And here follows . . .
"Two Tall, Pointy, Black, Needle-Like Towers . . .
. . . (And the Middle Part of Their Imminent Doom)"
So, HERE IT IS! Enjoy! Anyway, my birthday's in a few days, so I felt like being nice and sticking this up! Review!
We Ran On, and On, and On
Kelsey's PoV
We ran. No surprise there. The only reason Mandy and I could run as such was because of our major workout of the past two months or so—though, sitting in boats for almost ten days hadn't helped—and the consumption of major sugar and coffee products, not excluding chocolate. But for some reason—maybe the Valar had given us up as a lost cause—this was a whole darned lot harder than those 90 miles from Rivendell to Hollin in 10 days that Nicole had led us on. Perhaps it was the lack of an unnaturally chipper person. Whatever it was, Mandy and I were having a hard time.
"What if we step in a hole and break our ankles?" I asked. "How do you find any sort of trail anyway?"
"We are only guessing, Dulin," Aragorn answered, "but there are clues. Perhaps someday I may teach this craft to you. Or you may learn it of the sons of Elrond—they taught me the art."
"Thanks." I padded after them.
"Ai!" I looked up at a yell and of all things stepped in a rabbit hole.
"Ow! Geez!"
Legolas ran up. "We have already overtaken some of those we are hunting!"
"Great, and I just twisted my ankle!" I yelled.
"Awww . . ." Mandy gasped for breath. "Poor . . . Kelseee!" She coughed a bit bringing Legolas to her side.
"Do not look, ladies," he told us while pointing something out to Aragorn.
"Well, that's stupid!" I told him, limping over to where Aragorn was. "It's just a couple of darn—eew."
"Yuck!" Mandy pulled her sweater over her head.
"Here is another riddle," said Gimli.
"I like riddles!" Mandy popped her head out. "What's the riddle?"
"Mandy," I laid a hand on her shoulder, "There are a group of five of our innumerable enemy utterly destroyed."
"How is that a riddle?"
"Because Gimli said it is."
"Oh."
We traveled onward until we came to a little stream. Aragorn looked about a bit and changing direction slightly, led us onward. The males of our party seemed quite happy and awake, but I was in favor of sleep—something no one but Mandy seemed to share.
"We . . . have . . . been . . . running . . . all . . . night!" I gasped as the sun rose and we came to a cliffish thing.
"Look!" cried Legolas, pointing up. "There is the eagle again!"
"Again?" Mandy asked.
"He is very high! He seemed to be flying away now, back North. Look!"
I looked up. There was only a little black speck that moved. I rubbed my eyes.
A scream, somewhat like an eagle's, erupted from the sky followed by a whoop of joy.
"I cannot see him, Legolas," Aragorn told him. "He must be high indeed—"
"But not high enough to muffle Nickel's screams," Mandy mumbled.
"—I wonder what his errand is, if, indeed, he is the same eagle that I have seen before—"
"Before?" Mandy asked.
"While on the river." I silenced her with an answer.
"Oh."
"—But look! I can see something nearer at hand and more urgent. There is something moving across the plain."
"No more need of a trail!" I yelled. "Not that we had one to begin with.
"Let's go." Mandy marched toward the edge and would have tumbled down had not Legolas redirected her to a safer path.
Mandy's PoV
I followed Legolas now by the clear light of day. At the bottom of the cliffy place there was what seemed to be just like my front lawn—except there was nothing but grass and the grass was overgrown.
"Who forgot to mow their lawn?" I asked, giggling in the cool air. Mornings do strange things to me. I was hyper, as can be predictably understood.
Also, as soon as we reached the bottom, it got warmer—not just warmer, but hot and humid, like the worst of summers back home.
"Let us run!" Legolas called out.
"Run?" Kelsey asked. "What have we been doing all night?"
"We have only searched out the trail and lo! now it is before us, so we must run. Run onward to catch our foes!" Aragorn answered as he dashed forward. With a soft sigh, the rest of us followed. Run onward—famous words, but painful ones.
When Aragorn found Pippin's brooch, I simply rolled my eyes at the thought of "Lorien's leaves not falling." After all, the leaves actually fall in spring there when the flowers bloomed. Legolas had said so—or at least, in the books he did.
"Well, at least . . . if we don't see them . . . for a long time . . ." I spoke tentatively, "we have reason to . . . visit?" The males glared at me. "Just idle talk. Just in case."
And then we ran some more. Yippee. At least my legs would be in shape when we got back. That would be nice. But right then, I did not want to run any longer. Until a brief rest, at which point strawberries and sugar with whipped cream and angel-food cake were produced by Kelsey. And there was much rejoicing.
Kelsey's PoV
"Gimli, would you stop stepping on the back of my shoe?" Mandy yelped, jumping up to avoid him.
"It is not me!" Gimli shouted. Mandy frowned.
"Then who's stepping on the back of my shoe?"
"Legolas!" I called, racing past her.
"Legolas!" Mandy yelled, stopping our race across the country only—
"Ow!"
"Oof!"
"Legolas!"
"Gimli!" I stopped and groaned. Because Mandy had stopped, Legolas had fallen into her, and they had fallen on the ground. Then Gimli tripped over them.
Beside me, Aragorn stopped.
"We cannot tarry," he stated. "Come, for we must find the Hobbits."
"Yeah," I added, running a hand through my wind-swept hair. Mandy rolled her eyes as Legolas pulled Gimli off of her and pulled her up.
"Are you alright, Lady Amanda?" he asked as she brushed some dirt off of herself.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Mandy pulled her hair back with a tie she had wrapped around her wrist and reached into my bag, pulling out her hair clip. She presumed to clip her hair back, making a small ponytail. "Now, I'm great!"
"Then let us continue." Aragorn began to run again.
"On the road again!" Mandy sang. "I can't wait to get on the road again!"
"Mandy . . . I can't . . . take this!" I wheezed. Mandy gasped for air as well before stopping, bending down with her hands on her knees.
"Lady Amanda, you cannot be tired already," Legolas called, sprinting past us.
"Yes . . . I . . . can . . ." she panted. "Whoo!" She slowly slowed her breathing. "Hey . . . do you think . . . we could . . . call horses like . . . like Gandalf . . . eventually does?" I shrugged.
"Dunno. But I'd love to . . . have horses," I admitted. Mandy straightened and breathed deeply. By now, even Gimli had passed us.
"I'm going to try it," she declared. Mandy took another deep breath and whistled long and loud. I covered my ears.
"Ow!" Tears filled my eyes. Up ahead, Legolas and Aragorn began shouting what sounded like obscenities. "No cussing!" Mandy stopped her whistling, out of breath.
"Do you think . . . it worked?" she asked hopefully.
"Probably not," I sighed. "We'd better catch up with the—" Suddenly, a piercing whinny shook the air.
"Horses!" Mandy shouted as five horses raced up to us. There were two chestnuts, one pure white one (Shadowfax, I think), a dappled gray and a jet black one with a white streak on its forehead. "I call the gray one!"
"I want the black one!" I squealed, reaching out and rubbing its muzzle. "Ooh . . . it's so soft!" We spent a moment inspecting the horses we had chosen before Mandy turned to Shadowfax.
"Thanks! By the way, hang around Fangorn for awhile. Your buddy Gandalf is gonna need you." Shadowfax nodded and whinnied before galloping off. Then Mandy slapped her forehead.
"What?"
"I was talking to a horse!" she screamed. I nodded slowly.
"Okay . . ."
"Now everyone's going to think I'm insane!" she moaned.
"Mandy, you are insane." Mandy frowned, then nodded.
"Oh, yeah . . ." She looked at her horse. "So, how do you propose we get on these things?" Her horse snorted in her face. "Eww! I mean, nice horsie."
I giggled, while looking around. "There's a rock over there. We could climb that then climb on the horses," I suggested. Mandy shrugged.
"Works for me." With magnificent luck, all four horses followed us to the rock as Mandy and I raced each other there. Then we mounted the horses.
"Ready to catch up to the guys?" I asked, clutching my horse's mane.
"So, I'm going to call you Streaker. Oh, wait . . . that sounds wrong. Okay, how about Patch? No. That's a little kiddy—"
"Mandy."
"What?"
"You're talking to a horse again." Mandy stared at me, biting her bottom lip.
"No I wasn't," she protested. I rolled my eyes and gestured for the other horses to follow.
"Okay . . . um . . . march!" I ordered. My horse didn't move. "Mush?" Nothing. "Ru! Hiya! Kee-chow! Hup-hi-ya, hup-hi-ya!" I wasn't going anywhere. Mandy smirked.
"It's yippie-i-a," she corrected.
"Yippie-i-a!" I ordered. Nothing. Then the light bulb flashed on. "Oh . . . how about . . . noro lim?" I said timidly. Immediately my horse, Mandy's horse and the other two horses bolted forward.
"Aah! Make it stop! Make it stop!" Mandy screamed, but I couldn't' see her. What I did see was three distant figures coming toward us . . . fast.
"We're going to crash!" I screamed. That made Aragorn and Legolas turn around at least. They leapt out of the way. I saw Legolas open his mouth and shout something. I couldn't tell what, but the horses stopped. "Whoo! That was fun!" I giggled breathlessly as Aragorn walked up, patting my horse's neck.
"Kelsey. Are you alright?" he asked, concerned. I nodded, sweeping my bangs out of my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."
"What did you tell the horse?" Aragorn asked.
"Noro lim." Immediately, the horses bolted forward. "Eeeeaaaaa!" I screamed, but the horses soon stopped and returned to Aragorn, who was speaking to them in Sindarin. The moment my horse was being patted down by Aragorn, I slid off. "Gosh, that was scary." Aragorn looked at me.
"Never use those words, unless you are in a dire situation," he told me harshly. "Especially if you don't know how to stop a horse." I nodded, my eyes cast downward in shame from the rebuke.
"I'm sorry, Ada."
"It's fine, just don't do it again without proper instruction first. Now, as to these horses . . ." Aragorn looked over the horses. "They are not fresh and by the time they have rested, the trail will have run cold."
"And we cannot follow a trail from horseback," Legolas added. "I only hope these horses have not disturbed it."
Mandy moaned in misery.
"The city of Edoras is southeast of here. You may ride these horses and return them to their masters, ladies," Aragorn told us.
"But we—"
"Don't want to miss hearing about the small stones that start an avalanche in the mountains," I interrupted her.
"Are you sure, Lady Amanda?" Legolas asked. "It will, no doubt, be a long way."
"I'm fit as a fiddle!" Mandy jumped up and down. "Fit as a fiddle!"
"Did she consume . . . 'coffee?' " Gimli asked, looking just a bit frightened.
"Recently, no," I answered, watching Mandy thoughtfully as she hurdled a horse. "Though I do think she has consumed something unnatural."
"You mean . . . 'coffee' . . . is . . . natural?"
"Of course, you idiot!"
Mandy's PoV
"Kelsey, I'm hungry!"
"We have no time to stop and cook, Lady Amanda. Have some lembas."
"Lembas!" I munched some as I ran.
"I'll fry some chicken if you want," Kelsey told me.
"Sure!"
I watched Kelsey extract some chicken from her bag in plastic bags. She brought out a frying pan, buttered it and dumped the chicken in it.
"Run, keep running!" she yelled at me as she ran along.
"How are you going to cook it?"
"Like so. Thanks to the extreme heat, it will hopefully cook fast. All I have to do is simply hold it out and keep running!"
As I ran beside Legolas a few minutes later, I heard a call from behind me.
"Gimli!"
A piece of fried chicken flew past me and hit Gimli on the head. He stopped.
"What was that for?"
"Your lunch!" Kelsey told him, running past us. "Aragorn!" Another piece of chicken flew through the air. "Mandy!"
I caught the chicken and dug in. It was, of course, delicious.
"Legolas!" He caught a piece as well and hesitantly followed my lead.
"It's good!" he exclaimed.
"What did you expect? Cow dung?" Kelsey asked eating her chicken wrapped in lembas. "Everything I make tastes good, if I may say so myself."
"Tag!" I yelled, poking her and running faster. Kelsey yelled and followed in hot pursuit.
"Ooh! Pretty sunset!" I skipped along, sometimes behind and sometimes in front of Aragorn. The sun was setting, but with the sea of grass before us and the cloudless starry sky, it was really romantic.
"We have come to a hard choice," Aragorn announced. "Shall we rest or shall we go on while our strength holds?"
"Are you insane?" Kelsey gasped.
"What drugs are you on?" I asked. "Even major sugar products can't keep me up more than 28 hours, and we've been running!"
"We can't follow the trail properly in the dark anyway," Kelsey added. "And if we sleep, then Mandy and I won't slow you down." And thus it was decided—sleep!
Okay, okay...I was an idiot and accidentally deleted this! I was trying to be nice and put this up on 6/25/06 and then realized I'd messed up and tried to redo it and ended up being stupid and not thinking and deleting it! So, we had all these cool little authors' notes, but now we don't! I'm so mad at myself for being such an idiot! Ack! --The Editor