies, for putting her in a position where she couldn’t rectify the wrong, and for playing her out for a hapless fool. Last night they’d been so close to the monsters without any way of knowing the things were stopping by as they retreated. They’d done nothing for a whole evening, all the while having thought it was for the best. For listening to that utter sap of a Jedi, Niobe instead of following her own instinct to act immediately.

It was her fault from the start for not realizing there were more cocoons back in the cave. Back when these people were alive. They could have been saved; a day ago they’d been alive; she’d messed up.

For a moment her vision went black, covered by a vengeful daydream involving a blowtorch and gasoline. A lot of gasoline. She was pulled from her daydream as Tyelco’s powerful grip encompassed her bicep, leaning into her, helping them both to stand again. Arielle hadn’t noticed she was on her knees. If ever a shadow had fallen over anyone’s face, it was Tyelco’s at this moment. His once temperately aloof face was a combination of anger and grief, and Arielle couldn’t say hers would have looked any prettier. Truthfully, she was nearly as angry over those things causing him pain as she was that they’d ruined the casual perfection which had been the face she knew.

“Od i iâ o nûra, eiden buio o dos nef-nin.”

Sometimes, the words just didn’t matter. From his beseeching tone and the glossy, mad fury in his eyes, Arielle could tell what he wanted. He was looking for a fight. Arielle was itching to join in.

Their return to the river was indecorous.

“Get up.” Arielle barked as she slid out from the cover of tree to find the three girls sitting in a circle at the river’s edge.

Niobe, to Arielle complete irritation, was spot on as usual and stood. “What has happened?”

“We’re going over the river. ABBY!”

The blonde, who’d barely acknowledged Arielle’s return, was startled by this curt address. Her limbs reacted as if she’d been burned and sent sand flying.

Tersely, Arielle continued to Abigail’s bewilderment. “Get you lot over the river.”

Abigail blinked, “What’s he off to. . .” It looked as though Tyelco was swimming the river.

“NOW!”

Abigail hopped to. Arielle ignored Yumiko’s bewildered face as Niobe approached. “Tell me what has happened.”

“Why don’t you just read my mind and figure it out?”

Niobe didn’t look amused, but again softly this time, asked, “What has happened?”

“I’ll tell you what; we’re now looking for four edhel, got it? Four.” Arielle turned away from Niobe to bark at Abigail again, but she had Yumiko perched on the back spokes with Neko and was ready to go.

“Arielle,” Niobe said cautiously, “You are understandably upset. However, you must try to calm—”

“Shove that fake Jedi bullshi—”

Niobe lowered her tone warningly. “This is not the time for rash—”

Arielle shouted back, “You don’t know what I—”

“DO NOT PRESUME WHAT I KNOW!”

Arielle blinked. She didn’t know the Jedi had it in her to yell. Apparently, neither did the Jedi, judging by the wide-eyed way she now examined the ground.

From the background, Arielle heard Abigail’s voice say, “Look there Yumiko, I think we’d better help Tyelco cross the river now. Kiss and make-up, you two.”

Arielle decided there were no beings on any planet of any race more irritating than blondes. She really hoped it wasn’t infectious. Like syphilis.

“I’m sorry,” Niobe said softly. “I have no intension of belittling your grief.”

“My grief? Mine? HIM—” Arielle pointed to the river, but found herself choked up, and, to her own embarrassment, on the verge of tears.

“Then we must think to the safety of those whose lives depend on us.” Niobe had the grace not to address Arielle’s distress. “Do not make the mistake of assuming I see this as a game. I am not afraid of danger, but receive no thrill from it and will not do anything rash.”

Arielle, who’d so far seen Niobe as her own age, felt a kind of vertigo as the woman's violet aged decades in a second. With a blink, it was gone.

“As far as we know, the ones we seek have kept their prisoners alive.” Niobe started to the river. “But for how long, we cannot be sure. Send Abigail back after you cross. We will catch up to you and Tyelco later. Time is running out.”

Arielle nodded and leaped into the air, crossing the river without a second thought. Sure enough, on the bank Yumiko was hopping off the bike.

“Abby, Niobe, now.” Arielle ordered, pointing back to where Niobe stood alone.

Abigail rolled her eyes while obliging the command. “Don’t you run off and leave Yumiko on her own. Tyelco’s off sniffing leaves that way.”

Yumiko pounced from behind, gripping Arielle around the waist in a hug while Arielle tried to escape without overtly shoving the girl. “No, damnit, no, I don’t need a hug.” The miko’s grip was like steel, and there was no escaping it. Arielle sighed. When she felt miserable, gratuitous displays of affection always made her feel worse. By the time she managed to dislodge Yumkio, Niobe and Abigail were pulling up. Arielle ran for it.

Finding Tyelco took a little effort, as he was fast when running (and gee, they’d been doing a lot of running lately), but still very quiet. Fortunately, he was not sniffing leaves when she found him; he was examining an area which had obviously been trampled recently. The woods here were getting darker and darker. Perfect for nasty creatures who hate sunlight. He greeted her with an expectant expression. Arielle assumed it was because she’d come alone. Best be reassuring.

“They’re on their way.”

Either he understood or didn’t care because he leapt up into the branches overhead, following the trail laid out below cautiously. Arielle followed his lead. After all, this wasn’t really her revenge, was it? And as they walked in the eerie silence of Eryn Leasgalen, Arielle found it easier to calm down a bit. Of course, corpses kept popping up in her head; both the dead elves and the disturbing thought of her friends ending up like them. It was nonsense as the other three, along with herself, were already dead. Sort of. Now she was curious as to how the other three died. Morbid thoughts of how they might have kicked it tried to sneak into her head. She was surprised to find that even a dead Abigail was discomforting.

Niobe had been right. Real bravery wasn’t just responding to an attack. It was walking in to one even knowing what the consequences might be.

Half an hour latter, she heard the squeaking and clicking of bicycle chains and gears. Tyelco dropped down to chat with Niobe, and Niobe relayed his message to the group.

“We are to keep at a distance, due to the noise.”

Abigail huffed. “You could just ask me to jinx it.”

Niobe smiled. “My apologies for underestimating you again. By all means.”

Abigail smartly removed her wand from her large skirt pocket, leaned over and tapped on the metal. “Silencio.”

“You’ll probably want to hang back anyway; we’ll scout and regroup” Arielle said.

For a moment it looked as though Niobe thought this a bad idea, glancing from Tyelco to Arielle, but nodded hesitantly, “Alright. Just promise you’ll come back and set a battle plan. Even if you place us on the sidelines to keep them from escaping, five to eight is better odd than one to four, understand?”

“So you’re not gonna be Jedi mind speaking with the monsters for their phone numbers?”

Niobe sighed. “If you judge that they are in immediate danger, their lives must take precedence, but please, please, try to give me a chance. I have to know.”

“Have to?” Arielle persisted, but knew Niobe was liable to win.

But then Abigail had to pipe in again. “You know, some of us have consciences about killing things.”

“Abi—” Niobe warned exasperatedly.

“Abby, I swear, I am this far,” Arielle demonstrated with her fingers. “This far from killing you.”

“Tosh.” Abigail snorted.

Arielle took a step forward, and was pulled back by Tyelco grabbing the back of her jacket and dragging her after him.

“She’ll drive me nuts before the end of this, Ty. My sanity is already leaving me. Mutant spiders, and murders, and kidnappings. I’m from Iowa. I thought I was sick of corn, but I’d prefer it to this!” Arielle whined in distress as she was feeling a distinct lack of control. It was kind of nice knowing he couldn’t understand a single word from her mouth. “Acres and acres of corn. And cows, ugh, the smells, gag me! But I lived in a city; a nice little college town with a low crime rate where the worst thing that happened was. . .er. . .well, I suppose that would be me getting shot, but other than that. . .Maybe it’s just the rose-colored-glasses looking back, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.”

Arielle shut her mouth, remembering they were tracking evil monsters. Under the circumstances, she should be quiet despite her morose mood and that Tyelco had made no attempt to silence her.

There appeared to be a few attempts on the part of the monsters to throw off any pursuers, such as leaves and twigs scattered over the tracks. However, it gave them away more than it ever threw Tyelco off. He was proficient, leaving Arielle to follow in his wake as they navigated the beams overhead. The canopy was getting thicker, and therefore darker. Below them, the ground was becoming steep. Obviously, if these things had to avoid sunlight, this was prime area to hide out in. As time passed, the sun, though out of sight in the lower canopy, lowered and compounded the darkness. Tyelco quickened their pace; with Niobe tracking them from behind, they didn’t need to worry much about losing the stragglers altogether.

Just as Arielle began to worry they’d never catch up before nightfall and their chase would go on all night and into the next day, Tyelco motioned for her to follow him in a direction leading away from the trail. She suspected he had knowledge of the area’s layout (as he guarded it and it was his home) and this divergence was due to a hunch about where these urks had run off to hide.

Whatever the case, they found the [i}urks[/i].

One side of the hill was a weather beaten structure from bygone years now collapsed in on itself, splintered by the enormous roots of trees, and ultimately creating a labyrinth of crevices suitable for anything temporarily taking shelter. It was obvious the urks were home. Arielle could smell and hear them without any effort.

The urks sure had found themselves a nice place to avoid the sun. They were also in a prime position for an ambush; they’d all set up in a cave at the end of a deep fissure. Obviously, the urks must have been aware of this, and a “scout” was situated on top of the hill. Not that it could see or hear the distant and silent Arielle and Tyelco. Especially not with its back turned and sleeping.

Tyelco flared his nostrils. Arielle knew how he felt; it was going to be so easy it was disgusting for all the trouble the things had caused.

Vengeance was at hand.






Merde (French, Fr.) = Shit

“Od i iâ o nûra, eiden buio o dos nef-nin.” (Sindarin, S) = (literally, as best I can manage Sindarin) From the abyss of my sadness, I repose (put all hope in) allegiance of you on this side mine = (what I’d like it to mean to all of you) “From the abyss of my despair, I ask you to seek vengeance at my side.”

edhel (S) = elf

urk (S) = ork; stupid, ugly, immoral, and violent bipedal creatures created by Morgoth; the perverse, involuntary corruption of immortal elves.

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