I scuttled ahead of Isilindil, brushing noiselessly against the ground with my feet. I listened, then beckoned her forwards.
"Looks like someone was here for the night - I see footprints, and the area has been disturbed -look!" I pointed at an area of bush which had been broken, as though someone had stumbled through clumsily, or been hauled away.
"I agree" Isilindil brushed past me, and scouted out the area. We had been sent ahead by Olorin, attempting to find Brundt. We had followed his trail this far, Isilindil, Ranewan, Olorin and I, and we felt pretty close to wherever he was now.
"Do you think he's here, or near?" I asked. I felt my heartbeat quicken at the thought that we might find him now. I had thought of little else, I was so worried - even though I didn't know him very well, I felt a strange affinity inside for the silent man I had met in the woods.
"I don't know. We should probably go back and alert Olorin and Ranewan to this area."
"Hmm..." I looked around, and eventually my eyes alit upon an area of ground, which was turned up, and a bit muddier than the rest "Hold on..."
Walking over, I found that a scrap of what looked like fabric had been left behind, evidently torn off in a struggle of some kind...
"Look!" I gasped
"What? A clue?" Isilindil leapt to my side
"Isn't this the colour of Brundt's cloak?!"
"Maybe... we should take it back to Olorin and Ranewan anyways. Come on, Ruby, we should go back."
I gazed longingly at the ground, willing it to show some invisible clue, or to offer up Brundt safe and secure back to us.
But that was not to happen. Just another day of fruitlessly searching. Again. Tirellesly we had combed through the path we had taken, never leaving a stone unturned.
"Take heart - this is the best clue we've had yet. We might yet find him." Isilindil, encouraging and hopeful as ever, always had somehting to say to make me feel better of a situation. I smiled at her, and tucked the scrap of fabric into my pocket.
"I hope you're right."
And we set back to find Olorin and Ranewan, and let them know of our knew clue.
