Unnur's Line

Chapter Nine:

    Dawn rode Ajax down through the meadow and towards the distant path on the far side. It did not sit easy knowing that the dwarf’s departure would take place the following day Dawn thought as she rode. Halting Ajax at the edge of the wood she gazed into the silence of the forest with unease.

   Too much had happened as of late for her to sit idle knowing that evil was stirring and that it was directed at her and Sienna. The small track lead into the shadows and shifting where she sat on Ajax she felt for the sign that the horse had sensed something wrong but he just shifted and grabbed a mouthful of grass to eat.

  She turned him onto the track and rode into the forest making sure she could reach her sword on her back if anything should happen. The smell of damp mud and leaves filled her nose as she rode on quietly. The birds sang around her as they moved along the track and she peered into the dimness of the wood feeling the air around her.

  The tree’s rose up high and the sun peaked through when the branches shifted in the wind. All seemed as it should be when they reached the river that flowed through the forest and the light bounced off the moving water as it flowed.

  The elves had built a stone bridge over the river and the track widened on the other side, as it forked one going towards the vale and the other to the town of man. It was well used as it turned north towards the town as trading was important for all of them.

   Ajax shifted bringing his head up and looking across the bridge his ears perking forward. Dawn stood in the stirrups listening and looking across the bridge when she heard the familiar sound of a wagon coming down the track and it sounded leaden with goods.

   It rounded a bend and came into view as two mules pulled the heavy wagon Dawn sat back down feeling relief. The driver yelled at the mules and paused them at the bridge at the cross roads. “Ho Stranger” he yelled over to her and Dawn waved and then rode Ajax across the bridge his shoes clopping on the stone.

  “What news from Avalon” Dawn spoke as she rode across the bridge and the wagon master grinned where he sat. Dawn reined in at the wagon and the mules turned to look at Ajax where he stood. “ahh, strange things are amiss around the town and in the mountains as of late. Raids on local farms by things that go vanishing into the night and wagon teams decimated on the southern trade road. What news from the east, anything out of sorts your way” The wagon master asked as he scratched his balding head where he sat.

   “Creatures of the likes I haven’t seen before, large they are and nasty, hard to kill” and he narrowed his eye’s at her and shook his head. “Any news from the vale” and Dawn shook her head and he frowned. “Strange indeed, and worrisome for we have not had dealings with evil things in sometime” Dawn frowned and looked down the road he had just come from.

    “You better get going if you want to reach your destination before night fall, I don’t fancy wanting to be on the road after dark with strange creatures roaming here about” he smiled at her.
 “Right miss, better get going” and with that he cracked the whip over the mules heads and they leaned into the harnesses and the wagon creaked forward and the wagon master waved as Dawn turned Ajax around to return back to her steading.  As she rode back Dawn could not help but think of how things had changed. If outlaying farms were being attacked maybe it wasn’t just because of the Dwarves arrival.

   The afternoon sun had warmed the forest and Dawn inhaled the sweetness of the forest scent as she rode feeling her mood lighten. It was good to get out on Ajax and forget the problems that would face her when she returned Thorin and Kili and Fili back to middle earth.

   She rode out of the forest into her meadow below the home stead and paused Ajax looking at it. Smoke rose out of the forge and she could see Sienna shovelling dirt over the burned remains of the snake from the attack the day before.