In Luck and Good Weather

"How far is it to Rivendell?" Higgen asked. He was sore from riding through the night and early morning, and feeling very put upon.

"Four days, in luck and good weather," Anduin answered. They were moving quickly and had passed Bree about half an hour ago.

"Four days? I thought I'd be home sooner than that!"

"I'll do my best. Four days is already a bit optimistic," Anduin said. He was much more serious than the last time Higgen had met him.

"Well can't we go a little faster, then?" The hobbit grumbled. He was hungry and starting to believe that going on adventures without eating breakfast first was a very foolish idea.

"We can walk and go longer or gallop and have to rest," Anduin explained.

"What about breakfast?" Anduin sighed and turned in the saddle. He handed a lump of cheese and some crusty bread to the hobbit.

"Hey, this is mine!" Higgen exclaimed.

"Well, I, uh. Yes," Anduin admitted and Higgen could hear the guilt in his voice. "I didn't actually have enough food to make it to Rivendell, so I, um, borrowed a bit from your pantry."

"That's all right," Higgen chuckled, "I promised by brother-in-law he could help himself to the pantry. He's a glutton, and probably would have taken twice what you did. As for this cheese, he would have swallowed it whole."

"Hark whose talking," Anduin said, and that crooked smile tugged at his lips.

They rode well into the afternoon, despite Higgen's requests for elevens' and luncheon. Anduin only consented to stop when Phaethon picked up a stone in his shoe. The ranger helped Higgen down and then he dismounted.

Higgen noticed that as he did so, he kept all of his weight off of his left leg, using his grip on the saddle until his right leg was firmly on the ground. When Anduin caught the hobbit watching him he tossed him two water sacks.

"Fill these up and we'll be off," he said. Higgen walked over to the stream that ran near the road and began to fill up the sacks, watching Anduin as he did.

Kneeling seemed to be painful for Anduin. As he began to kneel he grimaced and clung to Phaethon's leg for support. He plied the stone from Phaethon's shoe and pulled himself up. Higgen though he hear Anduin give a soft moan as his left leg straightened.

"Off again," Anduin said, taking the water sacks from the hobbit and slinging them across the horse's back. He lifted Higgen up and then climbed on himself. By now the hobbit noticed that Anduin only ever mounted on the right side of Phaethon.

As they set off Higgen was preparing to ask whether Anduin was injured, but then something else caught his eye. The ranger's hands were in front of the hobbit, and Higgen noticed that Anduin wore two rings.

"Where did you get those rings?" He asked curiously, for the light sparkled and glinted off of them.

"Oh," Anduin flexed his hand, as though suddenly becoming aware of his rings. "The gold one was given to me by my... when I was a boy. The ruby is from more recently. Elven made, you know."

Higgen reached out a hand to touch the glimmering ruby when suddenly Anduin's hands clenched.

"What is it?" Higgen asked, drawing his hand back. Now he realized that Anduin had completely tensed. Without a word, Anduin swung his leg over Phaethon and dismounted. He walked to the head of the horse and patted his cheek, his eyes searching the woods on either side of the road.

Suddenly men crashed through the trees on either side of the road. They were ragged, like rangers, but had a starved and crazed look about them. "Ambush!" Anduin yelled.

He jumped from Phaethon and drew his sword. Higgen heard himself give a scream of surprise and fear. Anduin raised his left hand and slapped Phaethon's flanks, sending the horse galloping forward.

Anduin was surrounded. He planted his feet firmly and faced his attackers. A flicker of movement at the corner of his eyes caught his attention. He turned and slammed the hilt of his sword into the robber sneaking up behind him. Then he slashed the stomach of another man. The third robber, who looked to be the leader, put up a fight. Their swords clashed again and again but in the end the vagrant was no match for the ranger.

Two of the robbers had taken off after Higgen and Phaethon. Anduin dropped his sword and pulled his bow forth. He notched an arrow and let it fly and then repeated the movement.

Someone else was breathing nearby. The robber he had slammed with his sword hilt, driving the breath out of him, was gasping nearby. Anduin picked up his sword and cut the man's throat.

He was not worried about Phaethon and the hobbit. Either they would make it to the Ford of Elrand, which Phaethon would not cross without his master, or Higgen would fall off. Anduin believed the latter more likely, as he had told the hobbit, Phaethon was mischievous. Perhaps the correct word was just headstrong.

Anduin sat by the side of the road and cleaned his bloodied sword. He checked his bow and unstrung it, curling the string up and putting it away. Next he cut a long stave from a hemlock. He trimmed the twigs and leaves from it with his knife. Then, leaning heavily on the walking staff he had made, he started down the road.

Higgen had fallen off. Rather soon after Phaethon had started running they had come to a field. Phaethon sensed that someone who was not firm and skilled was riding him and he threw the hobbit into a thicket. Higgen was unhurt, but now Phaethon had run away.

Higgen struggled from the thicket, shouting after Phaethon. "Come back! Come back, you horrible nag, what will I tell your master?" And then the little hobbit ran as fast as he could after the pony.

He caught up to the stallion where he had stopped to graze in a meadow. Phaethon did not want to be caught, however, and he nimbly danced away from the hobbit. Higgen ran after him, snatching for his bridle but then eventually gave up and sat in the middle of the field on a rock.

It was nightfall by the time Anduin found him there. The ranger looked tired and dusty and he came limping along the road.

"Are you hurt?" Higgen asked, running up to the ranger.

"There were only five," Anduin looked surprised at the hobbit's concern. Higgen blushed and looked down at his toes. "Where's Phaethon?"

"Over there," Higgen said miserably, nodding toward where the pony stood on the far side of the meadow. "I tried to catch him but..."

Anduin whistled sharply and Phaethon's ears perked up. He raised his head and looked over at the ranger and the hobbit. Then, meek as he could be, he trotted over to his master.

"Come on, might as well bed down here," Anduin said, and he began to unsaddle Phaethon.

That night, Anduin made them a soup of vegetables and herbs. The vegetables had been from Higgen's pantry, but the savory herbs came from a bag that Anduin kept in his saddle kit. Anduin began to sing softly and the hobbit fell asleep to his songs.

"Time to get up," a voice said.

"I don't want to," Higgen grumbled. "Too sore..."

"That's from riding, come on, we better keep moving." Higgen opened his eyes and saw the ranger toasting bread and apples over the fire. "We'll eat on the way."

Phaethon was already saddled, and Higgen wondered how early Anduin would have had to gotten up to be ready to leave before the sun had risen.

"Up we go," Anduin said, pushing the hobbit onto the pony's back. He then handed the hobbit a slice of bread and a warm apple before climbing up behind him.

"Ugh, my poor legs!" The hobbit groaned. "They do ache, and so does my..."

"Don't worry, the second day is the worst," Anduin said. They walked along the road throughout the morning, and the ranger even agreed to stop for elevens', but he put his foot down about second breakfast and luncheon.

"Two meals a day is enough, and we needn't be stopping any more than that." But by mid-morning, just after elevens', Anduin stopped.

"What's wrong?" Higgen asked nervously, cowering back into the man's chest. "Robbers?"

"No," Anduin said. Then he dismounted and gave the reins to Higgen. "Stay here."

"No problem," the hobbit remarked dryly, remembering how the pony had thrown him yesterday. Anduin went back along the path, the way they had come, peering through the trees. Higgen watched him go, and he was concerned, for Anduin's limp seemed worse than yesterday.

The ranger turned and ran back to Phaethon but before Higgen could ask why the ranger put a hand over the hobbit's mouth. He mouthed "Be quiet" to Higgen and then he mounted Phaethon. Without a word he turned the horse and urged him off the path.

As soon as they left the sight of the path behind, Anduin nudged Phaethon with his right leg and spurred him into a gallop. Higgen couldn't have talked now if he wanted to, it was all he could do to stay on the horse.

Soon, however, Anduin had to stop. When Higgen opened his mouth, the ranger shook his head and put a finger to his lips. He did not help Higgen off of the horse, but stopped only to give Phaethon water from the water sack before he moved on.

"We're being followed," Anduin hissed into Higgen's ear. Higgen nodded in understanding, but he still wondered why they were headed into the wild.

That day they kept up the same routine: short gallop, then a stop to rest Phaethon. At night, Anduin forbid any fire, and so they ate cold food and slept little.

"Who do you think is following us?"

"I don't know. But it is best not to find out," Anduin said.

"Why have we gone off the path?"

"It is easier to vanish into the wild."

"And why have we stopped walking?"

"Because in the wild it is better to move fast or be perfectly still than to walk sedately along. It's also the best way to lose a tracker."