Hope in the Darkness

Hope in the Darkness Part 1

The village was quiet. A smouldering ruin from which smoke trailed like thick black fingers reaching towards the sky. The small band of rangers cursed as they rode closer, the pack of orcs they tracked long gone and they had been too late to save the small village from their wrath.

"Search the houses for survivors," the man at the head of the riders orders as he dismounts and they all follow suit, picking their way through the destruction some searching houses others setting about building a pyre to burn the dead.

"Strider, in here," a voice calls from a nearby house and the man turns moving swiftly towards the small house.

Stepping into the gloom of the small cottage it takes a moment for his eyes to focus in the darkness and locate his fellow ranger and a moment longer to understand why he had been called. Crouched and cowering in the corner was a tiny child, hidden against the wall behind some furniture. He grimaces slightly as he steps over the mutilated bodies of what he assumes are the child's parents before crouching before the trembling figure.

"Hello," he says softly, trying to keep his face clear as she turns wide and terrified eyes onto him. Her face is pale but for the deep purple bruising that marred one side of it, her eye swollen and dried blood on her lip and forehead.

"Hello," she whispers, her voice wavering and barely audible.

"What happened here little one?" he asks gently now, making sure that his body was shielding her from the bodies behind him.

"The orcs came, my ma told me to hide so I did but when I came out they had... ma and pa are dead aren't they?" she asks and he sighs a little, pity for the child washing over him as he nods in answer.

"You hid?" he asks instead and she nods, confusion fills him at this as he continues to take in her injuries as she shifts her weight slightly he notices a slight rip in her dress and through it heavy bruising visible at the top of her arm and from the slight intake of breath behind him his fellow ranger has also noted these things. "If you hid from the orc's how did you come to be so injured?" he asks now and she flinches a little as if reliving the moment.

"I was being disobedient and pa was... he was angry with me," she whispers and it is all the ranger can do to control the anger that seems to flare in him like hot lava.

"What is your name?" he asks after a moment when he has control over his anger.

"Meduineth," she whispers and both rangers start a little at this, rarely did you find a human child with an elvish name so far from any elvish settlement.

"That is a very pretty name, I am Strider," he says choosing to save any further questions for later and she smiles, blushing a little at his compliment. Nobody other than her mother had ever complimented her on anything before. "Now Meduineth we must leave this place so I need you to listen to me very carefully, can you do that?"

"Yes," she replies gazing at him through wide green eyes as she awaits his instructions.

"I am going to lift you to me, I want you to close your eyes and rest your face against my shoulder do you understand?" he asks and again she nods as he offers her a smile which she returns tentatively. "Come then, remember do not open your eyes until I tell you to," he murmurs as he pulls her into his arms and lifts her easily, noting with a grimace that she is much lighter than she should be, she was no bigger than a five year old child and yet something told him she was older than that. Filing this information away with all of his other questions about this mysterious child he places a hand gently on the back of her head as he cradles her to him just to make sure she does not open her eyes and see the death that surrounded them.