AUTHOR'S NOTE: The beginning of The Two Towers! YES! Second movie, not the best one (Third one is my fave) but still I'm quite excited to continue to write more into the series! Enjoy! <3

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Chapter Seven

The Riders of Rohan and the White Rider

For three days of nonstop running without rest or food, the team of four; the Man, the Dwarf, the Elf, and the she-elf tracked the Uruk-hai trail having captured Merry, Pippin, and Gwiliweth. The plains of East Emnet, a grassy landscape with a mild temperature. The land Medlinya had seen was mostly a steppe mixed with a grassland. Most of the trees were near rivers or bodies of water, although where the Orcs were taking the hobbits had no river in sight meaning no trees. There were hills rolling gradually with very few rocks here and there.

The company of four stopped as Aragorn knelt down, placing his ear to the ground as he squeezes his eyes tight, listening for the sound of footsteps. Snapping his eyes open, "Their pace has quickened." Looking up ahead, "They must have caught our scent. Hurry!" The ranger ordered, sprinting forward to his feet.

The she-elf silently chased behind the Ranger, keeping up with no problem.

The Elf glanced back to the wheezing dwarf, "Come on, Gimli!" Legolas encouraged as he runs after Aragorn.

The Dwarf paused in his tracks and huffed, "Three days' and nights' pursuit. No food. No rest. And no sign of our quarry but what bare rock can tell." Gimli muttered tiredly, as he started to sprint after his companions.

The four hunters run across rocks and plains, with Aragorn at the lead, followed by Legolas, Medlinya, and Gimli. From time to time, Legolas looks back to make sure Gimli is keeping up. Aragorn suddenly bends down to pick up an Elven brooch from the ground, "Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall. " the Ranger vocalized.

Legolas and Medlinya stop beside the Ranger, "They may yet be alive." Legolas states with a hopeful look towards Aragorn.

"Less than a day ahead of us. Come!" Aragorn beckoned, running forward once again. Medlinya quickly dashed after the Man.

Gimli stumbled from behind some rocks a long ways behind, rolling to the ground. "Come, Gimli! We are gaining on them!" Legolas motivated the Dwarf, before sprinting to keep up.

Panting, the overtired Dwarf gets to his feet and continued to pump his little legs along, "I am wasted on cross-country! We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!" Gimli protested.

The trackers come over a hill and pause as they gaze across the plains below, "Rohan. Home of the horse-lords." Aragorn announced, looking over the land with his serious eyes. "There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures, sets it's will against us."

Legolas bounded over rocks ahead, studying out to the horizon.

"Legolas, what do your Elf eyes see?" Aragorn questioned the blonde Elf ahead.

"The Uruks turn northeast." Legolas reported, Medlinya watched as his shoulders tensed. "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" The Elf hollered.

"Sarumon." Aragorn muttered gruffly.

Medlinya huffed angrily, her sapphire eyes pulsing as she glared at the very far off horde of Orcs with her friends. "Onward then." the she-elf retorted, sprinting after the enemy leaving the men behind. Aragorn and Legolas sprung after the she-elf, wearing small grins. Gimli grumbles and desperately tried to keep up.

The hunters continue their tracking through the plains of Rohan. As day crept into night, four shadows dart across the plains gaining on the Orcs. The nipping wind swept across as the moon hung in the dark sky above. The long night developed into dawn, as the four continued to chase after the Uruk-hai.

Leading them since the moon rose was Legolas with his proficient eye sight. He suddenly pauses and gazes up to the rising sun. "A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night."

His serious cerulean blue eyes glanced back to Aragorn. Thundering hooves was approaching on the other side of the hill. Aragorn and the company hid behind some boulders. A large group horse-men appear, galloping quickly with their banners flying. Aragorn comes out of hiding as they pass, followed by the other three hunters.

"Riders of Rohan, what news from the Mark?" the Ranger hollered to the horsemen.

At a signal from the dirty blonde haired man leading the Eored, the calvary unit, the riders make a quick turn towards the four company. The riders surround them in ever-tightening circles. As they stop, they point their long spears menacingly at them. The Man leading carefully studied each stranger, "What business does two Elves, a man, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!" he dictated sternly.

"Give me your name, Horsemaster, and I shall give you mine." Gimli replied with a witty grin.

The brown eyes of the Rider locked eyes with the sight of Gimli, bitterly. Without a word, the Man hands his staff to another rider and gets off his horse, still eyeing the Dwarf. Aragorn quietly placed a hand on Gimli's shoulder.

"I would cut off your head, Dwarf. If it stood but a little higher from the ground." the Man spat with a glint of anger in his brown eyes.

Legolas, in a lightning fast move, points an arrow at him. "You would die before your stroke fell!"

In response, the riders all aimed their spears closer at the travellers. After a tense moment, Aragorn pushes down the Elf's arm down gently, "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloin and Legolas of the Woodland realm. Lastly, this is Lady Medlinya." The Ranger introduced, gesturing to everyone. "We are friends of Rohan and of Theodon, your king."

"Theoden no longer recognizes friend from foe." The man took off his helmet, "Not even his own kin." The spears of the Riders are withdrawn from the four hunters, "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over these 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 gravely explained, eyeing the four carefully.

"We are not spies. We track a party of Uruk-hai westward across the plain. They've taken three of our friends captive." Aragorn clarified solemnly.

"The Uruks are destroyed. We slaughtered them during the night." The leader answered, truthfully.

Gimli stepped forward, "But there were two hobbits and an Elf! Did you see the two hobbits and the Elf with them?" The Man of Rohan bore a strange look of confusion at the Dwarf.

"They would be small... only children to your eyes." Aragorn explained.

The pensive brown eyes of the Man looked towards Aragorn, "We left none alive. We piled the carcasses and burned them." Turning he pointed to a smoking pile in the distance.

Glum weighed heavily upon the four travelers, "Dead?" the Dwarf croaked with disbelief.

The Man nodded, respectfully sad. "I'm sorry."

Legolas sets a hand on Gimli's shoulder in grief. The Man of Rohan turns to his company and whistles. "Hasufel! Arod!" Two horses, a white one and a brown one appear from the mesh of horsemen, "May these horses bear you to better fortune than their former masters. Farewell." The leader places his helmet on his dirty blonde head and mounts onto his horse. "Look for your friends. But do not trust to hope, it has forsaken these lands." he warned. His eyes went to his riders, "We ride north!"

The four travelers look on as the Riders rode off. Legolas mounted Arod, the white stallion with Gimli as Aragorn mounted onto Hasufel with Medlinya. Quickly the horses carried the worried friends to the burning carcasses. With posthaste, they dismounted the two horses as soon as they reached the smoking bodies. The air carried the scent of burning flesh, a horrid smell that caused Medlinya's nose to scrunch up in disgust. Gimli begun to shift through the smoldering pile, and pulls out a charred belt and dagger sheath, "It's one of their wee belts."

Medlinya peered over to the Elf beside the Dwarf. Legolas bowed his head low, his eyes squeezed tightly, "Hiro ith ab 'wanath..." [May they find peace in death]

Aragorn consumed with anger, kicks an Orc helmet. "ARRRGGH!" the Man yelled, falling to his knees.

"We failed them." Gimli muttered, his sad eyes stared at the remains of their belts tightly in his hand.

The she-elf stared at the Men before her, wielding so much sadness. Her sapphire eyes threatened to spill unwanted tears. She hated to cry in front of others. Her arms crossed over her chest as if trying to keep warm from the coldness of her mourning.

Aragorn gazes to the side as some tracks catch his attention. "A hobbit lay here, and the other. They crawled."

Up from his knees, he jogs to another track with the three following after him, "Their hands were bound. Their bonds were cut" the Ranger said picking up a broken length of thick rope.

"They ran over here. They were followed." Aragorn noted, staring at the ground, excitedly. "The tracks lead away from the battle... into Fangorn Forest."

The four trackers glance up into a dense and dark forest, "Fangorn. What madness drove them in there?" Gimli pondered out loud.

The four trackers jogged in, following the tracks. The beams of sunlight was non-existent in the nearly impenetrable forest. The forest barely lit by strands of light able to break through the canopy of the treetops. The massive trunks of the trees of Fangorn, nearly as thick as a stone wall and tall as one. Traveling deep into the forest, there were tracing of a dark stain on foliage close to the ground. Gimli fingers at the substance and bring it to his mouth. Spitting it right out, "Ptui! Orc blood!"

Medlinya, Legolas, and Aragorn stare at the ground at a rather large and queer footprints, "There are strange tracks." Aragorn commented with a sense of uneasiness. The footprints were as large as one of these trunkks of the trees that surrounded the four. Nothing like thousands of tracks Medlinya had ever seen.

The Dwarf gazes around the forest, "The air is so close in here."

"This forest is old. Very old. Full of memory... and anger." Legolas voiced, looking at the trees mesmerized.

Groans reverberate through the forest and Gimli raises his axe in response. Legolas gazed around stunned, "The trees are speaking to each other."

"The trees do the same in Old Forest." Medlinya added with a soft smile, starting to feel more and more comforted by the thought of home.

Aragorn glances over to the Dwarf, "Gimli!" the Ranger whispered.

"Huh?" Gimli reacted, his eyes going to Aragorn.

"Lower your axe." Aragorn responded with a gesture with his hands.

The Dwarf slowly let down his axe, "Oh."

Medlinya and Legolas stiffened simultaneously, sensing something. "Aragorn, nad na ennas." The male Elf observed. [Something is out there.]. Medlinya quickly unsheathed her swords hearing Legolas' instinct.

"Man cenich?" Aragorn questioned seriously. [What do you see?]

"The White Wizard approaches." Legolas responded with a flick of his eyes to his right.

Aragorn's face darken, slowly. "Do not let him speak. He will put a spell on us." His hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword, Gimli tightens his hold on his axes, Legolas notches an arrow to his bow, and Medlinya's swords began to shimmer. "We must be quick." Aragorn told his company.

With a yell, The four swing around to attack. Gimli's axe and Legolas' arrow are deflected. Aragorn and Medlinya drop their weapons as it becomes red hot in their grasps. Sheilding their eyes with their hands from the bright light emanating from the White Wizard, "You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits and an Elvan woman."

"Where are they?" Aragorn questioned fiercely.

"They passed this way the day before yesterday. They met someone they did not expect. Does that comfort you?" The evil wizard responded.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" The Ranger demanded.

The bright light dims...

(End of Chapter Seven)

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Muahahhahaahaha XD It is time for my revenge for cliffhangers after years of reading so many books... LET THERE BE AWESOME