‘Why didn’t I listen to Ada?’ thought Wisteria, ‘now look at me’. Earlier that day Wisteria, the 25 year old daughter of Lindir, the musician of Rivendell, had asked her ada if she could go outside to meet with Arwen in the gardens (instead of being cramped up inside with music lessons that seemed to last from April to July). “Of course Wisty,” her father had replied, approving of the growing friendship between his daughter and the princess of Rivendell, “just make sure that you don’t get into trouble”. Then with a quick thanks and no goodbye Wisteria hurried out of the room before her father could change his mind. In reality the meeting with Arwen was non-existent, just an excuse to get out of boring music lessons and into the gardens.
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Once outside, Wisteria allowed her playful side to get the better of her, she laughed out loud and started dancing; she danced further and further away from the Last Homely House, unaware that she had just danced across the borders, but as said before she was unaware, as if she was in a trance. Any onlooker would have found the elf maiden stunningly beautiful with her long, light brown hair swinging wildly in all directions, and her lovely laugh was like bird song. Suddenly, she heard it, the shrill screech that brought her out of her trance. Orcs! She identified the screech instantly. But how? Wisteria looked around her and was suddenly very frightened as she realised she was in unfamiliar territory and surrounded by orcs. She tried to run but there was nowhere for her to run. She tried to yell for help to no avail as she realised that she was too far away from home to be heard. She saw a practically large orc draw his blade and move towards her. So this is how it ends? Out in the middle of nowhere, unarmed, because some stupid elf girl decided to dance herself into a trance and wander into unknown territory? ‘Why didn’t I listen to Ada? Now look at me.’ Suddenly, a figure seemed to drop out of nowhere and place itself protectively in front of Wisteria.
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The first thing Wisteria noticed was that this figure had pointed ears, this was an elf. The second thing she noticed was that the elf had no shirt, he had long, messy, unkempt ebony black hair, loose dark grey, dirty looking pants and he was painfully thin, Wisteria could even count all twelve of his ribs. The elf seemed to draw two long knives out of nowhere and lunged at the now afraid orcs. Afraid?! Wisteria knew that orcs were cowardly by nature. But these orcs who were about to kill her were actually backing away in fear at the very sight of this elf in front of her! Suddenly, the orcs all turned and actually ran away! “Cowards!” the elf shouted after them, then he turned towards Wisteria and it was only then she noticed his eyes. Where the whites of his eyes should have been was yellow, almost gold, and his eyes themselves were a deep orange, almost red! Wisteria took a few steps toward the strange looking elf. “Who are you?” she asked, “What is your name?” The strange elf just looked at her for a few more seconds, and then he turned and ran away. “Wait,” Wisteria called after him, “Please, I’m lost, can you help me?” The elf hesitated, he could hear more orc cries in the distance and the girl must have heard them too, for she became more uneasy. “Where do you live?” he asked. “Rivendell,” the girl answered. “I’ll take to the borders but no further,” he replied. And with that the elf walked off again with Wisteria following.
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They journeyed on together for at least twenty minutes before the strange elf stopped and waited for Wisteria to catch up. “I will leave you here, Rivendell is just across the brook over there, and the orcs won’t attack you once you’re across the border.” Then the elf turned and started walking away back through the forest from whence they had come. “Wait,” Wisteria called after him, “I don’t even know your name”. The strange elf turned to face her once more, secretly he thought her beautiful and he also sensed he could trust her. “I am careful who I give my name to, for me to know one’s name is to give power over that one; but you may call me The Raven, the swift and sure-footed of the wild lands.” And with that, he turned once more and sprinted away find those orcs he had heard earlier, perhaps some bloodshed would bring him back to his reality again.
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To Wisteria’s surprise her father came rushing out of the Last Homely House and threw his arms around her, tears clearly flowing down his cheeks. Wisteria couldn’t contain her own tears any longer and let them fall freely, soaking her father’s tunic. But the tears were for different cases, some tears were in joy of seeing his daughter alive and seemingly unharmed, but the other ones were in guilt, fear and confusion. Lord Elrond and Glorfindel stood in the doorway watching. Elrond whispered something to Glorfindel and Glorfindel ran off somewhere. ‘Probably to call off a search party risking their lives to try and find me out there somewhere’. Wisteria pulled away from her father’s embrace, now feeling incredibly guilty. “I’m sorry ada, I lied to you, please forgive me”. Lindir looked at his daughter’s face and into her eyes, he could see clearly that she was dreadfully sorry. “I forgive you, but that aside, lord Elrond wishes to look over you imminently, just in case of some unknown or hidden injury”. Then he pulled Wisteria into embrace again. “I’m just so relieved to see you alive, we heard orcs were roaming around the border, I thought you might have been captured”. “I was, it was horrible, I thought they were going to kill me when-” “Calm down, Wisteria, you can tell us inside in the healing rooms, right now lord Elrond is waiting so I suggest we go with him before he comes down and starts dragging us to the healing rooms”. At this Wisteria smiled; her ada had always had a sense of humour. “Then we better go,” she said. “About time too,” Elrond muttered as Lindir and his beautiful daughter walked slowly towards him, then he turned and led the way to the healing rooms.
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It was too late when Raven realised the orcs’ cries that had lured him towards them had meant to lure him. As he thought he was ambushing them, a small party had split from the main group and come up behind him and the orcs soon had him surrounded. Being a feared orc, warg and goblin slayer, Raven knew they would show him no pity. He had fought bravely, but there were too many for him to handle. One orc had cut him across his ribs and after that they easily overpowered him, tying his hands behind his back and cutting his untidy hair short. Now he was in a cell. He had no doubt they would come up with a cruel way to punish him for slaying great numbers of their friends, if it were possible for orcs to have friends, allies was a better word. He tried to move and realised they had already started. ‘You’ve done it now, Raven,’ he thought, ‘you risked your neck, and you knew the consequences, now you are to pay for them. But those orcs, goblins and wargs got what they deserved, revenge was sweet, but you’ve pushed it too far, now you’ll surely be killed in some horrible way.’ Raven started to list some of the ways of torture the foul creatures could unleash on him, when some orc guards (at least 5) unlocked his cell and hauled him roughly to his feet. “Get up, scum!” one orc spat at him, “we have something special in mind for you”. ‘Lovely!’ thought Raven, ‘I wonder what, flowers?’ Raven was half walked, half dragged to a circular chamber where many tunnels ran off of. He heard screams coming from one of them and too his horror, he was led down the same tunnel the screaming came from. A horrible sight met his eyes, such horror that cannot be described. A young man was being tortured; a young woman, another young man and an older man were chained to a wall being forced to watch.
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