Aglarari

The scheme was chancy and some had advised against it. Others had offered encouragement. That the latter seemed invariably those who habitually denounced her unorthodox ideas and erratic methods was telling. If the plan should go awry and she be killed or disappear into the pits of Barad Dur, her disputatious presence would be gone from the precincts of Elrond's domain. The eternal harmony would be restored.

The tall, looming steel of the walls stood, strong and unbreaking. They could not, would not, ever break. Imposing, choking, the massive walls towered up to the heavens. Yet, even the heavens were barred. Putrid, heavy clouds of rolling ash choked out any feeling of light from above. She was left, on the ground, cold and enslaved.

He awoke with a jerk.

The news still shook him. The sorrow still hugged him. The pain was still real. It had been a while, yet he still felt the loss as if it yesterday.

The forces marched on. Black Speech was muttered amongst the orc forces as they lumbered through the barren fields beyond the Black Gate. Riding atop a Dire Horn Goat, a mounted warrior was fully clad in dark armor. As the goat ascended a steep, rocky hill, a scout dashed beside her, "General Aglarari, we approach Ithilien."

Walking down the dilapidated, ransacked streets of Millshaw, a couple held hands as they conversed in the night. Both hooded and cloaked, Nimraph and Eira walked through the small town. Passing some sprawled out scrap wood from the orc raids, Eira tried to distract herself from the destruction by asking, "How did a cookbook wind up in your library?"

She spoke in a light, amused tone. Deep down, however, she did not like the idea of going to that library.

The corpse of a Black Numenorean lieutenant laid at her feet. Blood puddled around her, on the cold steel floor of the infirmary. Walking in for a regular inspection, she had overheard one guard speaking in disgust over her half-Nurnhoth heritage. That simply could not stand. She did not let it stand. She grinned, fire in her eyes as she looked upon to the other soldiers in the room.