Rebuilding the King.

The Two Towers: Chapter one.

Elayna's POV.
Aragorn lies on the rocky terrain, listening. Legolas has started tending to my lip, which I reopen every time I open my mouth. It sucks! "Their pace has quickened. They must have caught our scent," he muses as he lifts his head from the rock. He rises. He is a good bit ahead of us. He looks back to us and yells, "Hurry!". Legolas finishes wiping at my lip and then goes running up to Aragorn. I turn to call back to Gimli. "Come on, Gimli," I yell loudly. "Three days and nights pursuit. No food, no rest, no sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell," I hear him mumble as he gets closer. We keep running for a while and I can feel my sides burning. I stop for a second to take a breath and when I look up I realise Aragorn has stopped and he kneels down. The he picks up Pippin's leaf-brooch from the ground. "Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall," Aragorn says. Legolas runs up to Aragorn. "They may yet be alive," he says. "Less than a day ahead of us. Come," Aragorn says as he gets up and starts running again. I stop and take a deep breath and then I start laughing as I watch as Gimli falls out from behind a boulder and rolls down a hill. Legolas turns around once again to shout at Gimli; "Come! Gimli, we are gaining on them!". I rush back to Gimli as I help him to his feet. "I am wasted on cross-county. We Dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances," he puffs out as we start to run. We struggle through a boulder covered area, and come to a rise that over-looks the green and rocky terrain of Rohan.

"Rohan. Home of the Horse-lords. There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures. Sets its will against us," Aragorn says. Legolas had run on ahead of us and he was staring in the direction that I'm assuming the Uruk- Hai have ran. We continue on making their way down the rocks. "Legolas! What do you Elf-eyes see?" Aragorn calls out to him. Legolas peers off into the distance. "The Uruks turn Northeast. They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" Legolas calls back to us. Just for a second I get a sharp pain in my head. I stop and bend double. We run until just before nightfall and I can't take it anymore. The boys have surpassed me by a long distance when I first felt it. Some sort of breeze, it sent a chill through my entire body. The edges of my vision started to blacken and narrow when I felt something being pressed against my lips. I grabbed onto the water container and take a generous amount. I begin to sit down and I feel Aragorn's arms slide around mine as he helps lower me to the ground. "We rest here tonight. I doubt even the Uruk- Hai would be brave enough to traverse Fangorn Forest at night," he says. I slide my pack off, glad I picked it up before we left, and break a tiny bit of Lembas off the loaf. Aragorn goes off to find some game, while Legolas goes to find some kindling for a fire. Gimli and I sit there in silence for a while. I hear someone come close and I look up to lock eyes with Gimli. I didn't even know he had moved away. "I'm scared for them Gimli, Frodo and Sam and Merry and Pippin. I mean I'm scared for us too but I'm more scared for them," I whisper. He looks at me worried. "Me too, lass! Me too!" he admits.

We lapse back into silence until Legolas comes back with some kindling. He quickly starts a fire and not long after Aragorn returns with some rabbits and some greens of some sort. He and Gimli make short work of skinning the rabbits as I chop up the greens and separate them into the containers that were in my pack. Soon the rabbits are roasting on the fire and we are tucking into the greens. The taste rather good. Once the rabbit was cooked we eat them and decided who was going to do watches. Aragorn decided he'd go first and apparently I wasn't allowed to take one. It turned out it was in my favour as I fell asleep fast. When I woke up I was curled around Aragorn. He was fast asleep and looked so peaceful. I pulled away slowly and moved over to a lone tree. I scaled up into the tree. I needed some peace, I have been around people for too long. I need some me time. It was about an hour later when I heard some movement on the ground. "Elayna?" I hear Gimli call out. "Come on down lass". I quickly drop out of the tree and see that Legolas and Aragorn are still asleep. "Help me wake them, I'll take fancy pants, you wake Aragorn," he says. I laugh softly as he called Legolas fancy pants and I make my way over to Aragorn. I start to shake his shoulders gently, but I end up screaming as he grabs my arms and rolls. Once I'm underneath him he kisses me. "I could get used to this," he says as he lifts his head.

"The red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night," Legolas says and everyone freezes. I tilt my head back to see if Legolas was right and he was. He packed up quickly and before I could grab it, Aragorn slung my pack onto his shoulders. We begin to run again. Feeling refreshed, I sprint ahead for a while. We had been running for a while when I heard the horses. Aragorn grabbed my arm and flung me to the side, midstride. Legolas caught me just before my head cracked off the rock. Then, Aragorn was there covering me from view. Once they had passed Aragorn stepped out. "Riders of Rohan, What news from the mark?" he called out. We all followed him out and Aragorn pulls me behind him as the horsemen turn and circle around and surround us, spears out. "What business does an elf, a man, a lady and a dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!" the lead guy, apparently, says to us. "You give me your name, horse master and I shall give you mine," Gimli says. I reach back and slap him on the arm. We don't need to anger these people. He grunts a little and Aragorn backs me up as the man rides forward. "I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground," the man says. Beside me Legolas draws his bow. "You would die before your stroke fell," Legolas says. The spears get closer to Legolas so Aragorn grabs Legolas' arm and puts it down. Gimli lets out a sigh of relief. I lean over to Legolas and hissed to him; "Do not provoke them". "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, this is Elayna of the Shire, Gimli son of Gloin, and Legolas of the woodland realm. We are friends of Rohan, and of Théoden your King," Aragorn explains. The man on the horse stares at me intently. "A lady, from the Shire?" he muses to himself. Then he processes the rest of the sentence and his face turns sour. "Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," the man says as he removes his helmet. "Not even his own kin".

As he does this the riders raise their spears. "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the King and claimed lordship over his 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," the man explains. "We are no spies. We track a party of Uruk-Hai westward across the plain," I explain. "Elayna, hush!" Aragorn scolds me. Shocked I take a step back. "But she speaks the truth. They have taken two of our friends captive," he says. "The Uruks are destroyed, we slaughtered them during the night," the man said and I freeze. "But there were two hobbits. Did you see two hobbits with them?" Gimli sounds anxious now. "They would be small, only children to your eyes," Aragorn explains hastily. "We left none alive. We piled the carcasses and burned them," the man says. He sounds as if that pained him to say. "Dead?" Gimli sounds forlorn. "I am sorry," the man says as he nods. I take some steps away and no one from our group notices when I slip out of the ring of horses. Or well not until I was backed up into the ring. The man stared at me as I fell to my knees. I wasn't even aware that I was crying. He cleared his throat and I felt Aragorn pick me up and he wrapped my legs around his waist. "It's my fault. It's my fault they got taken. It's all my fault," I say. Aragorn hushes me as he rubs my back.

Then the man whistles. "Hasufel, Arod. May these horses bear you to better fortune than their former masters. Farewell," the man says as two horses come forward, one sorrel and one white. "Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It is forsaken in these lands," he tells us. "We ride north!" he then yelled to his company. Aragorn stands there holding me for a while longer as I cry. "It is not you're fault my darling, they may yet be alive," he says. I lean back and slap him. "Do not patronise me. They cannot have survived that. Also, don't you dare tell me to be quiet when I speak!" I scream at him as I push myself away from him. He refuses to let me go. Instead he walks into the place we hid. Then he put me down but kept me pressed against him. "One, I am forgiving you as you are not rational right now. Two, I was making sure you didn't get yourself speared. Three, get your ass on that horse before I make it too sore to sit on," he threatened. I gasp and push past him, heading for the sorrel horse. Aragorn lifts me up and then seats himself behind me. Then we begin the ride towards the smoke that we can see from across the plain. Goodbye my friends, I say a silent prayer as we gallop towards the place they died.

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Hey guys,

You know the drill,

~Annacricket