Author's Note: I recently bought a copy of The Hobbit, and I've read through the first two chapters so far. I'm finally getting some insight on J.R.R Tolkien's writing style, and I'm hoping to use that to my advantage for this story. Also, I typed this at around 2:30 in the morning again (I really do have an act for that, don't I?), so if there's any spelling/grammar errors anywhere in this, let me know and they'll be fixed as soon as possible.


Chapter IX: The Shire and Bree

As Nadra and the cubs paced their way closer to the stone bridge that lead to the home of the hobbits, the air around them slowly became more humid and moist, and the temperature was gradually decreasing as well. The wind picked up slightly, and the sun was now completely blocked out by dark grey clouds. Nadra could tell that it would only be a few minutes before the first signs of thunder would make themselves apparent in the sky. At least it waited until now to start.

They walked along the cobblestone path until they reached the small arched bridge. The river that it crossed was about 20 feet wide. Nadra motioned for the cubs to follow her, and together they walked over the bridge and came across the pathways that went around the Shire. There they were at last- the most peaceful spot in all of Middle Earth that wasn't inhabited by lions. Nadra looked around. Aside from all of the circular doors in the hills, the trees, and everything else the Shire was home too, there weren't any hobbits anywhere. Then she glanced up to the sky for a moment. Nadra guessed that the impending storm was keeping them all inside their homes for the moment. On the bright side, this meant they wouldn't have to see her, at least not yet.

The four cubs walked ahead of Nadra by a few feet and then stopped to look around. The absence of life was strange, almost eerie, even. The sound of the steadily growing winds didn't help the mood, either.

"Where are all the hobbits?", Sayari asked himself. Nadra looked down at him.

"I'm not sure. But right now we should find some cover from the rain.", she answered. But not a second after she said that did she both see and hear the first drop of rain strike the ground in front of her. She ever so softly gasped once she saw it. No wonder the hobbits were in their homes right then.

"It's starting to rain.", said Akarudi to no one in particular. The others took notice of this. In the distance, they could hear the increasing amounts of rain pelt the ground all around the area. Nadra and the cubs knew they needed shelter for the night until the rain would stop the next morning. The lioness looked all around her to find anything that could accomodate them for the night. She noticed that a majority of the Shire's wooden structures weren't far in front of them. They looked like small farm houses for crops. And then she noticed that a small door on one of them was open just a crack. That was their destination now.

"Come on... follow me", Nadra said to the cubs as she started walking again. With that, they all began to tread towards the open farm house. They were rather hasty in doing so, since the rain was beginning to fall faster and harder with every second that went by. After they went over the soft, wet grass patch in front of the farmhouse, they walked upon a small stone surface that surrounded the wooden structure. Nadra went closer to the door and used her snout to push it open. This was a structure built for hobbits, so it was just tall enough for the lioness to fit through. She went into the darkened interior and rapidly shook the rainwater off of her. Just after she did, the cubs entered the structure, now dripping wet from the rain. Ignoring it though, they all looked around the farm. Given the height of the creatures that made use of it, there wasn't much to it. It was a simple wooden farmhouse with a few piles of light yellow hey scattered around the place. There were four glass windows, one on each side of the farm, which gave them some light to see because there were no lights inside the structure. The wood was not painted or decorated, which came off as rather unremarkable. There were a few farm tools hanging off of the walls; two pitchforks, a few shovels, and a handful of other unnamable objects alongside them. It wasn't exactly Pride Rock, bit it would do for the night.

The cubs finished looking around, not that there was much to see anyway. Out of curiosity, Akarudi asked Nadra, "What if the hobbits find us here?"

Nadra was walking over to a pile of hey in the corner of the structure when he asked that. She looked behind her for a moment at Akarudi, and then turned her attention back to the hey stack, climbing on top of it to try and get comfortable. As she did, she answered him. "Don't worry, Akarudi. We just need to tell them that king Simba sent us here, and we'll be able to stay."

The cubs, now beginning to dry off, decided to stay close to Nadra for the night. The four of them scattered as they ran over to her, and climbed onto the hey stack to get close to her. They all settled in and got close together for warmth. Nadra had already settled in, and with the day she'd had before, she was nearly ready to collapse right there on the hey stack. All of the cubs felt that way as well. She was laying on her stomach, with the cubs laying against her in different positions each.

"Well... we're here", said Nadra, taking a deep breath and looking at the four cubs as she did. The lioness was glad that they'd made it without running into any trouble.

"I'm bushed", Sayari said to no one in particular. The other cubs agreed. Soon, after everything was settled, the five creatures were all laying against each other, listening to the sound of the rain outside. It was coming down harder than usual rain, but not necessarily at gale force. It was still peaceful enough as to not seriously disturb anyone from sleeping. (Author's note: Think of the rain in the T-Rex scene from Jurassic Park, only a little bit softer and no thunder.)

Nadra's eyes were struggling to stay open. They had been walking here since the first morning after Simba and the others had left. None of them had gone so far in their lives. But they still considered themselves lucky. At least they didn't have to walk to Mordor on foot.

"My paws hurt", said Kijani to Nadra. The lioness, eyes barely open, looked down at the young cub. "Just try to rest now, Kijani. You'll feel better in the morning."

The sound of the rain took over for a moment again. All of them had their breathing become heavier, coming ever closer to sleep. All except, that is, Amani. For some reason he couldn't sleep. It wasn't guilt over his parents' journey to Mordor, it was more along the lines of building up energy through the day from walking, and he was far from tired.

"Nadra?... I can't sleep." he said to the lioness. Nadra looked down at him and she said to him, "Just try to relax yourself, Amani. You'll get to sleep when you need to soon."

And then, something came to Amani in his mind. Something that as soon as he thought of it, he wanted to ask the lioness.

"Hey Nadra?... do you like us?"

Her eyes opened about halfway after he said that. Still half asleep, she smiled and answered, "Of course I do, Amani. You four are the sweetest cubs I've ever know. Your parents are lucky to have you."

When she said this, it only made Amani want to ask his question even more. "Nadra... if you like cubs so much, how come you haven't had any of your own?"

The question had caught her by surprise. She wasn't expecting someone as young as him to be thinking about such things.

"Why would you ask something like that, Amain?", she asked the cub, now curious about his thoughts.

Amani replied, "Well, you're a very nice lioness, and you know how to take care of us. Don't you want to have your own cubs? I mean, you're only looking after us because of my parents' journey."

For a cub, he sure knew how to handle a subject like this.

"Well... I just never did, I guess. I never met the right lion to have them with."

Amani crawled up closer to the lioness. "But... don't you want cubs?"

Nadra opened her eyes a little bit more and answered, "Of course I do, Amani, more than anything in the world. It's just... I want to meet the right lion to be able to help me raise them... maybe to be like you four." She smiled when she said that last part.

Amani, being the curious lion cub that he was, decided to continue the conversation. He said, "Well... have you ever tried finding the right lion?"

Nadra sighed. The cub was asking questions that were so innocent, and yet so troublesome for her. "Well... no, I haven't."

As much as she would've wanted to end the talk right there, Amani kept at it. "Why not?"

Nadra looked away from him. She didn't want him to see the look of sadness she had on her face at that moment. Her eyes were closed now. But she decided to answer him just to avoid him asking any more questions like this.

"It's just... well... because I'm afraid I won't be any good at it. What if I'm no good at raising a family like that? I... I guess I'm just afraid of not being able to raise my own cubs."

Nadra felt stupid talking to a young cub this way, but what she said was true. She was very afraid of not being a good parent if she ever had her own cubs, not being able to protect them or teach them the differences from right and wrong. It was a complicated issue for her. Usually, she wouldn't talk like this to anyone unless it was with one of her closest friends like Kiara or Vitani. Other than that, she kept this matter to herself. But to a young cub like Amani? It was dumb to her.

Amani began to move back to his spot to go to sleep. By now, his brother and both of his cousins were fast asleep. If they were awake, they would never let Amani hear the end of this. But before he started, he gave one last thought to Nadra before he went to sleep.

"Well... you've been doing pretty good with us."

The lioness was caught off guard by that statement. Her eyes opened, and she shifted her head ever so slightly so that she could see Amani get into his spot with the rest of the cubs against her body. Maybe Amani was right.

With that, Nadra slowly closed her eyes and drifted peacefully to sleep, now with her own thoughts and the constant sound of the calm rain outside. Even now, there had yet to be even a single crack of thunder in the sky. It was absolute peace for them in that little wooden farmhouse. However, this is only what it was like for them. For if they had known at that moment what was going to happen to Kopa not an hour from then, they would've raced for the village of Bree through the rain and taken the ring to its final destination themselves.


While the rain was relatively gentle within the confounds of the Shire, it was not so much that way where the fellowship currently was. They had just passed through the heavily wooded Fornost Erain, filled with tall trees and plants. The gates of Bree was now within sight for all of them. Due to the walking that was required to get this far, many of them had their paws covered in mud, and were all soaking wet. Rafiki, who was still leading the group, treaded past more trees and continued on the stone path to the gates. Kopa was relieved to finally arrive. His paws were aching, and were just begging for rest.

"We're almost there." he said, glancing at Vitani.

The gates of Bree drew ever closer to them. Even through the pounding rain, it was clearly in sight. However, just before they were going to approach the gates, something came across Kopa's mind that had not yet gone through. It was something important.

"Wait, wait." he said, stopping dead in his tracks. The others slowly stopped too and looked at him.

"What it is, Kopa?", asked Pumbaa from the back of the group. The lion looked back to the warthog and then ahead of him, towards the gates. "If we walk into there, how are we going to hide the ring? No one can know we have it."

Nobody knew how to answer that. Beforehand, this was one of those 'cross that bridge when we get to it' type of situations. But now, that river was not an inch ahead of them.

"Rafiki?... do you have any ideas?" Kopa asked Rafiki. The baboon, still holding onto his stick, looked at the lion for a moment, and then at the ring for another. He then said to him, "Hold it de way you did before."

"What?" Kopa didn't understand that at all. What could he have meant by that?

"Hold de ring in your teeth. No one will tink to look dere.", the baboon explained. Then a rather awkward expression grew on Kopa's face. It was one thing to hold it in his teeth before Timon made him the necklace, but to do it again with the grass attached to it? Kopa shot a look back at Timon. The meerkat's face was also looking awkward. Kopa could tell that Timon would be willing to make him a new one later on. That was all the lion needed to do what he did next. He took the necklace off of his neck with his left paw, and used one of his claws to cut the grass in two. As he did, Timon angrily grunted from behind him. Clearly having to tie together grass for him wasn't the most satisfying of things to do. Kopa continued by opening his mouth, carefully placing the ring within the confines of his teeth, and then closing his mouth. The ring tasted disgusting brushing up against his tongue, but thankfully it was only temporary.

Rafiki then softly said to Kopa, "Remember... de ring wants to be found."

With that, Rafiki continued walking towards the gates, with the others following. They were now out of the woods and were right in front of the gates of Bree. Most of them, specifically Simba, were amazed that they hadn't run into any orcs or Nazgul... at least not yet.

The gates were hardly unique in any sense. They were fairly tall and made of thick, thick wood, but otherwise unremarkable. Rafiki then came up to them and knocked on the gates with his stick. He did so rather hard to get the attention of whoever was on the other side, with the fellowship watching. Soon, a much smaller door, small enough for only a man's head to fit through, opened up in the center of the left gate. A man wearing a leather cloak and holding an oil lantern could be seen, who appeared to be the gatekeeper.

"What do you want?", he said to them. Rafiki was about to answer him, but then surprisingly Kovu spoke up from behind.

"We're here to stay the night on a quest we're in.", he said. Once Kovu said that, the small opening on the gate closed, and shortly after that, the left gate creaked opened. The man could now be seen in full view, though not much of his face could be shown. He seemed intrigued by the creatures standing in front of him.

"Lions? What business brings you to Bree?" he said.

Answering him, Rafiki said, "We wish to stay at de inn. Our business is our own."

The man, seeing no harm in letting them stay, turned around and unlocked the gate while saying, "Alright, I meant no offense. It's my job to ask questions after nightfall."

Once he said this, the gate finally creaked open enough to let them through. One by one, the baboon and the lions all entered the gate, walking through the thick, wet mud to do so. Once Timon and Pumbaa, the last of the group, got in, the man continued talking. "There's talk of strange fold abroad...can't be too careful."

They all knew he was talking about the Nazgul. Apparently they were more well known around here than in the Pride Lands.

At last, they were here. The village looked about what they expected it to be. There was wide stone path that curved ahead of them, with a low, rotting fence on the side of it. There were many white painted wooden houses beyond both ends of the path, with trees growing around them as well. Lights were dimly showing from many of the houses around there.

They continued to walk through. The farther in they went, the more men that they saw there. A horse driven cart filled with who knows what went past them, taking absolutely no notice of the lions. Many men were scurrying about for reasons they could only begin to guess. After all, Bree was one of the busiest trading centers in all of Middle Earth. Even with the heavy rain, many cloaked figures went all about, possibly making trades and business deals with one another.

Soon, after hurrying along to avoid any encounters with anyone in particular, the fellowship made their way to a two story building with lights coming out of it. When they got to the doorstep, there was a metal sign swaying in the wind that read 'The Prancing Pony Inn'. This must've been it. Though the name stuck out as downright weird for some of them.

With no hesitation in the slightest, the nine members made their way for the door, pushed it open and walked inside. What they saw was the first floor interior of the inn, which looked quite unusual. There were many men laughing and talking all throughout, and most of them were sitting around tables and a long wooden counter that ran around the middle of the place. The room was a little dimly lit, but there was still enough light to see just fine. People went around everywhere, serving drinks to one another, strangely taking no notice of the fellowship. Not a one took the attention of them, that is except for the inn's keeper who was in the middle of the square shaped counter in the center of the room. They all walked up to it, and the inn keeper took notice of them. He walked closer to them and decided to speak. For some reason, he didn't at all find it strange that lions like these had just walked in.

"Good evening, masters.", he started. "If you're seeking accommodation, we've got some nice, cozy lion sized rooms available, Mr... ah...

The inn keeper clearly didn't know the names of these lions, which was strange to them. Had he not heard any of the stories of the Pride Lands? But it didn't matter. They all knew they needed to keep their identities a secret as best as they could before they left. Simba was the first one to speak.

"Kifo... my name's Kifo... and I'm the leader of this group."

He then looked over to Nala. "And this is my mate, Dawn. The rest of us are my family. We're on a long quest and we need to stay here for the night."

The inn keeper looked intrigued at them all. Then he looked at Rafiki. "I see... and what about the monkey there?"

Simba looked over at the baboon and chose to tell the closest thing to the truth so far. "He's a... friend of mine, accompanying us on our journey."

"I see then.", said the inn keeper. "Well, I hope you get to where you're going then. The best of luck to you."

Simba and Nala both looked at each other, and then to the rest of them all. He said softly, "Trust me. We're going to need it."


A half hour later, the group was surrounding a wooden table near the corner of the room. Everywhere they looked, there were drunken men laughing, talking to each other, and one was messing around with a rat like creature on his shoulder. It made them glad that they were only staying for one night. There was a single candle in the center of the table, giving off a dim light for them to see in already semi-dim room. Earlier, one of the servants of the inn had given them all spare scraps of meat that they had. For them, it felt ungodly strange to be eating in this sort of fashion, but not a one of them had had anything to eat since they left the Pride Lands, so they took what they could get.

Even though the other visitors of the inn took little notice of the Pride Landers (mostly due to their drunkenness), a few men and even a dwarf or two came by their side at one point. Each of them, Simba in particular, were virtually bombarded with questions about themselves and their lives. Their questions were mostly tame, such as 'are the stories true?' or 'how did you fight off Scar?' and other things. And for the most part, the Pride Landers had no problem answering them.

But occasionally, one of them would ask a very outlandish or even uncomfortable question. One of the men decided to ask Kiara if she was single, and another of them in particular who seemed more drunk than the rest asked Simba and Nala 'did you two do it in the jungle?', followed by wasted laughter that would've put the hyenas to shame. It was then that Simba decided to stop answering anything. This was getting out of control, even if they were drunk.

After the men and the dwarf left them alone, the six lions and the baboon all sat around the table, talking about their past experiences to lighten the mood after what they'd gone through so far. Simba was currently telling them about the snail slurping contest he once had with Timon in the jungle as a teenager. None of them had ever heard it before, which made it all the more hilarious for them.

"And then we got into this slug eating contest, right?", Simba went on. "And so Timon's going like 'I'm the snail slurping champion' or something, so guess what? I beat him so easy, it was just Hakuna Matata times a hundred for me. And it's like I said, I invented Hakuna Matata. And well, let' just say we never saw too many snails after that."

The group was all laughing like crazy at this, Kiara especially. "I can't believe you've never told me that before!" she said in between laugh outbursts. Kovu, glancing around for a second, brought up to the group, "Hey, where is he and Pumbaa anyway?"

If he had known where they were right at that moment, his laughter would've choked him to death. Timon and Pumbaa were both by the square shaped counter. Pumbaa was awkwardly watching Timon attempting to drink an entire pint of beer from a mug, hanging onto the side of it while dunking his head into it. Not that it was going very well for him. He stepped off and away from the mug, completely disoriented and unable to stand up straight, moving across the counter towards Pumbaa. The warthog looked upon his friend with a very awkward and slightly embarrassed look on his face. He said to the meerkat, "Uh, Timon? I think you've had enough to drink now."

Timon, taking virtually no notice of his friend's advice, suddenly made a huge burp sound from his mouth, and was talking in slow, slurred and hard to understand speech. It became clear to Pumbaa at that moment: his best friend was drunk.

"E-enough? L-lets me tell you somethin'. buddy! I... I'll tell YOU... when I've had enough. It's... it's-it's you who's had... enough... had... buddy... oy." the meerkat said. Pumbaa had never seen him like this before. It was embarrassing, really. As Timon spoke, his uncontrollable laughter began to take hold. His laughs were long, drawn out and rather whistle-like and high pitched, as only drunken laughter could be.

Back at the table the fellowship was at, they were wondering where they were. Kopa was the one who decided to look for them. "I'll go see where they are", he said while getting up. But just after he did, Kiara turned to him and whispered, "Hey Kopa, you'd better take the ring with you so no one sees it."

Kopa nodded to his sister, and then took the ring in his claws, placing it back in his teeth. Then he went around to look for Timon and Pumbaa. Even with all the men's laughter all around, it wasn't hard to follow where they were thanks to the burp Timon had made. Kopa followed the general direction it came from and went that way.

Back with the two best friends, Pumbaa was futile in trying to get through to Timon.

"Timon... don't you think you should stop drinkin' that stuff now?"

Timon replied, or at least tried to in slow, slurred speech with the intoxicated laughter, "L-listen here, you sexy hyena sc-scum you. I... been with this otha' meerkat now. So...so just, just cancel the weddin' now, Shenzi Mare..da..jaklaf...da..."

Timon could hardly even talk now. Pumbaa had just given up reason and decided to watch Timon drink himself closer to passing out.

"You know, what I-I think here? I think... thinksah, that YOU should...just, ah... y-you know what forget it."

Kopa looked in their direction and saw them. He called out to them, "Hey Timon! Pumbaa! Come over here, my dad's telling us about how he beat you in a snail slurping contest!"

Suddenly, rage began to build up within Timon's drunken mind. "H-he...he's whah now?!"

Kopa walked closer to the two of them. He looked over at Pumbaa. "He's drunk, isn't he?"

Pumbaa muttered to him, "I've never seen him like this."

Timon stumbled over to face Kopa in front of him, looking quite mad at him, too.

"Now y-you list-ten here..h-here, Kopa. YOU-y-yu don't even knowses what..I...you...er we all beens through, tonigt. Alright, your dads's wrong! W-R-O-G...S...J...O...uggh."

Timon's mind couldn't take it anymore. Beginning to fall over and pass out, Timon collapsed onto the floor between Pumbaa and Kopa, spilling the beer mug all over the floor with him. The liquid spilled out everywhere, especially onto him. If the scent of it was strong in his breath, it was all over him now.

Kopa glanced at the warthog. "Gee, does he always get like this when he's drunk?"

Pumbaa then bent over to pick the meerkat up in his tusks. "Beats me. He's never had this stuff before."

Kopa snickered at that. "Boy do I believe that. You'd better keep an eye on him, Pumbaa."

That was when it happened. The moment that would befall upon Kopa which would make him mentally suffer worse than he ever did out in the wild. From the spilled beer on the floor, Pumbaa's hooves slipped against the wooden floor and fell right into Kopa, knocking him down to the ground against his back with a loud thud. Because of this, the ring flew out of his mouth and flipped around above him in the air. Time almost seemed to slow down as it fell closer to him. By now, everyone in the room took notice of what was going on, even the members of the fellowship. Rafiki in particular looked shocked. A look of worry and terror spread across all of their faces as the ring came into view for all to see.

In an attempt to catch the ring, Kopa extended his right paw out to catch it while it fell to him. But as fate would have it, the ring didn't land in the center of his paw like he'd hoped. Rather, it landed in the one place he didn't want it more than any other: The claw separations of his paw, and it slipped deeper into it as well. And as fate would also have it, the one, single thing that he promised to never do finally occurred.

He was wearing the One Ring.