Thank you for all the reviews! Sorry for the delay in uploading. I had written this, but there was a problem and it got lost, so I had to write it out again. Grr: (
Chapter Four.
When Frodo woke, it was to the rumblings and roarings of traffic overhead. He stretched, feeling stiff. The others were stirring around him; Merry sat up and scratched his curly head, yawning expansively. Pippin opened one eye, shut it and thought, I'm hungry, but wisely refrained from saying it out loud. As soon as Gandalf was fully awake, he hurried all the others to their feet and out of the subway into the streets. The roads were even more noisy than the day before; people and cars alike contributing to the overwhelming wave of sound. Gandalf would not tell where we was going, but shepherded the hobbits before him and trailing the others behind, he made his way to the main body of shops that they had encountered last night.
"Wh-where are we goin'?" Sam panted.
"Save your breath." Frodo advised him.
Gandalf ignored their quiet comments, and eventually stopped outside a big shop with a blue front. On the blue was written in white, WH Smith. "Wait outside for me." Gandalf said. "Aragorn, do not let them wander. I shall not be long." He disappeared inside.
"Strider..."
"Yes, Pippin?"
"What about breakfast?"
"Maybe when Gandalf has finished in this shop."
"I wonder what he wants here." Boromir said, looking in at the windows. "It seems to be selling books."
They waited outside for what seemed a very long time. People passed, most too busy with their own business to bother about the Fellowship, but some pointed, stared and made comments that made Gimli clench his fist around his axe handle and made Boromir look uneasy. Legolas, his face expressionless, said, "Aragorn, aniron gwanna... tellin men raen i..."
"Mae, Legolas."
Pippin sniffed the air, and said, "I can smell something - "
"There is a time and a place for eating," Gandalf said, coming out through the door. "And this is not it."
"Did you find what you wanted?" Aragorn asked.
Gandalf slowly nodded. He looked rather worn and grim, bent over by some knowledge. Then he seemed to shake whatever it was off, and he said briskly, "I have found the solution to our problem. I know how we can get back to Middle Earth and complete our Quest. Let us go somewhere less public."
They went across the road to a big building on the other side of the street. There were lots of notices outside, and Frodo read silently, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OPEN TODAY! BRAND NEW JURASSIC EXHIBITION!
There were very few people about, and Gandalf stopped here. Turning to face them all, he said, "You heard what that woman said yesterday. That we are fictional characters."
Everyone nodded.
"That brought to my mind something that I had read in the records at Isengard. About a man who - it turns out - was from this world, and managed to get into Middle Earth. He had a device which he used; I do not know how it worked, or where he got it from. But its name was the Iant-tri-amar."
"What does that mean?"
"Its Elvish, Pippin." Frodo said under his breath. "It means bridge-through-worlds."
"Correct. This device enabled this man to travel to Middle Earth, but it also took him further forward in time, so he ended up in Middle Earth's future. He stayed there for several years, and then he came back to his own world and his own time..." Gandalf paused, then said, "And then he wrote a book about what he had witnessed. That is why everyone thinks we are fictional characters, because this man wrote about a book about what happened, that hasn't happened yet and hadn't happened then, and made it sound as though it really had happened."
There was a silence. Then Pippin said, "You've really outdone yourself this time, Gandalf. Of all the confusing statements you've made in the past, that was the most confusing."
"Does that mean that what I'm doing now is in the past that this man saw, when it was actually the future, and is now the present?" Merry asked.
"My head hurts," Sam sighed.
"How does this help us, though? Will this man be able to help us to get back?" Boromir asked
"No. He has been dead for many years, but I think he still has the device hidden in his house. I found an atlas in the bookshop, and looked up where it is." Gandalf replied. "The man - Tolkein, by name - lived in a place called Oxford, in the twentieth house in Northmoor Road. If we go to his house, we can locate the Iant-tri-amar, and return to Middle Earth and complete our Quest."
"How far away is this Oxford place?" Frodo asked.
"About seventy miles away from London."
Pippin looked dismayed at the thought of the long distance, but said bravely, "When do we start?"
"As soon as we can get sufficent food to take with us. We do not know if we will be able to buy any on the way. Oh, and we must buy some new clothes. We stand out far too much in the ones we wear now. I asked one of the workers in the bookshop, and he gave me directions to a shop where we can get cheap clothes. He said it was a charity shop, which means that the money made from it goes to orders of people who help the poor and needy of this city."
"But, surely, then." Aragorn said. "It would be an expensive shop, so that more money would go to the poor?"
Gandalf shook his head. "That is not how it works in this world. He said it would be cheap."
Aragorn was troubled, but the younger hobbits were excited at the thought of getting new clothes. The shop, when they came to it, was a big one, with shelves on the walls jammed full of odd trinkets and ornaments, books, and other things. Gandalf began rummaging through the heap of clothes on rack in a corner. He had been carefully observing what other people had been wearing, and he now had a pretty good idea of what they would be expected to wear. Legolas looked at the ornaments on the shelves, passing over the cruder ones, touching the more ornate ones with delicate fingers. Aragorn and Boromir flicked through the books on the shelves; some attracted their interest, others made Aragorn raise his eyebrows and Boromir look scandalised. Pippin viewed the box-like things on the shelf below. They were hard, shiny and glossy; and seemed cases for the black, rectangular objects inside. They were decorated with pictures and text. Pippin saw, Terminator 3, The Lion King, and another one called, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. He stared in astonishment. On the cover was a picture of Frodo! And Gandalf, and Aragorn, Arwen, Sam and Legolas! There were other people he did not know as well, and on the back was a small, pale, bony creature that looked vaguely hobbit-like, sitting on a rock and eating something. Also on the back was a block of writing, and Pippin saw the words, The Fellowship has broken... He hurridly put it back down again, not wanting to know anything more at all.
"Pippin," came Gandalf's voice, and he turned. Gandalf held up a shirt against him, then shook his head. "Too big. They do not accomadate for hobbit sizes, it seems."
Eventually, Gandalf had a pile of clothing that he dumped on the counter. The woman behind it smiled at him. "That's a lot of clothes you got, Gandalf."
Gandalf thought, I will never be able to get used to complete strangers calling me by my name; but he smiled back, and answered courteously, "I hope I have enough for them." He put the handful of money that was left on the counter top. The woman shuffled through the coins, took most of them, and left behind an alarmingly small amount. When the clothes had been neatly folded and placed in a big white bag, Gandalf called all the others, and they went out of the shop.
"We will have to change in the park we came into at the first." Gandalf said. "It is near here, and did not seem well-frequented by the public."
Inside the park, there was hardly anyone about. Gandalf divided up the clothes and when everyone had their's, they went behind some convenient bushes. Frodo pulled his on, then squinted down at himself. He was wearing dark blue trousers of a stretchy, tough material with a slight hole in one knee, and a baggy white shirt of cotton. He came from behind his bush, and met Pippin. Pippin was dressed in similar fashion to Frodo, but his shirt was green.
"Oh, Frodo!" Pippin exclaimed. "You look...cool!"
"Do I?" Frodo gave a little twirl, pleased.
"How do you think I look?"
"Very good." Frodo approved.
"I think we blend in more, now." Merry said, emerging from behind a bush with lilac flowers. He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers exactly like Frodo's. "Apart from our hair." he added. "Not many people I've seen have curly hair like us."
Sam was wearing exactly the same clothes as Merry, and he held an odd type of hat in his hand, with a stiff peak, and a white N and Y entertwined on its front. He said, looking embarressed, "I feel daft. And this hat makes my hair go all wrong." He put it on to demonstate, but Frodo said, "I think it looks good, Sam. Keep it on."
"Yes, do." Legolas said. He, Gimli and the men came up together, and they all looked so different from their normal appearances that the hobbits had to laugh. Legolas and Gimli were wearing the blue trousers; the elf had a light blue button-up shirt, and Gimli had an enormous red shirt that went almost to his knees with a strange white symbol on the front. Aragorn was dressed all in black, and Boromir in light grey trousers like the others' and a faded orange shirt with three slashes across the front, like a picture of claws tearing the fabric. Gandalf was in blue trousers and a simple white shirt. His glare dared the hobbits to make any comments, and they swallowed their laughter.
"Now," Gandalf said, tying their old clothes up into packs and handing them out. "We just need to buy food, and we can begin. For our Quest to save Middle Earth must continue!"
A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. How is this chapter? Too silly? Too O/C? I apologise to those who are more fluent in Elvish than I; my knowledge of it is limited, so my speeches in it may not be entirely accurate.