Three Hobbits and a King

Aragorn watched full of worry as Arwen rode away on her grey stallion into the night, with Frodo clutched tightly in front of her.

"What are you doin'? Those wraiths are still out there!" shouted Sam, his voice full of concern for his young master. Aragorn voiced no reply. He stood in a daze for several minutes looking after Arwen, until Sam came up to him and grabbed him by the wrists, with what obviously was meant to be a firm grip. "Strider!" Sam shouted up to him.

Aragorn jumped nervously out of the daze and then stared down at Sam. "What?" he said. "Who was she," asked Sam. "A friend. She will take Frodo to Rivendell safely" he said, although not really being sure himself in side.

"Come young hobbits we must move on. We have a long journey ahead of us, and orcs patrol these woods we must move quickly," he finished.

"Orcs? What are they?" asked Pippin confused. "They are a foul creature. A servant of the Dark Lord much like the Ringwraiths, but greater in number and less courageous. If you see one run in the other direction or tell. If you get a chance to kill one, do because they will do worse to you," Pippin looked horrified along with the other three.

"On second thought it is getting dark. Rest here tonight I will have a look around. DO NOT LIGHT A FIRE. HIDE SOMEWHERE. I won't be long." Aragorn concluded and then strode of out of the clearing leaving the three hobbits on their own again.

After a while the three hobbits' protesting stomachs gave up and let them fall into an uneasy sleep. They dreamt of dark shapes on horseback and short foul creatures in the night.

Soon after the fire went out with a dim crackle and nothing was left, but burning embers. The Hobbits feet grew colder but it did not wake them from their nightmares, and they would never know that Strider would not return that night.

Sam was the first to awake. Above him birds twittered in the tall overhanging tree's carefree and joyful. Sam sat up slowly and rubbed a hand over his face in an attempt to brush away the morning fatigue. He looked around and then remembered what had happened the night before. His eye's travelled the clearing that looked a lot friendlier than it had last night, and then fell on his two friends, Merry and Pippin.

They still slept soundly and did not stir. He then remembered the dark stranger that had helped them the night before. Strider. He then searched the clearing for him but he could not see him. He began wondering what he was playing at. He had left them last night and then early the next morning before they had awoken. Then the thought occurred to him that maybe he hadn't returned. He felt a small pang of guilt and then worry incase something had happened to him.

He stood up kicked Merry and Pippin hard in the ribs; it woke both of them with a jump and a shout of protest. They were both about to continue when they saw the look that Sam was giving them.

"Strider hasn't come back yet," he said.

Then they heard a rustle of the bushes and they all hid behind Sam (except Sam). Emerging from the bushes was Strider. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Strider looked worse than he had before. His cloths were torn and he was bleeding, from his shoulders badly and there was a gash on his neck. There also seemed to be a wound on his side and there was blood running down from a cut above his knee.

"Strider! What happened?" Sam said.

"Nothing Sam,"

"I right it must have been a fair bit 'a nothin' that happen'd then," Sam said, annoyed that Strider couldn't trust him with the truth.

"Sam, it's okay, everything is fine" he said

"At the moment I ain't really worried about everthin I'm worried 'bout you," he said quieter this time.

Aragorn was touched by his concern, but didn't want to worry him any more.

"Sam I thank you for your concern but I am-" one of his legs buckled but he caught himself with the sword, "fine" he said with a sigh.

Aragorn refused to admit that there was anything wrong with him. He didn't want to worry the hobbits anymore than they already were. He would make it to Rivendell and then everything would be fine.

He pulled Bill the Pony that the four hobbits had acquired from their home behind him and the three hobbits followed. With every step his knee shouted out in protest but there was no time to stop.

"Strider, enough mystery. What happened last night? Where were you?" Sam asked again more persistent than he thought any hobbit or person for that matter could be.

"If you must know a company of orcs were following us. I fought off, as many as I could but there are more. You aren't in the Shire anymore Samwise. It is not safe here. Come," and with that without waiting for an answer Aragorn walked on…

Sam walked and walked, his feet and legs and back protesting and screaming at him for a rest. But he could not heed them. He could not let Strider and Merry and Pippin down; he couldn't slow them down.

The same sorts of things were going through the other hobbits' minds. But they set their jaw, showing that they were hardy folk and that they wouldn't give up. They walked on and looked ahead, determined to make a difference in this wide world.

After a while the hobbits lost count of the minutes, and knew not how long they had been travelling. The chill of early morning had gone, only to be replaced by the sweltering heat of midday. The tree's overhead were thinning and they knew that they were coming to the edge of the forest.

As he walked Sam remembered about Bilbo. They were retracing the steps that he had gone on his adventure. He had thought about this last night, when the three trolls that had turned to stone, stood behind like watchful lookouts. It was when Strider's friend had shown up and taken Frodo away.

Then without warning his thoughts were interrupted by a yell from behind him. He spun round and saw Pippin staring his eyes glued to the tree beside him. A crude looking black arrow was protruding from the bark of the trunk.

Then suddenly another arrow flew passed his ear; this one however came from in front of him. He turned and saw Strider, aiming another arrow already. He shot it almost immediately with deadly accuracy, it hit a following orc directly in the centre of the forehead.

" Get out of sight. NOW," he shouted.

Himself and his three companions quickly obeyed and hid behind the nearest tree.

Strider jumped behind a tree on the other side of the path that they were following and immediately reloaded his bow. He leaned out past the tree and took out another orc. They were coming too quickly now though. He leaned out pas the tree a last time and took out the last archer. He then drew his sword and started the mayhem.

There were already a large number of ugly orcs running towards him. He took out the nearest with a clean cut through the neck and then swung his sword down as if in the same movement and swiped an orc's feet out from below it, this was quickly followed by a finishing stab through the creature's chest.

He continued fighting. Orc after orc but they seemed to be never ending and in his already weakened state he couldn't hold put for much longer.

The Hobbits watched Strider fight in awe. The way that he swung his sword seemed like it was second nature to him. He looked like he was supposed to be there doing that. He was also so calm, but the orcs seemed like they were only the cannon fodder of a larger army. The Hobbits were smart enough to know that they weren't because an army could not have been concealed so easily in the trees and also they had a different attack pattern.

Strider continued fighting but they could see him slowing he was tired and wounded. Just as they were about to lose all hope of them getting to Rivendell alive something unexpected happened…

Two figures popped up from behind the trees, two women it looked like and started using their bows quickly dispatching the now very confused orcs. Strider didn't turn a blind eye to the two figures helping, but fought on with more vigour than ever as he saw the orcs numbers dwindling.

Finally, the battle was over as Strider stabbed the last orc in the stomach. The two women stepped out from behind the bushes and placed their bows on their backs again. There was one on either side of Aragorn they both bowed and the taller one said:

"Mae Govannen… Nae saian luume, mellon nin',"

Then simultaneously they both bowed. The second shorter one stepped forward and said:

"Lle ume quel ten' a Edan"

Then Strider replied:

"Yallume!" and put his hand on her shoulder.

The taller one smiled and then heard Pippin cough and clear his throat.

"Ya naa tanya?" she said, walking over to the tree which Pippin and Merry stood behind.

"Oh," he said remembering, "This is Merry and this is Pippin. Cousins I believe, and this is Sam," he said standing back so that the woman could see Sam. "As you can probably guess they are Hobbits. I need to get them to Rivendell. It is important".

"Well," the taller woman said, "I am Amrun, warrior elf of Lothlorien and Servant to the Lady of Light. This is Ithil, warrior elf of Mirkwood and Servant to King Thranduil (sorry not sure how to spell that)".

"Amrun means Sunrise and Ithil means Moon," by now the second elf, Ithil had walked over to the rest of the party and now both she-elves stood beside each other. Even to the Hobbits it was obvious why these two women had these names. Amrun had long golden hair tied back and plated. She wore a navy tiara on her head. The front of it came down and met in a point in the middle with an eight-pointed star above it, this bit sat on her forehead. The rest went around the sides of her head in beaded lines. She had soft features and deep blue eyes that were drawing.

She wore a leather travelling jerkin. It had a V-neck and went very low, enough to catch all three Hobbits attention. She had the side bits of the V bent back and the inside had an intricate pattern of leaves and ivy in silver. It was long sleeved and light brown and continued over her unbelievably thin waist and then split again going over both legs. Just under her jerkin they could see brown tight leggings and then her below knee brown boots finished the outfit. She looked beautiful.

Ithil wore a short top that ended at her stomach, which was light green, and then to cover her stomach was a light blue design of once again ivy. She had long flowing auburn hair that was in a middle parting and loose, which was strange for battle, and dark brown eyes. She wore no helm but had silver pauldrons (shoulder armour) and silver greaves (shin protection). The light blue material continued down to the middle of her hips to form a short tunic, which did not split like Amrun's. Then she wore light green leggings and the same brown boots.

Both of them had bows. Ithil's was strapped on her back and the straps going round the front (like Legolas's) but Amrun's was a mystery. It just sat on her back. A sword that was long and curved hung at Amrun's side and the sheath seemed intricately designed with leaves once again. Ithil only carried a small dagger on her belt along with her pouches and it appeared that she was more specialised in archery.

Both women turned after greeting the Hobbits and began fussing over Strider who kept insisting that the Hobbits were more important. Quietly the Hobbits talked about the Elves and wondered about Strider and how he could speak their strange language…

Hello… It has been too long, friend of mine

You did well for a human

At last!

Who is this?

So what did you think of Amrun and Ithil? By the way Amrun is modelled on Idrial in the Third Age who I am going to maybe bring in later. But GO AND PLAY THE THIRD AGE IT RULES!