CHAPTER 10
Running, and walking. That is what this broken Fellowship have been doing, chasing and playing catch up with the Orcs, trying desperately to retrieve Pippin and Merry from those ugly claws of our foes. Going through narrow ravines, traveling across barren fields that have held old trample marks from our enemy. Each plain held a path of destruction because of the mangy beast. It was sad time. The trees were whispering with each other, telling the stories of what Sauron was doing to the forest, they were angry.
It has been the third day of our pursuit, and we have found only small clues. The brooch of Lorien, carcasses of northern foul folk, and small hobbit footprints. Which I believed was Pip since he is of smaller proportion.
It has taken a toll on our smaller friend the dwarf. Even if he would never admit it otherwise, but he has become weaker with our journey, barely stopping for bend or break. Only the Lembas bread seemed to give him enough strength to keep us going. But now the night has grown frigid with cold air, and Aragorn and Gimli slept fitfully.
I wrapped my cloak around me tightly and picked up my bow and arrow, strapping it around my back. I picked myself up off the harden dirt floor, and started to walk off to the ways of the Forest.
"At such a time of night, where would a woman be going?" Asked Legolas thoughtfully, I just sighed and turned around on my heels, he was rather close to me, for I felt the heat of his body radiating off of his and onto mine, I looked him in the eye and spoke:
"I have become restless, along with the trees of the woods."
"Is it about the master hobbits departure?" He spoke almost sternly.
"My thoughts have circled around Frodo; as well as Sam I do admit. But something else has been clouding my mind, for the past three nights. If it is ill or not I am not sure."
In truth, I did know what it was. I had a dream of that fellow Gollum on our first night of our journey. A rather ugly creature, that he was, But the Ring made him that way. I felt pity for him, and hope. Hope that Frodo could change him around.
I turned around once more and started to walk off, before going I did ask if he wanted to come with me, and he politely accepted. So now he and I walked past many trees and sleeping animals talking ever so softly.
"They are talking about us." I said with a look that could match Galadriel's.
"Who is?"
"The spirit of trees….Listen closely"
And true to my word, his face had realization on it, when he heard the soft whispers in the wind. I sang softly in delight:
"The road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say."
I chuckled quietly and looked at Legolas, who held a small smile of amusement, but his eyebrows quirked in a questioning manner.
"Bilbo, my old friend used to sing that every time he went off on his adventure, and when he returned some 20 to thirty years later, there he was singing that tune again."
"Growing up with the hobbit kind, has made you much different, you seem much more at one with yourself, then if you were born in Mirkwood. My friend, you are more alive than the rest of us."
"When we were in Lorien, I have become acquainted with an elf by the name of Haldir, there he told me, of the fights and feuds Elves and Dwarfs had, and still have to this day. But here you are, befriending a dwarf and Gimli of all of them!"
We both silently smiled and I self consciously looked at the ring on my finger, fidgeting with it. The beautiful ring shone through the moonlight, as if making it glow.
"You are the daughter of the Lady of the woods, the most known elf of middle earth's time." He asked more than stated.
"I guess I am, but one would not tell with my upbringing. Dark hair grows on my head, while blond locks shower from hers. She is a brave warrior, who speaks the elfish tongue and knows of the past, present and future. She said that I hold that gift, but my heart holds doubt. And doubt cannot rule over a village like Lorien one day."
We stopped, and recognized that we have made it back to the campsite. The sleeping dwarf and man still moved around wildly from the cold, but they would have to get up soon. The sun would be rising in an hour or so.
"You are not the elf from when I first met you, in Rivendell my dear friend. The one I know now has made sacrifices far much greater than the normal being. You have showed strength in times of weakness, and in the days of depression, you have given us light…To say that you are not fit to be a leader, is a foolish thing to say Alyan. And if you wish to learn our native tongue, I shall teach you."
I smiled at his kind words, and repaid him with a chaste hug. He looked at me shocked at such a movement I just made and stepped back, his eyes were enlarged.
"Have I made bad judgment?" I asked in a whisper.
I bowed down, and swiftly walked away, taking his silence as the answer. The hill just thirty feet away is where I sat, looking at the now rising sun, footsteps awakened me from my trance like state of looking at the beauty in front of me.
"Alyan." The man spoke softly, and I turned my head and smiled at Aragorn and patted down to the ground next to me, offering a seat.
"Did I make a bad choice when I did that, my friend?"
"There is such a thing of making bad choices, but if you feel that if it was right in your head and heart, than it must have been a good choice for you."
I grinned and squinted my eyes closed; the sun now peaked over the hills fully.
"I think today will be a good day, Aragorn."
"You think?"
"Mhmm." I finished shortly and we both got up and went back to the camp to wake up Gimli and kept on moving forward.
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How we always ended up in this sort of predicament, I was not sure. But here we were circled yet again, by weapons.
"Who are you and what are you doing in this land?" The rider asked in a tone, which reminded me of the late Boromir.
"I am called Strider" answered back Aragorn. "I came from the North, hunting Orcs.
"How did you escape or sight? Are you elvish folk?" The rider said while dismounting his regal horse, and walked closer to Aragorn.
"No. Only two of us are an Elf. Prince Legolas, Son of Thranduil from the Woodland Realm in distant Mirkwood," he pointed to me now "And Princess Alyan, Daughter of Celeborn, from the kingdom of Lothlorien."
The rider now looked at me, his curiosity piqued. "Then there is a Lady in the Golden Woods, as old tales tell! But I did not think I would live to see the day!"
He spoke happily while looking down at Nenya.
"You do hold one of the three rings of elvish power, Lady Alyan. But how did you come to receive such a gift?"
I now spoke hesitantly, not truly sure of what to say.
"I...got this…"
"She did receive the ring, as a parting gift from the Lady of the Woods, since she will herself take on Lady Galadriel's title, as seer and ruler of Lorien." Aragorn finished saying for me, but I looked at him with wide eyes, in shock that he gave away that much detail.
His smiled stained his face, even when he asked the dwarf his name. But it seemed to be short lived when Gimli spoke up in a dark voice.
"Give me your name, horse master, and I shall give you mine."
I laughed at Gimli's response, knowing to well of the Dwarfs pride. Aragorn looked at me, in disbelief, and then turned around once more to the nameless rider who now walked closer to Gimli.
"I would cut off your head, Dwarf… if it stood but a little higher from the ground."
I gripped my arrow but made no sudden movements, but unlike me, Legolas did the exact oppiste, and readily had his arrows at the rider.
"You would die before your stroke fell."
Even more spears were now pointed on us, but Strider quickly pushed the Elf's weapon down.
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, this is Gimli son of Gloin, and you already knew of Legolas, and Alyan. We are friends of Rohan and of Theoden, your king.
The man now looked down in sadness, speaking once again.
"Theoden no longer recognizes friend from foe, not even his own kin." He took off the silver plated helmet he was wearing, and we now saw his full face, and soon the spears and other weaponry were taken off of us.
"Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king… and claimed lordship over these lands. My company are those loyal to Rohan. And for that, we are banished. The white wizard is cunning. He walks here and there they say…. As an old man hooded and cloaked. And everywhere, his spies slip past our nets."
"We are not spies" Aragorn spoke for all of us. "We track a party of Uruk-hai westward across the plain. They have taken two of our friend captive."
"The Uruks are destroyed. We slaughtered them during the night."
"But there were two Hobbits. Did you see two Hobbits with them?" Gimli asked frantically.
"They would be small. Only children to your eyes." Said Aragorn.
The rider looked down grimly "We left none alive. We piled the carcasses and burned them" He pointed to a plain not far from where we stood; all you could see now was smoke rising. Adrenaline rushed through me, and I ran through the horsemen, desperately trying to see if my two hobbit friends were alive.
I got there quickly, and started to tear through the bodies, and I came upon Pips golden belt.
And I turned around, now facing my other friends while they jumped off two new horses.
"They have to be alive." I said shortly, and I idly looked off into the direction of Legolas, who was most likely saying a prayer.
Aragorn went over to me, and fell towards the ground, yelling up at the sky.
"A hobbit lay here… And the other. They crawled, their hands were bound." He moved off in a different direction like he was hot on their trail, and he soon picked up rope covered in dead grass. "Their bonds were cut" He got off the ground and started looking at the dirt for clues. "They ran over here. They were followed" We all now started running after Aragorn. "Tracks lead away from the battle… into Fangorn Forest."
"Fangorn?" Gimli asked gravely "What madness drove them in there?
I looked at them all, and spoke happily:
"They are safe." They all turned around to me, and I spoke again. "The Ents will be good to them."
And it was true, a vision flashed through my mind, and there I saw, a huge Ent, holding both Merry and Pip.
"It is our duty now, to retrieve them. Knowing Pip and Merry, they will annoy him." I said jokingly while I lead the way into Fangorn Forest.