Silent as a graveyard. That was all that was left here, this once proud forest now just a withered, decaying mass of organic material. Only death stalked these paths and dry streams. The northern edge of this place was just as desolate as her home. Her<span style="font-style: italic">old</span>home. Mental correction was tiring, not in the physical sense, but it brought home exactly how much had been lost. Twenty years could not dull that pain.<br/><br/>One armoured foot placed in front of the other in an interminable rhythm, Rajaala made her way towards the only refuge she suspected still existed in this place. She hadn't set foot there in at least fourteen years and had no reason to believe it still there. But something sent her forward, a hunch, one that she dismissed as morbid curiosity to know the fate of the Kokiri. The same morbid curiosity that caused her to poke a rock crab in her younger days. Like the memory, she didn't expect this venture to end well.<br/><br/>The path she travelled was tight and claustrophobic, flanked on both sides by crowds of dead trees. She imagined that if she climbed to the top of one she would see a sight more reminiscent of a thicket of spears rather than a forest. She could not think of a more apt metaphor for this place, brought low by war. The bare canopy did little to keep out any light, giving the area around her a flat appearance, lacking the depth one would expect of a forest. It also allowed her a mostly uninterrupted view of the land ahead. From where she was she could see that the forest steadily became browner, taking on more of an appearance of life than before, like trees in winter without their leaves, rather than the husks that currently ushered her on with whispers borne by the gentle breeze.<br/><br/>For a moment, Rajaala felt strange, as if someone was looking over her shoulder. Long experience had taught her to trust her instincts in times like this, even if they may be wrong. She broke into a jog, loping her way through the landscape, heart pounding. Eventually, she came to a clearing in the "wintery" part, and paused for a moment. There was nothing that she could see or hear. The silence was deafening. Perhaps there was nothing...<br/><br/>That train of thought last about as long as the silence. A series of bone-chilling howls echoed around her, followed by a massive weight crashing into her back. Rolling with the impact, she came face to face with a snarling nightmare. A Night-Wolf. Products of the same death that brought down this forest, they were evil things. And these ones were going to die.<br/><br/>Standing with as much haste as she could muster, Rajaala brought the haft of her halberd up into the wolf's chin, snapping it's head back with violent ease. It tumbled to the dirt, stunned. The thump of charging paws brought the halberd around, bringing the bladed head into contact with another, just behind the shoulder, leaving one of her enemies dead. A third leapt and was skewered, unknowingly trapping the implement of it's demise within itself.<br/><br/>Unable to wrench her weapon of choice free, Rajaala abandoned it, instead drawing her sword from it's harness. A fourth wolf circled her and at least three others were around, if her hearing still served.<br/><br/>"Come on then. Let's see you back to your lord's side."