i don't own LoTR, only Rianadra :D
The Fellowship Plus One
Chapter Thirteen: Through Rohan
We traveled hard for days on end, hoping to gain ground on the Uruks, and by proxy Merry and Pippin. The four of us, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and myself, barely rested during those days, sleeping only when necessary, and only for short periods of time. We ate while running, and for once I was glad of my people's increased endurance. Without it, I would not have been able to keep up. As it was, I easily kept pace with Legolas, although neither of us could quite catch Aragorn. Were we not on such an urgent errand, I would have found that fact rather entertaining.
By the morning of the third day, Aragorn believed we were maybe a little over a day behind the Uruks; he spent much of his time, when it could be spared, kneeling with his ear to the ground, listening to the footsteps of our quarry. This afternoon was no different; I stood back a bit with Legolas and Gimli as the Man put his ear to the rock again. I wondered if he really could truly hear the Uruks moving even this far back.
Apparently he could, as he sat up a moment later, a hard look on his face. "Their pace has quickened. They must have caught our scent," he muttered, glancing back at us. "Hurry!" Instantly, Legolas and I leaped to join him, Gimli slowly stumbling his way along behind us. I glanced back at the Dwarf, grinning.
"Come on, Gimli!" He glared at us.
"Three days and night's pursuit… No food, no rest, and no sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell!" he yelled back at us; I would have laughed at him had I the breath to spare. Luckily, perhaps, for him, I did not. Instead I rushed to catch up with Aragorn, who was far ahead of us as usual, and Legolas, who was only a little ways in front of me. And then we ran. Hours passed as the sun steadily moved across the sky. Gimli complained constantly, which I thought was part of the reason- if not completely the reason- why he was always out of breath.
Some time around mid afternoon, Aragorn stopped suddenly; I nearly bowled over him. "Aragorn! Why did you stop?" I growled, glaring at him as I stumbled off to one side. He glanced up at me, showing me the tiny green and silver brooch he had picked up.
"Not idly do the Leaves of Lorien fall," he said softly. I took it from him, staring at it, unable to speak. Legolas came up behind me, looking over my shoulder to see what held my attention. I heard a tiny gasp from him; I assumed he understood the importance of this discovery.
He spoke a second later, his voice soft. "They may yet be alive." Aragorn rose swiftly, nodding. I pocketed the tiny brooch as the Man moved off again.
"Less than a day ahead of us!" He ran off, adding, "Come," over his shoulder. I glanced back to see Gimli fall off the ledge the three of us had leaped off easily. With laughter and triumph in my voice I called back to him,
"Come, Gimli! We are gaining on them!" With that I ran off, barely catching what he yelled back at me in rebuttal.
"I'm wasted on cross-country! We Dwarves are natural sprinters," he growled. I laughed as he added, "Very dangerous over short distances!" Aragorn chuckled ahead of us as he raced up a hill at the end of the pass we had just come through. At the top, he and Legolas gazed across the country ahead of us. I caught up with them, Gimli a few seconds behind me, just in time to hear Aragorn tell us what country we were about to enter.
"Rohan. Home of the Horse-lords." He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "There's something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures… sets its will against us." I had to agree but didn't have to chance to respond. Legolas grabbed my arm and pulled me a little ways ahead of the others.
"Your eyes are no doubt as good as mine. What do you see?" I looked out, spotting the swift-moving black mark of our quarry rushing across the plains before us. I glanced over at Legolas, noting the nervous look on his face when he realized their direction. "The Uruks… They are going to Isengard!" he muttered to me, sounding very worried. I was about to ask him what was so bad about Isengard aside from a not-so-lovable Wizard when Aragorn called from behind us, "Legolas! What do your Elf-eyes see?" Legolas grimaced at me before telling the Man what he had just told me before adding, "If only Men could have such eyesight as our people have, eh?" I snorted with laughter, ignoring the confused looks of the others as they caught up.
"Give me strange looks all you like, you two, I am not going to explain what was so funny." They glared at me; I just grinned. "You would not understand, would they, Legolas?" The Elf grinned at me, completely understanding my joke.
"No, they would not, Lady Rianadra. No, they would not."
(as much as I hate time skips, it's impossible not to have one here… unless y'all WANT to read more of just them running across Rohan all day…)
We ran straight into the sunset. I watched the great ball fall from the sky, hoping our little friends could survive another night. We were so close now; I thought it may very well kill us to be so close and lose them.
At some point after we discovered the Uruks's destination, Legolas had muttered to me, "They run as if the very whips of their masters were behind them." At the time, I hadn't quite agreed, thinking that perhaps we would catch them by sunfall. As it turned out, though, the Elf was right. They did indeed run as though they expected a killing blow to strike from behind if they did not move quickly enough. The sun fell to the West, and still we moved on.
I heard Gimli start to wheeze behind me, worse than before, and knew we had to stop or risk killing the Dwarf. "Aragorn!" The Man kept moving, although Legolas stopped with me as we waited for the Dwarf. "Aragorn!" Finally, he stopped and looked back at us. "We must stop, for now." The Man gave me a disbelieving stare, so I added, "They must stop as well. Even Uruk-Hai cannot keep this speed up overnight." It would hurt Gimli's pride to know that I had asked Aragorn to stop for his sake. After a moment's deliberation, Aragorn came back to join us, looking a little worse for wear himself.
"You are right, Riana. We shall rest, eat, and be moving before dawn." We all agreed on this, and spent a bare four hours eating and resting. After that, even Gimli could not come up with an excuse to keep from moving on.
So we did.
Through the night, we ran, hoping the Uruks had stopped to rest as we had. I could only pray I had been right when I claimed they would have to stop for rest. If not, I could not begin to imagine the consequences. If we lost Merry and Pippin because I suggested a rest… I did not think I could forgive myself. And so, this time it was me leading us; I raced ahead of Aragorn, in a sense hoping to make up for lost time just in case the worst was about to happen.
Just as the sun had earlier, the moon slowly marched across the sky as we ran, marking the hours that flew by. Everything looked the same in the night, and so I could barely tell if we were going the right way or if we were going an opposite direction. Were it not for Aragorn staying so close behind me, I may well have turned around for fear I had gone the wrong way. As it was, I kept going, and knew finally we were indeed heading the right way when the sun rose behind us with a brilliant red glow.
I was relieved for all of a few seconds, as Legolas had to make a comment that made my blood go cold, "A red sun rises… Blood has been spilled this night." I wanted to smack him. Of course, the Elf could have no idea that I spent most of the night fretting over whether our decision to rest was a wise one or not, but still. That was in no way a necessary comment! I settled for glaring at the back of his blonde head as he caught up to Aragorn, who was crouched on the ground again, studying tracks left in the dirt.
Still grumbling about unnecessary comments, I joined them, followed by Gimli. I was about to inform Legolas just how I felt about his thoughts on "red suns rising" when a not-so-distant whinny sounded from below the hill. Aragorn rose to his feet swiftly, looking out across the plains. After a moment, he gestured quickly to hide behind a boulder. Briefly I debated not following them, but after Aragorn sent a glare my way, I decided now was not the time to be obstinate. I rushed to join them behind the boulder.
Seconds after I was completely hidden, a host of riders moved past us, their horses' hooves thundering. I stared at them, amazed, having never seen that many horses in one place before. Truly, it was an impressive sight. So immersed was I in watching the herd move by that I didn't notice Aragorn had slipped out from behind our boulder until Legolas tugged on my arm. I quickly joined him and Gimli at Aragorn's side as he called in a voice meant for battlefields, "Riders of Rohan! What news from the Mark?"
The Rider in the lead tilted his spear to one side; the entire company turned and rode swiftly back towards us. Nervously, I slid behind Legolas, watching them come closer. The Riders were on us an instant later, circling around until we were surrounded by at least three rows of horsemen. That was fine, but then they moved closer and closer, pressing the four of us against each other. I pressed myself against the Elf's back and felt him grab my hand. The touch calmed me just enough to stop the panic rising in my throat, but not enough to keep me from coming out from behind him. I was fine right where I was.
Through the ranks of horseman, a single rider approached us. Just as he broke through the center ring, he spoke, "What business does an Elf, an Man, a girl, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark?" Girl… I bit back a growl and glared at him around the shelter of Legolas' shoulder. "Speak quickly!" I ducked back as his eyes landed briefly on me. Noticing my sudden discomfort, Gimli spoke.
"Give me your name, Horse-master, and I shall give you mine!" His distracting ploy worked, as the horseman tossed his spear to another before swiftly dismounting. He came to stand in front of the Dwarf, clearly not amused.
"I would cut off your head, Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground," he snapped. Legolas suddenly released my hand, reaching for an arrow and setting it to the string. Not a moment later, it was pointed straight at the Horse-lord's head and all the spears were aimed at us. Him, mostly, but I was too close to him for them to miss me. I shrank back again as Legolas growled- as much as an Elf can growl-, "You would die before your stroke fell!" Thankfully, Aragorn seemed to still have some sense left, as he pushed Legolas' bow down before turning to the horseman. Legolas continued to glower at the Man, but his hand eventually found mine again.
Aragorn was introducing us when I peeked out from behind the Elf again, "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli son of Gloin, Legolas of the Woodland Realm, and Rianadra of the Mountains." I squeaked at the mention of my name, having much preferred to not have been noticed at all. Legolas squeezed my hand gently, and I tried to take comfort from that. However, the closeness of the horse, the fact that they were all higher than me, and the not-so-happy emotions were all working to make me feel very claustrophobic. Even the closeness of the Elf did little to alleviate the anxiety in my chest.
"Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," the Horse-lord stated in answer to something Aragorn had said. "Not even his own kin." With that, the Man removed his helmet and the spears moved to point elsewhere. I breathed a little easier as the horseman continued, "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over his lands. My company are those loyal to Rohan, and for that, we are banished." I wondered who Saruman was, and why everyone seemed to be so frightened of him. I glanced up at Legolas, but he had returned to glaring at the Man.
"The White Wizard is cunning," the Horse-lord spoke softly. "He walks here and there they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip past our nets." Ah, so that was why Legolas looked ready to commit murder. The idiot Man had implied he thought we were spies. I poked my head around to glower at him myself.
"We are no spies!" my mouth grumbled without my brain having told it to do so. The Man looked at me then, and I could no longer hide behind Legolas now that I had spoken. I stepped out to the side, trying not to show how nervous I was without the Elf's comforting presence between the horseman and me. "We track a party of Uruk-Hai across the plains." I paused then, not knowing how much to tell him. Aragorn finished for me.
"They have taken two of our friends captive." The horseman's face lit in understanding.
"The Uruks are destroyed," he said firmly. "We slaughtered them during the night." I swallowed hard.
"But there were two Hobbits!" Gimli cried. "Did you see two Hobbits with them?" At the Horse-lord's confused glance, Aragorn translated Gimli's excited babble. "They would be small, only children to your eyes." The Horseman's eyes were shadowed now, and when he spoke next, his words shattered my heart and left my blood cold.
"We left none alive."