Exiled- Knight: We all do! XD *squeals* Yeah, something tells me that Trinity and Jinjer might not get along too well… *big evil grin* Thanks for reviewing!
A/N: ^_^ Oh, no, I think I had too much sugar for dinner! O_O MWAHAHAHAH! SUGAR HIGH! @.@ *runs into wall and gets knocked out*
Oh, and if anyone cares to know: The forest that they are, er, living in is a small forest on the edge of the Sea of Rhún.
Chapter Four: Battle Plans
"Potatoes!" Cal shouted.
"Back away from the potatoes, pig!" Trinity shouted, words a bit slurred.
The two friends got into a scuffle around the campfire. Anar casually strode up and took a big potato. The rest of the Rangers, all snickering, followed him.
Legolas surveyed the scene with amusement. Cal sat up straight as a ramrod and growled.
"My potatoes!" he yelled, lunging at the thieves. Trinity leapt off the ground and sat on him. "No fair!"
Legolas laughed at the frenzied look on the youth's face. His mouth slowly formed a single word as his hands reached out for the plump, juicy vegetable.
"PO – TA – TOES!"
"ELLADAN!" Elrohir screamed. Elladan awoke and glared at his brother.
"Waking your brother is an severe crime," he mumbled. "I shall have to kill you as soon as I get up-" He glanced out the window. It was pitch black. "-In five and a half more hours." Irritably, he covered his head with a pillow.
"Get up, you slothful elf!" Elrohir roared. "The Orcs are attacking the city!"
"Mmpfh!" Elladan yelled through the pillow. He barreled out of bed and rushed to the window. Smoke rose from the borders of the city where the great gates lay in ruin. "Rouse the soldiers!"
"In five minutes?" Elrohir raised an eyebrow.
"Get Arwen and the children," Elladan snapped. "We must exit into the mountain and retreat to the mountain fortress of Bastión¹! Whatever townspeople can be roused, lead them to the mountains before the Orcs can get in!"
"Too late. The walls are breached. We have to leave."
Elladan growled.
*~*~
Arwen ran through the corridors, the young Eldarion in her arms. Serenity trotted alongside her. Arwen looked back to see if all her children were still there.
"Serenity! Where did Jinjer go?" Arwen shouted. Serenity shrugged.
Elladan stopped. "I'll go look for her," he said, charging back in the other direction.
"ELLADAN!" Elrohir yelled, but his brother didn't listen. "Fool of an elf."
*~*~
Elladan ran into the street, almost colliding with a dozen Orcs. He sidestepped and ran past them.
As he ran down the streets, avoiding Orc scimitars and defending himself with his curved knife, he shouted Jinjer's name over and over.
The girl didn't come.
Elladan cursed as he reached the city gates. Twenty Orcs yelled and charged at him. He ran, knowing that the odds were greatly stacked against him.
A shrill whinny rang through the air as a white horse broke loose from its corral. Elladan grabbed its mane and leapt aboard, clutching its bridle. The horse, driven by fear, thundered away from the defeated city…
*~*~
The white horse stopped by a grove of trees, breathing heavily with exhaustion. Elladan was slumped over on its back, asleep.
Suddenly, a large brown mare walked out from behind the trees. She curiously sniffed the white horse. The only things that discerned her from the other were her coat color and the pair of massive wings cocked in curiosity.
Where does your master need to go? The brown mare asked in a nicker.
He seeks the one called "Estel". The white horse snorted.
The brown mare spread her wings, but didn't fly. My name is Langaresh. Follow me. I know where to find "Estel". She said this in a whinny.
*~*~
By the morning, Elladan's horse was plodding towards the forest alone. There was no sign of the winged horse.
The crunching of leaves alerted Aragorn to a horse's presence in the woods. He flattened himself to a tree and waited, dagger drawn.
A sweaty, white horse came limping into a clearing, bearing a slumped- over elf. Aragorn immediately recognized his foster brother's face.
"ELLADAN!" he yelled, jumping out of his hiding spot and running to the elf's side. The elf looked ready to slide off his horse's back and lay in the mud. Blinking, he squinted at Aragorn.
"Estel? Thank Elbereth!"
"Elladan? What are you doing here? I need to get you back to camp!"
"Estel… I have news."
"Wait, Elladan. Your news can wait."
"Elladan, mellon!" (Elladan, friend!) Legolas cried. Elladan gave the Mirkwood elf a weary smile. "What brings you here? And in such good shape!" This last statement came in a strange form of elvish sarcasm.
Elladan glared at Legolas. "Well, I came here to talk to Estel, not you," he said.
Legolas burst into peals of laughter. Aragorn fell on the ground, rolling back and forth in amusement. Elladan chuckled.
"Strange creatures," Cal muttered. He tossed a potato in the air, caught it, and lobbed it at Aragorn, who lay laughing hysterically on the ground.
"HEY! CAL!" Trinity yelled. "You wasted a perfectly good potato!" She chucked a cube of jelly at him.
The jelly hit Cal on the cheek. He turned and stared ferociously at the snickering group of Rangers. "Who hit me?"
A second cube of jelly hit the back of Cal's head. He turned sharply and saw Trinity launching another wad of jelly at him with her slingshot.
With an exclamation of mock rage, Cal grabbed Trinity by the ankle and yanked her out of the tree. She stuffed the cold jelly down his shirt.
Cal's eyes opened wide and he began jumping up and down, trying to remove the jelly. Trinity rolled on the ground with laughter, randomly throwing jelly at her friend.
"Shameless, the way they flirt," Aragorn observed lightheartedly. Simultaneously, a mass of jelly and a potato hit him.
"STOP!" Legolas roared. Everybody froze. "You, Aragorn, get some jelly for Elladan here."
Aragorn started to throw the jelly. "No," Legolas said. "Pass the jelly!" Aragorn grinned sheepishly and handed it over.
The collective breath that everyone had been holding escaped in a gasp. Cal yanked the jelly out of his shirt and gave Trinity a withering look.
"Forget it," she said lightly. "The river is nearby-"
Cal whooped and rushed off, dragging Trinity behind him. "Swimming!"
Legolas shook his head. "Hopeless children."
"Estel," Elladan said quietly. "I have a message from Gondor."
Aragorn dragged his brother behind a tree. "What?"
"Elrohir and I were riding from Rivendell to Minas Tirith. We stopped off at Edoras to see King Eomer, but to get to Minas Tirith we had to travel past Isengard."
"What happened there?" Aragorn prodded gently.
"It- it was terrifying, Estel," Elladan said in a quivery voice. "Saruman has been brewing something new. We saw tens of thousands of Uruk-hai."
"More Uruk-hai?" Aragorn snorted. "That does not sound like a bad thing. We have defeated them before with half the manpower we have now."
"Aye, but you have never seen this," Elladan hissed. "The Wargs. He crossed Wargs with Uruk-hai. Thousands of them. It will not be long before he can crush all opposing forces in Middle-earth."
"How are you so sure?" Aragorn asked.
"I saw all of Isengard emptied two days ago!" Elladan murmured. "Almost twenty thousand! I never dreamed that they would march on Minas Tirith!"
"They're marching toward Minas Tirith," Aragorn mumbled to himself. "Minas Tirith and- Arwen!" He leapt to his feet and scrambled into the clearing. "We have to get back and warn them!"
"Too late. They reached the city early in the morning. I saw many Orcs, but none were the Warg breeds."
"That party of Orcs that attacked us must have been a mere scouting party!" Aragorn mused.
Elladan gave him a questioning look. "I'll explain later," Aragorn said.
"You need horses?" Trinity asked casually. "Well, we have plenty of those." She whistled and called out two names. "Winghoof! Sirius!"
Two horses loped out of the woods. One was a brilliant chestnut and the other was pure silver, shining like a star. Legolas looked at Trinity with interest.
"Do those belong to you?" he asked curiously.
Trinity shrugged with a touch of indifference. "The whole herd belongs to me," she said, looking out into the woods. A herd of horses stood in a clearing, foals frisking in the grass, mares and stallions grazing contentedly.
"You know, Trinity," Aragorn said casually. "If you wanted to come back with us, I would be more than happy to accommodate you and Lasrachai."
"You're saying- you want me to come back with you?"
Aragorn nodded. "I need to look for my wife and children. Maybe you can help."
Yeah, right. "I'd like to, yeah," Trinity said, nodding slowly. "Cal, you stay and be in command."
"You're- not- coming- back?" Cal asked in a small voice.
"The balance of power is shifting," Trinity said later that night. "The caverns of Isengard are active again."
"How do you know these things?" Cal asked.
"Langaresh brought me a message she intercepted from Saruman," Trinity passed Cal a rolled up scroll. He unrolled it.
White Wizard-
The time has come. Let my Orc army despoil Middle earth. Forward this message to my beloved Ashlynn.
"Who the plague is Ashlynn?" Cal asked. Trinity shrugged.
Lasrachai danced in place. "Stand still," Trinity scolded, trying to wrap the horse's cannon bone in a soft red cloth wrap. "Do you want to clip your front hooves with your back hooves?"
The horse's ears flicked apprehensively. Trinity stroked his neck lovingly and swung into the saddle.
Sirius reared. With a shout from his rider, he was off, a silver streak, riding towards the ruins of Minas Tirith.
¹- Bastión- stronghold (from Spanish dictionary! ^.^)
A/N: Are Arwen, Eldarion, Serenity, and Elrohir alive? Where did Jinjer go? Who is the mysterious Ashlynn? Alias or new foe? Find out next time!
*turns off TV*