In the beginning, white was the most pure of colours.
Until it was corrupted.
Saruman covered the shiny palantir stone with a black cloth. He had seen enough.
In times before time, he had been sent to Arda to protect it, to preserve its pure song. A song that forever had been menaced, first by Morgoth, later by Sauron.
A ring had been created then, a thing of power and malice, used by its master for the darkest purposes.
A ring that had become lost and was now found. A ring that Saruman, the White Wizard, wanted for himself.
Forgotten of the task that the Valar had placed upon him, Saruman had now forged a different path for himself, and in that new path, the One ring was his to use and Middle-Earth his to rule.
It would be in his hands soon.
The vile creatures working at his command, creatures of his own creation, had been successful in capturing the halflings, but had failed to put an end to the accursed Fellowship.
Three more remained and were in pursuit of his Uruk-hai.
The man, the dwarf and the elf were his to take care of now and he would not fail. The last threads of the Fellowship would soon fall.
~´´~
For days they had travelled through the lands of Middle-Earth, hot in pursuit of the band of Uruk-hai that had taken the hobbits Pippin and Merry. They followed, always near enough to feel the earth still hot and angered by the fell beasts passing, but still too far to rescue them.
And now they happen upon this… massacre!
Everywhere they looked, charred carcasses of dead Uruk-hai littered the forest ground. The smell of burned flesh was so strong in the air that it troubled their stomachs.
The sense of failure when they realized that these were in fact the same Uruk-hai band they hunted, was enough to bring tears to the eyes of the proud warriors, for no life could be seen about.
And in despair they fell, until Aragorn found the tiny hobbit tracks… straight in to Fangorn forest.
~''~
Gimli gave a sideway glance towards his travel companion. When he was sure that Legolas' attention was elsewhere, he stretched his tired legs and allowed a pained sigh to escape his mouth. It would not do for the elf to realize just how much their endless hunt had taxed him, for Gimli had his dwarf's pride, as well as his dwarfish legs, which meant that it took two steps of his to match the long strides of his companions.
'Curse their long shanks!' Gimli thought, not for the first, and most certainly not for the last time.
Legolas smiled to himself 'Trust a dwarf to be so blind that he can not see the boundaries of his own body', he thought, no longer with the bias view he once held against the dwarven kind, but with a new found respect and even curiosity towards a race that, as he had come to realize, he knew little about.
This was the first time they made a stop to rest since the foil day when the Fellowship had been broken.
They were all tired and, as Legolas knew, Aragorn and Gimli could not keep this for much longer. Even Men with Estel's bloodline, and Dwarfs as sturdy as Gimli, could not go forever at the pace they had maintained, for as long as they had run, with out suffering the consequences. He was elven kind and even so could feel the heaviness in his muscles.
Even tired as they all were, Aragorn had insisted on scouting the area around them, needing to assure himself that nothing nor none would crawl upon their backs.
Legolas could feel the tension building up amongst the trees behind them. Fangorn forest, it was called, and the trees in there were older than him… much older. Many memories were stored in those trees, old grievances not yet forgotten.
Still his elven senses told Legolas that they were in no immediate danger and, although he had shared these thoughts with the ranger, he also knew that the only way Aragorn would find some rest this night was for him to check that on his own.
It was not a case of the ranger not trusting the elf's instincts, Legolas knew that much, as much as he also knew that Aragorn needed this time alone to put his thoughts in order, to grasp the concept of being in charge, something that was not lightly taken by the king to be.
As for Legolas, although his body was beginning to grow weary, his mind would not allow him to stay idle. Thoughts of Merry and Pippin facing such peril and evilness left him with a bitter feeling of wasted time as they sat there. So, the elf had taken upon himself to mend the arrows that had become damaged during their fight in Amon Hen.
Lost in the gestures so many times performed, Legolas could leave his mind to wonder free, as a finger coiled around a thread of his fair hair and pulled, using the silken string to secure the metal arrow head to the new wooden shaft he'd been working on.
Gimli had been watching him do this for a while.
"Crazy elf… do you despair so that you have taken to tare the hair out of your head?" he asked, interrupting the silence that had hung heavily between them.
"Aye" Legolas answered with a smile, " Although I should be tearing out yours, as you have so much more to spare"
Gimli grunted, even if inside he was glad that the elf had taken up the bait. The forest near them was pressing his senses, making the fine hair of his neck strand on attention, something he did not like. The silence wasn't helping either.
A sarcastic smile was on his lips when he replied.
"Not my fault elves have less hair on their bodies than most women"
"If you mean dwarven women" Legolas paused for effect, waiting to see the anger rise in Gimli's face " then I most certainly have to agree with you"
The crystal laugh that followed was drowned by the dwarfish curses and grunts. Gimli's fingers tightened around the handle of his axe, ready to finish this verbal sparring with a more physical one.
"Peace Gimli" Aragorn's voice sounded from the darkness around the forest, his cloaked figure soon joining them by the bright fire, "Legolas only jests"
"Nay, I was merely stating a well known fact," Legolas added in an innocent voice, dangerously testing the limits of dwarven patience.
Aragorn looked from one to the other and gave up. It seemed impossible to him that two such different beings could ever coexist without killing each other, much less call themselves friends. Even so, friends they called one another, but a friendship that, as they often forgot, was still too fresh and tender to be tested like this.
"You two have such stony heads that I shall resort to banging them together next time we need to get a fire going" the man mumbled between his teeth.
This alone was enough to get the attention of those two. The angry glares that had been going in the elf's direction were fast redirected towards the seated ranger, and the grin on Legolas face soon was replace by a frown, the new enemy chosen and the elven-dwarven alliance instantly made.
Gimli opened his mouth to, most certainly, share his own opinions about Men's big, thick heads, but was cut short by the elf's sudden stillness and alertness.
Aragorn had sensed it too.
"What do you see?" he asked his companion in the grey tongue.
"Someone draws near" Legolas whispered, his head turning towards the forest's edge, an arrow already poised on his long bow.
Aragorn and Gimli followed his gaze, squinting in to the enfolding darkness, hopping to catch a glimpse of whatever new threat was approaching.
A hooded human form, clothed in dark and moving slowly, with the help of a walking staff was coming near.
The fine hair in Gimli's neck was so stiff now that it scratched his skull. The tension he could feel growing in the air was giving him urges to just grab his axe and throw it at the stranger. Beside him, he could see similar reactions in his companions.
Legolas was methodically stroking the feathers of the arrow on his bow, his body ready for battle but his mind open to whatever decision his companions made. What his eyes told him to be merely an old human man, his heart warned to be a danger, telling him to not let his guard down and be ready to strike.
Aragorn's grip on the hilt of his sword was so fierce that his knuckles had turned white. His instincts too were telling him to attack, but his brain kept reasoning that that was wrong, for they had no idea if the person coming towards them was friend or foe.
He decided they needed more information to make that decision.
"Come closer stranger, and warm yourself in our fire" the ranger offered as soon as the figure was within earshot.
An old voice answered him in a tongue that none of the three hunters could understand…
… and the last coherent thought to walk through Aragorn's fading consciousness, was of the words of warning he had heard upon entering the land of the Rohirrim, 'The white wizard is cunning… walks disguised as an old man… old man'
~''~
Saruman was pleased with the way things had worked. The tree hunters, as his Uruk-hai referred to them, were an easy enough task for him to over come. At the time, he had for moments entertained the idea of ridding himself of their presence, once and for all. But to stain his own hands with the blood of his enemies would be too messy for his liking. That was something the beasts he had created in the caves of Isengard would do. In his twisted mind, a much more devious idea came to be.
The Istar, back at his tower, grabbed the bag he had taken with him on his visit. From inside he extracted the items stolen from the tree members of the Fellowship and placed them over the table. The man's armband; the pouch that was hanging from the dwarf's neck and the arrow that the elf had been repairing.
Arranging them side-by-side, Saruman opened a black, thick, old book, filled with spells as old and black as its cover.
And then the wizard began chanting the ancient words.
~''~
Deep inside Caras Galadhon, Galadriel woke from her rest with a start.
"What ails you, my Lady?" Celeborn asked by her side, sensing her distress.
"Evil is at work" she whispered, her hand clasping her aching heart " I can feel it"
Celeborn closed his ancient eyes and hugged his long time companion, feeling her slight tremor. Rarely had he seen the Lady of Light so shaken, "Nenya will protect us" he offered, referring to the elven ring of power that had been entrusted in his wife's hands, the ring that had kept their borders safe for many ages.
Galadriel pushed herself away from his comforting embrace, her eyes distant and old.
"Yes… but who will protect the others?"
~''~