The Limbus

With a yelp, I took a step back and bumped into a tree that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. I would have gambled my left ear on that.

Slowly, I turned around and bit the inside of my lip to keep from screaming again. One part of my brain was in panic mode, the other was remembering something, but for the life of me I couldn't think of what it was. What dominated my thoughts instead was wondering where the darn voice had come from. Was I losing my mind?

"Where are you?"

The tree in front of me began to move as if pondering my question. But that was impossible. Trees didn't move. They stood firmly in one place. I really had to stop scaring myself with such assumptions. "Well..." the voice said slowly. "Right in front of you."

I had to swallow. "R... right in front of me?" Was I being fooled? Or was I really beginning to hear voices?

While I was still thinking about it, the tree in front of me went down on its knees. I couldn't describe it any other way. It knelt in front of me and my gaze wandered ever so slowly, almost automatically, upwards until it met two very large, very green and, above all, very lively eyes.
Which belonged to the tree.

Crap.

Stumbling backwards, I tried to put as much distance between me and this creature as possible. Had that been the reason Gimli had warned me about Fangorn Forest?

But I didn't get far, because the tree grabbed me and lifted me up. With another yelp, I saw the ground beneath me shrinking. My heart raced within my chest, but I made no move to fight back. If I did, I would fall down and break more than just my leg.

"This reminds me of the time I picked up two young hobbits from between the roots of my trees," the voice mused. Whether it was speaking to me or not, I wasn't quite sure, but instead the memory came back, and this time I let it in.

Of course.

How had I been able to forget? "Treebeard?", I therefore asked on the off chance. "Is it you?"
The creature didn't get to answer me, because at that moment I heard Gimli's grumpy voice from below. "Put her down, Treebeard, she's with us."

"Young Master Gimli," the Ent replied with a rumble in his voice that could only be joy, directing his attention away from me to the dwarf who had appeared out of nowhere among the tree trunks. "You have returned to Fangorn!"

"And I brought the elf with me," the dwarf said. "Now let Aspen down. Her face is already turning green."

"If you are certain that you know her..." The tree-host hesitated a moment longer, but then gently set me back down on the ground. Gimli had been right: My legs were a bit shaky, and if the dwarf hadn't supported me when Treebeard took his gnarly hand away, I probably would have toppled over.

"Are you all right?" Gimli asked, his look concerned. "You ran from an orc into the woods - is he still around?"

"Oh, that one," my gaze searched the forest, but there was no sign of the creature, "I think Treebeard finished him off before he could really threaten me."

"To be exact, one of the Huorns did it," said another familiar voice beside me. It was Legolas. "Have I not made myself clear? You were supposed to stay with the horses!" His eyes flashed with a fury I had never seen before.

"Perhaps it escaped your notice, but I was cornered. If I had stayed there, you wouldn't be able to yell at me now," I hissed, all at once just as angry. Why did he come at me? Would he have preferred the orcs to get their hands on me?

We measured each other with glances for a heartbeat, then Gimli eased the situation. "She is right, my friend," he said, placing a hand on the Elf's shoulder. "And that is something that worries me. Orcs don't hesitate, they should have attacked Aspen immediately, like they attacked us. But they didn't."

Before Legolas could respond, the tree shepherd intervened. "They have been crawling around the borders of the forest like worms for days." He put extra emphasis on the last word; I could hear the disapproval in every fiber of his voice. "The Huorns, they are restless, they want to cut them short, but I have told them that the orcs will disappear again - as they have every time since the end of the Dark Lord."

It took him a good eternity to say that long sentence, and when he reached the end of it, he seemed a bit exhausted and at the same time relieved to have made it.

"Perhaps you should have let them," Gimli muttered into his beard. Out loud he said, "Do you know why they were here?"

Treebeard shook his head again thoughtfully. As he did so, a squirrel fell out of one of his knotholes. He caught it before it could hurt itself. "But they are getting numerous. They come from the Misty Mountains and the White Mountains. You know why," said the Ent, his eyes fixed on Legolas. The latter stared into the thicket of the forest, but finally nodded. "The shadow is growing longer again, I can feel it. Especially strong right here, right now, I have to admit."

The shadow? Was he referring to what he had told me on the city walls of Minas Tirith what was almost feeling like an eternity ago? I frowned. But what did that have to do with me?

Gimli seemed to be asking himself the same question. "What would they want from Aspen?"

"That my heart cannot yet fathom," the Elf replied, and I couldn't help but smile. I was not the only one who used strange phrases. "But we should not waste any more time. We need to get to Esgaroth as soon as possible." The elf looked at me with his piercing gaze. What he didn't say, didn't need to say, was the assumption that had just flashed through my mind: what if it had something to do with the stones?

The Ent, who had been listening intently until now, said, "I'll guide you to the foothills of Fangorn. From there it is not far to the forests of Lothlorien."

Legolas bowed his head. "That is very courteous."

The tree-host straightened up again. "The Huorns have positioned themselves at the edges of Fangorn and beyond. You will be safe under its leaves," he said. "Follow me."

Not half an hour later, our horses were caught and we were on our way across the forest: Treebeard led the way, I followed, Legolas and Gimli trailing. None of the orcs ventured within our reach anymore, but Treebeard had assured us that they were still there. They were eager for a chance to enter the forest, but did not venture into its thickets because they knew they would not come out alive.

The storm had gradually subsided, even though we had hardly noticed it under the canopy of leaves. Only occasionally a drop had fallen to the ground. Treebeard had informed us that we would be leaving Fangorn behind in just over a day, which was much longer than we had planned. The reason was that our progress was slow. But what else could we do?

The mood was gloomy, as was the silence of the forest, which soon wrapped around us like a cloak. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, even though I was sure that we were all thinking about the same thing: Why had the orcs surrounded me? Why had they hesitated? And if it was because of the stones: What did they want with them? Couldn't they have just taken them? Why take me into account - if I didn't play a bigger role than expected?

All these questions circled through my head in a never-ending limbus, until Treebeard announced that we would take a break for the night. Only the next morning would he then lead us to the foothills of the forest and safely through the ranks of Huorns that guarded it. In the daylight, the tree-host said, the orcs were weaker. "They were only able to become so dangerous to us because the sky darkened," Gimli explained in response to my questioning look.

"Their eyes are sensitive to daylight," Legolas added, unhitching the pack from his horse's back. "Let us rest and gather our strength."