Forget me not

Chapter 11

As soon as I heard the news, I was off. I raced to Helas’ chambers to find Inwe had already been there and that she’d gone to see Galadriel. I knew there was no way that would turn out well. In her confusion I knew Inwe would say mean things to the Lady, that there was nothing anyone could do to calm her. I could feel her tension and anger and pain from here, but there was something else, something that I could not discern. I needed to reach her. I needed to see her and calm her down.

When we reached Galadriel, she was angrily pacing the room. She spun to face me with fire in her eyes, and I could tell that Inwe had been here. Galadriel was concerned and angry.

“Can you not control her? I don’t know where she went but she was in no condition to be on her own!” She glared at me.

I bowed slightly, “I’m sorry, milady. She ran off, there was nothing I could do. I would have been here sooner—”

“There is no time for that! If we do not find her and convince her to settle down, she will lose something much more important to her than her lover,” this statement penetrated my linear thought process.

“Lose, milady? Lose what, in particular?”

“Do you not know, girl? Her foretelling, her sense of the future! Can you not see how it has been acting up in the past weeks you have travelled with her? Have there not been instances where she belittled and berated herself for not knowing what would come, walking you into a trap?” I considered this, but not for long, as Galadriel was not finished. “She is losing it, little by little, and it is only contributing to her intense feelings. Those feelings are blinding her, and once they get too much for her to bear, she will be no different from a Man. She will have no foretelling, she will likely lose her sense of intuition, anything that comes with this power, everything that makes her Inwe, unique and interesting, it will all boil away with her seething anger, her heartache and her contempt. She will cease to even have the intuitive capabilities of an elf!”

I could not contain my surprise. I’d never heard of such a thing. Then again, I had never known an elf that could do what Inwe had always been able to do. “We have to find her!”

“Yes, child, you do, for she will not see an attack, perhaps she will not even see it as it is happening. She might be so blinded by now that she is oblivious to all but the pain inside.” She grabbed my arm and her eyes bored into mine; I felt her urgency. “You must hurry. Inquire as to where she has gone, and find her! Take no more than the men you need, if she has gone far. Though it is too much to lose even one elf, it is too much more losing many in looking for one.” Without another word, we went on our way, Elladan and I, gathering Elrohir and a few elves that knew Helas and Inwe rather well. We needed to find her before nightfall. I feared for her now. I knew in my heart that something terrible was happening, and we were caught in the middle of it.

*****

We started into the forest, which had become dark and overgrown, now that I noticed it. We split up, though none of us going farther than we could see one another, all of us quietly looking for Inwe. We were afraid to make noise, we didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention, but we needed to find her, fast. Every so often I made the sound of a common call we used when hunting in Rivendell. She would recognise it if she heard it, but I was unsure whether she would return the call.

Elladan tried to stay near me, and it was not until I yelled for him to look for Inwe and worry not about me, that he left me alone and looked more seriously, realizing the stupidity of his selfish quest for my heart. It could get us killed in this situation. That was the last thing I wanted.

We started to move a little farther apart, I taught them all the call, and we used it to see how close the rest of us were. We determined if one call was missing, the others would cumulate in that direction and find the lost caller.

The day grew dimmer, and night was approaching, but though many wanted to return to Lothlorien, I could not leave my friend helpless in the wilderness and insisted that they return if they must, but notified them that I would remain in search of my friend. Elladan and Elrohir, of course, agreed to keep searching, though the rest of the troupe returned to the city.

It was a long time since I had heard the sound of a bird or the cricket of a bug. It was deathly still in the forest. I called out and got the two returning calls, so I knew that I was not alone, though it certainly felt so in the impending doom that the darkness promised.

‘What was that?’ I thought to myself, having heard something distinctly break to my right. I looked cautiously into the darkness and wondered if it was something to worry about, or if it was simply a woodland creature that had not yet found its bed. I tried to keep my eyes open and worried that there was something there, but it was only a leaf rustling, what could it possibly be? Surely, there would be more noise if it was something evil preying on me in the night.

I shivered and put my hand to my lips to call again when suddenly my mouth was covered and my limbs grabbed in the darkness. I tried to scream or to struggle, but I was caught rather expertly, and I was unable to make a sound. I heard the leaves crunching now, but only because I knew I was trying to make noise and listening for any sound I could make.

‘The call!’ Elladan or Elrohir called and the other returned, but they missed my own sound. I heard them approaching, but they did not reach me in time.