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Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters and places associated with the Lord of the Rings are creations of J.R.R. Tolkien and property of Tolkien Enterprises. No money is being made off of this story, it is for entertainment only.
Chapter 9: Dark Trails
“If man hasn't discovered something that he will
die for, he isn't fit to live.”
-Martin Luther King
*************
Gilraen dropped down next to Elladan and reached out a timid hand to touch the elf. The dark-haired elf made a slight groan when she touched him, so the nest time she shook him.
“Elladan get up, we have got to move,” she pleaded.
The elf’s eyes fluttered open and she could have shouted out loud.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
The elf blinked a few times and then seemed to finally see her.
“Honestly, I have had better nights,” he said weakly.
Shouts once again rang out from above.
“I don’t know if they can see us so we should probably move,” she suggested.
Elladan’s bright gaze swept up the ravine and he squinted slightly.
“Oh they can see us alright and I believe you are right.”
Elladan sat up only to almost fall back down as he became light-headed. Closing his eyes he took a steadying breath. He could see the orcs plainly at the top of the ravine, so that means they could see them as well. They really needed to move. Please not now, he pleaded with his body. He must get up. The elf opened his eyes to see Gilraen looking at him uncertainly. The woman was scared and looking to him for what to do. Why was everyone suddenly looking to him for answers lately? Or maybe, he thought, others always had, but he had never before been this weak and so never noticed.
Pushing himself to his feet, the elf felt weak in the knees and suddenly wished Elrohir were here. His brother’s presence was always comforting and lent strength to his very soul, strength that he desperately needed now, but, he lamented, Elrohir was not here to help him this time.
What to do now? They needed to get away from the open area of the river for sure. Both he and Gilraen were soaking wet, something that normally would only be pesky to the elf, but now was chilling him to the bone. A chill he realized the woman was also probably enduring. If only they could find someplace to lie low for a while and dry off at least they had only to make it until the morning, and then the both of them could take it a bit easier.
Elladan scanned the area. The ravine bottom was narrow and the river, with its rocky shores, took up most of the space.
“We must go,” the dark-haired elf said.
He felt like he was wobbling a bit as he walked and was sure he looked like it also. Gilraen said nothing about the elf’s apparent tottering.
“Where are we heading?” Gilraen asked following closely behind the elf.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“I can barely see anything down in here,” the woman whispered fear evident in her voice.
“Do not fear Gilraen for my eyes can pierce this gloom.”
The pair for lack of other options traveled the riverside for some time. They needed to find a place to rest and soon.
Gilraen was damp, exhausted, and miserable, but did not complain. This had been her choice after all and she was resolute about it. The one thing that kept her going was the knowledge that her son was in capable hands. Had the situation been different, she was sure she would not have to worry either. She felt extremely guilty for dragging her wounded and exhausted companion into this horrid situation with her.
As they walked the landscape swam in and out of clarity for Elladan and every once in a while dark spots would play across his vision. No matter how much he tried to deny it, with all that had happened before and during this night, he was coming to the end of his endurance and knew it. If he kept this up he would end up collapsing from fatigue like what had happened on the way to Bree. He was pushing his limit now. He was worried, not for himself, but for Gilraen. If he fell she would be left by herself and he already knew how her heart and conscious worked. If that happened she would still stay by his side and that would put her in grave danger. A fallen elf managed to attract every orc for miles.
The elf tried to sigh in frustration, but was interrupted as he stumbled and fell to his knees. He couldn’t even sigh to himself, he silently cursed, letting his anger get the better of him.
Gilraen sucked in her breath in surprise as the elf in front stumbled and fell. By the Valar this was what they didn’t need. She had no idea what to do if her guide, and guardian she realized, fell. Could she possibly defend them both?
“Are you well?” Gilraen asked.
The question sounded ridicules to her even as she asked it. Of course he wasn’t.
Elladan stayed on the ground and finished his sigh.
“I am going to be honest with you Gilraen, no I am not. I do not know how much farther I can go on.”
It hurt the elf to admit his apparent weakness, but the woman had to be prepared to go on without him.
****************
Elrohir held the child securely with one hand and pushed Aethaenyn faster with the other. Why must it be up to him to get the child out of here? Well, he knew why, but why must these situations always turn for the worst? Aragorn’s small voice brought the elf out of his contemplations.
“When will mommy and Dan meet up again?”
Elrohir sighed. He sincerely hoped they would meet again soon, but he knew better. There was no way the two would catch up with Aragorn and him while they were on horseback. Again Elrohir doubted at whether splitting up had been the right decision. Right or not, he scolded himself, it was done and he had to deal with it as it was. It also finally occurred to him that Aragorn had called his brother Dan. A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth when he realized they had never gotten the chance to tell Elladan about his new nickname. Oh well, that would just make the surprise even better.
“We are to meet up with your mother and my brother at the village of Bree. It is a couple of days ride from here, so I hope you don’t mind my company?”
“No, you’re alright.”
Elrohir paused. Alright? Just alright? He knew he really should not let an almost three year old bait him, but for some reason he could not help it.
“What do you mean just alright?” the elf asked indignantly.
Aragorn giggled. He knew he had gotten the elf.
“Aranel,” the boy began struggling over the name, “said that Dan jokes more. That you’re more, more…”
Aragorn’s small face became serious with concentration has he searched for the word the golden haired elf had used.
“Serious?” Elrohir suggested.
“Yea, that’s it!” Aragorn answered excitedly causing the elf to almost groan at the high pitch.
“Serious he said huh? Well, when we all get back I will show him how serious I can be. His clothes will regret the day he called my brother more light hearted than me!” the elf said grandly.
Aragorn laughed at the grand proclamation.
“You’re funny after all! I bet you and Dan are fun to play with.”
If all turned out well the boy would get plenty of time to find out. The child’s bright spirit intrigued Elrohir and he silently prayed to the Valar that it would not be dimmed by the loss of his mother.
“I bet you are right. We will all find out once we get back to Rivendell,” the elf offered as supportively as he could.
The two rode in silence for a while before Aragorn once again broke the quiet.
“Will Aranel and Haldan come with us?”
“Well little one, Aranel lives there, so yes he will join us. As for Haldan, he is a ranger and will go where he must. If he has the time he might come visit.”
“What’s a ranger?”
“You do not know?” Elrohir asked a bit surprised.
“I know daddy is one.”
Elrohir wondered at how to explain the complicated life of a ranger to a child. Make it brief, he decoded.
“A ranger is someone who lives out in the wild and protects the villages from bad things.”
There, brief enough.
“What sort of bad things?
“Anything that would want to do harm to the people,” Elrohir answered calmly.
“Like orcs?”
“Yes, like orcs.”
“Are there a bunch of them?” Aragorn asked.
“The orcs or the ranger?” Elrohir asked not following the child’s line of thought.
“The rangers!” the boy said impatiently.
“No little one, there is not.”
“Why not?”
Elrohir sighed. Didn’t children ever stop asking questions? Elrohir was just about to try and explain it to the boy when guttural voice echoed to his ears.
“Aragorn,” Elrohir began making sure to keep his voice calm and steady, “I need you to be very quiet and still right now alright?”
Aragorn quieted down immediately nodded silently to the elf. With the quiet Elrohir focused his hearing outward. Elrohir cursed inwardly at himself. There were orcs ahead and he had not heard them until now. He had been too preoccupied with the boy to pay close attention. Their voices seemed to echo from several places ahead. There were only two options, ride around them or try and go through them. With Aragorn sitting in front to of them the safest option was to simply ride around them, so Elrohir headed to his right.
After riding a short bit Elrohir found, to his dismay, that that direction was blocked too. Had they gotten blocked in his carelessness? Elrohir curse inwardly again. If this were true he would have to push through after all.
As fate would have it, the unsuspecting creatures were accidentally cornering them in. If they went back it would most likely only get worse, so there was only one direction to go and that was foreword.
“Aragorn, there are orcs about and we are going to ride through them.”
The elf could feel the boy tense up in fear.
“It will be alright little one. I will not let any harm come to you. I promise you that.”
Aragorn said nothing, but Elrohir could tell he was a little comforted by the words.
Elrohir drew his sword, the bow was too hard to handle while holding someone, and gripped the reins and Aragorn tightly with his other arm.
“Who knows little one, maybe someday you will follow in your father’s footsteps and we will be doing foolish things like this together as often as Elladan and I seemed to with Arathorn.”
The little Aragorn did not know what the elf was talking about, but in his later days when the story was retold he deeply treasured those words and looked back at the statement fondly.
Aethaenyn pawed the ground nervously in anticipation.
“Not you too my friend,” Elrohir said lightly to the horse.
The horse threw its head in irritation and stomped the ground.
“Very well, if you are that eager, then let us go!” Elrohir laughed.
“Hang on Aragorn, no matter what do not let go of the horse. He will protect you. Do you understand?”
The small boy nodded to the elf.
Elrohir walked the horse closer until he could almost make out the black shapes drifting noisily through the dark trees. This was it.
“Remember what I told you,” he whispered to the child.
Aragorn shut his eyes.
“Caela ie'lle!” Elrohir yelled and Aethaenyn charged.
*************
“I will push on as I may, but if I drop you must go on,” Elladan explained to the woman.
“I couldn’t,” she pleaded tears rimming her eyes, “I would never make it on my own.”
Elladan reached out and lifted the woman’s chin and smiled at her.
“You are stronger than you know my lady. You would make it.”
She smiled weakly back and wiped her eyes.
“Maybe, but we are not finished yet,” she said.
She rose to her feet and looked down with determination.
“You are here for my sake and have done nothing but aid me without complaint even though you are injured. Come Master Elf, I will help you.”
“You know not what you offer to do my lady. If we are spotted, just being with an injured elf puts you in danger.”
“Mayhap, if we are even found. You had this injury before you came for us yesterday did you not? Well, I did not even now that until recently. I say you are still rather fierce weakened and I am not afraid.”
As she spoke the dark-haired woman bent down and helped the elf to his feet and wrapped a steadying arm around his waist.
“You stayed with me and now I shall stay with you,” she confidently.
(Ever wonder where Etel gets that enduring altruism?)
As Elladan listened to the woman’s words he knew them to be true and that she had great faith that in the end all would turn out well. Her hope radiated out and lightened the elf’s spirit. He found himself rising with greater ease than he had in quite some time.
“I told you that you had more strength than you knew,” he said kindly.
Gilraen simply smiled at her companion, no she corrected herself, anyone willing to go through so much for her should be called friend.
“Thank you my friend,” she answered quietly.
Elladan was only mildly surprised at the title of friend.
Drawing strength from each other’s presence the pair made their way down the shore.
*****************
“I know you are tired my friends, but you must push on,” Aranel said to the group.
Of all the humans, Haldan was keeping pace with the elf the best. The ranger was used to hard treks through rough terrain. The other four were quickly slowing down.
“Aranel is right,” the ranger said between pants, “unless we wish to be caught we must keep this pace.”
Taren nodded at the ranger.
“I will admit I do not know if we can, but we will give it our all and should we be caught we will not go down without a fight. At least not all of the orcs followed the villagers and they may escape. For that alone I would be willing to die out here.”
The other three villagers nodded their head in agreement.
“We are not finished for yet. All we must do is make it to the dawn,” the elf said.
“When the sun rises the creatures will find a hole to crawl into, so we are not without hope yet,” the ranger said confidently.
“Now I see why elves are rumored to be so hard to keep up with. Alright, lets make haste,” Taren said as lightly as his fatigued body would allow.
The small group switched directions again and set off as fast as the humans could run with the elf pushing them consistently on.
***************
Sarnor dogged through the trees swiftly on top of Arphenhiril. The world flew by almost as if in a dream. The air whipped fiercely though his hair and over his face. Every once in awhile a small limb would smack him in the face to leave it stinging. In other words, the boy was having the time of his life riding the magnificent horse. He constantly kept a watch out for signs of orcs or objects the horse might trip over, but there was no need. The roan ran deftly through the woods without much guidance, except for the direction to the village.
It seemed in no time at all Sarnor could see the signs of the village approaching. Had he already rode the distance? He must have been too caught up in the pleasure to notice the time. The teenager closed in on the village a long time before his people would ever make the trip.
Sarnor rode right into the middle of the village shouting at the top of his lungs. Villagers began to look out their windows and doors to see what all the commotion was about. Gondan the unofficial village head came running out to the boy a few moments later.
“What by the Valar is all the commotion? Answer boy!”
Sarnor took a few breaths to calm down and lunged directly into what was happening to his people and where they were heading.
“So they are coming hear and want us to help them get here?”
Sarnor nodded his head excitedly.
“They will bring all the orcs directly to our village!” one man shouted.
“He is right. Why should we let them destroy our village as well?” a woman asked.
Villagers began shouting at the unfairness of it all.
“Quiet down everyone!” Gondan shouted.
The villagers quieted down to mummer.
“They are right lad. We risk our own village helping your people.”
“But we have helped this village out many times! Now when we are threatened you will abandon us?” Sarnor shouted.
“Of course not. All goodly peoples are enemies of orcs!” someone yelled.
This elicited some supportive shouts from the villagers.
“He is right also,” said Gondan.
“Tell me honestly boy. Do your elders think we can defeat them if we go to your aid?”
“Two elves travel with my people. They are the sons of an elf lord and they think the orcs will not fight with the combined strengths of the two villages.”
Another murmur went through the crowd at the mention of the elves.
Gondan brought his hand up to his chin in thought.
“So they have come for Gilraen finally,” he said quietly to himself.
“What do you mean?” the man next to him asked.
“People listen to me,” Gondan shouted, “there is much at play here that you do not know about and unfortunately I do not have time to explain it all. We must help the other villagers; it is our duty as goodly folk and on a promise made a long time ago. I will be leaving shortly to help the others, I will not force anyone to come, but I beseech you for your help in doing the right thing.”
The villagers broke out into questions amongst themselves.
Gondan turned back to Sarnor.
“I have done all I can. I can no more than ask them, but either way I am coming with you. Come with me while I get ready and you may take some food and water.”
The two ran to Gondan’s house and entered. Fifteen minutes later the two were ready to go.
“Do you think anyone will come?” Sarnor asked.
“I cannot say, but I have lived here all my life and these are good people. Give them a chance.”
Although the man’s words were encouraging the boy got the impression he was trying to convince more than just him.
The two walked outside and to their amazement there was a sizable crowd of men gathered outside, carrying everything from swords to pitch forks. Gondan looked at the crowd proudly.
“We’re ready,” the same man who had shouted about the village being destroyed now stood carrying an old sword.
“Thank you all,” Gondan said kindly, “lets go teach those orcs about picking on villagers!”
****************
Elrohir bent over the little one to shield him from any blows that might fall and parried the first orc with his sword. He caught the blade with his and kicked the orc in the face. The creature stumbled back into one of its companions the two went tumbling down. Elrohir’s horse pawed and kicked at the orcs with his powerful legs and the creatures stayed well clear of its legs. Elrohir kept up the fierce sweeping of his sword and combined with the horse’s bulk they managed to steadily push through even as more orcs tried to stop them.
The horse broke through the ring and they bolted away from the crowd. They had managed to make it a short distance away when they ran head long into some stragglers.
As the few moved to block the path one sharp eyes creature spotted the boy seated in front of the elf and while the elf was busy dealing with them he lunged for the boy. He grabbed a hold of Aragorn’s small foot and the boy yelled in surprise and fright. Elrohir wheeled around at the sound and deftly stabbed the beast. Even in its dying breath the thing refused to let go and the elf had to brace them to the horse, which threatened to send them both tumbling to the ground after the orc. He managed to keep them seated, but the move had distracted him and before he could turn back to the other orcs he was struck on the head by something.
Elrohir’s world dimmed and swayed and the elf fought to stay conscious. They only thing he could remember was he had to get Aragorn out of here. He numbly kicked the horse into a run and the animal ran down the two orcs in front of it. He knew the horse was running, but that was it. The world was too dark to make out anything else and for some reason he could no longer feel Aragorn sitting in front of him anymore. Actually he could no longer feel anything and the tiny bit of Elrohir’s mind that was still working told him he was about to black out. With his last bit of strength the elf spoke, at least he dearly hoped he was saying it out loud.
“Remember to hold on…”
Before he could finish his sentence Elrohir’s world went totally black and he knew now more.