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When the company awoke the next morning, they found Gildas --who had the current watch-- giving the wild animal some breakfast pieces. The creature stayed close by as they packed up and even tagged along once they'd started moving. Emerald watched the animal suspiciously.
Riding beside her, Beven questioned, "What exactly do you have against the wolf?"
"I don't think it's one of my people." Then she remembered that he hadn't heard Váromë speak, but she didn't care to explain. Instead she added, "There's just something...he doesn't act like a normal wolf."
"That doesn't mean he's not a wolf, though. There have always some exceptions to a race."
"I know, but...anyway, let's be careful what we say." Beven agreed to this. Emerald looked back at the wolf, which jerked its head to the side at that exact moment. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
It wasn't until a couple days later that Emerald's opinion of mistrust was recognized by everyone. They'd just broken for lunch and Emerald decided to check her book to see if it said anything about the wolf. It hadn't so far, but that didn't mean it wouldn't.
She glared at the wolf standing a few feet away. He was yawning and pacing as if preparing to lay down, but she knew without a doubt that he was watching her every movement. Under his watchful eye, while she was bent over, pulling the book from her bag, her necklace slipped out from under her dress --the chain with her ring on it. Before she could even react, the wolf had lunged forward and snagged the ring in his teeth. Emerald yelped and toppled backwards, but the wolf had locked his jaw and would not release. Emerald kicked at the beast's ribs and boxed his ears, but still he held on.
At the attack, the camp broke out in a rush of activity. Pherannon was the first to reach the struggling Princess. In one swift motion, he drew a knife and slit the creatures throat, spilling blood all over Emerald's dress. This random attack wasn't the strangest part of the day, though. That came next.
The wolf's body fell lifelessly onto Emerald's lap, who quickly shoved it off and let Alagedh pull her to her feet and back a couple of steps. At first the carcass just lay there, but then the form began to writhe around, as if it were seizing. The entire group watched, wide-eyed, as the definite wolf-form melted and molded itself into a definite human-form. The man was undoubtably dead, but to make sure, Mainen shoved the body over with his feet. Long black hair fell over the pale face and the thick black cape shifted, revealing primitive clothing underneath.
"What the--"
"Tell me I'm not the only one who just saw that," Tegryn interrupted Alagedh.
"We all saw it," Nedron assured him. "But curse me if I know what it was."
Gildas let out a deep sigh and admitted, "Well, it wasn't a wolf, that's for sure. Emerald was right." Somehow that didn't make her feel better. She rubbed her neck where the taut chain and left a mark and stared at the lifeless body.
Novothian had rushed over, seeing Emerald in peril, and now asked with deep concern, "Are you hurt, milady?"
"No, I'm all right." She checked quickly to make sure her ring was still in her possession and unharmed.
"How ever did that thin chain hold up to all that?" Hergest wondered, pointing to the fragile, decorative silver chain around Emerald's neck.
"The wolf must not have gotten a good grip," Airelone shrugged.
"Good enough to leave impressions on her neck," Novothian pointed out.
Tegryn nudged the body with his toe and commented, "This whole ordeal is just pretty strange. What say everyone to moving on?" It was unanimous.
"Just leave the body," Nedron instructed Emerald, bent over the mysterious creature. She nodded and hid the piece of fabric in her hand.
They started moving pretty quickly --no one wanted to stick around if the thing came back to life or something. Lunch hadn't been eaten yet, so the group just postponed stopping for a couple miles. This time, no wolf-changing-into-men interrupted the break.
Emerald used the opportunity to lay the piece of cloth she'd cut off the dead man's cloak on a page in her book. Through the book did a pretty good job of keeping its own account of events, Emerald also added her input now and then. The cloth was roughly cut with her dagger, but it still encompassed what she wanted: the odd cut-out. There were actual holes in the fabric, in a design. She dabbed a piece of her skirt (the dress was already ruined) in ink, then used the cloth as a stencil. She glanced at the painted design left on the page and everything fell together.
Calmly, she sat down beside Beven and pretended to be innocently writing in her journal. She elbowed her older brother and pointed to where she'd written, 'It was a spy of Sauron.' The design was clearly that of the all-seeing eye of Sauron. 'Maybe he suspects I know something of his ring.'
Beven took her pen and wrote back, 'It's a good thing we're almost to Rivendell. I don't think you're safe anymore.'
"Where is everybody?" Emerald asked, looking around the slightly thinning forest from her perch atop Occamy. "I thought we would have seen somebody by now."
Nedron assured her, "They're here. We're not a threat, though, so we won't be bothered. They've other things to watch for."
"We'll probably be inside Imladris before we see anybody," Pherannon added.
Emerald nodded with disappointment. The thought had entered her mind that maybe the elves she'd watched inside her ring for so long were Imladris guards. Forests are as different to elves as cities are to men, though, and this forest did not look the same. Nonetheless, she carefully perused the passing area for any familiar sights.
The trees continued to grow more spread out, the ground grew rockier, and the gurgling of a river grew louder as they progressed. Though the trip had been long, a new energy pulsed through everyone's veins as their trek came closer and closer to an end.
"How much longer?"
Tegryn shook his head, "Not again."
"Just on the other side of these trees," Alagedh answered. "Just a couple more minutes, Princess."
Emerald sighed with impatience. She'd waited all her life to see this city, so talked of even in her homeland. To walk the elaborate halls of Lord Elrond's home and see his children and explore in the library. Which reminded her of all the mysteries surrounding the trip, as well as the terrible news she carried. The idea of finally getting answers for all of her questions was reason enough for anticipation.
And then, there it was, nestled below them beside the busy River Bruinen. Emerald, along with the others in her company, stopped to just admire the Homely House below them, the goal of a tiresome journey.
Hergest was the one to break the silence, asking in an uncertain tone, "How exactly are we going to get down there?"
"What are you sitting on?" Tegryn returned teasingly.
"A blank-- oh! A horse. That's not what I mean!"
"It is pretty steep," Emerald acknowledged. She dismounted Occamy and walked closer to the crumbly edge. Alagedh instinctively followed her, arm ready to shoot out and grab her if things went wrong.
Mainen, unafraid, stood on her other side, "Is there a path?" He picked up a stone and tossed it over the edge. It was a very long way down.
"There are two paths," Beven answered, looking around. "Unfortunately, I know of only one."
Novothian frowned at the dirt walkway that disappeared over the edge and questioned, "Haven't you been here before?" Remembering he was talking to royalty, he hastily tacked on, "Milord."
"Once, when I was younger than Emerald, but I don't remember the good road."
"Auryn was the one who visited here often," Gildas added.
"In other words," Novothian translated, "that there is our path." He motioned to the steep, unstable walkway.
Emerald walked over to it and looked down. Their designated path moved in a giant curve, though a little too shallow for everyone's taste, to the left and back, so that they'd end up almost directly beneath where they started. The slant was steep, as well. Perhaps too steep.
"I'm not sure the horses can handle it," Airelone debated.
"I'm not sure I can handle," Mainen chuckled.
Emerald shook her head, "People have been doing this since forever."
"Maybe they took the good path," Alagedh muttered.
"No, no. Don't think like that," Emerald chided. Ignoring their doubtful grumbling, she quickly mounted Occamy and forced him towards the top of the path. Occamy was obviously not eager, but he was a faithful beast of burden and determined to obey his mistress.
"Emerald! What in the world are you doing?" Beven cried out, mentally seeing her trip and plummet down the incline to her death.
With an impish smile, she waved, "See you at the bottom, boys." Occamy jumped slightly and was clearly nervous, but he did as instructed. The first couple steps were slippery and Occamy slid, but then he got into a sort of trot and seemed to be doing all right. Stopping, however, would be a problem.
The further down they got, the faster Occamy got going, so that Emerald began to worry about the horse breaking a leg. She pulled back on the reigns, which startled Occamy, but he obeyed and planted his feet. Still, they kept sliding.
Emerald looked over her shoulder. Tegryn was the closest to her, noticed what she was doing, and copied. This was repeated on down the line until they'd all slid to stops on the steep grade.
"What's wrong?" Alagedh called down.
"We need to slow down! If we go too fast we'll lost control."
She heard Hergest mumble, "Now she wants to take it slow, now that we're standing on peril."
Emerald allowed Occamy to take a step, but he stumbled slightly, so she dismounted. Keeping a firm hold on his ropes, she began leading Occamy, as well as those behind her. The going was extremely slow, and Emerald knew there had to be a better way, but this was working, and she would rather everyone get down safely but tardy than quickly but maimed.
Being at the head, she was the first to reach the ground and quickly moved out of the way so everyone else could follow.
"Are we all here?" Nedron asked, glancing around the group. Emerald felt very proud of herself that she'd led a group of men --men that saw her as little more than a precious plaything-- through a possible danger.
"Yes, we all-- wait. Where's Gildas?" Tegryn asked. Wherever he was, it was definitely not with them.
It was Mainen who spotted him, pointing at the slope and saying, "Oh, no." Every head jerked towards the curve to see Gildas, still pretty close to the top, his horse racing downwards.
"He's going too fast," Emerald gasped. "Cainfen's legs are going to buckle if he doesn't slow down."
Pherannon shook his head, "I think he's beyond slowing down now." Emerald bit her lip. There had to be something she could do. If nobody did anything, Gildas' horse Cainfen was going to trip and both would slide over the edge, and it was highly unlikely that Lord Elrond would be able to heal that.
Never one for carefully planning out each step, nor, you know, actually thinking her actions through, Emerald took off running for the path. At first everyone just sort of gawked at her, not sure what exactly she was thinking.
"Emerald! What are you doing?" Beven yelled at her.
She called over her shoulder, "Wait for us!" and kept running. Racing up a steep slope in a dress and boots, with sand and pebbles sliding around under her feet, was probably one of the most difficult things she'd ever done. Sort of like the time Tegryn had dared her to climb a tree without using her arms. But she was determined to save her brother.
Gildas and Cainfen were fast approaching, and she commenced to screaming while she ran, "Slow down! Stop! Slow!" which was quite difficult. Gildas seemed to have heard her, though, and jerked on the reigns. Cainfen planted his feet and continued to slide, but they'd been going too fast originally and Gildas couldn't control their new motion. They were sliding way to close to the edge!
Emerald waited until they were right beside each other, placing herself between Gildas and the edge, and shoved with all her weight and might against the bulk of horse and elf. This had two consequences.
First, it succeeded in pushing the two over, so that they slide on their side a couple feet before coming a stop. Gildas was able to pull himself up, unharmed except for a slight rip in his tunic, and Cainfen was just extremely confused. The second consequence, though, was that Emerald herself fell backwards off the path. Her skirt wrapped around her feet, keeping her body constricted as she slid like a rock down the dirt grade.
Luckily, it seemed the Valar were out to keep Emerald alive for the moment. She hadn't been all that high up previous to falling and so only slid for a minute or two (which, nonetheless, is an eternity when you're sliding head-first down a steep slope.) Lucky, too, that the slope wasn't as steep and didn't end in suddenly flat ground, so that, upon hitting the ground, her entire body came to a hard 'slam' rather than just her head and neck coming to a hard 'snap.'
Seeing her go over the edge, Gildas had jumped after her, somehow finding himself on an even less-steep slope so that he was basically able to run, albeit out-of-control, down most of his slope until falling backwards and sliding the last couple yards on his rear end. The rest of the group, seeing all the excitement, had dropped their horses and packs and sprinted over, ready entirely to see a maimed prince and princess.
Gildas was up first, ignoring the hole in the back of his leggings, hunched over Emerald.
"Emmy! Emmy, are you all right? Emmy, you--" he worried, turning her as to maybe better her airflow or wipe the dirt out of her nose or something. Upon doing this, though, he found his younger sister laughing hysterically. "Emerald--"
"That was so much fun!" she laughed, dizzily pushing herself into a sitting position. "I can't believe I survived that!"
Pherannon shook his head, "If anybody ever says the girl's not optimistic..."
"Optimistic! Try lucky," Airelone argued.
"And foolish," Gildas added. He looked hard at Emerald for a moment, then his features softened. "Foolishness which no doubt saved my life. Thank you, Emerald."
Emerald nodded, "Anytime, Gildas. Anytime. Only, you might want to do something about your backside--" Gildas reached around, then took off like lightening for the horses. Emerald fell back again and kicked her feet in the air, laughing so hard.
"All right, come on, Princess," Nedron ordered, gently helping her up. "A little farther and I can honestly wipe my hands clean of the next jeopardizing action you decide to partake in."
As they returned to the horses, Novothian quizzed Emerald on her health, and anxiously pointed to her elbow, "Lady Emerald, I do believe you've scraped your elbow." Emerald looked where, as he'd said, blood seeped around her scratched-up arm –now both her arms were injured.
With a laugh, Emerald reminded him, "Well, I'm not totally invincible!"
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