"My name in the Shire was Rose Longfurrow, but now I go as Briar Rose. I was born to Burnock and Lily Longfurrow, simple hobbits of Hobbiton in the Shire. I spent the first years of my life as a carefree child.
"Back then, I was madly in love with Frodo Baggins, the young heir of Old Mr. Bilbo. I was 18 when he fled for Crickhollow with Sam Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck. I, blind to the evil pursuing him, followed.
"I followed them carefully and quietly all the way to Bree. There I would have revealed myself, but they met up with one of the Big Folk and so I thought it best to remain unseen for a time.
"I tracked them all the way to Weathertop and beyond the Valley of the Elves. There I could not gain entry, so I waited, ever watchful, outside the gates.
"Eventually Frodo came out, followed by a company of eight. Still oblivious to anything but my mad desire for the young Baggins, I followed them all the way up to Caradhras, the Red Horn.
"While traveling over, I became lost and was separated from the trail of the fellowship. I was freezing and starving and just beginning to think that perhaps I should just return to the Shire when the Wargs found me.
"The small band were battered and bad-tempered, obviously having just been defeated in some skirmish. They penned me in and would have fallen on me at once, but one of the larger ones spoke rapidly to the others and halted them all.
"I didn't know what was said, but apparently a decision was made, for I was carried by the Wargs swiftly over the mountains and into Nan Curunir, where we now stand.
"Saruman was intensely interested in my being a hobbit and wrung out of me every bit of information he could about Frodo, the company with him, and a Ring. When he saw that I knew little about these matters, he decided to keep me, for bargaining with later. For the time being, I was given to the Wargs. By order of Saruman, they could do with me what they willed, as long as I was not severely wounded or killed."
Here the hobbit drew her knees to her chest, fighting sobs of pain. "Saruman branded my shoulder with the shape of a Warg's paw. I was enslaved to the Wargs, kept in the caves of Isengard. For five years they kept me, cowed by the power of Sharkey and his orders. But I never saw the White Wizard again. I learned later that a year or so after I was taken, the White Wizard was killed. But the Wargs did not know this, and did not have the wit to discover it. So they kept me in bondage still.
"After a time, when Saruman did not come, they began to wonder if he had forgotten me. A messenger was sent to Orthanc to inquire about this and I knew my time had come. In the night I escaped the caverns of the Wargs.
"I traveled back to the Shire, hoping to find my family. But the Shire was changed, as I was. No one recognized me, what with my scars and my missing eye." She touched the Warg-hide patch that covered where her left eye should be. "No one wanted me there. So I left there, in tears over my fate.
"Then I went east, unknowing, into Mordor. What happened there I...I will not say." She trembled and red blood beaded on her lip where she bit it in her anguish.
"I was finally able to escape the darkness of the Black Land. I decided to return here, to the Ring of Isengard, to see what news of the world I could find and to consider my next road. To the cities of men I would not go, men have ever been a proud race and not easily will they stoop to the level of hobbit eyes. Nor would I go to the Elves, for they are fading and their fair race is vanishing from the earth. The Dwarves, too, are withdrawing into their vast cities under the earth. My own people reject me. So what can I do? I came here to find the answer.
"One of my former masters found me, and would have devoured me if not for you. So that is my tale. In it's entirety. And who are you? Pardon me for asking, if it seems rude. Oh, you're bleeding!"
The man, who had by now seated himself and was leaning against the Warg's body, lifted a hand to his face. It came away red with blood from the place the wolf had slashed at him. Swiftly he placed his hand back over the wound and murmured a few words. When he removed his hand, only a red line was left on his skin. Briar Rose gasped.
"You are a wizard! My lord!"
The man nodded slightly. "Aye, a wizard, born and bred. I am the son of Saruman the White. If he was your master, then mastery of you passes to me with his death. Thus I do not have to tell you of myself. But my name is Angrenbor, and I travel to the kingdom of Angmar to continue the work of my father."
Briar Rose sighed. "It's true, sir, that I should now belong to you. I will follow you then, wherever you may go. I will come, for there is nothing left for me to do and no other choice is given me."
So the two left Isengard. Together they traveled, master and slave, over the Misty Mountains, heading to Angmar, and the ancient evil that lay therein. At first Angrenbor simply coexisted with Briar Rose. But as time drew on, he made the most of his role of master until Briar Rose was terrified of him.