Adventure of Tuiwen 2

Several weeks have passed since Lothlórien. Tuiwen now stays among the fortified Woodmen Towns, helping lawful messengers carry Thranduil’s warning westward through guarded roads and rain-darkened fields.

At dusk, a lone elf enters the palisade on foot. Legolas is travel-worn, his pale hair dulled by dust, his green cloak torn at one shoulder, but his watchful eyes remain sharp.

Eldred looks up from a bundle of sealed letters as the newcomer crosses the muddy yard. Behind him, the lawful messengers pause beside their waiting ponies.

Legolas stops beneath the gatehouse lantern, breathing hard. His hand rests on the message pouch at his belt, while distant thunder rolls beyond the western hills.

Legolas studies Tuiwen beneath the wavering lantern, then looks toward the sealed letters and the waiting couriers. His weariness gives way to deliberate resolve.

The lawful messengers draw closer around the table. Rain taps the palisade, but the camp’s uncertainty settles into purpose as fresh routes are marked for Rhosgobel and the western towns.

The couriers fall silent. Rain whispers over the palisade while Legolas weighs her words, his hand slowly leaving the message pouch at his belt.

Legolas turns toward the sealed routes, then draws a charcoal mark through the order for immediate withdrawal. The messengers watch, alert but no longer hurried.

The immediate evacuation is stayed. Fresh letters will test the order’s source while the Woodmen’s roads remain supplied, and Legolas prepares to ride before dawn with Tuiwen’s warning in mind.

Legolas studies her bandaged shoulder, then the rain-dark road beyond the palisade. Tuiwen takes her place beside him, prepared to ride before dawn and watch the route herself.

At the map table, Tuiwen examines the marked roads with him. Among ordinary charcoal notes, her trained sight catches three unnatural smudges where no courier has reported travel.

The false marks are copied onto a fresh scrap for comparison, while the original route remains untouched. Before the watch changes, Tuiwen and Legolas leave the town together beneath the steady rain.

Before dawn, Legolas leads Tuiwen beyond the palisade and onto the rain-dark road. His knowledge of the western tracks keeps them clear of flooded ground and broken bridges.

Tuiwen follows at his pace, her shoulder secured beneath cool linen marked with silver dust. The wound aches with each stride, but the binding holds and does not slow her.

Legolas points through veils of rain to a narrow rise between the trees. Tuiwen follows him over the firm ground, while the lower track disappears beneath dark water.

As morning light gathers, the road climbs above the wet fields. Behind them, the Woodmen Towns fade into mist; ahead, the eastern forest waits beneath a paling sky.

Together they continue along the high road, carrying the copied marks and Thranduil’s warning toward the Elvenking’s Halls. Tuiwen remains beside her brother, watchful and determined.

Tuiwen keeps pace behind Legolas, studying the rain-dark road and the alder branches for anything that does not belong. Her attention catches a faint disturbance along the eastern verge.

Three birch twigs lie freshly snapped, their pale undersides turned toward the path. Beneath them, gray grit clings to wet moss in a narrow line leading away from the road.

She slows to examine the grit and the broken stems, memorizing their direction and age. The careful scrutiny costs them time; the eastern sky has brightened while the road ahead remains unmeasured.

Legolas reins in and looks back. Tuiwen points out the marks without touching them, and he follows her gaze toward the dripping trees.

Tuiwen steps off the high road and searches the wet verge without touching the birch twigs. She finds no heel, hoof, or wheel mark, only rain-softened moss and scattered gray grit.

The faint line breaks among alder roots, where runoff has washed the soil clean. Several bent grasses point in opposing directions, making the trail impossible to follow with confidence.

Legolas studies the muddled verge, then returns his gaze to the eastern road. The sign yields no direction, but its deliberate placement remains a warning neither sibling can dismiss.

Tuiwen follows Legolas along the high road, keeping her attention on the verges, alder shadows, and rain-dark hollows rather than the misleading birch marks. Her shoulder aches with each stride, but the silver-dusted linen holds.

Near a bend above the flooded fields, Tuiwen catches a dull flattening in the wet grass. It is not a footprint, but a place where someone crouched briefly before withdrawing toward the eastern trees.

She studies the signs until the light shifts and the road’s distance becomes costly time. The mark confirms observation, not pursuit; whoever watched them has already left no reliable direction.

Legolas slows, but Tuiwen continues beside him once the examination yields nothing more. Ahead, the high road remains clear, while the eastern trees conceal only rain, roots, and unanswered intent.

Tuiwen continues along the high road, alert despite the steady ache in her shoulder. Her gaze moves from the alder branches to the stones beneath the rain.

At the bend, her perception catches what the weather tried to erase: shallow impressions above the road, positioned to watch travelers without exposing the watcher.

Legolas keeps to the high road as Tuiwen directs their attention toward the open ground ahead. The concealed overlook falls behind them, its watcher absent and its advantage lost.

They continue east beneath the rain, no ambush springing from the forest. The road toward the Elvenking’s Halls remains clear, and both princes carry the warning onward.