A/N ((Set before when Gandalf goes to Isengard with the fellowship and Eomer and Theoden...so basically before they meet up with Pippin and Merry outside Isengard...got it? Good :P))
I don't own Lord of the Rings, if I did...I would be making a killing :P
Ghosts Of Fangorn
"I see something up ahead," Legolas had cut the silence that had been present since this morning...it was late afternoon now and Legolas could see something odd up ahead through the trees.
"What do you see?" Gandalf asked.
"I don't know...figures in the forest," They all rushed over, they stopped at a clearing by Gandalf's halt. Whatever was here was gone now, "My eyes have dishonoured me," Legalos looked down at the ground in shame, if nothing was here...why did Gandalf have them stop?
"You are quite wrong my boy. This here...is where spirits are replaying their deaths over and over," He paused, "And they shall until the end of time,"
"That's terrible," Eomer spoke.
"Or they have to be crossed over to the other side...that's how it works,"
"But I don't see any-" King Theoden was cut off with a surprise that burst into the clearing from the trees on the opposite side, the group remained well hidden by the trees and bushes.
"Come on!" Yelled a woman, her black hair was tattered and filthy with bloody and dirt. Her clothes were strange, she wore brown leather trousers tucked into leather travelling boots. Then an armoured top that come above her ribs, the shoulders were padded and heavily armoured but it didn't cover arms. She had a quiver that had about three arrows left, the bow was nowhere in sight and she had her sword in hand that was stained with mud, ash and blood. "Come on ye coward!" She shouted at the trees at the direction she had come...she had her back to them.
Then a second figure fell through the trees and landed hard on the ground, another woman with dark hair, similar clothes as the first but this was face down in the dirt with a hatchet lodged in her back. "Raquel?" The first woman's first was shaky, she shouted at the trees in pure hatred and anger, "What have you done to her! I thought it was me you wanted! Not my sister!" A deep laughing could be heard, the first woman was thrown back into a tree in front of where the group were.
A tall black haired man in long dark tattered clothes stood in the centre of the clearing with a hideous smirk, the woman pulled herself up slowly, she had dropped her sword in the flight, "Look at you Orin, your pathetic. You try to help the people that tried to kill you!" He laughed, revealing his pointed teeth...everyone of his teeth were yellow and sharp to a point. "You could have joined me and the whole situation with your sisters could have been avoided. You see, I also have your other sister Vera in my grasp-"
Orin looked up, she had fallen onto her hands and knees, "LIES! You don't have her," Orin spat.
"Oh really? Because she had joined me quite quickly-"
Orin sat up, she was shaking her head and repeatedly saying "No," no louder than a hushed talking.
The man laughed, "You better believe it Orin...she's mine," He snapped his fingers and a black cloud twirled next to him and a woman formed, this one had brown hair, her wore a lovely black and silver dress with long sleeves and drooping v-neckline.
Orin slowly lifted herself, this time continued to stand, she repeatedly eyed her sword that was halfway between her and the dark stranger, "Orin-" Orin spat bloody on the ground.
"Do you have any idea of what he's done," Orin's breathing was unsteady, she was clearly wounded. She continued to steal glances at her sword. Maybe she could reach it? "Look behind you! There lies the body of our younger triplet Raquel," Orin was frantic...her youngest sister was dead and her eldest sister had betrayed her. What next? "Vera! Terrak is using you! Like a puppet in a show,"
"I'm sorry Orin, but..."
"But what!"
"I like where I live now." She paused, Orin furrowed her eyebrows and stared at her sister in disgust. "Don't look at me like that Orin...If you just him you'll get everything you've always wanted,"
"What I want is my little sister alive! And you dead!" Orin snapped.
"You don't mean that Orin," Vera's voice was soft and hurt. Terrak stood there next to Vera laughing silently.
"Oh I do! Our sister is dead because of you!"
"And the rest of your family...your mother, father...brothers and sisters," Terrak joined in. "She gave them all to me all those years ago,"
"You did what? How long have you been serving under him Vera!" Orin spat blood again. Vera silent, she licked her lips and watched her feet shift on the ground.
"Ever wondered why you sister didn't marry?" Terrak spoke, Orin shook her head. No, Vera wouldn't.
"Orin..." Vera's voice was pleading for an understanding.
"You're married to him?" She pointed to Terrak.
"It's rude to point," Terrak spoke lightly.
"Shut it you!" She turned back to Vera, "Your married to this scumbag?" Vera looked up with a strange look in her eyes but didn't say anything, "How long?" Orin was no longer shouting, but her tone was dangerous and sharp.
"Seven years," Vera said quietly, "I couldn't tell you or Raquel...couldn't tell you that I love a demon, not that you could say much at the time,"
"Yeah well at least he didn't look like he had been left on a roasting spit!" Orin shouted, it had struck her nerves somewhere.
"He was the Lord of the Underworld Orin! He could look like whatever he wanted! And so can Terrak,"
"Keep Lucifer out of this, and he gave that all up," Orin informed but Terrak laughed.
"And you seriously believed him? If anyone was the Lord of the Underworld he wouldn't just get up and leave...he's not mortal as you so believe Orin...he's still demon and the mighty Lord, and to top it off I find it hilarious that you just had a child with the man, you gave birth to the spawn of the Underworld how'd you feel?" Terrak continued to laugh at Orin who watched the ground, her sister Vera stood staring at the body of their third sister Raquel.
"I'm going to kill you," Orin whispered, she stared at the both of them through her clumped hair. Her sword still lying between them, she ran forward and grabbed it and ran Terrak through in the same seconds it took for Terrak to unsheathe his sword and run Orin through the stomach. Shock covred both faces, Vera turned and screamed, she vanished in the black smoke that she came in.
Orin forward so her sword went further through Terrak, she must have known that this was the day that both would die, Terrak's sword went further through her. On both of them their swords guards were stopping the swords from going further through, the swords were stained with thick red liquid on Orin's side but Terrak's side it was a dark purple and thicker liquid. Orin took two steps back, holding back a scream and scrunching her face up because of the pain as the blade in her stomach moved, she kicked Terrak in the ribs and he flew back, both swords were freed from bodies, they both screamed in pain. Terrak was lying on the ground, sweating and withering while Orin was hunched over with a hand on the hole in her body.
Orin dragged her feet over to Terrak, dragging her sword along the ground. Orin wiped her bloody mouth with the back of her hand that had the sword by the pommel. "This is the time you die Terrak," She stabbed Terrak in the throat with her sword, and pulled it free once more. She staggered over to the corpse of her sister Raquel, half way there and she began to lose energy and strength so she dropped her sword to the ground and she collapsed to the ground beside Raquel. Dead.
The group that stood just outside the clearing had watched the ghosts, "So this is what happened to Orin and her sisters," Mumbled Gandalf, he went into the clearing and over to the corpses of Raquel and Orin.
"They look so...real," Gimli spoke in a hushed, rough tone as the group followed after Gandalf. Gandalf bent down beside Orin and touched her arm and quickly repelled his hand. He stood with a wary, shaken look on his face.
"What is it Gandalf?" Aragorn asked. Gandalf remained standing beside Orin looking down on her corpse with remorse, regret and despair, "Gandalf?"
He looked up at them, silent tears falling down his old, crumpled leathery cheeks. The smell of the clearing was ghastly from the mixing of blood and sweat, the birds and forest were silent, "They weren't ghosts," Gandalf spoke gravely.