So sorry for such a delay! I'm not sure how I'm going to pull this off,with the original chapter five so wretchedly lame. but I somehow pulled off chapter 3,so I can probably do this. yeah.
Disclaimers and copyrights:I don't own LOTR 1-3 or anything LOTR related.I do however own this story,so stealing is a big time no-no.
enjoy and review!

Chapter 5: Fangorn

It was another grueling two days until we reached the border of Fangorn Forest. During that time, I had finally shut up about not having a nice hot bath in four days. I was bored out of my mind with nothing to do except walk a billion miles a day, talk to three stone walls, and eat fish.

We finally decided to eat the rabbit Legolas had killed a few days ago, though I was a bit skeptical. The thing had been tossed around in my backpack for the last three days, and had probably started attracting maggots and the likes. The fact that might be spawning maggotty goodness in my backpack made me feel that much better.

We were still several miles north of Fangorn Forest, and decided to take a break. I dumped the rabbit out of my backpack and onto the grassy ground; we had long since exited the forest where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli had found me, and had arrived in a grassy plain about mid afternoon yesterday.

The rabbit was not in such bad condition as I had suspected it would be. It was still relatively fresh, though it slightly reeked of decay. Unwanted parasites were not found. Confused, I rummaged through the contents of my backpack and found a melted icepack in one of the hidden pockets inside my bag. The rabbit must have been pressed up right against the pocket with the icepack, keeping it cool…or something. I wondered when I had put the icepack in there in the first place. Knowing my mother and her sneaky ways, it was probably her. I wondered why I couldn't feel the icepack before, as the pocket it was in was right up against the back of the bag, and I decided that the cold of the icepack wouldn't have differentiated much from the cold of my body brought about by the unfamiliar climate of Middle Earth.

While I prepared a fire, Aragorn skinned the rabbit, quietly humming an Elven song to himself. Legolas and Gimli decided to spend their time sharpening their respective weapons. Legolas didn't seem to mind spending the time individually sharpening each and every one of his arrows. I admired his patience.

"See that over there?" Aragorn said to me, pointing southward. I looked up from where I had my nose buried in the map to where he was pointing. He was pointing off toward Fangorn Forest, I knew, but all I could see was a dense cloud of trees. "That's Fangorn."

"I gathered as much," I replied, rubbing my calves. I had never been as fit as I would like, so the hike from the Glanduin River to where we were now took a bit out of me. Aragorn was essentially a nomad, travelling a lot, and thus must be fit from that. Legolas was an elf, and well…elves were always perfectly built. So for the last two days, I was lagging a bit along side Gimli. The strenuous exercise and conditioning forced upon us during my two weeks at band camp helped me to build up my quads and calves, but I was no where near athletic.

I wondered if this would hinder our journey.

I was abruptly reminded of what Aragorn had said, about leaving me behind if necessary. Now, that's not fair! I'm 16 years old, in a freaking coma, stranded on some continent I thought didn't exist with nothing more than a crudely drawn map. I'm their best freaking chance of surviving the rest of the journey!

Not to mention that they're my best chance of surviving this.

If I was going to survive…

I glanced at Aragorn.

"We should, uh, be moving soon?" I inquired. I had the nagging feeling that we were only resting for my benefit. In the second movie, Gimli implied that they ran for three straight days without so much as a bite to eat. We had only travelled two days, taking only about four hours to sleep each day.

Aragorn glanced at me, his chunk of rabbit meat untouched. "Why the sudden haste?"

Was I busted? Could he see through my worry to my wary determination?

"It's just, um…" I started. "We…would have a better chance of finding Merry and Pippin sooner if we hurry. Besides," I stood up. "I need to stretch my legs." They were still a bit sore and protested against the weight of my body.

"You're very resilient, young one," Aragorn complimented thoughtfully. Legolas was already on his feet, staring off into the forest.

"What can you see?" Gimli inquired. Legolas squinted.

"Nothing, really," he said, seeming disappointed. "The foliage is too thick."

"I don't suppose you'd know where to go once inside the forest, would you?" Aragorn said to me. He had prompted the question more like a statement. I raised my eyebrows once.

"No," I said. "I just know that we're supposed to go into the forest. I'm guessing (rather, I'm hoping) that clues will lead us to Gandalf." Aragorn nodded slowly.

I ascended a hill matted with dead grass to get a better view of the countryside. My companions were packing up our things. I aknowkedged the forest and then turned my head around a hundred and eighty degrees, searching.

And finding.

Legolas was beside me then. He glanced at me once and then in the direction I was looking. Aragorn and Gimli joined us on top of the hill. A speck on the far off distant hill. Very dark, and at the same time, very chilling.

"A pile of corpses," Legolas said. "Bodies, still smouldering."

"Kendra?" Aragorn said.

"Orcs," I replied. "Last night, if my knowledge is accurate. The Riders of Rohan would tell you that they killed everyone in this Orc gathering last night and burned the bodies, leading us to think that the two hobbits we're looking for are dead." I scrutinized my map and deciphered the distance between us and the hill was just over one hundred miles. How did we end up so far from Lórien?

Aragorn looked at me. He could tell something was wrong.

"It's not lining up the way I expected it to," I said.

"And how's that?"

"We were supposed to come across the Riders of Rohan, who would tell us that they took care of an Orc gathering last night, leading us to think that Merry and Pippin are dead. They're so far from Rohan because Éomer was banished," I said. Legolas turned to look at me. "Which is one good reason we're going into Fangorn. As I said before, we will come across Gandalf again."

"In Fangorn?" Gimli said. I nodded.

"Éomer was banished," I explained, "because Wormtongue, a minion of Saruman, has placed a curse on King Theoden, enabling Saruman to control him. Theoden has no independent judgement or control anymore."

"Not yet," Aragorn said comprehendingly.

"We find Gandalf, we free Theoden, and he will lead us in the battle against the Orcs," I said. The others looked at me. "You all must be aware of the war that is upon us. Saruman aims to take over Rohan, and the Orcs will attack."

"At Rohan?"

"The battle actually takes place in Helm's Deep," I elaborated. "But more on that later, yes? Let's go." I descended the hill with the others close behind me.

Two hours came and dragged by. I had refused to tell them much more about the future than I already had, so conversation was limited. Every now and then, Aragorn and Legolas would exchange small-talk in Elvish. At least, I thought it was small-talk. I had never gotten around to teaching myself Elvish, so sadly I was not able to understand even one word that they said to each other. I silently questioned their purpose of keeping their conversation from me and Gimli. I wondered if Gimli had to put up with this often.

My legs held until we reached the very border of Fangorn Forest, where we paused for a second. On top an adjacent hill was the smouldering corpse pile. Aragorn had insisted on investigating it anyway ( I had no idea what for. Maybe his Ranger eyes could pick up details I missed), so Legolas, Gimli and I stayed behind and waited for him to return.

Cue awkward silence.

I glanced at Legolas, who speaking in a low voice to Gimli. Great, now I was the one who always had to be excluded? It kind of annoyed me, but I didn't look too much into it. I didn't want them to think I was nosy or prying, but then again…what if they were talking about leaving me behind again? Then what would I do?

Then again…why would they leave me behind at all? They need me to survive the Helm's Deep battle, I need them to survive this coma hallucination, and…they couldn't be that heartless…

Right?

I glanced at them again. Legolas was silently shuffling his feet. I couldn't expect a conversation, since they already knew that I wouldn't tell them anymore about Rohan and the battle until we actually came to it. What was there to talk about?

Aragorn returned some minutes later and conversed briefly with Legolas in Elvish again. Once, Aragorn pointed at me very briefly without taking his eyes off of the elf. I cocked my head. Discerning from their body language and facial expressions, I'd say that Aragorn didn't find anything too important. He probably just wanted to see what happened during the mini-battle last night, how Merry and Pippin escaped.

Then, Aragorn was running into the forest. Startled, the rest of us quickly followed. I could feel the blood surging back into my feet, and it kind of hurt. I wasn't quite sure why we were running, though I had an idea. I did say that the sooner we get moving, the faster we may find the hobbits. Was Aragorn testing my endurance? Or was I just paranoid?

Paranoid. Probably.

Legolas came to a halt, holding out his arm to stop the rest of us. He scanned our surroundings with his keen eyes. I noticed Gimli taste something off a plant. It was black and viscous.

"Orc blood," we said in unison.

"After Merry and Pippin escaped the carnage and were persued by a survivor," I explained, "so they escaped into the Forest."

"Where are they now?" Legolas inquired.

"Not sure," I answered. "They may have already headed off towards Isengard with Treebeard by now."

Then Aragorn was off running again and Legolas was after him in half a second. Gimli and I took off in the other half-second. What was with all the running? I said maybe.

A minute passed and Aragorn slowed to a jog. Legolas came to a halt, so Gimli and I followed suit. Aragorn continued on for several more yards before coming to a stop as well. He looked around. Legolas took a step forward.

A groaning noise. Then creaking.

"What is it?" Legolas said.

"The trees," I replied, grabbing a hold of Legolas's sleeve. I was feeling dizzy again. Maybe I hadn't fully recovered the tuba attack yet, as I so thought I had. "They're speaking to each other."

"The trees?" Aragorn said, turning to look at me.

"Ents," I corrected myself. I staggered backwards. Legolas caught me by my shoulder. Aragorn took two steps towards us. I held up my hand. "Gandalf will be near." I coughed. "Where do we go from here?" Aragorn composed his expression.

"I was rather hoping that you knew," he answered. "I'm not so sure myself."

So we were lost in Fangorn Forest. How. Freaking. Wonderful. Makes me almost sad that I was of such little value to this part of their journey.

We came across a small stream. I pulled out the map and unfolded it. Gimli and Legolas were by my side, reading the map over my shoulder. I did my best to ignore them. Turning my attention back to the map, I traced my finger over the Glanduin River, where it passed through the mountains, became the Nimredel River and passed through Lórien.

Something clicked in my head…or rather, it tried to. At this point, they should have already departed from Lórien then headed into the Mirkwood where they lost Boromir. According to the map, the Glanduin River was pretty much the same river as the Nimredel, and that was going through Lórien. I was confusing myself, but maybe I had just misread the map?

"It's not on the map," I noted.

"Streams like these usually aren't," Legolas replied. Smiling, he added, "Perhaps you were looking for a lucky break?" I smiled as well.

"I suppose." I was hoping to follow this stream into Isengard. Unfortunately, a lucky break was not to be had. From the looks of it, none of the rivers went through Fangorn. "Our best bet is to continue south." South of Fangorn was the West Emnet, which I could only assume would be where Gandalf calls upon his horse Shadowfax. From there it looked like we would head south into Rohan.

I began searching for locations of future events, like the ambush attack on the way to Helms Deep and decided that it would be in the Westfold. Then I had to stop myself. If I was wrong about where they found me, if we had been, in fact, north of the Glanduin River instead of the Nimredel, then what else could I be wrong about? Maybe the events that took place in the movie wouldn't correspond perfectly with this world I was in. It seemed only reasonable, now that I had given it some thought. I didn't know what to do at this point.

The others decided to take my advice and started off south again. I followed warily, skeptical of my own words. At any rate, everything else seemed to be going as according to plan. Yet, how could I be sure of what I was doing?

"What happened?" I asked. The others looked at me. "Before you found me, I mean." We were pacing ourselves at a slow walk. I was still holding on to Legolas's arm.

"Our group was divided at Mirkwood," Aragorn started. "We chased a group of Orcs across the mountains, thinking they had Merry and Pippin. We were mistaken, unfortunately, and lost the Orcs."

And then there was the gap between movies one and two where we don't see what happens in between. It was very reasonable that they did in fact end up north of the Glanduin, then traced their steps back to the Field of Celebrant, where I guessed that they encountered the Riders of Rohan. We had cleared the mountains some days ago, so they must have been on their way to the Field when they found me. Their encounter with me must have detoured their trip away from the Riders and straight towards Fangorn instead.

That was the only way I could get it to line up, anyway.

Another mile south and Aragorn jogged several yards forward. I slumped slightly when we stopped, so Legolas stayed behind to help support me. Aragorn then turned around and scanned our surroundings. His eyes were alert. His hand was hovering over his sword, at the ready. The rest of us were startled.

"What is it?" Legolas asked. He and Aragorn looked to me, hoping for answers. I was still hanging on to the fact that I had been wrong about the rivers and the Riders and thus, everything else. I doubted myself. How could I be sure that I knew what was going to happen?

I looked at Aragorn and shook my head.

He straightened up from his crouch and studied my worried face. He took several steps towards me. "Kendra…?"

A faint light to the side, and he froze. I could tell from his expression that he didn't need my help to know what it was.

"The White Wizard," he whispered. Legolas straightened, then nodded once.

"Gand—" I choked. My throat was suddenly dry. Legolas let go of my arm to take an arrow from the quiver on his back. Gimli tightened his grip on his axe, mouthing the word "Saruman".

I wasn't so sure why I was worried that they would hurt Gandalf anyway; he turned out fine in the movie, the others' weapons rendered useless. I was abruptly reminded of my suspected flaws and I shut myself up.

"We must be quick."

"No!"

They wheeled around, barring their weapons. I fell to my knees.

A bright light and I was blinded.

End Chapter 5

Ha I did end up confusing myself halfway through writing this.i think I did get the rivers messed up,but hopefully I fixed anyone's confused or want to correct me,please feel free to do so.
also,i forgot to run a spell check on this,so tell me if you catch any mistakes.
I'm writing the rest of this story without the reference of the original the process,I hope to keep myself in Middle Earth for longer than I was in the original version. As such,I'm hoping that this revised version will turn out to be better than the old one.
sorry this chapter was so short,by the way.i don't have much to go on.
please review!