Chapter Twenty-Five: Encountering the Enemy

"Poof!" Zhao Mian doused the campfire with river water, he straightened up and looked around, except for Aragorn, who was thinking about something on the rocks not far away, everyone else lay quietly beside him, and they all fell asleep.

It was the sixth night since they left Carrasgalaton, and during these days, Zhao Mian and the others had moved rapidly southward by the currents of Anduin, but even then they had only traveled half of the journey—a conclusion that Aragorn had estimated based on experience.

"Are there any signs?" Zhao Mian quietly walked to Aragorn's side, he leaned down and whispered in the other party's ear.

"There's no sign of it, but the guy is very cunning, and I'm sure he's not far around us. Aragorn also said in very small words, he did not move—not only his body, but also his mouth. "He's been following us, but he's not doing more. This is unusual. ”

"If I'm not mistaken, he must have been caught by you when he was sent out on a mission by the Demon Lord Sauron, right?" Zhao Mian looked back slightly—there was a sound behind him, but it was nothing more than the turning of sleeping people in a dream.

"Yes, but he escaped from the forest elves with the help of the orcs. Aragorn said this, and he looked at the great river in front of him, which was shining in the moonlight—on the banks of the river, the Anduin at this time seemed so quiet, and the noisy scene of the past had become so tame at this time, that the whole river was flowing slowly in front of him. "Obviously, he was able to connect with the orcs," he said. Therefore, we must catch him - to let him continue to follow him is to put everyone in danger. ”

"Yes, but it's getting lighter, so take a break. Zhao Mian sat down beside him, "And I don't feel any creatures in the vicinity other than us - even the small insects are away from here because of the powder you sprinkled." ”

"Okay. Aragorn nodded, and he looked at the sky - the moon was already sinking in the west, "Then I'll leave it to you." ”

"Go to sleep in peace, this cave is safe enough. The only brown bear that could threaten us has now turned into dinner. Zhao Mian said.

The next day, everything was business as usual. Zhao Mian woke up the others as the sun rose high in the sky - because the night was really bad for them, and the orcs could use their greatest strength in the dark, but they couldn't. The journey went on, and they hastily ate some of the food left over from yesterday for breakfast, and put the four elven boats, which could not capsize above the river, and were unusually lightweight, into the water, and began the planned journey for the day.

Originally, everything went smoothly - but since I mentioned Ben, what exactly happened on this trip was simple.

On the seventh day of the trip, the scenery on both sides of the river began to change rapidly, and the terrain on the banks of the river began to rise and become rocky. Soon, they came to an area full of hills, the slopes on both sides were buried under a large number of thorns, vines, and ferns. Behind that terrain are low cliffs with ivy-covered pillars, and behind the cliffs are fir trees that look dying in the strong winds. They were getting closer and closer to Armingmore, the southern end of the Great Heath.

A lone eagle flew over their heads—this alarmed Aragorn, but Legolas and the others thought it was nothing strange, and since an elf had taken the lead in saying so, Aragorn had let go of his doubts—not to mention that the eagle had flown south, meaning that it had come from the north, not from the Devil's capital.

Next, the eighth day of the trip. On this day, when Boromo had called everyone up in the morning—they had been lucky enough to find a dry clearing under a winding bank that would not be flooded, and they had spent the night there—they were quickly ready, and sped forward with a swift rush of the current.

"Stop! Stop!" shouted Aragorn, who was on top of the second boat, and the oars in his hand were thrust into the cracks of the stones passing by him—Zhao Mian looked ahead of him, the white waves splashed continuously, and the turbulent water threw some droplets into the air quickly, and then fell in the distance, some sharp knives of stones stood upright in the water, like a murderer who cut these currents into the shape in front of him, showing his glory to everyone. Clearly, there was a very dangerous rapids ahead, "We can't go any further, get to the shore now!" Aragorn shouted after seeing that everyone was trying to stop the speeding boats, at least slowing down, "I was wrong in my calculations, the current is faster than I imagined, and there is the Sarn Gaipel rapids ahead, and our boats can't pass through there safely - we have to carry these boats around here by land!"

"Row hard!" Borromo shouted, "Row quickly, or we'll run aground in this place!" At the same moment, Frodo felt the bottom of the boat rub against the rocks, making a souring grinding sound.

It wasn't easy, you know, and if you don't go forward, you will retreat - and the river in this place was so fast that it was much faster than they could have made by paddling their oars, so they began to turn away from the west bank, where they had intended, and gradually approached the east bank. This is the worst-case scenario - the West Bank is under Rohan's control, which is relatively safe, while the East Bank, with the Light above, is very close to the Death Swamp, where orcs and past undead occupy most of it.

But it seemed that they did not want to land on the east bank - just as the first boat piloted by Boromo was about to approach the east bank, a sound of the bowstring being loosened sounded in the forest on the riverbank, and with a "bang!"

"Damn!" said Pipin with a snap of his hand.

But the enemy didn't give them more time to react, and the arrow just now seemed to be an experiment, and then more were fired from the dark forest on the riverbank - one of them even safely escaped Aragorn's sword and shot Frodo in the chest, thankfully the chain mail on his body was of good quality.

"Orcs!" cried out to Golden Bolt, rowing his oars as hard as he moved his boat toward the west shore - of course, it didn't need to be said, everyone knew what was going on, and they were trying to get away from here.

The feathered arrows in the sky were still falling, thanks to the other party's lack of accuracy, the power of the sun weakened the orcs, which made them have to hide and shoot arrows in the shade of the trees, but even then, they could not use their best strength. However, some arrows still passed them, and some of them even hit the ship, and if they hadn't dodged and blocked in time, they would have suffered casualties long ago.

"There's no way to go on like this, and their feathered arrows look like there's a lot more. Zhao Mian said this, he shoved the oar in his hand into Merry in front of him, and then stood up - thankfully, Merry would also be in charge, and he struggled to stabilize the boat in the raging river, and Zhao Mian shouted, "Bow down!" Everyone reflexively lowered their heads, and then Zhao Mian's voice passed by them with a burst of bright light - of course, there was a strong blast of wind, and a few arrows that had lost their strength and slashed backwards around them.

"Holy Light, burn those dark eyes—and then burst!"