The Bringer of Fire

The Blade and the Blind

Shouldst Thou fall in the wild, lift thy voice to the Cloud Realm. The one who answers will be thine salvation.
- Ælbdís Gaomee of the Cloud Children

The Story

Summer dawns in the lands of Middle-Earth as Ælbdís Gaomee sets out alone to reach the lands of the North, those of her birth, her true home. But as at the sky darkening clouds approach and she passes the Anduin to the west of Dol Guldur, Orcs break from beneath the undergrowth and assault the blind maiden. Alone her cunning and a twist of fate rescues her from certain death and she can drag herself, wounded by an arrow many miles south to the village of Stangard. As she arrives, Ælbdís meets one she had not expected. Edstan, a boaster and womanizer and to that Greatest Knife-fighter who ever lived as he claims, can persuade the guard to let the wounded elf enter the settlement in order to rest. Edstan realizes quickly that this meeting had not been by chance but that their path are now bound to lead next to one another. Helping the Elf to recover she offers him to accompany her to the lands of her since long lost kin: The Withered Heath. Undaunted does the boaster agree, proves Ælbdís his abilities in a training session. Therein does the Elf lead the Man on the secret Elven-Path, beyond the plains and hills of Rohan, over wild lands and up to Esgaroth; Edstan's home. Soon however it is clear that the situation is far more dire than the two had expected, for the Erebor as well as Lake-Town are greatly endangered by the Easterlings. Soon the friends find themselves between two fronts, for in the Withered Heath is a fiery evil at work, weaving its plot to take power.

The Chapters

http://laurelinarchives.org/node/10362|Chapter I. Indebtment
http://laurelinarchives.org/node/10760|Chapter II. Presage

(Music by Ensiferum ''Ad Victoriam'')