Dawnstar and Friend

Miriel’s POV
It was a week since the Fellowship had left Lorien and a week since Ellie had ... gone.
Ginny and I were riding alongside the elves of Lorien, searching for the tracks of the Orcs, we do not bother keeping much of a lookout for Ellie’s tracks as she barely leaves any and we all doubt that she would be left conscious, considering her powers.
After a little while, we give up on capturing the Orcs and return to the Golden Wood, though neither Ginny nor I stay long.
A day or two after, we arrive we leave again, carrying a message to the Rangers. Galadriel has also sent a messenger to Ada to inform him of the complete situation.
We stop in Rivendell for a very short while and inform Elrond and his family of what has happened with Ellie before riding onwards to the Rangers of the North.
The message we carry is spoken only, to prevent anyone getting hold of it.
When we get there, we immediately go find Halbarad and our patrol group, who are out on patrol at the moment, but due to come off any day now.
Each patrol group has been scaled down to ten fully trained warriors to compensate for the increase in patrols required and the decrease in the number of people to carry out the patrols.
We immediately leave for Rohan, gathering two other patrol groups on our way and, as we pass Rivendell again, we also pick up the sons of Elrond, who, in any other situation, I would have flirted with quite a bit.
They are gorgeous, and Elrohir is particularly nice in terms of personality too.
Unfortunately the middle of a war is not the place to flirt or for romance – unless you read the wrong sort of novel, of course.
The Rangers are not mounted on elfin wonder horses as Ginny and Ellie call them so we go at, what seems to me to be a pretty slow pace, although I know that it is as fast as their horses can take them.
When it reaches March 6th by the Hobbit calendar, just (it is shortly after midnight), we meet the Rohirrim.
You have no idea how weird it is to see the little tiny human child who played with our horses when we travelled through Rohan so many years ago grown up and getting old!
I sometimes forget how these humans age. Ginny and I keep our hoods up, because we know that, though the Rohirrim have shield maidens, they still don’t like women going into battle.
There is also the little fact that Legolas is in the party and we don’t really want him noticing us.
Not that he would notice much right now.
When I see him I can see that he is still totally heartbroken, and the discovery that Gandalf is alive has only raised him a little.
He is still alert for dangers and his face does not show emotion, but I am his sister, I can tell how he is feeling, even if I have been separated from him for a long time.
I see Nyx next to his horse, though the cat has the sense to know not to tell of our presence by greeting her siblings.
Estel greets Elladan and Elrohir enthusiastically and once Théoden knows who we are (sort of, not including the presence of females), he is also very welcoming.
At around lunchtime, the little Hobbit still with my brother, Estel and Gimli, Pippin having already left with Gandalf, swears allegiance to Théoden.
About an hour afterwards, Théoden and his company leave for Dunharrow. The Rangers, Estel, the twins, Gimli, and my brother decide to take another more direct route, which obviously we follow.
The next day, we arrive at Dunharrow where Éowyn pleads with Estel to take her with them. I feel for her because I know how she feels, but I got my escape.
Because we are keeping ourselves inconspicuous, we are unable to make her acquaintance, as much as I would like to so I can help the troubled human, who obviously has feelings for Estel though I know he loves Arwen.
We stay overnight at Dunharrow before travelling on to the Paths of the Dead.
At midnight the next day, we arrive at the Stone of Erech and Estel summons the dead, it is quite spectacular.
We ride through Gondor fighting the enemy on occasions, though they normally flee from the dead and eventually, we reach Pelargir where we capture the corsair ships and the dead are freed from their oaths, much to the relief of all humans in the vicinity.
Later that night, more troops come and join us, Gondorian troops being something we have been gathering as we rode through Gondor.
The next day, we board the ships of the Corsairs and sail down the Anduin.
Though I am a wood-elf like my brother, I do not feel the sea-longing, but I see that in his eyes that he has.
I feel so sorry for him, he grieves for Ellie and now he has the sea-longing too.
We stay below, not being seen, once again because we are female and the Gondorian troops are even less accepting of females in battle than the Rohirrim.
About three hours after dawn on March 15th by the Hobbit calendar, our ships dock and we join the battle. For the first time in ages we see Legolas seem to come alive, I think the opportunity to slaughter large numbers of those that cost him Ellie is a balm to his battered soul.
Part way through the battle, Legolas brings down a Murmakil, or a spiky mammoth as Ginny has renamed them, and as my lovely, energetic brother slides down the creature’s trunk, Ginny feeds our Dwarf friend a line (not that he needed any help, I am sure). It is quite amusing to see the Dwarf yell how it still only counts as one, and for the first time in ages, my brother grins.
Later on in the battle, we have a hairy moment as Halbarad nearly gets himself killed. It is only another Ranger knocking him to the ground that saves him.
I do not see which Ranger it is, though I do have my suspicions, because the battle around me stops me really being able to find out.
The battle goes on for hours, and I kill more Orcs than I ever thought I would do at one time.
The only things I notice other than the endless stream of fighting and killing I am doing (aided and abetted by my cat) is the fall of the witch-king. No idea how this happens, I am not close enough to see, but I am glad that it has.
Eventually, we run out of Orcs to kill and I take a much needed drink before helping set up our tent and moving Orcs onto pyres to be burnt.
Most of that stuff would wait until morning, because we are absolutely exhausted, but we do have to clear enough of an area to be able to set up tents without being stunk out of sleep.
I have to admit that I do find some water to clean myself off with before going to sleep though. Men may not be all that fastidious, but there is no way I am going to bed, no matter what the circumstances, covered in Orc blood and gore, though thankfully none of mine.
I fall into bed, totally worn out and forget all those around me.
Ginny’s POV
It’s just over a week since that battle with the Orcs and we have arrived back in Lorien.
I keep going over the details in my head, especially the last time I spoke to Ellie – there were so many things I wanted to say to her, but I never got the chance – the Orcs made sure of that. I always knew Ellie was stupidly suicidal the way she laid her life on the line at times, but still.
After a meeting with Galadriel and Celeborn, Miriel and I have decided to set out with a spoken message to all our friends and family, telling them of what has happened to Ellie. Besides, I’m not sure I would want to stay here for much longer anyway – everything’s changed somehow.
Ada takes me to one side at Rivendell. He says that everyone will understand if I choose to stay behind rather than go on with Miriel. I smile weakly at him and decline his offer, telling him I have to keep myself busy. All this travelling will help keep my mind from worrying about Ellie; it does that enough at night time anyway, without me deliberately adding to it by staying in one place.
Besides, if anything happened to Miriel, I’m sure there would be some rather angry blonde elves out after my blood.
After Rivendell, we set out for the Angle, before turning back on ourselves and retracing our route, but this time, travelling onwards towards Rohan.
When we finally meet up with the Rohirrim, Miriel and I raise our hoods and keep them raised. We also keep well back from the limelight, riding at the rear of the group. I would dearly love to show these men a thing or two, but this isn’t really the time or the place to be proving my feminine strength, so I reluctantly keep back.
On 8th March, having spent the night at Dunharrow with Théoden’s troops, the Grey Company, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Elladan, Elrohir (who insists on staying close to Miriel), Miriel herself, and I enter the Paths of the Dead.
It’s horribly creepy. The slime covered walls give off a greeny-grey hue. It’s damp and musty, with water constantly dripping from a ceiling so high that even with the torches held high above our heads, we cannot make it out.
All noise stops as soon as we enter, the whole place is dark and forbidding; I’m sure I’m not the only one regretting their decision to follow Aragorn.
The cool evening breeze is a balm to everyone when we finally emerge out of the other side. It plays gently across our faces, bringing with it all the smells of the world around us, never was the smell of nature so inviting as it is now.
Luckily, I’m not so over-bowled by it that I forget my ‘manliness’ and run around on the grass.
At midnight, Aragorn summons the dead. At first it appears to have not worked, the only sound being the wind, which blows ever fiercer. But then I feel a shiver run down my spine and a deep sense of foreboding.
Instinctively, I turn. I nearly jump out of my skin, for standing right behind me, his face on a level with mine, is the captain of the dead. He laughs and (literally) walks through the crowd to where Aragorn is standing.
Four days later, we reach Pelargir and succeed in capturing the ships of the Corsairs. This is a battle which I fought with particular vigour and enthusiasm. Apart from anything, it allowed me to release all the pent-up emotion which had been building on our journey with the dead.
After some problems sailing down the Anduin, we eventually arrive in time to help our ailing troops upon the Pelennor Fields.
I soon lose Miriel in the battle, but that doesn’t stop me from going at the enemy with all my energy.
I’m fighting a particularly loathsome Orc when he manages to send me flying on to my back. I feel a sharp pain in my left upper-arm, looking down I see that I have gashed my arm on a bed of flint-like stones.
Murrlin suddenly covers me with her body, hissing and slashing at the Orc with her claws. He’s not fazed, however, and raises his axe in readiness to kill us both.
An arrow flies into my line of vision and hits the Orc squarely between the eyes. Looking behind me, I see a masked Ranger who nods before darting back into the battle.
While Murrlin protects me, I swiftly bandage my arm before continuing the fight.
It’s only now that I notice those spiky mammoth-things. They are absolutely massive and deadly; there is no way I’m going anywhere them if I can help it.
Guess who doesn’t feel the same way – that’s right, the blonde wonder-elf. He takes down the mammoth in the exact same way as was portrayed in the film.
It’s absolutely nauseating to watch and he barely gets a hair out of place. I feel the temptation to yell: ‘It still only counts as one!’ rise within me, but I think Gimli would get far more joy from it.
We keep on fighting until well into the evening, when, finally, we overcome the enemy.
Whilst others begin burning the bodies of the Orcs, I go round and help the wounded.
I help for as long as I can, but eventually give into my body’s cry for rest – I must have been up for at least 24 hours, if not longer.
I find the tent that Miriel is in; she and Falathiel are sound asleep. She’s also a lot cleaner than I am with her hair still slightly damp from the sluice down she must have given herself.
I look down at myself – hmmm, maybe I should follow suit.
I eventually find a large bucket of water. It’s very heavy and pain begins stabbing at my arm so I give up on pouring the water over my head, instead merely splashing myself with it. It’s not the best wash, but I’m way past caring about how I smell, I just want my sleep...