Meaning: In Shadows Lies Hope
Pairing: n/a
Type:
Rating: PG
Notes: Here's where the chapters start deviating from the original book. You will notice that the first part of this chapter follows the book closely, but it will change towards the middle. This was done to fit everything within the seven pages, rather than seventy.
Disclaimer: Anything owned by me will be duly noted. Until such a time, you may safely assume that everything belongs to someone else.
The birds had led them to a dale between the hills and flown off. A small stream trickled through the boulders at the bottom, cliffs frowned down at them on their right, and the hills continued on endlessly to their left. Aragorn was searching, nearly bent over the ground, among the gullies leading up the western ridge, wondering again if this was a trap. Legolas was some way ahead, also searching; not only for their trail, but for some sign of Makoto. Suddenly the Elf gave a cry and the others ran to him.
"Either we have already overtaken some of those that we hunt, or Makoto has. Look!" he said.
He pointed, and they saw what they had first taken to be boulders were huddled bodies. Five Orcs lay dead there. They had been hewn with many cruel strikes, two had been beheaded, and one seemed to have been burned, and was still smoking.
"Here is another riddle!" said Gimli. "But it needs the light of day, and for that we cannot wait."
"Yet however you read it, it seems not unhopeful," said Legolas. "Perhaps Makoto has indeed caught up with them. Enemies of the Orcs are likely to be our friends, anyway. Do any other folk dwell in these hills?"
"No," said Aragorn. "The Rohirrim do not often come here, and it is far from Minas Tirith. It is possible that some company of Men were hunting here for reasons we do not know ... but that is not my guess."
"Then what do you think?" Gimli asked.
"I think the enemy brought his own enemy with him," answered Aragorn, "These are Northern Orcs from far away. None who lie here are of the great Orcs with the strange badges. There was a quarrel here: it is not uncommon with these foul folk to argue amongst themselves. Maybe there was some dispute about the road."
"Or about the captives," said Gimli. "I think it is safe to hope that they did not meet their end here, too. Indeed, it seems as though Makoto found her way here, but she does not seem the type to behead anything; even an Orc."
"But appearances are deceiving," said Legolas, "and Elves are not always delicate. She, though I perceive her to be an Elf, has not lived in any of our fair cities, but rather out here, in the forest of Fangorn. Who knows what she has been taught?"
Aragorn searched in a wide circle, searching for the tracks to follow or traces of any more fighting, but could find none. They waited for the birds, but they did not come back, so the three went on. They walked further north until they came to a small fold in the hills with a tiny stream passing through a stony path it had made in the valley. The gaggle of birds were waiting there, chirping contentedly.
"At last!" said Aragorn. "Here is the new trail! Up this water channel: the Orcs must have gone this way after their debate!"
More swiftly then before, and having clear guidance from the little birds, the pursuers turned up the new path. They sprang from stone to stone until at last they reached the crest of the great hill. A sudden cold wind blew causing their cloaks to flap as the day broke in the east. The sun rose slowly over the hills, bringing life and color to the land before them.
"Oh, Gondor, Gondor!" cried Aragorn, wistfully. "Would that I could look upon you again in a happier time. Not yet does my road lie south. Now let us go!"
Forcefully drawing his eyes from the south he looked northwest, towards the path of the Orcs, and began to walk on.
"Hold!" cried a female voice.
The three of the Company spun around and were greeted with the sight of Makoto leaning lightly on a tree.
"At last we meet again. I trust my friends have been guiding you true?"
"A better set of guides we could not ask for," answered Aragorn.
"Never mind our guides! What of the hobbits? Where are they?" Gimli demanded.
Makoto laughed lightly and pushed away from her perch, stepping gravely in front of them.
"They are still very much alive. The Orcs have been given some instructions otherwise they would not be as ... well treated ... as they are, in Orc fashion. I tried, but I was unable to free them when I at last over took them."
"The battle scene back that way," Legolas murmured.
"Yes. You must rest now, for at least the first hour of dawn. It will be all for naught if you should chance upon the Orcs, weary, as you must be. They are in the most foul of moods."
The ridge on which the four stood continued down steeply before them. Below it was a wide and rugged shelf that went on for nearly twenty fathoms until is ended abruptly in a sheer cliff: the East Wall of Rohan. There was where the Emyn Muil ended, and the seemingly endless green plains of the Rohirrim began.
"Look!" cried Legolas, pointing to the sky above them. "There is the eagle again! He is very high. He seems to be flying away north, he is going with great speed. Look!"
"No, not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas," said Aragorn. "He must be far aloft indeed."
"Master Legolas is right," said Makoto, scanning the skies. "I too, can see him. But very faintly, for he is quickly disappearing."
"I wonder if he is the same eagle I have seen before, and what his errand is. But look! I can see something nearer at hand, and far more urgent. There is something moving over the plain!"
"Many things," said Legolas, "It is a great company on foot, but I cannot say more, nor see what folk they may be."
"The Riders of Rohan!" cried Makoto excitedly. "You will be in good hands with them, if they do not shoot at you first. They will give you food, should you require it! You must seek them out, I will continue ahead and search for the hobbits."
"Nay!" Gimli cried. "We will go with you! They are our charges, we will help to find them. Let us find a path down to the fields quick as can be."
"I doubt if you will find a path quicker than the one the Orcs chose," said Aragorn. "We will follow you however you chose to lead us."
Makoto looked at him searchingly before nodding. "You are trusting, but hasty. Very well. We will take this path."
They followed their enemies by the clear light of the sun. The Orcs had pressed on through the night with all possible speed and every now and then the pursuers found things that had been discarded along the way. The trail led them north along the top of the escarpment until they came to a cleft carved in the rock by a stream that splashed down. There in the ravine a narrow path descended and at the bottom they came to the grass of Rohan. The stream vanished under large growth of water plants, but they could hear it as it bubbled toward Entwash Vale. To the three of the Company, it seemed as if they had left winter clinging to the forest behind. The air was softer, warmer, and faintly scented of a new spring. Legolas breathed deeply, a blissful smile on his face. Makoto watched him, looking amused at his reaction.
"Ah! the green smell!" he said. "It is better than sleep! Let us run!"
"Aye, and light feet may run swiftly here," said Aragorn. "More swiftly than the iron-shod Orc foot. We may have our chance to lessen their lead."
They ran single file, Makoto in the lead. To Gimli she appeared to be flying across the plain, but the, he thought, she ran through it often. A new, eager light was in their eyes, a new hope was slowly dawning within them. Next to them could be seen where the Orcs had tramped their ugly path; the grass of Rohan was blackened and bruised. Presently Aragorn stopped and gave a cry.
"Stay!" he said. "Do not follow me yet!"
He ran quickly to the right, off the main path; for he had seen footprints that went off that way, breaking away from the others. They were made by small, unshod feet. They did not manage to go far before being intercepted by orc-prints, which came both from behind and in front. Then they curved sharply back and were lost in the other prints. At the furthest point Aragorn stopped to pick up something, then he ran back to the others.
"Yes," he said. "They are quite plain: a hobbit's footprints. Pippin's I think, he is smaller than the other. And look at this!"
He held up something that glittered in the sunlight.
"The brooch of an elven-cloak!" cried Legolas and Gimli together.
"Not idly do the leaves of Lórien fall," said Aragorn. "This did not drop by chance: it was cast away as a token to anyone who might follow. I think Pippin ran away from the trail for that purpose."
"Then we do not pursue in vain!" said Gimli. "This is heartening."
"Let us hope he did not pay too dearly for his boldness," said Legolas. "Come! Let us go on! The thought of those merry young folk driven like cattle burns my heart."
They turned back to their guide only to find that she was gone. Two of the birds that had originally been their guides fluttered in the air overhead. Gimli made a noise and muttered something about illusions. Legolas started a bit, but it passed quickly.
"Just like an Elf, yet she is too silent," he said and smiled ruefully. "Come then! She still guides us, and guides us true!"
The sun rose to its peak and slowly sank down, stretching the shadows of night over the plain before them. Still the pursuers pushed on. It was now one full day since the passing of Boromir. Only when nightfall closed fully around them did Aragorn pause.
"We have come at last to a hard choice," he said. "Shall we rest here tonight, or shall we continue on while our strength still holds?"
"Unless our enemies rest also, they will leave us far behind if we stay to sleep," said Legolas.
"But even Orcs must pause on the march!" cried Gimli.
"Seldom do Orcs journey under the sun," Legolas reminded him, "yes these have done so. They will not stop tonight."
"But if we walk by night, we cannot see their trail."
"The path is straight as far as my eyes can see, and we have our friends here to guide us."
The Elf paused to ruffled the feathers of the little bird that had perched on his shoulder to rest. The other one had settled itself on Gimli's helm.
"There is this also," said Gimli: "only by day can we see if tracks lead away. If a prisoner should escape, or if one should be carried off, eastward, say, to the Great River, towards Mordor, we might pass the signs and never know it."
"That is true," said Aragorn. "But if I read the signs back rightly, it was the Orcs of White Hand who claimed victory. The whole company must now be bound for Isengard."
"Yet it would be rash to be sure of their counsels," said Gimli. "And what of escape? In the dark we should have missed the signs that led you to the brooch."
"The Orcs will be doubly on their guard since then," said Legolas sharply. "And the prisoners even wearier. There will be no escape if we do not contrive it. Or if our guide has not made it before we catch up to them. Yet we must overtake them, either way."
"And yet even I, Dwarf of many journeys and most hardy of my kind, can not run all the way to Isengard without my pause!" rejoined Gimli. "My heart burns me too, and I would have started sooner, but now I must rest a little to run better. And if we rest, better to do it in the blind night when we cannot see anyway!"
"I said that it would be a hard choice," said Aragorn ruefully. "How are we to end this debate?"
"You are our guide," said Gimli, "and you are skilled in the chase. You shall choose."
"My heart bids me to go on," said Legolas. "But we must hold together. I will follow your counsel."
"You have given the choice to an ill chooser," said Aragorn. "Since the Argonath all my choices have gone amiss." He was silent for a long time, simply gazing into the west and staring at the night. "We will not walk in the dark," he said at length. "The peril of missing the trail or signs of Makoto or other coming and going seems to be too great."
"Would that the Lady had given to us the gift of light such as she gave Frodo," murmured Gimli.
"It will be more the needed in Mordor. With Frodo lies the true Quest, with us lies but a small matter in the great deeds of time," said Aragorn.
With that he all but threw himself to the ground and at once fell asleep, as he had not done since they had left the forests of Lothlórien. Gimli, too, quickly fell asleep, but for Legolas sleep did not come until much later.
"Hoom, hm. Halflings, you say?" Treebeard asked, stroking his mossy beard.
"Aye, that is what their companions called them. Merry and Pippin they said their names were. The Halflings have been captured by Burárum, or so they say. They were quite free with their information, actually, not like Ents at all."
Treebeard smiled down slightly at Makoto. He placed a fatherly hand on her cheek and caressed it slightly before looking away. She followed his gaze, north-west, where she knew he was watching the Orcs travel on.
"You are not like an Ent either, Lintëmi Súrë," he said. "These Halflings will need to be found, and swiftly, but not hastily. It would not do to allow them to die at the hands of Burárum. Go then, and bring them back."
"I will," she promised.
And Makoto was off again, flitting through the trees as she had gone and come again before. The old Ent watched her until he could not see the rustling of the treetops that signaled her trail. He sighed.
"I have become far too hasty because of that half-Elf," he said. "I must calm myself before making another judgment."
And he stood under the little stream that trickled down over his home.
When Aragorn awoke it was just before dawn. Gimli beside him was still in a deep slumber, but Legolas stood apart from the group, standing and staring northwards. Aragorn thought he looked rather like a young tree in a windless night, silent and thoughtful.
"They are far, far away," said Legolas suddenly, sadly, turning to Aragorn. "My heart tells me that they have not rested this night. Only our friend eagle could overtake them now."
"Unless Makoto already has," Aragorn said, chiding gently. "She has lived here much longer than we have been visitors, and she left us after the brooch was found. There is the possibility that she has already found them. We will follow as we may." Crouching to the ground he woke their friend Dwarf. "Come! We must go. The scent grows cold," he said.
"But it is still dark," said Gimli. "Even Legolas on a hilltop could not see them till the Sun is up."
"I fear that they have passed from my sight from hill or plain, under Moon or Sun," said Legolas sadly. "If only I had wings that I might be swifter."
"Where sight fails, the earth may give us guidance," said Aragorn.
He stretched himself upon the ground, his ear pressed to the soil under the grass, looking very much a fool. He stayed there for so long that Gimli wondered if he had perhaps fainted or fallen asleep. Dawn finally broke, sending rose colored light to chase away the dark of night, and at last Aragorn stood. Legolas and Gimli both could see that his face was pale and his look troubled.
"The earth is dim and confused. Nothing walks on it for many miles, and the feet of our enemies are faint and far away. However, loud are the hoofs of the horses. Now I remember hearing them, even as I slept, and they haunted my dreams. Horses galloping, passing into the West. But now they have turned, and are riding northwards, and are riding ever further from us. I do wonder what is happening to this land." he said.
"Let us go!" said Legolas.
And thus their third day in pursuit of the Orcs and hobbits began. During the long hours of the day, some filled with clouds, others with sun, now running, now walking, they moved on. Seldom speaking and hardly pausing they went, as if nothing could stop them and no amount of weariness could slow them. Over the wide fields they traveled, each wondering what had become of their friends and their guide, often thanking the Lady of Lórien in their hearts for the lembas, without which they might not have found the strength to continue. To a passerby their elven-cloaks would have appeared to fade into the gray-green fields; few but elvish eyes would have been able to mark them until at a close distance.
All day long the track led north-west without turning or breaking. Only as the day drew to its end did they find a change of terrain. They came to long treeless slopes, where the orc-trail grew fainter as it turned north, the ground here was harder and the grass shorter. Far to left the river Entwash flowed and no moving thing could be seen. Often Aragorn wondered that they saw no sign of man or beast. The dwellings of the Rohirrim were for the most part very far to the South, hidden under the White Mountains; yet the Horse-lords had formerly kept many herds in the Eastemnet, this part of their realm. Here the herdsmen had wandered much, living in tents through the winter, but now the land was empty. The silence was not that of peace. Only at dusk did they halt, twenty-four leagues over the plains of Rohan. The wall of Emyn Muil was far behind them in the shadows of the East, and though the moon was visible, it gave only small light and the stars were veiled by the misty skies.
"Now do I grudge any time of rest or halt in our chase," said Legolas. "The Orcs have run before us as if Sauron himself was after them. I fear they have already reached the forest and even now are passing into the shadows of the trees."
"This is a bitter end to our hope and toil," Gimli growled through clenched jaws.
"To toil, perhaps, but not to our hope," said Aragorn. "Or to hope, but not our toil. As yet we still have Makoto to place our hope in, and we shall not turn back here."
"You talk of Makoto often yet we have not seen her for twice twelve hours," rejoined the Dwarf, "How are we to know that she still aids us, if she is not dead?"
"You speak of one you know not!" cried Legolas: "You cannot judge her!" "And you speak as from one Elf to another. You know her not, either, yet you defend her position."
"You too defended her position not six hours ago," Legolas reminded the Dwarf sharply.
"Stop this foolish squabble!" cried Aragorn.
Both Elf and Dwarf ceased their talk and turned to look at their companion. Never before had he raised his voice to any but an Orc.
"If we allow time to pass away here, we may well be giving up our last chance of finding our companions," said Aragorn. "I will not let that happen! Nay! We shall not turn back from here, Gimli. And yet, I am weary. Weary as I have never been before." He turned to look back East, back at the trail they had taken. "There is something strange at work here. I distrust the silence, I distrust the Moon, the stars are faint, and I am weary as no Ranger should be with a clear trail to follow. There is some force that speeds along our foes and places a barrier before us. I feel a weariness in my heart, moreso than in my limbs."
"Truly!" said Legolas. "That I have known since we descended from Emyn Muil. This will is not behind us but before us!"
He pointed West over the darkening lands of Rohan. To Isengard.
"Saruman," muttered Aragorn. "But he shall not turn us away, though we must halt once more. See! Even the Moon gathers clouds to veil it! However, north lies our road when day comes again."
As it had been last time, Legolas was first awake, if he had slept at all.
"Awake! Awake!" he cried. "It is the dawn! Strange things await us by the forest. Good of evil I do not know, but we are meant to go. Awake!"
The others sprang to their feet, shaken from sleep, and nearly at one did they set off again. It was an hour before noon when they reached the downs. The green slopes rose to bare ridges and ran in a straight line North. Under their feet the ground was dry and the grass short, but before them a strip of sunken land lay between them and the river. It was some ten miles wide and wandered deep into the thickets. To the West of the southernmost slope was a great ring where the orc-trail turned north along the dry skirts of the hills. Aragorn paused and bent to examine the tracks closely.
"They rested here a while," he said, "but even the outward trail is old. I fear your heart spoke the truth, Legolas: it is thirty six hours since the Orcs stood where we now stand. If they kept their original pace then I approximate at sundown yesterday they reached the borders of Fangorn."
"So it is out of our hands, and into Makoto's?" said Legolas with a heavy sigh.
"I can see nothing north or west but grass," Gimli interrupted. "Could we see the forest, if we climbed the hills?"
"It is still far away," said Aragorn. "If I remember correctly, the hills run near eight leagues to the north, perhaps more, and north-west of Entwash there is perhaps fifteen leagues of more land."
"Well, let us go on," said Gimli stoutly. "My legs must forget the miles, though they would be more willing if my heart was not so heavy."
And so they continued on in pursuit. The sun was sinking when they finally drew to the end of the hill range. For many hours they had marched without rest, and they were going slowly now, and Gimli's back was bent. Dwarves may be stone-hard in labor and in journey, but this seemingly endless chase began to take its toll on him, even as all hope died in his heart. Aragorn walked behind him, grim and silent and stooping only now and again to inspect some print of mark on the ground. Only Legolas still stepped lightly, as is the way of Elves, leaving no footprint on the ground as he passed. In the lembas he found all sustenance he needed and he could sleep by resting his mind in the paths of elvish dreams while walking open-eyed.
"Let us go up on this hill!" he said.
Wearily they followed him, climbing the slope, until they came to the top. The hill was round, smooth and bare, and it stood alone in the northernmost section of the downs. The sun went fully below the western horizon and the curtain of night fell upon them, alone and in a formless world of grey without mark or measure. Only far away north-west there was a deeper darkness than that which they were closed in: the Misty Mountains and the forest at their feet.
"Makoto is down there," said Legolas softly.
"You know this?" Gimli asked.
"I feel it," the Elf replied vaguely. "This is her home. She will take good care to find Merry and Pippin and bring them to safety, though it may not be with us."
"Yes, well, nothing I can see to guide us to her," said Gimli. "Now we must half again and wear the night away. It is growing cold!"
"The wind is north from the snows," said Aragorn. "And come morning it will be in the East," said Legolas. "But rest, if you must. Yet do not cast all hope away, for tomorrow is unknown. Rede is often found with the rising of the Sun."
"Three days have already passed, and yet no rising of the Sun has brought us counsel," said Gimli.
They slept fitfully, save Legolas, though the night grew ever colder. Whenever Gimli and Aragorn awoke they saw the Elf standing beside them, or pacing, singing softly to himself in his given tongue. As he sang the stars opened in the black sky above, and so the night passed.
Makoto watched the two child-like males wander through Fangorn from her perch high in a tree. She assumed they were Merry and Pippin, the hobbits, but she was for once following Treebeard's counsel and waiting for the proof. They moved as quickly as they could, with all the hindrance of the forest and their fear of Orcs causing them to stumble now and again. Deeper into Fangorn they delved, following the running stream westward up the slopes of the mountains. Only after an hour, and when as their fear of the Orcs lessened, did they finally lessen their pace.
"We can't go on like this," said one. He stopped and leaned on a tree. "I want some air."
"Let's have a drink," said the other. "I'm parched."
Makoto watched the second speaker clamber onto a tree-root and wound into the stream. He cupped his hands and let them fall into the water. She watched him sigh in relief and bring his hands up to his mouth to drink. She knew the water to be clear and cool, but not too cold, having stopped to drink from it many times herself, and smiled slightly as she watched him take many draughts too quickly and splutter a bit. The other laughed and followed his friend's lead, and the water refreshed them and seemed to cheer them. For a long while they sat at the edge of the stream, allowing the cool water to run over their sore feet and looking at the army of trees that surrounded them.
"I wonder if they shall be like little Orcs after their time with them, and yet I think it not possible," Makoto mused aloud. "I shall only watch them now, and be their guide as I have been their companions."
"I suppose you haven't lost us already?" said the one who first drank, leaning back against the great tree trunk. "We can at least follow then course of this stream, the Entwash or whatever you call it, and get out again the way we came."
A slight rustling of leaves, seemingly from the wind, would have alerted them to the sight of an Elfling falling from a tree, had they not been more worried about their current position.
"Varda, tell me they weren't talking to me!" Makoto thought, pressed tight to a tree. She still watched them, and relaxed only after five minutes had passed and neither asked her to come out from her watching place. Then she climbed back up the tree.
But they weren't talking to her, for the first speaker's companion had turned to him slightly and smiled grimly.
"We could, if our legs would do it, and if we could breathe properly."
"Yes, it is rather dim and stuffy in here," said the other. "It reminds me a bit of the old room in the Great Place of the Tooks, back in the Smials at Tuckborogh. It was a huge place, where the furniture has never been moved or changed for generations. They say that Old Took lived in it, and he and the room grew older and shabbier together, so the room has not been changed since he died a century ago. But that is nothing to the old feeling of this wood. Look at all those beards of lichen! Most of the trees seem half covered with dry leaves that have never fallen. Untidy. I can't imagine what spring looks like here, if it ever comes."
"Still, less a spring-cleaning," chirped Makoto from the cover of the trees.
The two hobbits sprung around to search for the source of it, even as they felt themselves relax, for the laughter that followed could only be from one such as an Elf. When they deemed they could not see anyone, they turned back to face the other and, though warily, continued onwards to where they could just faintly perceive a large hill. Makoto smiled to herself in relief, she had thought that surely she would have been found out. The hill was farther away than the hobbits had originally estimates, and no trees grew on it, though the sun fell fully on its face. Where all had been bathed in grey before, now the wood gleamed with rich browns and black-greys of bark and soft green leaves. In the face of the hill (though the hobbits found it more a stony wall than a hill) were something like stairs, seemingly made by the weathering of time.
"Up we go!" said Merry joyfully. "Now for a breath of air, and a sight of the land!"
Owari, chapter two
One thing to all potential reviewers: review the story and not my profile/bio, please.
Other Notes: To "B": I didn't accuse people of being Mary-Sues; that's impossible. I did, however, accuse them of writing Mary-Sues, and namely, turning Usagi into a Mary-Sue. I do read stories that feature the other Senshi rather than those that feature Usagi, however, not all people mention that they focus on Usagi in their summaries and thus, I don't KNOW that those are Mary-Sue-Usagi stories to begin with.
Also, this chapter deviates from the original book greatly and may not make sense to you all. However, have no fear, it shall all be explained in the following two chapters and then my story and the original book shall join again and make perfect sense =-=