What if…Finally
Chapter 1
"No, try it this way." Arianna said patiently. She knelt to the ground and straightened the feet of the boy she was working with. "Keep your feet right here. It may feel wrong at first, but in the end you'll get used to it, and you'll be able to keep your balance better." The boy grinned in thanks and shifted, trying to get comfortable in the stance. Arianna stood and went to another boy. She corrected his grip on the wooden sword's hilt. The next in line also needed correcting. She stepped in and grabbed his arm mid swing. "Swing using more of your elbow and wrist, not your shoulder." She told the boy. He looked at her, confused.
"But, swinging from the shoulder feels stronger."
"With this particular swing, your goal is speed, not strength. If you swing from the shoulder, your enemy will easily be able to tell exactly what your planning, and be able to disarm you. The elbow and wrist movements are more subtle and quicker, so they won't know what hit them." He nodded in understanding and tried again, his face fierce with concentration. Arianna stepped back and looked over those she had affectionately started to call her Ducklings.
At first, Arianna had simply found two boys practicing with the swords they had been given before the battle of Helm's Deep. They hadn't ended up using the swords during the battle itself, but were now eager to learn to use them properly. Arianna had subtly helped them learn the proper stances and grips, and then gone on her way as the boys hacked at a helpless tree stump they'd found. The next day however, the two boys came and found her again, this time with a friend or two, and they'd asked her to teach them. Since then her impromptu class had grown to about ten students. They came when they could, so the numbers were never steady, but the afternoon lessons had become a normal part of life after the people of Rohan camped for the night.
"You have a way with them." Arianna turned to see that she and her charges had an audience. Not only parents of some of the children, but also her friends and family: Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas. It was Gimli who had spoken. Arianna grinned at him.
"I've always liked children." She admitted. "And this group is eager to learn, so it's enjoyable to teach them."
"Their mothers are happy to have them out from under their feet as well, I'm sure. Although I don't know if most of them want their daughters here." Aragorn pointed out. Arianna looked at the end of her line of students. There were two girls there; practicing just as hard as the boys they had joined.
"Their mothers might not like it, but I'm proud to be teaching these girls; they have spirit. I wouldn't be surprised if they are future Shield Maidens, or maybe even some of the first female Riders." Legolas elbowed her as she sat down next to him on the log.
"Don't get your hopes up too high. Things are slow to change; it may be a while before the King even considers allowing girls to join the Riders." He told her. Arianna sighed.
"I know, but still. These girls are the start of something, I can feel it. They're making a difference just being here today. And it is only the first of many things that will cause things to start changing around here." They watched as the children continued to practice, Arianna occasionally giving instructions from her seat. Eventually they were joined by Gandalf who stood near them, leaning on his staff as his eyes took in her students.
"You've done a fine job with the younglings, Arianna." He finally said, and she grinned at him.
"Why thank you oh great one. I don't suppose you're going to actually be seen with us for once are you?" She teased. Gandalf had been spending most of his evenings with Théoden and his head men, planning their next moves and how they were going to build up the kingdom again. As a result, the rest of them had hardly seen the wizard except in passing.
"If that were the case, I suppose it would be suitable for me to be seen with a princess, would it not?" Gandalf teased back. Arianna scrunched up her nose; she hated the title of princess, and ignored it to the best of her ability. Legolas leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"You know if you do that long enough, your face will get stuck like that." Arianna had to laugh and smacked his hand as he sat straight once more. She then turned back to Gandalf as if nothing had happened.
"So what are our plans then? All we've heard are the soldier's plans to spend the first night back in Edoras having a huge party and getting very, very drunk."
"Before that, we'll be making a little side journey. Tomorrow, we shall split from this group and make a detour to Isengard to find our little friends." At that Arianna stood.
"We're going to bring back Mari and Pippen?" she asked excitedly. The white wizard nodded solemnly, but his eyes twinkled at her happiness.
"Finally!" she shouted, spinning around. She then noticed the odd looks she got from the nearby adults and even her students and sat down again, trying not to let her excitement bubble over. Erynion, her owl, flew over and sat hooting happily on her knee. He could tell she was excited and didn't feel embarrassed about having people stare at him.
Soon various meals all over camp were finished, and her students ran off to their waiting families. Arianna and her group also ate, eagerly scooping up the rabbit stew Arianna had been able to make from rabbits that Legolas has shot while on scouting duty during the day and herbs she had found as she'd walked. They'd been living off of potatoes for days, and the change was refreshing. Once they were finished, Gimli fell asleep and Aragorn wandered off to speak to some of the Riders he had made friends with. This left Arianna and Legolas. Arianna was content to just sit there in silence, but Legolas grabbed her hands and pulled her into a standing position.
"Come on, there's something I want to show you." He said and dashed off into the shadows around the camp. Arianna was quick to follow, but despite her confusion he refused to tell her anything about where he was taking her. They reached a cliff face and Legolas started climbing right up the side. Arianna rolled her eyes, but stopped asking questions, saving her breath for the climb. Finally, they reached the top, and her eyes were dazzled by the sudden sunlight. Legolas pulled her up and led her to a rock where they sat to admire the view. Down in the camp it was already dark as the sun had gone behind the cliff. But here at the top they could see for miles, including the spectacular sunset over the distant hills. As they watched, the colors gradually changed from golds and yellows to rose, and finally to purple and the deep blue of the night sky. Stars were slowly appearing, twinkling in the dark expanse above and behind them. Legolas put his arm around Arianna's shoulders and pulled her close. She relaxed and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I wish the sunset would slow down. It's going much too fast for my taste." She said softly. She felt Legolas's silent chuckle. "I'm serious! I'm almost afraid to blink, because I might miss some tiny part of it. It goes so fast that even the smallest pieces make a difference in how spectacular the color scheme is. I just don't want it to end, because then it'll be back to a dark valley and more work coming in future days." As she finished, the last rays went behind the horizon, and almost instantly, the entire sky was dark. Rather than see the vast emptiness, she turned and buried her head into the crook of Legolas's neck. In response, he pulled her close and wrapped both arms around her back.
"Ari, it only ends if you let it. From now on, whenever you feel overwhelmed, just close your eyes and imagine that you're here. Sitting with me, holding you tightly, the two of us watching our own eternal sunset. Just don't do it in the middle of battle, or you'll end up dead." He teased. Arianna chuckled and sat up. She stood and stretched her linked hands high above her head.
"I suppose we should get some sleep, we'll be riding harder than we have for a few days if we want to rejoin the camp by the end of the day." She pointed out practically. Legolas stood and grabbed her hands and lowered them until they were down at their sides again. He kissed her nose and she smiled.
"You're already doing it. Now stop thinking for a few more minutes, we were having such a nice time."
"I'm sorry, I cannot help it." She said sheepishly. "I just keep thinking about the list of things that need doing, and I can't—" She was cut off when Legolas's lips met her own. She very happily shut up and let him pull her deeper into it. When he pulled back he looked at her blissful face.
"Now what were you saying?" he asked.
"I have no idea." She said grinning. He smiled back.
"Good girl." And he kissed her again.
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The next day, the group was up bright and early and they were on their way before most families were even awake. They had been traveling along the edge of Fangorn Forest for much of their journey thus far, and they were soon surrounded the trees. The ride was still easy going however, because the land they rode on was still flat grassland rather than the uneven forest ground. The trees had not originally been where they now stood. Towards the end of the battle of Helm's Deep, the forest itself had pulled up its roots and moved to where they could do the most damage. From what they knew, many had decided to help eliminate Saruman's army and had decimated the retreating force. Arianna assumed that Marina or Pippen, hopefully both, had somehow worked with the Ents to convince them to take action. The Ents were usually very slow to do anything if it didn't directly involve the survival of their forest, and it would have taken some careful negotiating to get them to do anything at all. As they rode throughout the morning the terrain suddenly became wild and unpredictable, and they knew they were within the forest's natural boundaries.
"It's good, defiantly from the Shire." Pippin told Marina. His voice was low and slightly slurred from the large amount of drinking that had been going on between the two. Marina had no doubt she sounded less than sober herself. Pippin however was also smoking the pipe weed they'd found in Saruman's storeroom. The combination of tobacco and ale had long since gone to his head.
"Longbottom Leaf, eh?" she asked him for clarification. Pippin nodded, a silly grin on his face.
"I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon…" he said slowly.
"Oh the Green Dragon!" Marina said with a happy sigh, her mind instantly full of happy memories of time spent with her friends at their favorite pub back in the Shire.
"A mug of ale in my hand, putting my feet up on a settle after a hard day's work." Pippin said, his own feet sticking out into the open air, as if he did indeed have a foot stool to set them on. Marina snorted at him.
"Only, you've never done a hard day's work." She pointed out. Pippin nodded in agreement and they both burst into laughter.
Arianna clicked to her horse to make up with the rest of the group. As the riders neared Isengard, the trees got thicker if anything, which was odd as its lands had once been very carefully planted and cared for. They soon heard laughter, which Arianna instantly recognized as the hobbits they'd come to find.
As Gandalf led the way out of the trees they came to the crumbling wall of Isengard and saw Marina and Pippen lounging on top of it. She watched and laughed as Pippin stood, if a bit unsteadily.
"Welcome, my Lords and Lady, to Isengard!" He announced proudly as if he himself were the king who ruled from the tower behind him. Marina beside him smiled happily and waved at the group.
"You young rascals! A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you feasting and…and smoking!" Gimli cried in jealous outrage. Pippen leaned forward importantly.
"We are sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well earned comforts." He said. "The salted pork is particularly good." Arianna groaned as Gimli got a dreamy look on his face.
"Salted pork?" He asked, his voice slow. Gandalf shook his head muttering 'Hobbits…' Arianna chuckled at the truth of his statement.
"We're under orders from Treebeard who has taken over management of Isengard." Marina told them proudly. Arianna raised her eyebrows at the name. Legolas noticed and wondered why; it wasn't as if she didn't know about the Ents, did she find them odd for some reason? But then they were moving forward, Marina joining Èomer on the back of his horse, and Pippen clambering onto the back of Arianna's. She ruffled his hair before she turned and rode onwards. She looked around in awe of the flooded place; it looked nothing like the Isengard she knew.
"Did you two manage to do all this?" she asked Pippen.
"Well, it was the Ents mostly, but Marina and I were a key part in it happening at all." He boasted. Arianna chuckled.
"Don't let your head swell too much there young sir, we wouldn't want it to explode." They reached the tower and a long familiar form stepped forward.
"Young Master Gandalf. I'm glad you've come." Treebeard said in his slow, hesitating way. "Wood and water, stock and stone I can master. But there's a wizard to manage here. Locked in his tower." They all looked up at the stark stone tower. It was a forbidding place on the best of days, but now, surrounded by destruction it looked even more cold and empty.
"Show yourself." She whispered, her eyes searching the various balconies and windows that she could see.
"Be careful." Gandalf warned them. "Even in defeat, Saruman is dangerous."
"Then let just have his head and be done with it." Gimli said impatiently.
"No." Gandalf told him. "We need him alive. We need him to talk."
"You have fought in many wars and slain many men, Théoden King, and made peace afterwards." Said a voice out of nowhere. They all looked up to see Saruman himself, standing on the roof of his tower, using magic to speak to them as if he stood on the ground in front of them. "Can we not take counsel together as we once did old friend? Can we not have peace, you and I?" Arianna looked at Théoden, waiting for his reply.
"We shall have peace." He began. "We shall have peace when you answer for the burning of the Westfold, and the children that lie dead there. We shall have peace when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead against the gates of the Hornburg are avenged! When you hang from a gibbet for the sport of your own crows, we shall have peace." Arianna grinned rather savagely and looked back up at the evil wizard. As Saruman and Gandalf spoke, Legolas had to wonder if Arianna knew how fearsome her smile now was.
"So you have come for information. I have some for you." Arianna's eyes narrowed as Saruman held out a sphere. She didn't know what it was, not to its full extent. But for reasons unknown, it frightened her greatly. "Something festers in the heart of Middle Earth. Something you have failed to see. But the great eye has seen it. Even now, he presses his advantage." Gandalf slowly rode his mount, Shadowfax forward ahead of the group. "His attack will come soon, you are all going to die. But you know this Gandalf. You cannot think that this mere boy will ever sit on the thrown of Gondor. This exile, crept from the shadows, will never be crowned king. Gandalf does not hesitate to sacrifice those closest to him. Those he professes to love." Arianna grimaced at the word. A word such as 'love' had no right to be spoken by this evil wizard who didn't even know its true meaning. "Tell me, what words of comfort did you give the Halfling, before you sent him to his doom? The path you have sent him on can only lead to death."
"I've heard enough." Gimli announced. He said to Legolas "Shoot him, sick an arrow in his gob." A much as Arianna would have enjoyed that, she knew it wasn't time to kill the man yet. She held out and hand to stop Legolas from reaching for an arrow. She shook her head, but both dwarf and elf could see that she didn't like allowing this snake to live.
"Come down Saruman," Gandalf called out. "And your life will be spared."
"Save your pity and your mercy," Saruman shouted. "I have no use for it!" With that, he thrust the end of his staff in their direction, and fireball swept down and surrounded Gandalf. The intense heat forced the rest of them to back up, trying to keep their horses calm and on all four legs. Soon, the fire faded away and there sat Gandalf without a hair out of place. Saruman seemed shocked, although it was hard to tell when she couldn't really see his face.
"Saruman," Gandalf cried. "Your staff is broken" And suddenly, it was. Pieces of the wood fell down the length of the tower, sinking to the bottom of the waterlogged area. Saruman's hand still stuck out in the air, as if it couldn't believe that the thing it had held for so long was no longer there. A dark head peeked out from behind the wizard dressed in white. It was Grima Wormtongue, the onetime adviser to king Théoden. The king looked at the man with an odd compassion.
"Grima, you need not follow him. You were not always as you are now. You were once a man of Rohan. Come down."
"A man of Rohan?" Saruman asked in what Arianna thought was disbelief. "What if the House of Rohan, but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor with the dogs?" Arianna blinked her wide eyes and bit her lip, it was quite an insult. "The victory at Helm's Deep does not belong to you, Théoden Horse-master. You are a lesser son of greater sires." Arianna hoped he wouldn't listen. Saruman's specialty was to play off the fears that already lay in your heart.
"Grima," he said instead. "Come down. Be free of him."
"Free? He will never be free." Saruman said, and then turned and slapped the man for something he'd said. Gandalf tried to regain control of the situation.
"Saruman, you were deep in the enemy's counsel, tell us what you know!"
"You withdraw you guard, and I will tell you where you doom will be decided. I will not be held prisoner here!" Saruman shouted. Then to everyone's surprise, He stopped talking and grunted in pain. Grima had stabbed him in the back! Legolas swung up his bow and shot the worm, but it was too late. Even as he fell back, Saruman toppled forwards off the edge of the tower. He fell in what seemed almost like slow motion, coming to s sudden stop as he landed on a large spike of a water wheel. She watch in a sort of grim fascination as the wheel turned until the body was hidden under the water. As his feet went under she voiced a thought.
"He had nice boots." Legolas, Gimli and Èomer all looked at her oddly; they too were ignoring Gandalf, Théoden and Treebeard. "What? He did." Suddenly, Pippen swung himself down from behind her, splashing through the water. "Pippen!" she called after him, getting the attention of the king, wizard and Ent. The hobbit bent down, the water coming up almost to his chin, and brought up the sphere that Saruman had held out earlier. Arianna still had a feeling of dread just looking at it. Gandalf rode to the hobbit.
"Peregrin Took. I'll take that my lad." Pippen handed it over, but he had an odd shifty look about him as he did so. It reminded her uncomfortably of the way people acted with the One Ring. Boromir had acted the same way once when he'd had to give the evil thing back to Frodo once. But Pippen seemed to shake it off, and he waded back to her. She gripped his arm and swung him up behind her once more, and the group started making their way out of Isengard, accompanied by Treebeard. She rode forward to ride at his pace at the front of the group.
"Hello Treebeard." She said conversationally. "Or should I skip right to Uncle?" The Ent looked at her, squinting slightly.
"Arianna? Little Strider? Is that you?" he asked in surprise. Arianna smiled widely, happy he remembered her. "It's been so long since anyone had seen you, I wasn't sure if you were still alive or not!"
"Of course I'm still around, Shepherd, I've just been busy for these last years. I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit you sooner, but then; it would have rather difficult to find you. You've been dormant for a while from what I hear."
"True, true. You make a good point youngling." At this Pippin found his voice.
"Wait, you two know each other?" he asked in disbelief. Arianna laughed.
"While I was training to be a ranger, I spent a time living in Fangorn. Treebeard found me one day, I was completely lost. He carried me back to the camp I had made, and took it upon himself to take care of me for a while. He taught me all sorts of things about the forest. He's also the one who gave me the name Strider. Well, Little Strider actually, but I left off that bit. Imagine, a ranger calling herself 'Little Strider'? I think I'd lose the little intimidating edge I actually have if I introduced myself like that." Treebeard laughed at that in his slow deep way, and then they were at the wall. There they parted ways, Arianna waving to her old friend as they rode into the trees once more.
"How is it you know everybody?" Marina asked from where he sat behind Èomer. Arianna laughed.
"I certainly don't know everybody, Mari. For some reason, I simply seem to be running into the few people I do know everywhere I go on this journey. I'm not going to complain though; it's wonderful to be able to see old friends again." Then they reached the edge of the forest, and Gandalf led the way, galloping off back to Edoras, and what was sure to be quite the party.
