Alone With Elven Spies

Alone With Elven Spies
Written By: Eileen Owen
February 22, 2007
…
The cold snow crunched under Nimlos’s knee length boots. Her black skirt brushed her creamy thighs without as much as a whisper. Nimlos’s posture was slightly crouched, and her pointy elven ears were tuned in to what was going on around her. The soft trickle of the babbling river ten miles from her, a soft breeze that will blow through the trees around her in the next five seconds, all of it…she was aware of. She even concentrated on her own steady heartbeats, the flowing of warm blood in her head, and her slow calm breathing. Nimlos’s senses were wild and awake. Her short white locks fell from their place behind her long ears to feather in her heavy eyelashes. There was power in her beautiful light blue eyes. Annoyed, she batted and brushed them away. Nimlos didn’t even risk a sigh, and continued to move on until she was crawling low to the ground. Her bare stomach barely brushed the white powder under her body. The dark leather top she wore wrapped firmly over her breasts, gracing her finely toned body, and smooth ivory skin. It had to be around here somewhere, and she wasn’t about to let her captain and dear old friend, Eldarwen, down again. Their mission was to capture the two high ranking elves that were said to be camping in the forest of Celtrain , and bring them back to their home in Tethlion for questioning. It was bad enough that the only weapon she took from the saddle of her horse, Nikiel, was her spiky whip. And at the end of this whip was a light elven steel dagger, used to slice as the spikes ripped. It was, however, Nimlos’s specialty to handle a whip such as this. Eldarwen had insisted that she brought along her sword, or perhaps her trusty bow and arrow. However, Nimlos convinced her that the less she equipped herself with, the quicker she could be if trouble was afoot.
Nimlos was the youngest elven assassin in all of Tethlion. Most considered her a child still, but her skills in combat, swordsmanship, and archery begged to differ. She was trained by Eldarwen since she was old enough to pick up a sword. Her father, Amrod, refused to have anything to do with the child since her mother ran away. Eldarwen knew the feeling, since she also never knew her mother who had died at childbirth. The elves of the council barely looked to their children for any hope that their kingdom would last. They thought that the Council was superior and their children would never learn. The arrogant brood sent those, which were strong enough, to do their bidding. This usually meant to hunt someone in particular down and kill them.  The elves of Tethlion were dark elves, the sneakiest and most cunning race of elves on the earth.
Now the others that accompanied them on this dangerous mission were Hour, one of the elves in Eldarwen’s league, and Arabndar, Eldarwen’s cousin…the Prince of Tethlion. Arabndar was very handsome with his long platinum hair, crystal violet eyes, sharp elegant features, and a charm for the maidens. He never got along with Eldarwen. Not since she was promoted to mission captain. It burned his very ego to face the fact that Eldarwen’s skills were ranked higher than all the warriors of Tethlion. And what really hurt the most was the fact that Eldarwen was only half-elven. However, Eldarwen and Hour had been very close since childhood. Nimlos looked up to him as well, like an older brother or father figure. Though he was cursed, it never slowed him down a bit. His mother was raped viciously by a mountain orc a couple of millennia ago. Being an elf, the most purely of all races, she became cursed and died not long after Hour was born. The birthmark on the back of his neck was a constant reminder of that. His skin was a dark grey, and eyes were of the brightest of blues. Brushing the fact that his blood was cursed, he was very handsome.
Eldarwen leaned casually against a high branch in the immense tree she had stationed herself in. The cold air hardly affected her, since she was indeed half elven, and her breath was barely visibly in the frigid atmosphere. She calmly kept watch over her charge, Nimlos, who happened to become distracted rather easily. She wasn’t too worried about it, however, Nimlos was in fact the warrior for the job that they had been given.
Catching herself distracted once again, Nimlos scolding herself. She must concentrate on the mission at hand. She can’t blow this or there would be a serious punishment to look forward to back home. They had been wondering through Lady Glenwen’s forest for hours now. Nimlos could feel the enchantress’s presents back when they had first entered the wood. The four of them had to cleverly hide themselves within the snowy foliage. Quietly, Nimlos crawled like an animal, a killer. Not even a twig was snapped. She glanced back at Hour and Arabndar, who were following close behind. It was when she gazed forward that she seen the light of a campfire. They had found the elves that the Council had called a “High Importance”. Nimlos grinned and whistled lightly that Arabndar and Hour, signaling them to move ahead and wait for her next command. As they obeyed and drew out their bows, Eldarwen found it the perfect time to catch up to them. Slowly she stood, and decided that the tree tops would be the safest way. Eldarwen began to run across the branches. Her light elven weight enabled her to run with great speed without shaking a leaf from its limb. It was second nature to her. The run didn’t take long before she caught up with the rest of the team, though they had taken care to keep their trial minimal. Eldarwen pushed her black locks of hair behind her ears with one hand, her other placed on the hilt of her long knife located on her waist. She peered through the leaves with cobalt eyes, scanning the area. They were close to their destination. Eldarwen dropped to the ground next to Nimlos, her light feet barely made a sound. Nimlos regarded her, though without too much of a glance and no words, keeping her focus on the situation in front of them.
“There they are, milady. Both targets are in sight. I’m about to give the order to move on in for the capture.” Nimlos whispered, still not making eye contact with her captain. Eldarwen glanced at the other two spies assigned to them. Arabndar made glared at her, and took out a long leather string to tie back his white hair. Then he grabbed his bow and an arrow. The arrows he carried were usually laced with a deadly poison. Eldarwen grinned and looked back at Hour, who crouched quietly, as usual, and scanned the camp with his mysterious blue eyes. “That’s good,” Eldarwen replied, turning back to her pupil,” It’s all up to you now, young one.” After hearing the pet name Eldarwen had given her, Nimlos nodded, lifted her hand, and signaled for Hour and Arabndar to move on in….


Chapter One: Great First Impressions
They did just that. In front of Nimlos and Eldarwen, Arabndar and Hour made their commands for the two elven nobles to stay where they were, and if a muscle was moved, their doom would be sealed. Satisfied with her work, Nimlos grinned and approached the frozen, yet angry, elves. They were blonde and wore shiny silk robes of the nobles. The one to her right was Celtrain’s March warden, Devlin. He dressed in Celtrain’s colors of silver and blue, which highly complimented his furious azure eyes. He looked majestic and somewhat overpowering, but Nimlos did not let that affect her.
The elf to her left had Nimlos stopping in her tracks and gawking. It was Thonnon, Prince of Aorigarn. He wore the woodland colors of his land, brown and tree-plant green. Thonnon glared with his astonishing pair of sapphire eyes. Both elves sat still, allowing Hour and Arabndar to slowly approach them. Realizing the importance of the mission, Nimlos turned to Eldarwen, who quickly took control. Eldarwen’s eyes flashed in amusement. “My, my… this is a rather amusing sight, isn’t it Lord Thonnon?” she mused aloud, glancing briefly at Nimlos. Eldarwen couldn’t read the child’s face very well, so she continued, walking fairly close to the two male captives. “Bind their hands,” Eldarwen ordered authoritatively, drawing her long knife from its sheath, “and disarm them.” She noted that Nimlos kept her hand on her whip coiled at her side, just as she had been taught. Arabndar pulled a coil of elven rope from a pouch on his belt and lifted Devlin roughly from the ground.
The stunned elf took the opportunity to kick Arabndar in the crotch, sending him to the ground while the he took another chance to bolt away. Eldarwen smiled in amusement while Nimlos took action, swinging her long spiky whip over her head and flicking it in Devlin’s direction. It whistled through the air until the light elven dagger at its end clipped Devlin’s Achilles tendon with a loud snap and whipped back to Nimlos, who chuckled as she coiled it back up. A tiny stream of blood spurted from his heel as Devlin dropped rather heavily to the ground with a loud crunch of snow. White powder flew everywhere. The three dark elves laughed to themselves.
Eldarwen approached Arabndar with an amused smirk on her face. “Get up, you oaf. I thought you knew how to better stand guard?” The elf shot up from the snow bank he was kneeling on, his face red with fury. He made for Devlin, intent on killing him. Eldarwen stopped him by placing her knife to his throat. His eyes flashed angrily to hers. “Get the hell out of my way and let me gut him!” “No, I’m your commander, and our mission is to capture them, not kill them.” Arabndar hissed and confronted Eldarwen boldly even when she had a dagger to his throat. “You may be my commander here,” he growled, “but otherwise you are nothing to me.” Eldarwen smiled. “Glad to see we think very much the same. Now return to what you were supposed to do… Wait… On second thought, you just stand over there and keep watch. Nimlos can take care of Devlin.” She said. Nimlos looked briefly at Eldarwen before doing what she had been indirectly ordered to do. Eldarwen watched with a smug satisfaction as Arabndar stomped off. Hour snickered from his place beside the baffled Thonnon.
When she reached him, Nimlos grabbed Devlin by the scruff of his cerulean cloak and jerked him to his feet. He cried out in miserable pain when his foot hit the ground. Blood had reddened the snow. Devlin caught a glimpse of her dazzling light blue eyes. Devlin’s breath stilled and his mouth suddenly went dry. She was beautiful, though she was dark.  Nimlos spun him around and bound his hands with the rope. “Move, cur.” She ordered, shoving him towards Eldarwen. “Lady Glenwen will seek vengeance for us! You’ll not get away with this!” he yelled over his shoulder as he fell to his knees at Eldarwen’s feet. Nimlos patted her whip, “Don’t tempt me. ” She smiled. Eldarwen lifted Devlin up once more and dragged him towards the others. Nimlos noticed the limp in his stride and pondered.  Blood filled each left footstep that he left behind.
“Milady, he’s bleeding.” She said. “We’ve no time to see to him now, if we’re going to make good time back to Tethlion before a big frost hits us.” Eldarwen said, as she helped Devlin onto the black steed they had brought for the prisoners. She tied his hands to the convenient horn on the front of the saddle so that he couldn’t try to escape again. Eldarwen noted that his ankle wasn’t terribly damaged, and being pressed for time they would have to see to it later.
Nimlos and the still fuming Arabndar tied Thonnon to the horse. If the weather wasn’t so terrible, and a hard frost on its way, Eldarwen would have made both of them walk for most of the journey. Thonnon was still silent, oddly enough. But his eyes were at times dangerously with warning. Eldarwen found it somewhat intriguing, so she would purposely stare at him just to see him glare at her. As their long journey home began, Eldarwen mounted on her horse, Rauko and kept giving the two blonde elves curious looks. “What is it with the blonde hair? I thought we were all children of the stars?” She said. Devlin and Thonnon both turned their gazes to her, as did the others out of curiosity. Yet the two elves she was speaking of, both glared. “We are, but you were the unwilling ones remember?” Thonnon hissed narrowing his eyes again, “A vile representation of our race.” Arabndar growled rather loudly at his comments, but Hour silenced him with a glance. Eldarwen smiled wickedly. “Vile or not, I’m not the one in such a predicament, am I?” she said sweetly, which only served to anger them more. “Just what are your plans for us? You know that our people will come searching for us,” Devlin grumbles. His pride, she noted, had been injured like Arabndar’s had earlier. Eldarwen shrugged, “I’m not totally sure just yet, but our commanders would like to have a word with you.” “Who are your commanders?” Thonnon demanded. Eldarwen threw a hand up to silence him. “I believe that you’ve asked enough questions for now. Let’s get the pace going and find some decent shelter before nightfall. We don’t want to be frozen just outside of Celtrain, now do we?” Eldarwen rode ahead a bit before turning around to face the others. “I’m scouting ahead. Nimlos is in charge while I’m gone. No questions.” With that, she turned and rode off in a flurry of white powder snow, her black cloak flapping in the wind after her…

‘Great.’ Nimlos thought. Not only was she in charge now, but she also had two very angry blonde…handsome…elves glaring with their icy blue eyes. She turned to Arabndar, who wasn’t happy with anyone, and then looked at Hour. A smile spread across his dark handsome face. He had faith in her no mater what. Feeling better about the situation, Nimlos whistled for Nikiel. The horse lovingly trotted to Nimlos and received an equally loving nestle on the snout. When Nimlos mounted Nikiel, she trotted past Arabndar. “Come, you heard what she said.” “Yes, I heard…” he growled. Hour made sure that the prisoners followed, and soon they were out of the enchanted wood, and on their way back to Tethlion. For hours, everyone was silent. The horses huffed a bit, and the crunches of snow under their hooves were the only sounds they paid attention to. Devlin and Thonnon, though highly upset, were very good prisoners. They cooperated only because they were curious about why they were captured. Nimlos kept a sharp eye on Devlin, for reasons beyond her. He seemed to refined, brave, handsome…Nimlos shook her head violently. ‘What the hell? Keep your head, Nimlos.’ She thought, bringing her beautiful eyes back to the path. Nimlos watched as tiny snow crystals began to melt slightly. To human eyes it would be impossible to see, yet it was only natural to her….
Eldarwen had always had confidence in Nimlos’s abilities, hence why she left her in charge. That left her the ability to think clearly about the task she assigned herself. Her horse, Rauko, a brilliant black steed that her father had given her, charged most effortlessly through the ankle deep snow. She was scouting the terrain ahead, as she had always liked to do for a multitude of reasons. The main reasons were safety and shelter. With the winter being as harsh as it was finding shelter was very important. Otherwise they risked freezing to death. ‘And to think,’ Eldarwen thought, ‘we’re headed north…back into frozen country.’ After galloping for a while, Eldarwen slowed Rauko to a walk so that he could rest, allowing her to better analyze the terrain. She pulled back the hood of her cloak so that she could hear better, listening for any signs of life outside of the forest. Rauko snorted once, stopping and pawing at the ground for a moment. She knew something was wrong. Three orcs were making their way in her direction. They were rather large orcs. Eldarwen could hear their heavy footfalls at a distance. And they would probably be hungry. She quickly drew out a plan, jumping from Rauko’s back and up into the lower limbs of the big tree they had paused under.
In Elvish, Eldarwen quietly told Rauko to go back in the direction that they had come from and wait at a safe distance. It was when he obeyed, that she realized she had left her bow and quiver on Rauko’s saddle… “Damn it….” Eldarwen hissed under her breath. And she was supposed to be the one teaching! She mentally scolded herself for making such a dim-witted mistake, but luckily she always wore her long knives at her sides. Yet it would have been a whole lot easier to use her bow and kill them from a distance. “Oh well…there are only three.” She muttered, drawing one of her knives from its sheath. The three orcs soon stumbled into view, their dark faces contorted in annoyance and their yellow teeth were bared. They were heavily armed and wore the crude furs of wolves to keep the chill out.
They smelt horse, and being hungry they immediately set off after Rauko’s scent… right under Eldarwen’s perch. Soon she was the assassin she’d been raised to be…a cold-hearted killer bred to slay. Her eye’s darkened, and she dropped down onto the shoulders of the last orc that passed beneath her. Before any of the orcs could react, she’d slain him with a quick swipe of her knife across his neck, and he tumbled gurgling to the ground. The other two cried out angrily, and she jumped backwards to give herself some distance. “Fight me…” She hissed at them, her blade poised against her arm. She drew the other from its sheath, readying it for an impending attack. The two orcs seemed to be analyzing her…a very odd thing for them to do. Most orcs attacked blindly, but these weren’t… It was like they were plotting… The biggest orc attacked her, charging straight into her path. Their blades met for a moment, the orc’s strength greater than hers. She slipped back again, avoiding a downward swoop of death, only to be attacked by the other orc. Their intent was to tire her out…a very good strategy for an orc to have. But Eldarwen wasn’t intent on letting them get the better of her. She finally managed to seriously injure the smallest orc, cutting a deep gash through a weak spot of armor and into his abdomen. He fell to the ground, growling and muttering things in Orcish, and keeping a grip on his sword.
The big orc didn’t give Eldarwen time to finish him. He lunged at her and knocked her to the ground. ‘I was trained better than this!’ Eldarwen thought furiously, blocking the orc’s sword from cutting her head open. She was growing very angry… With all the force she could muster, she kicked the orc as hard as she could in the groin. The orc backed off, howling and extremely angry. She quickly lashed out her knives, cutting his lower leg off. Hearing the other orc start to rise behind her, Eldarwen quickly turned and threw the knife at him, catching him in the forehead. His body stiffened before dropping to the ground, dead. The legless orc was furious. He roared at her, saliva flying as he did so. Eldarwen looked at him over her shoulder for a brief moment before whistling for Rauko, who soon came through the woods to her side. With a skillful flick of her wrists, the blood from her blade flew onto the snow. Sheathing them, she mounted Rauko, whispering to him in Elvish. The horse snorted, walking slowly over to the legless orc…and with one final hard kick with his hoof, stopped the orc’s roaring…”Hurry my friend.” Eldarwen whispered, patting the stallion on the neck. “Now let us return to the others, since the threat is out of the way. I fear we may have to endure the snow and frost tonight.”…

To be continued