Linger

I. The Five Hunters

Shielding her eyes from the blazing sun, Rowan Reed scanned the plains for any sign of the Uruk-hai party they tracked. No great plumes of dust stirred up by the large group hung in the sky. No dark blots moved further away. Nothing but endless rolling plains dotted by boulders, not lush vegetation.

She dropped her hand with a heavy sigh. Two days ago, the attack at Amon Hen broke the Fellowship: Frodo and Sam heading east for Mordor, Merry and Pippin taken west into Rohan, and she, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir pursuing.

Even though mostly everything had happened the way it's supposed to, it didn't mean she was happy with the way things had turned out. Secretly, she had hoped they could've stayed together and go to Mordor as a group, so Frodo and Sam wouldn't have been so alone. Maybe they could've helped ease the burden of the Halfling carrying the One Ring. Accompanying him maybe would've kept Frodo stress-free and Rowan could prevent him from snapping and viewing Sam as disloyal...

Oh well. Wistful thinking. They had to go alone for Gollum to guide them safely through the Dead Marshes—she didn't know the correct path and she had a feeling the others didn't either. She worried about those two hobbits. Knowing what should happen didn't keep them out of her thoughts, though. Things could change, and they already had before.

Rowan reflected on every deviation from the actual story of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It started with minor changes, with Frodo not putting on the Ring back in Bree and her taking Arwen's (or Glorfindel's, according to the book) place to get the hobbit to Rivendell. More little differences occurred until the two major changes: Gandalf the Grey dying on the bridge of Khazad-dûm and Boromir surviving at Amon Hen.

Once she learned she would become the tenth member of the Company, Rowan had fantasized about saving both the wizard and the Gondorian captain. Even though Gandalf comes back in the second book, Boromir doesn't. But she had only succeeded in truly killing one and saving the other. Hopefully, the results of her actions wouldn't come back to bite her.

She shook her head—Boromir surviving couldn't be a bad thing. He didn't deserve to die just because he did in the book. She needed to get back to the present, anyway.

Merry and Pippin were the most-pressing concern right now. The Uruk-hai that had taken them had orders to keep them 'alive and unspoiled', as Christopher Lee playing Saruman in The Fellowship of the Ring movie said, but, well... things could change.

Her body ached, the muscles in her legs were strained and ready to give out, and she was exhausted from running under the bald open sun for two days—they stopped briefly to rest and ate lembas as they ran. She had never felt this bone-tired before, but they had to keep going. Although the Rohirrim were supposed to ambush the Uruk-hai outside of Fangorn, the five hunters had to catch up in case the Horse-lords didn't, and they delivered Merry and Pippin to Isengard, to Saruman. Because things could change.

That seemed to be a mantra in how much she repeated it.

"Anything?"

She turned to see Aragorn hurrying up to her. The future king of Gondor had been her first contact in Middle-earth when she woke, had helped her maintain a ruse of having foresight to explain how she knew their future, and remained a loyal friend. Actually, everyone in the Fellowship had become her friends. They made her feel like she belonged.

Rowan gave him a small smile. "No. I don't have the eyes like Legolas."

He returned the smile. "Many don't. What of that eagle he has spotted many times?"

The Two Towers book mentions Legolas seeing a bird following them, but the movie doesn't have him say anything. Last night before sleep, he had asked if it was good or evil, and she couldn't say for certain.

"No. I haven't seen that either."

The elf they mentioned made it up the hill to them and stopped. The movies cast Orlando Bloom as the perfect Legolas—he had the sharp, defined facial structure and ageless quality in his appearance the prince of Mirkwood possessed. He pointed up over Rowan's shoulder. "It still follows us."

She followed his finger, and after a while of squinting, saw the little blot. Rowan glanced back at Legolas. "I should leave the lookout job to you, huh?"

He just smiled before he headed down the hill they stood on.

"Perhaps it would be wise, huh?" Aragorn clapped her on the arm before he hurried down after the elf. Out of all of them, the Ranger adopted her way of speaking—his way of making her more comfortable in Middle-earth, when she came from the modern world. From what she had heard of the actor, Viggo Mortensen would've done the same.

The characters and actors were too similar for the casting crew to have just been lucky in choosing them for the roles. Lord Elrond had said only J. R. R. Tolkien had visited, but either someone in the crew had found some secret writing by him detailing the characters even more than what's in the books, or someone had visited without the Lord of Rivendell or Lady Galadriel knowing.

More examples of why she thought so made their way up the hill Rowan stood on: Gimli and Boromir. If height had been an issue, the 6'1" John Rhys-Davies wouldn't have been cast for a just over 4-foot-tall dwarf, but the actor had Gimli's temperament down-pat. Sean Bean seemed to have been born for the role of Boromir; he possessed the look and actions of the Gondorian captain and even had his fierce loyalty and repressed pride.

Using his walking-axe for balance as he climbed the hill, Gimli passed Rowan, grumbling about something. She couldn't make out what he said.

Looking at Boromir, she asked, "What is Gimli griping about this time?"

The athelas leaves Aragorn put into the arrow wounds had worked wonders. A few hours after leaving Amon Hen, Boromir had regained his strength to run. Now, two days later, the wounds were nothing but scars on his chest and arm.

He stopped before her and sighed. "Who knows? The topics change from no trace of the Uruk-hai to his feet hurting and even the weather."

She chuckled. "I bemoan the same, but my complaints aren't out loud."

The Gondorian laughed as well. "Neither are mine."

Rowan and Boromir set after the dwarf, climbing down the rest of the hill. Aragorn led the chase with Legolas passing him now and then to reach the top of a hill and gaze out over the plains. The man had an endless supply of energy, for he always darted ahead, and the elf bounced from rock to rock, light as a feather. Being a dwarf, Gimli was much heavier and slower, but his sturdy determination to save Merry and Pippin wouldn't let him give up. She and Boromir were normal races of men—not a Dunádain like Aragorn—so they usually passed Gimli but couldn't keep up with the other two.

Rowan had gone through extensive training to be one of Hollywood's best stuntwomen, but she hadn't faced something this grueling before. And she wasn't done yet. If she remembered right, their chase takes four days on foot. But at least they received horses from Éomer and his Rohirrim on the fourth day, so she looked forward to that.

If it happened at all.

By midday, Rowan guessed they had traveled about ten miles... If not for the hills, the distance would've been twenty or more. Up ahead on a hill, Aragorn sat on the ground and had his ear against a flat-topped rock. Recognizing the scenario, Rowan glanced around, now noticing the similarities to the scene in The Two Towers movie.

His head lifted, and she knew he said, "Their pace has quickened. They must've caught our scent." The Ranger looked back at them. "Hurry!" he yelled as he shot up to run.

In front of her and Boromir, Legolas glanced back. "Haste is needed now, Rowan and Boromir; more than before. Come on, Gimli!" Renewed at hearing the urgency, he sped up the hill.

The Gondorian glanced at her.

"He's right; the Uruk-hai has smelled us. They know we're tracking them." She looked to see Gimli below them.

The dwarf panted as he stopped. "Two days and nights' pursuit; only Elvish waybread; sparse rest." He banged his walking-axe on the ground as he marched up. "No sign of our quarry, but what bare rock can tell!"

She and Boromir snickered at the dwarf's frustration as they ran up the rest of the hill, joining in the need of speed.

At least they could laugh at something to make this chase less stressful.