Four's Company
By Tschopp
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lord of the Rings. I give complete credit to the author and creator, J. R. R. Tolkien, and also to the writers of the screenplay, for I am taking most of this straight from the script.
Chapter 1: Lalaith Rana
An elf maiden watched as a man, a dwarf, and an elf dashed across the plain to a group of large rocks for cover, wearing the cloaks of her people. For some unknown reason, she felt the need to help them on the quest that so much hinged upon.
Her sensitive elven ears picked up the sound of hoofbeats and within minutes she watched as Riders of Rohan came galloping down a hill, armed and ready to fight.
The man, she recognized him as Aragorn, son of Arathorn, for she had seen him before during her stay in Rivendell, stepped out from the rocks followed closely by his tense companions.
She quickly ducked behind a bush, unwilling, as of yet, to be seen. Even though her cloak would hide her from the riders' sight, it would not guarantee that the elf would not discern her.
"Riders of Rohan! What news from the Mark?" Aragorn shouted after the riders as they passed unseeing.
At a signal from their leader the riders wheeled their horses around and surrounded the three strangers; as one they lowered their spears threateningly, not a foot from the faces of the friends.
"What business does an elf, a man, and a dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly," the helmeted leader ordered.
"Give me your name, horsemaster, and I shall give you mine," the dwarf told him stubbornly, whether it was out of bravery, idiocy, or both, the elf would never know.
"I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground," he threatened, dismounting and advancing on them.
The elf quickly removed an arrow from his quiver and fitted it to his bow as fast as lightning. "You would die before your stroke fell," he warned bravely, knowing that if he loosed he, too, would be dead shortly.
The riders closed in tighter around them at the threat, leaving no means for their escape.
Sighing inwardly the watcher stepped forward. "You would be wise to lower your weapons," the elf maiden said calmly, lowering the hood of her elven cloak, the same cloak worn by the others.
Some of the riders redirected their attention, and their spears. "Who is this? Another member of your party? Why would you endanger a woman?" The questions were directed at the man.
"I do not travel with them," she stated, but her words fell on unheeding ears.
"Where there is one elf, my lord, there are certainly more. They surely would not allow a maiden to travel by herself, especially in these perilous days," one of the riders whispered to his fellows and, more directly, to his leader. The maiden's elven ears caught every word as she slowly walked forward to stand just outside the ring of horsemen. She was unconcerned, rarely would a man attack a maiden if they did not think that they were in danger and she would not draw her weapons unless provoked.
"Lower your spears," the leader commanded. "We will not harm you. We wish only to know who you are and why you are crossing our land."
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas, from the Woodland realm. We are friends of Rohan and of Théoden, your King."
"Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," the leader informed them, removing his helmet and revealing his true identity as Èomer, the King's nephew. "Not even his own kin. Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claims lordship over this land. My company are those who remain loyal to Rohan. And for that, we are banished. The White Wizard is cunning. He walks here and there they say, disguised as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip past our nets." The disgust at Saruman and the annoyance at himself for not being able to capture the spies was apparent in his voice. While Éomer had deemed the companions trustworthy, his men had not. While their spears were lowered, they were still held ready.
"We are no spies. We track a band of Uruk-Hai westward across the plains. They have taken two of our friends captive," Aragorn explained.
"The Uruks are destroyed. We slaughtered them during the night."
"But there were two hobbits. Did you see two hobbits with them?" Gimli asked frantically, alarmed that Merry and Pippin may have been killed despite Legolas, Aragorn and his days long chase in an attempt to rescue them.
"They would be small. Only children to your eyes," Aragorn added, realizing that the men of Rohan were not likely to be familiar with hobbits.
"We left none alive," Éomer told them regretfully. "We piled the carcasses and burned them."
"Then they are dead?" Gimli murmured disbelievingly, lowering his head.
"I am sorry." After a rueful pause Éomer whistled. "Hasufel, Arod, Elerrina. May these horses bear you to better fortune than their former masters," he said, handing the reins to Aragorn. "Search for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands. We ride north!" he shouted to his people after a brief silence.
The riders turned back to their original course and swiftly rode north, disappearing off into the distance.
"Dwarves don't ride," Gimli pointed out, stubborn once again but obviously relieved. "We are grounded, and like having both feet firmly planted on solid earth. Anyway," he muttered, embarrassed, "I've never ridden before. I would fall."
"Ride with me," Legolas offered, having warmed some to the company of the dwarf.
"But what of the other horse? The Rohirrim would not take kindly to us if we left one of their best horses in the wild," Aragorn said.
"I will take one." Lalaith spoke to the three companions for the first time, drawing attention back to herself.
"Who are you, and where is the rest of your company?" Aragorn inquired as she walked over to them.
"Do you not recognize me, Aragorn? I suppose that quite a lot of time has passed since we last met, you certainly look different than you did then."
"Should I recognize you?"
"We have met once before, in Rivendell. My name is Lalaith."
"Answer his question. Where are the others? I am certain that they would not let you wander alone in these wild lands," Legolas pointed out, reiterating what the rider had said earlier.
"I travel with no one," Lalaith answered truthfully in her calm voice, over the years becoming accustomed to being interrogated.
"Lalaith," Aragorn murmured, trying to remember, and then recognition flashed in his eyes. "But you—"
"No," she interrupted. "He would not approve," the elf said with a meaningful glance at Legolas. "I could help you, Aragorn," she offered. "I am skilled with weapons and I know these lands. I have traveled them for many years."
"You do not know the peril into which we are headed," Legolas said, trying his best to discourage the maiden.
"You are, or were, on a quest to destroy the One Ring of Power. You lost Gandalf in Moria, and Boromir fell on Amon Hen trying to protect the two hobbits of whom you now track." She had heard rumor of this group from a passing wizard. She had not been certain of the truth until she had met these three crossing the plains.
"How do you know this? How can we trust you?" Legolas interrogated, not liking the fact that she knew so much that no one other than those who attended the secret council were intended to know.
"You question me? I have given you no reason to distrust me. What is your name?" she returned, disliking the way he was speaking her, she would not be made to feel like a child.
"I am Legolas Thrandulion, of Mirkwood, son of the King. Where are you from? Answer me this. I have heard of an elf maiden who wanders this land, a great warrior who also shows unparalleled beauty. You are not she."
Her hair was a matted mess; Legolas could barely tell that she was blonde. Her clothes were covered in mud and dust, as was her face. The only extraordinary feature he could see was her eyes. They were a sea of colors rolled into one: blue, green, brown, and grey.
"You expect me to remain beautiful after years of traveling in the wild? I have been traveling for years with little rest. I am from Lothlorien. My parents are Celeborn and Galadriel, the Lord and Lady of the Wood."
"They would not allow you to wander. We have met them, yet they did not speak of you." He paused, waiting for her to answer but after receiving no indication he turned to question his friend. "Aragorn, is this true?"
"Yes, Legolas, it is. The reason her parents do not speak of her is because they have had no news from her except what songs and legends bring. It has been long since she has returned to the Wood. They believe that she has traveled to the Grey Havens or died, unknown to the world. No word has been brought for many years now."
"How did you meet?" Legolas wondered, awe in his voice.
"She is Arwen's cousin. I met her when she traveled to Rivendell fifty… sixty years ago. Things truly have changed since then." He turned back to Lalaith. "You always dreamed of adventuring, I see that dream has not diminished. I believe that I also saw you tracking Gollum, not long ago."
"Yes. I did not trust the look of him. He seemed to be slinking around muttering to himself. I followed him for weeks but he did nothing wrong so I continued on my way."
"You found him when my people could not," Legolas stated dejectedly.
"Your people could easily have captured him if only they would have followed him out of your woods."
"My people do not leave the woods unless they have orders from my father. By the time they received the order, Gollum's tracks were a week old," Legolas defended his people.
"I do not blame you, or the people of Mirkwood." She sighed, tired of debating. "May I suggest that we be leaving soon? The Uruk-Hai have been killed, but if your friends escaped, there are more dangerous things to be reckoned with, if come across. If they escaped into Fangorn… the ents are not welcoming to people, or things, they know not of."
"Yes. I believe that we should discuss this further, but for now, let us make haste. Merry and Pippin may still be alive," Aragorn agreed.
They rode in silence with all the haste they could muster. When they arrived at the smoldering pile of bodies, they dismounted.
Lalaith couldn't stop herself from looking at the Uruk head on the spear, it's tongue hanging out of its gaping mouth, a warning to intruders in the land of Rohan, while Gimli started pushing aside bits of the carcasses looking for a sign of the hobbits. Unfortunately, he found something.
"It's one of their wee belts," he said, pulling it out with his axe.
"Hiro hyn hîdh ab 'wanath," Legolas and Lalaith murmured together, an elven prayer. (May they find peace after death.)
"Aaahhhhh!" Aragorn bellowed, kicking an orc helmet with all his strength before falling to his knees, his head bent to the ground.
"We failed them," Gimli said, holding his head in his hands.
Aragorn lifted his head and looked over to the right, hope came to his eyes. "A hobbit lay here," he said, moving over and softly touching the ground. "And the other… They crawled… Their hands were bound."
The other three of them were following him now around the plain, hoping beyond hope that the hobbits could still be alive, even Lalaith who had never before met the little people.
"Their bounds were cut. They ran over here," he told them, following the hobbits' movements, "They were followed. Their tracks lead away from the battle… into Fangorn Forest."
"Fangorn? What madness drew them there?" Gimli asked, nearly as frightened now as he was before because he knew that they would follow the hobbits into the sunless forest.
"If you were caught between a so thought evil forest and a company of Uruk-Hai and other orcs, all being slaughtered by strange men on horseback, where would you choose to go?" she pointed out.
"True," Gimli acquiesced.
The now four hunters followed the hobbit tracks into the forest.
Gimli saw something black on one of the leaves and tasted it to determine what it was. "Orc blood," he observed, trying, and not succeeding, to spit it out, ridding himself of the disgusting taste. "The air is so close here."
"This forest is old. So old that it almost makes me feel young again. Full of memories… and anger. The trees are speaking to each other," Legolas said, commenting on the murmuring of the trees.
"Gimli!" Aragorn exclaimed quietly, noticing that he had raised his axe when Legolas had said that they were speaking.
Gimli raised his eyebrows questioningly, completely oblivious.
"Lower your axe," Aragorn ordered gesturing with his hands.
"Oh." He lowered the axe so it hung at his side, but Lalaith noticed that he did not put it in his belt.
"They have feelings, my friend. The elves began it, waking up the trees, teaching them to speak," Legolas explained.
"Talking trees. What do trees have to talk about other than the consistency of squirrel droppings?" Gimli muttered. Knowing they would get nowhere the others let the topic drop.
"These are strange tracks. I have never seen any like them before," Aragorn said, bending close to study them in the near darkness.
Lalaith took a step forward to stand beside Aragorn and examine the tracks as well. "They are the tracks of an Ent. A rather large one by the looks of it," Lalaith told him.
"How would you know this?" Legolas said, still untrusting of their companion.
"I have been in this forest before, many times. I have met Fangorn, the oldest of the Ents. He is strong, but he distrusts anyone new that comes into the forest, for Saruman has started using these trees to fire his weapon making."
"What would he do to them?" Gimli asked, frightened, referring to Fangorn and the hobbits.
"I am not certain. He is not hasty, no ent is, I think he would most likely take them to see the White Wizard."
"The… the White Wizard?" Gimli stuttered, recalling what Éomer had told them about Saruman.
"Of course. They have been friends for a time longer than you know. He owns more knowledge than Fangorn, thus, Fangorn trusts him," Lalaith explained.
"Then we must rescue them!" Gimli told the companions.
"Rescue them? The White Wizard will not harm them," she said.
"Have you not heard? The White Wizard has betrayed us. He works for Sauron now. He ordered the hobbits' capture in the beginning!" Legolas informed her, the frantic look in his eyes betraying his true feelings, not anger as was in his voice, but fear for his friends' lives.
"I met him only a few days ago and he seemed to be allied with you then. He was searching for the hobbits himself and explained to me your quest."
This makes little sense, Legolas thought. The White Wizard… we have heard rumor that Saruman refers to himself as 'Many Colored' now. Could it be possible? She also said that the Ents knew that Saruman was cutting down the forest.
They rested in the forest that night, keeping someone on watch for the perils that surrounded them. Before dawn Legolas woke them. "Nad no ennas!" (Something is out there.)
"Man cenich?" Aragorn asked anxiously. (What do you see?)
"The White Wizard approaches," he whispered.
Unsheathing his sword, Aragorn quietly instructed, "Do not let him speak. He will put a spell on us. We must be quick."
The three hunters drew their weapons, facing away from the direction Legolas had indicated. Lalaith remained unmoved, knowing what was to happen. She was seated, wrapped in her cloak, observing every aspect of her surroundings.
Legolas felt the presence of magic so with a yell, the three of them turned around and attacked. A blinding white light emanated from the wizard. Gimli's throwing axe and Legolas's arrow flew back toward them, and before Aragorn could attack, his sword turned red-hot and he threw it down clutching the hand that held the scalding blade, thankful for his glove that saved his hand from being burned.
"You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits," the wizard observed in a strange voice.
"Where are they?" Aragorn demanded.
"They passed this way the day before yesterday. They met someone… they did not expect," he said mysteriously. "Does that comfort you?"
"Who are you? Show yourself!" Aragorn ordered, noticing that the voice had a hint of familiarity.
The light dimmed, and Gandalf stepped forward, dressed purely in white. Lalaith almost laughed, as is her name, but stopped herself. It had been Gandalf who told her the story of the quest, not Saruman as the others had suspected.
"This cannot be."
"Forgive me," Legolas requested. "I mistook you for Saruman."
"I am Saruman. Or rather, Saruman as he should have been, had he not fallen to evil."
"You fell," Aragorn told him, as if Gandalf were a ghost, not truly alive again.
"Through fire and water," Gandalf acknowledged. "From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak, I fought him, the Balrog of Morgoth. Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside. Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead and each day was as long as a life age of the earth. But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done."
"Gandalf," Aragorn whispered.
"Gandalf? Oh yes. That is what they used to call me. Gandalf the Grey. That was my name."
"Gandalf," Gimli echoed.
"I am Gandalf the White now. And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide."
The five of them turned and, following Gandalf, retraced their path, heading back out of the forest.
"One stage of your journey is over. Another begins. War has come to Rohan. We must ride to Edoras with all speed," Gandalf instructed, taking long strides.
"Edoras? That is no short distance," Gimli observed, barely keeping up with his long-legged companions.
"We hear of trouble in Rohan. It goes ill with the king," Aragorn said, sharing his knowledge with their old friend.
"Yes, and it will not be easily cured. It will take much of my power."
"Then we have come all this way for nothing? We are to leave the hobbits here in this horrid, dark, dank, tree-infested—" The trees began to groan, speaking angrily to each other again. "I mean, charming, quite charming, forest?"
Lalaith laughed quietly at Gimli's swift change in opinion. The dwarf was easily frightened by things that he did not fully understand.
"It was more than chance that brought Merry and Pippin to Fangorn. A great power has been sleeping here for many long years. Merry and Pippin will be like the small rocks that start an avalanche on the mountain."
"I see that one thing has not changed, my friend," Aragorn said good naturedly to Gandalf. "You still speak in riddles."
"A thing is going to happen that has not happened since the elder days. The Ents are going to wake up… and find that they are strong."
"Strong!?" Gimli exclaimed unbelievingly, and upon hearing the trees begin to rustle quickly added, "Oh, that's good."
"So stop your fretting, Master Dwarf. Merry and Pippin are quite safe. Safer than you are about to be."
"Wonderful. The new Gandalf is more grumpy than the old one," Gimli murmured to himself.
Once on the edge of the forest, Gandalf whistled piercingly, and a beautiful white stallion galloped to him.
"That is one of the Mearas, unless my eyes are cheated by some spell," Legolas observed.
"Shadowfax," Gandalf informed them. "He's the lord of all horses and he has been my friend through many dangers." The others' horses followed Shadowfax to Gandalf.
The five of them mounted and started riding back through Rohan, heading toward Edoras, the Rohan capital.
"You knew all along, didn't you?" Legolas asked, falling back to ride beside Lalaith. Gimli was still seated behind him on Arod.
"Yes, and you suspected. I never named the White Wizard."
"You implied. You knew what we suspected, and did not correct us."
"What would be the fun of that?" she laughed. "I offered you enough clues, I thought if you were clever enough, you could come to the correct conclusion. I needed a laugh after where I have traveled alone," she said, becoming suddenly solemn.
"You live up to your name, my lady. I admit, it is nice to have another elf along for the time being, but I will not allow you to accompany us after Edoras."
"You have no power to stop me. You will not make me remain in Edoras or return home. I enjoy travel more than anything."
"You are a lady. You should be with your people, not ramping all over the land, getting in danger. Your family must be worried."
"Because I am a lady, does not mean I wish to be there, at home forever. I was raised thinking that that was the only thing I could do, but I wanted more. My cousins taught me how to fight, and since then, I was not able stay in Lothlorien. I longed for adventure. You are a prince and you are on the most dangerous journey you could possibly volunteer for."
"I am a prince; you are a lady. There is a difference."
"Yes. A minor one; a purely physical one. I can fight as well as you can. Test me if you like."
"Orcs will see you as a weakness. They will attack you more than any of us."
"And I will fight them. Do you think that I am not accustomed to it; I have traveled alone for years. You said before that you had heard of me. Give me a chance. I will not hinder you," she promised.
"You are a lady."
"As you have said. You are a prince and you travel, explain to me the difference."
"I explained to you—"
"Other than the gender," she added quickly.
"I can defend myself, you on the other hand…"
"What makes you think that I cannot? I have journeyed Middle-earth for more than a few years. Do you not think that if I had been unable to defend myself that I would be dead by now? I have been to Mordor and back. That is where I was returning from when I saw the Rohirrim surround you."
"You have been to Mordor?" he asked respectfully, not fully believing her. "Why would you go there?"
"I heard rumors that after the Shadow was banished from Mirkwood it returned to its old fortress in Mordor. I went to find certainty."
"It is true, is it not?"
"I should think you would know that. It is what your quest is about, but yes. Not only has it fled to Mordor, but he is gathering all evil armies to him. He is getting ready to wage war on all the good of Middle-earth."
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Leave me a review if you would like to read more. I'm hoping to upload a chapter per week which should be fairly easy since the story is completed - I only need to edit each chapter before uploading.