A/N: Hey, you know how annoying it is when you reach a cliff hanger and then the next chapter after that moves away from those particular characters and goes straight to another group of characters? Tolkien did that a lot in the LOTR didn't he? Hehehe… (Sorry, I know it's short)
Tolkien Fun Fact: It is rumoured amongst fans that the giant spiders of Middle Earth were created because of the experience Tolkien had as a boy in Africa when he encountered a tarantula spider.
Chapter 3: Two Travellers
Meanwhile, in another part of Dunland, two riders made camp off the beaten road, and in a shrubbery of trees. They did not bother to light a fire at all, for they were both happily fed, and had fine elven cloaks to shield them from the cold. After their ponies were tended to, they sang quiet songs from their homeland before deciding that the night was late enough for them to get some sleep. The first traveller rolled himself up in his blanket and cloak before drifting off, while the other lay on his back and looked up at the stars.
The night seemed very peaceful, however, neither of them had long lasting sleep that night, for just as the second traveller was about to shut his eyes, he heard a faint clamour of distant noises. Sitting up, he turned his head to where he had heard it, and saw behind the far off trees, many lights that were lit in a good heavy number.
'Those are torches,' he realized. 'But the wild men never show themselves so openly. Who else is in these lands?' Though the lights were still dim and far from them, the traveller woke his companion and signalled him to follow.
'Who are they?' said the first traveller, 'and what are they doing here?'
'I don't know,' said the second. 'But let's not show ourselves too soon. I don't want to run into any trouble.'
As the travellers cautiously approached the other camp, they began to hear the foul voices of orcs being uttered in the same direction. At this, they would have maybe abandoned their curiosity, left their camp, and look for a safer road to travel on, but what lured their interest was that these orcs spoke in the common tongue. This could only mean one thing to them: that they were listening to the gathering of different bands, for only when the enemy cannot understand each other would they will use ordinary language to communicate. Also they heard men speaking. Ruffians they sounded like to the travellers, the same as the ones they had encountered many years ago.
With their cloaks shielding the sight of their heads and their hands gripped upon their weapons, they took cover behind an uprooted tree and listened to the words that were being said between the two races. by now they were near enough to see the different clangs together and could hear most of what was said in the camp.
'Why should we care what you have to do? Our job has been done!' squealed one orc. Clearly a quarrel had been aroused between their bands.
"Foul orc filth!' cursed one of the men "Trying to make our work more difficult are yee? Your job was to cut their throats, not to scatter em."
"Poor work it was, now look what you've done," said another man. "We'll all have our necks rung by the end of this."
"Well if our way of business is so "poor,"' snarled a different orc 'why don't you just go and kill them yourselves?'
"Yeah! From what I see, you're just letting us do all the dirty work." Shouts of the dark orc language sprang in the camp, filled with hate and anger.
The travellers listened to it in fright, keeping hidden behind the rotting trunk, but now they were more curious than ever.
'What party? What are they talking about?' whispered one of the travellers.
'Shush! Let me listen,' said the other. They continued spying on the camp for a while, watching the quarrel between the men and orcs grow hotter, and then cool again.
"You just don't enjoy a bit of good sport!" spat out the first orc "they're out there somewhere, and there ain't that many of em. The rest have run off back to the horse planes.
"If that's what you think our chiefs will want, then we'll let you have the honour of telling them yourselves that you let the king run off as good sport for them to hunt" argued the man before he spat into the ground. "A hundred riders against three hundred of your filth? Oh yeah, they'll think that's real nice. I'm surprised that you didn't let em all get away."
"Well their king ain't riding back with em," answered the orc "we attacked the first lot that we saw, but they split up and took us by surprise, but ain't many of em live through it. If that horse scum was with em, he's either dead or somewhere in these parts trying to crawl his way back to the horse land."
'They're speaking of King Éomer,' whispered first traveller.
'Shush!' Came the only reply from his companion.
"Stupid waste!" said the man, now raising his voice back to the same extreme as their last disagreement. "How do we know that you didn't just go off and attack the wrong fellas? The king could've been with the second party, and now returning to the Riddermark." At this, the two leading orcs exchange wicked grins between each other.
"Oh but he ain't," said one of them "that's where we got ourselves a little bonus." That same orc then turned behind him, bellowing orders to the rest of his gang. Shortly after, one of them approached carrying the ragged pelt of a dead beast. Within it, something was wrapped; by its familiar shape, both travellers quickly assumed that it was a covered blade. Bitterly, the orc grasped onto the pelt and ripped it away, revealing for all eyes a lengthy blade recognizable by both clangs, and the travellers, who knew its name very well, identifying the sword in utter disbelief.
Anduril, of the shards of Narsil. The sword of King Elessar.
"Plucked this off one of em in the second lot. He and some other fellas ran off into the woods. Gondorian scum, he was." The foul creature handed the blade to the man, glad to be rid of it, for it bared a heavy elven feel that he so hated. The man avidly stretched his unworthy fingers around the hilt of the sword and lifted it humorously.
"So the king of Gondor is in the strewn eh? How fitting I wonder would it be for the bane of the king to be the same as his uprising?" he said, curling a cold grin on his embittered lips. "Sport you say? Then sport we'll make em. Find them lot and bag em. Bring them back to Trohh Mizt, alive if you can manage it, Orc. Our chiefs will want to be certain if it is the kings that we've got, otherwise I'll make sure that it's your head that replaces em. They'll say nothing to us dead. No mistakes this time!'
The men in the camp sniggered and laughed amongst themselves; a cruel sound it was to hear for the on-looking travellers that were watching them. Where was Trohh Mizt, they wondered, and who else was scattered with the kings' men? The travellers turned to one another nodded their heads in silent agreement, then emerged from their cover and crept silently towards their own camp. They had heard enough from this gathering.
At that moment, luck changed against them, and as they followed their own trail in quiet haste back to their camp, one of ponies whinnied, alerting the orcs and men of their whereabouts.
"What 'ave we got 'ere" the travellers heard from behind them.
"Over there! That's where they are!"
Noises from the camp broke out so suddenly that the two travellers knew that the only time given to them was in flight. With tightly choked grips still grasped on their sword, the travellers dashed to the side, forsaking their camp and running deeper into the trees. The light stepping of their quick feet made little noise against the dry fern layered ground, which was good for them both, for neither could run at lengthy speed. Thus they trusted only that they would not be found, pulling their elven cloaks further over their heads. The second traveller looked back to where their camp had been as he heard the helpless cries of their ponies.
"Poor beasts," thought the traveller "Poor stupid beasts."
A/N: Oops. I think I might have made these two travellers a little too obvious, but I want to hear your guesses anyway. Who do you think they are? Please, please Review.