Beauty and a Beast

The tower of Orthanc stood amidst the smoking caverns of Isengard. Saruman stood in his chamber, as he communicated with the Dark Lord through the Palantír.

"The world is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard"
Saruman said, as a flash of the tower of Barad-dûr, with its huge Orc armies on a bridge, flashed through his mind.
"...and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman and the union of the two towers?"
Saruman continued

"Together, my lord Sauron, we shall rule this Middle-earth."
Saruman promised.

The trees around Isengard were being ripped down, chopped up and used to feed huge furnaces. The caverns of Isengard glowed with the fires of industry, sounds of hammering filled the air and molten iron was poured into casts to forge weapons.

"The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fists of the Orc. We have only to remove those who oppose us."
Saurman said, as he was overseeing the production going on in the Caverns of Isengard.

"I want them armed and ready to march within two weeks!"
Saruman ordered.

"But my lord, there are too many! They cannot all be armed in time, we don’t have the means."
The Orc nearby said.

"Build a dam, block the stream, work the furnaces night and day."
Saruman snapped.

"We don’t have enough fuel to feed the fires."
The Orc replied.

"The Forest of Fangorn lies on our doorstep. Burn it!"
Saruman barked.

"Yes."
The Orc replied, gleefully.

******************************

Back in his Throne Room, Saruman was listening to a Wildman of Dunland.

"We will fight for you."
The Wildman said.

"Swear it!"
Saruman ordered.

The wildman slashed his palm.

"We will die ...for Saruman!"
The Wildman swore, and Saruman stood in the midst of a gathering of Dunlanders.

"The horsemen took your land. They drove your people into the hills to scratch a living off rocks!"
Saruman said, rallying the Wildmen.

"Murderers!"
A second Wildman snarled, angrily.

"Take back the lands they stole from you! Burn every village!"
Saruman shouted.

The crowd of Wildmen roared in approval, and they stomped off to destroy the villages of Rohan as Saruman stood coldly still among the stampede. A Rohan village was in pandemonium as people tried to escape the on-coming pillage.

"It will begin in Rohan. Too long have these peasants stood against you. But no more."
Saruman said, as he was still contacting Sauron.
********
A woman with her hand on a horse called out to her children.

"Éothain! Éothain! You take your sister. You’ll go faster with just two."
Morwen called to her children.

"Papa says Éothain must not ride Garulf, he is too big for him!"
Freda said, as Morwen put her on the horse in front of her brother.

"Listen to me. You must ride to Edoras and raise the alarm. Do you understand me?"
Morwen said to her children.

"Yes, Ma!"
Éothain said, saddened that he had to leave his mother

"I don’t wanna leave! I don't wanna go, Mama!"
Freda started to cry.

"Freda, I will find you there."
Morwen promised, as a woman screamed.

"Quickly!"
Morwen ordered, and her children rode off.

"Go child!"
Morwen said, as she watched her children ride away.

Dunlanders and Uruk-hai entered the village, and they burned everything in sights as the Rohirrim screamed and ran in all directions. Éothain and Freda wept as they looked back from a distance.
****
"Rohan, my lord, is ready to fall."