'My butt is going to be so sore by the time this is all done,' Kendra thought for what must have been the tenth time.
This was her first time on a horse and she knew it wouldn't be her last. She was riding behind Aragorn, gripping his waist tightly. The horses had looked big riding past them when they were hidden behind the rocks. To her, they seemed a lot bigger riding on them. Kendra looked over and noted that Gimli was also gripping Legolas' waist a bit tightly.
'I guess he has never been on a horse, either.'
They rode for several hours, going slowly because both horses had two riders. They finally got to where the bonfire had been. The flames hadn't done too good a job on destroying these creatures as there were still many bodies still visible. Something caught Kendra's eye as they were riding up. Aragorn had dismounted and had walked over to the still-smoking pile of bodies. This left Kendra to get herself off of the horse. She hit the ground, butt first.
Kendra got off the ground, rubbing her slightly bruised bottom. She walked over to the thing that caught her attention. It was a head on a pike. The face suggested that it had been alive when they had taken the head off.
'That is so disgusting,' she thought, looking at the way they had placed it.
This was a familiar act to her, though. Mages did this to show trespassers what would happen if they didn't leave their territory. Normal gangs did this to mages to show what would happen if they found out you were a mage. And the creatures of nightmare, at least the stronger and smarter ones, did this to create their staffs, showing their power.
Kendra walked back over to the other three. Gimli was sifting through the pile with his axe, trying to find something. Legolas was looking out onto the plains while Aragorn was watching Gimli. All were hoping that Eomer was lying.
Gimli stopped and pulled something out of the pile, "It's one their belts."
Kendra looked at what was left of the scabbard, her mind refusing to believe that it was there. She heard a clang as something was kicked and Aragorn screaming into the open sky. Legolas was saying something in elvish which left Kendra and Gimli to try and deal with it.
"We failed them," Gimli finally said.
Kendra was watching Aragorn, waiting to see what he was going to do. If the two Hobbits were really dead, what use was there of hanging around here? Maybe they would continue riding to Gondor. Or even to Mordor and try to find Frodo and Sam. Either way, she would follow Aragorn's lead.
Suddenly, "A Hobbit lay here," she heard Aragorn say.
He was looking at the ground, studying it. What he was looking at, she couldn't tell. Her eyes were not trained for the subtle depressions of the ground. Her eyes were trained for shadows and magic. Aragorn started moving, staying close to the ground.
"Their bonds were cut," he said, holding up some rope that looked like it had been sawn through.
"They went over here, then here, and then..." he stopped in front of the forest.
"Fangorn Forest," Gimli said. "What madness drove them in there?"
Kendra looked at the tightly woven branches that were just on the outside of this forest. There was no sign of life coming from anywhere in there and she was scared to enter. But enter she would because Aragorn and Legolas started moving in. Kendra and Gimli looked at each other before sighing and following the man and elf.