alone

Kim sat in the middle of the forest feeling helpless. She felt so guilty she thought she may explode. Thoughts of everyone in her life filled her head as she sat there in silence. She thought of Egfor and his family. She thought of Cat and how much she missed how they used to be. She thought of her son and how she spent ages trying to convince him she wouldn't leave him and then she did just that, left him alone and helpless. Thoughts of Baylen ran through her head and how scared he must of been when he died.

The wind had picked up, warm gentle gusts making their way down Bree’s dusty streets. The rustle and clapping of washing strung from window to window created its own rhythm above her head. Joy leant against the stone wall surrounding the market square, Hjotr nestled against her chest, bound by cloth. That rustling of linen above lulled her into distant memories as she awaited Kip, the grocer, with the parceling up of her goods.

She had to leave. Her sister was gone, and she was the only reason Eira had really stayed. Every now and then Eira still left large baskets of baked goods at the steps of the clan hall. But she could not stay in a place which held such memories of her sister.

She loved all of her clan. But her sister, she had loved closest and dearest. Eira had always told her sister that she was her very heart. Yet somehow, her heart beats on after her sister's no longer does.

Ash closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. Fortunately, Elgerin was still asleep at this time. The morning was still quite young.

"Hardly have I seen elves in months so close. The Vale, 'Imladris' they call it, it is not worth lingering in. Perhaps it is my own fault for not interacting, but I could not bring myself to expose my foreign nature to all those more learned and higher people.

I had found myself in another plain...filled with mutant men and giant fire worms. They lingered in the fallen 'ruins', the higher call the fallen 'buildings'. There were even some of the warriors of the High Elves in other ruins, but I kept my distance away from them.