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Old 10-14-2003, 05:26 PM   #99
Elora
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Kalrienmar
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Sting

Vanwe - early dawn

Vanwe’s muscles screamed in protest, shaking her from the last vestiges of sleep, if sleep it could be called. Her recollection was uncertain. She remembered her mother and the warning of Hanasían. She recalled the distant and indistinct memory of sunlight through leaves and a horse. She remembered also fatigue so heavy she thought her bones would break beneath its weight.

With a moan from her cramped muscles, Vanwe attempted to make sense of the world around her. She was thirsty like she had been walking through the desert beneath the hot sear of the sun. Her wrists and ankles burnt when she tried to move them. Vanwe struggled to understand. The light was murky and she was in a place she did not recognise, what little she could make out of it.

Dust lay thick in her throat and she coughed as she struggled to move. Something lay on her and in her fogged state she struggled against it like a moth weakly batting its flames against the impossible lure of a candle. The burn of the rope only worsened. Vanwe took in a shocked and shuddering breath when she realised it was the familiar burn of roughly twisted rope that bit at her.

“Harad! No!” Her voice was a bare whisper of horror. A sense of empty desolation rose within her, hollowing her out from within. From long experience, Vanwe managed to master her struggles. It would only hurt her more to persist, something that would please them no end and she would deny them whatever she could. She shifted as best she could, her muscles still waxen and rebellious as though they would not heed her commands. It was still hard to see. The scent of earth was everywhere. They had buried her, she thought, but they would be back. Else why bind her? The cruel minds of these Men she understood all too well. Vanwe sank back into darkness, clawing against its pull and failing. She fell into an abyss of memories of a village in a sandy, hot place...

When light streamed in like a fallen, blazing star, accompanied by the sudden shock of noise, Vanwe started. She had no idea how long it was since she last woke. This time, she willed herself to be still and to wait. Boots crunched on the earth after descending stairs. She could not be certain how many, but she knew it was more than one Man. She braced herself for the wind-weathered voices that had haunted her throughout her life. Sun tanned faces would appear shortly, eyes dark with anger, and then it would begin. She had found a way out before. She would again. It was the only thing Vanwe could reassure herself as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness.

“Well now, she’s awake,” a male voice said in Common. He did not have the accent of the Haradwaithe.
“You sure? She still looks a little… unwell…”
“She’ll ‘ave to be well enough as we can’t wait no more.”

Vanwe found herself dragged upright without warning. Rough hands clenched around her as though she were a rolled carpet. The sudden wrenching was agony that Vanwe clenched her teeth against. Her head spun and her sight was still poor. When the Man set her on her feet and her knees buckled, she felt herself toppling backwards without anything to cling to.

“Here, be careful with her,” the other man admonished, checking her fall. She had no choice but to sag into him. His arm supported her as he commented to his companion, “I don’t think she’s ready yet. She won’t be walking far just yet.”

“Garn boyo! What do we care if she walks or if she’s carted over the back of a horse?”
“I think we’ll need a horse.”
“Curse the wench, and you! I ain't no horse and you'd best be findin' us some quickly before the mornin's done,” the Man replied as he noted Vanwe sag in the other’s grip. Her head fell back and the fading voices of the two men fell off the edge of her comprehension and into gibberish which also faded in time.

When Vanwe was lifted and settled over the protesting Man's shoulder, she was lost from awareness once again. But not for long...
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Characters: Rosmarin: Lady of Cardolan; Lochared: Vagabond of Dunland; Simra: Daughter of Khand; Naiore: Lady of the Sweet Swan; Menecin: Bard of the Singing Seas; Vanwe: Lost Maiden; Ronnan: Lord of Thieves; and, Uien of the Twilight
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