The three horses thundered through the woods. Kicking up clouds of dirt and small stones. They took a sharp turn to the left through the wood to reach a small clearing. The mountains were visible from the clearing. Glorfindel could see the sky through the empty space in the forest canopy. The clouds soared over them as they slowed down to a stop in the clearing.

        "Here Commander, this is where the trail begins." Callon pointed to somewhere near the center of the clearing. Glorfindel slipped down from the back of Asfaloth, the bells chiming softly as he did so. As he walked to the center he felt a sinking feeling. Yet, he knelt down and looked where the trail began. Red blotches were mixed into the dry dirt.

        "It is blood Callon, just as you said. Most likely the blood of a wounded animal." The statement felt like a lie to Glorfindel, he had put two and two together and the answer made him sick again. But I know blood when I see it. The shirt, the gash, is this where that happened? It made sense, more than he would have thought.

        "Are you sure it was just an animal?" Glorfindel looked down at the red blotches once more, but he saw something in the dirt that made his feeling sink deeper. The horses pawed at the ground as they stood waiting to ride again. Maethorion was about to dismount but Callon gave him a glance from the side that the second-in-command read perfectly.

        "I am sure Callon." He remained on the ground, staring at the dirt. "Go back to the rest of your patrol, this is nothing. No reason to leave them without a commander." The warrior gave Maethorion a worried glance and looked back to the Commander.

        "As you say." Callon turned his silver stallion away and galloped off to wherever the rest of his party was. Glorfindel thumbed away the dirt around the blotches, uncovering a few long elven threads. Threads used to make clothing. They were mostly white with a few spots of red seeping in.

        "Commander?" Maethorion called. Glorfindel placed the treads in his hand, balled up his fist and rose to his feet, hoping, praying, the his second-in-command wouldn't notice anything. 

        "Let us go back Maethorion, there is no reason to stay here." He walked past the warrior and mounted Asfaloth, causing the bells to jingle once again. "Callon and the rest will be fine. I doubt whatever was here is still in the forest." Maethorion gave a quick nod before they set their horses into a gallop.

        They raced through the woods once again, each with a different perspective on what may have happened. Glorfindel kept his hand clenched tightly, he did not want to loose what he had found. The wind whistled in their ears and the sun began to fall to the west. Woodland flowers sprung up at the hooves of their mounts and small birds chirped and flew through the sky. The elves kept their brisk pace through the heavily wooded forest until they reached the stables again. The stable boy took their horses for them and left the two warriors alone in the wooden made building.

        "I'll be taking my leave Commander." Maethorion bowed before leaving back to the main wings of the city. Glorfindel was once again left alone with his thoughts, and the threads, of this story. The burning desire to go and speak with Elrond was a strong one, yet Glorfindel couldn't get the spark in his Lord's eyes out of his mind. A simple reason and he could see the anger dancing in his eyes.

        The Lord sighed and walked into the main building as well. He turned away from the Dinning Hall and walked back to the Royal wing, he needed to be alone for a while. He opened the door to his large room in the wing. His room was empty, not a soul was their other than himself, and he liked that. He sat on the edge of his bed and unballed his hand to find the dirty threads still intact. 

        Glorfindel rolled them in his palm and tried to mentally piece together the puzzle he found himself mixed up in. There was the gash in Elrond's sleeping clothes, there was the way he had been reacting, there was the bloody trail leading back to Imladris, only half way back to Imladris, it had stopped in the middle of the forest, and then there were these. Four threads of elven cloth.

        Though Glorfindel thought he had many of the pieces of this story, he could not make any sense of the items. All of the scenarios seemed wrong. If Elrond had been attacked, he would have told Glorfinal to hunt them down, if it was an animal, why did Elrond's clothes have the gash and why were threads from the clothes in the forest?

        The more the Commander thought about this, the more he felt like he knew nothing, which he essentially did know nothing about this. He stared back down at the threads in his hand. I came to see if you were alright. He fell back into the earlier morning, he fell back to when he was rold about the breaking of Imladris by Lady Galdriel. 

        Glorfindel looked back to when he had spoken with Lord Elrond, wondering if he could learn anymore from how he had acted. He remembered his appearance, Lord Elrond looked as if he hadn't slept for weeks, yet at the same time it looked as if he had just rolled out of bed. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but the Lord looked as if he had lost blood. His Lord was normally pale, but Glorfindel could tell that there had been a difference.

        Glorfindel blinked. As if he had lost blood. No, it had to have been a trick of the light. Elrond wouldn't do that, would he? The Lord knew that Elrond had been acting strangely, but he had always assumed it to be nothing more then the effects of him losing his Lady wife. Yet, the blood in the woods. He looked back down to the threads in his hands. It was just an animal. A hurt, defenceless, animal.

        A lie. A farce. He knew when he lied to himself. Something was going on, and it was deeper than just a hurt animal. Glorfindel knew that there was something going on besides the blood in the woods, the gash, the threads, something deeper. 

        The Commander got to his feet and he knew what he planned to do, he planned to find Elrond and ask him about this. He wanted the truth, but had the feeling that he wouldn't get it. The last thing he wasn't was for anything to happen to this city, or to anyone in it, he had gone through a fallen city already and had no desire to see it again.

        Leaving the room with the thread still balled in his fist he took the same path he had in the morn. There were more elves in the afternoon hours. Many were going to the library or going to speak with Lord Elrond. Yet Glorfindel was not interested in what the others were doing unless it could help him now.         

        Glorfindel stopped in front of the study door and knocked without another word to his conscience. There was no sound and Glorfindel was afraid that he would not be able to speak with Lord Elrond and he would be forced to do it later, which he did not want to do. 

        The door swung open and Lord Elrond was there once again. He looked almost the same as he did in the morning other then the fact that he had brushed out his hair, but that was all. Glorfindel looked closely at his skin again. Thin, pale, like this morn.

        "You're back." There was no emotion to his voice and no emotion in his eyes. Emotionless, like a man long dead.

        "I must speak with you Lord Elrond." Glorfindel found his voice to surprisingly hold even though he was questioning what would become of this. The Lord of Imladris open the door a little wider and let Glorfindel walk into the study.

        It was dark, to put it simply. Scattered papers, messy tabletops, and knives. There were a few that were hung on the walls, hunting knives. Elrond shut the door and Gorfindel was left alone with him. 

        "You said you must speak with me." Glorfindel inclined his head as the Lord walked behind hie desk where papers were scattered and ink was smeared. Elrond rested the palms of his hands on the table top and gave the Coommander his attention,

        "I have been told of a bloody trail leading from the woods. I saw it myself and assumed it was an animal." Elrond nodded in agreement. "Yet, it couldn't be." The angry spark lit in his Lord's eyes again but Glorfindel continued. "There were threads of clothing at the site where the trail started. Elven threads, not human or orcish clothing material."

        "Did you ever think that a wolf may have caught a person there and cut through their clothes?" Glorfindel could hear the insulting tone dripping through the first four words of the sentence. Did you ever think... 

        "I did My Lord." The answer was stiff and to the point. "Why did no one report it then?"

        "Don't talk back to me!" Elrond hissed. Glorfindel stumbled back just a little in surprise. "It was an animal and there is no reason to believe it was anything else!"

        "No reason! No reason!" Glorfindel's temper flared up like a wildfire. "The threads, the placing, you! You make the biggest case! The torn robe! The fact that you look like you lost blood! How defence you are of this! How is there no case!?" Elrond's eyes sparked again but he made no move on the Vanya.

        "You lie." Elrond's voice grew darker and his eyes angrier. "There never was a robe of mine that was torn, and how can you say I look like I lost blood when you can barely tell what is white from what is yellow! No doubt the blood was just dirt as well. You are just a liar!"

        "There is one way you can prove me wrong!" The Vanya was close to breaking and if there was only one person to take it out on, that it shall be so. "If you have no wound on your left arm, then I am a liar." The gaze of Glorfindel was sharp and challenging, but it was met with a gaze of anger. 

        "Why should I." There was no questioning tone in his voice. Glorfindel grabbed Elrond by the wrist and looked in in the eyes of pure steel. Glorindel could tell he was breathing raggedly for no reason other than fury.

        "Stop dogging me!" He growled but he got no response other than the calm look of the Lord. Glorfindel couldn't see Elrond's other arm reach for the knife at his hip. Before the Commander could react there was a flash of red hot pain on his arm. When the Commander looked down he was met by the red ooze of blood. Glorfindel knew that his gaze had turned from challenging to scared in a split second. He looked the Lord up and down, he wasn't sure if he would make it out of this one. Elrond, his calm, collected Lord who he had known for thousands of years, turned a blade on him and sliced through his skin. 

        "Do you think you can fix me?" Elrond grabbed Glorfindel by his good arm and pulled him close. "Well, I'm not sorry to say, you can not fix everything Glorfindel." He said his name with a hiss. "I am who I am, I am what I am, and you should have never gotten tangled up in this." Elrond dragged Glorfindel to the door of his study. He looked the Commander in the eyes before swinging open the door and throwing Glorfindel to the floor. "Never. Come back here to speak with me of this again." With one last meet of the eyes Elrond slammed the door on the Vanya who was on the ground with a bloody arm.

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Woah... I think Elrond just snapped. Well, Glorfindel can't give up on his Lord now can he? You're going to have to wait until I finish another chapter I guess.

~Megan