It's Kharl's Fault!

by Terasa

The final war has begun and it's up to our heroes to save the day, but will Andi manage to destroy the Ring or will it destroy her first? Ashley quickly discovers she has no head for politics when she arrives in Gondor, and Kharl will have to fight harder than ever to ensure those he cares about live to tell the tale of the One Ring. Secretly-A-Fangirl helped Haldir/OC Aragorn/OC

1. Setting off

ANDREA

I stare up at the cave ceiling, one hand lightly holding the Ring as sleep evades me. It's been doing that more often here lately and I find myself stumbling along after Sméagol and Sammy like a zombie most days, wasting away due to having no appetite. My mum would smack me bald and then lecture me if she could see me now, demanding to know why I would engage in such a reckless stupid mission in the first place. Sméagol announces his presence with a hiss, peering at Sam and me from the cave's entrance.

"Wake up, wake up! Wake up, Sleepies," he shouts. "We must go, yes, we must go at once!" I slump back against a wall, hiding the Ring under my shirt.

"Haven't you had any sleep, Andi," Sam asks as he sits up. I shake my head, wishing for the third time this week that it wasn't true. "I've gone and had too much! It must be getting late." It looks like it's around twilight outside, but I know that it is actually early morning, maybe around six or six-thirty.

"It's just dark outside," I mumble to him," it's always dark these days." I nearly stumble when I try to stand up due to a small earthquake, the ground shaking and rolling under my feet.

"Come on, must go, no time," Sméagol rambles, looking anxious.

"Not before Andi's eaten something," Sam protests, glaring at Sméagol as he rummages through his pack for Lembas bread. "Here." He holds the bread out for me to take, but the sight of it alone makes my stomach twist. "Andi, you have to eat."

"You eat it, I can't right now."

"We don't have that much left. We have to be careful or we're going to run out. You go ahead and at least take a nibble of it. I've got it all rationed. There should be enough."

"For what? A Lembas bread cake?"

"The journey home," Sam answers in such an innocent tone that it makes my heart clench.

"Come, Hobbitses," Sméagol urges impatiently in the doorway. "Very close now, very close to Mordor! No safe places here. Hurry, shh." Sam and I stumble along after Sméagol, my feet bruised and sore, my lips cracked and bleeding, and my will to hang on just barely intact.