Post by Aurora on May 5, 2008 14:35:52 GMT -5
It was a day like any other in the forest right before the kingdom of the Elves. A ranger was heading her way to try and stop a few herds of orcs that were inhabiting the forest and threatening the lives of many of the people that live there, not to mention the fact that it was her duty to protect the forest. Her name, Arudel, she is 18 years old but has great skill with a blade and a bow and arrows, even a crossbow if she can get her hands on one. She is part of a small group called the Dundeain, a highly known group of rangers, which there are now only two known members for miles, her and Amarth another ranger that is a wanderer as well. She trained with elves for as long as she can remember. She is highly respected being the only female ranger ever to exist, she is fierce when she has to be, but calm and gentle when not in combat. She approaches the gates and there are two guards that are blocking the entrance of the city for a mysterious man that was arguing with them so that they would let him in. She goes up to them and as she does so she notices that the conversation they are having heats up to full level resulting almost in combat. She arrives just in time to ask what is going on. “Is there a problem?” she asks unaware of who this person is, but needing a reason for them to deny his entrance. He is dressed like none she’s ever seen before, but that is the least of her worries. “A wanderer my Lady, he wishes to enter this place but he is not welcome”. As they say this she shows them a tattoo that she bears on her left arm right under her wrist. It’s an elvish tattoo that she received the day she completed her training with the elves. “He is with me” she tells them, “Now let us pass”. They do she wishes but they stay talking amongst themselves. “Does she not know who this traitor is? That was Gaara, the desert viper”. She overhears this as she watches the stranger disappear before she can ever speak a word to him. “Who is this Gaara you speak of? I’ve never heard of him”. “You’ve let in a killer. One that does not fight for a side, he fights for whoever gives him enough pay to last him however long he wants.” She stands there wondering for a while, staring into the direction that this so called desert viper went through and then continues off in her own way. Going through the forest it gets late and she has no other choice but to stay the night right where she is. She sets up a small place so that she can rest for at least one night. She is exhausted and has not slept for almost four days now trying to reach her destination. She lies down up against a tree before dozing off in somewhat of a deep sleep. As the morning breaks through she is rudely awaken by a small crowd of elvish guards. “Follow us Arudel, there has been a disturbance in the forest and we need to see what you say about it”. She gets up and follows, unaware of what they speak of. They lead her to a small orchard where a horrifying scene awaits her. They were a group of orcs and a few men, all slain. But they were killed then decapitated. There heads hung from tree branches on ropes and they swung with the smallest breeze that would blow through the trees. And their bodies were on the trunks of the trees. Pinned up by their own swords with which they valiantly fought with, but failed at the end. “What happened here?” she asks. Not even looking at the sight again. “The Desert Viper struck last night Arudel, did you see anything of peculiar last night?” the guards tell her. “ No, nothing. The night was quiet last night” she answers them truthfully. “then that was all we needed to hear” the guards reply. They leave back to their posts leaving her there to stare at this site in horror as the flies start to assemble on them. And then she leaves in complete shock. She continues through this forest which now seems to her like the never ending forest and still she sees no sign of what she came to destroy. And again the night traps her in this forest. She sets up like she did the night before and dozes off with the spell of sleep, only to be startled later by the slimy hands of orcs on her. They disarm her and first pin her up against a tree. Arms held back onto the truck of the tree she cannot move much less breath, for the odor of the orcs is foul and would suffocate any that was with them for too long. “What do you want?” she says to them fiercely. Not yelling but demanding to know what they are after. “We know of this Gaara that you have let enter into the realm of the elves and we want him” they reply to her. “Well you will have no luck getting him through me for I have not even spoke to him or seen him at all” she replies. “No, but we do know that he will show up if we keep you here long enough. And if he doesn’t that’s alright with us to, for we can keep you and do whatever we please, either way you lose.” As much as she wants to get away, she can’t. Merely 18 years old she does not have the physical strength to take them all down alone, especially without her weapons. They pin her down to the ground now. She struggles with all her strength to make them let go, but they forcer her to the ground. But before they or she can say another word a dagger pierces the orc that holds her down right through his eye, knocking him over and allowing her to get up. She takes up her sword and places her belt of weapons back around her waist where they belong. While she does this, daggers hit most of the other orcs that were there but there is two left, one in front of her and another that is trying to escape. She kills the one in front of her with one quick swipe across the stomach and the other she pulls out a dagger of her own and throws it to the one that is running hitting in the back right through his heart, killing him on contact. She knows now that she is not alone. All of the orcs that had attacked her now lay dead at her feet, but she had only killed two of them herself. Looking around she sees nothing but trees and bushes as a slight breeze blows rustling all of the leaves of the vegetation. “Who is there? Show yourself!” she says looking almost crazy for it looks as if she speaks with the wind, but someone does appear as if out of nowhere. “W ho are you?? Speak quickly for I am not of one of patience with someone that I do not know” she says. “I know you know who I am, so why do you ask such a thing?” he says almost evilly. But he seems to ignore her after answering that and he starts to decapitate the corpses, hanging the heads on ropes from the tree branches and pinning the bodies to the trucks of the trees. “Why do you do that? They are all dead. They do us no harm and you waste time doing that” she asks. “It is to give these elves a warning. They need to understand that there is a war out there and that people outside these walls are dying. Yet they still just sit here and think that they will be safe here forever.” He answers disgustedly. “I expect that I owe you a thank you, you just helped me and I do appreciate it.” she says. “You don’t owe me anything, I didn’t do it for you, if it were up to me I would have let them have you to do with you what they pleased, but I needed to do this” as he says this he points to the work he has just finished of the corpses. “Then I got lucky” she answers but when she turns around he’s gone faster than he appeared. When that night is over morning starts to break through, the early morning clouds red, signifying that there was bloodshed that night. But she is a bit of a long way from the scene from the night before. But she is stopped for the second time by guards. “Arudel, we need you to accompany us to the citadel, Lord Elrond wishes to speak with you” they tell her calmly. “And if I refuse?” she tells them. “Then we would have to take you by force, we have our orders” they answer her very seriously. “Alright. I will go, but may I ask what this may concern?”. She says to them. “We cannot say anything; we would be disobeying our orders.” They reply. “Very well then. Lead the way” she says. Completely unaware of what this may be about. As they lead her to the wall of the citadel they are talking amongst themselves, but she cannot understand what they are saying for their voices are too low for her to hear. They take her to the great hall, the room right before the balcony, where the meeting of the one ring was held. She enters and Lord Elrond awaits her there and as she does he asks the guards to leave them for a while. “Arudel, you have been my friend and ally since you were only a girl in training. You have always been the best ranger to my service, but I now bring you news that you have disappointed me” he says to her. This greeting hits her hard as she tries to think of where she went wrong but she can think of nothing at the moment. She stays silent and waits for him to continue. With a look of worry and concern in her eyes she doesn’t now what he could be talking about. There is a long pause that seems like it lasted days that would not end, but finally he speaks again. “I know that you have made the acquaintance of the desert viper and that you have helped him, we found your dagger on one of the corpses from the attack last night and some of the daggers from him there on most of the corpses there, but I must ask you what drove you to be on the same side of this traitor?” he explains to her. “My Lord, what happened last night is not what it seems, I was attacked with no warning in my sleep and disarmed before I could do anything. They would have killed me right there on the spot if it wasn’t for his help” she replies. He is staring her down and she feels uncomfortable to be looked on as a minor to someone that she thought was a long time friend, but nonetheless she still needs to respect him as her superior. “Then why is it that you did not try to hold him there until help could arrive? You have heard of the name Gaara, have you not? You know what he is like and what he does” he says now interrogating her. “I could not hold him there my Lord, I had no way of restraining him there, and your men did not show up until the next morning. And I can honestly say that I had never heard of the name Gaara before I had let him in. The first time I had ever heard that name spoken was after I had let him in and the guards explained to me who he was” she answers him as respectfully as possible. “I’m sorry Arudel, but I cannot have you out there with him together unless I know for sure that you do not lie to me, guards, take her away and keep heavy security, I do not think she would try to escape but if she did she would succeed with no question” he says. “My Lord, please, you can’t do this to me, I do not lie, I would never and you know that, I do not work with him” she says pleading. “I’m sorry Arudel, but I must do what I think is best, and right now locking you up is my only option until I can figure out what is going on around here, you are still young and can change your mind easily on what side you are on, and being trained with us you have access to everything here, so I must” he says. “Come with us” say the guards. At first she refuses to go. Pulling away from the guards as she stares at Lord Elrond, and seeing that he gives no change in his expression, she stops struggling and follows the guards out. They lead her to an enclosed cell that has not even a window, as they opened the door to the cell she just stares it down, and then she feels a strong push and she stumbles in and they close the door behind her. She is still well armed and she paces back and forth in the cell for hours until she gets tired and sits down in the corner putting her head between her knees as she sits there thinking about the days events wondering why this long time friend which she herself trusted does not trust her now. Guards are posted everywhere at the entrance to the cell, and there are even some that are hidden just in case someone tries to bail her out, but that would merely prove to Lord Elrond that she lied. She knows that there is no one out there that is going to help her. Two days pass as she stays in this room, surprised herself that she has not suffocated, for the room is closed tight and it smells of dirt and death. Night and day go by slowly in there as she waits to see what will happen, and as the third morning sun rises, the door to her cell is opened. And a man steps in, at first she does not recognize him, but when he steps into the light she sees that it is Borimir. She says nothing and just stares at him for a second wondering why he is the one that is here. He doesn’t live here, he is from Gondor. A few seconds pass, and then finally he speaks. “Come with me traitor” he says meanly. He was another one of her friends, they were very close and now he treats her like this, like a common criminal. She rises from the hard, cold floor and follows him out. He leads her to the balcony where the meeting of the one ring was held, and to her surprise Gandalf, Aragorn, Lord Elrond and now Borimir sit down and she stands in the center, being stared down like prey just before the attack. “Has the girl been able to hear why she has been charged?” Gandalf speaks. Borimir now stands up and begins to “recite” the charges against her. “Arudel is being charged for betrayal, murder of the men of this city, and letting in a killer to our city” he speaks as if he has practiced this, for he wasn’t reading from anything. “Explain yourself” says Lord Elrond “speak”. She stands there for a second trying to collect her thoughts, “My Lords..” she starts, but it seems odd to be calling her friends such a name “…Betrayal is something that I would not even dream of doing…and as for my charge of murder, please understand that I was not there when it happened. And letting in a killer, I was not aware of who he was until after I made the mistake of letting him in” she says trying to be as respectful as possible. She says nothing more, waiting to see what they will say. “If you were not there them murder will be taken off of your trial. But why did you not stop him when you did confront him?” says Lord Elrond. “Please understand that I had no way to keep him there. There was no way for me to restrain him, especially me alone. If you wish it I will admit that I showed weakness, but there would have been nothing that I could do” She says now trying to find out why they question her so. “You’re making excuses Arudel, and I don’t know why you are trying to protect him, if you are not working with him you would have taken him down that very night he helped you” says Aragorn. “ I couldn’t do it my Lord, I felt as if I owed him my life, and I could not take him down alone, I am still not as talented as any of you, much less him” she says. “It leaves me with merely one more question. Why did you let him enter in the first place?” says Aragorn. “I was expecting a friend, by the name of Amarth, you know who he is, but he was on his way for I had asked him for help to take down the orcs in these forest so that they could do no harm to the people of this city. I thought it was him and so I let him in. and then after I did the guards explained to me who he was, but by then it was too late for me to do anything.” She says trying her best to explain everything. The room goes silent, but Borimir’s eyes are glowing like fire. “ She lies” he says as he stands up and storms out of the balcony. “You showed great weakness these last few days Arudel, and that is not the way of the rangers, you did not even try to fight it when my soldiers were going to bring you in, a ranger would have taken over and killed them all and not even thought about friendship. I’m sorry but for now on you are no longer part of the Dundeain rangers.” Says Aragorn not even hesitating to give her this news. “What? Please, you can’t do this, this is my entire life that you’re taking from me in just a few words, reconsider, I beg you!” she pleads. “Turn in your weapons before you leave.” He says again. She holds back tears knowing that weakness is what brought her here in the first place. They all leave her there on the balcony alone, and then she heads to the exit where there is a guard that is waiting for her to turn in her weapons. She gives the guards everything that she has except for one thing, her dagger. That dagger was hidden in her boot. And she walks out with no regret in taking it with her. She could not risk going out unarmed in such a dangerous place as this forest. She ends up walking and her pace gets faster until she breaks into a run into the forest, and when she can go no more she sits up against a tree and just sits there for a few hours trying to take everything in. She sits deciding whether she should cry or just go on or go back and beg for mercy. She is tired and a bit hungry, not having eaten for almost a week, but that is the least of her worries. Arudel happened to look up when the slightest of rustles caught her ears and made her forget everything in a mere instant. “I know someone is here, whether you choose to show yourself to me is not my concern, it is what awaits you that you should fear from me…” She was obviously angry for her words ran with what she felt. Her tone was cold and slightly harsh, none could blame her.
