Travis's Fan Fic Final

This is a Lord of the Ring fan fiction that focuses on the race of treelike beings known as the Ents, who played a minor role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

THE ENTS

word count: 890

Before the War of the Rings there lived a race of peaceful tree-like beings known as the Ents. They lived in the forest of Fangorn and were rarely bothered by the outside world. You could walk through Fangorn and never know the towering Ents lived there because when they stood still you couldn’t tell the difference between them and the ordinary trees…unless you disturbed the peace of the forest. Then the trees would come alive and throw you out of the forest as gently as you’d let them.

By almost anyone else’s standards the life of an Ent was a dull affair, but they their own standards they lived exhilarating, full lives. They feasted on the sun and drank the rain like men drank mead. The Ents would spend months scratching elaborate, weaving designs in the sandstone only to see their masterpieces eroded away by the weather. The artists never mourned the loss of their art. They understood that all things are fleeting and the art of life lay in enjoying beauty the way a musician enjoys each note of a song despite the fact that it would be lost when the song ended.

None of the Ents were as full of life as the young sapling, Geofrey. He could never sit in the same grove for more than a few moons before he grew anxious to revel in the beauty of another one. The other Ents called him “The Traveler” because he was always exploring the forest, listening to its songs and sight-seeing how the seasons changed each hill and valley.

One morning in the peak of winter Geofrey was collecting snowflakes when his hobby was disturbed by a bothersome racket like a herd of 10,000 stags migrating through the forest. Not wanting to miss the spectacle, Geofrey strode towards the sound, but he didn’t find the beasts he was hoping for. Instead he saw an army of orcs meandering through the forest. Geofrey froze in place to wait until the intruders were close enough to snare with his massive wooden arms, but to his surprise the orcs weren’t causing any trouble. They were just meandering aimlessly like they were lost. Geofrey thought they must be under a spell. After some time he decided that if he left them alone they would wander straight through the forest and come out the other side on their own.

So Geofrey stood and watched patiently until he realized he was missing the snowfall. Granted, there was snow all around him, but he couldn’t enjoy it in peace with all the noise the orcs were making. So he revealed his presence to the Orcs as he walked slowly away from them. Usually the sight of a tree coming to life would send intruders fleeing, but the orcs didn’t seem to notice him. They just kept plodding along in pointless trajectories.

Geofrey had to travel several leagues before he found a spot suitably quiet enough to enjoy his winter hobby, but he had hardly spent half a day there before the orcs began to fill that corner of the forest as well. Again Geofrey left to find another grove, and again the orcs disturbed his peace before he could fully settle in.

Geofrey knew a valley with a steep pitch where man or beast never ventured because it was difficult to enter, and the river in the centre that had cut the valley was too violent to swim, fish or even boat on. It wasn’t a pleasant place, but he decided that it would be more pleasant than listening to an army of orcs clanging around.

Geofrey made the journey to the valley and descended the precarious slope to find half the other Ents in the forest had the same idea so there was almost nowhere to stand. Geofrey had never seen so many Ents in one place since the last eclipse festival. It was a sight worth seeing, but Geofrey had got it in his mind that he wanted to be alone right now. So he decided to go back to his original grove in hopes that the orcs had already passed by there completely.

Climbing back up the valley took longer than coming down, and when Geofrey neared the top he saw the ridge lined with orcs carrying heavy axes. Behind them a row of massive, empty wagons pulled by teams of Mumakil were being parked in a formation that suggested the orcs were planning to load them up with something. The scene confused Geofrey until he realized they had herded the Ents into the valley to be captured.

Geofrey ran/slid the only direction that wasn’t cut off by the orcs, back down into the valley. He didn’t stop moving when he reached his fellow Ents, but he shouted that the orcs had surrounded the valley and were poised to attack. Some of the Ents laughed. Some scolded him for being a scaremonger. Most of them just looked at him like he was crazy, but a few followed him because he seemed like he knew what he was doing.

Geofrey pushed his way through the crowd all the way to the torrential river and dove (as much as a giant walking tree can dive) straight into the freezing swell. The few Ents that had followed him stopped following at that point.

The river swept Geofrey out of the valley, and that began a long, perilous adventure that took Geofrey to the far corners of Middle Earth where he would meet fearsome foes and valiant allies. 


Word Count: 926