[Saurreg]

Belegorn stared at the messenger incredulously. Droplets of water navigated their way through the wrinkly folds and lines on his face before dripping from the pronounced chin back into the basin.

“Kidnapped you say!”

“Yes sir. Well… At least that is what the elves are claiming. The captain requests your immediate presence, sir.” Answered the flush faced guardsman.

Belegorn scowled fiercely, causing the nervous young soldier to cringe. The former then wiped his face with a clean but worn out towel before placing it beside the wash basin. He then reached for his chain mail shirt and leather belt.

“I want all the sentries of last night’s detail assembled and accounted for. The duty sergeant is to take the statement of each man under the oath, on what they did and what they saw last night. All senior sergeants to my tent and await my return!”

The messenger snapped into a smart salute before scampering off to have the lieutenant’s orders relayed.

Belegorn hastily donned his attire, thinking dark thoughts of elves all the way…

*********************

Moments later, Belegorn arrived at Captain Hírvegil’s tent. The commander of the rearguard bade his subordinate to enter and acquainted the latter with the situation in hand. Hírvegil sounded calm enough, but his appearance was more haggard than ever. It was all too clear to Belegorn that his superior’s chronic headache had been acting up and the unpleasant development in matters had aggravated it.

It would seem that the three elven envoys – the one from Lindon and other two from Imladris had gone missing and their impetuous guards had barged into Hírvegil’s tent demanding immediate action to be taken. And just to complicate matters even further, a youth by the name of Faerim also chose to report at the same time that a woman and child he knew were also missing.

“And thus is the situation so far.” concluded Hírvegil. “I have also requested the presence of Counselor Mitharan. But I want to hear what you have to say first. So what say you Belegorn?”

Belegorn cleared his throat and spoke as a matter-of-factly,

“Sir, it is in my opinion that we should not do what the elves are insisting,”

Hírvegil raised an eyebrow and implored the lieutenant to continue.


“Firstly, our mission is to escort the civilians and baggage wagon to Ered Luin as soon as possible and effect a rendezvous with the king’s contingent. That is our primary objective and it must be accomplished at all costs. As such speed is of the essence and we can ill afford to loss any time.

Secondly, our charges are the refugees. They and their children are what remain of the Anorian people and they represent whatever hope we have left. We own to them our utmost care and devotion. This will involve whatever strength we can muster to defend them.

Thirdly, our strength in arms is scant. We have but only a hundred guardsmen and a little over twenty militia men. Most of the guardsmen are injured in one way or another and the quality of the fillers is doubtful. Every single blade will be needed, if we are to accomplish our mission and remain as faithful as possible to those we are protecting. If we are obliged to send out searchers to find the missing persons, a large number must be sent for the search to be effective and to withstand any enemy ambuscade or interception. The defense of the column would then be greatly compromised and weakened.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, sir.

And lastly, we know not the true reason behind the presence of the elves in the first place. Their exchanges with the king were top secret and neither one of us were and are still privy to that information… Quite frankly, I find the disappearance of three of their kind and the envoys themselves at that to be too coincidental. The elves are secretive, who is to say they have told us the whole truth or in this case the very truth of the matter itself?”