Marie: A few subtle hints about Threwen's past. Not much but a little bit. The next chapters will get good though. Tehe.

Threwen breathed deeply, the smell of the old forest bringing back the memories of when she first lived there. She watched Rannyn step over a stream, the Entwash. She had to smile at his attitude toward her Ent friend. He seemed a little scared of the creature. Threwen remembered how she'd had the same reaction when she'd met him.

Her companion pulled her aside while Willow went on ahead. Threwen knew where they were headed, but Rannyn seemed anxious about the whole situation.

"Where are we going?" he whispered to her.

She frowned. "Willow's home, where else?" She started to continue to follow the Ent, but Rannyn stopped her again.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" He eyed the tree-like figure that was ahead of them.

Threwen sighed. "Rannyn, I told you, Willow is my friend. I met him a couple of years ago when I lived here."

Rannyn was puzzled. Who was this girl? She had a sword wound in her shoulder from some Dark Rider he knew nothing about and she was wanting to stay in Fangorn Forest, a place she had lived in for a while…where she knew an Ent. Named Willow.

He shook his head. She certainly had a strange past. If only he knew more about it.

"Willow, may I please talk with you?"

The strange group had reached Willow's home, which was located not too far from the edge of the forest. Rannyn had settled himself down near a tree and was smoking a pipe. He looked a bit uneasy about the whole place, looking about him cautiously as if he were expecting something to jump out at him.

The Ent looked down at her with kind eyes. "I was…hmm…going to ask you…hroom…the same thing…hooom…"

She smiled up at him and quickly went over to Rannyn. "We're going for a walk. Don't get too close to the trees."

And with that they headed out.

Don't get too close to the trees? What's that supposed to mean?

Threwen glanced back to see the Rider look about him with wide eyes and slowly move away from the tree he had been resting against.

She chuckled. Hopefully her friend would get used to Fangorn in a while.

Willow helped Threwen up into his branches since she still didn't have the strength to climb up. His long beams and leaves created a comfortable place for her to settle down. They walked for some distance and came back to the Entwash. He set her down and she settled on a rock.

The Ent stood and waited for her to continue on. This Ent, though a strange being, was one of the few people in Middle Earth whom she trusted. She filled him in on what had happened since she'd left Fangorn.

"The day I left Fangorn I headed south," she started.

The Ent nodded, seeming to know where she was going with this already.

"I was traveling with Asimma and I saw this tall structure in the distance. A tower. And that's where I met him."

"The White Wizard."

She nodded. The Ents knew about the wizard. There had been a time when he had visited and talked with the trees, especially one of the head Ents, Treebeard. They no longer trusted him though, since he had been chopping down the trees of Fangorn to fuel his fires of destruction. She couldn't blame them.

She swallowed. "He knew things…things no one else should've known about me…and so I couldn't let those things get out. I was scared. I started working for him because I had no where else to go." She told him how he used her riding skills to have her relay messages back and forth between his spies.

Willow nodded slowly. Everything about the Ents was unhurried and time-consuming. A while ago she might've been annoyed but this was somewhat soothing. Her life had been one big long fast-paced race to keep alive. Here things were different. Everything was old and it seemed like time stopped.

Threwen took a deep breath. "That's when he sent me to Rohan." She stopped and studied his reaction. He knew about her past, or at least pieces of it. She had once been a normal girl of Rohan but it seemed like that life was ages ago. After her world was turned upside down, she had sworn never to go back.

The Ent seemed to still be listening intently. He nodded for her to continue.

She told him all about her first experience with the Dark Rider, her workings with Gríma, and then Rannyn. She told him only bits and pieces about their relationship. Threwen knew that Rannyn cared deeply for her. She just wasn't sure how she felt about him. Up until then she had just been concentrating on getting back to a place where she felt safe, a place where she could heal.

Now that she had time though, a tidal wave of emotions was now rushing over her. The Dark Rider…she had killed him. He was gone. It was her fault. Rannyn had cared enough to leave the Riders of the Riddermark and come find her. He had taken care of her again. And she had been so glad to wake up with him there, sitting next to her. He made her have this sense of…security…and normality.

Threwen rubbed her shoulder. It ached and she was beginning to feel the pain rushing back. It was sore from riding and walking. She should be taking it easy and she knew it. She stopped her story at the part where she had left Rohan. She had to prepare herself for the next part- the part with the Dark Rider.

"Is that…hoom…when you came…hmmm…here?" Willow watched her.

"No. Something happened first." She pointed to her bandaged shoulder. "This happened first."

She went on to explain about the Rider attacking her, hitting her, stabbing her. She shut her eyes for a second, trying to block out the images of his face above her, the menacing look, those eyes.

"I…I took my sword and…I…I swung it and…" She swallowed. "I killed him."

The Ent seemed a bit concerned about her. His eyebrows furrowed and a worried look was etched in his eyes.

She clutched herself again, pulled her knees up to her chest. "I can still see him. I can see his eyes…staring…at nothing. For all I know he was just like me- lost and in the service of a man that knew too much about his past. What if he was just trying to survive? What if…" She choked and felt the tears starting to well up in her eyes. She wasn't normally a crying person but then she wasn't normally a killing person either.

You killed someone.

Sure, Threwen had injured people before. She knew how to use a sword. She knew how to defend herself. She could think back on dozens of times when she'd had to escape from the grasps of something nasty. But she'd never killed anyone.

She closed her eyes again. She wanted him out of her head. She wanted the Rider to be gone for good.

Willow hroom-ed and hoom-ed and then said, "Threewwwen…What about Rannyn…hroom…?"

Threwen blinked and looked up at him. "What about him?"

He smiled. "He can help you."

She looked puzzled. "How?"

"He's…hroom…a Rider…He's done the same sorts of things…before…"

Threwen had to admit she had never thought of this before. Sure Rannyn was a fighter but she hadn't really thought he would understand what she was going through at the moment. She never really told him much, probably because she was afraid he wouldn't like what she really was.

Willow picked her up and placed her in his branches. "How about we…hoom…head back?" He started to walk with his big booming steps in the direction of his home. "I wonder…hroom…how Edoras is doing...without any Riders…to protect them…hooom…"

Threwen glanced at his face. He winked. She smiled.

Time to go back.

End Note: thanks for reading.