[Child of the 7th Age]

Andreth stepped up to the campfire, her red hair streaming out and her green eyes glaring. She was not afraid, since the wail of the woods sounded just like that in her dreams. And she had faced that wail night after night, yet still managed to rise and prevail the next morning. Let others shrink at sounds. She and her kin could not, for they carried a burden which could not yet be laid down.

As the wailing sound retreated, she turned her stern gaze on the figure of Bird. "If you call the Elf coward for running away, then show me you are different. Stand still and listen to what I say. And you, sir Elf, are no better and had best heed my words."

"What is happening here? Are we so embittered that we can do naught but battle with each other. This journey had a purpose, a purpose you all seem to have forgotten. We are on this road to help the folk in Castle Maladil. Those shrieks that we hear now are proof of this."

Can you not put your differences aside for one moment to feel the sadness that pours out of that castle? Will you do nothing to help them, but stand here and bicker whether this race or that race is better than the others."

"I swear I will move on by myself, if no one here can see beyond their own nose to the needs of those who lie at the end of this road."

Nardol turned and snarled at her. "You.... what is your name? You are but a child. You'd best keep out of business that lies over your head and far beyond the ken of any mortal."

Then he laughed grimly, "What would a child know of the sadness of this castle? For they, being fools, brought this doom upon themselves. Yet it goes back for long ages, far longer than you or your parents or grandparents have been on this earth."

Anger welled up within the girl yet she struggled to answer in a quiet voice, "Master Elf, immortal you are, but you do not know all that lies within Middle-earth. I feel the pain in that castle as if it was my own, for indeed it does drip down upon my family."

"Every night, I see it in dreams that haunt my sleep. I have watched as my father tosses about in the night, unable to rest, because those folk lie in dire sadness and peril. So tell me not I am but a child. I am enough of an adult to know more of these matters than you."

She lowered her voice to address only the Elf, "Nardol, I would have you journey with us down this road for in my heart I believe you have some special part to play. But if all you can feel is bitterness, you had best leave us alone, and go your separate path."

"And as to mortals and Elves, there has been evil enough in the hearts of both to fill a thousand books. None of us can have pride in this sad story, nor the great wrongs which have been done between the races. I too feel the anger and the shame that pours forth from these old tales."

"But, as a mortal, I will say this. It is no easy thing to live on Arda as a guest and not to know where your destiny lies after death. That is what led to the tragedy of Maladil, and to the enslavement of those folk. For, like children, they feared to travel to the circles beyond the world, towards that which is not known. So rail not so against my people. Not all good or evil lies in one race, or another. We all bear a share of the grief and the goodness."

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]