I'm SOOOOOO sorry this took so long! I was going through the holidays, severe phycological issues, and MASSIVE writer's block… all at the same time! But I'm back! So here is the long awaited Chapter 7! Enjoy!

To Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, the sight was surreal; they weren

't stupid, no matter how Sicarius treated them, and they recognized that these were fellow fighting men. Also, they were dressed similarly to their newest companion, Creed.

Aragorn edged behind Sicarius towards Creed, when he had gotten closer he half-whispered, "My two fellows and I are immensely confused."

Creed looked over his shoulder, and being seemingly far less dismissive and dare I say, arrogant, than Sicarius, half-laughed, "These are my men! They're from the Cadian 8th! Platoon 615!"

Before Aragorn had the opportunity to question Creed further he had already stepped forward and addressed the soldiers, "Men of Cadia!.." he lapsed into a smiling silence for a moment, then forgoing military decorum yelled out, "By the Throne it's good to see more familiar faces!"

The men, who Aragorn expected to surround their commander and shout praises and greetings, as was the custom of many cultures of Middle-Earth, instead yelled out in perfect synchrony, "Cadia Stands!"

Captain Sicarius seemed content to let Creed command these new men for the moment, and remembering both Sicarius and Creed's attitude towards them, Aragorn decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and stayed silent.

"Alright!" shouted Creed, pulling Aragorn out of his thoughts, "Squads! Sound off!"

"Squad Alpha, present and accounted for Sir!" shouted one man

The man directly behind him shouted, "Squad Beta, present and accounted for Sir!"

The man behind the second man then shouted, "Squad Gamma, present and accounted for Sir!"

Creed quickly panned his eyes over the soldiers, making sure everything was in order. He then turned towards Captain Sicarius and the three Middle-Earthers, shouting out, "Men! For the foreseeable future you shall treat any commands given by Ultramarines Captain Cato Sicarius, and these three native peoples as if they came from the lips of the Emperor himself! Yea, even the Xenos!"

A quick look of confusion swept across the soldiers, but was quickly subsumed by stoic resolve; and, surprisingly, Sicarius didn't counteract the order… hum, maybe he was warming up to them after all?

Aragorn, who was slightly intimidated by these newfound men quickly walked to Creed's side, "Our purpose is currently to find two of our own, they are the Hobbits, Merry and…"

"Ratlings" whispered Creed, leaning toward Aragorn.

Aragorn took a deep breath then said, "Excuse me, the… Ratlings, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took."

The soldiers incredibly focused gaze made Aragorn uncomfortable, but he continued anyways, saying, "We have tracked them to these woods, having escaped from the massacre of these Orcs last night."

Some of the soldiers quickly glanced at the pile of grisly remains, then back to Aragorn, "We believe that we should search these woods immediately."

The men shouted out, the force almost rocking Aragorn back on his heels, "Sir, yes Sir!"

Now General Creed stepped forward and said, "Men, we seem to be the Imperium's only forces on this world, so we must all depend on one another, is that clear?!"

The soldiery belted out their agreement.

"This may mean that I shall give you all greater independence than is usual, is that clear?" continued Creed.

The soldiery, again, belted out their agreement.

"Alright. Men examine the area, make sure we haven't missed anything important. Do not go into the woods till commanded to, and examine the Ork corpses, something tells me that these Orks are different than usual Greenskins." Creed finished.

The soldiery belted out their agreement, and began to scatter in the area, searching the grass looking for any information of use. Several began poking the pile of remains with the blades on the ends of their strange weapons.

As the soldiery scattered about the area (several sorting through the Uruk-Hai and Orc corpses, several combing through the grass, ect.) three of the men approached Creed, Sicarius, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

The three men had what Aragorn would come to know as a "military-style haircut" and looked somehow more important than the rest.

"Sergeants Crassus, Orlius, and Novas reporting in SIR!" said one of the men.

Creed nodded to each of them, then spun on his heel to face Aragorn. "Why are you so apprehensive of the forest?"

The abrupt manner in which Creed acted startled Aragorn, but he recovered quickly, "It is a dreaded place, old and powerful, those with ill intent who go beneath its boughs do not return."

"So, merely local superstition then?" Creed asked, raising his left eyebrow

Aragorn nodded, though he wanted to stress the fact that, in Middle-Earth, those who did not heed 'mere superstitions' often did not return to make the mistake twice; but stopped himself, he didn't want to fall from this man's good graces.

The Cadians took half an hour to fully search the area, only finding some ill kept Orc weapons that had been dropped in the last night's fray. It also took this amount of time for the soldiery to examine the charred remains of the Orc corpses.

After reporting to General Creed and Captain Sicarius their findings, in a terminology so complex and foreign that Aragorn couldn't make head nor tail of it, most likely some sort of military jargon. The group, now numbering thirty-five, arranged themselves at the edge of Fangorn forest, and with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in the lead, marched under its dark canopy.

For eight hours the group marched, Aragorn found the fact that not one of the common soldiers said a word save, "Yes, sir!", or more rarely, "No, sir!", rather remarkable, the discipline of these warriors, Aragorn had to admit.

Finally, after seemingly losing the trail for a minute or two and having the company grind to a halt. Gimli found a small bit of black liquid on a leaf, put it in his mouth and then spat it out, saying, "Orc blood!"

Aragorn found it strange, he had expected the several soldiers near Gimli to react with disgust, instead they showed rough grins, as though Gimli had passed some sort of test. What Aragorn couldn't know was that the men knew that anyone who could stomach tasting Ork blood without vomiting, was as they would say "One tough S.O.B!"

Suddenly Aragorn knelt down, and upon slowly rising said, "These are strange tracks…"

Then one of the soldiers broke a large stick after believing it would support his weight. All around the group the boughs of the trees began to creak in an ominous manner. The men quickly trained their weapons on wherever the creaks and groans came from.

"This forest is old, full of memory…and Anger" Legolas said

"Lower your weapons" said Aragorn quietly, the men looked at him with surprise, for that was the rarest command an Imperial Guardsman could ever expect to hear. But, when General Creed nodded a fedw seconds later, the men lowered their bayonet fixed Lasguns, and the groans ceased.

"The trees are speaking to one another, They have feelings, the Elves began it, waking up the trees, teaching them to speak…" said Legolas to no one in particular; the guardsmen looked at him as if he had said… well, they really couldn't think of a comprable bit of information so they gawked instead.

"Aragorn, and no ennas!" said Legolas, and by this time the group had consolidated, and somehow found themselves all facing in the same direction.

"The White Wizard approaches" Legolas breathed

Aragorn's hand fell to his sword as the offworlders all tensed. "Do not let him speak" Aragorn commanded, "He will put a spell on us, we must be quick"

"One, two, three!"

The group all spun on their collective heels at once, but a light, bright as the Astronomicon in the Warp, shined and threw off the aim of the first Guardsmen to fire, then whatever was casting the light smashed aside Legolas's arrow and Gimli's thrown axe. The weapons, even those of Captain Sicarius, burning so fiercely that they had to be dropped.

As the company shielded their eyes a voice, like three and one all at the same time, said, "You are tracking the footsteps of two young Hobbits"

"Where are they?" Aragorn questioned.

"They passed this way, the day before yesterday. They met someone they did not expect, does that comfort you?" said the Light.

"Who are you?" Aragorn commanded, "Show yourself!"

Then the light faded, and two figures fell into the view of the company, one identifiable to the Middle-Earthers and one to the soldiers of the Imperium.

For before them stood Gandalf the White and Saint Celestine.