The strong elf

Chapter seventeen

Ailduin was the first to emerge from the tomb with his bow at the ready. Larongar and Kellum followed close behind. Once there was no immediate sign of danger he placed his bow over his shoulders. There were trees and vines everywhere. It looked as though the sun was just coming up, chasing away the fog.

"It looks as if we are still in the wood elf territory." Larongar pointed out.

"In the six hundred years since I've been here, the forest has likely spread." Kellum said.

The three elves climbed a small incline with Kellum in the lead. At the top was a large rock that the wood elf just couldn't help but to scale. At the top he stood and looked down. "There's no way," He started.

Larongar and Ailduin climbed the boulder then saw what Kellum saw. Down in a shallow slope the three elves saw Lyluth. She sat on top of an ogre with her bow on her lap. She was adjusting its string. She looked up at them with a curt smile.

The three elves jumped down and greeted her, then seeing three ogres with arrows in their backs.

"How could you be here?" Ailduin asked first. He said this a little more demandingly than Lyluth liked. She glared at him.

"I took the quick route over the tomb to meet you here."

"Why?" Kellum asked.

"I had a dream that I needed to console with all of you." She said, slinging her bow over her shoulders.

"A dream." Kellum knitted his brows.

"I saw an elf maiden with dark hair, and violet eyes."

"That is Leilatha." Ailduin interrupted, suddenly intrigued.

"She was with dwarves, but not in their village."

"How do you know they weren't in the village?" Asked Kellum patiently.

"The dwarves live in the snowy regions to the north." Lyluth had and expression that told the males that it was obvious.

"Where were they?" Ailduin demanded.

"They were southwest of the Dwarf village to the land of the ogres. Where soil is stone and plants are but husks of what they were."

Ailduin's heart pounded in his chest. First he'd had a dream of her being defiled by a dwarf, and now there was a chance she was being sacrificed to the ogres. What if both him and Lyluth had accurate dreams and visions? The prince's jaw tightened.

"We have to go as soon as possible." Ailduin said.

"When I have visions, they are of the future." Lyluth placed her hand on the princes chest to keep him from taking off. "Which means they may still be in the dwarf village."

"I don't believe it would be wise to just waltz into a dwarf settlement." Larongar protested.

"What? No, we have to save Leilatha." Ailduin argued.

"It isn't safe." The older elf fired back.

"Larongar is right, we'll have to be careful we might not even be able to get in unnoticed." Kellum stated, his hand on the prince's shoulder.

Ailduin thought. "We will survey the village for any sign of Leilatha, when we reach it."

"But we mustn't enter." Larongar added.

"If we don't see her, then we will go to the ogres hideaway." The prince decided.

Lyluth slid off the dead ogres back. "You will need your steeds and my keen shot." She gestured to the three elves' horses that they had left with her before they entered the tomb.

"Before you said you wouldn't go." Kellum crossed his arms.

"I was with you all in my visions." Lyluth stated. "You will need me if you wish to save the maiden."

Ailduin had no reason to argue and neither did Larongar or Kellum. She was widely known and feared by the ogres as the sapphire huntress. And if s he was to have more vision he wanted to hear them as soon as possible.

"You will come with us." Ailduin mounted his horse. The two other elves did the same.

"Your horse?" Kellum asked Lyluth skeptically. There was no other horse.

The red headed wood elf hoisted herself up on Kellum's stirrup and stood there. "I will switch my riding partners between you three." She stated, taking her place behind Kellum, sitting princess style.

"To the dwarf Village." Ailduin said then took off on his steed with Kellum, Larongar, and Lyluth close behind.