Written for Back to Middle Earth Month 2019. Prompt(s): Animal Companions & Chains, Prisons and Torture

Flight

It was cold.

The chill of the iron collar around her neck seemed to sink through the skin and into her bones. The cave was always cold. The mountain where she had been born in lands far from here had never possessed the pervasive heart-numbing chill of this small cavern. How long ago had it been since she had lain on the scree at the foot of the mountain, basking in the heat of the sun? She could almost remember the scent of the warm stones. She wondered how many moons had passed since the cruel-creatures had captured her.

She missed the soft gleam of the moon, yet even more, she longed for the warm fire of the sun. The only light she now saw came from the burning sticks the cruel-creatures held when they brought her food and water. Sometimes she thought she heard cries that sounded like they belonged to one of her brothers. Perhaps she was imagining things. She lived in silence broken only by the clinking of her chain and, occasionally, the echoes of a cruel-creatures' heavy footsteps beyond the thick slab of wood that barred the cave entrance.

It seemed long ago that she had been drinking from the river that flowed from the mountain when, looking up, she had found herself surrounded by the cruel-creatures. She had tried to fly but they set upon her too swiftly, casting nets about her. She had thrashed, her cries drowning out their harsh, guttural yells. When, panting from exertion, she had collapsed, they bound her with chains. She had been forced upon a strange contraption that was made of wood and pulled by beasts with hoofs that were the size of an elk. After several days passed, her brothers and sister were also captured and bound beside her.

Then began long days of sleeping during daylight and traveling under stars. They had been given little water and even less food. The constant jolting of the wooden contraption had made her very bones ache. It did not take many days before she and her siblings had been too weak to even consider attempting to escape. She did not know how much time had passed when her sister died. The land they had been in was arid and treeless; the very air had seemed to suck moisture from her skin. The cruel-creatures had stopped briefly to throw her sisters' body onto the desiccated earth. 

Then they had moved on. 

Her keening lament had been cut short by a number of sharp kicks to her head. After a few more days they had reached a range of mountains. Their company had continued west, parallel to the mountains until, after many days, they came to another series of mountains. These they had ascended, traveling along narrow passages until they emerged into a mist shrouded valley that stank of rotting flesh. There cruel-creatures had forced her to the ground and removed all the chains save for the one attached to the collar about her neck. Then they had driven her into a cave with thrusts of sharp-tipped staves.

That had been the last time she had seen the stars.

She inhaled deeply. The cave was suffused with the smell of the damp stone of the walls and the musty scent of the straw that covered the floor. Yet those could not cover the pervasive stench of the corner in which she relived herself. The accumulated dung had only been removed once by two small cruel-creatures in all the time she had been here. She strained once again against the collar, ignoring the pain as the metal bit deeply into the raw flesh of her neck. The chain groaned but held fast to the wall, anchored as it was by thick bolts.

She ceased pulling and froze as soft, muffled sounds came from beyond the door.

Scrabbling over the thick carpet of straw, she backed away as swiftly as she could, until she was pressed against the back wall of the cave. She knew what was coming. If she were any less stubborn, she would not have bit back the whimpers that threatened to escape. The Dread-shadow was coming. The very thought made her tremble. She longed for the light of the sun which she felt certain would make the evil being easier to bear. It never brought any fire so she has never seen it. She did not need to. Not to be certain that it had as much substance as a shadow and no scent she could discern. 

The Dread-shadow had never hurt her body, not like the cruel-creatures whom never went near her without their whips. It did not need to. The horrible fear the Dread-shadow could induce by merely being was enough. Worse than the terror was that the Dread-shadow could intrude it's thoughts into her very mind. Only with great will could she stop it. She knew that the Dread-shadow wanted to break her. For what purpose she did not know, only that it would continue to return until it completed this task. 

The door was thrown open and there stood a strange creature. It was tall, made even taller by the cone of blue cloth on its head. Its face was obscured by grey hair that trailed down its torso. They stared at each other, the room illuminated by the staff in the creature’s hand, the tip of which emitted silvery-white light. She sniffed the air cautiously, the being did not reek of offal as the cruel-creatures did. It smelled like dirt, sweat and musk. She shifted her weight uneasily, wondering what new torments were to come.

She bared her teeth and growled as she felt the creature stroking the borders of her mind. It was not like the Dread-shadow foe for it held no coercion. He, for his spirit was certainly male, called to her with gentleness. She opened her mind with deliberate, guarded caution half expecting a trick of some sort. Yet his intentions shone clearly in his bright mind: weariness and fear over a deep kindness and determination. A series of memories played across his thoughts. They were confusing and she understood little other than he was being pursued and his desperate desire to escape to the west.

She answered with he own longing for freedom and the terror that the Dread-shadow would one day break her to its will. He stepped toward her and placed a hand on her beak. Low sounds emerged from his mouth, Power thrumming through them. She leaped forward in alarm, claws scrabbling on the stone, and the chain binding her to the wall snapped. Momentum caused her to lurch forward and she ended up sprawled awkwardly, chest first on the straw. Her new acquaintance knelt down and ran a hand soothingly down her neck, his thoughts promising lack of harm.

A tendril of a suggestion broached her mind. Using her wings, she propped herself up slightly, keeping herself low so the male could swing his legs around the lowest part of her neck. She walked out of the cave and into the fresh air. Sending a brief thought to her passenger to hang on, she launched herself into the sky, shrieking with joy. There were shouts and cries below but she ignored them. Instead she focused on the wind rushing beneath her beating wings as she climbed higher and higher. When she was out of range of their arrows, she turned westward and flew off into the star-strewn night.

Notes: In his letters, Tolkien acknowledged that the Fell Beasts resembles a pterosaur, which look like this. He never mentions if they were intelligent but, since giant spiders can talk in Tolkien’s world, I stand by my belief in sentient flying dinosaurs with thirty foot wingspans. Gandalf shares my belief in saving theses poor creatures from Sauron and his undead minion’s corruption!