Ithildin - Legolas x OC

Chapter 15: Rohirrim

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After leaving Frodo and Sam to continue their journey to Mordor alone, the four of us ran through the woods, back to the ruins where Boromir was slain and Merry and Pippin taken, and followed the trail the Uruks left behind them.

They move incredibly fast, we were barely hours behind them, yet they have put a vast distance between us.

It was easy enough through the trees to follow the indented footsteps and broken twigs and branches, and we emerged from the forest two days ago and into the hills before Rohan—where our trail now grows thin.

Fear continues to consume me with each passing moment, each minute and hour and day that passes as we try to catch up to the Uruks...but I have hope that my two young friends are still alive.

I glance up to the incline where Aragorn has charged ahead, his ear against the rock of the earth.

"Their pace has quickened," I hear him say quietly. "They must have caught our scent." He turns back to us, "Hurry!"

I run up the steep hill towards him, Legolas close behind me until I hear him stop and turn his head.

"Come on, Gimli!"

"Three days and nights pursuit." Gimli pants as he tries to catch up. "No food. No rest. And no sign of our quarry, but what bare rock can tell..."

"I told you to stay behind!" I call out to him when I reach the top. "The chase of Uruk-hai is not for the faint of heart."

"No Dwarf gets left behind!" He shouts up to me.

Smirking, I chase after Aragorn through a flatter terrain and onto a trail between a rocky cavern. He kneels, picking something up from the ground.

"Not idly do the Leaves of Lorien fall." He mumbles.

I stop to look over his shoulder and true enough, it is a leaf identical to the ones we all wear, from the cloaks given to us at Lothlorien.

"They may yet be alive." Legolas comments.

I look up to him and frown. "Did we not already think that?" Looking to Aragorn I say with more urgency, "Am I the only one that thought that before now?"

Aragorn keeps his gaze trailed to the ground in case of any more clues as he walks forward. "Always stay hopeful, Amariel."

I huff, following him.

"Less than a day ahead of us. Come." He charges on and I glance over my shoulder as Gimli rolls to the ground.

"Come, Gimli!" Legolas calls. "We are gaining on them!"

"I'm wasted on cross-country." He calls ahead, his breathing heavy as he follows. "We Dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances."

I call back to him, "Should we race, Gimli? Once this hunt is over?"

"Gladly, my Lady!" His voice is now distant as I run ahead. "Once I...catch my...breath!"

I laugh lightly, jumping up onto the rocks beside Aragorn and Legolas, breathless only by the sight before us of endless, rolling green hills.

"Rohan." Aragorn says. "Home of the Horse Lords."

Gimli reaches us, resting against his axe whilst my eyes scan the distance around us—at the rocks and grass and hills.

"There is something strange at work here." Aragorn continues. "Some evil gives speed to these creatures. Sets its will against us."

"There," I point to a small cloud of dust in the distance.

Legolas jumps down and runs to the edge ahead of us, getting a better view point.