The Pickpocket

Chapter: Two - To Fornost

Genre: Drama/Adventure

Disclaimer: Lord of the Rings belongs rightfully to the Tolkien Estate. I don’t own LOTR or make money from the stories I write. The OCs, however, are mine.

Author’s Notes: I have tried to hunt down information on cities and villages in Arnor. Since I was unable to dig up more information on places, I am going to make it up. The online video game has information on cities and the like, but I don’t want this story to have anything to do with the game, so there.

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“Ahh!” I dug too deep pulling out splinters from my arm. With a shaky hand I grabbed my spare dagger’s handle and stuck it back between my teeth. The pain stabbed at every nerve ending in my body. Knowing I was going to grind my teeth to try and put the pain away I jammed the leather grip in my mouth.

It had been a few days since the annihilation of the city of Gergot. I had been doing my best on trying to find food and keep my burns as clean as possible. While the medium burns had begun to scab over, the deep, hideous burn over my fingers and bottom of my forearm were festering. Knowing what had to be done, I did my best to do exactly that. When I was younger I studied medicine and was training to become a surgeon at the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith. A child’s life dream… That was some ten years ago, of course. Now at the ripe, stupid age of twenty-seven I work as a pickpocket stealing the hard work of others for my own benefit. The rotten apple had fallen, rolled, and ended up in a ditch far from the tree.

My feet were planted square on the ground in small holes that I made prior to working on my festering arm. Using the footing I would be able to brace myself against the tree behind me. Yet the pain made my body shake with anxiety and anticipation of what I was going to have to do. The deep burns had crusted over with puss and were festering inside. The tops of my fingers and the bottom of my forearm were now lined with dead, roasted skin that I knew had to be removed.

Turning the dagger to the side I aimed it for a thick, baked layer of flesh on my forearm. My forearm and tops of my fingers look like a yellow lump of cooked chicken. Making a note of that, I doubt I would ever eat meat again. Flaking off a side of a scab, clear liquid leaked out in small streams. I rested my scabbed elbow atop my knee and examined the damaged area. The sparse forest was cool, cold almost, but my terror and pain heated up my body so that it was an oven of its own.

“Thirtypercent…Thirtypercent…” I mumbled through the dagger hilt in my mouth. I knew that with a nasty burn like the chicken on my arm I had a thirty percent chance of living. Trying to hold the other dagger steady I set it on top of the wound. The cold blade burned against the raw flesh. I just needed to…

I slipped the dagger under the scab next to the healthier skin and pulled upwards. As the dead skin slipped off, I concentrated as hard as I could not to pass out at the sight of my own muscle beneath it all. Looks like the tendons in my forearm were okay. Sweat trickled down my cheeks and my gaze lifted to my fingers. Can I still move them? I wondered. My thumb and index finger were first to twitch. The middle finger and ring finger took far more effort than I thought. Moving my pinky finger was something else entirely. It was so badly burned that I could move the first joint, but I could actually see that the second joint was immobile. Well, could have been worse. Trying to be optimistic again…

Cool mist tickled my face as I dropped my head back against the tree behind me. “I need to get help…” The dagger slipped from my mouth and landed in my lap. I just needed a moment to stare up into the sky. Its bright, grey clouds swirled around making shapes and fluffy patters. A moan passed my lips, “It’s going to rain…”

Leaning over I grabbed my small waist-pack that I always carried with me. It had a large pocket filled with a bag containing various coins and jewels stolen over the past few years. The smaller pockets carried a small baggie of nuts and a few other pieces of food. What I was aiming to grab was my last roll of clean bandages. I had used the other four already. Constantly keeping a burn wound as clean as possible was an expensive task.

Wrapping up my fingers rightly, I was sure to bandage my pinky and ring finger together. I struggled, having only one hand to be able to do this with. Using my teeth to help tie the knots, I finally finished the bandages about my appendages. Moving to my hand and forearm I couldn’t help but stare at the brand on my palm. How cliché… My mind hissed at me, you went through all that to get a coin you could never have. Pity… I wrapped up my palm and made a series of twisting loops towards my elbow. I tied it off and checked to make sure I didn’t miss anything with the big burn.

There was half a tattoo still lingering across my forearm. I frowned at the memory of how I got it, one of many carved into my flesh. Each had a different meaning along with the penalty behind it. Every criminal is given certain marks and scars to point them out from the rest of people around them. The one I stared at was for theft. The more wrapping bands that a thief carried, the more dangerous they were as a criminal. Out of the possible four given… I had four. Not ignoring the other markings for the other crimes…

“Stupid…” I wrapped the bandage tight hiding the blue ink from my sight.

The small amount of left over bandage I had I carefully tucked away in my small sack. My tummy rumbled in protest at the lack of food and water I had taken in over the past few days. My small canteen hung around my shoulder was almost empty. After the destruction of the city, I had not seen a single person, orc, or anything in the sparse trees and tall grass of North Downs. Assuming they were all dead I would not dare drink any water from any stream I came by. Knowing how disgusting death truly was, the water had a high chance of contamination. No matter how bad I felt about the slimy streams I was nonetheless in need of both water and food.

Standing, I checked my bearings. From what I could remember of the trip north, I was roughly a day-long ride from the next city, Fornost. Since I was limited to walking it looked like it would take up the next couple of days for me to get there. It would, of course, take a couple of days with clear weather, good roads and minimal orc activity. Who knew how long it would take me...

Leaving the burnt city of Gergot behind me I decided that heading south out of Arnor was in my best interest. Get away from the northern wretchedness and danger, head into Eriador and find a place there were I could set up shop. Sucking in a breath through my teeth, I made a pained sigh, “This is going to be a long walk.”

Red and yellow leaves had already scattered about the place I was sitting a moment ago. Autumn was starting to take the land by force which was disheartening. I had roughly eight hours to get to cover before it the hideously large clouds poured on me. In any case, I needed to get moving. I used my scarf as a sling for my now-wrapped wounds. A small twinge of worry gnawed in my sinuses from the smell of my semi-clean burns.

It was rather desolate, North Downs. Tall grass populated the plains with towering boulders scattered at random places. There was once a great battle over the hills of North Downs. Sometimes children would return to the villages after a day of playing with arrows, rusty daggers, skulls and other strange objects from a battle long forgotten.

Trees, like the boulders, were scattered about in random instances. Yet with the oncoming change in seasons their usefulness as cover during worrisome times had diminished. Standing behind the scattered trunks was almost the same as standing behind a weak twig. It might protect one from a weak onslaught of orc and goblin arrows for a short time but it wouldn't hold after several well placed swings of an axe or sword.

North Downs was never the greatest place to be. The city of North Gergot to the northern point of North Downs was a consolidation of many different villages and towns that had been wiped out during the War of the Ring. Commonly known as “That city to the north” by the people who populated the surrounding wall-city of Fornost, Gergot was a vile, ungoverned slum of criminals, bastards, rouges and other unwanted people.

Against the speculation of other villages and cities, Gergot had a local government that installed a few basic rules to keep a sense of order. The melting-pot of a city was also one of the most important strategic installments in the region in Arnor. A direct path north could take any suicidal rider directly into the heart of the once great Witch-King of Angmar’s realm. Just a little farther north and you would be standing in Carn Dum.

No one ever wanted to go up there.

Even after the war of the ring and the rise of Aragorn to the throne of Gondor, Carn Dum and the majority of Eriador was a disastrous place to live. Besides sections of Arnor and the hobbits' delightful little Shire, all that was left was death, crime and other horrific actions that man and monster could accomplish. Elves were no exception.

I slapped at a mosquito that landed on my weak, scalded shoulder. It splattered into a lump of black exoskeleton and goo. Making an irritated sound I picked it and flicked it away from my arm. Time to get moving.

My legs and back were tired. Not nearly enough sleep in the time past the destruction of the city and now, me staring out at a bland distance. A sigh escaped my lips making the pain in my arm exceed the limits of my adrenaline capacity. I think it was my exhausted feeling that made the pain fade to a dull ache in the back of my mind. When I was younger, I trained in combat and learned how to deal with certain amounts of pain (I was forced into training so I didn’t last long) then I worked with the pain of others on the battle field and in the houses of healing.

My thoughts reeled… So many memories I wished to forget but my memory retained everything, trapping me in the past for all eternity.

Strapped to my hips and over my shoulder, my pack was secured and ready to go. My step almost went out from under me as a bout of nausea struck me. I hoped this wouldn’t last so much longer, I would be rid of the horrible feeling inside of me soon enough. I didn’t have enough money to take care of it all, but it would leave me… I was sure of it! However, I had been wrong before. Anger and hate that ate at my guts made me frown.

No matter, I had to get to Fornost.

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Walking was never a difficult action for me to do. I had been running, hiking and all sorts for the majority of my life in order to escape from dangerous situations. Strong legs beneath me carried me with true form. I passed through the tall grass keeping a wary eye on the distance ahead of me. In case there were any things or creatures hiding in that grass I had to be prepared to run – sprint even. While I had to keep a pace I needed to keep vigil.

Nonetheless it seemed like I had been walking for hours…

“Two days…” I repeatedly mumbled to myself, “Two days.” I wondered if I would even make it that long. Maybe infection would set in before then, maybe the rot would take me before I could get medical help. Maybe orcs would find me, kill me or do worse… I had to survive two days, get this filthy wound cleaned and it would all be okay… I hoped.

Sweat tickled my brow and I reached up wiping away the short dark red hair that clung to my temples. I kept my hair slightly longer than shoulder-length in order to pass as a man as much as possible. In this world, especially since I was human filth, limits to what I could do were limited to my looks. My chest was terribly sore and I tried to adjust my bag in a way to pull at the wraps around my breasts. I hated being a woman. There were so many irritating ailments and issues that we were plagued with – some called them miracles, I called them a waste of time. What I knew for sure was the faster I got rid of the annoyance the quicker I could move back into my normal life.

Trees that I had seen hours before faded into the distance. Clouds roared in covering the sun’s desirable heat. My eyes glared at the cranky sky which once carried a relaxing blue but now was an ugly gray with a mean streak. The distance called to me an outcropping of trees was to be my shelter for the storm. As I powered forward I noticed, to my dismay the trees were a series of oaks dying from disease.

My brows furrowed, “The hell is going on?” The trees in this area were never diseased. The oaks were strong, willful trees that were almost impossible to hack down let alone kill through disease. Something was wrong in Eriador, something had changed. First the orcs then the dragons, now the strange, disgusting water and dying trees. I did not want to imagine what could possibly come next. I couldn’t help but keep seeing that terrifying, yet beautifully mesmerizing, flash of the mythril covered monster. Its perfectly formed scales delicately woven into a perfect silverfish white of a torso while its muscular arms and legs glowed sky-blue with a hint of orange from the fires that night. I remembered everything, every detail. It was truly beautiful.

The monster’s cry pierced my ears through memory. My arm burned.

A powerful explosion of thunder brought me back to the reality before me. My free hand was gently laid on the molding bark of the great tree. I rubbed the texture to feel the tug of my glove next to my skin. Like ash the tree’s rough shell faded away. As the tree died under my fingertips my heart began to ach for the being. I could hear the screaming cry for help that it wailed – I ignored it.

I stared off into the distance watching the lightning streak across the sky. Sitting under one of these nasty trees is a relatively bad idea. I told myself. Seeing as how the entire span of North Downs was a series of weak hills and grass plains the tallest items around were trees and, well, me.

In roughly an hour lightning and heavy raindrops would come crashing down. I turned on my heel to walk away from the storm wondering how far I could get before it poured. My guess was as good as any, I suppose. It was getting dark and with the incoming storm tonight was going to be a dangerous challenge when walking.

It didn’t take long before it started to really rain. Starting with a small spatter of mist it developed into heavy, striking raindrops that impacted the land. I pulled my wounded arm tucked close to my body as the rain fell. Desperately needing the water that trickled from the sky I used the empty sleeve of my jacket to work as a funnel into my canvas bag. It worked as I walked, taking a much needed drink from it once in a while.

Something was wrong.

Stopping in my tracks I looked out into the darkness and winced. It was quiet aside from the onslaught of rain and thunder. Usually you could hear the burping croaks of the misplaced frogs along the creeks and river beds. This time they were either drowned out by the rain or something else was going on. It was now too dark for me to really see anything in the distance so I waited patiently for some sign of why my nerves were making me panic.

I dropped to a squatting position. Out there, to the far right of me, something was there. In the crouched position, I waited. Lightning weakly flashed across the sky. I needed a larder flash before I could catch anything in my sight. It would have to be s strike large enough and long enough to –
-Stretching across the sky in a thunderous roar a large stream of lightning brightened North Downs in a flash.

Fear squeezed my chest as the outlines of large beasts wandering across the plains burned into my brain. Standing on two legs the monsters sauntered in a collective direction. The flashes of light across the sky sparked off their layers or wet armor making the figures larger than naturally possible. They were Uruk Hai– and really large ones at that. I guessed that they had something pumping through their system to get them as tall and muscular as they were now. Compared to the ones I saw back in the city, these guys were far larger.

I could not figure out what they would belong to. The four or five wandering around the field in front of me were too large to be considered scouts. They were almost too large to even be considered infantry – more like tanks or brawlers. Remembering back to the War of the Ring only the strongest general commanders of the Uruk Hai were even that large. Nevertheless, I needed to stop speculating and get on my way.

Lucky for me and my injured self, they were heading away from me. I could continue to crawl in the high grass for as long as my uninjured arm would let me. The rain was making it harder to maneuver in the thick, clay mud that would stick to every part of my clothes. Panic was pumping through my veins just enough to turn the sharp pain in my arm to a dulled throb.

My head smacked into something hard and sharp. I winced and cursed to whatever god or bastard spirit was causing me such a rough day. “Piece of shit…” I mumbled, upset at everything I could possibly be upset towards. Leaning back on my haunches I rubbed the top of my head in the pouring rain. This was turning out to be an absolutely terrible month! Lightning brightened the darkness making my heart stop as I rubbed my abused noggin.

Two overly muscular armored legs were planted ahead of me. Slowly my gaze drew upward following the armor as it covered more muscle on the torso and chest. The beast stared down at me through a crudely formed helmet. A hissing noise could be heard as it sucked in air through the dark holes acting as a mouthpiece.

It roared at me.

“Shit!” I screamed rolling to my side feeling the back of my jacket get caught under the edge of the beast’s large axe. “Get OFF!!” I pulled at my jacket and kicked at the axe trying to get away. Finally I fell back as the back of my jacket was torn to shreds.

Havetorun. Havetorun! I had to run. Didn’t matter which direction I would sprint into – I had to escape the monsters. The terror pulled at my guts as I sprinted into the lightning storm desperate to get away. I did not look back, I did not skip a beat.

Escape into the darkness was my only option.

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Next Chap: Some familiar elves and a very angry main character. I am hoping I will be able to finally get to her name next chapter… Uwahhaha!