[maikafanawen]

The hill-troll's club whizzed through the air, slamming into Ceros before Ihwesta had a chance to yell out. It sent the elf slamming into a nearby tree. The troll made a second swing but missed. Ihwesta recovered from the shock quickly enough to grab the end of the rope that Ainemetion had tossed her and together, pull the troll backwards. The giant monster staggered then turned, trying to move away from the elvish rope.

Then it faced Taurëwen and Reynion who were stationed behind it, hoping to snag it from the rear. This gave Ihwesta time to help the fallen elf.

"Ceros," she said, kneeling beside him and patting his cheek urgently. "Ceros!" He was unconscious. She crouched behind him, getting hold of under his shoulders, and dragging him back into the forest, looking for a relatively safe place to harbor him. There it was: a small outcropping of stone making a sort of cave. Once they were inside, she laid him flat, trying to figure out what she could do. She was certainly no healer, but Taurëwen was fighting.... Tears of frustration welled in her eyes, and she blinked them away impatiently.

His legs were not broken, though they held a few cuts and scrapes. His arms were not broken, though his right was heavily bruised. Then, she tore Ceros's tunic to reveal his wound. The tracker opened her water canteen and rinsed it out. Upon doing so she saw the bruise that covered his whole chest. Ihwesta felt gingerly around and discovered that multiple ribs had broken. She hung her head. His body worked to heal the wounds. But it worked slow and he needed the healer's hands. The tracker wished she'd learned the skill that was so valued in Taurëwen.

She knew that the others would need her help in the fight, but there was no way she was going to leave Ceros. Ihwesta folded a clean tunic from her own back and used it to stop the bleeding in his side. It was all she could do. The internal wounds were beyond her and needed the healer.

The elf held the cloth to the wound for a spell, then rinsed it again, and re-applied the rag. The bleeding slowed. She tilted the canteen to Ceros's mouth and he drank instinctively. Ihwesta breathed a sigh of relief. He was lasting.... She prayed that Taurëwen got there soon.

Ihwesta sat back on her legs and gazed into his face. It was loosing color from the pain and his features were twisted in anguish. It caused her pain to see him like this and she began to stroke his gold hair out of his face, whispering elvish words of love into his ear.

She looked deeper then, past the visible lines of agony written on his countenance, and deeper into the histories between them. Always had he been her elder brother's friend, and she had known him as just that. True, as a younger maiden she had felt a sense of attraction towards the handsome elf, but as time wore on, and the politics of the realm, and duties of battle consumed him, she slowly grew out of it. But this expedition had given her, her own sense of obligation and duty to the realm, and in this way they were connected.

Ihwesta smiled and bent down over Ceros, kissing him gently on the lips. She wasn't going to think more or tell anything of how she felt until they both returned to the palace. Now was not the time for such things. So knelt between him and the woods, weapons drawn and ready for anything that might bring further harm to Ceros.

* * * * *

Ainemetion dropped the end of the rope and shot an arrow into the monster's nostril as it turned towards them. It roared and the hand the size of a table went to its flat face, trying to pull the small arrow from its nose. The other held the club and it swung towards Ainemetion. He dropped and rolled out of the way just in time. When he looked up, he saw a faint glow coming from fifty yards into the woods. A clearing!

"Arië!" The tracker appeared beside him. "Look there!" The she-elf saw and jumped excitedly.

"Alright! How do we get it there?" The two looked up to where the hill-troll towered over them, trying to see where they crouched out of sight. Ainemetion's mind raced.

"I doubt we're strong enough to force him there physically, but perhaps we could lead him there?" Arië looked up at the troll, then into the woods towards the clearing.

"How?" Ainemetion shook his head, deep in thought. "There's no way," Arië protested. Then she got an idea, "But if he can't see where he's going, perhaps he'll depend on his ears to follow his prey!" Ainemetion threw his hands up in the air then gave Arië a great hug.

"AH!" he exclaimed. "You're brilliant." The two jumped out the clearing in a blur of greens and blues. When he was standing right before the troll, Ainemetion aimed very carefully as the fell beast lumbered towards him. When it stopped, he loosed one of his shafts and it his its mark right in the troll's left eye. The elf yelped excitedly and moved just out of the way of the troll's club that he had let go of and sent flying through the forests. Ainemetion flinched as the trees bent and snapped under its force, but moved again to put out its second eye.

"Move Ainemetion!!" Arië screamed. The elf looked up and dove out of the way as the troll stumbled and fell momentarily to his knees right where he had been standing. When the elf was on his feet again, he saw that one of Arië's shafts stuck in its right eye. He looked at the young she-elf appraisingly.

"Very nice," he complimented. The two united with Gilbereth, Eruwen, Reynion and Taurëwen and told them their plan. They were going to run through the woods, back and forth in front of the troll, leading him slowly towards the clearing. "But don't let him get to close," Ainmetion warned. "They've got devilishly good sense of smell. You must to be quicker than he."

Then the chase began.