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The villagers were awakened by a loud sound. A sound they have never heard before. Many of them rushed to the mountainside and looked into the valley below.
There it seemed like the valley had become alive. Hundreds of banners waved in the morning breeze, and there was a constant sound of horns.
They looked down a saw a rider approaching them. In his hand, he held a banner like the ones in the valley.
The villagers were not afraid of their life, as the rider seemed to be alone and bore no arms, but they were afraid of what message he would bring.
The rider stopped when he saw the people.
He shouted; "In the name of the great Tar-Aldarion, you are required to state your loyalty to Numenor. Do you follow the human King or the dark magic of the south? Let your decision be known to us!"
The rider looked around to make sure that as many as possible had heard his words. He then turned around and rode for the valley.
In the Valley Aldarion and Gil-Galad shared a large tent. There many people came and swore loyalty to them. In return, they received lembas bread.
Aldarion said; "No one run, they all swear loyalty to us"
Gil-Galad commended; "It is still winter; they cannot run into the mountains. Remember that loyalty is spoken in the present, and the memory of men seldom spans generations."
Aldarion asked Gil-Galad; "Where is he?"
Gil-Galad stated; "He moves to the east, where the light is dimmer, and where other shadows hide! A place where none of us has been before."
The crusade continued and all the humans they met swore loyalty to Tar-Aldarion, and the shadow moved further to the east. The army left Eriador and passed into the unknown territory to the east.
Gil-Galad stated; "I have never been here before, but I feel safe among these trees. Our enemy will have no sanctuary here, and he flee in front of us."
After three months of heading east the White Mountains turned towards south. Gil-Galad ordered a stop. To Aldarion, he said; "I can see, that most of our enemies have turned to the northeast to escape. But I also sense a few is heading south."
Aldarion asked; "where is he?"
Gil-Galad answered; "heading south, I believe! I see his shadow follow the great river."
Aldarion ordered Valandil to follow the Easterlings with most of the army, and Gil-Gilad asked Elrond to follow them. Together with Aldarion and a few hundred men, he headed to the south after the shadow.
Aldarion and Gil-Galad rode south. They looked at the White Mountains; at a point, they notice a mountain very different from the others. Instead of raising slowly into the sky. This mountain rose vertically as if you would drop a stone from its top it would fall a thousand feet to the ground.
Gil-Galad ordered a stop. He pointed to the east.
There across the great river a similar feature was in the mountain on the east, but this steep wall was carved into the mountains, instead of sticking out of them. It looked like the mountains once were connected but the river had torn them apart.
Gil-Galad said; "They are fleeing to the south and will meet Cirdan if they follow the river. We can follow them, but I sense the shadow has left then run and crossed the river."
Aldarion ordered most of the army south. Together with Gil-Galad and a company of fifty men, he headed to the river. The spring was over, and the rivers stream was slow, so they could build rafts to bring them to the other side.
To the north Elrond and Valandil has pushed the fleeing Easterlings to the great river. Their enemy were unable to create boats to pass the river in time and prepared for battle.
"Be careful;" Elrond stated; "this enemy is devious."
Valandil rode ahead and approached them and Elrond followed him; "I do not fear death"; he stated.
"I am Valandil of Numenor! I mean you no harms! If you lay down your weapons you will be allowed to cross the river without being attacked."
The men of the east all followed Valandils request. Valandil said to Elrond; "Sometimes action is better than promises; they lose their weapons and no blood is spilled! After all they value their life most."
Elrond was deeply impressed by Valandil.
Aldarion had crossed the great river. They headed directly east following a small stream, towards the darker mountains. Aldarion was frequently asking Gil-Galad if their enemy were in front of him, and Gil-Galad confirmed this.
Finally, they come to a closed valley. There was no vegetation only rocks and the stream in the middle.
"Where is he?" Aldarion asked.
Gil-Galad looked into the valley; it was not very deep. He then pointed upwards.
"His orc friends came to him, but too late to stop your army. I suspect he knew we were also coming from the south and they considered this a challenge we could not meet. They are climbing the mountains!"
Aldarion looked at Gil-Galad; "But we will take that challenge, right?"
Gil-Galad said; "Let us camp here. Tomorrow you should take your strongest men and we will climb this pass. Make sure the rest climb as far as they can and light the path for us, should we return during the night.
Thus, the Numenoreans stayed in the valley while the wizard and his orcs reached the top.
At the top one of the orcs spoke. He was covered in sweat and hateful of all around him!
"I flee no more! What are these humans of the east and south save for cowards? They run from a weapon less army of seamen. All of them are weak!"
The wizard approached him; "the humans are the future; there are no power to be achieved without them. Would you rather stand at the shores of the east, as you once did?"
The orc answered, "No! But I would rather reside in the Uuduayn with my friends knowing I have served him!"
The wizards walked up to him; "- and who would create a path back for you then? You are free to go to the Uuduayn, but remember we will all be judged anyway."
The wizard and the other orcs left him behind and walked down the slope to the east.
Aldarion and Gil-Galad climbed the pass. The river had no other tributaries and there were only rock ahead of them. The twenty men behind them started to lose pace, but Aldarion kept up with Gil-Galad.
Gil-Galad reached the top after noon. He was strong and felt no fatigue. On the other side of the pass the mountain slope fell only slowly.
Aldarion was the next person. He looked back down and the closest Numenoreans were at least a hundred feet below him. He climbed to the top.
He stood alone. He could not see Gil-Galad.
He sensed a danger and drew Aranruth.
He looked at it; it gloomed in the sunlight, as it was a sun of its own.
Aldarion looked at it with surprise. Then he was hit in the back by a great force. He fell to the ground losing the grip of Aranruth. He looked up at his attacker, and there he saw the most disgusting creature he had ever seen. The orc raised a knife to kill the king, but he was penetrated by a spear and fell to the ground, dead.
Gil-Galad came to the rescue and reclaimed his spear from the dead orcs body.
Aldarion was in shock. He said; "what is this creature?"
Gil-Galad answered; "this is an orc; once they were like me and the Avari, but the dark lord twisted them to become this. They will never return to the hall of Mandos, so you cannot save them."
Gil-Galad and Aldarion looked ahead. The landscape in front of them was silence in the sun. Everything seemed grey and they could see no life. A lone mountain stood in the distance surrounded by clouds as Meneltarma often was. For a short while, it seemed like the cloud would gather to indicate a storm was coming; but a breeze came from the west and easily dissolved the clouds.
At the mountain in the distance, the wizard was sitting at a rock. He saw his enemies at top of the pass.
He said; "These are my enemies. The king of the Noldor and the king of the Numenoreans"
Gil-Galad and Aldarion could not see him they investigated the landscape.
"What a dull country;" Aldarion stated
"Indeed, this is the dull country, Mordor," Gil-Galad said; "There is no point in continuing here. We can only get a few people though here, and I do not see the enemy any more."
They turned around and faced the Numenoreans still climbing the pass. To their disappointment, all were ordered to turn back.
The wizard was remaining at the mountainside. The orcs around him continued to complain, after a while they left him alone.
Aldarion, Gil-Galad and the other Numenoreans made it back to the valley aided by the torches put out by the men he had left there. They returned to the other side of the river and headed south towards Cirdan.
The wizard was sitting along in a dead country without allies. He had no idea on how to continue, just looking into a void.
A small smoke came to his attention. There was a small crack in the mountain close to where he was sitting.
He exploited the crack. It led to a larger opening into the mountain.
The wizard followed the opening. He walked into the darkness.
As he walked, the darkness became lighter and the heat increased. Finally, he came to a giant crack in the mountain
He looked below, there were a terrible roar of fire in endless stream of lava. He looked and listened to the roar.
"Mairon!" The sound came from the button of the gorge.
"Be my mirror and pave the road for my return;" the lava seemed to state.
The Wizard fell to his knees; "Yes! My master, this is what I needed of guidance. I will meet you at dagor dagorath. I knew that was a way back from the deepest!"