The battlefield was covered with death.

The sun was hidden behind a plume of smoke that stained the sky. Golden armor was golden no more, for not even the craftsmanship of the elves could withstand the throes of death. Carnage was everywhere, capable of sending even the most seasoned warrior into fits. Amid the gore, survivors counted the dead. Far too few injured were carried to the tents of the healers, considering the tens of thousands of dead.

Already, vultures and scavengers had begun to circle the vast field of death. From their vantage point, high above the ruin, they could see everything.

They saw the straggling surviving beasts gather behind the far hills.

They watched as the beasts took the long way around the battlefield, out of sight and out of mind from the elves combing the epicenter of the destruction for any slim sign of life.

They glided silently, silently, as the patrol approached the presently overflowing refuge of healing, of safety, of relief.

They gave no warning, no cry of outrage, as the tents became places of death, destruction, and pain.

It was only as the rivers of blood ran underneath the heavy fabric that they began to show interest; a bigger feast than first imagined was about to be served.

And as the raw earth soaked up the blood of its children, the red red blood of innocence, the birds did nothing to stop the two surviving murderers, scum, beasts, as they carried away a ellith of white and silver and purity into the burning dark of the forest.

No one stopped them, for no one knew. No one noticed. No one was aware. It was only after the carnage in the healing tents was discovered that a messenger was sent to the king with one word to say: Come.

Over trenches that now seemed like the depths of the earth, across ramifications that seemed like fortresses of Melkor, through the raw, burning smoke, the king and the messenger arrived at the greatest casualty yet.

Innocence. Belief. The long await reprise at the end of this pit of despair. All of it had been cruelly ripped away. No where was safe. Even when the enemy was defeated, they still managed to land a crippling, if not fatal, blow.

"Where is she?" Raw and ragged with weariness, the king's voice cut through the eerie science like a knife, quieting all movement. "Where is my wife?"

There was a shuffling of feet, a momentary pause, a steeling of nerves. "We haven't found her, aran nín. We think-" The speaker swallowed. "We think she may have been taken."

"Taken?" The king's voice was low and quiet, betraying nothing. Only the young messenger, standing at his liege's side as if he could ward away the pain of loss, could see the sag in his shoulders and the tears in his eyes. "No, it cannot be. Keep searching. I will join you. She cannot be gone." Denial was proving to be a better guardsman for the king of Eryn Lasgalen than wisdom.

The warriors eyed each other nervously, for even they could hear the struggle of belief in their king's words. Still, they trudged back into the stifling tent and began their search with renewed vigor. Their king was not breaking- or, at least not visibly- so neither would they. Stumbling steps, bated breaths, weary words. But above all, a rigid determination to continue, to persist. The search continued day in and day out, across paths again and again without ceasing.

If only the birds circling high above would have volunteered their knowledge, the search would have been much quicker.

But at the end of the long two weeks that followed, no sign of the queen was found. The battlefield reeked even more with the smell of the decaying, and all that could be salvaged had been. The injured were on their way to the courts of the palace, where their physical scars would be tended to, and their emotional ones attempted to be overcome.

The king was the last to leave the war zone, and his guttural scream of rage and sorrow and defeat was the last sound the dead ever heard before the scavengers descended.

******O******O******O******
....

And so the revision of Hunger begins.

What did you all think of this new take?

Please, please, please let me know. Your feedback, good or bad, means the world to me.

I've missed you guys! I can't wait to start on this adventure with you all over again! I'm SO excited to be back in the game.

Much love, as always, Spirit.