[maikafanawen]

The night passed slowly and none slept. Before dawn came, they had decided to move on again. Gathering their things, Ihwesta and Arie were sent ahead to he the first to meet their obstacles. The forest was silent that morning and little words were exchanged between the two elves. They were concentrating hard on what was around them, determined not be caught off guard a second time. Arie held her bow and arrow notched, but Ihwesta’s weapons stayed in their place. Too cumbersome to carry, she needed her hands for other things.

At the slightest sound or movement the two would halt, one staying on the ground the other ascending the nearest tree to get a better look at what was below. So far it had been the dropping of a dead leaf or bough, sometimes the latter snapping as it was tread on by a cagey rodent feeling the uneasy tension in the morning woods. So hushed was their milieu even after they’d traveled far from the first attack, Ihwesta was sure that something was waiting ahead for them.

Two hours after being separated from the other six of the fellowship, Ihwesta and Arie found their way back to report.

“There’s nothing Ceros,” Ihwesta told the leader who looked bewilderedly at the forest floor in thought.

“Well that’s good,” Gilbereth pointed out cheerfully.

“No,” rebuked Ihwesta. “It’s not. Nothing means absolutely nothing. No spiders and orcs, yes, but none of the regular forest inhabitants either. We’ve seen a total of two squirrels. Squirrels that looked as though they weren’t that at all but more like shades of such a rodent, wandering as if lost and so thin their bones pressed up against their skin. Not even the wind dares to occupy these parts. Something’s waiting for us, I can feel it.”

The group was taciturn, as Ceros reflected over what Ihwesta had said. The tracker meanwhile, backtracked twenty yards to see if anything was on the contrary to her opinion, following them. Arie didn’t accompany her and instead stayed with Ceros should she be needed to find Ihwesta. The thought wasn’t very comforting but the elf moved on through the canopy eyes and ears so alert she could catch the sound of flowers blooming, had there been any that morning. Something seemed to have taken all the color out of the forest that day.

She hadn’t been gone long when something obscured the ray of sunlight that she had just skirted. Ihwesta looked up and saw a black fog seeping through the tops of the trees coming from behind her where she had left the group. Only fifteen yards into her backtracking, she abandoned it and returned to find the fellowship also examining the mist perplexedly. Ainemetion looked up as Ihwesta joined them.

“Anything?” he asked. “Nothing but this fog,” Ihwesta replied without looking at him, set on reaching Ceros for the moment.

“Do you have any idea where it’s come from?” asked the leader as the oldest tracker reached him.

“I don’t think that matters,” she said tactlessly, getting edgy at the murkiness of the whole situation. “What matters is that it’s something of a legend, just like the spiders were, and it’s surrounding us quickly.” She pointed from whence she had just come and the mist was indeed creeping like a plague along the forest top and down the trunks.

“Is it alive?” asked Arie backing away as the fog began to encircle them. Ihwesta shook her head.

“No, it’s just fog. Unfortunately, it’s a kind of evil fog, shall we say? Our tracking senses won’t be much good in it. We can’t hear anything past it, nor see anything through it. We have two choices—”

“Choices that I will make,” said Ceros comfortingly. “This burden doesn’t fall upon your shoulders Ihwesta, please.” Then turning to the rest of the group he said, “We can either wait here until it passes—”

“IF it passes,” Ihwesta cut in.

“Or,” Ceros continued firmly, “we can risk moving through it, perhaps getting past the fog entirely, as long as we stay together. Are there any suggestions?”