...

~ The Forest ~

The three hunters at last found their long lost leader, and pressed him for an explanation of his return. The old man quickly told what he would of his story.

"There was one light that struggled to shine in that bitter cold realm of utter blackness from where it lay within the creature," he continued after recalling his fight with the Balrog, "but shine it did, however dim and muted. And when at last the beast turned to run from me I was thus able to follow it, keeping ever at its heels," he said, continuing the story up the Endless Stair to the top of the Silvertine. "The weapon in his wound continued to weaken him, and so I was able to throw him down at last."

He continued his story into passing away and wandering long through dark realms. "And then suddenly I heard a voice call my name," he said, "the name I have not heard since my youth in the West. I stopped to hear it, like an anchor it was on my mind. But then I tarried there a while, neither moving forward nor turning back. At last I saw a light, a great light of incredible flame. From within that light I heard the voice again, beckoning me, and I moved toward it. Then suddenly I woke, returned to finish my task," he said, continuing on about lying upon the mountain top for many days.

"When Gwaihir set me down at Caras Galadhon his lieutenant landed also, and opening his beak set something at my feet. 'This little thing shone so brightly in the snow it caught our eyes from afar and led us quickly to where you lay,' he said. For it was none other than the little rod of silver, the magic wand as mortals might call it, borne by the maid you know as Elraen, without which the Quest may well have ended in ruin already."

Indeed its shining glint had also caught Galadriel's eye from where she stood high upon the tower flet as the eagles came down to meet with her, and so she asked them to go spy out the mountain tops where she had at the same spot recently observed a curious storm.

The wizard had then picked up the wand and held it long, looking at it joyous and astonished and laughing to himself, at last discovering beyond all doubt the answer to the riddle of the mysterious young orphan, but that part of course he kept to himself.

It was good then also that he had ended up with the wand for a while, for as he held it he felt his spirit lift and his strength rejuvenate after his trial with the Balrog and then with the roving Eye, as it had once done for her. It was thus he was able to continue onward from Lorien just days after he arrived.

"Lady Elraen!" cried Gimli. "Have you seen aught of her?"

"We have found no trace of her," added Aragorn.

Gandalf looked up at them, his face grew grave again. "No, I've had no news on her whereabouts." He went silent for a moment.

"The best I can guess is that she was not slain, but taken by a different foe by a different route," said Aragorn.

"What say you Gandalf?" asked Gimli. "Why would either enemy want to keep her alive?"

"Is it aught to do with the strange air of power I have at times sensed about her? The same I felt of the wand?" asked the Elf.

Gandalf looked up at them. "It took me a while to figure it out," he started slowly with a nod, "for even she did not know herself before Lorien. But you are on the right track, Legolas, for it is the same reason my heart told me to bring her along without quite knowing why. You see, she is one of The Wise too, of course."

They all looked at him, stunned in silence, and he continued.

"She wields great power, but even now it is very muted. Whichever enemy might have captured her might try to coerce her into his employ. But such an outcome is unlikely; it would be beneath her to serve either of them. I think, though, they would both also likely fear to kill her, or to leave her free upon the field. Imprisonment is the last option, not knowing what else to do with her."

A silence fell over the group. The three found Gandalf's explanation very strange and cryptic, as was his wont, and worrisome, but also wondrous and mystifying. Suddenly the young mortal orphan was now, for reasons they could not understand, grouped with the ancient and powerful Order of the Wise. Aragorn wondered at the name she had chosen for her sword, Power of the West.

Gandalf sighed, "I cannot say if she remains in danger, but the eagles cannot see all places at all times. Something tells me she will be alright. In any case her fate is also out of our hands. Come, now! For our part there is still much we have the power to do." And off they headed to Edoras.