[Nerindel]

The four friends said their last farewells to their fallen friend and went back to camp to prepare to move out when the order came. They did not wait long for on that same evening a tall dark haired man came among them, "Halwain!" Sorlas cried recognising the Dunedain man, he turned and regarded Sorlas with surprise in his grey eyes, "Sorlas, how comes it, that you are here, my young friend." Sorlas quickly told the ranger of the message from Rivendell and their journey from Mirkwood to the fields." "I am sorry for your losses, we too have been dealt a sore blow with the loss of Halbarad, but we yet have a chance to avenge our fallen comrades, for on the morrow we are to ride to our enemies very gates." Halwain excused himself saying that he still had other to inform, and that the four of them should ride with the Dunedain as is their place.

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March 18th - March 25th

So it was that on the morning of the next day, to the ringing of trumpets the four friends rode in the company of their kin, surrounded by the seven thousand strong army of the west. Before noon they came to Osgiliath. There they watched as all workers and craftsmen that could be spared set about strengthening the ferries and boat-bridges that the enemy had made and in part destroyed when they fled; they also saw others gathering stores and booty; and on the eastern side across the river the saw that hasty works of defence had been thrown up. The vanguard to which they were part passed on through the ruins of old Gondor, and over the wide river, and on up the long straight road that in the high days had been made to run from the fair Tower of the Sun to the tall Tower of the Moon, which now was Minas Morgul in its accursed vale. Five miles beyond Osgiliath they halted, ending their first day's march.

Sorlas spoke little that night, he cleaned and sharpened his weapons for he had not the chance during his stay in the halls of healing, he listened as Islist, Durvagor and Aravir, recounted their journey south to their new company, and the four rangers listened in rapture as their kin told of their own journey south, and their passage though the paths of the dead they spoke of only briefly.


The next morning they rode on and before evening they came to the cross-roads and the great ring of trees, and all was silent. No sign of any enemy had they seen, no cry or call had been heard, no shaft had sped from rock or thicket by the way, yet as they rode ever forward they felt the watchfulness of the land increase. They watched as Aragorn set trumpeters at each of the four roads that ran into the ring of trees, They blew a great fanfare, and the heralds cried aloud: "The Lords of Gondor have returned and all this land that is theirs they take back."

Sorlas had been disgusted at the sight of a hideous orc head that sat on the carven figure of a king of old, he and his three companions helped to cast it down and break it to pieces, while others raised the old kings head and set it again in it place, still crowned with the white and gold flowers that had grown round it, men laboured to wash away the fowl scrawls that the orcs had put upon the stone.

As Sorlas looked to the darkness in the west, and a shiver ran down his spine as he wondered if they were to assail the dark city before continuing north, he knew not of the counselling of Gandalf and the words of Faramir, but he felt a great desire to continue north and not to enter the foul city. It was later told to them that Aragorn, with Gandalf and most of the vanguard had went to the entrance of Morgul Vale and looked on the evil city, and there they broke the evil bridge and set red flames in the noisome fields.

The next day, being the Third day since they set out from Minas Tirith, they began there northward march along the road. It was still some hundred miles by that way from the cross-roads to the Morannon, and what might befall them before they came so far none could tell. They went openly but heedfully, the four friends saw scouts before them on the road, and others on foot upon either side, especially on the eastward flank; for there lay dark thickets, and a tumbled land of rocky ghylls and crags, behind which the long grim slopes of the ephel Duath clambered up.

Every so often Sorlas and the other would hear the trumpets blow and the heralds proclaim the coming of King Elessar and the command to leave this land or yield up, but none answered the challenge. Although they marched in seeming peace Sorlas's heart was downcast, and with every mile that they went north foreboding of evil grew heavy on him and he could see too that the same was true with most of their company.

On the second day of their march from the Cross-roads, a strong force of Orcs and Easterlings attempted to take their leading companies in an ambush. But the captains of the west had been well warned by their scouts, Skilled men from Henneth Annûn; and so the ambush was itself trapped. Sorlas and the others accompanied the horsemen that went wide about westward and came up on the flank of their enemy and from behind they destroyed them and any that survived fled east into the hills.

The victory of this battle did little to enhearten the company, and as they rode on a deepening shadow seemed to loom out of sight and a feeling of dread that could not be shaken off fell upon them, Upon the fourth day from the Cross-roads they came at last to the end of the living lands, and began to pass into the desolation that lay before the gates of the pass of Cirith Gorgor; here Aragorn halted the company and bade the faint hearted not to go on but to go south west and retake Cair Andros and hold it till the last in defence of Gondor and Rohan.

It was now less than six thousand that slowly advanced, and Sorlas expected at every hour for some answer to their Kings challenge. At nightfall of the fifth day of the march from Morgul Vale they made their last camp, they set fires about it of such dead wood and heath as they could find. The four friends passed the hours of night in wakefulness and were awake of many things half-seen that walked and prowled all about them, they heard also the howling of wolves. The wind died and all the air seemed still. They could see little, for though it was cloudless and the waxing moon was but four nights old, there were smokes and fumes that rose out of the earth and the white crescent was shrouded in the mists of Mordor.

The next morning was cold and the wind now can from the north, and soon it freshened into a rising breeze, the noises of the night were gone, and the land about them seemed empty. But as they looked south they could see the great rampart of Cirith Gorgor, and the Black Gate amid most, and the two Towers of the Teeth tall and dark upon either side. The four Rangers now turned to each other and Islist imparted a few last words of wisdom, before they all resolved to see this journey to is bitter end, rejoined the host of the west and followed their King to the Black gates.