Rhovaniel of the Dúnedain

[Rhovaniel]

“What in the world –”

“You found her!”

“Quick – fetch some light!”

“Easy now, over here.”

“Quiet now. Let me see her.”

 

The clamour of voices died down almost instantly as a tall figure made his way through the crowd of onlookers that gathered around a ranger and the unconscious figure he carried. The elf reached the pair and looked gravely at the bloodied face as the ranger stepped into a circle of light cast by the lamps in the courtyard, and gently pushed aside the young woman’s hair, matted with blood and dirt, to look more closely at the wounds. A large bruise shone purple against too pale skin, and he probed her forehead gently with the back of his hand.

“She has a fever,” he murmured, as if to himself.

“Aye, and worse besides, I’d wager. She looked half-dead on the mountain side when I found her.”

“Let’s get her inside.” The crowd parted to let them through, though many curious eyes followed them as they hurried through the stone corridors.

 

In a spacious and well lit bedchamber on the ground floor, the ranger carefully set his burden down. Against the soft white linen, she looked worse than in the half-light of the courtyard. Her clothes were torn, the edges of each ragged tear black with dried blood. If he didn’t know otherwise, he wouldn’t have reckoned her among the living.

“Where did you find her?”

“Not fifteen miles east of here. She was on the right path, but I never imagined the enemy would pursue her so relentlessly.”

“That is close,” the elf frowned.

“I do not think she led the enemy near. I searched the ground around her, and it seems whatever she fought off she encountered much earlier. She must have wandered far carrying her injuries, until…” he shook his head. “It’s a wonder she survived.”

“You rangers are strong in both mind and body, so my experience tells me.” The elf smiled, but the ranger did not return it.

“I knew her to be in danger. Should she die, the guilt lies with me.”

“It lies with Morgulon, and all who do his bidding,” the elf reminded him. As they talked, the elf had his hand to the woman’s forehead, and suddenly he fell silent, closing his eyes. The other ranger retreated to the other side of the room, just as the door opened and another elf came in, a basket on her arm filled with bandages and little glass bottles that clinked together as she moved towards the bed. Careful not to disturb her father, she set about filling white bowls with water out of tall jugs. One of these she gave to the ranger.

“Heat some water, if you will. We may need plenty of it before the worst is over.” She said gently. With a brusque nod he was gone.

 The young elf approached the bed again, and waited in silence until, after long minutes had passed, her father opened his eyes and sighed. His hand, once pale and unblemished, now looked red and sore. Both ignored it, knowing that it would fade within an hour.  

“I have done all I can for now. The fever is not broken, but its power is less now.”

“She has other injuries, they say?”

“Aye. She’s been hurt bad, and the wounds don’t look clean.” The ranger was back, carrying the water in both hands. He drew in close to the bed and set the bowl down slowly, so as not to spill any.

“I did the best I could, but in the wild…”

“You may have bought us some time, nonetheless.” Se lent over the patient and carefully peeled back her tunic to reveal a badly stained shirt. It stuck to the skin underneath as she carefully prised it loose. The woman didn’t stir, not even when her wounds were washed out, first with water then with a dark green liquid that hissed slightly as it was poured into the wounds.

“It will wash the poisons out,” the elf explained. “It is well she is not conscious. Lordsleaf is a potent cure, but it is not without it’s own sting.”

“I know Lordsleaf well enough,” the ranger commented from the far side of the room where he had retreated. “But for healing, I thought only to use Kingsfoil, the brother plant.”

“Kingsfoil will still help, but in concentrated form, Lordsleaf works fastest. I fear she may have been carrying the poison for many days before you found her.”

 “But you were able to flush it out?”

“All that I could, I have. The rest is up to her now.” She glanced back down at her patient. “You never told me her name.”

“Rhovaniel. Her name is Rhovaniel.”

[jonfirestar]

Ohhh that gave me goosebumps! Wow, great narrative  

 

Also I know i've already said it but congrats Ambassador! 

[Rhovaniel]

I am not too sure what my training will consist of this challenge cycle. I'm hoping to try Rugby beginning next week, but my gym membership also runs out this week and I have to decide if I want to stay at this one or shop around. Ideally, I'd like one that opens earlier than 6.30am. I also have BreakPoint this weekend, which experience tells me will take a least a day to recover from, and I'm running Nuclear Fallout with fellow awesome rangers @jonfirestar and @iatetheyeti on Remembrance day, so whatever I do, I can't let training ease off. With that in mind, my goals may change, but at the moment they are:

 

1. Drink a minimum of 3 litres of water daily. 

I drink enough at work where I use trips to the water cooler (and the loo ) as a quick brain refresher as I'm working on reports, but at home I tend to forget until my lips are dry and I get a headache. I'm hoping measuring water intake should push me to drink more regularly.

 

2. Plan ahead meals Monday - Friday

I find that my eating is a little better with the MuscleFoods. So, the next logical step is to plan meals again. I'm going to take it slow, and merely write out what meals and snacks I want to eat in a day (roughly adding up to 1850 - 1950 calories) and stick to that.

 

3. Minimum of 4 active days a week.

This is less than I have been aiming for, but I also having been struggling to hit all my workouts, particularly cardio. I'd like to get 5 in, but 4 is the goal. 

 

 

[jonfirestar]

8 minutes ago, Rhovaniel said:

. I'm going to take it slow, and merely write out what meals and snacks I want to eat in a day (roughly adding up to 1850 - 1950 calories) and stick to that.

That is literally the only thing I've ever tried that works long term! It's far easier to stick to a plan than to try and make the food you are eating conform to an ideal. If you already know what you are going to eat and when it takes a lot of the stress away from tracking food. 

 

I'm really excited to hear about BreakPoint! Your enthusiasm about it is infectious and I'm even more excited to run in the mud with you in November. I'm calling Nuclear Fallout my birthday present to myself  though running in the cold and wet in November is a weird present. 

[Novaurora]

Loooove the writing!!  Following!!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Awesome write up, it was worth waiting for.

[Charlie_Quinn]

Yay! A narrative challenge! I love your writing so can't wait for the next installment.

 

Following of course!

[Rhovaniel]

22 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

That is literally the only thing I've ever tried that works long term! It's far easier to stick to a plan than to try and make the food you are eating conform to an ideal. If you already know what you are going to eat and when it takes a lot of the stress away from tracking food. 

 

I'm really excited to hear about BreakPoint! Your enthusiasm about it is infectious and I'm even more excited to run in the mud with you in November. I'm calling Nuclear Fallout my birthday present to myself  though running in the cold and wet in November is a weird present. 

Thanks! Funnily enough, I'm usually quite a reserved person. BreakPoint brings out the inner child-on-christmas-day in me  

 

Weird - or badass?  

 

21 hours ago, Stribs said:

Loooove the writing!!  Following!!

 

19 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Awesome write up, it was worth waiting for.

 

5 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Yay! A narrative challenge! I love your writing so can't wait for the next installment.

 

Following of course!

Thanks! Reading it back, it's a little too short and fast-paced for my liking, but I really wanted to quickly establish a back-story of how Rhovaniel got to the Dúnedain. 

 

 

So... 

goals didn't happen today. Apart from water, though I do need to finish my current bottle for that to count. I overslept and missed the gym. Ugh. Then hormones started to hit hard and I had chocolate. Lots of chocolate. 

Spoiler

I am incidentally mad at my body. It's a little... irregular and mother nature decides to drop this on me NOW?? Like, come on! BreakPoint just got next-level challenging. It has been literally overdue for weeks (actually about two months, but who's counting ), so surely another couldn't hurt? 

 

There is a way to salvage the week though. I don't want to gym on Friday because I'm going to need/want to triple check I've packed everything for BreakPoint before work. So, I'm going to bite the bullet and do some home workouts. I have sandbags from rucking I can use for makeshift weights, I can throw together or adapt a workout and get on with it. I ran Tuesday, I'll run tomorrow morning and BreakPoint gets to count for Day 1 of next week as well as the last day of this one!

 

Yeah, today could have gone better. But it could also have been worse, and tomorrow's a new day. 

[jonfirestar]

2 minutes ago, Rhovaniel said:

Thanks! Funnily enough, I'm usually quite a reserved person. BreakPoint brings out the inner child-on-christmas-day in me  

 

What? You? A reserved person? Noo.  It is awesome that BreakPoint brings out the inner badass in you. It should. It's an exciting event. I for one am waiting in anticipation for your write up! 

 

Although talking about usually. I'm really not usually a very talkative person unless I'm really comfortable with someone. I really am just a big socially awkward nerd and I am fairly sure that's a trait that you, me and @iatetheyeti share so I think we should make a deal for Nuclear not to feel bad if there are any prolonged silences  

 

 

[Rhovaniel]

2 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

 

What? You? A reserved person? Noo.  It is awesome that BreakPoint brings out the inner badass in you. It should. It's an exciting event. I for one am waiting in anticipation for your write up! 

 

Although talking about usually. I'm really not usually a very talkative person unless I'm really comfortable with someone. I really am just a big socially awkward nerd and I am fairly sure that's a trait that you, me and @iatetheyeti share so I think we should make a deal for Nuclear not to feel bad if there are any prolonged silences  

 

 

Lol. Deal! The great thing about socially awkward people meeting up is that we understand the lags in conversations and don't try to rush to fill them! I've started to take a colleague to and from work since she lives on my route, and she's really nice and quite talkative (with me, anyway. Helps that we're both non-girly girls and she's the one who goes to Rugby, which I'm planning to go to next week) so I've found myself being quite talkative with her. But mostly... nada. 

[jonfirestar]

8 minutes ago, Rhovaniel said:

I've found myself being quite talkative with her. But mostly... nada. 

It's relative  I'm comfortable with the people I work with because it's a small office and I've known most of them for years. Which means I crack a lot of jokes. The really bad kind of jokes I crack around here  I'll get involved in conversations if they are interesting or nerdy but I don't really do smalltalk. 

[Rhovaniel]

8 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

It's relative  I'm comfortable with the people I work with because it's a small office and I've known most of them for years. Which means I crack a lot of jokes. The really bad kind of jokes I crack around here  I'll get involved in conversations if they are interesting or nerdy but I don't really do smalltalk. 

The conversations in my office usually end up in constant email chains of memes . Yesterday, talk was centred around star trek. Today, we were was talking about Doctor Who till one of the other girls in the office (neither are particularly nerdy) shot it down, saying it was too early in the morning to be talking about nerdy stuff. So we all ended up bombarding each others inboxes with stuff instead

 

[jonfirestar]

1 minute ago, Rhovaniel said:

The conversations in my office usually end up in constant email chains of memes . Yesterday, talk was centred around star trek. Today, we were was talking about Doctor Who till one of the other girls in the office (neither are particularly nerdy) shot it down, saying it was too early in the morning to be talking about nerdy stuff. So we all ended up bombarding each others inboxes with stuff instead

Yeah that sounds about right. Although we tend to do it in Slack groups rather than email. It sort of bizarre how often we have conversations with people sat next to us on slack rather than talking . Even office wide conversations. 

[JenniferStark]

Following to see more writing and to cheer on the meal planning! Good Luck!

[Cheetah]

Following.

[Novaurora]

Glad you found a way to turn your week into something you wanted despite being off your regular schedule.  Cannot wait to hear all about breakpoint!!

[Emerald Eagle]

The first time I met some of my closest friends we counted the awkward silences to break the tension. We're still friends 5 years later so it must have worked! 

[Rhovaniel]

On 10/18/2017 at 9:22 PM, JenniferStark said:

Following to see more writing and to cheer on the meal planning! Good Luck!

Hi! Glad to have you - and thanks!

On 10/18/2017 at 10:28 PM, Cheetah said:

Following.

*waves*

23 hours ago, Stribs said:

Glad you found a way to turn your week into something you wanted despite being off your regular schedule.  Cannot wait to hear all about breakpoint!!

Yeah, the problem is following through with it!

20 hours ago, EmeraldEagle said:

The first time I met some of my closest friends we counted the awkward silences to break the tension. We're still friends 5 years later so it must have worked! 

Maybe I should try that!

 

A very brief update, mainly because I am almost too excited to think straight! Bags are all packed (and repacked and then checked and repacked because nerves) and I'm leaving work early to drive down there and I am freaked out. It's gonna be a cold, wet and windy one and I'm terrified that all my careful planning of what needs to be kept on me and what I hand in for safekeeping during the weekend will go out of my frazzled brain the second I get there and they start throwing instructions around at us. OMG OMG OMG. It's this weekend!!! And, purely based on the weather, I know it's gonna be my toughest yet!

 

Eating is meh. Hormones. Ugh. But I am at least wearing compression leggings this weekend so hopefully they'll be enough to let me get into the trousers without having to ask for a bigger size?  Workouts have been basically nil, except a lot of walking to get last minute items. 

 

And now I must attempt sleep, because I know I'm going to get precious little over the weekend!

[Cheetah]

[Novaurora]

[SkyGirl]

[Emerald Eagle]

3 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

It's gonna be a cold, wet and windy one and I'm terrified that all my careful planning of what needs to be kept on me and what I hand in for safekeeping during the weekend will go out of my frazzled brain the second I get there and they start throwing instructions around at us. OMG OMG OMG. It's this weekend!!! And, purely based on the weather, I know it's gonna be my toughest yet!

 

If you get a chance I would write it down. That way you don't have to remember, you just check your list! Have an amazing time Can't wait to hear all about it!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

You got this Rho!

 

[WhiteGhost]

Yay, the narratives are back.  Following of course  

[Rhovaniel]

6 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Oh, I'll definitely be having fun. It's just a case of how hard it storms back at me

6 hours ago, Stribs said:

I love that!

5 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

 

4 hours ago, EmeraldEagle said:

 

If you get a chance I would write it down. That way you don't have to remember, you just check your list! Have an amazing time Can't wait to hear all about it!

I have lists, but I can't really be consulting a piece of paper when they're in full on-your-case mode  I've tried to organise everything into sections of my bag, and I'll go over my list a couple times just before hand. The trouble is, as soon as we get there, it gets 'real'! 

I also don't trust myself. Last time, I was so nervous and excited that I forgot my boots. Yeah.... that was embarrassing. 

4 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You got this Rho!

 

Thanks, Tank. I'll try to store as much in my mind as I can for the write-up!

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Yay, the narratives are back.  Following of course  

Glad to have you! I need to go track your thread down!

 

Narrative to come soon after BreakPoint, I hope!