The Fellowship Plus One
Chapter Eleven: Hunted
btw, now that i have rediscovered how to do this... :D i don't own any of the LOTR characters... sadly... but Rianadra is mine so no stealing!
It did not take us long to pull out onto the river: the boats given to us by the Elves had already been stocked and balanced for us. After Aragorn's announcement, all we had to do was figure out who was going with whom and push the boats into the water. Aragorn took Frodo and Sam; Boromir had Merry and Pippin; I went with Legolas and Gimli.
For a long while, no one spoke, simply enjoying the peaceful quiet that had started in Lothlorien. And even when we did start to speak, it was with hushed voices; the majesty of the river made us all feel so small, and we all felt the quiet was not to be marred by voices. The only one who didn't seem to appear as enamored with the river as the rest of us was Legolas. I assumed it was because he was Elf-kind and accustomed to places such as this.
We made good time once we set out from Lorien. The current of the river carried us far faster than we would have moved on our own; we only needed the paddles to keep our direction. The whisper of the water, combined with the warmth from the sun, nearly had me falling asleep several times. I blamed Legolas for keeping me awake longer the night before than either of us should have been up. I made sure he knew it, too. It wasn't long before I started feeling little pebbles knock against my head every time I yawned obnoxiously, although I had to wonder where he was getting them. The sounds of the paddle behind me never wavered, and yet he still managed to get pebbles, aim, and hit me on the back of my head. I decided the next time he hit me, it was war.
I yawned again, this time on purpose; seconds later, something thunked into the back of my head. Grinning, I bent down casually to pick up one of the other projectiles the Elf had so graciously provided me with. I waited for a moment, hoping to catch him off guard, then spun around, careful of the boat's balance, and threw the pebble at him. It hit him square in the forehead; he scowled at me with little heat and bent to get another one himself. I ducked as it came flying at me. It bounced off my back and I heard it clank into Gimli's armor.
"Wha- Hey!" he growled as I turned to throw another rock at Legolas and missed, hitting the Dwarf on the chin. I laughed as he glared at me, Legolas joining in with a quiet chuckle. The Dwarf didn't find anything so funny. "What are you laughing at?" he demanded, which only set me off into a loud howl of laughter. Soon, we could hear calls from the other boats to either be quiet or keep our noise to our own boat. Even the irritable Gimli had to laugh at that. I was about to say something to him when another rock hit me on the cheek.
"Oh, that was not fair!" I told Legolas, giving him my best mock glare. "I wasn't ready!" Legolas just smirked at me before flicking another one my way. This one hit me on the shoulder, as he hadn't really bothered to aim. "You know what, Elf?" Gimli's amused snort had me glaring at him next. "Oh, you think this is funny, do you?" When he did nothing but snicker again, I tossed a pebble in his direction. It clanked off his helmet. "Ha!" Gimli glowered at me from under the brim of his helmet then started to grin evilly. "Oh, no. Oh, no you don't, Dwarf!" Seconds later, I was under a barrage of little rocks from both the Elf and the Dwarf. "What? Two against one? That is not fair!" Obviously, however, they cared not for the unfairness of it and kept it up until they had nothing more to throw at me. Haughtily, I stuck my nose in the air and turned my back on them. I heard Gimli cackle softly behind me, but I deigned to ignore him.
Of course, when I heard the Elf join in softly, I had to turn and see just what it was that they found so amusing. "What are you two giggling at back there?" They both glared at me, as I had known they would. Dwarves and Elves did not giggle. I smiled innocently at them, waiting for an answer.
"Nothing," Gimli finally answered me. I didn't believe him.
"That one," I gestured to Legolas, who was still smirking, "does not laugh ever without good cause. What did you two do?" They both gave me their best "who-me?" impressions and I growled. "Tell me right now or-" Suddenly, a sense of something… wrong… came over me. Immediately, I turned to face the western shore, as though I could see the source of the wrongness by sheer force of will. Crows launched into the air deeper into the forest, and I knew then for sure.
We were being followed. I glanced back at Legolas, unsurprised to see the joking expression gone from his face as he carefully watched the shoreline. He met my eyes a second later, and I could see his sudden wariness in them. "What is it?" I asked him softly; he shook his head. Ah, that's what's got him worried. He doesn't know, I thought. Well, that has me, too. I glanced over at the others, wondering if anyone else had felt it. It didn't seem that no one else had. I glanced back at Legolas, who had returned to surveying the western side, hoping to catch some glimpse of what was following us.
Shortly later, the wrongness disappeared from the air, but we did not return to our game. The knowledge that we were being hunted had driven all playfulness from our minds, leaving only the sense of worry and the need to move quickly behind. None of us spoke again after that.
We journeyed on in stressed, worried silence; the others seemed to have finally caught our mood, as we all began to move faster, hoping to outrun whatever was behind us. Eventually, we all felt the overbearing Shadow fade a little; we breathed a little easier for a time.
Hours passed, and still we remained quiet. The river no longer seemed peaceful, even if the Shadow was gone for now. Every sound was ominous; we all expected attack around every bend. Every time there wasn't one, we grew more restless and wary. Surely they would come sometime, and we were not going to be ready. I could not get myself to relax; my hand stayed near the hilt of my new sword despite knowing that while we were on the water, we were as safe as we could be.
Ahead of me, I heard Aragorn stir Frodo and Sam before him with a whisper. "Look ahead, the Argonath." I looked up as we rounded the next bend in the river, expecting to see an army or something of that kind. What I saw was not what I expected; Aragorn continued as I stared, "Long have I desired to look upon the Kings of old… my kin."
Before us stood two great statues of Men. Each gripped a sword in its right hand, the left outstretched as though in protection. I stared up at them in awe, feeling remarkably small next to the giant stonework. I wondered why they were here, out in the middle of nowhere, but I did not ask. It was not something that needed to be said, not among such great company as these old Kings. I bowed my head as we passed them, vaguely reminded of the ancient power of my people. Perhaps, one day, we would have such a thing built to remind the world we were as much a part of it as the mountains.
We moved past the Argonath, as Aragorn had called it; the river then expanded into a huge lake. In the distance, I could see where the lake fell in a waterfall nearly a mile wide. Our little company moved closer to the waterfall before pulling the boats onto the Western shore. We swiftly got out, glad to be on solid ground again. Sam pulled his pack out of the boat with a clatter, no doubt thinking of making some sort of meal. Aragorn moved off to one side; Legolas came to stand by me.
"I do not like this. We should move on, now, before whatever is behind us has the chance to catch up." I nodded in agreement but doubted Aragorn would agree with us. Legolas didn't share my concerns, as he moved from my side to Aragorn's as the Man told us our next move.
"We shall cross the lake at nightfall, hide the boats, and continue on foot," he said firmly. I shuddered. Nightfall was still too far off to make me rest any easier here on the Western shore. Legolas spoke softly to Aragorn, and although I couldn't hear his exact words, I knew he was explaining to the Man what it was we feared. Aragorn didn't agree. "No. Orcs patrol the eastern shore. We must wait for the cover of darkness." I growled softly.
"I would rather face the eastern shore than sit like a fish in a barrel, waiting for someone to kill me," I murmured to them, keeping my voice low so as not to frighten the others. Aragorn shook his head, addressing the others,
"We approach Mordor from the North." I heard Gimli's swift intake of breath and barely kept from laughing as he voiced his opinion.
"Oh yes? Just a simple matter of finding our way through Emyn Muil, an impassable labyrinth of razor-sharp rocks?" Aragorn stared at him patiently, waiting for the Dwarf to finish. "And after that, it gets even better! Festering, stinking marshland as far as the eye can see!" He was obviously pleased to be pointing out the flaw in Aragorn's plan. At least, until the Man put a stop to that.
"That is our road." We all turned to ogle at him as he added, "I suggest you take some rest, and recover your strength, Master Dwarf." I did laugh then as Gimli glowered at Aragorn and started grumbling about how Dwarves didn't need to recover their strength. Aragorn ignored him, instead issuing orders to the others to gather wood for a fire or to rest while we had a moment to do so. I collapsed to the ground by a boulder, leaned against it, and prepared to take a little catnap. But my plans were cut short when a worried comment from Merry brought everyone to attention again.
"Where's Frodo?"
