Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Into the Woods

Chapter 2

As soon as we reached the burning carcasses, I was off the horse and looking everywhere but the pile of burning bodies.

"Merry! Pippin!" I called.

"It's one of their wee belts," I turned to see Gimli holding a charred belt.

"No, that has to be someone else's," I turned away and stared at the forest.

"Hiro hyn hîdn ab wanath (May they find peace in death.)," I heard Legolas say and my heart ached. That wasn't the first time that I had heard him say that.

I heard the sound of someone kicking metal followed by a scream of pain and anger. I turn to see Aragorn on his knees. "I do not believe that they are dead." I muttered. "I feel it in my heart that they are alive."

Legolas looked at me with a pained expression. He opened his mouth to talk but Aragorn spoke first.

"A hobbit lay here, and the other." He was touching the ground and following a track only he would notice. "They crawled." Legolas and Gimli followed behind him. "Their hands were bound." He picked up a broken rope. "Their bonds were cut," Aragorn started moving towards me. "They ran over here and were followed." I turned back to the forest knowing where they went. "The tracks lead away from the battle!"

"Into Fangorn Forest," I informed them.

"Fangorn!" Gimli exclaimed. "What madness drove them in there?"

"Well, their options were stay and be killed or go into the forest and have a higher chance of survival. If you were them, what would you chose?" I asked Gimli who just looked away. "Besides, I don't think they knew what forest this was or have ever heard the stories about this forest. If they did, then they didn't think the stories were true."

Aragorn and I exchanged looks before venturing into the forest. I made sure to watch the trees carefully, just in case.

Gimli walked over to a leaf. He touched it with his finger then licked his finger before immediately spitting it out. "Orc blood."

"What is with dwarves and tasting foreign looking things?" I muttered before turning to the dwarf. "Gimli, your Bombur is showing!"

Aragorn was looking at something on the ground. "These are strange tracks."

"The air is so close here," Gimli whined.

"It's a forest, Gimli," I pointed out. "The only difference between here and a mine is that this has trees!"

"This forest is old," Legolas examined. "Very old. Full of memory and anger."

Gimli raised his axe as a sound of voices echoed around us.

"The trees are speaking to each other," Legolas tries to explain to the dwarf.

"Gimli!" Aragorn whispers. Gimli looks at him. "Lower your axe."

Gimli gave a look of realization and lowered it.

"They have feelings, my friend." I looked at Legolas in shock. "The Elves began it: waking up the trees, teaching them to speak."

"Talking trees," Gimli grumbled. "What do trees have to talk about, hmm? Besides the consistency of squirrel droppings?"

"They don't all live in one area, Gimli," I explained. "So the trees here have plenty to talk about to the trees up the way."

"Nad no ennas! (Something is out there!)" Legolas announced.

"Man cenich? (What do you see?)" Aragorn asked.