[Arien]

As the meeting ended Thranduil rose and came towards Ceros. Ceros bowed at his king and greeted him with kindly words.

“My Lord, I thank you for letting us search for this shadow..” Ceros smiled at him extremely grateful for what his king had allowed him to do.

“Ceros, I have every confidence that you and this company,” he looked over to the 8 other Elves, “…will find this shadow and prevail against it.”

Ceros did not know quite what Thranduil meant by prevail but he was not going to question him. “Thank you again, I have one more question though…”

“Oh! And what may that be?”

“If we could take supplies from the halls?”

“Of course, I would not have you leave without any!” And so Ceros bowed one more time and Thranduil left the atrium.

Now the others started to gather around him, he wanted to speak with Orodhin but he had already left on business. He would catch his mother and father when at home, so now it was for the planning.

Ceros beckoned the last two remaining Elves over to where the party stood. At last maybe they could find out what this threat was and maybe persuade more of the Elves to put some sort of defence up against it. Firstly he asked them to follow him into a smaller chamber, just of the large room. When they had all filed into the respectably smaller of the two rooms Ceros shut the door. He asked if they would be seated around the rounded table that stood in the centre of the room. The room, as well as being small, was also dimly lit, but for a small fire place and a few torches on the wall. Along one wall of the room was a sizeable bookcase filled with maps and books of lore. As the others made themselves comfortable Ceros selected a thin maroon book from the top shelf and brought it to rest on the table.

“Thank you for all volunteering to come with me, this journey is a perilous one. A few of us have already felt the sting of this danger,” his eyes flashed around the circle looking with sorrow upon those who had lost someone: Ainemetion, Gilbereth, Taurëwen and Eruwen. He then took his seat. “ We will set out at midnight, so this evening we have time to prepare supplies.” The others nodded to him. “I trust you all have valuble skills that you carry with you, and hopefully we will be able to make good use of them.” Ceros looked around, the other stared at him and he felt a little intimidated by them, but he shook it off and continued.

He opened up the book and lay a large dusty map onto the table for them all to see. “We will be travelling south as that is where the threat seems to be emerging from.” He pointed out their route out on the map and then closed it. “Tonight we will meet outside these halls, just across the river. And once again thank you for coming, at least some of us care.” He muttered the latter quieter, but it looked as though only Ihwesta as she gave him a confused look. “We have been granted to use the supplies from the halls so take what you can, but stay light…carry only essentials.”

The others departed and left quickly bidding Ceros farewell. He stayed until it was just him left and waited for a while, studying the maps he had brought out, hoping that he would not be responsible for the loss of any lives. Just as Ihwesta was leaving she turned to Ceros.

“Ceros, they do care….they are just scared, I will see you at midnight.”

“ Ihwesta say farewell to Orodhin for me, I fear I will not see my dear friend for sometime now and it is unlikely I will be able to see him tonight, it is a shame he was unable to come. But….but I am grateful that you have.” he smiled and she gave a slight nod and left the room. He stayed there for a while toying with one of his knives. After a hour or so, when the fire was dying he left the room, he hurried quickly out of the halls and across the river that surrounded it. He was making his way to his parents home. As he came through the door his mother and father went about their ordinary affairs in the home. He bid the fare well, and they told him how proud they were of him. Ceros beamed with pride inside, for he always liked to please his parents no matter how childlike it seemed. Then he returned to his own home, packing only the fundamentals: Water, food, herbs, extra arrows and a old bound book. As he picked the book up he pondered whether to take it, but after a moment or so he threw it into the bag. Now he was ready. So he left his home and went to the meeting place, his heart exited but restless.