They had passed the army a few miles back and were now heading in the direction of Forochel, but it would certainly be a long time before they reached it. Legolas had estimated about 6 days if they made fair-good time. They took stops every 3 hours for only 10-15 minutes each. Each of the travelers (the mortals more so than elves) began to get very weary and restless. Arwen and Aragorn were having troubles traveling in general since they were old, Ohtar still wasn't feeling well, and the horses themselves began to get tired overall and seemed to not want to work as hard. At times they would refuse to start going again after a break, but they usually did not stop in the middle of walking without being commanded which was good. The success of the entire plan relied mostly on the speed of the horses.

They reached a certain point and Legolas halted his horse and the rest did so as well.

"3 hours already?" Laesien asked.

"Say nothing of that," Yrinvan hissed to her. "Maybe Legolas is having pity on us and is giving us an extra stop."

Legolas was not listening to the children. They were watching him intently, waiting for him to dismount and announce that they were stopping for a while, but he did nothing but stare ahead.

"We must continue," Aragorn told him, riding up to the front. "You know that as well as I do."

Legolas took a deep breath and voiced why he was hesitating. "I'm worried about the children," he said. "What if something happens… what if these people try to kill them?"

"The children will be fine."

"You know the civilians are hostile, and I know it as well. Do not lie to me, at least not about matters I already know plenty about."

"I thought you said that the more hostile they were, the better?"

"I was thinking of the army behind us, not ourselves. I want you to ride in the back and keep a close eye on the children. Make sure Elviondel and Arwen are somewhere near the middle, keeping watch as well. And be careful of Ohtar." Legolas sent Aragorn a look to explain what he'd meant by his last statement.

Aragorn nodded. "Do not worry. He'll be fine, and so will the rest of them. Now come, let's press on."

"Send one of the children to ride next to me." Aragorn nodded and rode back to the end of the company, but as he passed Anywien he told her to go up to her father and ride by him. Aragorn also told Elviondel and Arwen to ride near the middle of the children to make sure nothing happened. Then the started again.

The place had used to be a witch-realm, but it was not anymore. Nonetheless, it's inhabitants were unkind to outsiders, and there were stories of the tortures that went on inside of Angmar for trespassing. That was what Legolas was worried about.

For about five minutes they only passed through meadow, but then they began to see houses. There were no towns or stores, only houses out in the middle of nowhere. They were maybe spaced on average about a mile apart, but they were scattered and random so there were some that were only ¼ from each other and some 2 miles away. The people that lived inside the houses were often outside, some were reading books to children, some gardening, but for some it was hard to tell what they were doing exactly, because it appeared that they were doing nothing. But Legolas knew better. He knew that no one stood outside of their house staring into oblivion. He had an odd suspicion that they had been doing something else and stopped when they heard horses approaching.

They had been traveling for nearly half of an hour and Legolas relaxed a little, for so far they had received nothing but glares. But then as they passed another house, a young woman ran up to them.

"Gamajo!" she shouted, looking accusingly at the strangers.

Legolas wasn't sure how to react, so he kept his horse going and tried not to look at her, hoping she'd leave.

"Gamajo!" she repeated, spitting the words out like poison. Then she ran in front of Legolas's horse to stop it. It did.

Her appearance reminded Legolas of a witch, for she was wearing what used to be white dress, but it was now a light brown from dirt, and it was torn at the bottom in places here and there. Her uneven, mostly fairly-long black hair fell in front of her face in strands, and she looked as if she hadn't bathed in maybe a week or so.

"Excuse me," Legolas said. "We were just passing through."

The girl looked at him, her eyes showing a mix of curiosity and anger. "No…" She looked confused.

"We mean no harm," he said gently. He could tell by the look on her face that she couldn't understand him, so he made sure to speak slowly as well.

"Quer miemo gamajo…?" she asked.

"I… I don't understand. What language do you speak?"

She blinked, then said, "Angmarian."

"Do you speak anything else? The Common Tongue? Quenya?"

"Angmarian," she repeated.

"I am Legolas."

She stared at him, then suddenly dashed away. On her way she passed Anywien, and she grabbed the girl's ankle and pulled her off the horse, and tried to drag her away. Anywien screamed as loudly as she could and thrashed, trying to break free, but she could not. Legolas swiftly pulled out an arrow and was about to shoot, when another arrow hit his target, the girl. She fell over on her back dead, and an elvish arrow stuck in her bloody eye.

Legolas looked quickly around, and saw Ohtar holding his bow. Ohtar was smiling. "I wish Nónd were here," he said, looking at the girl. "He would be so proud."

Legolas's heart was pounding as he realized that he had just nearly lost his daughter, but he couldn't help but smile as well as he realized that his son was possibly as good of an archer as he himself was.

Anywien was crying. Her cheeks were stained with tears and she was wailing as she stood and ran back to the company. Legolas dismounted and she ran up to him and into his arms.

"That was so frightening," she said in a shaky voice. "Don't let it happen again. Please, father, don't let him do that again."

"Him?" Legolas asked.

"Ohtar. Don't let him do that again."

Anywien was having a hard time trying to figure out which frightened her more… the young witch-girl trying to drag her away, or the girl's blood spraying onto her leg as her eyeball was pierced. Anywien had never seen a dead person before, and she most certainly had never seen anyone be shot like that. It was a traumatic experience.

"Ohtar, hold back from doing that in front of your sister," Legolas called back. "That scared her."

Ohtar crossed his arms and his joy was gone. He'd finally done something right, and how did his father respond? By telling him not to do it again. Nónd would be so proud if he'd been there, but not Legolas. It was because Nónd cared more about Ohtar than Legolas… yes, that was it. Nónd would be proud because he loved Ohtar… not like a son, but in some sense of the word, he did "love" the boy. But not Legolas. He didn't seem proud at all. All he cared about was Anywien.

"Maybe she'll be next," Ohtar said.

Legolas stood, suddenly not worried with his daughter anymore. His voice was loud and angry when he spoke next. "What was that, young elf?!" he demanded.

Ohtar looked away. "Nothing."

"You will not threaten your sister and you will not talk back to me. I care not if you love me or not anymore. You will obey me, no matter how you feel of it. Do you understand?"

"I didn't mean that," Ohtar replied. "I was only angry. You don't take pride in me."

"Wien could have died!"

"See? I knew you wouldn't understand. You see things a different way than me." Ohtar turned his horse and started off.

Legolas panicked. Letting Ohtar go off alone in Rivendell was one thing… in Angmar was another. Besides… the last time he did let him go off alone he ended up nearly dying himself.

"Ohtar! Get back here!" Legolas mounted his horse and started off after him and told the rest of the company to stay where they were. Ohtar's horse was only walking so he caught up in no time. He then grabbed the reins forcefully from his son and steered the horse back to the group.

"I do not know why I am telling you this, because I know that you will not believe me, but I don't want you to die. That is why you must stay with the group."

"I trust you," Ohtar admitted. "But I don't respect you."

"Then pretend like you do until we arrive back in Mirkwood!" Legolas snapped. He was getting very angry. "At least until we get out of Angmar! This is the worst place to disobey me."

Ohtar took the reins back from his father and steered his horse back to where it had been with the group. "All right," he said. "Fine."

"Good." Legolas took his spot back at the front and continued on, but out of the corner of his eye he watched Ohtar intently. He knew that his snapping at him didn't help him in trying to gain Ohtar's love, but he couldn't help it. He had to stress that Ohtar couldn't stray… not now, anyway. And he also would not let Ohtar say something about killing his own sister… and for what? Because Legolas hadn't reacted to his shot as he'd hoped? How could Ohtar hold that against him? After all, what was more important, his daughter's life, or his son's archery progress?

Maybe the question was his daughter's life, or his son's love?