To the 'silent guest' sorry for not updating frequently (at all). Don't worry, I haven't given up writing, it's just slowed to a snail's pace over the last few months. But don't worry, slowly but surely it will be finished. As for now, I kicked it up a notch and finished this bit. Please enjoy :)
"Higher Gideon, you must reach higher if you wish to make any impact." Eowyn corrected me, swooping in and lifting my hand herself. I fought the urge to frown or worse, roll my eyes, at her. Over the last few days Eowyn had slowly evolved from being merely an observer of my drills, to being a teacher.
"Aragorn taught me this way." I said.
"Well you'd have a much better chance of striking the heart if you reached up just a degree more."
"But that leaves this side too open." I motioned to my ribs and torso.
"You'd have a shield to defend that side."
Apparently, I had started a debate.
"Ah yes…a shield, a very large, very heavy shield sized for someone taller than me." No doubt my face held as much sarcasm as my voice, despite better efforts to remain respectful.
Eowyn gave a small huff at my statement. "Alright, I see what you mean now."
"Yes, let's forget about cumbersome shields…in which case there is nothing preventing my presumably taller opponent from grabbing a knife and sinking it into my side." I went on. "It would be so conveniently close too, all he'd need to do is drop the weapon a little ways."
This final remark earned me a smart knock on the back of my head. Eowyn delivered it with just enough force for a few lights to snap in front of my eyes. "I said that I saw your point already, there's no need to go on about it."
"There was also little reason to slap me upside the head." I muttered back. Whatever spirit the other women in my life, my mother, sister, friends, were composed of, Eowyn also seemed to be created from. There was no escaping snide remarks, well meant criticism, and headaches from such blows. "How very ladylike." I added, summarizing my thoughts in the statement.
This at least earned me an amused smile. "Start again, I interrupted you." Eowyn said, taking up her position as my instructor again. To her credit, she sat down along the wall, giving me plenty of space to practice, and remained quiet as I focused on my work, watching me carefully to see where I had improved and where I was still lacking.
As I continued my drills Merry passed by the grounds, still looking very alone without Pippin by his side. "Care to practise, Merry?" I called out to him. The hobbit looked across to me, smiled, nodded, and soon took up a sword of his own. I switched from practise to instruction of my own.
Merry was improving himself, for all his mischievous tricks and carefree nature, he was a quick learner. Presently, he was being quick on his feet, and mindful of guarding his sides. "Well done." Eowyn commented her seat.
"Of course she doesn't tell you to aim higher." I said under my breath.
"Why would I aim higher?" Merry asked.
"Don't mind that, you're doing fine."
"Has there been any word from Gandalf and Pippin?" Merry asked what was on his mind.
"No, there's no word from Rohan yet. But it's only a matter of time before some message arrives." I placed my hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure Pippin is fine."
"Master Gideon!" Aragorn called to me from the opposite end of the grounds.
"More practice." I said. "Ask Eowyn to spar with you, she's very good, and she'll go at your pace."
"Aren't you tired of so much sword fighting?" Merry asked me as I turned to go off with Aragorn.
"There's not much else to do until we finally get word from Rohan or tire of waiting." I shrugged. "Besides, I fear that Gimli will wear me into the ground, trying to train me to use an axe again." I sighed. "Whether it's the 'weapon of my homeland' or not, it's bloody heavy."
I left Merry to spar with Eowyn, who was happy to offer her instruction to the bright new student. Aragorn patiently waited for me to make my way over, but held his hand up to stop me when I reached back to my belt for my sword. "Not now." He said. "Today we try something else."
"Something else?" I raised an eyebrow.
He nodded, leading the way, and I pleaded inside my head that we would not enter some small courtyard or empty room and find Gimli with an axe, all too eager to start up where we had last left my training with that weapon.
Most surprisingly, we did not wander toward courtyards or rooms of any kind, but rather left through the gates of the village and into the hills just outside.
"I suppose there's going to be a lot more running around this time, if we're outside the gates." I speculated.
"On the contrary, there won't be much running around at all." Aragorn said. "I only thought you'd want to learn something different after so many hours of the same thing." He then plucked a budding stem from the ground. "This is-"
"Camomile." I interrupted. "An easy one, really."
"And do you also know what it's used for?"
"Stomach pains, toothache, things like that."
"And what about this one?" He bent down to select a plant that closely resembled a thistle.
"Great Burdock. It's used for infections of the throat and skin."
"And that?"
"Feverfew, of course. The name summarizes what it does pretty well."
"How does someone who was born under a mountain know so much about herbs like these?"
"It's all in books." I responded. "And one of my uncles was a healer by trade. How did you learn about these things?"
"I had to learn it all before I became a Ranger."
"I suppose the lesson you had planned is no longer needed. If it's been written about, I know it."
"There is more you could learn still." Aragorn said. "Come along."
We then walked over to an outpost, which surveyed the mountains before it. As we ventured there Aragorn would occasionally point down at another plant and ask me of it's name and properties, as if testing my statement that if knew of all medicinal herbs. But my Uncle Oin's old books had left me very informed, as I had promised.
"Tansy, it's used for aliments of the stomach and liver."
"So if it were any old day in late summer..." Aragorn began.
"Not by then." I added, seeing his trick. "Unfortunately it has toxins, and by then they're too concentrated and can do harm and not good."
He nodded. "So you do know plenty of this subject."
"I've studied maps too, old ones kept below the libraries and the new ones."
"So if you were cast anywhere in Middle Earth you could find your way from one point to the other?" Aragorn asked.
I shook my head. "No. There's still quite a difference between looking at a map and actually walking the distance yourself…we should know that quite well by now."
Aragorn took up his position against the wall of one of the outpost buildings, glancing over the mountain before turning his attention back to me. "Do you see that large rock buried in the ground just over there?" He nodded at the stone.
"Do you mean to tell me it also has medicinal properties?" I joked lightly.
"No." He answered, such humor falling flat this time. "Kneel down and place your ear against it."
"What?"
"Place your ear against it." He repeated.
He was serious, as he always was when he was instructing me, and though the action seemed absurd I listened.
"What do you hear?"
"Nothing." I replied.
"You should be able to hear something." Aragorn said. "Sounds are amplified under water, and more through solid matter."
I concentrated, hearing only the faintest of sounds, scuffling really, which made me think it was only me lightly scraping at the stone as I tried to find some sound to begin with. "There is still nothing." I told Aragorn.
And I must look rather foolish practically snuggled up against a rock, I thought to myself.
"Try closing your eyes, it helps to focus."
"You're sure this works, yes?" I asked, just to be sure, raising my head.
"It does." He nodded. "Now try again."
My head was lowered back down to the rock, and I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate. For a few stretched out minutes there was nothing still. "I think I can make out only my own movements when I brush against the rock." I said. "Apart from that, there is nothing else that I can hear." I paused. There was the sound resembling a muffled thud, followed by other such sounds, until they grew quieter, more distant, and faded altogether. During this time I was very still, making sure not to interrupt the noise with my voice, and when it stopped I finally opened me eyes.
"Well, I see what you mean now. You do hear things, if they give enough impact. I suppose what I just heard were footfalls, and rather heavy ones. Someone must be in a hurry." I glanced behind me to where Aragorn was standing. Or rather, where he was supposed to be standing, his place was now vacant. A look in the other direction revealed that my instructor was running in a direct line for the great hall.
"I suppose the person in a hurry is you." I muttered, rising from the ground. Briefly I wondered if Aragorn had run off just for the sake of producing noise that could be heard through the earth, but the idea seemed foolish. I finally heard the commotion behind me, as men started speaking in louder voices, calling to one another.
"The beacon, look! Send word! Quickly!"
The beacon was lit, and I spun around, eyeing over the little dot of flame glowing in the distance.
Well, it looked like we were finally getting that message from Rohan that Merry wanted.
"They call for aid!" Someone shouted.
Old nerves kicked in again, as I realized what 'aid' meant. Armies, teams of men and horses and weapons, all of which had to make it safely and quickly over to Rohan. I hoped their situation wasn't too troubling, but the use of such beacon seemed to suggest otherwise.
I took off running on the same path as Aragorn. In the process I almost tripped over my own feet twice in my hurry, and nearly crashed into a child who was about my size in height. The doors of the hall were already flung open when I climbed up the steps. I stopped myself in the doorway to catch my breath.
"Rohan will answer." I heard through the blood pounding in my ears from exertion. Theoden then turned to the men around him and began dividing tasks, as people departed down various corridors to convey messages and gather supplies.
"We're leaving now?" I asked, the latter word sounding a bit more like a gasp with my laboured breathing. "How soon?"
"With any luck in a few short days." Theoden answered me, though he didn't have the time to turn around and face me yet, he was still motioning for different people to go off in different directions, assigning their duties. "We must hurry, we do not know the circumstances of the beacon lighting. We must assume it's an urgent matter."
I wished again that we could know just as desperate the circumstances were.
"Gideon, you find the others, tell them the beacon is lit. See that they are prepared to leave when Theoden gives the word."
"Yes." I nodded, running back down the stairs without a further word and running back to the training grounds where I had left Eowyn and Merry. I found the two locked in a lively spar. Merry's footwork was clumsy, changing direction too much and at times unbalanced, but quick. Eowyn was performing well, and being a good sport, her skill matching Merry's for his sake, though I trusted her potential was greater. The otherwise empty grounds echoed with excited yells, and quick remarks, and the odd correction.
A shame I had to put an end to such fun for the two of them. "The beacon's lit." I coughed out, clearly my throat and repeating the message more clearly. "The beacon has been lit. We have word from Rohan."
"They call for aid?" Eowyn asked.
I nodded. "Yes, I'd hurry and gather what you need, it looks as if we will be leaving as soon as we are able. Your uncle has already begun to organize his men and supplies. It won't be long."
"If you both would excuse me." Eowyn made her rushed excuse and went flying toward the hall, no doubt to help her uncle.
"What do we do now?" Merry asked.
"I'll find the others, they should know and quickly. Go and pack your bag Merry. We'll be traveling again soon."
"But I was getting hungry…"
"Now, Merry!" I snapped at the hobbit.
/
"So this is an army camp." I mused, looking around at open fires, white tents, and a mix of men and horses walking in all directions.
"Where do you think they've stored the rations?" Merry asked me.
"Honestly, it's as if we haven't fed you since we left." I sighed.
"I can't help it, all that practice with the sword makes me hungry."
I was about to reply with 'Breathing makes you hungry', when one horse quite close to us rolled it's eyes, flared it's nostrils, and tried to rear up on it's hind legs. The horsemaster leading the animal held firmly to the reins, stroking the horse's nose, and pulling it along.
"There goes another one." I said, my conversation turning toward Gimli and Legolas. "All day more men have been arriving, and all day their horses have been acting as though a snake is in their path."
Merry, seeing the conversation had shifted, got up to fill his stomach. "Go see if Eowyn can help you…" I said. "Just make sure you don't eat anything she cooked!" I added quickly, remembering the awful soup (if it could be called soup at all).
As the hobbit walked past the tents more of the normally calm horses tried to rear again.
"You are right, the horses have become restless…and the men are quiet." Legolas said.
"They are growing nervous in the shadow of the mountain." Eomer said, as he passed by with his own horse.
The mountain before us was a grim specimen. If it was possible for stone to decay such as a tree does, then such a state described the mountain perfectly. There was a solitary path that looked like it hadn't been traveled in decades that led into the mountain, and apart from that there was no other visible means of traveling that way.
"What road is that?" Gimli asked, our focus being drawn to the shadowy trail, as though our gaze was pulled there. "Does it lead anywhere?"
"That is the road to Dimholt, the door under the mountain." Eomer answered. "None travel it though…at least they do not return. The mountain is considered evil."
"Well…" I said, fighting off superstition. "Evil certainly summarizes how it looks."
We all stared down the path again. "Do you really think it could be haunted?"
"We've faced orcs, wargs, and a monster made of fire and brimstone…" Gimli said. "And you choose now to start fearing ghosts." He scoffed.
"We've seen a walking tree, anything could be possible." I defended myself.
Aragorn approached then, looking off-put. "Has something happened?" I asked. Aragorn was quiet. "Aragorn?" I spoke up again, more loudly. His attention turned to me. The problem was clear. It was unspoken until this point, but reality was before us now, with the last of the army arriving. "How many men are there?" I asked.
"Not enough." Aragorn sighed.
"We've survived with not enough before." Legolas said. "Numbers should not phase us."
Our attention was drawn once more to the ominous road. "Let's go find some supper." Gimli broke the silence.
"I suppose our best chance is to find Merry." I tried to find some humor.
"I saw him being taken by Eowyn to find some armor." Aragorn said.
"I'll go and save him." I said.
I found Eowyn with a pile of helmet and breastplates at her feet, holding up chainmail against Merry, trying to find one which would fit him best. "Hungry, Merry?" I asked, rhetorically.
I told the hobbit to run off, which he did, forgetting to pardon himself. I turned to go, but Eowyn, with surprising force, grabbed me by the shoulder. "I think this will fit you." She said.
"Armor for me?" The bits and pieces that had been pulled together for the battle at Helm's Deep hadn't been optimal, but it had sufficed. "It's no use Eowyn, there's no armor sized right for people the height of Merry and I."
"Stand up straight with your arms out." My words fell on deaf ears, as the lady sized me for armor, withholding me from supper. It took a solid hour, with some pieces being sent off to the smiths to be shortened, and then returned later.
"Now if only we could find you a shield…"
"Do you not remember what I said about shields?" I rolled my eyes.
"Oh yes." She shook her head at them. "Too heavy." She turned around and admired her handiwork. "Well." She smiled proudly. "You look like a true warrior now."
"As well I should with so much armor on."
"Do you want to see what you look like?" Eowyn asked.
"Did you happen to bring a looking glass with you when we left so quickly?" In all honesty I was curious as to what I looked like, if only because I hadn't seen my image for such a long time.
"Come on." Eowyn led me to a watering trough for the horses. I stared at my reflection for a long moment. I had felt my growing beard, but hadn't seen it yet. I had changed.
"I look like my great-uncle Thorin." I said. "Before his hair turned grey…younger still I suppose, but still…"
"You seem surprised."
"I was always told I resembled him, and I knew I had some of the same features as him, the dark hair and my nose…but now I look so much like him."
"You must find yourself rather handsome, you just keep staring at yourself."
I couldn't help it. I had changed.