The Young Hunter's Tale - The Pools of Arilthrien.

The young Hunter knew that it would be any time now.

He kept pushing the knowledge out of his mind, putting it off. But the signs were there.

Furtig, his Nightsaber hunting companion, was old. He kept falling behind as they wandered through the forest, and he would have to wait for him to catch up.

This day he waited, and Furtig did not appear. He slowly walked back the way he had came.

The old Nightsaber cat lay upon the ground, his head upon his paws. His shredded ear twitched when he saw his master, but he did not get up.

The Hunter sat down next to the great beast, ran his hand over his coat of fur, and remembered:

Growing up as a child, riding on the back of the hunting cat who was his father's oldest pet...learning how to hunt, his feline companion stalking ahead of him, flushing out prey for him to shoot...the hunt on which a giant spider attacked him, and Furtig seizing the creature, dragging it off of him, allowing him to put an arrow into it.

The old cat raised his head, his eyes vacant. He turned his head and licked the Hunter's hand.

As the afternoon lengthened, he still sat next to his pet, stroking his fur, singing in a soft voice the songs of adventure from his childhood.

Over the land he went to find
His destination true,
And by his side his faithful pet
Wandered with him too.

He felt the old cat stop breathing, and he cried, burying his face in the shaggy coat. His last link with his past, to his father, his childhood, but most of all a friend- was no more.

The next day, he buried Furtig where he had died, using his knife and his bare hands to carve out the hole in the ground. It took a long time.

When he resumed his journey to the capital, he felt strange without the great cat at his side. He hummed as he walked to ward off the silence, the loneliness.

Once the one that led me here
Spoke of farther lands,
I heard and followed in my youth
Now alone I stand.

He was on his own.