Nerwen the Green and the Search for the Entwives #wattys2019

Chapter XXIII: Exploring Fangorn

(This chapter has not yet been edited, pls forgive mistakes and oddities)

Chapter XXIII: Exploring Fangorn

Two days later, Nerwen arrived within sight of the northern border of Fangorn. The journey from Lothlórien had been easy, crossing an open land slightly undulated by sweet slopes, with the Misty Mountains on her right side, while on the left the Anduin flew away, in a wide bend, heading southeast.

Nerwen skirted the forest for two or three kilometres before coming across the Limlight; here, she looked for the ford that she had seen on the maps in Rivendell and Lórien, located a dozen of kilometres downriver. When the sun was about to set, she camped on the riverside, putting off the crossing of the stream to the next day. She didn't set up her tent – neither had she done it earlier: the days had been sunny, and in this southern land the temperature of the second half of May, even in the night hours, were already agreeably warm.

The following day, she crossed the Limlight on Thilgiloth's back, with Thalion following her: the good packhorse had a docile and willing character, and he tailed the Chargeress with no need of being led by the bridle, obeying the orders Nerwen gave him verbally or mentally. Calad, of course, flew in front of them, keeping an eye on the territory, but there wasn't a soul: beyond the Limlight, the terrain climbed again gradually in a region called simply The Wold; here, they were already in the realm of Rohan, or Riddermark as the inhabitants called it, but this area was completely uninhabited.

Nerwen turned upstream, going back to Fangorn. Once she reached it, she stopped Thilgiloth and dismounted, approaching the trees. The variety was surprisingly wide: the commonest appeared to be the most long-lived types, such as oaks, firs, chestnuts, yews, but there were also elms, beeches, maples, lindens, and many others. All of them had in common a very ancient look, with large trunks often gnarled and crowns full of lichens; the undergrowth was very thick, with ferns, junipers, hollies, strawberry shrubs, blackthorns and mushrooms, some of them edible – along with strawberry, Nerwen liked the latter very much. Rocks emerged randomly from the scrub, covered in moss, which colour ranged from a bright green to a dark brown.

The Istar extended her special senses and scanned the wood; unlike the Old Forest and Mirkwood, Fangorn was richly inhabited by animals, such as foxes, badgers, squirrels, moles, hares, hedgehogs, and birds like little owls and long-eared owls, woodpeckers, cuckoos. Nerwen perceived also the awareness of the vegetal beings, vigilant and mistrusting, but they didn't seem particularly hostile; there was no trace of Ents, at least not within the range of perception – which was several kilometres – of the Aini's mind. Anyway, she didn't count on it: the forest covered over 14.000 square kilometres, and even if the Onodrim actually inhabited it, which she has still to ascertain, meeting one at the first attempt would be really too much to ask.

Because of the vastness of the territory to explore, she needed to do it systematically: therefore, she had decided to begin going upriver the Limlight until the base of the Misty Mountains, following them southwards for several kilometres and then going back eastwards, reaching again the forest's margin, and so on, coiling back and forth. As the constant use of her Ainurin senses involved a certain effort, she couldn't employ them too many hours each day, therefore she had reckoned that, to cover the entire expanse of the forest, she would need from six to eight weeks.

She saddled up again.

"Come on, friends: let's get started," she exhorted her three companions. Thilgiloth began to walk forward, while Calad glided down and perched on Thalion's luggage-filled back; the mild packhorse had been at first a little intimidated by the hawk, but Nerwen had reassured him, so now he showed no sign of nervousness and just moved lazily his long blond tail.