At first he thought it was rain, the way that it clamored for the ground all around him. A sharp ringing of steel. And then screams. Screams that would still the hardest soul. Yet he felt nothing. These were Drow screaming and dying. Drow. Screaming and dying because arrows were falling as fast as men could heave them from a bow. Punching through armor and skin with equal verve to shed blood and ruin lives. It was nto enough for them simply to perish. They had to be made to suffer. Those were not the wishes of a chevalier or a warrior of light. They were the words of a Sylvan Elf. He felt them all the same, to the core of his being, and it was not until the vicious shot came from up above that turned away from the slaughter. There was no honor in watching them bleed. Or die.
"Run, you fool!"
Axes still dripping blood Ilúvatar flung himself at the coarse stretch of rope that was his lifeline. Harsh panting in his ears. That was his own. Blood racing through his veins to power wild swings of his arms. They were seemingly wild, in any case. At the end of it all they were simply throwing themselves as far as they could toward the light. He could see that, as well, a dim soft glow that he was advancing on with all possible haste. Climbing a rope was not a problem for a Sylvan Elf. The trouble was, he wasn't sure that his friend wanted him to reach the top. Or that his friend wanted him to survive this foray into teh Underdark. Eibhear was severe, stern, overprotective. But vindictive he was not. If you wronged him then you paid the price. He had no interest in Aeotha beyond that of a friend. Surely it would never come to that.
Ilúvatar told himself, and yet.
Fenrir's voice was still raging out to him. Aeotha and Eibhear had reached the top. Ilúvatar's coat was drenched in sweat, his arms and hands caked with mud and blood in equal measure. Somehow he was close to the top. Somehow he could see a hand reaching out to him. Two hands. Ilúvatar was trying with all of the spirit he had left to reach them, and to be pulled to safety.