Reyn loosened his knife in its sheath, even if it wouldn’t be likely that the creature who’d marred the trees thus would return. Still, there was the sounds that the scouts had heard, and the prints in the mud. He wanted to be prepared, just in case.
Reynion and Taurëwen returned to the camp, both bearing armloads of wood for the fire, Reyn also bearing a branch that had been hacked off a tree while it was still thriving. The branch itself had been bearing well, until it was so cruelly severed. The trees that had been marred thus had the same sort of feel to them as had the footprint earlier. A wrongness to them.
Reyn crossed to Ceros and tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, Reyn whispered, “I hate to interrupt, but there’s something I think that you should see.” He drew Ceros aside and showed him the marks of an axe on the branch. “There were several more that were cut, or rather, hacked, in such a manner, and the trees were defaced as well. I don’t like this, Ceros. I don’t like this at all. I had thought that Greenwood would be safe from this sort of thing for a very long time. And now, it looks like that time is over.”
He left the other elf standing there with the branch, and took up a place in the shadows beyond the fire, where his black clothing mad his face appear to be floating in midair. He watched Airelómë go into the bushes and wondered if it was related to the sounds that had been noted twice or thrice by Ihwesta and Arië. He hoped that the elf would come to no harm. Airelómë was one of the elves he found to be woodswise and would probably be useful in a tight spot.
[ July 23, 2003: Message edited by: Tinuviel of Denton ]
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