Just as he closed his eyes, nightmares rolled silently upon Aemornion out of bitter wearyness and some distant pain. Shrill cries he heard, blood damped soil underneath his feet he felt and the faces of fallen he saw infront of him.

Suddenly he felt an inpact upon him, but was it in a dream or not, he could not tell but his reflexes had been almost automatic. His eyes sprung open and without any thought he cast his both hands upon the simitar infront of him and grabbed it with his palms fierecly and twisted it aside out of the attackers hands. He was just about to spring to his feet to attack the man but his mind came to sense as it beheld a known face

"Corus..." he exclaimed and let out a sigh "forgive me ..." he cast his gaze downwoard

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I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

Corus smiled.

"No worries I could have still defended myself without my sword, but tell me... you are feeling guilty, I heard that someone died and he had a wife and child waiting him to return? You blame yourself? Do you think that it is a leaders part to feel guilty, you make decisions, your soldier decide to obey, if they want to. Dying for something was their decision not yours..."

Corus said as he extended his hand forward to have his scimitar back.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Aemornion let out a slight sigh and returned the simitar to him hilt first then he leaned back against the tree while his gaze remained idly on the horizon.

"Every man, every brother in arms is even a more bitter loss to me then it may come to the family" he murmured in a low voice "Those men gave their life to me for they trusted me with it. It is very hard on the heart when I know that a life has been taken away when that man was under your command. To some people it may forcome that i've sent that man to his death and i cannot blame them for feeling that way."
He glanced then up towards the stern face of Corus
"Death will come upon us all Corus, it is just a matter of time and place. But until then we must make our lifes effort to live through this world as best as we may."

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

Corus couldn`t help smirking.

"Funny how I who deserve death won`t just die and your men whom deserved life are dead, but in anycase you cannot take every soldiers death that hardly. If your best friend dies during a battle by your side, what will you do?"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Aemornion looked up at Corus with a slight spark in his dark eyes while his fists clentched together.

"I would fight like there is no tomorrow. I would avenge myself upon those who slayed my comrade. I would prevail against all of them for my wrath would be swift and lethal" a slight hint of rage could have been seen on his face but it soon died out into sadness as he cast his gaze lower "and...." he continued "after the battle would be over. I would take his body and carry its weight to its final resting place. And there i would mourn over him bitterly for i lost someone very close, but also i would feel relief knowing his soul rests in the peaceful halls of our fathers." he swallowed heavy "That is what i would do Corus..." he murmured "and some day i might, or perhaps they will carry my body first. But I pray to the Valar its not this day"

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

Rhayader's head moved from left to right. He moaned and mouthed a few words but nothing escaped his lips. His face contorted as he dreamed in his deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhayader found himself on a field, face down in the mud. He picked himself up and looked around. His wounds were gone, he felt healthy and able. He found himself in an empty green field, deathly quiet. No wind blew and no voices spoke. It was just a green field.
"Hello?!"
His voice echoed through the land.
"Hello?!"
No reply. Rhayader began to run searching for anyone.
"Tindomerel? Airnae? Corus? Jax? Anyone?!"
He ran but the field was endless, there were no hills in the horizan. He looked around desperately but found himself alone.
"Rhayader..."
A whisper. He looked around, feeling scared.
"Hello?!"
"Rhayader..."
He spun around hopelessly looking for the voice and suddenly he found himself looking upon Tindomerel. She just appeared in front of him. He was so happy to see her and tried to walk toward her but something stopped him, like invisable wall between them.
"Tindomerel! What is this?"
Rhayader pushed against the wall but it would not move. He looked at the figure of the elf who was emotionless and simply stared at him.
"Where am i?!"
She replied very bluntly.
"Wake up..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_________________

"Rock N' Roll is the only relgion that never lets you down!" ~ Lemmy Kilmister

[!*#_:]

Corus nodded.

"As I expected, I myself did that too many times and then I made it the last time to my son and wife as I buried what was left of them. Burned corpses sadly, but then I went for vengeace and I ended up as the things that I swore to destroy. Revenge might be good, but not always because in battle if you let your rage take you then someone can easily outskill you when you are not thinking. Then you would be burried alongside with your friend..."

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Aemornion nodded to his words "Aye.... you speak the truth Corus" he murmured "But i will continue with my life how it was given to me. If I will fall becouse of my rage and fury, so be it. But believe my words, i swayed too many times on that thread that it would take your heart away. It is so close between the very best and the very sorrowful in life."

He got up to his feet slowly and gazed into the mans eyes with respect "I am sorry for your loss of your dear family" he said in a low voice "Now infront of me stands a man who perhaps was once like me but madness too him and he did not know what he had done. A killer and a torturer he once was, but he turned to light again. I fear if i will be taken into such darkness i may not come back for i might falter. But now you stand infront of me as a living warning and that i must take heed of, and I will" he inclined his head in a slight nod.

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

"Light?"

Corus coughed suddenly as a protest to his words.

"Do not speak about light or good to me like the evil that I served once was completely mindless... you have probably seen dundelings and other men serve evil, but in the end have you ever asked yourself their motives? That they are complete brutes that love killing like the orcs do? No, dundelings hate Rohirrim for what the rohirrim did to them in the past and that they don`t just likely throw away... and surely you will take heed, but what happens when you are in that position yourself? Perhaps you can or you just can`t, we are warned and we might heed, but still that just might not be enough always..."

Corus smirked slightly.

"I was slighty offencing in my words, but I don`t seperate creatures to good and evil completely for even the orcs were once something else.."

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"If i didnt see some light in you, your body would have most likely been slaughtered into bits and pieces and would now smoke from that pile down there" he said in a lower but firmer tone then turned his glance aside.

"I do not pity those who desire to do evil. But i do pity those who try to turn away from it and find a new and better life." he said in a lower tone "Evil comes out of good, and good can form sometimes out of evil. The boarder is very thin"

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

"Indeed it is, but tell me... what do you consider evil? What gives you the righ to say what is? Nothing and no one... I mean no offence, but there are many things that anger me in the human beings blindness..."

Corus said sheated his sword and walked away towards the tents.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"A village, burnt to the ground, children weeping over parents, parents weeping over children, men who would defend their families killed while they sleep... curtisy of the men who came upon the villages of Rohan so ruthlessly..... that is what I call evil," Arinae stated, having walked towards the men, her words directly at Corus' back, her expression stern.

"Seeing the death of my own kin, the innocent, the very innocence of children I helped raise! That is what gives me the right to judge what is evil..." She spoke bitterly, a fierce glimmer in her eyes.

_________________


I am a pro-cycling fan! Congrats to the Young rider of the Tour de France!
~Cyclist in Training~

Aemornion glanced at Corus as he walked away but his gaze and voice was firm "I consider evil everything that tires to destroy what is good an fair in this world. I consider those men down there burning evil for they wanted what was not rightfully theirs. I consider evil all those who try and succssed to slay my family, my kin!" his voice roused "And dont you dare deny my words for even if I may be blind then i am blinded by my love for my home and my people!" with that he turned away from him and walked away.

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

Corus stopped walking away and turned at Aemornion with a sad face, which seemed highly unusual to himself too.

"So was I when my famly was killed, then I was blinded by my revenge and finally that was probably what drove me mad... One day some rohirrim will want revenge on the dundelings, surely they will have slaughtered innocents, but one evil deed serves another. Perhaps one day a group of rohirrim will ride to Dundland to slaughter their foes children... In anycase you may say that they are evil, but if you believe so then you would have to kill me. I sure as hell have killed children? And you know what?! When I was mad I actually enjoyed it! Don`t try to define evil when you don`t even know what it is like to kill innocents or to have walked along orcs as your comrades!"

Corus raised his voice and turned away to leave the camp, it had been a mistake to stay and he was already ashamed of what he had said.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

He turned around and walked slowly towards Corus with an almost threatening posture

"I may have not walked aside with the orcs as my companions but im certain in all my short and mortal years i killed someones husband, brother or son" his teeth ground bitterly as he tried to control the anger within himself. The fists clentched bitterly and so did his face "Do not lecture me about battle! I've had my share of it and bloody well know the consequences out of it!" his hand strayed towards the sword hilt but somehow he managed to restrain himself and storm off while cursing to himself.

_________________
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the Warrior for his glory. I love the homeland which they defend.

Tindomerel's own song had stopped with Nimloth's single howl. She had then turned back to Rhayader, who had moaned. She shook him gently. Whatever dream he was having, it didn't seem very good. "Rhayader..." she said, continuing to shaking him, gently, not wanting to hurt him, "Rhayader... Wake up..."

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The Ever So Confused One

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