~The Hatching Journey~ [PR]

Thélowên had heard the noise as well. The sound of paws against the ground with long scraping claws. There were eight paws, belonging to two creatures. She drew her bow and placed an arrow in it but kept it relaxed in her hands. She nodded at Rhaenys and then tilted her head with a jerk as to tell her to come closer and be behind her. Rhaenys was the important one; not Thélowên. The noise drew closer and the animals heard them as well.
"It's something with paws, two of them." Thélowên whispered so quietly that barely even the wind would be able to hear.

She took one step forward, aiming at the sound but didn't quite string up her bow just yet. and then she saw the creatures. Two brown beasts standing about two and a half meters high with heavy shoulders and long sharp teeth protruding from their mouths. Caragors. Bloodthirsty, vicious creatures with nothing but darkness inside them. Skilled hunters and incredibly strong beasts. She strung up her bow and the second she let the arrow fly the beasts took notice of them. With fierce growls they lunged forward in full speed but Thélowên's first arrow hit the largest one in the shoulder, slowing it down.
"Watch out!" she called as she drew another arrow and let it glide through the air hitting it's mark between the beasts eyes. But the second one was only a few steps away now. It was smaller, but had black eyes as deep as the sea and bloodstains covering its face and chest. Voron had lunged at it before Thélowên had time to draw another arrow and the combat between the two beasts made it to risky to fire yet another arrow.
"Voron!" she cried out as the smaller caragath of the two caragons landed a ripping strike with its front paw across her beloved wargs face. Thélowên's heart was raising, blood pounded in her ears and she discarded the bow on the ground and went for her blade. Ready to jump in to the bloody fight.

Rhaenys moved behind Thélowên, with her weapons ready. She knew the goal with this fight would be to keep her alive, which meant that she was not supposed to throw herself in it, just protect herself if needed. She didn’t like it, but that was the rules. She watched how the caragors moved towards them, and how Thélowêns arrow buried itself in the shoulder of one of them. The caragath fell to the ground when a second arrow hit it in the face. Rhaenys heard Thélowêns cry as Voron got hurt by the second caragath, and saw how Thélowên made herself ready to go into the battle.

Rhaenys took a deep breath, and it felt like the world slowed down for a second. Rhaenys took a firmer grip around her daggers, and raised one above her shoulder. She turned around towards Voron. As she threw it, aiming on the caragath fighting Voron, she did just as she had learnt so long ago in Rivendell, she let go exactly two seconds before she really needed to. She watched the dagger spin and how the blade buried itself in the caragath’s chest. It howled and cried out in pain as it stumbled towards the ground. and Rhaenys told herself that it was in self-defence.

The moment she lunged herself forward to enter the fight the sound of a blade flicked through the air and the Caragath fell. Hitting the ground with a howl. Voron jumped out of the way and Thélowên stumbled to an abrupt halt just a short distance from the beast.
"Voron!" she called with worry and the warg ran over to her, "my sweet..." she mumbled as she assessed his injuries. The caragaths claws had dug deep but not made it past the first layer of muscle. She stroked his chest and looked at the wound at the same time. It stung inside her, he may be a warg but he was so much more to her. She cuddled him sweetly and he licked her face with a humongous lightly purple tongue. She gave a giggle and petted him a bit harder on the forehead.
"My little hero," she whispered, "haa, is that you?" and the moment she giggled again she realised that Rhaenys, well barely anyone, had ever seen her like this before. Thélowên rose up from her hunched position and looked, with a light shade of pink in her cheeks, at Rhaenys. But then shook her head to rid herself of the feelings - or at least the look of her emotional state.

Rhaenys watched the scene between Thélowên and Voron with a little smile – it was a true friendship. She looked in the bag, to make sure the egg was still with her. She turned to the two beasts on the ground. She held out her three middle fingers towards them, moving her hand in a circle motion.
“Eywa ostendam viam, et animo tuo vade in pace (Eywa will show the way, your spirit will go in peace)” she mumbled in Quenya and let her hand fall down as she looked around. She saw Aimon trotting towards her.
“You’re supposed to sit on me when these things happen”, he muttered and Rhaenys stroked his neck.
"I know" she answered him and turned to Thélowên.
“Are you okay? How is it with Voron?” she asked and looked at the warg. He seemed to have been injured, but not as bad as it could have been.

Thélowên was happy that her friend had not mentioned her emotions. It was one of the things she really liked with Rhaenys, she rarely spoke about things she was not supposed to speak of. Thélowên felt as though Rhaenys was a very respectful person. A loyal person. A real friend so to speak.
“Are you okay? How is it with Voron?” Rhaenys asked and Thélowên smiled,
"he's fine, he needs som rest and food but he'll be good in the morning i think. Wargs are fast healers. Althoguh they always end up with scars." she turned her head towards Voron and smiled. Petting his head she looked at Rhaenys,
"But I think it makes him even more pretty, pretty as a flower. A battle rose." she said and Voron hummed beside her.
"So, what should we do with these... We can't eat the meat, it's far to foul in taste. But we can't leave them here. It would attract other beasts and creatures..." Thélowên sighs and walkes over to the larger of the beasts. It's not a pretty sight.

Rhaenys nodded and looked at the warg, they were truly strong creatures. She listened to her friend and wrinkled her nose when Thélowên mentioned that they were unable to eat the meat. Even if they could, Rhaenys would rather starve. She could never see herself eat meat from another creature, it wasn’t in her nature. She looked around. Getting rid of the results of a battle was something she was unfamiliar with. She turned to Thélowên.
“Well, either we bury them, as I believe is the right thing to do, or if you have any other suggestion” she said and looked at her friend. Thélowên was better at this sort of things. Rhaenys walked up to the smaller one and pulled her dagger out of its chest. She shuddered as the dagger exited the creature. She turned away from the creature and looked at Aimon instead. She was happy he hadn’t gone into the battle as Voron, but since he was a horse, he thought different than a warg. If Rhaenys had been on his back during the battle, he would have reacted differently.

Thélowên sighed, bury them? Seriously Rhaenys...
"We don't have time for that," she said as she walked up to the bigger of the two and pulled out her arrow, the dark purple blood dripped from the arrows head. This might come in handy... Thélowên studied the arrowhead for a second or two,
"Do you have a vial or something?" she asked as she turned her head towards Rhaenys, she wanted to keep some of the blood. It reeked and would therefor be perfect to hide their scent if they were being hunted or followed, "this could come in handy." she ended her sentence with. Voron smelled the arrowhead with his big nose and did half a sneeze, as to get rid of the smell from his large nose.

Rhaenys watched Thélowên study the blood. It did smell really bad. Rhaenys nodded and opened one of her bags.
“Yes, I have a few” she said and took a little crystal vial, holding it out towards Thélowên.
“You have to carry it, or the smell will expose me” Rhaenys joked and smiled a little. She was still a bit shaky from the battle, she needed to lighten the mood a little. She looked at the creatures.
“If we’re not burying them, then what?” she asked and sighed. She did want to bury them; every living creature was worthy a funeral, especially the ones you had killed yourself. Apparently, that was not the Army way.

Thélowên took the vial and half listened to what Rhaenys said as she filed the vial by holding it under the dripping blood. It only took a few moments to fill in. The smell was awful up close like that. But Thélowên showed no sign of revulsion. She had smelled far worse things than a caragaths blood.
"Set them on fire." Thélowên said while rising from her hunched position. It was a common way of getting rid of bodies for the army.
"It will smell for only a moment and then there will be nothing left of them, no other animals or nature for that matter will be harmed by them. If we bury them we won't just waste time but poison the ground." The last thing was something she mentioned more to calm Rhaenys down rather than stating facts. It was a fact though, dark creatures could poison the ground they died on or rotted away on top of. And that would hurt other animals. Thélowên remembered the first time she came across a poisoned spot, it was horrible. Flies everywhere and several dead animals laying within a hundred meters of the place. She had been young back then but now she was older and more sensible. The bodies needed to be burned, at least this close to their home. In the dark lands up ahead it wouldn't matter. But here it did.

Rhaenys nodded to show that she was listening.
“Sure, that’s worthy” she muttered sarcastically and looked at the dead beasts. Of course she understood why they needed to get burned, but she didn’t like it anyway. It was because of her they were dead, and now she was going to disgrace their bodies, too. But she had agreed to do this journey, and she had to do what Thélowên said, at least in situations like this one, where she knew best how to keep them safe. She walked around the area they were in. It was beautiful, and the sound of the little creek made it feel so much better, somehow. The trees were moving with the wind and the sun was about to set.
“Okay, so we burn them, and then we stay here? Is it really safe here?”