[Previously…]
[Priscilla embarks on an adventure with her newfound friends, Rhó and Haldir, who both wish to accompany her to wake up the Ents. Meanwhile, Brian makes his hatred for Théoden known by accosting him in front of Théodred's grave.]

Chapter Eight: Lady of the Woods
(In which our Intrepid Heroine walks in circles and gets held hostage by a tree.)

"Yuck," I grimaced, looking down. Splattered with mud, covered with various bug bites and scratches, along with an impressive rash spreading over my neck and shoulder, I looked like a train wreck. The forest around us seemed deliberately hostile, smacking us in the faces with branches and causing me to scream with pain when a limb whapped my broken nose. Haldir, damn his light-footed gait, seemed remarkably unscathed, while Rhó and I were growing more uncomfortable by the minute. Puddles of stagnant water attracted buzzing mosquitos, flies, and other nasty insects which all apparently had a thirst for human flesh.

Rhó, bless his heart, was the only one keeping me sane. Haldir seemed completely indifferent to our struggles, although he did offer me a hand up once in a while, so it was up to Rhó to keep our spirits up. "Did I ever tell you I was a bard?" he said, hauling me out of yet another slippery puddle.

"Like a poet?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Aye, and a singer too, although I mostly told stories. Fanciful tales of Elves and Orcs, but when Aytun came to my village and offered me an opportunity to sell my blade, I jumped at the chance. For once, I could live out the adventures I always told."

"Some adventures we're having," I said dryly, glancing at our bedraggled state.

He clapped me hard on the back. "Well, adventures are seldom comfortable. I, for one, do not enjoy stories where the hero sits at home with his pipe and his dog. Let us press on, for I believe your Elf friend is far ahead of us."

The path underneath our feet grew unsteady with slimy rocks, as though the ground was trying to twist our ankles, and then it abruptly smoothed out. I looked overhead and realized the gnarled oaks had shifted into sturdy pines, and there was a soft bed of needles beneath us. The forest seemed hushed and solemn; here and there, I saw patches of thin grass growing up, and small sprigs of bluebells. Mostly there was a thick ground cover of some dark, shiny-leafed plant which had thousands of purple flowers misting over them. Very little sunlight broke through the branches, but every time I craned my neck upwards to look, I'd always get smacked by a long branch—it seemed safer to just keep my eyes on the ground.

However, I had to lift my gaze when the trees suddenly cleared, and we found ourselves in the middle of a small opening in the thick forest. Not quite a clearing, but a definite space—it was hard to describe. In the middle of it, with tons of little flowers growing at the base, was the biggest and most lovely tree I had ever seen. Trails of pale green moss hung from the branches, and vivid orange leaves, hinted with red and gold, flirted through the dark boughs. Fluffy gray squirrels chittered and scampered through the branches, and velvety green moss grew around it, climbing over the soft bumps of roots. It was a pretty tree, the kind you'd want to have a picnic beneath.

We saw it ten times in the next three hours.

Haldir lead the way, dutifully following the path, and it led us in circles. It wasn't a consistent circle either—sometimes we'd go nearly an hour without seeing the clearing, and then we'd see it twice in ten minutes. The path looped and doubled back on itself and twisted in all sorts of befuddling ways, and by the fifth or sixth time I was getting pretty sick of it.

"We're lost!" I shouted at Haldir, swiping sweaty hair out of my eyes. "Will you just admit it and pick a different path?"

"This is the path we must follow," he intoned, sounding suspiciously like Celeborn.

I spread my arms. "Look around! There's an entire forest! Let's just pick a direction, and go outwards from this tree. We're going in circles, Haldir!"

"I am not here to question the path laid out before us," Haldir snapped. "I know our safety is assured if we stay to the path."

I took a deep breath, and counted to three. "Okay," I exhaled. "Let's stick to the path." I was not in a position to argue.

So we went in circles. Every time we passed by the tree it seemed to be mockingly prettier, with birds nesting in the branches, twittering insults at us as we walked by. My hopes would rise when we went for two hours without seeing the tree, but just as I opened my mouth to remark on this, bam! There it would be, right in front of our faces. I glared murderously at the tree as we passed by, and I may or may not have given it the finger. Rhó didn't question this. Dusk was falling, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. My feet were moving on autopilot, and the more I tried to stay awake the sleepier I got.

I don't…really know what happened. If it's possible, I fell asleep while I was walking. Definitely not a deep sleep, but enough to get the "Wow, I just woke up" feeling as soon as my feet tripped over a root. We had circled around and around the tree so many times, I knew the root was put there just to mess with me.

My poor, poor nose hit the ground and I went to the moon. I screamed so loudly my vocal chords frayed, and big black patches bloomed in my vision. Little silver stars twinkled and danced in my eyes and I squeezed my face, tears squirting out my eyes. I shrieked hoarsely at the tree and kicked the root hard, splintering off a piece of bark as well as probably my toenail.

Instantly, the root ripped out of the ground, showering me with earth, and flung me hard off the path. Vines and tree limbs seized me by the arms, hoisting me upwards and twisting sinuously around my legs and throat. The beautiful tree which I had grown to hate was sitting smugly, serenely in the middle of the clearing, while I was suspended fifteen feet above the ground.

It all happened so fast, I could barely breathe. My nose still hurt like hell but now, with the vines half-constricting my neck, I had bigger issues. Rhó pulled out his sword in a blur of steel, but Haldir yanked his arm, scary-quick.

"Do not raise your blade," Haldir hissed at him.

"I will not leave her there!" Rhó growled, and wrested his arm free. Haldir's sharp, armored elbow jabbed into Rhó's unprotected ribs, and neatly disarmed him.

"Keep your blade in your sheath, and let me handle this," Haldir ordered. "The Ent who set this trap will now be summoned, and it saves us walking through the night."

"So you will just leave Cilla ensnared while this fiend comes to kill us all?" Rhó demanded, his eyes flashing with anger.

Haldir's scowl deepened. "Watch your tongue, mortal. Your race has put these trees through enough hardship, and you will give them nothing less than your utmost respect. If you call these guardians a fiend once more I shall separate your head from your shoulders, for if they are fiends, then it is because of you. Now put away your sword."

Still hanging above their heads, with the vines swaying and twisting in the breeze, moving me around, I discovered an alarming fact about myself.

I was afraid of heights.

I didn't really know this. I loved roller coasters and didn't mind getting up on the roof to patch a leaky spot on our barn; but this was something else. The ground below me looked hard and very unforgiving, and I knew with every fiber of my being that if these vines decided to let go, I would be pulp as soon as I hit the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to imagine shattered bones and agonizing last moments. I didn't come all this way to be killed by a tree.

"Help," I tried to yell, but my voice was nightmarishly gone; I could barely whisper.

I could hear, far away in the distance, a deep, shuffling thud-thud-thud-thud.

As a general rule, Ents and humans rarely mix. And that was in this world. Unless there's some weird part of the bayou which I've never been to, there aren't any Ents in my world. So my mental image of Ents was mostly guesswork, largely propagated by fairy tales and bad Syfy movies. I pictured a kind of tall, regal being with a mostly humanoid body, with leaves for hair and whatnot.

What came looming out of the forest was nothing like that.

It was enormous, that much was certain. And it walked with a kind of odd, shuffling gait which favored one leg over the other. Ents sort of surf through the earth—try to imagine walking through hip-deep water. That's how Ents move. This particular Ent had an odd, twisted look too him, and from my excellent vantage point I saw why. There was an old silver stump in the middle of his left leg, with smaller, greener shoots growing up around it. The small limbs twisted around the old stump to protect it but whenever it moved, I heard wood groan and smelled fresh sap.

This Ent in particular was very humanoid, with a craggy face, and judging from the leaves on his head he looked like a rowan. It was carrying a huge stone in its hand and the Ent hefted it as it gazed at me.

"No!" I rasped, wriggling and trying to escape, but the vines simply held me tighter. The vines cinched slowly around my neck and I thrashed, trying desperately to breathe.

"Stop!"

Haldir sprang into action, jumping in front of the Ent. The huge creature looked down at Haldir, who had no weapons and had both hands out in front of him. My Marchwarden said something in Elvish, but a different sort—there was something much different than the bits and pieces of Sindarin which I had learned. This sounded older, and everything rolled into one big vowel sound to my inexperienced ears.

The Ent paused, and then said something back in the same language, slowly. And then it said, in Westron, "You speak traitorously for a child of Eru."

"And you speak with much anger, for a son of Oromë," Haldir answered, but there was a softness in his tone. "Tell me, Old Shepherd, why have you come to be this way?"

I could barely hear and scarcely breathe. My skin was hot, my head throbbed painfully and my lungs grabbed urgently at the trickle of air coming through my mouth; there was a whine in my ears.

"Orcs!" the Ent bellowed. "I have set traps and dug pits to catch these thieves and tricksters, but they escape my nets every time. Now I have caught one little human, set out to destroy the one thing of beauty left in these woods. Do not stand in my way, Elf, or I shall smash you underfoot, though you speak prettily for one of your race."

"This is not in your nature, O Shepherd!" Haldir called up. "We have done you no harm, and we came to these woods to seek counsel with your kind! There is a war beginning on the edge of your borders, in the center of these woods! The Orcs which are but a nuisance now, will grow to be a great people, and overwhelm the little beauty left in these trees. The world will be a place of ash and ruin, with nothing green nor fruitful."

The vines around my neck loosened. I gasped in a breath.

"This I know," the Ent rumbled. "They swarm my borders, and have laid siege to the valleys north of here. I must protect the lady of these woods at any cost, and my temper is aroused! I alone cannot stamp out these Orcs, which swarm beneath my feet like ants, for they are a great many; they have fire and axes, which mill through these woods. Time and time again I have beseeched my fellow lords, the other guardians of this forest, but they will not listen! They shut their ears, and have grown settled in their complacency."

"Help us wake the other guardians," Haldir appealed. "The tower of Isen is the center of this rot, and if we cut it away the rest of the forest will flourish! Your lady shall be surrounded by green woods to rival even her own beauty."

The Ent stroked the beautiful oak tree tenderly, running a hand along its upper branches, and I knew what he meant by the lady of the woods. I focused on breathing in and out, and when a thought entered my squashed brain it was Thank you God, for Haldir.

Rhó was standing beneath me, clearly too wise to interfere but growing impatient with the whole conversation. When he glanced up at me again I shook my head fiercely. I was in pain, but that was nothing—we needed the Ents on our side. The vines loosened even further and I lost about four feet of altitude very abruptly. I tried to scream but it felt like I was swallowing burning sandpaper.

The Ent was clearly loathe to release me. "I will allow you to speak with the other Ents, Elf, but not these two humans," it thundered. "They have caused enough damage to my people. It was not Orcs which tried to hew me down when I was but a sapling!"

"Please, my lord," Haldir said, "the child which you hold hostage is my charge, and under my protection. Galadriel, the White Lady, has placed her in my care, and I will die before I see her harmed. Please, release her."

There was a long moment of silence, and then the vines lowered me to the ground. I sucked in a breath and Rhó was at my side instantly, half-cradling me; I tried out breathing while he muttered what sounded like vehement nonsense above was a high frequency buzzing and I gripped his hand tightly. "Don't move," I whispered, my voice completely gone. "Stay."

"Thank you, my lord," Haldir said, and bowed. "I am Haldir, Marchwarden of Lothlórien."

"And I am Bittersap," the Ent rumbled. "Come, Elf, let us rouse the other Shephards."

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WOOOOOW.

That…was a very long time between updates. I'm officially in college now and the workload this summer was a little bit crushing. I'm so, so sorry, and hopefully it won't happen again.

[Fifteen reviews received]

Special Thanks To: Silver Moonrise, Lunar Mist, DragonOwl, Ben and Jerry's Icecream Cone, mystiKoE, Vashti, princessaangelbebe, Dear U. x U., mh21, urs-v and five guests: Elrond's Circlet, CassowaryQueen, Elise, Gina, and Guest.

Thank you guys SO much for staying with this story! I promise I'll try not to make you guys wait this long again, I'm so very sorry! :(