Avadis - A legolas story (slow moving!)

Chapter 7 - A white hand

Avadis arrived back to her wooded home just as the sun had broken above the horizon. A smaller ent was standing not far from the clearing, staring out at her. "My friend" Avadis called out to him, raising her hand, "have you seen Treebeard?"

The Ent did not reply. Slowly, he leant closer towards her and into the orange light. Avadis gasped in shock, seeing that he was missing both an arm and a leg, giant gash wounds covered the rest of his body. What has happened  Avadis thought to herself, before leaping forward to catch what was left of the tree as he fell to the ground.

"Please tell me what I can do" she cried desperately, but the Ent's eyes had closed, fading into the bark until they were not visable at all. "Treebeard!" Avadis called into the woods, "Please! Someone!" she yelled louder and louder, until nearby birds flew from their branches, but there was no reply. No wounds to bandage, no medicine to give  her options of healing were limited when it came to trees. The water. Take him to the water. Standing up, she used all of her strength to drag the wooden body over to the edge of the stream. Using a small cup, she poured the water over the Ent's wounds, looking for any signs of life. "Please" she whispered. 

She was not sure how much time had passed before she heard the soft thud of Treebeard's steps behind her. "What... is this?" he asked, breaking her from her thoughts. "Treebeard" she said quietly, looking at him with a mixture of panic and relief. "He was here when I came back this morning, someone has hurt him. I did not know what to do, I just put him here and then the water and then I maybe..."

"Shhhh young one... let me... see" Treebeard, placed a branch on her shoulder and leant to look over her. Standing back to give him space, Avadis peaked over trying to watch whatever Treebeard was doing. Finally, he stood, picked up the Ent and brought him over to her. "He is... gone" he concluded with a sigh. Avadis looked at the body cradled in his arms "I'm sorry" she said to him.

"There was nothing... you could have... done" he replied. "We will... return him... to the ground" he said. "Yes" Avadis replied, "bring him to the hill, he can stay next to my mother"

...

After a short ceremony, Treebeard and Avadis returned to the clearing. "He came from there" she said, pointing to the gap where the Ent stood. Treebeard rumbled as he thought. "Many men... have harmed us... on accident" he stated. 

"Surely you cannot conclude this as an accident" Avadis scoffed, crossing her arms in disbelief. "Lost an arm...and a leg..." she counted on her fingers in front of him to exaggerate her point, "cuts all over his body. I'm surprised he made it this far to begin with" she said to him. 

"You suggest... it was intentional" Treebeard questioned. 

"I suggest that we should at least investigate" she concluded. "Too much has been happening of late, out there in the world away from all of this. It is too easy to believe there is a darker force behind this."

"He came... from Isengard" Treebeard said, making Avadis stop. "Saruman" she whispered, crossing her arms again. After a moment of thought, she declared "I will send a watch out over Isengard, something is happening there"

...

Sitting high in a tree, Avadis held out her hand and closed her eyes. Humming a quiet tune, she felt a light flutter on her hand, and looked to see a moth resting in her palm. "Hello" she whispered, gently cupping the moth in her hands. "I have a special job for you..."

...

High up the top of Saruman's tower, Gandalf huddled against a pillar trying to hide from the wind. Below him, orcs swarmed the grounds of the once beautiful Isengard. He did not know how long he had been there, a wave of grief and worry had covered his mind. Grief for the friend he once had, grief that his old world had crumbled away in an instant. Worry for the small hobbit he had left wandering in the wild all alone, and worry for the future of Middle Earth.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a small blurry something moving towards him. A bird? No, no birds remained to call out from the trees here. A moth? No. No creature would come here, to this baren wasteland of fire and dirt. No creature would come... unless...

The blur came closer until it hovered above his face. Opening his eyes fully, he saw that it was infact a small moth. Avadis. He had seen her catch these creatures many times, the strange person that she was. Of course she would do this. Reaching his hand out quickly, he grabbed the moth in his hand. "Has she sent you?" he whispered to the moth. No reply. Of course not, moths don't talk. Gandalf stared at the moth for a second more, then brought it closer to his mouth and uttered to it "go back and send for help". He teared off a small section of the bottom on his cloak and tucked it in behind the moth's head.

Releasing the moth with a gentle blow, he watched as it soared up and into the darkening sky. Propping himself up higher on his elbow, he could just make out the far edges of Fangorn forest. They must have cut away a fair few yards of it by now, he guessed. Did the Ents know? He did not know. But when they do find the destruction of Saruman, oh the war would be quite the spectacle to watch.

...

Avadis was sitting up on her hill, resting her head on the stone pillar placed there for her mother. She needed to think. Because apparently I'm the only one around here who can think. She kicked a small stone down the hill. She was surprised by Treebeard's dismissal of the poor Ent's death today. How could he not care for such things? Perhaps he was so old that death meant nothing to him. She knew a time when she felt that way also. Looking up to the stars, she mapped out their course in her mind. Just past middnight, not a cloud in the sky.

A moth fluttered past her ear. No, not just a moth, her moth. Reaching her hand out, she let the moth circle around her head a few more times before it landed softly in her palm. "What is this?" Avadis asked, reaching behind and pulling out the small band of fabric from behind its head. She gasped, bringing it closer to the lantern she had placed next to her. "Gandalf?" she whispered to herself, "no, surely not. Why are you there?"

In her hand, the moth began to shake its body, obviously trying to tell her something. "Does he need help? Is he trapped?" The moth jumped slightly and flew away back towards Isengard, and Avadis decided to take that as a yes. "Oh what do I do, what do I do?" she asked herself as she collected her lamp. Running down the hill, her mind was racing a million miles an hour, until Gwaihir's words came to her mind.

"A friend of yours is a friend of mine"

Gwaihir. He can help him. Dropping all her things off at her house, Avadis barely remembered to grab her cloak before she took off into the skies, with more haste than she had ever flown with before. On and on she race, wishing for her wings to go faster as much as she was wishing for Gandalf to just stay alive. Just keep flying she told herself over and over.