Sorry it has been sooooooo long sense I updated, but I've been really busy. First I was helping with a play and then there was a retreat and well just a lot of stuff. Anyways I'm back now and thought I'd be nice and not make you wait till Sunday for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC and story changes.

Chapter Eight: Flight to the Ford

The rest of the night we were thankfully left in peace and The Riders did not attack us again. I couldn't put it together though, why did they not attack again? The hobbits were all but useless against them and Strider and I had barely held them off together.

Strider went out for several hours before returning with some plant he called Athelas that could provide some healing. Unfortunately, the knife that I had tried to deflect had been super deadly and had still hit Frodo in his shoulder. He was now unable to move his entire left arm.

I felt terrible for him. I had only gotten a small cut from the knife and it hurt, though the Athelas leaves made the pain go away for a while, and he had gotten stabbed in the shoulder by the wretched thing. He looked too weak to even get up, much less continue the journey.

"I think," Strider said after we had discussed how to continue on for a while, "that the enemy has been watching this place for some days. If Gandalf ever came here, then he must have been forced to ride away, and he will not be returning. In any case we are in great peril here after dark, since the attack last night, and can hardly meet greater danger wherever we go."

Not long after, when the sun had fully risen above the horizon, we headed out. Frodo could obviously not walk so he ended up riding on Midnight. At first we were worried that it wouldn't work, Midnight is too large for a horse and she didn't have a saddle. However, it was quickly apparent that Midnight was fully capable of making sure Frodo stayed on her back.

We did have to cross the road though and we did so as quickly as possible before heading into the thickets on the other side.

The next few days were went by without any sign of anything significant. We just trudged on and on. My wrist still felt awful, but it had scabbed over and was at least looking better. Frodo on the other hand, appeared to be getting worse and worse. He didn't complain about it, but I could tell that even riding he felt terrible.

On our seventh day from Weathertop we reach a river that Strider said was called Hoarwell or if you want to go with the Elvish, Mitheithel. Either way it was a large river that we needed to cross which meant going back on the Road.

… Page Break …

When we reached the bridge just after dawn Strider and I got into an argument as to who should go look ahead for any danger.

"Just let me go," I told him.

"No I will not allow it," he argued.

"Look you can just let me do it," I responded calmly. "Or you can try to stop me. Either way I will still go. You're not the only one here who can do this sort of thing, you know."

"But you're just a-," he began. I glared at him. "Ok, but why will you not just let me do this?"

"Because you're doing everything," I exclaimed. "You seem to have told yourself you can't trust us to do anything. Granted I don't know this place so you have to lead us. But this I can do. I have trusted you this whole time. Why can't you trust me for once?"

"Fine," he said after thinking about it for a moment. "We just can't afford for any mistakes to be made."

"You think I don't realize that?" I said, lowering my voice. "As strange as it may seem to you, I've done this kind of thing more than you realize." Strider nodded, and I quickly headed off to the bridge.

Strangely enough, I found no sign of the riders or anything else that may pose a threat, as this would have been an ideal place to stop us. It had clearly rained recently, but in this land that was hardly surprising, and no one had crossed the bridge since. The only thing I did find of interest was a small pale-green gem in the mud on the bridge. I picked it up and headed back to the others.

"There is no sign of the enemy," I told them. "Which is strange, but I did find this." I held out the gem I had found on the bridge. "I'm not sure what it is though or what it might mean."

"It is a beryl, an elf-stone," Strider said, "and it brings me hope. I will take it as a sign that we may pass the bridge. But beyond that we dare not stay on the Road, without some clearer sign.

… Page Break …

The next few days were awful. We found ourselves scrambling over rocks and picking our way through hills and cliffs, because we had to keep from the Road. Then to make matters worse it decided to start raining, before long we were drenched. Ten days out from Weathertop and our supplies were getting low.

That night we found a small cave to sleep in, but it was not much shelter. Frodo was clearly restless, probably because of his shoulder. The wet and cold had not helped my wrist in at all, and it was driving me nuts, I could only imagine what Frodo was feeling. It did confuse me though. I had gotten the cut ten days ago; it should not still be hurting. Plus it now just looked like a small scar. I didn't tell Strider though. He already had enough to worry about.

I looked over to where Strider was sitting looking out into the night. I moved over to sit next to him.

"You should be getting some sleep," Strider told me.

"I could say the same to you," I responded. "Estel, you seem to never sleep."

Strider's head shot up. "Where did you hear that name?" he asked me.

"The one and only time I caught you sleeping, you mumbled it in your sleep," I told him.

"But how did you know it was my name?" he asked.

"Well you just confirmed that it is. I wasn't positive up until now, but I suspected it was. Now will you please at least consider going to sleep for a few hours, I can keep watch if it makes you feel better."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to get a choice in the matter?" Strider asked smiling.

"Because you're not," I told him. "Now go to sleep."

"And if I say no?" he asked. I glared at him.

"I can still make you lay down," I said.

"Oh really?" Strider challenged. "I think the reverse would be true." I smirked and flicked my hand sending him flying back into cave and pinning him to the ground.

"Ok, no using the Force," Strider exclaimed, "that makes it way too one sided." I agreed but only because it would be more fun this way. Strider seriously needed to lighten up every once in a while and this was the prefect opportunity to have fun. I would still use the Force, anyway, just not like that.

He lunged for me, but I darted out of the way grabbing his wrist and flinging him to the ground. I jumped on his back, but he jumped up suddenly sending me flying. I used the momentum to lead me to the cave ceiling and waited for Strider to walk underneath me before falling on him. This continued on for a while till we were both out of breath refusing to let the other win, and we heard laughing. We both turned to see Frodo leaning against the wall watching us.

"You were watching the whole thing weren't you?" I ask and Frodo just nods. Strider sighs and I start giggling. Then in a mock serious voice I order them both to go to sleep. Frodo laughs even harder, Pippin wakes up in all the commotion, and Strider is just glaring at me. It didn't matter though, my mission was accomplished. Well mostly.

In fact, for a little bit at least, Frodo seemed to be doing much better.

"But seriously," I say once we've all calmed down. "Go To Sleep." In the end, Strider reluctantly gives in and the camp quiets down. Everyone falls asleep, while I stare off in the distance remembering wondering what everyone back home must be thinking happened to me.

… Page Break …

The next few days we were forced to get over rocks and hills and cliffs and we did a lot of back tracking. When we finally found a path, it was apparently made by trolls. So while the hobbits were thinking we should leave it alone, and Strider was saying it had long ago been abandoned, I still had no idea what a troll was.

Merry and Pippin decided to go ahead, but before long they came running back, looking very scared.

"There are trolls!" Pippin exclaimed trying to catch his breath. "Down in a clearing in the woods I saw them though the tree trunks. They are very large!" I almost commented that everything looked large to them because they were so short.

"We will come and look at them," Strider said, picking up a stick. Sam now also looked scared. I rolled my eyes; clearly there was no actual threat from these trolls.

When reached the trolls, Strider walked up to one and hit it with a stick. When it did nothing all the hobbits gasped in astonishment and I broke out laughing.

"You knew there wasn't any danger didn't you?" Strider asked.

"In all honesty," I admitted. "I didn't even know what a troll was, but your reaction to the news made it pretty obvious that there was no real danger."

Sense we were all in such go spirits Sam decided to recite some poetry, which I cannot remember all that well and is too long for this story any ways, but it was very funny.

"Where'd you find that one?" Pippin asked, and Sam mumbled something incomprehensible.

"It's out of his own head, of course" Frodo said. "I'm learning a lot about Sam Gamgee on this journey. First he was a conspirator, now he's a jester. He'll end up a becoming a wizard… or a warrior!"

"I hope not," Sam said. "I don't want to be neither."

"So you want to be one?" I asked confusing them. "Well you said you don't want to be neither, which means you want to be one because you used a double negative." That just confused the hobbits more and Strider just sighed. He did that a lot, it seemed.

Toward evening, when we were looking for a place to stop by the Road, we heard a light clippety-clippety-clip of a horse hooves. At first we feared that it was a Black Rider, but as Frodo said it didn't sound like a Black Rider's horse. I climbed a nearby tree to get a better view. Midnight neighed in greeting and we heard the other horse respond.

"Well, now they know we're here," I called down. "So could we all stop hiding, for heaven's sake it's a white horse not black. And so is the rider."

Strider soon after ran into the road and the Rider called to us. "Ai na vedui Dúnadan! Mae govannen!"

The hobbits hurried out into the road. "This is Glorfindel," Strider told them, "who dwells in the house of Elrond." Then he thought for a moment. "Where is Neka?"

"Still in the tree," Pippin said, looking up.

"Neka please come down," Strider called, "and not on anyone." He added.

"Oh come on," I protested, jumping down. "You ruined my fun."

… Page Break …

The 2ish days were full of lots of walking and worrying about to Black Riders. While Glorfindel was able to help Frodo, we discovered the blade was even worse than we thought. And Frodo ended up on Glorfindel's horse, because it was probably faster than Midnight.

We had just caught sight of the Ford, when were heard horses approaching behind us. We all ran for cover on the side of the Road. Glorfindel told Frodo to ride ahead as fast as possible, but Frodo stupidly refused. Finnally, he called to his horse, "Noro lim, noro lim, Asfaloth!" and the horse took off down the Road. The Black Riders took off after him.

As soon as the Black riders past we all hurried on to the road and went after them. When we got appearntly far enough which looked a bit too close to the Riders even if they weren't paying attention to us we stopped and quickly built fires.

All the sudden the River turned in to a raging Flood and they all grabbed flaming brands and ran down at the Riders. I quickly lit my sword on fire and ran after them. The Riders fell into chaos but one tried to strike at me. I quickly switched sword hands and block the strike throwing him off, but it also sent cold spikes up my arm.

I then remembered I had been trying to use that hand less because it was refusing to actually heal. Switched my sword back to my right hand and we kept driving them back until they all fell in the water.

So apparently these guys are afraid of fire and water. Well, that's useful.

Thank you The Hobbit, jj12, Guest, and blue mountain fairy for reviewing. I love reviews, because they tell me that someone cares about my story. The box below is truly magical.