Norliriel

He glanced at the slumbering figures again. The moonlight was not bright enough through the clouds to show the disappointment on his face.

After their discovery of the monstrous giant, the party returned to camp.  Yrill offered to track the movements of the creature.

“That we can inform our lords of the problem..and a solution,” she said, already turning back towards the lake.  She was quick and fierce, a creature of action.  

The Captain of the Arrows agreed, provided she was cautious.  “As you will. Do not come to close to it, Yrill.  I will not lose a good scout to a hunk of ice and stone.”  He smiled crookedly.

Dolthafaer stood still and straight at his post, keen eyes moving restlessly over the view before him – snow, for the most part, broken only by the pathetic silhouettes of tall spindly trees and ancient hunks of rock.  The camp was silent below him, save for a few moving carefully amongst the sleeping company. 

It was a quiet watch. 

Peaceful. 

From her post high on the cliff, Luthelian watched the fire in the camp crackle against the wood, throwing its heat across the sleeping figures. Some paces away, she saw Tancamir standing watch over the frozen lake and beyond. Her eyes followed his back more often than she would have liked since his return.

All the day long doing work, writing over list after list by my own hand, because when Sorontar finished it, by mistake I laid hold of the inkpot and not the sandbox, and almost blotted out the accounts. This put Sorontar into a hurried sort of fit, and I grew worried for his sake, so I said I would copy it again for him.

He throws the chisel against the wall.

Not a trace was left of the scout that disappeared, except a few drops of blood on the snow.

A hasty answer was, therefore, required to this urgent message. Lord Ambassador Parnard leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling for several minutes before reading the message again. He liked to avoid hasty answers whenever he could: they often resulted in errors of judgment.