Disclaimer: All things related to Tolkien's works are his.
A twist of fate
Chapter II – A Murder in the night
In his haste to escape from the tree, Aragorn slipped and felt himself begin to fall. His hands flailed around wildly, searching in vain for something to grip onto, before he felt himself begin to cut through the air.
I should have just stayed in the stupid tree, he thought dismally.
Legolas, on the other hand, with his quick elven reflexes was able to do what Aragorn could not. He reached out, and grabbed the ranger's arm, jerking him to a stop. Carefully, he pulled the man back to safety.
~*
Below the tree: A few hours before …
An arrow pierced the heart of a sleeping man and he was dead before he even felt a thing. The man next to him shot upright at the sudden movement of the arrow and yelped in alarm at the sight of the dead man. Grabbing his weapons, he fled to inform their captain, but not before he had let loose a cry of warning to his fellow men, which made the camp burst into a bustle of activity.
Captain Tiddyn was not a foolish man, but he lacked the wisdom that came with years of experience to deal with the situation that he faced now. In truth, he was not really fit to be a leader. He had only gotten the opportunity to lead this mission through a few pulled strings by his Uncle.
Now, his face paled as he struggled to think of an action to take to solve the problem at hand. A murder! Of all problems that could be faced that was the hardest to deal with. There existed no strong grievances, that he knew of, against the man who had been killed and as of yet, there were no possible suspects he had in mind. His mind was a blank. He stood in front of Addramyr, the man who had been sleeping next to the victim and tried to steady his voice as he spoke.
"Tell the men, that we will continue on our journey to Esgaroth. I will not let this … problem… jeopardize the matter at hand. Send one of the quickest horse men to me; I will have a message for him to deliver."
"Yes, captain."
As soon as he was alone once more, Tiddyn sank down onto a fallen log and put his head into his hands.
~*
Back to present time:
Aragorn panted slightly as he got over the shock of almost falling.
"Now, that was close." He said, in between pants.
The elf grabbed his arm and gestured at him to stop speaking. Something was amiss; he could feel it in the air.
Aragorn glanced at his friend, wondering what the matter was. He didn't have to wait long to find out, before either of them could react, a spider jumped down on the branch that they were on and hissed menacingly.
Legolas drew his white knifes while Aragorn pulled out his knife from his boot. The spider hissed again, but it did not yet move, it seemed to Aragorn as though he was trying to decide who to attack first. The two of them stiffened as at last, the spider turned to face the elf.
The branch was not a very strong one, for Legolas, in his haste to get to the ranger, had climbed onto it, not testing carefully the strength of it. A loud crack resounded through the air as it gave way, releasing it's occupants into open space.
Aragorn hit the ground hard, but thankfully, did not get more then a few bruises, however his luck did not hold out as seconds later, the spider fell onto him. Acting fast, the man rolled himself out from under it. To his surprise, he found it quite dead, with three arrows sticking out from its head.
It turned out, Legolas had managed to grab onto a low lying branch, just before he reached the ground and had swung himself up onto it and loosed those arrows before the beast plummeted to the ground.
The two friends stood below the tree for a couple of moments, trying to catch their breath from the events that had just happened so quickly. Hence, it was that as they were resting that the men, that they had tried to conceal their presence from, crept up on them and were able to point their drawn arrows at them, in a silent threat.
TBC …
Please review!
Anastasia who: Yup, you're right. Aragorn is supposed to be pretty young in this story. I'm really sorry I didn't update soon... and I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you! Thanks for all your reviews!
Deana: I think he did regret it. :o)
April4: I'm glad you liked the old version! But I personally think I messed that up really badly. Thanks for the constant reviews! They really help keep me writing.
Red tigress: Oops… this update is actually shorter instead of longer. Well… I'm working on making the chapters longer. Thanx for the review, anyway!
itarilde-elenastar: Thanks for all the compliments! I'm glad you liked the first chapter!
Elven kitten: I'm glad you think this new version is better than the old one :o)
Asuka-Chan 2: Thanks for the review. Hope you like this chapter!
