Alatara the Blue

The remaining fellowship sprinted across the plains, thankfully they were running over plains. They'd been running for so long, Alatara couldn't imagine if the orcs tried to take the orcs up a mountain or over a bunch of hills.

Life's small blessings, she grinned.

The sound of hooves stopped Legolas in his tracks. Legolas looked to his friend and conveyed some sort of message with his eyes that Alatara didn't understand.

Aragorn backtracked towards her and grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a large boulder, Legolas did the same with Gimli a few feet away.

"Orcs?" Alatara looked at Aragorn.

He put his index finger to his lips, he wanted her to be silent. He shook his head.

A large group of warriors riding horses galloped by, green and yellow banners flew high in the wind.

Aragorn released her arm and jumped out in front of them, "Riders of Rohan! Eomer of Rohan! What news do you have?"

Alatara and the boys came out from behind the boulders to stand at Aragorn's side.

At the signal of their captain, the riders began to turn back and circled them.

They were kicking up dust around them, the dust hitting the dirt sprinkled air gave the plains almost a glowing appearance. Alatara squinted her eyes and focused on the riders.

From his horse, a blonde man took of his helmet and looked down on them. Alatara assumed it was the Eomer Aragorn had mentioned before. He gave them his dirtiest look, "What business do a man, elf, dwarf and young woman have in this land? Speak quickly!"

Gimli scoffed, putting his flask back into a pocket on his belt, "Give me your name, Horsemaster, and I shall give you mine."

Eomer handed his long staff to one of his men and dismounted his horse. Aragorn put a protective hand on Gimli's shoulder as Eomer walked over. Alatara's grip tightened on her staff but Aragorn gave her a slight shake of the head, no they wouldn't need to use her magic...for now.

"I would cut your head off dwarf if it was just a bit higher off the ground," Eomer snickered.

The crowd of horse soldiers laughed with their leader.

The mood grew tense and in a split second Legolas had notched an arrow at Eomer, "Good luck, you would die before your stroke fell."

The riders pointed their spears at them and closed their circle of horses tighter around them. The air was thick with tension and Alatara was starting to get nervous. At this close range, her magic might hurt her and her companions along with their enemies.

"I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, this is Gimli son of Gloin, Legolas of the Woodland Realm and the wizardess Alatara the Blue, we are friends of Rohan and of your king Theoden," Aragorn tried to cut the tension but his protective hand on Gimli's shoulder remained.

Gimli gave them his dirtiest look, daring them to try something. She liked Gimli's way of handling things better. But Aragorn was obviously the wiser of the two and she would be wise to learn from it.

Maybe she was just itching for a good fight.

"King Theoden no longer knows friends from foe," Eomer sighed. "Not even his own kin."

The riders withdrew their spears and backed away from them. Finally there was air to breathe again, the tension in Alatara's shoulders ebbed away and she loosened her grip on her staff.

Eomer rubbed his temples with the middle finger and thumb of his right hand and sighed, "Saruman has poisoned King Theoden's mind somehow, Saruman now rules Rohan. Me and my men are loyal to Rohan and that is why we were banished, but the white wizard has his spies all over this land waiting to catch us unawares."

"We are no spies, we're tracking a pack of orcs and Uruk-hai westward across the plain," Alatara cut in. "They have two of our friends."

Eomer turned his hazel eyes toward her, he was much more attractive than she initially thought. She smiled at him, it didn't hurt to be friendly.

"My lady, the uruks were destroyed, we massacred them last night." He whispered.

"But there were two hobbits, did you see two hobbits with them?" Gimli was starting to panic, they all were. The riders probably ran through the company of orcs, slashin and stabbing their spears at everyone who moved. Hope was starting to dim.

Aragorn interjected, "They'd be small, only children to your eyes."

Eomer shook his head, a sad look on his face, "We left none alive."

Eomer pointed to a smoking pile in the distance, Legolas put a comforting hand on Gimli's shoulder in grief.

Aragorn's released a deep sigh, as if he'd been too afraid to breathe.

Eomer whistled, two of his men came forward with two horses and handed the reigns to Eomer. Eomer passed them to Aragorn and Legolas, "May these horses bring you better fortune than their former masters."

Eomer put his helmet back on and swung himself up onto his horse with the grace that only a lifetime of riding could create.

"I hope you find your friend but don't trust to hope yourselves, I'm sure the Uruk-hai had done away with them before we got to them." Eomer turned to his riders, "We ride northward!"

The riders galloped away, their group watched them until they were just specks on the horizon. It was quiet, too quiet, they boys were deeply saddened they may have lost two more of their friends.

In the distance was the smoking pile of char that Eomer had pointed out to them, it was probably an hour's ride away. Legolas mounted one of the horses, a gray mare, and pulled Gimli up with him.

Aragorn did the same to the whiet mare, he reached out a calloused hand for Alatara.

"I'm going to ride with you?" Alatara asked.

Aragorn gave her a half-smile, "I don't think the gray mare is strong enough to carry all three of you."

"Careful how you phrase that, Aragorn son of Arathorn." She smirked and took his hand.