As they rode eastward, Rowan's nervousness of riding with Boromir—pressed against him—had disappeared before the tree-clad slopes grew thicker. Seeing the eaves of Fangorn relieved Rowan—they were now back on the right path, but Éomer saying his Rohirrim hadn't ambushed the Uruk-hai scared her. What about Merry and Pippin? Had they already reached Isengard? How would they meet Treebeard and set into motion the Ents fighting against Saruman now?

Just like she feared, things had changed... again.

Like in the movie, they came upon the set where the Uruk-hai are slain before Fangorn Forest. There was no grand pile of burning; no Uruk-hai head staked on a spear. But there were clumps of dead Uruk-hai bodies. Arrow shafts didn't protrude from their backs, chests, or necks.

Each dismounted to survey the ground, hoping to find a clue about Merry and Pippin.

It was a good sign finding the Uruk-hai dead—meaning the hobbits hadn't been delivered to Isengard. But what had happened? Earth was broken and had been violently dug up like something burst through the ground. Dirt clods and grass were lodged in some of the Uruk-hai's helms and armor. One of them lay awkwardly like he listened to the earth; getting closer, Rowan found his head shoved into the ground.

Rowan glanced at the dark forest. With its gnarled trunks and roots, and a heavy shroud of darkness deeper within, the forest truly looked evil. It gave off a foreboding aura against trespassing.

Had something come out of the trees and killed the orcs? Could Ents have done this? Was there something dangerous in the woods that Tolkien never mentioned, so Peter Jackson didn't put into the film?

"What killed them?" Rowan asked Aragorn.

Squatting, the Ranger had been searching the ground; now he sat on his haunches, looking around in bewilderment. "I'm not sure. There are no tracks, but the signs left behind present a riddle unlike any I have ever seen."

"How so?"

"The earth is broken from the inside like roots shot up to impale the Uruk-hai, or as in that one" —he gestured at the orc with his head buried— "wrapped around their necks to pull them under. These Uruks and orcs are considerably less.

"If this was indeed the work of the Ents you have mentioned, Rowan, they are more violent than what you have said, and more aggressive than those from the Old Tales." He looked up at Legolas. "What of you? Has Elven-kind heard of such Ents?"

"No. My kind awoke the Onodrim long ago, but they did not teach them vehemence. This worries me. I fear the Darkness has sickened Fangorn."

"That pleases me," Gimli said.

Boromir gripped the dwarf's shoulder. "Hearten yourself! If our young friends have fled into the forest, like Rowan said, then in we will go." He looked over at Aragorn. "What news of Merry and Pippin?"

Aragorn walked around some more, eyes to the ground the whole time. He kneeled a few times before getting up and moving to another spot. Finally, he gave a cry.

"Two hobbits lay here." He moved up, tracking them and continued to call out what he found: "They crawled... Their hands were bound..." He picked up some thick but frayed rope. "Their bonds were cut!"

The Ranger hurried on their zigzagging path. "They ran over here.

"Their tracks lead away..." Aragorn said as he followed the trail, then slowed to a complete stop. The Ranger squatted to brush away dirt and grass, cast about, then moved side to side doing the same thing.

Rowan glanced at the dark trees, realizing the Ranger wasn't anywhere near entering it. "Their tracks lead into Fangorn Forest... right, Aragorn?" Panic rose at his refusal to answer. "Right?"

He eventually answered by shaking his head. "No. The tracks lead nowhere."

"What? How can that be? Are you sure?" she asked in rapid-fire succession.

"I'm sure, Rowan, albeit I don't understand it. There is no evidence Uruks carried them off, nor are they among the dead." Aragorn turned to her. "Merry and Pippin's tracks disappear."

"Surely, the lads weren't dragged under..." Gimli whispered, looking down at the ground fearfully. He took a step back.

Rowan began pacing. "Oh, no no no no no. This can't be happening. They can't die! They're essential to The Two Towers and The Return of the King." She looked at the Gondorian captain. "Saving you shouldn't have messed the story up this bad!"

"Hold on," Boromir said. "We can still look for the little ones in the Forest. Perhaps whatever slaughtered the Enemy has taken Merry and Pippin within for safety."

"Or as prizes..." Gimli mumbled.

"No, do not so hastily assume the worst," Legolas said.

She took a breath to calm down. "You're both right. They're not dead unless we find absolute evidence they are... like their bodies, which I hope we don't find."

Looking at Aragorn, she asked, "Are there signs that something went into Fangorn?"

As she and Gimli expressed despair, and Legolas and Boromir calmed them, Aragorn had gone back to searching the ground. The Ranger roamed far: he stood at the entrance into the forest. But he still heard her.

"Yes. That something is quite large and heavy."

"Then we must follow it," Rowan stated.

***

After towing the horses into Fangorn Forest and tying the reins around trees, the five hunters delved deeper in search of Merry and Pippin. Aragorn led them again, stooping now and then to check the ground. With thick moss covering the earth—making the ground spongy—Rowan didn't know how he could pick out a trail. Even with sunlight outside, the forest was dark.

Gimli was right saying, The air is so close in here, in the movie. Moisture and heat made the air dense, making it hard to breathe. Like that one time where she filmed a movie in Louisiana, it was plain-out humid and miserable. Stuffy. Not even thirty minutes into their trek, and sweat beading on her forehead and she panted.

Long trails of lichen hung from branches, brushing Rowan's shoulder or head, scaring her—she kept imagining spirits touching her. No cheerful songs of birds echoed through the trees; no insects buzzed. Other than the occasional distant groan or creak of a tree, it was deathly silent. Needing a comforting presence, she moved closer to Boromir. This unnerving forest made her jumpy.

Coming onto a shallow stream of crystal-clear water, they stopped for a rest. Rowan dipped her hands in the water, then ran them over her face, washing off sweat and cooling herself.

Legolas pointed ahead. "That does not belong." She looked up.

Against a backdrop of dark green and beside the trickling stream lay a long clump of black. They cautiously drew closer; the blob separated into a torso, long legs, arms, and fingers, all in an enormously tall humanoid form of blackened wood. Gray moss made the beard and hair on its narrow head. The eyes stared at the eaves of Fangorn, lifeless.

"An Onodrim!" Legolas announced. He sped ahead to the dead Ent.

"A dark one," Aragorn commented.

"Darker than the Ents shown in the movies," Rowan said.

They crowded around the dead Ent. The blackened bark on its arms and legs was chipped, splintered, cracked, or missed whole chunks—lying on the ground near to it. Even in the dim lighting, dark liquid glistened on its legs.

It had surely been an Ent, but it looked wrong. Regular Ents were gentle tree-herders; they resembled trees because they practically were trees. They weren't wicked, twisted, evil things. Just the appearance of this one said it was. An ominous aura hung in the air near it.

With a finger, Gimli wiped up some black liquid, then quickly spat it out with disgust. "Orc blood."

"Now, the riddle of what killed the Uruk-hai has been solved... but what killed the killer?" Boromir asked.

Aragorn searched the upturned ground around it.

"These are strange tracks," he mused. "But there was a struggle—other than deep impressions, as if something—another Ent perhaps—stood rooted against some force. The earth mimics that around the fallen Uruk-hai." The Ranger picked up a sliver of wood, looked it over front to back, then glanced at the dead Ent. "This wood is unlike that one's, so the other was definitely an Ent. It is a dark shade of brown."

"Perhaps it is Treebeard's..." Legolas suggested. He looked to Rowan for her input.

"I hope so," Rowan said. She turned to Aragorn. "What do you suppose happened?"

He stood looking around for a while before his eyes lit up. "Here! Good news at last!" Aragorn said as he moved over to another patch of ground and squatted to brush it clear. "Footprints of a hobbit—two, in fact. Merry and Pippin were here."

Rowan wasn't the only one to release a relieved sigh.

"At least the little ones survived this far," Boromir whispered.

"From the signs, this Ent" —he pointed at the dead one— "attacked the Uruk-hai and orcs. Once free, Merry and Pippin had the misfortune of running into it. The Ent had them until another Ent besieged it here—who we assume was Treebeard. Winning the battle, he took the hobbits." His eyes followed some trail. "The tracks lead deeper into the forest."

"If those tracks lead to an open glade, they're definitely with Treebeard, and I'll feel much better leaving them here," Rowan said.

***

Night fell before they reached the end of the trail. She hadn't realized how far Treebeard's home was, if that was where they were going. In the book, Merry and Pippin reached there in no time riding on Treebeard—it had to be because they didn't have the long strides of an Ent.

They each took turns on watch while the others slept. Fangorn Forest was disturbingly eerie during the day, but at night, it was terrifying. Rowan could've sworn she saw green or golden eyes looking at her from the darkness. Odd noises echoed through the trees. Neither the eyes nor the sounds seemed menacing, so she didn't wake the others, but the hair on her arms and back of her neck rose in fright from sensing something hiding in the dark.

In the past four days, Rowan dreaded the dawn; now, she welcomed it. Sunlight peeked through sparse spaces in the canopy, but the morning brought life and lit the forest, chasing away the inky blackness. Even though dim, she could now see all around her.

Eating a quick breakfast of lembas and water, the five hunters set out again with Aragorn still leading them. They walked on—going uphill—for hours on end. And like she had hoped, the trail headed straight to a secluded glade.

Two tall trees stood as sentinels with more trees circling the dell as protection. A rocky cliff wall made the back, with water trickling down into a small pool. In the middle, the canopy of the trees didn't stretch over the center, so the deep blue sky shone above them. With space, the air didn't feel as dense and a slight breeze blew through.

Boromir breathed in deep. She looked over to find his face turned to the sky. "Ah. Fresh air."

"This is Treebeard's home—Merry and Pippin are for sure safe now," Rowan said as she looked around.

"I believe you are right, Rowan," Aragorn began as he checked an area of grass. "Hobbits lay here for sleep and the footprints are not hard indentations like they ran." He moved over to another area, closer to the small pool. "Well, other than here."

Absorbed in following the trail of Pippin chasing Merry, the Ranger drew close to the old tree with its long, gnarled roots above the ground. In minute movements, the roots shifted eagerly, sensing approaching prey.

"Careful!" she warned. "If that tree is the same one in the Extended version, it'll trap you in its roots. It caught Merry and Pippin, but Treebeard freed them." Aragorn stepped back warily.

"How did he free them?" Legolas asked.

"By telling the tree to go back to sleep." She shrugged. "He basically soothed it."

Gimli snorted. "Talking trees. What do trees have to talk about, hmm? Except the consistency of squirrel droppings."

She chuckled. Though only in the Extended version, it added more humor to his otherwise too-serious character.

***

Knowing the hobbits were now safe, they left Treebeard's home and delved back into Fangorn. Their discovery lightened Rowan's heart: she had a pep in her step, the forest didn't seem so gloomy, and she carried on a steady conversation with the others. They must've felt the same, for they spoke and laughed with her.

Unfortunately, her good mood crashed when they walked into a new area with the bright sun shining on a flat-topped rock.

Rowan stopped in her tracks. The area mirrored the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie where Gandalf the White reveals himself to the three hunters. Her eyes swept their surroundings, hoping the wizard would show up. With no sign of him, she sighed in disappointment—she hoped he had survived the two arrows, falling, and the Balrog.

"Rowan, what is it?" Boromir asked.

She nodded at the rock. "In the movie, that's where a transformed-Gandalf appears. But he's not there because I killed him."

The men didn't say anything as she walked away and they followed. Nothing could be said to comfort her. Everything Gandalf does in the books and the movies ran through her head. How would they complete anything without his guidance? What about everything he does? How could they—

She stopped again. "Oh no."

"Trouble?" Aragorn asked; metal rang as he and Boromir unsheathed their swords. She bet with his lightning-fast reflexes, Legolas had notched an arrow, and Gimli probably gripped one of his throwing axes.

"Not right now, but definitely ahead of us." Rowan turned to face them; she had figured right—they were all armed and ready for a fight. At her words, they relaxed their tense postures.

"According to the story, you go to Edoras and convince King Théoden to evacuate his people to Helm's Deep. A large battle is to take place there; I have an idea on how to avoid that, but that's beside the point. The problem is that the king is being controlled by Saruman, and Gandalf saves him. But as you can see" —she gestured around— "Gandalf's not here to do that.

"What do you suggest we do? We need King Théoden because he plays a pivotal role later on."

Gimli stroked his beard as he thought. "You said you're changing the story from how you remember it. Are you sure he'll still be needed?"

Rowan nodded. "I'm pretty sure. I don't think there's anything I can do to prevent that major battle."

"What major battle is that?" Boromir asked.

She didn't want to answer. If he knew the battle took place at Minas Tirith, he'd want to go now and forget Rohan.

Legolas saved her. "We shouldn't look too far ahead—it will keep us from focusing on the present."

The Ranger nodded. "Handle one problem before you take on another." He turned to her. "How does Gandalf save him?"

"Magic. Should we send a message to Lady Galadriel, or something? She's powerful and magical; maybe she can help?"

He shook his head. "Lothlórien is too far away. I do not believe the lady would leave the Golden Wood, and any help they send would take a month to reach us. There must be another way..."

Aragorn's words struck a memory.

"That's why she gave it to me," she mumbled.

"Gave you what?" Gimli asked.

"The bracelet," Boromir answered, eyes now alight as he remembered her receiving the jewelry since he had stood beside her.

Rowan nodded and extended her wrist for the other three to see the bracelet. "Lady Galadriel gave me this Bangle of the Anduin. She said it would provide a way if I ever lose my path. I can feel the power within it. She knew I would need it to cure King Théoden."

"How?" Legolas asked. "Do you know how it works?"

"No, but I think I just need to trust it."