Sorry it took so long to update, but I never got round to doing it :/ Too busy with my other stories.
I'm glad you all like it so far, and as promised there is more Liley in this chapter. Lots of fluff. Also you'll notice I changed the role of Saurman from Mrs Kunkle to Mikayla. It just seemed to fit, and plus it means I can make Mikayla act like a kick-ass evil witch. And how could I not have her playing that after Selena Gomez was in Wizards of Waverly Place?
Hope you enjoy, and reviews are appreciated :)
Normal POV
The sun was slowly starting to peak out above the surrounding hills, casting a dim orange glow throughout the morning sky. At a time when other Hobbits were snuggled up cosy in their soft beds made of goose feathers, Miley and Lilly were up, dressed and following Robbie throughout the fields. Miley wrapped her green cloak around her as a chilly breeze blew at her. She shivered as she walked along with Robbie by her side; Lilly was staggering behind as she tried to lead wizard's horse along.
"Come along Lillian, keep up." Barked Robbie.
They trekked throughout the early morning till it reached noon. By now they had reached the edge of the woods, with Hobbiton a good six miles or so behind them. Miley felt saddened at the prospect of her home being so far away. Even though she was an adventurous Hobbit like Earl, she'd never wandered farther than the yard of the Green Dragon!
It took a while for Miley to realise that Robbie had purposely brought them to the woods as a means of cover from the danger they'd be facing. She didn't know what or who was looking for them but Lilly seemed to have a good idea.
After Robbie had forced the gardener into protecting Miley along their journey, the blonde had quickly popped back to her house to grab her belongings and say goodbye to Kenneth.
"It's just as well you're leaving Lilly." Said Gaffer.
"Why's that?" replied the girl.
"Well after you went up to Miss Miley's, I went for my usual walk, you know, as I do. And I'd just reached the borders of the town when a hooded black figure rode up next to me. He was a mysterious fellow he was, didn't greet me at all. Just hissed two words at me. I think he was looking for someone."
"What were they Gaffer?" asked Lilly, who began to wonder if this was the danger coming after Miley that Robbie had warned about.
"Shire...Stewart."
Lilly's eyes widened in panic.
"You didn't tell him about Miley did you!
"Of course not, I'm not gonna tell a stranger, especially one that scary, about Miss Miley."
Robbie halted their walk about forty paces away from the edge of the wood. Lilly caught up to them and handed the horse's reigns over to the wizard.
"Be careful both of you," Robbie started. "The Enemy has many spies in his service, many ways of hearing...birds, beasts..." The wizard took Miley by the shoulder off to one side and knelt down to her level, so his eyes were level with hers. "Is it safe?" he asked.
Miley nodded and patted the pocket of her jacket, where the ring was hidden beneath.
"Never put it on, for the agents of the Dark Lord will be drawn to its power…always remember, Miley, the Ring is trying to get back to its master...it wants to be found."
The brunette nodded again as Robbie patted her shoulder affectionately. He really loved Miley as if she were his own family. He leaped up onto his horse and put on his pointy hat.
"I'll meet y'all in Bree, at the Prancing Pony Inn."
With one last glance at the two he wheeled his horse and galloped away in the opposite direction, leaving Miley and Lilly alone with their knapsacks.
The two girls hiked over the gentle Shire countryside, wading through shallow streams, passing by the quaint hollows of the Hobbit Holes and clambering over stone walls. Miley was glad she had Lilly with her; something about the young gardener made her heart flutter, whether it be that cheeky grin, her dorky jokes or just the way she'd heat their kettle over a fire at night. The girl was just darn adorable, she was quirky but cute.
It was three days after Robbie had sent them on their way when they were walking through a field of crops that Lilly stopped suddenly and stayed rooted to her spot. The blonde looked at her surroundings and back from where they came.
"This is it." She stated.
Miley stopped walking and turned back around to her friend.
"This is what?" she asked.
"If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home that I've ever been."
Miley strode back over to Lilly and wrapped one arm around her.
"Come on Lilly." She encouraged whilst smiling at the gardener.
Lilly looked into Miley's blue eyes with a look of determination on her face, before looking forward at the mysterious, unknown land. She drew a deep breath and placed one foot forward, connecting with the solid ground beneath. Miley was beaming with pride at her friend.
"Remember what Earl used to say Lils," began Miley. "'It's a dangerous business, Miley, going out yer door…you step onto the road, and if ya don't know yer own two feet, there's no knowin' where you might be swept off to.'"
Miley's POV
It was getting late. The small fury animals were nestled away in their burrows, the birds were in their nests and there was a peaceful quiet amongst the trees. For some reason I've always liked dusk. It's soothing to me, especially when I can feel the weight of this magical ring weighing me down. I'm getting a little slower day by day, I don't say anything though. I don't wanna worry Lilly, although I think she's already noticed.
I glanced over to the blonde who was crouched over the little fire we had going, cooking dinner. That's another thing I like about her, her cooking is amazing. I keep telling her she should be a chef, work in the kitchen of the Green Dragon for a living, instead of rolling around in the mud with flowers. I always get a slap on the arm after that.
I slumped further down against the tree I was leaning against, listening to the last chirps of birds before they went to sleep. The fire hissed and cracked as Lilly turned over the slice of bacon. The smell wafted over to my direction and my stomach growled.
"Sounds like someone's hungry." Said Lilly throwing a smile in my direction.
"I'm starvin', I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
"Typical Miley, always thinking with her stomach." She teased.
"I think your confusing me for yourself darlin'."
I loved this flirty banter we had. Heck I just love her…wait what? Love? No no, I just like her, that's all. Before Lilly could reply, the sound of high sweet voices filled the campsite. I looked at Lilly with a smile, knowing she'd like this.
"Lilly, Wood Elves!"
Her face lights up completely and for a second she looks like an excited child waiting to open their presents on their birthday. I grab her hand and lead her over to a log. We stare at the graceful creatures as they continue to sing, from our position behind our log.
Some of them were on horseback and some were walking carrying banners. They seemed to shine out of their own light, their white garments slowly glowing against the purples and the midnight blues of the woods.
"a Galad ren i veniar
hi' aladhremmin ennorath
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
ithil nâ thûl, ithil lîn hen."
"They're goin' to the harbor beyond the white towers. To the Grey Havens." I stated, still mesmerized by them.
"They're leaving Middle-Earth."
"Never to return."
"I don't know why," Lilly said. "but it makes me sad."
The once happy face of hers shifted so that she now looked miserable. I have to admit, it was putting a damper on our mood, when we should just be enjoying seeing the Elves. Then I did something I didn't think I had the courage to do. As I wrapped my arm around the blonde, I leant in and placed a soft kiss on the side of her cheek. Actually, it was more on the corner of her mouth as she tilted her head towards me slightly at the last second. To my surprise as I pulled away, Lilly said nothing and just blushed, before leaning in to me as the Elvish song echoed around us.
Dusk soon ended and turned into night by the time we'd finished watching the Elves. Lilly was slightly pissed off at herself as when we returned to camp, we found the dinner burnt to a crisp. In our haste to get to the Elves, Lilly had forgotten that she'd been cooking the bacon on the fire and had left it to burn. So we settled on eating some bread and cheese before going to sleep. This was easier said than done for Lilly.
While I was laid on the soft ground in my sleeping bag with my eyes shut, Lilly was tossing and turning in trying to get a comfortable spot.
"Everywhere I lie there's a dirty great root sticking into my back!" she moaned in frustration.
I didn't move from my spot or open my eyes. Instead I merely smiled and offered some advice to the fidgeting girl.
"Just shut your eyes, and imagine you're back in your own bed, with a soft mattress and a lovely feather pillow."
Lilly stopped fidgeting and the camp returned to being silent once more, aside from the hooting of an owl, crackle of the fire and the rustling leaves. It seemed that Lilly had managed to get some shut-eye. That is until she sighed.
"It's not working Miley. I'm never gonna be able to sleep out here."
I almost laughed. Lilly is quite the character. I reach over and tug her shirt so that she gets the idea. She scuttles closer to me so that our arms are touching when we lie down. I instantly snuggle into her and listen to the sound of her heartbeat beneath my left ear, as she draws a sharp breath of air.
"Me neither, Lilly." I whispered.
Mikayla's POV
Smoke rises once more from the mountain of doom...the Shadow takes shape in the darkness of Mordor; the hour grows late...and Robbie Ray rides to Isengard seeking my council...well who wouldn't? I am Mikayla the witch after all! I walk down from the steps of Orthanc to greet him as he dismantles his horse.
"For that is why you have come, is it not, my old friend?"
Robbie moves closer to me, I can tell he's tired and weary from his journey.
"Mikayla!" he greets me with a rough handshake, ugh he stinks...would it have killed him to have a bathe in a nearby river?
We walk through to the gardens of Isengard, a place I'm not too fond of. If you haven't already guessed, I'm not a fan of nature. My clean white outfit contrasts next to Robbie's, dusty, grey one.
"Are you sure of this?" I ask after he tells me the location of the Ring.
Finally I can put my plan into action, Robbie will either have to join us, or be destroyed.
"Beyond any doubt." He replies.
"So the Ring of Power has been found?"
"All these years it was in the Shire. Right under my nose."
"Yet you didn't have the sense to see it. Your love of those Halflings has slowed you down old man." I tell him bluntly.
"We still have time…time enough to counter Sauron. If we act quickly."
Hmm it seems as if he's going to choose to be destroyed. I should persuade him to join us, his powers would be very useful to the Dark Lord.
"Time?" I say. "What time do you think we have?"
Normal POV
Robbie and Mikayla reclined in the throne like chairs situated in small, cluttered room to the side of the cavernous central chamber of the citadel. Mikayla smirked at what was to come.
"Sauron has regained much of his former strength," the witch began. "He cannot yet take physical form, but his spirit has lost none of its potency. Concealed within his fortress, the Lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh. You know what I'm telling you, Robbie ... a Great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame."
"The eye of Sauron." Robbie said softly.
"He is gathering all evil to him. Very soon, he will have summoned an army great enough to launch an assault on Middle-Earth."
"How in the Sam-heck do you know about this?"
"I've seen it."
Mikayla led Robbie through the various corridors and rooms of the tower until they came to a stone plinth on which a sphere like shape was draped with a cloth.
"A Palantír is a dangerous tool Mikayla." Robbie warned as the witch lifted the cloth to reveal an object deathly black that looked as if it was made entirely of marble.
"Why? Why should we be afraid to use it?" questioned Mikayla.
"They ain't all accounted for, the lost Seeing-Stones. We don't know who else may be watchin.'"
Robbie threw the cloth back over the Palantír. As his hand connected with the sphere, a image of a burning eye flashed before him. Shocked, he stared curiously at it as Mikayla took a seat in her throne.
"The hour is later than you already think. Sauron's forces are already moving. The Nine have already left Minas Morgul." Mikayla told the old wizard with a glint in her eye.
"The N-Nine?" spluttered Robbie.
"They crossed the River Isen on Midsummer's Eve, disguised as riders in black."
Robbie's mind flashed back to what Lilly had told him and Miley when she met them after returning to her house. Kenneth coming across a strange, mysterious, dark rider. Who hissed at the Hobbit, 'Shire, Stewart.' His eyes widened in panic.
"They've reached the Shire?"
Mikayla seemed unnerved by all of this and shrugged.
"They will find the Ring…and kill the one who carries it."
"Miley!" muttered the wizard as he backed away and turned to run towards the door. However he was horrified as the door slammed shut by itself. Robbie slowly turned to face the witch with a look of panic on his features as Mikayla addressed him.
"You seriously didn't think that a sniveling little Hobbit could contend with the will of Sauron? No-one can! Against the power of Mordor there'll be no victory. We must join him Robbie. We must join with Sauron. It'd be the clever thing to do old man."
Shaking with anger and rage of Mikayla's betrayal, Robbie spat at her.
"Tell me Mikayla, when did you abandon reason for madness?"
Suddenly Robbie found himself being flung across the room. He slammed into the back wall with a crash, but he didn't slump down as an invisible force pins him there. Finding his strength, the wizard wrenched himself off the wall and swung his staff at Mikayla. The force knocks her off her feet and she collided face first to the hard, cold floor.
They continued to battle each other for a few minutes, both throwing powerful blasts at each other across the room. Mikayla let out a blood-curdling scream and wrenched Robbie's staff from his grasp into her hand. With both staffs, Mikayla grinned menacingly and flung the wizard to the ground.
"I gave you the choice…but you threw it back in my face!"
Robbie breathed heavily on his place on the floor and groaned in pain. He looked at Mikayla and saw the madness within her eyes. Using the two staffs Mikayla controlled the helpless wizard and made him spin around the floor; using his head.
Robbie lifted off the ground and spun helplessly to the top of the chamber as if falling in reverse. He yelled out in pain as Mikayla's cackles echoed around the tower.
Lilly's POV
It had now been five days since we'd left home. And I was already missing my bed terribly. I hate sleeping on the ground, things always stick in my back and I hope we don't have to sleep like this for much longer. We're only a day or so away from Bree.
Miley and Me are walking down a country lane which border Farmer Corelli's fields. Well I say country lane…take one look at it and you'd think we'd be within the crops themselves! I glance up and see that Miley is no longer ahead of me. She's disappeared around the country lane. Damn it Lilly, pay less attention to the crops! I begin to panic a little.
"Miss Miley! Miss Miley!" I call out to her.
Luckily after a few seconds of navigating the road I find her turning around to face me. I let out a sigh of relief as I run towards her.
"I thought I'd lost you."
Miley looked at me suspiciously with those pretty eyes of hers, studying my face. I look down at my feet as I blush in embarrassment.
"What are you talking about?" Miley teased as she raised an eyebrow at me.
"It's just something Robbie said…" I mumbled, still looking down.
Miley grasped by chin lightly and pulled my face up to look at her, still staring at me with those piercing pools of blue. God Lilly, you're turning into a ball of mush here.
"What did he say?" Miley asked.
"He said, 'Don't you lose her Lillian Truscott!'" I looked at Miley intently. "And I don't mean to."
Miley and I shared special moments like this. We'd be talking about something and suddenly just get lost in each other's eyes until one of us broke it off. It was one of the things that made me think that she might like me too. That and the other little hints she'd give. Like the other night when she'd kissed the side of my mouth by accident and then snuggled with me as we'd gone to sleep.
"Lilly," Miley chuckled placing her hand on my cheek. "We're still in the Shire, what could possibly happen?"
Trust something to happen at exactly that moment. Something came rushing out of the fields and collided with us both, knocking us onto the ground. Miley picked herself up only to be knocked back down again by Matthew Marshal carrying a bunch of vegetables.
"Miley! Jackson it's Miley Stewart!" said Matt on top of Miley, unaware he was hurting her.
Stupid boy. Jackson grinned at us from his position on the floor.
"Hey Miles!" he greeted.
They all got on their feet again and that's when I noticed the various scattered vegetables around us.
"What's going on here?" I barked at the two idiots.
"Lilly hold this…" asked Jackson handing me a large cabbage, ignoring my question.
"You've been into Farmer Corelli's crops!" I accused.
Before anyone could get another word in we heard the angry shouts of the farmer himself, and saw a pitchfork racing along the hedgerow towards us. Before I knew what was happening, vegetables were being shoved in my hands as the two gathered up their booty and raced away with Miley leaving me standing startled. I looked up at the nearing pitchfork, then to the crops, before dropping them and sprinting after Miley, Jackson and Matt.
"I don't know why he's so upset! It's only a couple of carrots..." Puffed Jackson as we ran through the stacks of cor.
"…And some cabbages, and those three bags of potatoes that we lifted last week. And the mushrooms we lifted the week before." Continued Matt.
"Yes Matt, my point is, he's clearly overreacting."
As we ran the loud barking of a dog could be heard gaining on us. Unfortunatley for me I hadn't been looking where I was going and slammed right into Jackson which created a domino effect. We all tumbled down the steep bank and landed on a dark, wooded road.
Jackson let out a sigh of relief. I noticed his face was only mere inches away from a pile of horse crap.
"That was close!"
Miley picked herself up quickly and looked around timidly. Matt was groaning in pain.
"Oww, I think I've broken something." He rasped reaching behind his back, only to pull out a carrot snapped in half.
I got pissed off now, here Me and Miley had been, minding our own business when these two jerks had come and knocked us off our feet.
"Trust you two to come fuck things up!" I yelled at them.
"What? That was just a detour – a shortcut." stated Matt.
"A shortcut to what-" I was cut off by Jackson shouting from the other side of the road.
"Mushrooms!"
Miley's POV
We were on a road. This is bad. What did Robbie say to Lilly and Me? Stay off the roads. And what was Lilly doing with Matt and Jackson? They were all too busy with those dang fungi to notice where we are. I'm tense. I know it 'cause I keep watching around.
The scattered leaves flying around in the air of the road grab my attention and I look down. It almost seemed as if they were blown by an invisible wind. And just then I hear horse hooves.
"I t-think we should get off the road." I tell them, my voice cracking due to fear.
They continue to ignore me and fiddle on with the mushrooms. Then again another noise sounds but this is something unnatural. A long drawn wail comes down the wind like the cry of some twisted creature. I scream at them with all I have.
"Get off the road, quick!"
DUN DUN DUN!
Oh it's getting all dramatic now isn't it?
I'll try and update as soon as possible :)
Reviews help quicken the updating process haha just kidding.
xx