Carpe Diem – Part 11
Unalmis Raxëlilta
at the Southern Gate/Harlond
with Cadil @Pele Alarion @Rillewen
Unalmis Raxëlilta
at the Southern Gate/Harlond
with Cadil @Pele Alarion @Rillewen
Aside from the Great Gate which sat at the entrance to Minas Tirith’s First Circle of the city, there were three gates set into the Rammas Echor boundary wall; each of them at the end of one of the three roads through the Pelennor Fields. The North Gate, known as Forannest, was the furthest from the city itself and had an unfortunate habit of being destroyed. Ingold and his company had barely managed to repair it in time to face invasion during the War of the Ring, and the Enemy took very little time to devastate it in the days that followed, thankfully so that the Rohirrim could also access the Pelennor and provide much needed aid to their beleagoured ally. At one time it’s crumbling shambles of a state had provided the most accessible path for adventurous youths to leave the Pelennor and explore the wider world, but the renewed construction since the Return of the King meant it was now perhaps stronger than ever. There were clearly thoughts of fortifying it’s passage between Gondor and Arnor in the far north-west.
The second, the Eastern Gate had a tendency to be known as the Causeway Gate, being that it was defended by a causeway fort on either side of it. This way led through the reputedly haunted ruins of Osgilliath, and into the wilds of Ithilien woodland, where Prince Faramir ruled. Rangers used this channel rather constantly, and the forts were well manned. The Enemy had traditionally sat in the East, after all, so besides being so well used, that portal was the most guarded. Lately parties had begun to explore the state of the shattered river city, with thoughts of returning it to former glory. But the Northern gate had won the need for first attention, and the cemetery streets that lay shrouded behind the second gate still waited in the wings for the stonemasons.
Then there was the final gate, the South gate, sometimes called the Harlond gate or the Harbour gate. It was not as established as the other two, but had been founded years later since a series of assaults on Pelargir to the South, and an increase in the underhand influence of criminals seeking easy passage in and out of Minas Tirith by way of the mighty Anduin. To raid this far upriver was a far more subtle threat than the corsairs who openly pillaged the coasts of Belfalas and Anfalas. Here, in Harlond, it was a veritable war between the sneaky smugglers and the bureaucratic red tape of overzealous portmasters. The South Gate though was a mere league from Minas Tirith proper, which raised it’s appeal. Also, the guards here had a far more difficult time of it, arguing of overseeing all the exports and imports that passed their post; the busiest means of supplying the White City with goods from the prosperous Southern fiefdoms.
Unalmis had no need these days to sneak out of the city. Technically he was grown to adulthood and thus any outstanding warrants that he and his friends had earned whilst underaged ought to be moot point. The prospect though of sneaking out was more a matter of principle, not only because of false reports of dog-theft (which Beren had promised his Paw Patrol were taking care of by discrediting the dishonest plaintiff) but because it had been a while since the young Ranger had needed to try to sneak out of anywhere. So clearly, it required testing whether he still could. One could never be certain when this skill might be essential, and Cadil certainly needed a run through of putting any effort into anything at all.
Not that Nal could not spin out an ‘explanation’ to entice his friend toward mischief. Cadil was correct that they could not have made it through the gate, stowed as they had been upon the back of an oblivious driver’s cart. But it had spared them the walking of that distance and brought the more reluctant of the pair further from home at greater speed, which furthered chances that he would not simply give up and go back.
“Well the whole point of the thing was for him to learn, too late, that he’d given us a free ride,” Unalmis took a moment once they’d dodged and woven through the crowd to a place they could draw breath. The driver had returned his attention to his cart and was now causing more delay and more shouting as he checked the back where they had been sat. He would of course find only crumbs to mark that they’d ever been present. So the young man admonished his friend, for assuming that his entirely reckless act of shouting loudly had been quite as reckless as it of course had.
“It was entirely deliberate,” Nal shrugged as the line finally started moving back on course again. “Tell a guy like that to take care nobody has stowed away upon his cart, and he would only have told us to mind our own business. But since he now knows that somebody had in fact stowed upon his cart, it clearly could even happen to him, he will surely take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Noone likes to be made a fool twice. And honestly we’ve done him quite a favour, for we meant no harm and didn’t rob or damage his luggage. Anybody who does try to do him harm in the future, he will be far more prepared to thwart. We're protecting the people, Cadil. Annnnd I’ve spared you having to walk so far,” he threw in this last, convinced it would impact upon Cadil far more than the rest of the spiel he’d made up on the spur of the moment.
As to his friend’s new concern that they would be stopped at the gate. “Probably,” he considered. “Is it really worth risking it though ?” he tapped a finger on his chin, and scrutinised what he could see of the gate guard in person. It was hard to gain any clue if they were likely to be recognised, or what level of complaint the unhappy warden at their post was likely to present. Leaning in a little more clandestine, he outlined what his friend might wish he had misheard .. “Come on, I think there’s a part of the wall over here, where we can use an old tree stump to climb high, and clamber over the top ..”
He led the way, basing his rather vain hope that Cadil might come with, on his vast experience of once having friends who would have (by contrast) literally raced him there to try it first. Or at least who would have showed the same lack of disregard as he, for how in fact they'd get down on the other side without injury.
