Illiana's gaze, which had been embedded on Orthanc's peak for the last half of an hour, drifted slowly down to its base. The shimmering, newly formed lake reflected a twinkle in her deep, brown eyes, rimed with a fiery orange.
"Just a few more minutes," she thought to herself.
The sunset was casting a glow over everything it reached and a sullen shadow behind the objects in its path. It was that magical time of night when everything seemed perfect and she could have stayed there for eternity.
Illiana let the wind brush past and chill her one last time. She let go her hold on her knees and pushed herself up, letting her frizzled, auburn hair fall onto her face.
Shuffling down the boulder, Illiana landed on the soft ground. Picking up her tattered skirts she started walking back, heading into the meadow to find her horse, Bema whom she'd left grazing. Her eyes wandered over the fields in search of her horse. She noted the smoke rising far over the hills west of her; smoke that she had noticed the night before when she came down here to rest.
Now she came right into the middle of the meadow and stopped. Nervously her fingers wrapped around the tall grass next to her. She squinted her eyes in hope of narrowing her view to where she could spot her camouflaged horse in the night sky. She needed to find him, and quickly, so she could ride back to camp before it was too dark. She folded her arms as if to shield herself from the cold as she pondered what to do next.
"Where could he be?" she asked her self quizzically. "He was by my side a few minutes ago. How did I not hear him leave?"
Nervously she turned from side to side searching. She wondered and decided against calling out his name. She didn't want any unwanted attention, specifically from the makers of the smoke, whoever they were. They were far away and almost certainly wouldn't hear her, but she wanted to be sure.
Minutes passed as she stood wondering what to do. She became worried that her baby niece of only two years might have woken up by now and possibly escaped the confines of the tent she had built only of sticks and a few blankets. She could go back on foot and make sure Analine was alright, then come back and search for Béma, but by then it would be too dark.
This horse of great importance was their solid source of travel, and had once belonged to her father before he had passed on. Illiana's older brother, who owned it next had given it to her when he was called to war and had told her to take his baby daughter and flee to the mountains far away.
Just as she decided that Bema was all right and that she would find him in the morning, she heard a horse's frightened whiney coming from atop a hill to the right of her. Curious as to what the matter was, Illiana cautiously climbed up the steep slope, gripping the roots of dried grass. Hearing men's disgruntled voices arguing, she lowered herself to the ground. Frightened, she put her ear to the chill earth to listen for more. She heard the heavy tread of a couple of men approaching. Freezing in fear of what to do, her body could attain no movement.
The dry grass she was pricked against was irritating her soft skin. Her eyes were fixed upon the top of the hill where the ground met the dark sky. Her horse's shadowy figure came up to the top of the hill, pulling forward in opposition to whoever was pulling it backwards. Bema reared up on his hind legs and whinnied again, louder this time. Three men appeared at his side, pulling him without avail back down the other side. Fear swelled in her as the uncertainty of what to do about this completely unexpected scene played through her mind.
There! She had closed her eyes, only to comfort herself for a second. When she looked up he was staring at her! This filthy rugged man. This barbaric man. Whom she could only see by the moonlight that illuminated his shabby figure. Jumping up in terror, she stumbled backwards. She stepped back slowly only by instinct as the men, who had now spotted her as well, descended.
She felt the sting of cold wind surround her face. Her legs began to ache of running too long and too hard. She wasn't thinking, just running. She felt her hands and knees hit the frozen ground. They stung too. She couldn't remember what was happening until she heard gruff, angry yelling behind her.
There, she saw the trees bordering Fangorn Forest. She ran up the sloping bank of the lake into the dark, dense grove. As she stopped to catch her breathe, she peeked around a giant pine to see the men close on her tail but slower than herself. She continued, turning in the wrong direction as to trick them, and when she could no longer see outside of the forest, she changed and headed straight for her destination.
Her throat was harsh and swollen from the long, cold run by the time she reached the clearing of trees to find her few belongings and a sleeping Analine.
"Who are these people that they should chase me?" she thought with fear as she strenuously climbed up a close tree with a crying Analine in one arm.