Chapter Three- Going South
An A/N from AngelofGrace: Right, I detest long author notes, so let's get this show on the road. Now, there will be a reference to Monty Python in this chapter, more specifically a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot the Narnia reference. :) as you can tell, we often use quotes from our favourite movies. Get used to it, or stop complaining). PM me if you can't find it, and we will happily tell you what it is, and probably refer you to the movie as well. Now, on with the disclaimer, and the story. Bye!
Angela: *walks in half asleep* Hey Opal, why are you awake at 3 in the morning?... Opal?
Opal: *typing frantically at a computer keyboard* Shhh! I'm hacking into the Pentagon!
Angela: I taught you how to do that! Yay!
Gerald: No, I taught you that, Angela, and then you taught it to her.
Opal: *looks up from computer* GERALD! What on earth are you doing in my bedroom at 3 o'clock in the morning?
Gerald: Well, Angie here, was always going on about her stupid disclaimers, and our parents were bored of it, so I entered your dream, in order to make this a disclaimer with me in it!
Opal: Wait, this is a dream?
Gerald: Yep! Now, *turns to readers* Angela and Opal don't own Lord of the Rings, however, they do own Legolas and Gimli.
Angela: NO YOU IDIOT! WE OWN ALANNA AND CHARLOTTE, NOT LEGOLAS AND GIMLI!
Gerald: Oops! Bye!
Angela: Time to wake up Opal!
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About two months later, the Fellowship of the Ring were ready to set out on their quest. They had everything they needed on the pony that the hobbits had brought from Bree and were just waiting for Aragorn and Gandalf to finalise the route with Elrond. There were a few people out to wish them farewell, including Arwen, Elladan and Elrohir. Alanna was pointedly not looking at her sister and Arwen was pointedly not looking at Alanna. Arwen, the eldest, thought that Alanna was far too reckless for her own good and Alanna thought that her sister was very much a stereotypical girl. These differences were shown in their rethos forms. Alanna, obviously, was a wolf, while Arwen was a peacock. Alanna thought it was rather fitting.
Alanna was checking their supplies for the tenth time when Aragorn, Gandalf and Elrond appeared.
'Again, Alanna?' asked Aragorn exasperatedly.
'Again,' the elf replied. 'And you needn't sound so scornful. It wouldn't do for us to be caught short of anything in the middle of nowhere, now would it?'
'Well, you're just paranoid.'
'When did you notice?' asked Legolas.
'When you three are quite finished,' came Gandalf's voice. 'Perhaps we could get going.'
'The sooner you are off,' said Elladan.
'The sooner you can get back,' completed Elrohir.
'Off we go then,' said Gimli cheerily.
Alanna pulled her pack onto her back, ignoring the puzzled look from the non-elves she did so. It had been decided that Alanna should run as a wolf (the others weren't to know that of course, they thought she was an abnormally fast runner) a few miles ahead of the Fellowship when the travelled during the day so that she could act as a scout and warn the others of any unexpected dangers.
Alanna twisted mid-stride and waved goodbye to her father, brothers and sister, well aware that it could be the last time she ever saw them.
She resolutely turned around again but not before seeing Arwen give Aragorn a goodbye kiss on the cheek.
Hmmm, thought Alanna. Interesting... Very interesting.
Before Alanna could decide whether this was a good development or a bad one, Gandalf nodded at her, and she jogged off, turning around the nearest corner to change, intensely grateful her pack had changed with her. She loped off into the distance.
'Wonderful girl,' commented Boromir. 'Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her.'
'I wouldn't kill her,' Aragorn muttered just loud enough for Boromir to hear. 'Someone else would probably kill you if you did.'
'Who?' asked Boromir curiously.
Aragorn glanced meaningfully at Legolas who, thankfully, was preoccupied with checking the map that Gandalf had decided to bring along.
'Overprotective much,' Boromir muttered.
While the men were talking, the others checked and double checked their weapons and the straps on the saddle of the pack pony. Only when Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli and the hobbits were assembled, was it noticed that Aragorn and Boromir were still chatting.
'Come on humans,' called Legolas. 'While we're still young.'
'If that elf keeps telling us to hurry up, I'll get Gandalf to turn him into a big, fluffy cat,' Boromir said, darkly.
About five more minutes passed before the Fellowship, minus one, could actually leave, as the two men insisted on going through the supplies one more time. When they were done, Frodo led them out of Rivendell and followed in Alanna's pawprints.
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Over the next few days, a routine was established. Every evening, the Fellowship would wake up, eat and then set off for a night of traveling. After they ate, Alanna would run out and always stay a few miles ahead of them during the night. Every morning, the Fellowship would stop traveling, assign watches for the day and wait for Alanna to return before eating and then those who weren't on watch went to sleep.
This went on for about three weeks until one day the Fellowship of the Ring stopped on a rocky hillside. Merry and Pippin were having swordfighting lessons from Boromir and Aragorn while Frodo and Sam looked on. Legolas with his sharp eyes was keeping a lookout while Gandalf and Gimli were sitting about and Gandalf was smoking his pipe.
'If anyone was to ask me for my opinion, which I note they're not,' Gimli grumbled. 'I would say that we were taking the long way around these confounded mountains. We could go through the Mines of Moria."
"No, Gimli,' Gandalf said, sounding ever so slightly afraid. 'I would not take the road through Moria unless I had no other choice.'
Suddenly, Legolas paled.
'HIDE!' he yelled.
Everyone looked up at him and followed his gaze to where a wolf was now running at full speed towards them. What appeared to be a wisp of cloud had appeared on the horizon. It was moving towards them at an incredible pace and it wasn't moving with the wind.
Now everyone obeyed Legolas without question. Sam put out their cooking fire and everyone was grabbing packs and finding a place to hide. Frodo and Merry dragged the pack pony, a beast which Sam had christened Bill, into some bushes that were dense enough to hide the three of them.
Soon after they were all hidden, the wolf came flying through the camp. It continued North for about a bit while a tremendous cawing resounded through the Fellowship's camp. The flock of crows, for that was what they were, circled the camp twice before taking off South again.
Five minutes after the crows left, the Fellowship emerged from their hiding places.
'Spies of Saruman,' said Gandalf. 'I thought he was our ally until he held me prisoner.'
'Then the way south is being watched,' came a voice behind them.
Everyone turned and saw Alanna walk up, panting heavily.
'Where'd you spring from?' asked Aragorn. 'I thought you were ahead of us.'
'I hope none of you are too sensitive to cold because it looks like we shall have to take the Pass of Caradhras,' Alanna continued, choosing to ignore both Aragorn's question and Legolas's glare.
Everyone followed her gaze towards the mountain that overshadowed their camp.
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Gandalf led the way up the mountain. The way was covered with snow and more often than not, someone got stuck in one of the deeper snowdrifts and had to be pulled out. It was a slow and arduous process and after only two hours, almost everyone was saturated and chilled to the bone.
They had decided to press on during the day, as it was far too dangerous to go climbing up snowy mountains at night, but by the time the afternoon arrived, they had covered only a short distance and it did not look as if they could get much further as a blizzard had sprung up and the small group were stuck at the base of a cliff, unable to go on and unable to go back.
The only person who wasn't cold, or wasn't showing it, was Legolas. Much to the annoyance of the others, Legolas did not show any signs of being freezing and was undoubtedly the most cheerful of the lot of them.
Legolas was standing on top of a snow drift almost but not quite out of earshot of Alanna.
'He's freezing,' Alanna told Aragorn and Boromir. 'He just won't admit it.'
'I heard that,' came Legolas's voice over the wind. 'I am not cold.'
'You're not fooling anyone.'
'I feel fine.'
'He says he's not cold,' Aragorn said through chattering teeth.
'Well, he will be soon,' said Alanna grumpily (the cold weather coupled with the blizzard made her irritable). 'It's so cold here.'
'As I said before, I am not cold!' came Legolas's indignant reply.
'You'll be bloody freezing in a minute.'
With that, Alanna bent down, picked something up and threw it in Legolas's direction. Her aim was true and even with his fast reflexes, Legolas did not get out of the way in time. The snowball hit him on the shoulder.
Legolas grinned and lobbed one back at Alanna. She ducked and it hit Aragorn instead. Very soon, Boromir got dragged into the fight as well and after about ten minutes, the four of them were tired out, even more saturated than they had been before the fight and Legolas was finally shivering like the rest of them.
'If I told you that I'd hate to say "I told you so" I would be lying,' Alanna grinned.
'Oh, shut up,' Legolas said, shivering.
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The snowstorm did not abate until the next morning. During the night, the hobbits almost got buried under a pile of snow and there was much debate as to the route they should take from that point onwards.
When dawn finally broke, Aragorn said, 'The time has come for us to decide the route. Do we go onwards in the hope that we won't get caught out in another storm, or do we go back and go through the Mines of Moria.'
'I for one have no wish to go through the Mines of Moria,' said Legolas. 'All my life, my father has warned me, and Alanna too, never to go there and it wasn't until I turned twenty that he told me why. There is a... Well, something that I don't think any of us would particularly want to encounter when you're underground and there's an entire mountain on top of you.'
'Remind me?' Alanna asked.
'B-a-l-r-o-g.'
'Oh!'
'Yes. One of those.'
'Returning to discussion of the route,' Boromir interrupted.
'If we're taking a vote, I'm with him,' Alanna said, gesturing towards Legolas.
There was much more argument. Both elves were adamant in their decisions and Boromir, for once, sided with them. The others, save Gandalf and Aragorn, were keen to get out of the snow and into some shelter and warm, dry clothes. In the end Gandalf brought the argument to a close.
'I think we should let the Ring-Bearer decide,' he said. 'Frodo?'
Frodo was silent for a minute.
'We will go through the Mines,' he said finally.
'So be it,' Gandalf said.
Alanna and Legolas went as white as the snow around them.
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Soon after that , the Fellowship descended from the mountain. They were wet through from melted snow, exhausted and freezing cold, but they were alive. Most of the Fellowship were glad to be free of the mountain, but both Alanna and Legolas looked as though they were walking to their execution.
A Note From Angela and Opal:
Opal: Yes, I love snowball fights. To me it seems like the sort of thing that Alanna would do. So now, we move on to Chapter Four when they all go into Moria.
Angela: Will Charlotte make an appearance anytime soon? I want to see how the Fellowship react to her.
Opal: Maybe. I haven't thought about it yet.
Angela: I hate your cliffhangers.
Opal: Why do you think I write them? Mind you, this one isn't really a proper cliffhanger. I can do much better ones than this. But anyway, I want to know if anyone spotted the references to Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and Star Wars: A New Hope (the fourth one out of the six). Please tell me in a review if you found them!
Angela: What was the Star Wars one again?
Opal: I'll tell you later, now hush. Oh, and if we get five or more reviews asking us to, we'll post twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) instead of just on Fridays.
Angela: Because its just as hard for us to wait to post it!
Opal: Shh.