After the silence that followed the reading of Emily's note, there was a short debate as to which path they should now follow. Their hearts were torn. They had agreed to see the quest through to the end—even if they had sworn no oaths—but Frodo had chosen to go off alone and Merry and Pippin needed them. Could they, in good conscience, abandon the youngest two to torture and death to pursue the Ring Bearer who had forsaken their company? Emily's note had made it sound as though they were supposed to follow the youngest pair of hobbits. But where did that leave Frodo?
Boromir sat silent through the debate, his misery at his hand in all of this taking his ability to speak. Had he not have been tempted, or not have cornered Frodo, none of this would have happened. Through his actions, the fellowship had been broken. Frodo and Sam were now alone to face the impossible task of gaining entry to Mordor. Merry and Pippin were captured by orcs. He wondered if, even if, they were rescued would they be able to smile again? And Emily . . . he couldn't bring himself to think about her fate due to his actions. It somehow hurt him even more that he could not even honor her last wish. No matter what she had believed, this was his fault.
Eventually, it was unanimously decided—among those that took part in the discussion—that the fellowship would follow the Uruks and attempt to rescue the youngest hobbits, for good or ill. There was only one thing that they needed to take care of first: Emily's burial.
It was with heavy hearts that the remainder of the fellowship quickly packed their things, Gimli taking Merry's pack and tying it to his own while Legolas did the same with Pippin's. They knew that it was foolish to encumber themselves with the extra weight, but somehow leaving them made it feel like they had no hope of seeing the hobbits alive once more. After a brief pause, Boromir did the same with Emily's—though he had no hope of ever seeing her again—and they made to follow the Uruks that had taken Merry and Pippin.
They started off in the direction that they knew Merry, Pippin and Emily had gone, hoping to find her body quickly so as not to delay the chase overlong. They held no hope of finding her alive, or at least not alive and in a condition in which she could be saved. Orcs cared not if they killed women and they would not have taken her with them. It was strange enough that the Uruks took the hobbits—Emily hadn't bothered to explain why, thought they could guess from what Gandalf had said that Saruman was searching for the Ring—but that they would take her as well . . . it was beyond unlikely. And if they had . . . with what Uruks were known to do to prisoners . . . they almost found themselves hoping that she was dead. Death would be kinder than the fate that awaited her at the hands of Uruks and Saruman.
Elves and hobbits may not leave many traces of their passing, but the signs were there if one knew what to look for. Aragorn knew and carefully led them along the path that Emily had taken, which for the time being mirrored that of Merry and Pippin. He felt his heart sink when the first Uruk footprint appeared in the path. He held up his hand for the others to stop, there was no need for them to all blunder into a clearing filled with Uruks, and listened for any sound. There were none. Not even the pained breathing of someone near death. She was gone.
Taking a deep breath to still his nerves for the sight of her mutilated body, he stepped into the clearing. It was a small clearing and it only took a brief glance around to see that there was no body in it. The only things that remained were Emily's knives and a pair of boots. He stepped back and motioned for the others to follow him and watched as their expressions went from dread to shock to hope before coming back to dread. The Uruks had taken their hobbits and Emily.
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Emily was beginning to realize just how great a mistake she had made. Looking back, she realized that she should have distracted Boromir, let the Uruks take the hobbits and then joined the chase to retrieve them, not gotten captured herself. And if her getting captured was the only way this could have played out, she should not have hidden knives down her boots. It wasn't like she had had any illusions about her abilities to fight off Uruks that had killed a warrior of Boromir's caliber. All it had resulted in was her losing her shoes. Shoes she sorely missed. She had thought that her feet were tough after countless summers spent bare-foot, but . . . she now realized that she had been mistaken.
The ground they were traveling over was rough and broken, not to mention covered with leaves that masked the terrain. Add to that the fact that the Uruk leader behind her was impatient about allowing her to pick her way through it and soon it all combined to lead to her having feet that ached and bled. And it was a condition that wasn't helped by the Uruks.
Only moments before, she had stopped to pull a sharp stick from her foot. Her abrupt stop had caused the leader to crash into her and knock her to the ground. He had then bent and grabbed her by the braid, ignoring both her cries of protest and her hands scratching at his wrist, and dragging her back to her feet as he leered in her face.
"We ain't got time for this," he growled. "Either you move quicker or you die, understand?" Her eyes filled with tears both at the pain of it and the realization that she may very well die. She couldn't bring herself to speak so she nodded vehemently—though part of her mind desperately wanted to insist that she could have moved more quickly if they wouldn't have taken her boots—and started walking again as soon as he released her hair. She bit back sobs as she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, trying desperately to ignore the pain as the sharp rocks and stick tore into her flesh.
She thought that she was making good time, but apparently it wasn't good enough because after a few more moments and another couple of shoves, the Uruk leader threw her roughly over his shoulder and bellowed a call to the others, who began to run in an attempt to make up for the time that they had lost to Emily's slow pace. Even though having the Uruk's shoulder digging into her stomach was far from comfortable, Emily was somewhat grateful for it. As long as he was carrying her, she didn't have to walk and damage her feet even further. And she felt that she should be grateful for that, even if it did mean that she, Merry and Pippin were being taken away from their friends even more quickly.
ooOO88OOoo
The others, however, were not grateful in the least. The ground there was hard, more rock than dirt, and even the iron shoes of the Uruks left little trace there. As little as they liked seeing the red blood of one of their companions—they weren't sure if it was from a hobbit or Emily but knew that since it was red it did not belong to an Uruk—it had at least given them something to follow. Once it disappeared, there was nothing to guide them and they were left hoping that the Uruks kept traveling in a straight line.
"We know their destination and path," Legolas offered quietly while Aragorn searched desperately on the trackless ground for some sign of the path they had taken. "Could we not simply travel that direction and attempt to head them off?"
"We could," Aragorn replied, his frustration at the situation coloring his words. It seemed as though there were no good choices anymore. Every decision he tried to make went ill and no matter what he chose this time there was a chance for his choice to do the same. And they had no time for yet another debate if they ever wanted to overtake the Uruks.
"However," he said deciding that he could share his thoughts while he searched for signs, "if we take a different path we run the risk of missing something important. Such as an escaped prisoner."
"Or a body," Boromir supplied, speaking for the first time since Emily's deception had been revealed and looking at Aragorn with eyes filled with sadness.
"Or a body," Aragorn agreed. "I feel that we would be better served following the path of the Uruks. They will choose the swiftest path over the planes of Rohan regardless. I just need to locate it."
"I believe this is a sign of their passing, or I am an Elf," Gimli said from just down the hill. Legolas raised an eyebrow at the expression but said nothing, more intent on finding their companions than on having words with the Dwarf about how he could still believe that being an Elf would be a bad thing.
"You are no Elf," Aragorn replied with a wan smile. "It is indeed a sign, and there is another. Come! Let us follow them while they last." There was no more talk for a time as the remainder of the fellowship bent all their energy on gaining ground they had lost to the Uruks.
ooOO88OOoo
And they had much ground to recover. After the leader had lifted Emily, their pace had more than doubled. From her position over his shoulder, Emily tried to see her fellow captives and discovered that they, too, were being carried. Both of them were unconscious and Merry had a sluggishly bleeding cut on his forehead that worried her. She hadn't remembered him being injured when Boromir had attempted to save them. She hoped that he would be alright. She couldn't stand the idea that she had sacrificed his life to save another.
But for a time all she could do was worry. The Uruks ran all day, never once stopping for a rest until night began to fall. There was no warning for Emily that a halt was coming—as she didn't speak Orcish—until she was unceremoniously dropped from the leader's shoulder. Her unprepared legs didn't hold her and she dropped to the ground in an ungainly heap. The leader sneered at her before walking away to talk with another Uruk and leaving her on the ground.
It took a moment for the shock of being free to register before she realized what it meant. She was free. Unbound and untouched. If she was quick about it, she could probably escape. The logical part of her mind told her that it was quite possibly the stupidest thing she had ever thought of, but her fight or flight response had been triggered and would not be ignored. As soon as his back was to her, she stood and took off at a run.
She made it, perhaps, ten steps before she was stopped. She cried out and cursed simultaneously. An Uruk had managed to grab the end of her braid. For the first time, she hated herself for giving into the temptation to have her hair styled manageably. If she hadn't braided it, he wouldn't have had a handle to stop her, or a leash with which to lead her back to the leader. She struggled to keep up with the pace he had set, but with the way he held her head and the pain from her feet it was difficult. She was sobbing again by the time he had her back to the group, both from the pain in her head from where her hair had pulled as she had stumbled along and from fear at what they would now do to her. What she had just done had been beyond stupid: it had been suicidal.
She tried to fight down her panic and her sobs and stand in front of the large Uruk as though she wasn't afraid, but the way that he was leering down at her made her start to cry in earnest. He stared at her for so long that she was beginning to think that nothing was going to come from her escape attempt, but then, faster than she could follow, he struck her, the back of his hand connecting with her face with enough force to knock her to the ground. Even though no one had ever hit her like that, she instinctively curled into a ball and brought her hands up in a weak attempt to protect herself from further blows.
One of his massive hands closed around both of her wrists and forced them away from her face while the other grasped her jaw with its thumb and forefinger to force her face up while the rest of them wrapped threateningly around her throat. She didn't miss the way he smiled at the fear in her eyes and the erratic pulse at her throat. He leaned in so that his face was only a hair's breadth from hers and spoke, his fetid breath filling her nostrils.
"Don't do that again," he growled. "We don't actually need you. You aren't part of the orders, just a present. An extra that we can be rid of with no skin off our hides. You make trouble, you die. Understand?" To demonstrate his sincerity, his fingers tightened momentarily, only releasing her after her vision had begun to go black around the edges. While she lay on the ground sobbing and gasping for air, he said something to the others in their own language and something was brought forward, something that clanked. Before Emily could protest, or even realize what was happening, the Uruks had fastened heavy iron manacles around both her wrists and ankles. There was a chain connecting the bindings on her wrist to the hand of the leader. Even had she been foolish enough to try again, escape was no longer an option.
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Sorry about the delay on this one. My sister came into town last week and I didn't get the chance to do any writing while she was here. I also apologize for the shortness. That was the only place that I could cut it that didn't lead to an epically long chapter . . . The rest isn't written but I do have it planned out in my head and this was really the only point. :/
As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to read this chapter or to add it to your alerts or favorites.
And a special thank you to those of you who reviewed. Y'all really make my day!
UntilNeverDawns: I'm glad that I could do justice to the name! I hope that I continue to do so! Thank you! and I'm glad that you are enjoying the story!
Angel Bells: I'm glad that you are loving it. It's going to get dark here for a bit but it will—most likely—work out in the end ;)
Vault108: I'm glad that you found it as well! And I'm glad that I managed to create an OC that isn't a Sue. And I'm a bit of a punctuation nazi, but I've got so much going on right now that I just have to accept that there will be a few errors here and there and move on with my life :/ And I'm glad that you are enjoying it! Capslock love is ALWAYS appreciated :)
Kilataia: Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!
Lira-leigh54: Thank you! I hope that it didn't cause you too much trouble the next day. And this was actually why I made her an elf in the first place (I had this part planned out from the get go) and figured that there was a history of Orcs taking Elves so it worked. I hope that you continue to enjoy it!
19seventythree: Thank you! I love to hear that I haven't lost people. And hope that you continue to enjoy it until it's done :)
SSJKarigan: Thank you! I thought that it was a solid plan. I couldn't see how to get him out of it alive any other way. I hope that the following chapters live up to your expectations and am glad that I have managed to keep your interest so far!
LOTRfan: Yep :) Couldn't kill him off here, that would be beyond cruel of me. And avoidance of the problem was the only way that I could see to get him out of it alive. I'm glad that you loved that! I felt like it was an Emily thing to do :) And as to what happens, you'll just have to wait and see ;)
KrystylSky: Oh Boromir is beyond guilty. Poor thing feels like dirt right now. :( and I will keep updating as long as there is a story to tell (I don't abandon things) and I'm glad that you liked it :)
Padme4000: Not a problem at all! :) Yeah . . . the whole fighting the Uruks idea is just . . . yeah. I couldn't see it happening, or at least not ending well if it did :/ And I'm glad that you liked it! Sometimes avoidance is the only way to deal with something. And I rarely do anything for just plot sake there is generally a motivation (actually that scene was the motivation for turning Emily into an Elf and it wasn't just my motivation—gotta love the Valar) I'm glad that you liked him moving. It seemed like the kind of noble, backward thing that he would do :/
Nurseratchet: Thank you! and sorry that it wasn't soon. . . silly sisters coming into town . . . I hope you enjoyed it at any rate!
Guest: See, more! I hope that you enjoyed it!
Guest: There is now more :) I hope that you enjoyed it!
Well, that's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear what you thought (even if you hated it) so please leave me a review if you have time and/or feel so inclined.
Stickdonkeys.