Lona decided that she woulddo whatever it took to quell the humiliation the men would try and bring on her. She gritted her teeth, determined not to let them talk down to her.

They were finally on the last leg of their journey. They would soon be striding into camp, Caran insisted that she would hold her head high. Neither one of them had done anything wrong. At least they had had the guts to venture as close as they did to Mordor. Not many men would have been able to say the same for themselves.

Caran stared ahead and watched as the familiar peeks of tents scrawled into view. "Ready?" She asked, glancing over at Lona.

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"I was born ready." she drew her sword though, ready to duel with any man that spoke against them.

They crossed the threshold to the camp at a sprint. Caran reigned in her horse and dismounted swiftly. In a hurry she pushed her hair back from her face, she glanced around at the men, trying to read their expressions. They were blank, off course, they did not know what had transpired with the Mage. Caran motioned to the Captain's tent before she handed her horse to a stablehand. "Lets go talk to the Captain. I am sure he will be eager to know what happened." She whispered to Lona. As she walked to the Captain's tent, she fixed the men with a warning stare. Just you dare, she thought to herself.

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Lona continued on and into the captain's tent. He seemed surprised to see them. "My Captain..." she then went on to tell him of what had happened. "My lord, I did not feel it safe to continue without more preparation."

Caran fell silent and thought it best that Lona explain to the Captain what had happened on their scout. She did not want to inject the account with her fears and suspicions. It would only make the account seem more worse than it was. With caution, she surveyed the Captain's features as he took in Lona's account of what happened. His face seemed to grow pale at the mention of the Mage and how he had been vanquished. Caran swallowed bile at the memory of the Mage. Even though he was dead, he still brought a chill to her bones.

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Lona dipped her head. "I did what I felt was needed." she watched him, wondering what he was thinking. At great length, he spoke.
"You killed the Mage?" he asked slowly, as though stunned. Lona nodded, but something didn't feel right about the way he reacted.

Discreetly, Caran's hand fell to the hilt of her sword. Something did not feel right to here either. There was no praise in the Captain's voice at all. "We had no choice, sir. We did what we had to do," she added tensely. Her eyes darted to Lona, her brow raising quizzically.

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The Captain's face began to twist in anger. Lona backed slowly away, her hand also on her sword. "You were not suppose to have returned!" he growled at Lona. "You, one of the best soldiers here. Caran is of no consequence, but you were to have been destroyed!" he grabbed for his sword and charged them. "Run Caran!" lona crie as she blocked his strike, then took off after Caran.

"We were offered as bait?" Caran hissed running with Lona. "No! I will not run like a coward. I want answers." She turned sharply, raising her sword to block the Captain's blow. "Why?" She yelled. "What were you to gain? What was it huh? An easy way out of this?" Caran glared at the Captain.

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"Caran! Not now!" she grabbed Caran's free hand and whistled. Their still packed horses came bounding over "Get up!" she practically lifted Caran onto her horse, and took the reigns as she mounted her own. She led Caran and her horse away from camp until it ws out of sight. "We were not bait." Lona said as she slowed. She had it figured out. "It was a plan. He is working with the enemy."

Caran protested greatly at this, but found she had no choice in the matter. Once out of sight, she slowed her horse down. "I must be really dim, because I do not understand this. What did the Captain stand to gain by killing us? Well you, I was just a bonus it seems. You must be worth something, something worth betraying your own kind for." Caran raised her brow at Lona.

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"That is what I intend to find out." her mouth straightened into a grim line. "We need to go back to Mordor, to find more answers." she nudged her horse into a fast gait again, determined to end this.

Caran's stomach lurched at the mere mention of Mordor. It felt as though her heart sank to the tip of her toes when the images of the black land flooded her mind. "Alright," she sighed as she urged her horse to maintain speed with Lona's. Her stomach remained unsettled. She could not believe the man she had trusted and trained with would betray. He had been a family friend and had even taken her under his wing for a spell. How could she have been such a bad judge of character. At the very least she would learn from this.

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"We will find what we need, and we will set it right." she didn't know why her captain had done this, but after what she had just witnessed, her whole heart and souls were set against him.

Caran nodded silently. She pushed the day behind her and looked ahead. The quicker they got to the Mordor the better. Caran was desperate for answers and in her desperation she lost all her fears. Although she remained guarded and always would when it came to meeting people. However, she surmised that the worst had happened, so what did she have to be afraid of? Death? Death was nothing to fear, it was only another journey.

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