They followed the trail of the Orcs all the day and also at night and they halted only for small rests. They had the trail clear before them and so they followed it without exhaustion. On their second day they found a sign of the Hobbits - a golden buckle of a Lórien-coat. Despite this riddle they had new strength to follow the trail. On their third day they made a rest by night and when they awakened in the morning they followed the trail again. But now the Orcs are gone very far away and they thought to give up, as a new sound was in the air. They noticed riders in the north and so they waited for them to get news about their trail.
As the riders arrived, the three companions recognised them as Rohirrim - People who dwelt in this land, also called Riders of Rohan. The leader of the riders, Éomer, third marshal of the Riddermark, told them, that they had killed the Orcs near the borders of Fangorn, the old Forest in the north of their land, but he saw no sign of any Hobbits or something similar. The riders had burned everything there and the hunters won't find anything. Despite this, the riders lent them two horses (one for Aragorn and one for Legolas and Gimli, because the Dwarf was a bad rider) and showed them the right direction. So the three hunters followed the Orctrail to its end on horseback.
As they reached the borders of Fangorn they found only the fireplace where the Riders had burned the Orcs but no sign of their friends.
|