Chapter Two.
The Return Of The Ugly Uruks, The Pursuit of Friends and the Stack of Gimli.
Elsewhere in Middle Earth, Merry, Pippin and Sarah were being led away by the Uruk-hai. Both the hobbits being carried on the back of two Uruk-hai soldiers, and Sarah being led by one from rope tied around her hands.
"It burns us!! It freezes!!" the elf cried out, receiving no reply from the Uruk who was leading her.
"That usually works at home," she muttered to herself, trying to keep up. She always hated cross country at school, and she wondered now maybe she should have payed a little more attention to it as she became completely tired from the amount of running they had done.
"Can we stop already?" she whined, receiving a disapproving look from the Uruk who held the rope, Sarah decided to take that glare as a no. She looked at her two hobbit friends, and notices a rather large gashing wound on the side of Merry's head, shuddering at the sight of it.
Pippin, whose Uruk-hai carrier had reached Merry's, tried to get his friend's attention.
"Merry!" he whispered, receiving no reaction. "Merry!"
Suddenly, the whole horde of Uruks came to a halt.
"Oh, finally, a rest," Sarah said, dropping herself cross-legged onto the ground, forced to stand by the Uruk.
"You know, Charles," Sarah began. "You don't mind if I call you Charles right? Well, you have no choice. Did you know, you're not a very nice Uruk?" She received another glare from him.
"Eep," she said, looking around, trying to avoid eye-contact with him.
"What do you smell?" one of the orcs asked the leader.
"Manflesh," the leader orc sneered in reply.
"Aragorn," Pippin muttered in hope.
"They've picked up our trail," growled the orc, turning to the rest of the troops. "Let's move!"
"Okay so you're Orc, my mistake," Sarah shrugged, stating rather loudly as the group began to press on. "That's why you are offended, isn't it Charles?" The orc Sarah had lovingly called Charles gave her another disapproving glare, the orc picking up speed, making Sarah run even faster, whinging and whining along the way.
Pippin looked around his surroundings, and had a thought. He began to chew at his brooch which held his Lorien cloak on, unclasping it and dropping it to the ground, the brooch trampled into the ground from pounding orc feet.
Pippin thought was just what the pursuing companions needed in order to find their friends.
Aragorn pressed his head to the ground, faintly listening. He could hear footsteps of the Orcs as the moved away.
"Their pace has quickened," he reported to his companions. "They must have caught out scent...Hurry!" he continued, calling the Angela, Legolas and Gimli, who followed.
Angela and Legolas ran, Legolas pausing briefly, turning to the slow-footed dwarf who trailed behind them.
"Ryan would be amused by Gimli trying to run," Angela grinned, receiving a reciprocating grin off her fellow elf.
"Come on, Gimli" Legolas pressed the dwarf to keep up.
"Three days and nights pursuit," the dwarf began, scoffing. "No food, no rest, no sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell,"
"And continual whinging from a dwarf who can't keep up," Angela raised an eyebrow at the dwarf, who slowly made his way up the hill to catch up to his companions.
The four continued to run. Aragorn stopped abruptly, eying the ground which was recently trampled by the horde of orc. He bent down, picking up what looked to be a leaf-brooch.
"I wonder whose it is," Angela pondered, intrigued.
"Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall," Aragorn muttered.
"They may yet be alive," Legolas stated, positively.
Angela observed the ground. It looked as though the orc had been there only moments before. She nodded to Aragorn, who had also observed the condition of the freshly-trodden ground they were standing on.
"Less than a day ahead of us," he stated. "Come,"
Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing to the ground was heard behind them. Aragorn had already begun to run off in the direction of the orc. However the clashing caught the attention of both elves, who stared curiously at the lump that had fallen from behind the boulders, rolling down the hill.
Angela grinned at the object. It was Gimli, who had fallen down and began to roll. She thought of the amusement Ryan would have gotten from this, and sighed gloomily, wondering what sort of trouble he was getting himself into.
Legolas also grinned at the dwarf's misfortune, and decided to mock it.
"Come! Gimli, we are gaining on them!" the elf called out to the dwarf in a teasing tone, as the dwarf struggled to his feet after his roll down the hill.
"I am wasted on cross-country," the dwarf huffed.
"Sounds like you and Sarah have something in common," Angela nodded to the dwarf remembering the remarks Sarah had made about cross-country at school.
"We dwarves are natural sprinters," the dwarf nodded back to the elf. "Very dangerous over short distances,"
The four runners ran through the rocky area, coming to a rise which overlooked a vast plain area.
"This must be Rohan," Angela said, in awe of her surroundings.
"Rohan," Aragorn nodded. "Home of the horse-lords. There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creature, sets its will against us,"
"And that's not good," Angela said, frowning, as the group continued on.
Angela and Legolas ran towards a rocky out-crop, eying into the distance where the dust rose from the travelling orc-horde.
"Legolas, Angela, what do your elven eyes see?" Aragorn asked the two elves.
"The Uruks turn northeast," Legolas stated sharply.
"They're taking them to Isengard," Angela stated softly, as she peered off into the distance.
"Saruman," Aragorn sneered.
As the group continued to run through the plains, Gimli lagged behind.
"Keep breathing, that's the key. Breathe. Ohh," the dwarf huffed, trying to catch his breath and run at the same time.
"They run as if the very whips of their masters were behind him" Legolas stated.
"In the words of Sarah...that sounds dirty," Angela grinned to herself, trying to fill the sarcastic-witty comments her friend would have included in the conversation.