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Dusk was falling as the four young rangers of the Northern Dunedain approached the meeting place where they were to join with an established patrol. Saelben looked at their companions and spoke quietly, so that no hidden watchers might overhear, "We are not expected until tomorrow morning. We should find a sheltered place to make camp."
The other three rangers exchanged thoughtful glances. Saelben had become the little group's leader for the trek from their training site to Amon Sul, and the others mostly looked to them for guidance since Saelben was the eldest of the quartet by a few years. At last, Barador replied, "If we camp up in the ruins, we will be able to see for a long ways, and we might be able to meet with the patrol further away if they have not yet arrived."
Bruinir nodded along to his brother's suggestion and added, "As long as we find an area with walls on all sides, we could probably even manage a small fire."
The youngest of the four, Cedhril, hesitantly said, "Perhaps the ruins at night are not the best choice. There's plenty of sheltered land among the hedges down below, and we would be exposed during the trek up to the top."
She was the last addition to their training group though, and since the other three outranked her, in the end, they followed Barador's suggestion. Saelben was still insistent that they keep a careful watch, not because they thought that there was any real danger in the region for the time being, after all no enemies had been spotted near Amon Sul in a long while, but because they knew that the older patrol might well attempt to test the group by sneaking up on them unawares.
Bruinir called the first watch, and his brother the second one. Saelben looked at their youngest recruit, and said to Cedhril, "I'll take last watch and cooking duties."
Cedhril nodded, quiet with uncertain worry, and determined to sleep as lightly as possible as if the group were actually in enemy territory. As she looked up the hill that they were climbing, she saw a small flicker of light in one of the arches far above. She walked up beside Saelben, tapping their shoulder and pointing to the arch. Bruinir caught the motion as well, and said excitedly, "Perhaps the patrol is already up there waiting for us."
Saelben shook their head and said reassuringly, "I think it more likely that there is just some bit of metal that caught the reflection of the sinking sun. There is not enough motion or light for a group unless that group does not wish to be seen, and this path is undisturbed. I doubt that our patrol would have taken another way up."
The brothers were content enough with Saelben's explanation, but Cedhril continued to feel skittish about the ruins of Amon Sul. The four of them found a good camp site quickly enough. There was a small hollow a bit in from the edge, mostly surrounded by walls. Barador made a fire, for he was the best at it; and Bruinir and Saelbeth set up their camp with the ease of long working together. Cedhril felt as she had since they set out that she was a bit out of place with this group who had trained together for several years before she joined them. She decided that since there were no other tasks requiring a set of hands, she should act as watch until they were settled. She looked out from the small archway, noted how clear the lines of sight were, and she murmured to herself, "I believe this was a watchpost in the old days, but I wonder if this was the arch where I saw the light, it seems about the right place."
Night fell quickly, and after eating a quick meal of rations supplemented by a rabbit that had suddenly appeared among the ruins, they settled in their places: Bruinir to his watch and the other three to sleep. Cedhril was woken momentarily by the brothers changing places for the watch, and after that, her sleep was restless and full of whispering voices. Each time she woke, it seemed like so much time had passed that it should be time for her watch to begin or the sun to rise, but when she glanced over at Barador, he was shifting at his watchpost to remain awake.
The seventh time she stirred, something was different. Their fire had settled down to mere embers, barely glowing a darkening red, and when she looked, Barador was no where in sight. She froze, scanning the enclosed space with her eyes slowly, suddenly certain that there must be some sort of intruder. When nothing obvious presented itself to her, she drew herself up into a crouch and snuck across the open space to where Barador had been sitting.
He had not, in fact, disappeared from the spot, but instead lay crumpled on the flagstones, hidden from her earlier resting place by a piece of fallen stone. She quickly knelt by his side, shaking him, and when he did not respond, feeling desperately at his neck for a pulse. Nothing.
Cedhril looked about panicked, and saw a strange, translucent form, bending over Saelben, she knew that she could not reach the group's leader--her mentor among her fellow trainees--fast enough to intervene, so despite being loath to make noise that might draw attention to herself, she shouted, "Sael! Wake up!"
The noise seemed to almost vanish into the space between her and the apparition, but something of her shout must have made it to Saelben, for they stirred, clearly not fully awake, and their hand settled on the hilt of their sword. It was Saelben's cry when confronted with the apparition hovering over them that woke Bruinir though. For a moment, everything was still, and Cedhril felt a wave of confusion pass through the small courtyard.
Bruinir, broke the stillness by, stuttering out, "W-what's that!"
The apparition moved then, turning away from Saelben, and towards Cedhril. She braced herself, drawing the knife that she kept on her belt even in sleep and holding it before her. The spirit advanced, slowly and yet inescapable. It seemed unaware of the knife she held before her. As it drew nearer, Cedhril began to resolve its features, so like one of the other Dunedain with whom she served, and yet melted, like candle wax, obscuring features. She wanted to turn and run, to try to beg with it, but she could only stand there, rooted to the spot, small knife held uselessly before her.
Just as the apparition reached her, she shakily managed to say, "S-stop! We are of the Dunedain and mean no harm here."
There was a chilling, oozing sensation around her hand and arm, and suddenly, her knife flashed, and the apparition faded from being in a trail of smoke. Cedhril fell to her knees, beginning to shake. She did not know if the apparition had recognized them finally, or if some property of her great-grandmother's knife, passed down through generations long before, perhaps even brought from Numenor itself, had driven it off.
Saelben came to kneel beside her and said gently, "What happened Cedhril?"
She looked up at them and began, "I, there was something bothering me, and I kept checking if Barador was coming to wake me for my watch. Then I looked over, and I couldn't see him, so I came over here, and he had," she paused, gathering herself, "He had fallen behind that broken stone. I came over, I could not find his pulse, and he would not wake, and then that ghost was looming over you Sael. You saw the rest."
Bruinir nearly lept over the rock, coming to a stop by his older brother's side. He too fell to his knees, shaking his brother, who did not respond. Saelben went to him then, not quite sure what to do in their temporary position of leader. They knelt beside Bruinir and his brother and carefully placed their own hands on his pulse points. After several moments, Saelben sighed, clearly disheartened. "Nothing," they said, shaking their head.
All awake and shaky yet was how the patrol found them shortly after dawn. With the rising of the sun, Cedhril had ceased having the sinking feeling that they were being watched, and when Saelben sighted the patrol, a bit ahead of schedule, she had offered to come down and meet them. She dearly wanted one of the more experienced rangers who had trained them and seen everything that could possibly harm them it seemed, and survived it.
At the base of the hill, she let out the practiced bird call that the patrol leader would be expecting to hear, and she was relieved when the same call answered. She crept out of the bushes where she had been hiding and presented herself to the leader, and aging man with white threading in his hair, with a grizzled woman bearing an old scar from temple to chin beside him. She was relieved at the sight of the pair of them, one younger ranger in sight behind them, and surely two more somewhere nearby.
The captain looked her over gravely for a second and said, "I am captain Aglondir, and I presume you are one of the recruits being sent to join my patrol."
She nodded, responding quickly, "I am one of the four that was sent, Cedhril; however, we encountered a bit of difficulty last night when we camped up above the road on Amon Sul."
The old captain blanched a bit, then whistled three long notes, and within a few moments, two other rangers materialized from the woods around them. He said to her, "Where are the others, show me to them."
She nodded mutely and led the way. When they reached the top of the hill, Cedhril was relieved to find Saelben and Bruinir just as she had left them. The captain's response had left her worried that her eased sense of danger had been misleading. When the captain paused, glancing at her, she remembered that an introduction was probably in order and hurried out, "Captain Aglondir, these are my training mates, also sent to join the patrol, Saelben and Bruinir." She paused, breath caught in her throat for a moment, and then much quieter managed to get out, "And that was Barador."
She lost track a bit then of what was going on, but one of the younger rangers who she had met wrapped Barador in a blanket, and within a short time, they and all of their belongings had been brought down from the treacherous watchtower. They traveled for what felt like more hours than it could have been, a strange haze settling over Celdhril's vision, until at last, they stopped in the forest at the foot of the hills near Amon Sul.
As the other rangers and Bruinir went about begining to properly and respectfully deal with Barador's body, still lifeless, she could only stand, wavering, and stare. If she had reacted faster, if she had listened more strongly to the instinct that something was amiss, perhaps he would not have been a corpse. She was startled from her self-recrimination by Saelben's hands closing around hers and Saelben gasping, "She's gone dead cold, especially the hand that touched the ghost."
Captain Aglondir came to her side then, helping Saelben to settle Celdhril's now somewhat limp form on a nearby stump. The captain dug through the pouches on his belt until he came up with a dried but sweet smelling herb that he crushed in one hand and held under Celdhril's nose. Color began to return to her face, and the captain said, "You've shown great resistance to the apparition. It touched only you and your fallen companion. Rest for tonight, and I will make you a tea of the herbs that refresh your soul from that contact, and all shall be well for you in the morning."