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Open Starter | Loyalty of a Ranger
Loyalty of a ranger "I have only ever been loyal to one man and one man only;
Aragorn of the Dúnedain." Hal It should have been a simple 2 and a half weeks long mission. Just a normal, run of the mill, take a message from Strider in Bree to Lord Éomer in Aldburg, East Rohan. Spend some time with those in the former capital city on a couple of days rest, possibly even helping out is needed, before making the long journey back to Esteldin in the North Downs. But neither the message nor the Dúnedan carrying it would arrive there.
Down in the depths of Isengard, there was no way of telling just how long he had been captured for. It could have been days, months or even years. Time held no meaning when one didn’t even know whether it was day or night. He had been caught because Saruman wanted information- and one of the Rangers under his control. With Aragorn out of reach, the Wizard turned his sight on the Commander of Esteldin, in the thinking that he would be easy to break.
Hal… never broke. Not even the slightest crack showed in the infamous Ranger’s mask of neutrality. With death being prohibited, the Orcs tried their best to break him with torture. But Ranger training and decades of stubbornness and trust proved to be a rock solid wall that they couldn’t find a weak spot in. So where torture had failed, Saruman tried another tactic: persuasion and offering freedom in turn for information.
Anyone else and it possibly would have worked. But the fierce, unwavering loyalty that the Ranger held for Aragorn, his Chieftain, outmatched all persuasion techniques. And in the end, the Wizard told the Orcs to put him to work in the hope that would weaken him. It didn’t. He didn’t complain or say anything, even when he hurt. Something that both wizard, orcish taskmasters and fellow prisoners alike had to give him credit for. He just got on with it.
The night before Isengard in the Last March of the Ents, a question from one of the remaining few prisoners made Hal shatter his silence. How? How do you do it?
It took a few minutes for him to find what remained of his voice and in a quiet tone rough with disuse, the Ranger finally spoke for the first time since his capture. Courage isn't having.. the strength to.. go on -.. it is going… on when you.. don't have strength…
Nothing else was said. There nothing else needed to be said. Sleep came not at all to the Dúnedan that night and the following day, his instincts kept him on a wariness that had even the Orcs eyeing him oddly. For he kept glancing towards to the outer walls like something was about to happen. And it did too.
Early that afternoon, there was an almighty BANG and the outside walls caved in. Soon followed by the flooding of the lower depths but sharp hearing had allowed Hal to warn the other prisoners to find something to hold onto. It took a while for the flooding to calm and he was grateful to see that the others had managed to escape, except for him. He didn’t have the strength to go any further than the now doorless entrance to the outside. And that was where the Ranger stayed half hidden.
Until a couple of days later, after Gandalf, Aragorn and those with them appeared to find their missing Hobbits. Pippin and Merry, due to slight boredom while Gandalf was speaking to Treebeard, were poking random things in the flood water and seeing if they could recognise them. It was Merry who picked up the floating silver seven pointed star that looked familiar. He looked at the Dúnedain clasp and decided to see where it had come from.
Merry? Where are you going? Pippin quickly followed his friend but came to a dead stop when he saw the fear etched across Merry's features. Because this wasn't just any Ranger of the North they had found. It was someone who they knew far too well. Valar, no! Then he turned and shot back the way they had come, heading back to the taller folk the Hobbits called friends. There's a Ranger half conscious amongst the rubble! "Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger.
When we suffer, we survive."
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