Unsatisfied with the Wizards' work, the Valar send another Istar to Middle-earth, Nerwen the Green, with the specific task to find the Ents, apparently vanished form the face of the world. During her mission, Nerwen will meet old friends and acquain...
They needed four days to come down from the pass, as much as they had needed to go up; on this side, too, there was a path, in more or less equal conditions than the one on the other side, therefore they had no difficulty.
At a height of a few hundred metres, they found a scenic point and halted there to look out: in front of them lands stretched that were completely unknown to the peoples west of the Orocarni. The landscape laid in the sun of end June, the horizon slightly foggy because of the heat; they saw an endless grassy plain, similar to the sea of grass in Rohan or in the realms of the Avari. Occasionally, a gleam showed the presence of water and a darker shadow revealed groups of trees and small woods. The land looked practically flat, with only few folds, none of them worth the name of high ground. They didn't see any isolated farmhouses, least of all built-up areas or towns.
When they arrived to the bottom, the sun had set behind them and the mountain range; there would be still two hours light, but they decided to stop nevertheless.
The following morn, Nerwen pondered about the direction to choose.
"I'm not sure about where to go," she considered, "It's something gnawing at me since we left Orrodal: where shall we go, once beyond the Red Mountains?" she shook her head, sighing; she had told Aryon about her vision in the Mirror of Galadriel – she had no reason to hide it from him, because anyone could look into the Mirror, with the permission of the Lady of the Galadhrim, and see something – but it had been too quick to allow her seeing the geographical position clearly, "I've got an enough precise idea about the conformation of the Entwives' land, but not about the place where it is located, just that it borders with the Eastern Ocean and is crossed by many rivers and brooks. We need a map of these lands, or someone who knows them and is willing to show us the way..."
"Hence, first of all we need to find a village or at least a homestead to ask information about this," Aryon considered, "At this point, any direction is as good as any other."
"Yeah... Let's go straight toward the rising sun and the Eastern Ocean," the Istar decided.
OOO
They proceeded eastward for some days; during the morning of the third day of July, as the skirted a rocky hill, they came across a stream exiting a stony wall, forming a pool with exceptionally clear, green water, and they decided to halt there for a bath, a pleasant relief from the summer heat. Túdhin, too, bathed with them.
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As they were freshening up their mounts, Aryon noticed dark clouds, harbinger of rain, coming from the east.
"Looks like weather's changing," he told Nerwen, pointing at them. She glanced at the eastern sky and agreed.
"We'd better set up our tent," she suggested. They took their horses in the shelter of the trees surrounding the mire and prepared the tent Zagal had given them, placing it under the thick canopy of a large ash tree. They gathered there their blankets and garments, wrapped anything else in the impermeable cloths the generous merchantress had given them and finally, as it was noon, they had some smoked meat and lembas.
