With a secret mission to marry an elf, Wynne must join Legolas' and Elvenking Thranduil's new quest as a horsekeeper. She begins an adventurous journey, encountering orcs and monsters, friendly uruk-hai, a lady dwarf and many Fellowship heroes - but...
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~ The company makes a strange and unexpected discovery. ~
19. Mysterious Footprints
For two full days the elves searched the area where they had found the footprint but with no trace of its owner. But on the third day Bronedir, their best tracker, finally spotted something. A single file of tracks, running straight over a boggy part between two hills.
"At least there seems to be only one of them," Nodir said.
That made them all relax a bit. One uruk-hai wouldn't be too bad, if that was what it was.
Bronedir said he thought these footprints looked fresher than the first one, but it was still very hard to tell how long ago they were made. It had not rained for several days.
They followed the tracks between the hills and came out on a flatter expanse, covered in purple heather. The air smelled sweet and hundreds of bees were humming.
"This is beautiful," Legolas exclaimed, and flashed one of his rare smiles at Wynne who was last in line. Whenever they tracked monsters she preferred to fall behind.
"It's lovely!" She smiled back, immediately deciding there would be heather around their cottage in her next daydream.
"Here are more footprints. Two sets of them!" Bronedir waved to the others from a small pool under a cliff face. "This seems to be their water hole; they have come here many times."
The others joined him and dismounted.
Thranduil dipped a finger in the water and tasted it. "Sweet and clear. Maybe we should take the opportunity to refill our waterskins."
"I could do with a washing," said Galion. "It has been a while."
"They might be near; it is not safe to linger." Legolas looked tense. "And we should keep our voices down."
"I agree with Legolas." Wynne glanced around her anxiously, imagining a huge orc jumping out from behind every thicket of brambles.
"We find the owners of the footprints first, then we come back," Thranduil decided. "If this is their regular watering place then their den cannot be too far away."
Bronedir had been following the cliff face a bit further. "There is a path over here."
Everybody drank their fill, including the horses, and then began to follow the narrow track. They rode slowly, the elves alert and wary, with Wynne tagging along a few yards behind just to be on the safe side.
The moorland ended and the ground grew rocky and rough. The path still went close to the cliff, which now had a slight overhang. Underneath it the ground was boggy and they found new footprints, going in both directions and partly covering each other.
