A.N.: This is a sequel to one of my other LotR fanfics, "Of Entrances." Thanks to Chidori-No-Kyoku and QueenSword for reviewing it! Here you go!

Disclaimer: I own Kestrel and Angel, and that's it.

Chapter 1

Kestrel, Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn had headed off into the west, leaving the boats behind. Three days of tracking the troop of Orcs across hill country. Kestrel was getting tired, but she wasn't half as beat as Gimli. Running over rocks and plains was new to her – she wasn't much of a runner. Especially over long distances.

So it came as a relief to her when Aragorn finally stopped, lying on a big rock with his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she came upon him.

Legolas answered, "Listening for the Orcs!"

"Well, SORRY if I don't know what he's doing! It looks like he's taking a nap!" Kestrel snapped.

The Elf looked like he was about to answer when Aragorn's eyes opened. "Their pace has quickened." He stood up and ran off, calling over his shoulder. "They must have caught our scent! Hurry!"

With a sigh, Kestrel followed him. "Gimli!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"Come on!" Legolas yelled. She couldn't see the stocky dwarf, but from the sounds she heard, Gimli had slipped and fell yet again. Stifling a snicker, she turned back, hearing his muttering.

"Three days and nights' pursuit. No food. No rest. No sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell." he panted, leaning on his axe.

Kestrel sucked in air through her teeth. "Come ON, Gimli! Seriously! Hurry up! It's not that hard!" Actually it was, but she did need to give the dwarf some motivation to continue.

But Gimli just shook his head. "Easy for you to say. You're of the race of Men, tall and long-legged folks. I'm a dwarf. Short and stubby…you get the point."

"No I don't. I have bad endurance – I always have. Now COME ON! Don't make me come over there and drag you!" she threatened.

Gimli sighed. "All RIGHT! I'm coming!" He started running again, using his axe as a pace stick. Kestrel shook her head, turned around, and sprinted to catch up with Aragorn and Legolas. She smiled and waved as she pulled ahead of them.

"Oh no you didn't!" Legolas gritted through his teeth. With a few pumps of his long legs, he soon caught up and passed Kestrel. "Take that!"

Kestrel closed her eyes briefly, shaking her head. "Fine. Whatever. You're an Elf."

0oO0oO0oO0oO0

Kestrel soon found that she had to periodically glance back to make sure Gimli was keeping up. He was having a lot of trouble, and at first, Kestrel did too. But by the next day, Kestrel had gotten used to the endless running. She envied Legolas, however, because Elves could sleep with their waking eyes.

Suddenly something on the muddy and trampled ground caught her eye. She slowed, but she had already passed it. Trotting back to the object, she noticed that Aragorn had picked it up. It was an Elven brooch, one from the cloaks that had been gifted them in Lothlórien.

"Not idly do the leaves of Lothlórien fall." Aragorn said, looking up.

Kestrel observed, "Dropped about a day ago. Pippin's?"

Aragorn stood up. "Less than a day, in fact. Come!"

"They may yet be alive." Legolas said. "Hurry!"

"Come, Gimli! We're gaining on them!" Kestrel shouted to Gimli. She watched and smiled as he came tumbling down from behind a rock. As he recovered, he said, "I'm wasted on cross-country! We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"

Kestrel widened her eyes. "REALLY, Gimli. Then let's see you sprint over here!" She took off like an arrow, heading for the crest of a nearby hill. But she began to tire quickly, and soon slowed down to a walk.

"Kestrel and Gimli! Will you please hurry up?" Legolas called.

Kestrel gritted her teeth. "Coming!" she replied, summoning all her strength to make her legs go faster. The hill grew ever closer, and with a few powerful strides, she made it to the top. Nodding to Aragorn and Legolas, she looked at what they were looking. But all she could see was a grassy plain, dotted with a few rugged stones here and there.

"So what are we looking at, exactly?" she asked.

Aragorn answered, "Rohan. Home of the horse-lords. There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures, sets its will against us. Legolas, see what your Elf-eyes can see."

Legolas nodded and ran forwards, looking at the horizon. Suddenly, he shouted, "The Uruks turn northwest. They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!"

"Saruman. He knows that one of the hobbits has the Ring." Kestrel said. She set off running again, this new revelation adding speed and strength to her legs. "Come on! We've got to reach them before they get to Isengard and Orthanc!"

Legolas and Aragorn followed her, Gimli following a long distance behind. "I can't run that fast, you know! I'm a dwarf!"

"Yes, Gimli. We all know that." Kestrel muttered. She didn't have the eyes of an Elf, so the only way she could track the Orcs was by staring at the ground, following the trampled grass. Suddenly, she tripped and fell, hitting the back of her head on a rock. She sucked in air sharply as the pain struck her.

Legolas was suddenly helping her up. "Are you all right, Kestrel? What happened?"

"Stupid. I tripped over a rock." Kestrel said, shaking her head. "Nothing major."

He took a good look at the back of her head. "What do you mean, nothing major? You've got a pretty bad gash, even if it is shallow."

"I can't see the back of my head, you know. But I don't feel anything, so I don't think it's that bad. Where is it, anyways?" Kestrel asked.

"Base of your skull. Right along your hairline." Legolas answered.

Kestrel sighed. "Wonderful. Now I can't put my hair up in a bun. And ponytails are SO annoying."

"Why not just leave it, like mine?" Legolas asked with a twinkle in his eye.

She widened her eyes. "So you're saying that you've got girly hair, is that it? Well, I do seem to recall some of my other friends, that is, besides Angel, thinking you were a girl at first."

"Well, I can't exactly cut it short, can I? This is Middle-earth, not Earth, or Yetali, or Narnia, or the Edge, or…whatever!" Legolas protested.

"You know what? Screw you and your long blonde hair." Kestrel said, sprinting off. That is, trying to sprint off. But she couldn't keep that pace for long, and soon slowed to a jog, the back of her skull throbbing with every step.

"You really should get that looked at." Legolas commented as he passed by.

She yelled after him, "Yeah, and who is there that look at it? We're in the middle of the East Emnet! The closest town is what, Edoras? And that's pretty far away, isn't it? Three or four days?"

Now already pretty far ahead of her, he called back, "Well, you're much slower than you've been for the past what, three days?"

"At least I'm not Gimli!" she shouted as she started jogging again. What's his problem? Stupid slow dwarf.

Behind her, tumbling down yet another hill, she heard Gimli's indignant cry. "I heard that!" Kestrel smiled.

When Gimli had picked himself up and started running again, he said, "Keep breathing. That's the key. Breathe!" She shook her head. Who would've known? This big warrior, hardly able to keep up!

Legolas had stopped again. "They've run as if the very whips of their masters were behind them!"

Kestrel ran as fast as she could to catch up. "No clear sign of them yet, eh?"

"No. Nothing more than a track, and at this rate, they'll be in Isengard before we even make it to the borders of Fangorn Forest!" Aragorn said.

"Then we'll just have to keep pressing on." Kestrel suggested, looking back at Gimli. "Though that might be hard, considering the state the old dwarf's in."

0oO0oO0oO0oO0

Early the next morning, after a night of relentless running, Legolas broke the silence. Turning around and looking at the blood-red sun, he said, "A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night."

"I've seen blood moons, but never a blood sun…The question is, whose blood is it?" Kestrel asked.

"Let us hope it is not Merry and Pippin's." Aragorn said as they came upon yet another group of boulders.

Suddenly Kestrel heard the sound of horses. Running behind the boulders, she shouted to everybody else, "Come on!"

Joining her, they crouched in hiding, Kestrel peeking out to see who it was. What she saw: a large cavalry of Men with a couple banners. The white horse upon green. Kestrel remembered. The Rohirrim.

Aragorn must have seen the same thing, because he came out from behind the boulders, beckoning the others to follow. "Riders of Rohan, what news from the Mark?" he called to the horsemen, who had already passed them.

They came riding back, surrounding the four travelers in a deadly circle of horses and spears. Aragorn put his hands up, motioning for the others to do the same. In front of them was the captain, with a horse's mane on his helmet, which hid his face.

"What business do an Elf, a Man, a woman, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!" he ordered.

Gimli smirked. "Give me your name, horsemaster, and I shall give you mine." Gimli, you idiot!

The captain handed his spear to another rider, then got off his horse. Looking straight at Gimli, he said, "I would cut off your head, DWARF, if it stood but a little higher from the ground." Ooh! Would you like some ice for that burn, Gimli? Kestrel snickered.

Legolas whipped his bow up, fitting an arrow to it in one lightning-fast motion. "You would die before your stroke fell!"

"Who are you to laugh at me, woman?" the captain snapped, finally noticing and turning to look at Kestrel. She held his gaze defiantly.

"You call me woman as if it is a bad title, and yet I find myself equal to men, if not better." she said. Gosh. Sexist people. Idiots.

The captain nodded conscendingly. "You should be at home with your children. What are you doing here, in the company of warriors?"

Kestrel flashed Lemrocalir from its sheath, pointing it at him. "Be forewarned that I carry a blade, and I can use it well." The circle of spears tightened. For a tense second, Legolas' arrow stayed at the ready, and Lemrocalir glinted dangerously. Then Aragorn pushed Legolas' bow down, at the same time shaking his head at Kestrel. Grudgingly, she lowered Lemrocalir.

"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli son of Glóin, Kestrel Hunting Hawk, and Legolas of the Woodland Realm. We are friends of Rohan, and of Théoden, your king." he said.

The spears that had been menacing them were withdrawn, and the captain took off his helmet. "Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe. Not even his own kin. I am Éomer, son of Éomund, and Third Marshal of the Riddermark. I am Théoden King's sister-son." Éomer!

"Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over these lands. My company are those loyal to Rohan. And for that, we are banished. The White Wizard is cunning. He walks here and there, they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip past our nets." he finished.

Kestrel had sheathed her sword, but she still couldn't help feeling pissed at Éomer's sexism. She blurted out, "You're calling us spies? We're on the same side! Heck, we're probably on the same mission right now? My sword is stained with Orc-blood. And you're calling us spies?"

Aragorn held up a hand, stopping Kestrel's outburst. "We are no spies, as my companion said. We track a party of Uruk-hai westward across the plain. They've taken two of our friends captive."

Éomer shook his head. "The Uruks are destroyed. We slaughtered them during the night."

Gimli stepped forward indignantly. "But there were two hobbits! Did you see two hobbits with them?" he asked urgently.

"They would be small, only children to your eyes." Aragorn added.

Éomer said nothing for a moment. And then, "We left none alive. We piled the carcasses and burnt them." He pointed to a smoking pile in the distance, on the edge of the woods."

Gimli said, with a sob in his voice, "Dead?"

"I am sorry." Éomer bowed his head. Holy sh-you have got to be kidding me! Merry and Pippin are awesome! They're not dead! I can't take this anymore! First Gandalf, then Boromir, and now Merry and Pippin! When will it end?

Éomer whistled. "Hasufel! Arod! Lorthan!" Three horses came forward through the ranks: one brown, one white, and one black. "May these horses bear you to better fortune than their former masters. Farewell." he said, putting on his helmet and remounting his horse. Wait, they followed the Rohirrim for what, five hours? Well, THESE horses are well trained…

"Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands." he said, trotting past them. "We ride north!"

As the Rohirrim rode past them, Kestrel's mind was in turmoil. They can't be dead. It's not possible. And…killed by the Rohirrim? They're just so awesome that it's not possible. Merry and Pippin must have escaped somehow.

"Kestrel? Kestrel! Snap out of it!" Aragorn said, snapping in her face.

She blinked. "What do you want?" She realized that Aragorn was handing the reins of the black horse, Lorthan, to her.

"You can ride, can't you?" he asked.

Kestrel nodded. "Yes." She had taken classes back on Earth, and though she wasn't good enough for contests and things like that, she certainly knew how to control a horse. She mounted the horse, marveling at how different the equipment was.

"But there are three…there's four of us!" she realized.

Gimli shook his head. "I would sooner walk than sit on the back of any beast so great, free or begrudged."

"But you must ride now, or you will slow us down!" insisted Aragorn, who was already on Hasufel's back.

"Come on then, Gimli. You can ride behind me." Legolas said. "But wait! I have no need of the saddle." He took the saddle and reins off, leaving them in the grass, and mounted Arod.

After a few tries, Gimli still couldn't get on behind Legolas. Kestrel dismounted, as did Aragorn, and with a few pushes and heaves, the dwarf was safely on the horse's back. He clung to Legolas, muttering. "It isn't natural. We're not made to be so high off the ground."

Kestrel mounted Lorthan, laughing. "Shut up, Gimli. Your fears are irrational."

"Perhaps to you, but I'm a dwarf, and we belong underground. If I remember correctly, you were slightly afraid to go into Moria." Gimli replied.

Riding off after Aragorn, she called over her shoulder, "And with good reason, too! Look what we found in there!" Stupid darn dwarves! She sighed.

As they rode over the plain to the smoldering pile of Orc carcasses, Kestrel's hope faltered with every step Lorthan took. There were just too much Orcs, and even if Merry and Pippin had survived traveling as captives, Éomer had said that they hadn't left any alive. Please, PLEASE let them be alive! And hopefully not at the point of death…though it would be better for them to die looking at us then at the ugly face of an Orc.

As soon as they reached the pile, Gimli leaped off Arod, running over and sifting through the charred carcasses. Kestrel urged Lorthan towards the corpses, dismounting and hurrying over to Gimli. Suddenly a sob escaped the Dwarf.

"What is it?" Kestrel asked.

Gimli pulled a belt with a dagger sheath on it from underneath the body of an Orc. "It's one of their wee belts!"

Leaning closer, Kestrel could recognize it. "It's Pippin's!" She sank down to her knees, tears welling up and bursting out. "No!"

Legolas came over, placing a hand on her shoulder. He spoke a benediction in Elvish. "Hiro hyn hîdh ab 'wanath." Kestrel wasn't sure what it meant, but it had an air of sadness and resignment to it.

Aragorn furiously kicked a heavy Orc helmet. He screamed in rage and grief, sinking to his knees. "AAARGH!"

"We failed them." Gimli said, his voice shaking.

Kestrel shook her head. "We failed everyone. Gandalf is dead. Boromir is dead. Merry and Pippin are most likely dead. Frodo and Sam are gone, traveling by themselves to Mordor. We cannot follow them. Our part in this quest has failed."

Legolas bent down, whispering in her ear. "Have faith, Kestrel. Remember, you will not perish in this war. We need to defeat Sauron and rescue the other Heirs."

Suddenly something caught Kestrel's eye. There were obvious tracks in the soft ground. "What's this?"

Aragorn glanced over to the tracks. He ran his hands over them. "A hobbit lay here, and the other, here." He got up, following the tracks. "They crawled." Kestrel followed the Ranger, as did Legolas and Gimli. Okay, I'm already lost. What the heck?

"Their hands were bound." Aragorn said, kneeling down and scanning the ground for further clues. He picked up a frayed length of rope. "Their bonds were cut." Okay, I get how you got that. DUH! You didn't need to tell us that 'their bonds were cut'!

Aragorn got up, following the marks in the soft ground. "They ran over here. They were followed." Kestrel could now see clear tracks, leading towards the forest.

"They headed into the forest." she said, running along the tracks. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli followed her. Suddenly she stopped in front of the forest. It gave her an involuntary shudder. The trees were dense and dark with a sense of foreboding around them.

Gimli, who had arrived panting next to her, looked up. "Fangorn? What madness drove them in there?"

"Perhaps it was madness, and perhaps it was not. If I were a little hobbit, not well versed in the arts of fighting, I would have seen the forest as a refuge, a place to hide." Legolas said.

Kestrel nodded. "They were followed. Now let's hope that whatever was following them is dead, and that they are not. We're heading in, right, Aragorn?"

Aragorn stepped forward, entering the forest. "Right, Kestrel. Come on."

Kestrel entered a step behind Aragorn. "Come on! It's just a forest!"

"No. It's not just a forest. Keep your voice down. The trees in Fangorn can think, talk, and hear. Be careful." Legolas said in a low voice. Then, "Come ON, Gimli!" She looked back, seeing the dwarf framed in a small window of light – the plains of Rohan. He was hesitating, evidently frightened of the forest.

"It's all right!" she shouted to Gimli. He hesitated a moment longer, then took a step forward, soon reaching them.

Kestrel tsk-tsked and shook her head at Legolas. "And you tell ME to keep my voice down? Hypocrite."

0oO0oO0oO0oO0

Even though they had made a couple of wrong turns in the day that had passed since they entered Fangorn, Aragorn seemed to know what he was looking at, even if the rest of them did not. I suppose he's following tracks, though how he can see them in this dim half-light is beyond me.

Gimli stopped from in front of her, fingering a dark blob of…something on a leaf. He raised his hand, licking his finger. Ewwww. What if that's something gross, like Orc blood?

True to her expectations, he spat it out, wrinkling his nose. "Orc blood!" Figures.

Aragorn suddenly stopped, bending down to examine the ground. "These are strange tracks." Kestrel hurried over, looking at the indents in the ground. What the heck made those? The only thing that Kestrel could think of was the top of Gandalf's staff, now lost in Moria. A bunch of branches…all higgledy-piggledy without any real order.

She looked back over her shoulder. Gimli was glancing around furtively, as if expecting something to leap out at them. "The air is so…close in here."

"And I suppose it's not in the equally big chambers in Moria, eh?" Kestrel asked sarcastically.

Legolas, also looking around, said, "This forest is old. Very old. Full of memory…and anger."

"What do you mean, anger?" she asked, curious.

"Memories, too. Memories of all the wrongs done to the forest, of all the trees burned, of all the animals killed. Anger has sprung from these memories." Legolas replied cryptically.

Kestrel pressed, "WHOSE anger?" Suddenly a echoing moan reverbrated through the trees. Gimli raised his axe.

"The trees are speaking to each other!" Legolas said in awe.

Aragorn whispered urgently, "Gimli!"

"Huh?" he replied, totally clueless.

"Lower your axe!" Kestrel replied. "You're threatening them!"

Gimli lowered his battle-axe. "Oh."

Legolas moved forward, whispering to Aragorn in Elvish. The Ranger replied with a question, also in Elvish.

"The White Wizard approaches." Legolas said with a low voice. "Be on your guard."

Kestrel unsheathed her dagger, poising it to throw as Aragorn warned, "Do not let him speak. He will put a spell on us. We must be quick."

Suddenly, she could see the bright light in front of her. She let fly her dagger, along with Gimli's axe and Legolas' arrow. They were all deflected harmlessly, the dagger and the axe clattering on the forest floor. Shoot. Screw you, Saruman! With a cry, Aragorn dropped his sword. Kestrel noted with horror that the blade had become red-hot, still shining even after it was dropped. What the heck?

"You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits." the White Wizard – Saruman – said. His voice sounded familiar, though Kestrel could say with all certainity that she had never heard Saruman speak before.

Aragorn asked, "Where are they?"

"They passed this way the day before yesterday. They met someone they did not expect. Does that comfort you?" the White Wizard replied.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth, her hand on Lemrocalir's hilt.

Aragorn ordered, "Show yourself!"

Higgledy-piggledy. I love that word-phrase-thingy. Review! There's a point to that shiny gray button down there!