Over the course of the ten day journey to Gladden Fields, Gwynne gradually assimilated into the party. It was a little harder for everyone to adjust to her presence because the skills she brought with her were not immediately useful, like Erianne's cooking.
However, on the second day when Telk fell from atop Eärnur and broke his arm, an injury that would have slowed the party down significantly. Gwynne stepped in and had the arm bound in a splint and ready for travel in a matter of minutes. After that incident, it was like she had been with them for weeks.
There was also no sign of the Wargs they had been sent out to hunt down. The best they could do was to travel to Gladden Fields, their known objective.
As they traveled, Gwynne rode behind Suladân and Cina rode in front of Erianne. When they rode, Gwynne would slip her arms about Suladân's waist, and rest her head against his back. Suladân tried not to pay too much attention to it.
The journey went by quick and unhampered, and after eight days they could see the Anduin River coming down from the Misty Mountains in the West to meet the Great Anduin River to the East. However, they could not see much of the Anduin River or where it intersected with the Great Anduin River because it was blocked from sight by a series of forested foothills that Suladân identified as Gladden Fields.
As they came closer and closer to their destination, the companions began to worry about whether they were too early, or too late.
Midway through the tenth day, the ground began to rise and the party could tell they had reached Gladden Fields.
Suladân constantly looked over his shoulder to see if the Wargs would appear on the Southern horizon. He watched as long as he could until the foothills and forest obscured his vision, but they never appeared.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a village here?" Braelorn inquired of the group in general after they had wandered about for a fruitless hour.
"That's what Gandalf's message said, but I've never been this far North." Gwynne responded. The party continued in silence, wandering over the foothills and weaving amongst the trees.
After spending the rest of the day without finding any sign of human habitation in their searching, the party settled down for the night. They built a large fire, hoping that it would attract the attention of anyone in the area.
Soon, everyone was lying around the fire, a hot meal in their stomachs and ready for a full night's sleep. However, Braelorn remained awake. He had volunteered to take the first watch for the night. Normally, they didn't set watches, but with the potential presence of Wargs in the area, everyone was a little more cautious.
Braelorn's third of the watch went by without incident. Not even a shadow moved threateningly beyond the light of the campfire. Braelorn almost wished for something to happen to break the monotony and boredom.
Just as he was waking Suladân up for his turn at the watch, Dalamyr's head rose from his sleep and stared into the distance, his ears twitching. Braelorn roused Suladân and pointed at Dalamyr.
Suladân sat up, drawing his sword and looking off in that direction, Braelorn did the same. "Who goes there?" the latter called out into the night.
"A Ranger of the North." a voice replied out of the darkness behind them. Braelorn and Suladân turned to face the source of the voice, sword ready to strike, but with a twang, their weapons were shot out of their hands by a pair of arrows.
Suladân and Braelorn were now turned fully to see the source of the noise. They couldn't see his face, because it was covered by a black scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face and the hood of a forest green cloak. Underneath the cloak, he wore a short-sleeved gray tunic, leather jerkin, black pants, and leather boots. He held a longbow, with two arrows on the string, their heads spaced far enough apart so the Ranger could kill them both in one shot. A quiver was belted onto his back, over the cloak.
"Now that we can have a civil conversation, why don't you gentlemen tell me what you're doing here?" the Ranger inquired mockingly.
Braelorn sneered and remarked, "We could have had a civil conversation, if you would have walked straight up to us." The Ranger laughed aloud at this, only making Braelorn angrier.
Suladân put out an arm across Braelorn's chest, signaling him to calm down before he stated, "We're here tracking a party of Warg Riders. We heard they might be attacking a village in this area and we were attempting to find it to provide what help we can, but we do not know the way." Something flickered in the Ranger's eyes and he suddenly became serious.
"I know where the village is." he stated, lowering his bow slightly. "I could guide you to it."
"And what of the Wargs?" Suladân inquired eagerly.
The Ranger hesitated before replying, "No, I have not. But if what you say is true, then that will soon change."
The noise the three had been making had woken up both Erianne and Gwynne by now. Gwynne had woken up as soon as the weapons had been shot out of their hands, ready to attack if need be, but now she sat up slowly, her hand now away from the hilt of her sword.
Erianne was a different story. She was slowly roused by the noise and conversation. And when she was, she went immediately on the alert. She rolled out of bed, her shield and axe in her hands. She advanced toward the Ranger, who immediately shot at her, but it was quickly blocked by her shield. The Ranger had another arrow on the string and Erianne was almost to the Ranger when Gwynne stopped Erianne.
Gwynne came up behind Erianne and wrapped an arm around her torso, and pulled the arm holding her axe to the side. "Calm, he is not an enemy." Gwynne hissed in her ear. Erianne shook her off, but didn't make a move towards the Ranger.
An awkward silence filled the camp as Erianne and the Ranger stared at each other resentfully until Erianne turned and walked back to where she had been sleeping. The Ranger lowered his bow in response and the other companions let out a collective sigh of relief.
Suladân broke the silence by saying, "Alright. Now, I don't think we'll be able to go the village tonight. We can set out tomorrow. There hasn't been any sign of the Warg Riders yet and we know they'll be coming here, so it should be assumed that they haven't arrived yet. We can afford to wait."
"Yes...of course..." the Ranger muttered. "I'll return in the morning." he added before disappearing into the night. The companions watched in stunned silence at his sudden exit.
Slowly, however, they recovered and settled back in to sleep for the rest of the night. Erianne demanded an explanation of what she had missed, so she stayed up with Suladân during his watch and he filled her in.
Once all of her relevant questions were answered, Erianne went to sleep and Suladân continued his watch until he turned it over to Gwynne, the last to have a turn at watch that night.