[Novnarwen]

Tanroth trudged on, taking no heed or notice to the looks some of the other elves gave him. He was too worried; the fog, the ship, everything! How come he was stuck in this situation? For a moment he hesitated, and even felt regret, sneaking up in his mind. He shook his head, and cleared his thoughts. No way could he think of such things, in the middle of a mission. He remembered the Lady's words:

"I didn't choose you to fail. The intention was quite the opposite." By this thought he calmed, trudging on, and again urging the others to walk faster.

It didn't take long time before the group finally began to see the Silverlode River. It was a long river which stretched itself long ahead. Tanroth tried to look forwards, now seeing the mountains grow bigger. The fog lay thick though, and the elf could only guess that they were about one and a half hours walk from the mountain's bottom.

"May we take a rest?" It was Firiel who had sprung up on Tanroth's side. He looked at her, but didn't say anything. He just gazed towards the mountain's direction, giving a small nod at the lady. She took it like this, a positive answer to her suggestion, and announced that everyone could sit down and take a break. Meanwhile the others sat down, muttering about how tired they were, Firiel took Tanroth's arm, dragging him a few steps away from the rest.

"You are driving them and me, very hard," she said being harsh, but also saying it politely.

These words hit Tanroth, and it became quite obvious what he had done. He had let his doubts and his worries affect the others. He had totally forgotten that these Elves were not his servants, he was only their guide. In a way he became ashamed by these thoughts. Maybe he was being too controlling or maybe just desperate. This was blinding him, and currently maybe keeping him to achieve his goal, which was currently these Elves' goal too. He hadn't even been taking council with the others. On the other hand, was that really necessary? Tanroth pondered about this before he answered the lady Firiel:

"I suppose you're right. But I think it's important that we are up, and well up in the mountains before it grows dark. In that way, we won't need to camp there two nights."

"What makes you think it's important to only have one camp in the mountain, when it obviously would be easier to have two?" Firiel asked. She sounded as if she doubted Tanroth's judgement, which he could understand. Though, he was kind of unsympathetic to why she couldn't understand why two camps in a Mountain were better than one. After all, it was foggy and in the Mountains there was snow. And, least but not last, he was concerned. However, he didn't tell Firiel about the last thing, he had been filled with concern about something or someone threatening them.

The two of them looked at the others again, agreeing after a long explanation from Tanroth's side that this, about the camps, was probably a good idea. But would everyone else agree to this? Not to have a real camp before they were well up in the mountains.

"We'll have to walk for another 6 hours perhaps to reach that goal," he added. Firiel didn't hesitate; she walked away from Tanroth, announcing the suggestion Tanroth had just been explaining her. He wondered how the others would react, since they seemed so tired and since the fog still lay thick.

[ October 26, 2003: Message edited by: Novnarwen ]