Sands of Harad: RPG

[Udukhaturz]

"Fawzan, what news about the Gondorians did the scout bring?" Bayhas brought the wineskin to his lips as he relaxed his back against the date palm.

"Nothing, my lord. What possible news could there be about a group of fools who wandered the wastelands to bury a corpse? They make camp, they eat, they talk, they tend their animals. What more could they do?"

"You would be surprised, Fawzan. There is more to some of them than you could ever believe."

"What might that be, my lord?"

"Just hope you never see," Bayhas replied cryptically.

Disgusted, Fawzan spat on the ground. "There is a rich caravan leaving from the city, and you send others to take it. What is happening to you, Chieftain! Is it the woman?"

"No, it is not the woman."

"Then what is it?"

"Just say I am curious to learn about Gondorian customs." Bayhas smiled enigmatically.

[rohirrim TR]

That as they made camp Curamir took first watch, when Nessa was asleep he awakened Atarion and Arhor "make a bird call if she awakes" he whispered to them; he then awoke Hluor and Elnar and they moved like shadows into the darkness.

"well what in the bloody hell, did you wake me up for? Hluor asked grumpily " I have nothing to do with triangles or itchy feet or horses - on second thought I wouldn't mind a horse but ahh- to hell with it, what do you want?"

Curamir and Elnar smiled.

"You have the most common sense of anyone in our group, and we need to decide our path" Curamir said quietly

"Whats to decide, Nessa's leading us" Elnar said.

"Ahh, yes, leading perhaps, but where? if we are to continue on with her as a guide she will need tell us everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, I have brought too many men along with me to careless with anything that could endanger our lives" Curamir answered levelly.

Hluor sighed "see why did you blasted wake me up? I know all that already".

"Hasn't her trust been proved enough-" Elnar began.

"Oh give it up, Elnar the fact that she claims to be in love with you means nothing, I'm sure Bayhas thought the same at one time, anyway I want to approach her about path, she's less likely to be disagreeable to you about the whole mess, but the problem is you don't seem to be able sense duplicity like I thought some elves could" Curamir interupted his predictable arguements.

"How dare you accuse me of being, sensless just because a woman you can't -" Elnar flashed with sudden anger befoe Hluor interupted both of them.

"Ahem, might I suggest a compromise, I'll pump her for information, Curamir can watch for duplicity, and Elnar can make love, it should work out all right, she hates Curamir, doesn't know I exist, and makes sheep eyes at Elnar; so it should all work out and I want to get some sleep" he said dryly and walked to the camp.

Curamir and Elnar watched him leave and started laughing.

[Udukhaturz]

Bayhas lay sleepless on his blanket and gazed up at the twinkling stars in the heavens. All the camp were asleep, except for the three sentries who had been posted, and Bayhas, who could not find slumber. Occasionally one of the horses would paw and stamp or nicker or one of the men would snore robustly.

He remembered nights like this when Nessa and he... no, he would not allow himself to think about that! That was over and done with long ago, and the past should be a lesson to him. Still, he remembered the way she used to smile at him... and her laughter, which could sound like music. Then he thought about her temper and scowled. The woman was impossible to live with or deal with when she was angry or in a bad mood! And her feet - they were possessed with some fell spirit!

He had to stop thinking about her, but he kept seeing her face in front of him. Then he started remembering her kisses...

With a curse, he threw off his blanket, got to his feet, and went to saddle his horse. A ride in the night air would help him get her out of his mind.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Nessa's eyes widened. She'd slipped off into the night some hours ago, leaving her blankets shaped and plumped in her form. No need to make Curamir think she was plotting their doom.

But then she'd overheard a most astounding conversation. "In love?" she whispered. "I am certainly not in love. I cannot afford the emotion." Nessa rubbed her eyes.

They wanted to know about their path. Well, she wasn't entirely certain about it. "The Abiza tribe," she grumbled. "It had to be that tribe." If running into Bayhas wasn't trouble enough, Nessa now had to lead a group of foreigners toward a tribe that had nearly cut off her head for daring to be more beautiful than the leader's daughter.

She looked up toward the stars and thought, surprisingly, of Bayhas. Their time together hadn't been all bad. She'd been rather fond of him, actually. But then her feet had got to itching and the only choice was to run.

Nessa stood up and ran toward Hluor. Her form was merely a blur of dust until she came to a halt in front of him. "I need to speak with you." No more hiding, no more secrets. For the most part.

[rohirrim TR]

"Greetings, dashing one" Hluor said with a dry smile that he always seemed to wear.

Nessa didn't really know anything about him except that Curamir and Elnar both held him in rather high esteem.

"Good day" she replied.

"So where in the south-east are we going? approximately speaking, in a general way of course?" he asked casually, still wearing that smile.

"To your destination" she answered.

"Your vaguness, matches that of courtier, in a genocidal king's court" he replied amusedly.

"You know you're not very good and 'pumping' for information" she answered a little sharply.

"Ahh yes, you heard that rather private, conversation" he replied, not sounding surprised. "Odd really I thought that Elnar was being short until I noticed you, then his words made sense, diplomatic that one and Curamir was very reserved, he must have caught on eventually as well, Oh and by the way why? exactly? are you leading the Kungid rider to us? I saw him last night displaying ..carelessness in coming so close, if I do say so."

Nessa looked shocked "that was Curamir being 'reserved'?! then looked worried "what rider I didn't, believe me I'm not a traitor."

Hluor was silent for a moment, "you know I'm not sure you are, you're either a very good spy, or you have been lying to yourself for so long you're starting to believe you have no choice."

"what?"

"your pitiable excuse about your feet controlling you, I knew a young man once who claimed the same thing, but it wasn't true it was simply that he refused to make his own decision so whenever it was time to make a choice, he ran."

"what happened?"

"Luckily he grew up, a little late to do much good for himself, but for his son, perhaps?". Hluor glanced back at Arhor and Atarion and walked back to the pond to fill his watersack.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Nessa's blue eyes darkened. "You know nothing about me," she hissed. "You do not know what I've been put through! What my father suffered!" Her temper hightened and she shoved Hluor back a step. "My mother ran from home when I was five years old! Five! I barely recall her face. My father couldn't stand to look at me. He wouldn't speak to me. He knew one day my feet would begin to burn and that I'd leave him, too."

She turned away, tears freely falling. "And I did." Nessa walked away. It was her best thing, after all.

Everyone stared at her. Everyone had heard. Elnar looked at her with eyes full of pity. She shook her head. "Don't love me," she begged. "Please, don't love me. I'll only end up hurting you." Nessa whiped her tears away. "No matter how close I become to a person, no matter how dear they are to me, I will always leave."

She continued walking, guiding them in the direction of the Abiza tribe. Ancient words echoed in her mind. Ancient curses.

"This I swear to the brightest stars in the blackest sky. You will know no rest while you hold love for my son. Never will you be at peace. I sentence you to endless wandering until the day you breathe your last."

[Acalewia]

For once Elnar knew not what to say. What could he say to her? If Nessa thought she would hurt him, what would she say if she knew about him? He would be the one that would end up hurting her. Just by telling her she would die of old age while he would still live until he was slain or finally decide to sail into the West.
He could say nothing to comfort her. Elnar couldn't even comfort himself. Or let anyone comfort him for that matter. It hurt thinking about the two people he had loved most that he had lost.

[rohirrim TR]

Hluor caught up to her again, she was sort of surprised he wasn't breathing harder. Maybe these rangers are in better shape than I thought.

"My apologies, though if I had not come so near the mark, you would not have reacted so strongly" he greeted her shrewdly still smiling slightly, but his eyes were serious.

She didn't answer and thought about leaving him in the dust when he interuppted her thoughts.

"Don't run off all suddenly it will only make everything worse for all of us".

"What do you want?" she asked clearly agitated.

"Well this morning I just wanted to know where we are going, but now I think I'd like you to start growing up, if you don't mind my being honest and open with you" this time his eyes started to smile along with his face.

"Won't it be 'too late'?" she countered.

"for you? no, perhaps you can change your destiny, we all can you know, to borrow advice from a great warrior of the not so distant past; we must simply 'decide what to do, with the time that is given to us' " he answered her and then dropped back to his normal rear guard position.

[Lady Willow Rose]

She stared at Hluor with softer eyes. "I grew up a long time ago. Sooner than I should have." Nessa rolled her shoulders and sighed. "I am leading you to the Abiza tribe's holy shrine. All their dead, enemy and friend, are buried there. And with any luck we'll miss them entirely."

"Why avoid them?" he asked.

"Because they want me dead," she replied simply and continued to walk.

[rohirrim TR]

"Well you do get around don't you? why you must have friends almost everywhere?" he said innocently.

[Lady Willow Rose]

"Just luck, I guess," she answered sarcastically.

[Acalewia]

Elnar suddenly felt eyes upon him. Looking around he noticed non of his companions were looking in his general direction. Scaning the surronding area, he saw nothing. That is, until he saw slight movement toward their left.
"Curamir, I think we have company" he said, jerking his head toward where he had seen the movement.

[Udukhaturz]

Bayhas rode towards the Gondorians' camp. The night air had cleared his mind, but not his thoughts about Nessa. He dismounted just beyond the camp and held his hand over his horse's muzzle so the animal would not whinny to the Tarks' horses. He could sense that Nessa was close. At least she hadn't run again, but she would. She always did.

If he were a kinder man, he could almost feel sorry for the Gondorians. They would have to travel to the Gray Mountains southward of the City of the Corsairs if they wanted to find the Abiza tribe. Their word for "stranger" was the same as the word for "enemy," but that was the way it was in the dialects of most of the desert men.

"A fool's mission," he thought. "They will all be as dead as the corpse they bear if they go there. Should I tell them? No, they will not believe me anyway, and perhaps I want them to die."

One thing he did know - he didn't want Nessa to fall into their hands. No, no, he would follow them, at least for her sake.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Nessa stayed very still. On one hand, a stranger was coming upon their group. On the other, she could see Bayhas just behind the horses.

Which would she choose to confront?

In the end, she walked softly toward the horses. "Bayhas," she whispered. "I know you're here. Show yourself."

[Acalewia]

The stranger turned out to be a young woman not much younger then Cumaar. Elnar watched as she approached. She had dark hair cut to the shoulder. She had a sword strapped to her back, along with a quiver. There was something familar about her.
"Who are you that carry a corpse across the desert?" she asked. Curamir nodded to Elnar.
"We wish to bury a friend among his forefathers" Elnar motioned for the litter to be lowered. The woman causiously knelt by the litter as Elnar pulled the cover back to reveal Cumaar's face. She gasped.
"What...? Cumaar?" She stood. "I know him. So my cousin is dead, being born by Tarks?! What madness is this!?" To Elnar she looked as if she could chew through steel at that moment.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Nessa looked over at the young woman leaning over Cumaar's body and sighed. She'd wanted to talk to Bayhas. But, in all honesty, they didn't have much to discuss. Did they?

"You can take your horse back," she told the silence. "My feet prefer to travel on their own."

Nessa walked towards the woman but when she finally saw her face, her feet froze. "Oh, no." Her luck was more than abominable. It was downright non-existent.

That was no average member of the Abiza tribe. That was the leader's daughter. The one Nessa had dared to be more beautiful than and had somehow warranted having her head removed for the offense.

The woman caught sight of Nessa and her face twisted up in fury.

That couldn't be good.

[Acalewia]

The young woman glared at Nessa for the longest before speaking.
"Does she travel with you, Tark?" Elnar glanced at Nessa. He could see fear in the flame haired woman's eyes.
"She does. She is our guide." The woman knelt back down by Cumaar and placed a hand on his cheek. "Because you travel with my cousin, woman, is the only reason I will spare your life,' She rose again. "My name is 'Abel. Cumaar was the son of my father's brother."

[rohirrim TR]

" Then well met, for it seems our quest is coming to its end, we have brought this warrior back to you, with much honor, for the deeds that he accomplished in the north will be sung by many fires for years to come" Curamir answered nobly.

"Tell me more" Abel replied.

Curamir and Elnar told her the entire tale and for a while they were all silent.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Nessa looked over at Elnar, slightly puzzled. Something was missing from his story. Any mention of the battle between this dreaded Alatariel and Lady Willow seemed to make him uncomfortable.

Ah, well, everyone was entitled to their secrets.

"Abel," she said gently, "Do you suppose we could manage to be friends? For the sake of convenience?"

[Udukhaturz]

Nessa was approaching him. Now was the time for him to speak, but he felt his throat tightening and not a sound came out. He looked beyond her to a figure who was nearing, and his face became livid.

"Her," he thought. "I should have expected that!"

He found his voice again and called softly to Nessa.

"The horse is yours, Nessa. Keep him, sell him, turn him loose. It matters not. I have had many more, but he is yours."

Now the Gondorians' mission must nearly be over, and they would at last leave. Nessa would probably go with them. It was obvious she no longer cared for him. He might as well mount his horse and ride back to his own tribe. "No," he thought, "I will stay, and see Cumaar at last in the ground, and then curse his grave so that he would never find peace."