- There hadn't always been just one Ranger guarding the Lone-lands.
- In late October of the year 3013, there are three Rangers who protect the Lone-lands. Telaren guards from the Weather-hills to Minas Eriol, and he can ever be found at his camp on Amon Sûl. Garan is the friendliest of them, and is based out of Ost Guruth, having somehow managed to win their good will. Candaith, the youngest of them, guards from the Red Pass to the entrance of Harloeg, never daring to pass through either. He's young, and Radagast tells him nothing hostile would dare brave those two forsaken corners. ("Or, well, nothing alive-").
- He trusts his two fellows, of course he does, but he doesn't see them often, and news from Esteldín seldom manages to pass through both of them to Candaith. It's a lonely life, sure, but not an unpleasant one, and it's not like he's got anyone to miss.
- It's early November when Radagast first comes to him with a warning: fell beasts rising beyond the Red Pass. He asks the three of them to investigate- "Carefully, mind you!"- as he himself is a peaceful wizard, and isn't quite the "flaming sword type" as he puts it. (Candaith is pretty sure "Bloody Gandalf" is muttered there, but he'll never admit it.)
- It's mid-November when the three of them venture to Agamaur and Garth Agarwen. It's waning on toward December when Candaith at last comes back. Alone.
- Somehow, what with returning to Radagast, numbly reporting everything they'd seen and riding to Ost Guruth to inform them of the change, it doesn't once occur to him to alert his kinsmen of their fellows' deaths. He arrives at Telaren's camp, mutely pickets his horse, and goes right back to his job. It's only when Saeradan shows up at the camp he still can't think of as his that he realizes he probably should have done that. Telaren's missed the supply drop, the older Ranger says, riding in. Where-? But then he sees Candaith's face, and falls silent.
- Saeradan is kind, but the two of them have barely met beside that initial introduction when Candaith was first posted, and it's not like there's a protocol for two Rangers at the same post dying together. It was never supposed to happen. Saeradan writes the report, loads Candaith with that year's supplies, and rides off back to Bree to send it in. Candaith goes back to work.
- He resets Telaren's camp. Sections off his personal effects, to be sent to whatever family he has, rearranges the defences to his satisfaction, scratches his sign into a rock in case Saeradan comes back, and rides off toward Ost Guruth
- Garan hadn't had much there, and the Eglain know he was unmarried, so he bundles up his stuff to be sent to his family and then arranges a meeting with the Eglain leader.
- The Eglain are a strange folk, and solitary. There wasn't an "arrangement" really, between them and the Dúnedain. Or any communication at all. The Eglain knew that the Rangers were determined to protect the land they called home, and would also protect them, whether they wanted it or not. So as long as nobody bothered anybody else, they were fine with it. Which was all to say that yes, Candaith could resupply there and purchase whatever he wanted, but no, they would not be supporting him in any manner or deigning to stoop to politeness at all. And frankly, that's fine by Candaith and he'll be more than happy to reciprocate.
- It's late January now, and the Eglain no longer start when they see him heading up the entrance stairwell instead of Garan, dropping in for an hour to gather news then heading on his way. The Lone-lands aren't supposed to be a difficult posting at all, really. It's empty, for one, and the Eglain aren't hostile to strangers enough to shoot them on sight. It's a post meant for recently graduated Rangers, like Candaith, or older soon-to-retire ones. So Candaith's main problem is the sheer amount of ground he has to cover on a patrol. He can do it, though, and that's the point.
- It's almost mid-February when Saeradan finally returns, looking rather run-ragged himself. His news isn't very pleasant. Evendim's been invaded, the Angmarim seem to be coming down from the North; they've sent a Ranger up there to investigate. Dol Dinen in the North Downs has burst, and goblins have already spread over the area. Somebody's organizing the Blackwolds in Bree-land, and reinforcements have already been needed and sent. All to say what Candaith had known from the beginning of the explanation, from Saeradan's face alone: Esteldín's all but empty and there's no one to spare to send.
- But it's fine. Candaith's been doing this for two months, he can do it for… however long it takes for replacements to come. He's got this.
- It's June, and the monthly visit to Ost Guruth results in reports of strange beasts coming from the East, from the Last Bridge. He gets a closer look, and even though he's never seen them before, he knows them from descriptions. Orcs.
- Frideric, Ost Guruth's Elder, is a rather interesting man. He's gruff, and carries the air of supreme uncaring, as if you could drop dead right there and he'd keep on grumbling about you interrupting the Eglain's daily life and their "peace of mind." Candaith rather thinks that the Eglain's peace of mind might be benefited from the fact that he's protecting them from the orcs currently invading their home- and he says so, because there are orcs invading his home and he's not very keen on caring right now either. To his surprise, the old man laughs.
- It's September, and the orcs have begun to regularly flow onto the plains, and harassing them has become a full-time job. He's setting up his fourth ambush of the month when a runner from Ost Guruth reaches him. Apparently, he'd missed his monthly check-in and the Eglain had been "interested in the status of their interloper". Despite the situation, Candaith grins. He's beginning to like the Eglain.
- It's November and the orcs have nearly doubled. Candaith circles between the hills of Talath Gaun and his camp at Amon Sûl, between gathering supplies and laying ambushes.
- It's December and wargs have joined the invasion. Candaith approaches Frideric about enlisting some of the Egain hunters as scouts, because this new element means he's no longer able to keep up with the enemy. To his surprise, the elder agrees without a fuss. Apparently he'd already been thinking about it.
- It's January and Eglain scouts call in the first troll sighting. Candaith adjusts his ambushes to compensate. Some of the Eglain hunters come out to join him once, when the patrol had ventured close enough to Ost Guruth to be seen from its walls. They stand in the copse of trees afterward, watching silently while Candaith wraps his own arrow-impaled shoulder perfunctorily and brushes off the ash from his makeshift firepots. Later, a group of hunters approach him about learning the sword. Well aware of the fast-growing fact that he can't do this alone, Candaith agrees.
- It's March when Saeradan comes back, concern at Candaith having missed the supply drop turning to horror when he finds Candaith at his camp, busy wrapping the leg of an injured hunter-turned-warrior and unsurprised by the scores of orcs that have leached across the region.
- I didn't have time to call it in. Candaith says simply, then ignores the older Ranger in favor of moving on down the line of injured men. A young woman follows, listening as he explains what he is doing carefully. Saeradan closes his mouth and helps.
- Be careful. Is Saeradan's only message when he leaves. Then: I'll send to Halbarad, there's got to be something he can do. The last is said to the barren plains surrounding them rather than Candaith. And then he's gone, and Candaith goes back to work.
- It's April and Saeradan's back early, bearing supplies, more and better-forged weapons than what the Egain have managed (they're many things, but not smiths), and the news of still no news. Candaith thinks the report must have been lost in the barrier of enemies swiftly growing between Bree-land and the North Downs. Saeradan agrees- the raven hasn't returned, apparently.
- It's July and Saeradan's back again. ("I thought you had problems?" "I do. You have bigger ones.") There's a long silence, and the older man looks like he's trying to say something, but doesn't want to. Finally- There are goblins growing in the Midgewater. Watch your western flank. Candaith nods and turns to his seemingly ever-present contingent of Eglain warriors to inform them of the change, united in defence of this barren land. Saeradan frowns, and watches them.
- It's December and Candaith barely takes a moment to consider that it's been two years before he entrusts the monthly report Saeradan's begun to insist on to a raven and lets it go.
- It's March and Candaith is pretty sure the folks up at Esteldin have forgotten him. Saeradan, still with his now-permanent frown, sends another message. Candaith privately wonders what good the man thinks it'll do.
- It's September, then January, then May, then July again and they fall into a rhythm. It's late August, 3017 when out of the blue Saeradan asks how old he is. Candaith frowns, thinks, then answers twenty-eight, why? He doesn't wait for an answer before he returns to washing blood-soaked hands in boiling water.
- It's December, then March, then June and the goblins gradually give up, fading back into the marshes where the Egain don't follow. If anything, the invasion is growing, though, and Candaith and the Eglain can't do much to stop it anymore. Orcs have infested caverns Candaith hadn't known existed, and Minas Eriol, where he'd once watched the sunset from the highest crumbled tower, was naught but a breeding ground for wargs and fell spiders now. The Weather-hills are the host to legion upon legion of the strongest, fastest of the orcs- those they call the Uruk-hai, and Candaith has to ghost around them every time he resupplies at his camp.
- He won't move it, though. Won't budge from this long-desecrated fortress. Amon-Sûl is his, and no one will be forcing him away.
- It's late September, and a call comes from Ost Guruth: Radagast the Brown wishes to see him.
- He hasn't seen the wizard for years, despite his frequent visits to the Eglain's capital, but Radagast jumps straight into it despite that, greeting him as if they were friends and offering him tea as he enters.
- Candaith sits there, with a ceramic honest-to-goodness teacup in his roughened hands, a badger sleeping peacefully on his lap and listening to the strange silence of the indoors. Never has he felt so out of place.
- The melancholy thought is soon knocked out, though, by far worse news. Fell beasts beyond the Red Pass. He's stunned, but the by-now ingrained response of now deal with it takes over, and they're going over familiar maps and tokens before his brain can catch up.
- He pauses, briefly, at the Red Pass's entrance. He's hasn't been back here for years, what with the invasion and the goblins and the fighting. He hasn't had time, and he'd assumed that no orc would venture there anyway.
- ("Nothing hostile would dare venture to that forsaken place. Or, well, nothing alive-")
- As he urges his horse onward he can feel the dread he'd felt before, but this time he doesn't hesitate in ignoring it. It's only been four years, but he doesn't feel so young anymore.
- It's newly October when he ventures alone into Garth Agarwen. It's barely a week before he emerges, more exhausted and drawn by those days than he had been by all the ones before them. It seems almost like a waking dream, coming out into golden sunlight on the brown plains.
- Saeradan is pacing back and forth in the Ost Guruth square when Candaith and Radagast ride in, and Candaith blinks at the sight momentarily while Radagast flounces off back to his tower. Saeradan's been around the Eglain enough for them to trust him as well, but he's never come so far into the Lone-lands to their capital, Bree-land's own troubles always dragging him back. He's here now though, and seems rather frantic.
- The tale that unwinds is one Candaith can barely believe.