The Last One

Chapter 20

Almost seventy years had past since Arathorn saved Ruive, and offered her a new life as a ranger. In her time she had become well known across Middle-Earth as the ranger Hadron. And though much time had passed since the death of her family, Ruive still had not opened her heart. Of course she had friends across many lands and was very close with Arathorn, she was distant and cold. She hid her heart from the world for fear of it breaking beyond repair. The only problem was she would not let anyone close enough to repair it.

Ruive was tracking a small scout of orcs about ten miles south of Bree. Arathorn had sent her to follow and kill them, which was nothing out of the ordinary. There had been many occasions that Arathorn had sent Ruive on her own, now more often than usual. But with good reason, seeing as he had a son who was only 3. Ruive had been there when Aragorn was born, in fact Arathorn had asked her to train him, and she had grown rather fond of the boy. She would teach him new skills and tell him of her travels each time she passed through Rivendell. 

Dawn was not far away, and Ruive planned to take care of these orcs while she had the advantage of the cover of darkness. There were nine orcs and luckily for her they were on foot so wargs weren't going to pose a problem. Ruive notched an arrow aiming at the closest orc, moments later her arrow was lodged in the back of its head. This attracted the attention of the other orcs, but Ruive was hidden in the trees. She took down four more with her bow before deciding to take the rest out with her twin swords. They were light in hand, but sharp and powerful when she wielded them, they had been a gift from Arathorn some time ago. She still had the sword from her father and she would use it often, but with four opponents, weapons with a shorter blade were faster and easier to wield. 

Ruive jumped down from the branch she had perched herself on, landed on the shoulders of one of the orcs stabbing it through the head. She used the momentum of the orc's falling body to roll forward landing crouched. She swept her leg around knocking the next closest orc to the ground before driving her blade through it's heart. She the rolled to the side giving herself room to get up before swinging her blade expertly blocking each attack from the two orcs the remained. The two orcs circled her, staying on opposite sides of her, as they both moved to stab her, she did what any smart person would do... she dropped to the ground and let the to orcs stab and kill each other rather than going through the hassle of killing them herself. 

Ruive stood, dusting herself off and retrieving her arrows from the now dead orcs. The soft crunching of leaves behind her, made her spin around only to encounter a familiar old face. 

"Ah, the famous Hadron, hard at work I see." The elderly man smiled at her, mischievous glint in his weary eyes.

Ruive shook her head. 

"Gandalf, what brings you this far west? And I know tis not for the weather." Ruive raised a faint eyebrow at the wizard, wondering what he was up to and why he was seeking her.

"I was looking for you, Arathorn said I might find you out here." The wizard tilted his head putting his weight on his staff.

"And what need could you possibly have with little old me, Gandalf?" 

Ruive was sceptical, she had known Gandalf since before she lost her kingdom, he was one of the very few who knew of her true identity.

"You skill set is very broad, but I am after one in particular." 

Gandalf straightened, his face becoming serious but his eyes still held their glint. 

"Which one is that?" 

Ruive folded her arms across her chest and put her weight on her right foot her hip sticking out, this was a common stance for her it almost came natural to her.