I do not own Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or even the Silmarillion
It took until the evening the following day for Arothir to spot the Orc pack he was pursuing. He had been tracking them the entire night, aside from a brief stop to rest for even Elves need a break. The pack was finally stopping to rest for the night. Arothir, while a fair distance from the horde, dropped to the ground amid the grass and rolling hills and slowly crawled until he reached a small peak of the hill he was on. They, Arothir and the Orcs, had passed into the grassy hills of the land of Rohan of which King Theoden, son of Thengel, ruled. Arothir took notice that out of all the places in the land of Rohan, the Orcs decided to make their camp at the edges of Fangorn Forest.
'Foolish beasts' Arothir had spent years within that forest, living among the trees and Ents there. He had known the Ents for Ages.
As he peeked over the hill, his elven eyes rapidly counting the members of the horrid band, looking for 'half-lings'. He saw nothing that could even be called a 'halfling'. "What in Elbereth's name is a halfling," he murmured quietly to himself as he abandoned his position and moved back down the hill slightly.
Arothir crouched down amid the flowing grass and rocks, his grey eyes seeking the sky above him. A clear night with the light of a quarter moon beginning to shine and the stars flickering in the sky above. As he surveyed the dark sky above, he absentmindedly palmed one of his hidden knives out, flicking and spinning in between his pale hands. His mind began to dissect the situation he found himself in. Arothir knew he was no hero, he gave up long ago dreams and thoughts of heroic deeds and songs sung in his honor in the halls of the Elven regions. He thought of his fellow Elves…
'When was the last time I was among my people?' Ages ago Arothir had abandoned the ways of the Good People, he sought only his own company. The only people he associated with were contacts, fences, others who sought a greedy lifestyle among the shadows.
Arothir shook his head violently, trying to shake off the dark memories that threatened to rise to the surface, memories that held his tears, his pain, his suffering, all at the hands of-
A scream pierced the air.
Arothir turned swiftly on the toes of his boots, still crouched, his blade immediately finding its home in his solid grip, his other hand dropping to the grass to stabilize his crouched stance. He darted his narrowed eyes around searching for the source of the disturbance.
Nothing.
Nothing, but hills, rocks and grass. The Forest of Fangorn was too far from his current position to hide the disturbance amongst its shadows and thick undergrowth.
'Where did tha-?" Arothir stopped his thought process abruptly, his eyes raising to the crest of the hill he had been on previously before him. The thief stood slowly and inched his way up the incline, peeking his head over the crest once again.
Down, at the edges of Fangorn Forest, the Orcs were surrounding something… something too short for the Elf to see clearly. Arothir knew, instinctually, that is where the scream originated from.
"Halflings." The thief breathed out.
Arothir watched them, keeping his focus completely on the circle of Orcs. No other scream permeated the air since the first one. Arothir could faintly hear the jeers and crass language of the Orcs. From the thief's position, he could tell the Orcs were not intent on killing their captives, their intent seemed to be simply to terrify the little beings with false promises and cruel movements.
Having previously counted the amount of the members in the Orc horde, Arothir knew he had little to no chance of successfully killing them all while protecting the captives. Arothir glanced to the sky above. He half-wished it was a new moon, complete darkness worked to his advantage more often than not he only needed the light of the stars above.
After a quarter of an hour, the jeers began to taper off., the Orcs seemed to be getting bored with their game of terrifying the captives. Most of the company going to sit in small groups or alone. Though, two tall Orcs grabbed the two smaller captives and marched them over behind a few trees at the edge of the forest and dumped them on the ground. The two Orcs remained by the captives, on guard.
Arothir smirked in the darkness. 'Foolish, foolish orcs. You should not have gone so far from the others…"
Soundlessly stealing up behind one of the two Orcs guarding the captives, he silently threw one of his knives towards the farthest one, burying it into the back of the beast's neck, killing it instantly. As soon as he had thrown the knife, he quickly grabbed the closer Orc's head with both of his hands and twisted sharply, snapping the monster's neck.
Having finished off the guards, he turned to the captives. What he saw surprised him. Two small beings with curly hair and large hairy feet sat there, both of them bound and gagged. They were smaller than he first thought.
'That explains the 'Little Ones' comment,' he thought dryly to himself, thinking back to what the dying Gondorian man had called them. As he walked towards the little beings, who in turn recoiled at the approach of the hooded stranger. Stopping in his tracks, he lifted his hands slowly in a placating gesture and gently coaxed them, "Peace, I am not here to harm you. I was sent to help you both." As Arothir spoke this, his eyes were drawn to the green and silver leaf broach one of the Hobbits wore, his memories stirring at the sight. Mentally shaking his head, he turned his focus back to the little former captives.
The little beings squirmed and stared at him with an odd mixture of fear and hope. Arothir, knowing the rest of the Orc pack may be closer than he anticipated beyond the few trees and that they would notice the lack of guards, he raised his slim hands to his hood and lowered it. Showing the two Halflings his delicately pointed Elven ears and Elven features that glowed slightly in the darkness that blanketed them. Their eyes widen dramatically at the sight of the unknown male Elf. Arothir stepped towards them, stooping down to one knee, he untied their gags and sliced through their bonds with one of his blades.
"Thank you," one replied, while the other focused on rubbing his wrists to rid the feeling of being bound.
"No time for thank you, you both must hide yourselves now."
"Why?" piped in one of them, his eyes still suspicious of the strange Elf.
"Because, while I have… disposed of the two beasts here, there is still a pack to deal with."
The small Hobbits looked at the Elf in mirroring shock at their rescuer. At Arothir's words, both of the small beings eyes widened in horror at the thought of the upcoming confrontation.
"Yo—you can't hope to.. to.. kill all of them! There are too many!" They cried in a whisper to the Elf in worry for their rescuer.
Arothir, raised his hood one again and raised his dark scarf from around his neck to cover his face and conceal his features, "Worry not for me, young Halflings. You must hide now."
'Bu- but, where are we to hide?"
"Go into the forest, as far as you can. I will find you when I am finished." Arothir looked to Fangorn Forest with longing and in deep thought to its hidden glens and tangling branches and vines. He had spent long years beneath the vast canopy of ancient trees. The trees in Fangorn were Ages old and had guided and protected Arothir for many a year. He knew they would protect the young halflings…. Once the Ents realized they were not their enemies. Arothir externally winced at the thought.
The older of the two halfing, misunderstood the Elf's wince, "Are you hurt?"
The Elf's brows drew together for a moment in confusion.
'What?' he wondered silently, it took the thief to understand the source of little one's concern. No one in years, had ever cared if he was injured or hurt. He was confused on how to react to the other's concern. He thought of how many times he had had to sew his own wounds closed, and scavenge for medicinal herbs. How many times had his hands been coated in his own Elven blood? 'Too many times,' he mentally answered his own contemplation.
Before he could reply, the sounds of a guttural language grew louder, coming closer from beyond the trees.
"Oi, you stinking wargs, where's- "
A large orc entered the little area around the former captives and the one thief. It stopped looking first in brief confusion before the beast's yellow-grey eyes lighted suddenly with malicious glee, reaching for his orc scimitar. "Well, well, well what 'ave we 'ere?" the beasts growled out.
Arothir had spun to face to orc who had entered, undetected. He internally cursed himself, for being distracted by the comments made by the beings who stood at his side, asking after his health.
He composed himself quickly and turned to calmly face the orc, stepping in-front of the smaller beings, blocking them from the large Orc.
"Go," the thief's smooth, low voice spoke out.
"Go? What are ya gettin' at, you sneaking arse." A yellow grin spread across the ugly beast's maw.
Arothir, narrowing his eyes, cocked his head arrogantly at the beast, his voice betraying his smirk, "I was not speaking to you, beast."
It was at that moment, the little beings known as Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, fully realized who the Elf was speaking to.
With twin looks of concern for their savior, they hesitated a moment too long.
"Go!" The thief barked out.
The seemingly older of the two covered the younger's mouth with his palm and a shake of his curly-haired head at the other Hobbit. He knew Pippin would ask after the intentions of the thief, he knew his cousin's ever curious mind.
Pippin looked at Merry, concern and fear shown blatantly on the young Hobbit's face.
Merry grabbed his friend's hand and turned to the forest, tugging Pippin along with him. With a final glance at the Elven thief, Meriadoc spoke in a weary tone, the words of, "Thank you… and good luck to you."
With those words, fresh off Merry's lips, the two Hobbits slipped into the shadows of Fangorn Forest, leaving the thief and the orc behind.
*I know the Orcs were ordered not to harm the captives on order by Saruman. But for my story's sake, terrifying them and 'roughing them up' seemed appropriate.
* I guess this counts as a cliffhanger, but I want the battle sequence to be all together and I only have half of it currently written.