Savina shivered and glanced into the dark forest. She knew two things for sure, one, she needed to stop getting herself into situations where she almost died, and two, she did not like the way the forest looked at night.
Aragorn spoke softly, his deep voice carrying through the chilly night air, "we're out of the forest."
Savina started to sigh in relief, then her breath caught in her throat.
They were at the foot of the first mountain. Savina had always thought of mountains as being majestic and beautiful, but this one was dark, bleak, and foreboding. Strange sounds, shrill cries, rang out through the night, followed by sounds of movement and scuffle.
Savina noticed Legolas studying her frightened expression. She made her face into an emotionless mask and stepped foreword, "the sooner we get over these mountains the better."
Tas was quiet, staring with wide eyes up at the mountains, and beyond them at Mount Doom.
Aragorn sighed, a quiet noise in the darkness of the night, and started foreword, his hand on his sword.
Gimli trudged after Savina and Legolas, his boots seeming unusually loud and grumbling in his gravelly voice about "Orcs and Goblins hunting us like a damn stag."
Legolas walked quickly, his face smooth and his eyes watchful, his bow in his hand and his other hand ready to grab an arrow from the quiver on his back.
The companions walked for most of the night and made it to the other side of the mountain (it was a small mountain) unnoticed…they thought.
The newly appointed Goblin leader, Brasglick, sat on a rock surrounded by fifteen of his men. A crow cawed suddenly, making some of the Goblins jump, Brasglick shot them looks of disgust and the crow fluttered down and perched on his arm. It cawed again, but this time they were words to Brasglick, thanks to a little bit of dark magic.
"The companions are halfway down this side of the mountain," it reported.
Brasglick rose to his feet and raised his voice, the crow starting and fluttering away, "we will attack tonight, just before dawn," the Goblins cheered, "but remember the new orders," Brasglick jabbed the closest one in the chest for emphases, "the girl must not be harmed."
The Goblin rubbed his chest and stared at his leader, "why mustn't she be harmed, she's just an elf…"
Brasglick smacked the Goblin hard in the side of his head, "it's an order!" Then he paused and added, "Master wants her alive." He glanced up at the sky, but there was no moon, then he rose to his short legs and shouted, "follow me, dawn approaches!"
Savina walked behind Aragorn, next to Tasselhoff. She could barely see in the darkness of the night, but something in the pit of her stomach told her something was wrong.
She could barely hear Legolas' light steps behind her, but occasionally he would prod her in the back with his finger if she was walking too slowly or wandering a little off the path. He hadn't said a kind word to her for almost a day, but she wasn't angry at him, she knew she'd hurt him worse than he could ever hurt her. Even if he didn't really love her, even if his love was only out of desperation, she had coldly rejected it.
Savina yawned, wondering how far they'd walked that day. They hadn't stopped since they'd stopped to rest before they'd crossed the river. Her whole body ached, from the back of her neck all the way down to the bottoms of her feet. Even her fingers ached; she flexed her fingers and readjusted her pack, she could feel where the straps had been cutting into her shoulders.
Legolas, walking behind her, watched her carefully. He wondered, fleetingly, if maybe she had lied…maybe she did love him. Feeling foolish, he pushed those thoughts from his mind, he was on a quest, he couldn't spend all his time thinking about some girl. He needed to be alert and brave, not love sick. He shook his head, as tough as he tried to be he knew he was lying to himself. Watching her silver hair glint in the dark night, he vowed again that no harm would come to her.
Gimli walked silently next to his Elven friend, glancing up at him every once in awhile. He could see the turmoil on his friend's usually calm face and knew it had to do with Savina. He squinted through the darkness and could just make out a glimmer of silver hair ahead of them. He sighed to himself and rubbed his eyes, wondering for a moment why he was crossing mountains into Mordor in the middle of the night, then he remembered Merry and Pippin and hoisted his axe back onto his shoulder. He glanced up at Legolas again, he could understand why Legolas fancied the girl, she was fairly pretty, for an elf. In his opinion, elves were too skinny and fragile-looking. They always looked like one good gust of wind would scatter them to pieces.
Tas walked next to Savina, not quite understanding why everyone was so gloomy, but smart enough to keep quiet. He glanced around him at the companions, thinking with a sigh that Kender are never quiet in situations such as this. But…the other races where strange…strange but likable. The little Kender had grown fond of the silver-haired elf, he glanced up at her hopefully, but her face was still pinched in weariness and sorrow. Tas sighed and sucked on the end of his brown ponytail, a habit he'd had since he was a child. He glanced behind them, up the mountain, it was nearly dawn.
Suddenly, Tas' pointed ears perked up, he heard a noise. He glanced up at Aragorn and saw that the Ranger had stopped and was searching the woods with his dark eyes, his hand on the handle of his sword.
Tas held out his arm to stop Savina, but she had already stopped and was fumbling with her sword.
Behind her, Legolas had drawn his bow and arrow and was pointing it uncertainly into the woods.
Gimli was standing with his short legs far apart in his usual battle stance.
Tas drew his small dagger from inside his boot and looked into the woods.
Silence.
They heard it again…faint Goblin voices from the top of the mountain.
Aragorn breathed a sigh of relief; they were going down the mountain, not up it into the arms of Goblins.
Aragorn raised his hand to wave the rest of the companions foreword, then he paused, his eyes searching around in the semi-darkness, something was wrong.