Lusseriel was sitting next to a fire, leaning against a conveniently placed tree when she decided to pull her journal out of her backpack.
“The company and I crossed the river from Lothlorien to Mirkwood today. Not that I regret it already but...
There's a lot to write about here, but I'll try to stay brief and relate the most important points of our journey.
It’s Wyck who led us. Before we went on our way, he told us : “The dark shore is fortified it would seem. A few of the galadhrim will cross with us, but we will face sum' o the fiercest resistance I reckon. I hope yer swords are sharp... The Mirk-eaves have sum' few hills, where the orcs have set up forts - un' there's an ol' holdfast on a steep cliff in the middle. That's our primary goal once more have landed. Aye, un' the crossing will be the first challenge. Making a bridgehead on the shore is our first priority."
Well, my first priority here was to survive and not let my package of letters drown in the river, but.., though it’d have settled my problem nicely enough there.
Anyway, we crossed over to Mirkwood and well... The air is foul, the area is dark and crawling with orcs and wargs. It bears no resemblance whatsoever with the old Greenwood that it was a few hundred years ago.
We arrived at a makeshift camp, as elves had already arrived and apparently considering the injured elves we saw, had already encountered a fierce resistance.
As we lent our help to the elves here, the first order of business that was asked of us was to find more bandages and help with the injuries.
That at least was easy enough for me to do. Though I’m afraid some of the injured elves will not make it to see the next sunrise.
In the end, we gathered together and went into the wood. There is strength and safety in number: we managed to infiltrate an orc camp and to get rid of several orcs that attacked us along the way.
In the process somewhere in all that, Wyck was injured again. And I swear that man has no common sense whatsoever. I mean, he was injured and we were back at the camp so of course... He could just run out again without seeing the healers!!!!
I swear someday that man will die all the while saying: “it’s nothing, just a flesh wound”
But at least he bandaged it somewhat and agreed to see the healer next time we came back to the camp so... There’s that I suppose.
It seems that Tindollion shared my opinion on this matter.
But apparently Andrahir shared Wyck’s opinion...
We went back out and we managed to find lost scouts in the woods and allow them passage back to the malledhrim camp. They were lucky, honestly.
And so were we when we managed to enter another camp and destroy various war machines.
And then, FINALLY as we went back to the camp, Wyck went to the healers.
While we rested there, we met Annag. She’s from a village on the other side of Mirkwood. That’s quite the achievement to have traveled here in the condition the forest is in.
And of all beings, a hobbit joined us. I haven’t a single clue as to where he’s from but if he traveled from the Shire, he’s far away from home, that’s for sure.
It seems that we managed all of us by some sort of luck to retake another camp and free its prisoners, which is always nice, and we scouted different bridges but both had been destroyed. I suppose the orcs didn’t want our party to cross over too easily.
And when we next went back to the camp the company joined the Malledhrim to retake a tower. I have no shame to admit I stayed where I was the most useful. With the camp and the injured. At least I had a nice conversation with a healer who told me what to look out for as far as healing herbs in Mirkwood.
I’m glad to say, when the others joined us again, victorious, none of the company had sustained any major injury, thankfully.
I’m not sure what the future has in reserve for us, but I’ll at least rejoice for today’s victory in not loosing anyone of our company.”
Lusseriel let her eyes be drawn back to the fire, and it’s without thinking that she started to sketch the fire, and the few bedrolls around where some of her traveling companions were resting.
The sounds of the wildlife, and did orcs count as a wildlife in these parts? Made her uneasy, and she swore under her breath in her native quenya when a warg’s howl nearby startled her into splashing ink on her journal page and over her hand.
She took a deep breath and tried to absorb as much of the ink as possible on a tissue, before she closed the notebook and ink bottle and put everything in her bag. It was time for her to try to rest anyway.
