|
Treading slowly and clumsily through the snow, Bellyn could hardly feel her feet. She wondered if she could find Argeleafa, or if perhaps it was a lost cause and she had only created more worry for the rest of the company. Bellyn could not be certain, and she continued to fumble along in the dark.
Far along her way, when she felt as if she had been gone for ages, Bellyn could hear her footsteps being echoed. Someone was near, she could feel it; the sound of light footsteps was not her imagination. Bellyn whipped around, and her heart leaped up into her throat. Her thoughts went immediately to the Elf, Maegeleb. What if he has done something terrible again? Bellyn wondered. Her breath stilled, she waited for another sound to warn her which direction the other being moved.
Bellyn took three steps, hoping that her move would be echoed. There came no sound. Perhaps he knows my thoughts? Bellyn thought, alarmed. She tried to quell all thoughts, afraid that Maegeleb might infiltrate her mind and soul. He killed Gwyllion! Surely he would kill me as well...
Then Bellyn's eyes widened - What if he has already taken Leafa?
"Leafa?" Bellyn called. Her shout trailed off into a whimper. There was a shuffling sound. I should not have spoken! Now he knows where I stand! Bellyn realized this, and she wondered how she could act so stupidly and irrationally. The being in the dark shuffled again.
"Leafa?" blundering around with her hands outstretched, Bellyn whispered the name over and over again. "Leafa, Leafa...Leafa? Lea-"
She had no chance to finish the name. Bellyn tripped over something on the ground and rolled over onto her back and into the snow. She thought it might have been a large rock until she heard a yelp erupt from where the figure had knelt. That voice is so familiar...
"Leafa!" Bellyn realized, hope in her heart.
"Bella!" Bellyn knew the voice well. She had found Leafa. Fumbling around, the two finally found one another in the darkness.
"Leafa, I thought that you were the Elf!" Bellyn laughed, a half-hearted, anxious laugh that revealed her remaining fear that Maegeleb might still find them. "Why did you leave?"
|