Chapter Seven

Once through the door, he knelt and examined the ground. There were few traces that he could make out, since the ground had been trampled by all of the villagers as they put out the fire. The water used to extinguish the fire had turned the ground near the house to mud, obliterating any useful traces of who might have fled the house. Starting from the doorway, Aragorn directed three other Rangers to begin walking in separate directions, examining the ground for any clear traces that might help them. For himself, Aragorn chose the direction that led most quickly out of town and toward the surrounding woods. Once past the churned up mud near the house, separate footsteps could begin to be distinguished. Many tracks were adult size, the spacing of the footsteps indicating that they were moving at a rapid pace toward the house. Those had likely been made when people began responding to the fire. There were also tracks of adults moving at a slower pace away from the house, after the fire had been extinguished. The tracks that Aragorn was looking for would have laid underneath the others, and would likely indicate a hurried pace away from the house.

At last, Aragorn picked up a faint trace of a child's prints underneath the others. The spacing of these prints indicated that the owner of the prints had been running away from the house, likely as fast as possible. Aragorn examined the area carefully to see if there were any other tracks accompanying these. The presence of other tracks could indicate someone chasing the boy, but try as he might, Aragorn could not find any others heading in quite the same direction. With a short call, Aragorn called the others from where they were still sifting through the wreckage of the house and examining the ground to join him. Being quite sure that he had found what he was looking for, Aragorn told the other Rangers to find the child that Red had kidnapped. After speaking with many of Cedric's relatives, Aragorn had some idea of Red's habits and where he may have hidden the boy. He split them up into groups of two, sending two groups off to different locations while Brégnir was to accompany him as he followed the footprints and hopefully tracked down the missing child.

Further away from the house, heading out of the village, there were fewer tracks of others to confuse the issue, and Aragorn found the trail quite easy to follow. The footsteps were spaced relatively far apart for quite some time, well beyond the edge of the village, indicating a running pace. Once beyond the village, into a clear meadow, the steps grew closer together as the child must have slowed his or her pace. Aragorn and Brégnir followed the tracks deeper and deeper into the woods around the village, and Aragorn's brows drew together in concern. The further they went into the forest, the more likely it was that the child they were following could have encountered a beast of prey. Aragorn began to pray to Eru that they were able to find the child unharmed. After what seemed an interminable amount of time, Aragorn saw that the steps no longer traveled in a straight line. They had begun to weave slightly, and he saw evidence here and there that someone had fallen, likely out of exhaustion from the distance that had been covered. He hoped that meant that they were close. But enough time had passed that the child would have had time to rest and resume his trek, if desired. As the sounds of a small spring reached his ears, Aragorn slowed his pace. If the child had been trained in how to survive in the forest, he would know that having a source of fresh water was essential. Hoping to find the child near the spring, Aragorn had no desire to startle or frighten him. As he neared the spring, Aragorn heard a sound that brought him a sense of great relief and joy, a child's voice.

Carefully pushing aside the branches of a low-hanging tree, Aragorn and Brégnir entered a small clearing with a fresh water spring running through it. A young boy, approximately nine or ten years old was sitting with his back against a tree as he looked at a squirrel in the branches of a tree opposite him. Aragorn smiled as he heard the boy's words.

"Come on down. I have some nuts you might like. Wouldn't you like that? Fresh nuts to add to your stash?" The boy had his hand outstretched toward the squirrel that he was apparently trying to befriend.

Thinking that he had tried the exact same thing when he was close to the boy's age, Aragorn crouched down near the spring and gestured for Brégnir to do the same. If he wanted to avoid scaring the child, it would be best to meet him on his own level. "Berwen?" Aragorn asked softly, trying not to startle him.

It was to no avail as the boy jumped up from his sitting position, scaring the squirrel back into hiding at his sudden movement. Berwen faced Aragorn with a determined but scared look on his face. "Who are you?"

"I'm a friend of your father's," Aragorn said carefully. "My name is Strider and this is Brégnir. Your father sent us to find you. He's very worried about you."

A flash of abject fear flashed through Berwen's eyes. "He's not mad?"

"Why would he be mad?" Aragorn asked carefully. "He just wants you home safely. I promise that he's not mad at you."

"He will be if he knows what I did," Berwen muttered. "He'll hate me."

"Your father could never hate you," Aragorn reassured him. "Why do you think he will be mad at you?"

"I didn’t mean to do it!" the boy cried, fear and guilt once again taking over his expression. "It was an accident, I didn't mean to do it!"

Aragorn moved closer to the boy and placed his hand comfortingly on his shoulder. "Didn't mean to do what?"

Berwen flung himself into Aragorn's arms and buried his face in the Ranger's shoulder. Through a torrent of tears, he sobbed out, "I burned down the house!"