Borun had no idea what "rumbled dried salmon" was, but it sounded delicious and the thought of a hot meal made Borun's stomach rumble in agreement.

"I can help keep watch, Master Saxon. I also know a spell that can create a magical light up to 200 feet away. I could position it up in the air so that others could see it. Although the light is faint, it should be visible at night."

OOC: Dancing lights

"So that sounds to me like 'avoid the Dark Men of Rhun" Tilaleria commented. "The Lost Dwarves... well perhaps they are as friendly as those we know. Which is to say 'treat them with respect and they are good people'." she pondered on what else had been said. It was a parcel of news... no doubt about that ... but she wasn't entirely sure how she could contribute. She was very interested in the answer to Tavaro's question though.

It would be trite of her to compliment Radagast on his work. He was the Istari here after all. Still she was impressed: dealing with the Plaguire sounded hard work. "Are the Ent's recovered from the Plaguire?" she asked. She rarely interacted with them. In fact she found it hard to remember the last time she'd taken a message from her mistress to Treebeard... perhaps it was time to remedy that: she could go see him herself anyway. See what the old tree was up to.

"The Living Spell had... well, I wouldn't quite call it a personality," Radagast answered the others.

"It is not the first such creature to walk the land, which is why it had the name Plaguire, though I have no idea who gave it to it. Given the nature of the spell, it was probably sent by the Necromancer. Yes, I know, the Necromancer was destroyed. But there have been rumors of a new one who has taken up residence in the Mirkwood. The other Keepers were dealing with that."

"As long as the Plaguire... 'lived', he was contaminating the soil around the Ents, transmitting plague through it. We could forestall further damage, but until after we destroyed the Plaguire, healing the Ents was impossible."

"Once destroyed, though, the Ents were healed quickly."

"We also left a few Keepers with Ents in case some other attack on them was made."

"The best thing we can do for the Ents, of course, is re-unite them with the Entwives."

"The only good thing about that story" Tilaleria said thinking hard about it "Is the fact that 'once the Plaguire was destroyed the Ent's got better'. That's a strong indication that the creature is dead. There isn't much other good news...." she bit her lip thinking about what it would be mean if the Necromancer had returned. There were few pictures of the future she could pain that were pleasant. Even worse... "I am still convinced" she continued "that the changes we saw in the Blight were... the bound creatures... the Dragon/Hydra... they reeked of some new power in the world. A new tool of the servant" she tried to get her thoughts clear

"The Plaguire indicates that the Necromancer has returned. The Blight indicates that there is a new servant of the enemy. It seems to me that fighting one of them will be hard, and two even worse. One thing we do know about the Enemy though is that 'Evil Feeds Upon Itself'" she pronounced the capitals "We should be thinking about this as we move against the Enemy's servants."

"In my mind I was thinking that the people that had sent the amulet to you were servants of the new power. And now I am not so sure."

"Dragon?" Elmohtar asks. "You faced a dragon?"

Tavaro, still in his grand form, rumbled dismissively. "It was nothing like one of the great fire drakes, but rather one of its lesser land-bound kin. It was spreading foulness, fire and destruction across the Great Greenwood." But the giant creature seemed to be missing information. "This Necromancer, you say he was here before? Long have I slept, and always have I cared little for the affairs of men and elves."

"You were not the only one that missed it," Radagast replied to Tavaro. "The darkness that began seeping into the Great Greenwood almost 2,000 years ago was the first appearance of the Necromancer when he began building the fortress of Dol Guldur. We did not know that then. It took 50 years before the Wise realized it."

"At first, we thought it was a Nazgul, but then we thought it must be the Witch-King. There were other things happening and we always meant to get back to Dol Guldur. We could not believe that all the bad things that were happening were connected. It was too... preposterous." They also seemed to be unrelated."

"Eventually, we did go to Dol Guldur, and we drove the Necromancer out. The damage had been done, however, and the Mirkwood, as it was now called, would never be the same again."

"None of us could quite put a finger on it, never quite expunge it from the whole forest. It was slippery, elusive. We'd cleanse one area only for it to appear somewhere else. It was seldom dangerous, never outright evil... just perpetually gloomy. It was as if the sun refused to shine on it any more."

"I've spent most of my time and effort keeping it from getting any worse, but it was slowly doing so anyway. I finally had to summon the Keepers."

"Ahhh... The ring-wraiths. I have heard of them, some time ago, before I went to sleep. Ahhh. Servants of the servant of evil. Even now his dark deeds live on, long past the time where he was cast out of this world, and the servant slain." The giant form turned to look at the Great Eagle that accompanied him. "Landroval has told me of his fall. And not soon enough it had come. Still, it surprises me to hear that its servants live on until this day."

"I met an Ice Dragon before I joined the others. At first I thought it was an Ice Drake" she grimaced at the memory "I was nearly over confident and thought I could deal with it. But a dead messenger is of no value to anyone, so I fled it. It was as well that I avoided it, as I quickly realised it was more than I first thought. Perhaps I would of prevailed, perhaps not. The Ice Drake had been 'chained' where it was. Chained by the temperature around it. Perhaps it was kept there to guard something, or as a pet, or for purposes even more vile"

"The dragon/hydra that Tavaro dismisses was a second creature. It was perhaps more disturbing. It had many heads, each breathing a different attack. It reeked of manipulation and sorcery. That magic is not the magic of death, not the magic of the Necromancer. It smelled different, tasted differently" she shrugged "I have not met the Ring Wraiths although my mistress has taught me much lore about them. I do think that either dragon was created by such as they"

She nodded to Radagast's tale, remembering countless trips during that cleansing.

Realizing the need to vacate, Borjnen quickly jumps down from the wagon landing with a loud thud. The trip through the Brown Lands did little for him. At least the disconnect from the land was offset well enough riding through rather than walking. On the bright side, with all the free time his axe was now the sharpest it has been in many weeks.
Turning to Saxon, "Thanks fer the ride, I think from 'ere on out i'll walk."

Ancient memories came to Tavaro unbidden, and he spoke in a grim, resonant tone. "Created? No, no... the making of such a creature is beyond such lesser beings. It was the first Dark Lord who made these creatures when he walked these shores, along with many other foul things, long, long before the ring-wraiths were made by the second Dark Lord. The great drakes were his battering rams for his armies, his greatest concentrated force of power. Terrible they were, powerful in body and mind, and they could only be slain at great cost. Great too was the destruction they wrought in those days, and many an age did I spend repairing their damage. For sadly the drakes bred and multiplied, but thankfully their greater kin are a rare sight in this age. The creature we had slain was but a lesser kin of the great drakes of old. I do not believe it could even speak. Perhaps one day they will even be extinct. The world will sigh in relief at their passing.."

"I have realized that something was stirring in Mirkwood, things there have recently turned far worse than they have ever been in my time." Elmohtar says. "But dragons? Master, is it not foolish to seek the entwives in a time such as this? Or do you believe that finding them can somehow help against this growing evil?"

The giant form of Tavaro interceded before radagast could reply. "It would be foolish not to. Their kind has been around for countless seasons. If we were moved to indecision because of their presence, we would never act.

"A lot of what you said about the dragons depends on how you view things, Tavaro" Tilaleria said. "It is pretty clear that that hybrid was not a natural thing. And I think it was a recent thing. It is a thing that I have not heard of in the ancient tales."

"Did the 'creator' form the beast out of air and rock and water? Like you I doubt that, although it is the path of foolish to assume that we know everything and to assume that nothing will every change. It is still the case that that the creator of that thing made a new life that had not been seen before. Personally I find that disturbing"

"I do share your views a little on the Ent wives." she nodded to Tavaro to indicate that agreement "They have been missing for millenia, and this is the first serious clue we have found in that time. It is possible to say that this action is hasty, but there are those that say any action is hasty and would do nothing: constantly considering options while the Enemy acts unopposed"

"Ignoring the matter of the rights and wrongs of rescuing the Entwives right now, I feel that if the Enemy acts here, then we need to know how. Without that intelligence how can the Wise make sensible decisions? Another Plaguire would be bad. It can from somewhere. Let us find out what we can about that"

"There was another hybrid creature in Dol Guldur," Sky speaks up. She'd been listening to all that was said, but the unnerving Brown Lands had dampened her spirit far more than she'd realized. She still preferred the forest to the open plains, but her natural exuberance was slowly returning.

"The Keepers I was with tried to deal with it, but it was vast and monstrous, possibly a cross between a hydra and a kraken. In the dark, we could not fully see it. We may have hurt it, but we could not flush it from its lair, and had to flee to rethink our plan."

"That was when we received the call to aid the Ents. The other Keepers were going to return to Dol Guldur in greater numbers and resources."

Saxon peeked over when they started talking about making dragons. "It really isn't that hard to make something like that. As long as you have the needed materials you can fuse the bits and then revive the body once it is all done."

"The corruption happens from the animating force. If you try to force it with darkmagic, or restart the natural body functions."

"The more important thing is that the animator had enough energy to bring it up, control it, overcharge the spell to forge the living spell, and then had enough magic left over to control the living spell."

"He isn't even in our area of power, likely in a whole other zone. That being said, its no small task to toss that much power around and still keep it hidden. If he or she didn't blow every last ounce of power they had, they are in recovery now."

"Being able to use that much magic is great, but there is still a limit to what someone can do. To that point we have set back any advantage they had when we killed it and the other monsters. it wont be a rapid recovery. Now is time time to marshal some of our own forces in response."

"Well we are those forces that have been marshaled. And we are responding" Tilaleria observed "We are going to rescue the Ent wives. At the least we are going to prevent the vile magic that used them to create the Plaguire" she didn't like to think about that. There was the "obvious way" it could of been done, but she wasn't chasing that. It just made her more keen to get to the Ent Wives, and less likely to waste time on red herrings on the journey

"When we return Sky, all things being equal, we will track down that creature and destroy it. And I think we should explore the Ice Dragon I found as well. As I say I think it was guarding something... I would like to know what"

Borun listened attentively to the talk of dragons and corrupting magic before adding his own opinion.

"We are on the trail of the entwives. That tiny flower is surely a sign that we are on the right track, and we have travelled so far already. We have also declared out intention to find them to the male ents. Once the entwives are safe, I would be happy to help deal with the other threats."

"I suggest we get some rest before continuing," Radagast says, "though I realize that the relief from the Brown Lands has left us a bit excited."

"Rest until noon, and then we continue on."

He follows his own advice, heads to the cabin that Anira has set up again, enters, selects a bed in the corner and lays down. He's soon asleep.

Elmohtar follows his master's example, though he is used to sleeping outdoors, and so sets up his bedroll and tarp nearby.

Tilaleria nodded to Radagast and wandered away from the camp. She would feel better exploring the green around them. After the aerial flight here: thrilling or not, she felt the need to get the dirt beneath her feet, and sense the life. She knew humans needed to sleep, so didn't pressurise them, but the talk around the fire hadn't lessened her desired to get to where the amulet was taking them

While the others who need it rest, Tilaleria scouts the area around them. It is typical plains with gradual rolling hills here and there. Vegetation is just grass and a few wildflowers. About half a mile from the cottage, she comes across a 'path'. She cannot tell if this is a regular path or not because it was made by a large number of horses... several dozen at least. They hoof-prints are shod, and the reasonably orderly way that they passed indicates that they had riders. They clearly weren't wild horses.

They came from the north and rode south about six days ago. There hasn't been enough rain to wash away the tracks, nor enough time for the grass to regrow.


Otherwise, the time passes uneventfully, and noonday hour arrives all too soon. Radagast awakes precisely on time, alert and ready to go.

He expects Saxon will provide another nourishing meal before they set off.

Tavaro had changed into a grand oak tree overnight, as the others would surmise in the morning as they awoke to the sight of the verdant giant in their midst that had not been there the night before. The fact that the mighty Landroval had nested himself in its crown was another indicator to the fact.

As morning came and Radagast got ready, it uprooted itself and took a new form, one more suited to the plains ahead but one no mortal eyes had ever seen. It was a hoofed creature like a horse or stag, but only a single antler grew from its forehead. Its fur was green as moss, but vast and long red manes draped from its every limb, including its tail. Lithe and fast it seemed and this was not a trait the mighty spirit had chosen idly, for he bounded off immediately. Restless it had become, tired of the company of men and elves and their trappings and yearning for the wind and revelry of motion. From afar the group could spy the spirit now and then, for his ranging returned the mighty creature to the group every now and then and on occasion the prince of eagles could be seen overhead as well, doing the same..



http://cs616526.vk.me/v616526850/1bfd/trhDGQOP9Y0.jpg

Elmohtar stares at the strange unicorn, but says nothing. he has grown accustomed to wonders when traveling with his master.

He folds his tarp and bedroll into their sack, and packs it all on the back of his giant bird. He puts on a long-rimmed hat against the noon sun, and is ready to continue the journey.

Anira decided some rest would be in order so had curled up in a bunk as well, having been silent through all the discussions.  She had been asked to help find the ent wives and that's what she intended to do, letting other tasks fall to those Radagast had already assigned.  Not that she wasn't curious about other things but too much curiosity wasn't always a good thing.

When everyone was up and ready, she dismissed the house and then watched as Tavaro turned into a wondrous creature.  Though he may have seen her and the others as small and perhaps petty, she respected and even admired the spirit.  Others took to wing, either their own or friends, but she settled in with Saxon and the others on the wagon.