[Elora]

Uien

At the sound of weapons being unsheathed to gleam in flickering fire light, many of the men smiled unpleasantly.

"This will be good," one said in a voice made ugly by bloodlust. Seven men circled the camp, feinting with their swords every time one of their quarry looked to make a break. One did so, a man who carried a dagger. One of the men marked him and turned to circle a little closer, the remaining six drawing in to resume their threatening.

If the group divided, they could be picked off all the better by the swordsmen on foot. If they remained densely packed then they'd be easy marks for the bowmen, though there's little sport in that. The tension built to fever pitch at the camp site as the moments drew on.

Elves and Men and Hobbits all drew together, turning this way and that, what weapons they had at the ready. But where would the attack come from, and how many waited beyond the firelight in the embrace of the night's shadow. Two of the six had particular interest in the Ranger. Take him first, deal with the others later. One or two of the Elves looked vaguely like they knew what they were doing, but still, they were women and Elves and they were alone in a wasteland that their aggressors knew as home in exile.

One of the men chuckled humourously as he circled with the others. His mouth distorted into a scream as he launched forward with a savage slice aimed at the Ranger. His men followed, and the attack was begun proper as the circle of swords closed in to slash.

Uien crouched behind a thick stone that towered above her, pressed against it's unyeilding surface and willing herself to absolute stillness. The scream from the camp split the night and obscured for an instant the sound of the nearby hunter's tread on the rocky ground of Fornost's ruins.

Her heart slammed in her hearing, and Uien fought against the rising fear that it's pounding would betray her location. His breathing was heavy, coming in gasps after being forced to pursue her into the ruins.

"There's nowhere to hide." Uien heard the clink of his sword as he scraped it past the stones he was walking by. "There never is. Each step leads you closer to where I want you, no matter where you run Elf." The agony of remaining still as he drew closer was almost unbearable. Worse yet was the thought that the scream that had broken the night was the herald of something too terrible to consider. Uien closed her eyes and held her breath.

His sword scraped closer to her stone, and then he was there. His slow, deliberate footfall passed, his sword dragging with his passage. Uien slowly twisted away, unable to remain still any longer and merely hope to elude him. With a burst of desperation, she was on her feet and sprinting. His yell was close to her ear, and a hand yanked in her sleeve.

"There you-" the man reeled back with a shout of rage as Uien lashed out and drove her shoulder hard into his leering face. He was forced to step back hard, his free hand rising to his now bleeding and rebroken nose. The material of her torn sleeve fell ignored to the ground. Uien allowed herself once glance over her shoulder.

"You'll pay for that," he bellowed in fury at her. She made no reply, turning her back and fleeing the way she had come. Her mother would perhaps have been horrified at her daughter's calculated use of her healing lore to inflict injury, but at that moment Uien did not care. She had to get to the others, to Falowik. It was why she had come, to heal, but not her love. She had come to heal Eodwine.

May the Valar guide you, my love. So desperate was she to find her way back to him, that the twists and turns of her path whipped by her. When a shadow, breathing hard, burst out before her, a cry of dismay escaped her and she stepped backwards as quickly as she could.

"Told you that this would end my way," the shadow said. His sword slashed through the air as if it thirsted to meet her at last. Uien whirled to the side, straight for the first gap on her left between a crumbled wall. With an oath, the man pursued her once again.

Frustration and despair circled within her. It was narrowly kept at bay by hope and a iron determination that this would not be the ending she chose for her or Falowik or any other. Uien scrambled over a wall that was nearly her height, a flung dagger bouncing off the stones inches from where she had been before she tumbled over the other side. Landing on her feet with instinctive elven poise, Uien was off again. No matter how she tried, she wound further and further into Fornost, hemmed by stones and shadows of men and past orcs. Yet her mind yearned elsewhere. Uien dove into the first refuge that presented itself in the unfamiliar ruins and gathered stones that lay about.

Again, her mother would be less than pleased with her daughter's proposed violence, but Uien hefted the first stone in her hand regardless. She had always been the best shot out of her siblings. A stone whistled to crash some yards away at the first glimsp of her hunter. It cracked into the ground and was quickly followed by another. He jerked to a standstill behind what cover he could. Uien paused, conserving what stones she still had remaining, one at the ready.

When she could see no movement, Uien lowered her arm and listened to the surrounds. He was gone. But where. Suddenly, her vantage seemed to be a snare. Uien slipped out over the lip of the stone wall she had been sheltering behind, throwing stone missiles from what once was perhaps a window of a family home. The eerie silence was worse than the man's taunts. Uncertain, Uien circled about, wishing ever more to have a weapon at her disposal.

The uncertainty lasted only an instant. Uien chose instead to try once more to get back to the camp and to Falowik. Once more she ran as fast as her feet could carry her over the stones and uneven ground. In the shadows, she never saw the heavy arm reach out to check her flight and send her rolling hard over the ground. But she heard the grunt of satisfaction that at last she had been brought down...