The Lord of the Rings (fan-fiction)

Before the Storm

CHAPTER 7

THE HUNT

"Are you sure we should camp?" I ask Aragorn as he looks out over the hills. He, Gimli, Legolas, and I have stopped under a large rock after the sun had been gone for a while.

"Even Uruk-hai need to sleep," he responds quietly with his back turned. "And Gimli cannot run any longer today."

"'Uruk-hai'?" I question.

He looks back at me with his eyebrows raised slightly. "Those were not normal orcs that took Merry and Pippin."

I frown.

"These are monstrous creatures created by Saurumon. The mix of an orc and a goblin. They are made for one purpose… to end us all…" he looks back over the mountains.

I look down. It's funny how he only mentioned Gimli being tired but I think he is tired as well, no matter if he wants to admit it or not. Legolas and I could probably go two days without sleep.

I sit against the rock, with only silence in the air. My group, and I are all still a bit… shattered, taken by grief from the death of Boromir. Now two of our companions are gone. And two are missing. The remaining on their way to a place of sheer doom, not knowing if they will even make it there alive.

And I know, the longer we sit in this quiet, that the grief only grows more strong. And I don't like them being left in sorrow. Nor do I like standing in it.

I sigh quietly. "Well you run fast for a dwarf," I smirk at Gimli.

He looks up at me from his thick red brows. "And you're disciplined, for a spoiled elvish princess."

"You're plump for someone who's been deprived of food for the past few weeks."

"And you have a big mouth for a woman."

We sit there with a glare on our faces until I hold back a smile. He lets out a thick dwarvish laugh and I let mine escape.

I glance at Legolas who stands next to us, an almost smile on his face as she shakes his head. Aragorn sits on a boulder now but he still faces away from us.

"So where are you from, naugrim?" I ask Gimli. (dwarf)

"Why Erebor of course."

"Ah yes. The Lonely Mountain. I don't think I could bear living inside a cave all my life."

"Is it not a cave which you live in in Mirkwood?"

"Oh no I'm not from Mirkwood. I'm actually a High Elf of Rivendell. Daughter of Lord Elrond and princess of Rhudaur."

"Hmm and yet here you are in The Wold, traveling with three males like some warrior."

I chuckle and look off in the distance. "Well I might be royalty with a Rivendell title but my place, and my home, is with my Legolas."

I don't know much about the dwarves in a personal sense. I know a bit about their history. And I remember when his father visited Rivendell though I didn't speak to him… But that was before Erebor was taken from the dragon, Smaug the terrible, and made back into a dwarvish home. But those times were quite terrifying…

After a while of thinking I hear a snoring. I look to my left to see the dwarf lying against the rock, sleeping.

I roll my eyes and lie down on my cloak on the grass. Though I am not tired. I hear Legolas tell Aragorn to rest and then I close my eyes.

I toss and turn, not able to find rest. I finally open my eyes. The moon is high in the sky now. Legolas stands watch over the valley as the other two sleep.