First off, would be better if you read my first story, Who You Are, which has the same OC but takes place during the Fellowship of the Ring. Enjoy this one.
xXx
I felt my throat close quickly and I dry gagged for what seemed to be the sixth time that day. I wasn't sure what had brought on this onslaught, perhaps it was the smell of the Urak-hai that I was currently tied to the back to, maybe it was the lack of food for the past three days. Perhaps it was from the good amount of blood I had lost in the process of being dragged away from protection. Or it could be the fact that I had the sense that other than the two hobbits being carried next to me, the rest of our comrades were most likely dead.
Our current group had not stopped running for days, and the few minutes my captor took to run smoother than usual I would shut my eyes and try to imagine I was back somewhere safe, like Rivendell. Sometimes if I was lucky my mind would shut down briefly and rest, and I could honestly see myself standing back on my balcony looking at the beauty around me. Of course when I would wake up I would realize it was a dream, yet I would still think about Rivendell and Elrond and mentally I would blame the elf king over and over again. Whenever Saruman was done with me and had me killed, I was going to haunt Elrond as long as he lived.
I guessed by the landscape around me that we were in Rohan, and I briefly wondered how my life would have been different if my family and our group had made it to Rohan instead of the death and destruction I had learned to expect.
I heard Pippin starting to call out for Merry, and I turned my head as much as I could without touching my nose to the Urak-hai carrying me, they really did make me just want to vomit. My eyes caught the hobbits, who were a little bit ahead of me. Merry was not responding to Pippin, he seemed to be completely out of it, the wound on his head surely not helping. I flinched as I glanced the wound again, remembering how he was trying to defend Pippin when he received that, which led to me attacking our captors and the leader I'm pretty sure had cracked a rib or two. My trouble breathing tipped me off to that one.
Our company suddenly slowed down and stopped, and I craned my head as the three of us were carried closer to the front of the pack. Our group had been joined by a smaller group, but any more enemies when I had left my sword and bow back at the battle site was not a good thing.
"You're late, our master grows impatient." The leader of the smaller group initiated the conversation, but I was too tired and worried about more damage to my body that I kept quiet and just watched the exchange break down.
"Merry!" Pippin was still trying to wake up his friend, but Merry's head remained lolled back, his mouth hanging open. For one moment I wished I could join him in whatever oblivion illness and or pain had taken him to, I would rather be unconscious than awake for our current predicament.
"My friend is sick! Please help!" Pippin started pleading with our captors, and I was startled to see that they actually turned to listen, but the unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched the look they were giving the small hobbit.
"He needs water!" Pippin continued as they circled around him.
"Sick is he?" I already heard laughter rumbling throughout the orcs, and so I tried to maneuver myself enough to keep in sight of the hobbits. "Let's give him some medicine boys!" With that the orc started to pour a reddish brown liquid down his throat. Merry took it alright at first but then woke up and started gagging harder and harder against the liquid.
"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Pippin started shouting again in Merry's defense, but the orcs just laughed at Merry's inability to take the "draught" and threatened Pippin with some if he wasn't quiet. I would like to look back and think that I had done the right thing, that I had fought for the little hobbits, provide them a little security or faith of good in the world, but instead I merely watched the events unfold, the knowledge that there was no hope weighing hard on me.
As the two orc groups went back to talking, Merry came to and looked between Pippin and myself.
"Merry are you alright?" Pippin asked.
"Hello Pip." Merry was clearly still not completely with us.
It warmed my heart slightly to see the two companions talking back and forth, and even with his large injury, Merry was still trying to keep Pippin calm and protect him. He spun a quick tale of how this was all an act and how he was fine, just a superb actor to have fooled Pippin as well. Once all was said Merry drifted off again, and I worried about if Merry would indeed make it to Isengard if there was not a break for sleep soon.
I turned my attention back to the front of the group where there was now loud growling sounds coming from our leaders and scouts. I found myself praying it was not more orcs coming to join our company, at least the ones that had attacked us I knew I could trust to do us no harm until we reached Isengard. I found myself almost wishing they would do us harm, save us for the fate that was in our futures.
Our leader focused in on one of our larger scouts. "What is it? What do you smell?"
I started counting off the things I would rather have to deal with than more orcs.
"Man-flesh." The scout responded. Well if I had been standing up you could have knocked me over with a light breeze at the moment. Were there possibly men around who could fight and save us from our fate.
"Aragorn!" Pippin nodded toward me, and I startled him with my own startled look. Could he possibly be right? I hadn't even considered this option, but the hope in Pippin's voice had me possibly feeling hope again.
I heard the leaders up front shout that someone had picked up our trail. My God, they were alive, Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli had survived, of course this would have been after, I'm sure, they had properly sent off-
No, I wasn't going to think of that, I wasn't going to deal with those last images of the man I had cared for so deeply.
Pippin reached with his teeth and pulled off the elven clasp from his cloak and spit it on the ground. I craned my head enough to watch it hit before being trampled into the grass by our followers as our company took off at a quick sprint again.
xXx
We had been running for days, and I was ready to pass out as soon as I found a surface that wasn't moving. The only good thing that had appeared out of the long trek was that Merry had miraculously gotten slightly better, and by that I meant he was managing to stay awake most of the time now.
I had just managed to nod off against my carrier captor, the smell no longer bothered me I was so used to it, when I was woken by being thrown onto the hard cold ground. My eyes shot open and I sat up, trying to take in my surroundings. Our captors seemed to be ignoring us for now, Merry and Pippin lay next to me discussing something about trees. I stood up, thinking to myself that if they wanted to kill me they would have done it already, and so I started maneuvering myself amongst the orcs. It seemed they had stopped to take a break, which I had to say I was thanking them for, but now I desperately needed to find food and water for the hobbits and myself. As I stumbled through the group, my hands still tied, I came upon the leader of the group that had been with us for the whole time, and I decided to try my chances with him.
"We need food and water." I stood beside him as he was sharpening his weapon, and I briefly thought about whether or not this was truly a good idea. He grunted at me but did not look my way. "This is not a silly request, we will die soon without food or water, and I don't mean maggot filled bread and whatever that draught was." He growled and stood up and I forgot how much he towered over me.
"You will take what we give you, or you will just die!"
He turned to walk away but I wasn't done with him yet.
"Saruman would not like it much if we appeared in his presence dead." The Uruk-hai turned back to face me, and got so close I could feel his breath against my cheeks. He held up a piece of said bread to my face.
"I'm starving," he said, crushing the bread in front of my face. "We ain't had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days."
"Well that's not my fault, now is it?" I breathed back at him.
Unfortunately his statement had caught the attention of the group around us and now everyone was complaining. The loudest voice was a nasally sounding orc who I had hated since the start. He spoke up about wanting meat, and while others agreed with him I saw his eyes trail until they landed on Merry and Pippin, and he commented on the hobbits freshness. The leader pushed me to the side and I landed with an oof on the ground. I pushed myself back a little bit, bound to get to the outside of the ring we had formed so I could get to Merry and Pippin quicker and hopefully without being seen too easily. Luckily while I was pushing myself back I saw the lead Uruk-hai coming to the hobbit's defense, and I knew what I said was true, we were not to be harmed or too badly treated, by orders of Saruman.
I wasn't sure how, but somehow during my maneuvering the circle had shifted, so I found myself back by Merry and Pippin, who were actually close to the outside of the circle. I must have missed some insane words because one minute I had slid up next to Merry and Pippin who looked terrified, to suddenly having an orc's head fall from the sky and fall between my legs and his body fell down by my feet.
I was at least pleased to see it was nasal voice orc.
The leader made a joke about how meat was back on the menu, and that's when all hell broke loose. The group attacked the orcs body, and I was about to roll away when I saw a loose sword lying on the ground. I risked my limbs and stuck my leg in, but I was rewarded when I felt the sword drag out with my foot. I grasped it in my hands and started rolling til I was on the outside again. Luckily the group had been too busy with the food to notice by quick escape.
I sat on the grass as I held the sword between my legs against the ground and ran the bindings against the blade until the ropes snapped. I sighed with relief as blood rushed back into my hands, but the feeling was short lived as I heard screaming coming from among the group. My head snapped up and I watched as several orcs were taken down by arrows and spears. Well forget this, I didn't waste any time getting away from the mayhem. I ran towards the edge of the forest and used every bit of strength I had to pull myself on a low branch of an old tree and pull myself up a couple more until I found one thick enough to hold be and high enough to survey.
Whoever was attacking us were definitely men, and they seemed to be winning this battle with ease. Where had the hobbits run off too though? There was a growing amount of smoke and I couldn't see everything, and I couldn't hear past the orc's cries or the men's shouting. Well this was problematic. I thought about climbing back down, but I was not putting myself in the middle of that bloodbath, so I merely clung to my branch and watched the fighting unfold.
The defeat of the orcs did not take that long, maybe twenty minutes. It was late at night, and the small fires scattered here and there that the men built were the only sources of light, so I still had no idea who these men were.
I must have nodded off at some point, because when I opened my eyes again there were two of them standing beneath me, clearly looking straight at me.
"It takes someone of great courage to sleep in a tree of Fangorn Forest." The taller one shouted up to me when he realized I was staring at them. Was that where I was currently, Fangorn Forest? I didn't realize we were this far east. I stared down the two men and backed up slowly on my branch. My eyes scanned my other surroundings, the orcs had been piled up in the distance, and their bodies were burning slowly. The rest of the men were around a large fire not from the pile, and seemed to be planning on staying there the rest of the night. I could see no sign of the hobbits at all, and I felt my stomach drop as I feared the worse. My eyes slid back to the two below me.
"Who are you? Where do you come from?" The taller one asked again. I slid my head until I was look through the split of the branch.
"I will not answer any of your questions until you answer some of mine."
The man's eyebrows and I was immediately reminded of Aragorn. "You seem very sure of yourself, for someone who was most likely in the company of orcs."
"Not by my own accord sir, I was captive. Now, where does your company hail from?"
"Eomer, she could be a spy of Saruman." Eomer's companion said quietly into his ear, but I picked it up easily. So my interrogator's name was Eomer, always a good piece of information to have, just in case.
"I'm not telling you anything else, until it is just you and me, Eomer." I used his name just to rattle him a little bit. "Your friend clearly does not trust me, and just to let you know, I'm tired of people not trusting me."
Eomer's friend looked put out, and Eomer looked slightly startled, but I watched as he judged my current predicament and deemed that I was currently not a threat. His friend, who was still not happy, was ushered away.
"We are men of Rohan, and have recently been trying to keep the dark forces from encroaching on our land."
"By dark forces, you of course mean Saruman's forces." I shot him a smirk.
He returned it after a moment. "It seems you know a lot about our lands, our foes, and who I am, yet I still do not even know your name."
Even though I was not receiving any feelings of danger from Eomer, I was not trusting him enough to give him my actual name. "I am…Arwen." I wished we had met more females in the past months, it felt wrong using Aragorn's loves name, but I was sticking with it. "I set out from Rivendell, under the orders of Lord Elrond. I was recently intercepted by that group you just took care of awhile ago and I have been at their mercy ever since." I would not mention the hobbits, that quest and their players were to be withheld as long as possible.
"It seems you have been busy these past couple months then." I started to laugh but flinched as I lost my breath, I had forgotten my hurt ribs, plus whatever other damage I had taken from the couple beatings. Eomer saw the flinch and frowned deeply. "You're hurt."
Stupid statement questions, always making me stop to think on how to respond. "My captors were not always the friendliest with me."
"Come down, let me help you." I raised an eyebrow at him as he held his hands up to me, like I was a child stuck in the tree. "Arwen, I am not going to hurt you, please let me help you. As a man of Rohan I cannot let myself carry on with any dignity if I do not mend you to the best of my ability."
I flinched at the use of my alias, but he took it as flinching more in pain. Eomer sighed at started to move to climb the tree, he clearly not seeing the flaw that the branch would not hold both of us, so I wove my hands quickly in front of me.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming down. Calm yourself." I swung my leg over the branch and hung down, guessing it was about ten feet from the bottom of my feet to the ground. I could hear Eomer shouting at me but I merely rolled my eyes before dropping down. The wind whooshed by my ears and I braced myself for the impact but instead of hitting the ground I found myself colliding against the arms of Eomer.
"For someone who is wounded you certainly do the silliest things." He scolded me and started carrying me towards his tent. "Now tell me silly girl from Rivendell, where are you hurt."
"It's silly woman thank you very much. And it's mainly my upper body, they kicked my ribs and stomach quite hard a couple times." He placed me down near his own fire and knelt before me.
"I'm going to have to remove your shirt, stay here a moment." And he left me with that knowledge as he quickly wondered off. I sighed, but slowly started to remove my shirt, and grabbed a blanket to wrap around myself. The other men of Eomer's company were far enough away that they would not hear what was said between Eomer and myself, but I could see their glances coming my way here and there. Eomer came back with some bandages and hot water, and took in my state of undress.
"Come on into my tent, we'll tend to your wounds in private." He held the tent flap open and I slid in. I kept my back to Eomer as he slid in behind me and slowly pulled the blanket off. I crossed my arms over my chest. The splashing of water was heard and I felt a warm clothe press against my back, and the water slowly slid down my back. I buried my head in my pulled up knees and sighed quietly.
"I'm not used to a woman in such dress."
"I'm sorry I can't be one of those woman who wander the wilderness in a long dress."
I almost could feel Eomer smirk again, but he just kept tending to my back and as far up the ribs as he dared to go. We sat there in silence from then on, until he had finished washing the dirt, and I saw some blood, off of me, before taking my help and the two of us wrapped the bandages around my midsection. When it was finished I turned around, having used some of the bandages to cover myself up. Eomer reached behind him and pulled over a small tunic and helped me put it on.
"You remind me of my friends." I finally said when all was said and done.
"How so?"
"Just random traits, your personality reminds me of two of them combined, and another one had blonde hair like yourself."
"I suppose I should take that as a high compliment as I can receive from the mysterious Arwen."
"This is true, now if you'll excuse me, I am going to sleep."
"You're perfectly welcome to use my tent-" Eomer started the offer but I held my hand up. It had been too long since I could enjoy the stars in peace, and tonight I was going to do so. So I grabbed a quilt from Eomer's tent and wandered out to right beside his tent. I laid down and pulled the quilt over me while staring up at the night sky, judging by the position of the moon I had about three hours before the sun rose.
My last thought was the fact that I did not see any hobbit's laying in the burning pile, and so I had to hope that they had escaped death once again.
xXx
It had been awhile since I had been on a horse, so after we had packed up the campsite and had made sure the pile of bodies were still burning, I pulled the horse given to me to the side and spent about five minutes trying to climb on top of him.
"Glad to see someone trusted with a mission from Rivendell is so agile when it comes simply mounting a horse." The mock came from Eomer as he rode up beside me looking very gallant. "Did you sleep well outside under the stars?"
"About as well as to be expected." I stared into Fangorn Forest, praying for Merry and Pippin, praying that they had survived the attack, but I had still seen no signs of a possible escape.
"Was there anyone else found, besides the orcs? Any other survivors?" I turned to Eomer, and saw his questioning look.
"There were no other survivors. We would have probably killed you as well if you had been in the middle of the fray. It was only because we didn't see you until the battle was over that saved your life."
"Oh…" it was all I managed to say. If they had honestly killed anything that moved then what possible chance had Merry and Pippin had in escaping. I shouldn't have left them alone, I shouldn't have rolled away to remove my bindings, or ran away when the battle broke out.
My silence was making Eomer uncomfortable and so he rode up next to me and nudged my boot with his.
"We should get going. My men and I want to scout a little further west, but then we will ride as close to Edoras as we dare, then you can continue the rest of the way. If I can spare a man or two who are still in good standing there I will let them escort you. When you reach Edoras you should find my sister, Eowyn. Trust her and no one else there." The sternness in his voice frightened me slightly, but as I opened my mouth to question just about everything about that statement he held up his spear and ordered his men to move out. I sighed to myself and shook my head, but spurred my horse on and began running with the pack.
We had been scouting for about a half hour, but there were no remaining orcs or dangers of Saruman seen within the area. We were about to start a run west when I heard shouting behind us, though over the thundering hooves of the many horses I could make nothing out, and I dared not to turn around for fear of falling of my already shaky mount. Eomer rose his spear, and though I was slower than the rest I turned in time with them to circle around on the targets. My eyes flashed up the hill and my stomach dropped.
It was hard to see with the sun's glare, but there were definitely a man, an elf, and a dwarf standing up on the hill. That sort of combination was not seen in Middle Earth.
They had found me, the three of them. They had been chasing us this whole time, and now, as we rode up and surrounded them, I could see the lack of sleep combined with their desperation etched onto their faces. This had been the only thing on their mind since we had been taken.
I suddenly found myself ashamed of my actions these past couple weeks, though I didn't know why, but I suddenly was angry at myself for leaving Boromir, for not being smart enough like Pippin to leave a trail, not having hope like Pippin that our companions were indeed alive and coming after us., and for not protecting the hobbits, and not knowing their status of either living or dead. I ducked my head down in shame as we finished circling the three. I wasn't sure if I could face them at this time.
"What business does a elf, a man, and a dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!" Eomer had ridden to the middle of the pack and was now demanding answers. Good luck sir on getting any answers from these three.
"Give me your name, horsemaster, and I shall give you mine." I couldn't help it, I smirked at Gimli's response, unable to hold back the laugh at the similarities of his and mine first response to Eomer was hilariously similar. Eomer jumped down from his horse and walked over to the three, Aragorn was already pushing back Gimli.
"I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground."
Well I could have told him that comment would get him in trouble with our group, but I didn't figure it would be Legolas whipping out his weapon and pointing it at Eomer.
"You would die before your stroke fell!" Wait a minute, since when have Legolas and Gimli become friends? All the Rohan men pointed their weapons at Legolas's head and Aragorn pushed the elf's bow down while Gimli looked slightly alarmed.
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, this is Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas from the Woodland Realm." Legolas looked like he was ready to kill Eomer while Aragorn introduced them. "We are friends of Rohan, and of Theoden, your King."
I watched Eomer's shoulder's slump slightly before he continued. "Theoden no longer recognizes friend from foe." I watched as he removed his helmet, which I secretly wanted to steal. "Not even his own kin." Well knock me over with a feather, how many royal descendants in hiding was I going to meet on this trip.
"Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and has claimed lordship over this land. My company are those loyal to Rohan, and for that we are banished." Well that answered the questions I had been planning to ask him about the 'trust no one in Edoras' speech. The horse lord kept walking around the remainder of the Fellowship. "The White Wizard is cunning. He walks here and there they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked." The look he gave Legolas showed that out of the three, he trusted Legolas the least. Or maybe he was just jealous because Legolas was working the blonde hair in a prettier fashion than he was.
I giggled into the back of my hand at that last thought, gaining me a look from the men in my immediate area. Legolas's and Aragorn's heads tilted slightly and their eyes scanned the crowd. I ducked my head down and hid behind a wider warrior.
"We are no spies. We track a band of Uruk-hai westward across the plains. They have taken three of our friends captive."
I mentally willed Eomer not to look back at me, but I saw his eyes briefly flash in my direction.
"The Uruks are destroyed. We slaughtered them during the night." He kept his head turned my way and I was mentally trying to slap him.
"But there were two hobbits, did you see two hobbits with them?" Gimli jumped in front of Aragorn.
"There was a girl too," Legolas broke in. "A human girl."
Eomer's eyes met mine, but I was trying to think of the best way to let them know I was sitting on a horse right there.
"We left none alive." Dammit Eomer why would you go and say that. I gave him a look that clearly stated you should go find a hole to die in right now. My three friends looked crushed, and I wanted to kill Eomer even more. "We piled the carcasses and burned them." We all looked out into the distance where we knew the bodies were burning.
I sighed and jumped off my horse before pulling it to the side, as I dodged the Rohan soldier as he pulled two horses towards the center. I knew I was going to have to admit I was alive sooner or later, it would be best to do it sooner. I heard Eomer shout for his riders, and the Rohan riders took off to the north. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli watched them ride off.
"We are going to have to face this eventually. We might have to face our worst fears, but we have to know what has happened to our companions for sure." Aragorn said, and all I could think was 'Turn around you idiots.'
I whistled quietly for a second and waited.
The three of them turned around and their eyes met mine.
xXx
Well there's the first part to second story. Reviews always appreciated and extra motivating. Let me know what you think.