… Aníron…
Chapter Two
Shadows Rise
Aragorn strode back into the bar a few minutes later. He had gone to rent a room at the inn and had taken longer than he had expected, due to a drunken fool who had dared to cross his bath. Kemina was nowhere to be seen. Strider slid back into the booth that he had occupied before and blended in with the shadows.
As he sat in the darkness, Strider pondered Kemina's unusual name. Kemina was Quenyan for 'of the earth.' He resolved to ask her when she returned. His eyes scanned the bar for strangers and familiar faces. He spotted Kemina on the other side of the room, catering to a bunch of rowdy pigs that had downed a few pints already. The girl looked agitated, like she was about to explode a wrath of anger. She stomped into the kitchen and came out a few minutes later, balancing a tray of wooden mugs on her palm.
Aragorn waited for her to return from the kitchens that she had once more retreated to, but she did not come back. He sighed and went upstairs to the room he had rented. He extinguished all the candles, on habit, and then slid under the covers after making sure his knife was perched on the bedside table. He fell into an uneasy dream. Strange voices, speaking in Quenyan, shouted at him through the mist. He woke in a cold sweat to a frantic knock on the door.
"Strider! Strider!" the voice called anxiously. Aragorn unsheathed his sword and swung open the door, the inscription on the blade catching fire momentarily with the sudden burst of light from the hallway. "Wain hyandalya," the voice ordered. Sheath your sword
"Kulde," Aragorn said. It was his friend, named for the red color of his hair. Kulde was also a Ranger, and Aragorn had befriended him in the days of their training. "What are you doing here?"
"There's a group of Orcs nearby," Kulde said breathlessly. "They came upon me, alone. They're heading for Bree."
Aragorn flung his cloak onto his shoulder and mounted his night-black horse. Kulde continued speaking as they rode. "I found Raumo and Rusco in a village nearby," he said.
"How many Orcs were there?" Aragorn asked, his cloak flying behind him like a shadow.
"Twenty, or more," Kulde said. "I could not take them alone." Kulde was a rookie, a beginner. He had finished his apprenticeship to an older Ranger named Alkar a year and three months past.
Two horses flew out of the night and joined Strider and Kulde. Aragorn saw that it was the other Rangers, twins, which had joined them. Kulde pointed into a patch of woods and the horses charged into the thicket fearlessly. The Orcs growls could be heard already. They were grouped together, arguing.
Aragorn plunged into one of the groups, drawing his sword through the five orcs as
smoothly as a knife passed through butter. Kulde was battling three at the edge of the clearing, and Raumo and Rusco were charging a cluster from both sides. Their swords flashed in the moonlight as they killed the orcs.
The leader, a larger, fouler Orc, started running towards the woods, his metal adornments jangling on his chain mail. Aragorn rode up to him, swift as a demon. His horse's hoofs trampled the leader to the ground. It let out a harsh roar of protest as it got to its feet. Aragorn jumped off his horse and circled the stinking creature. He pressed his sword momentarily against his forehead and closed his eyes for a split second before swinging his knife and cutting the Orc cleanly in two.
Rusco finished off the last three and the three Rangers stood in their blood soaked clothing as they remounted. The twins disappeared into the shadows, but Kulde tailed Strider until the gates of Bree. "Vanya sulie ya tielyanna," the younger man said. Fair winds be upon your path
Aragorn simply raised his hand in farewell and then continued towards the inn. The barroom was silent as he entered it, the barkeeper and all the customers asleep. The innkeeper was snoozing behind his desk as Strider slowly climbed the stairs.
"Who's there?" a voice said, cutting through the darkness. A candle flared from behind a concealing hand, and Kemina's face was illuminated. "What are you doing up?" she demanded when she saw the Ranger. Her eyes swept over his blood-soaked attire. "What are you doing in those clothes? Are you hurt?" the first bit of compassion that Aragorn had seen in her since they had met shone in her eyes as she drew closer, her fingers running over his arms, checking for cuts.
"I'm not hurt," Strider said. Kemina met his gaze suspiciously.
"What were you doing?" she asked.
"Ranger business," he said.
"Oh," Kemina said.
"What is the significance of your name?" Aragorn said suddenly. Kemina looked at him with a guarded gaze.
"What does it matter?" she asked.
"The meaning is odd," he said. " 'Of the earth.'"
"I have no parents." Kemina said. "The night is my only family." She drifted back into the darkness and disappeared from view. Aragorn looked after her long after she had disappeared. The secrets of this girl intrigued him, and he was determined to find out more.