Well, hello again! Explanation for this chapter: my writing comrade and I were highly sugared and listening to Disney songs. So no, we don't own Disney (though we wish we did). Thank you to TheFlyingHobbit and horseyyay for reviewing! I really enjoyed reading both of your reviews!
Liz - WHAT DAY IS IT?! Oh...it's June 9th... - Road to Moria (somewhere near Weathertop)
Everything's finally back to normal again. Well, I don't think anything will ever be the same again. We've all changed. A lot. But that's a good thing. I know our friendship is stronger...and it's going to last for a long time.
I'd been asleep for...four days? Something like that. My wounds still hadn't healed, and it really hurt to walk, but we decided to move forward anyways. We had a lot of ground to cover. Iris protested, but then I pointed out that if we waited until my leg healed...well...if Middle Earth needed saving, we wouldn't be able to save it.
We had to problem of how I was going to move, though. We didn't have any horses, and crutches are pretty hard to come by in the middle of the wilderness. Then Eddy (to my surprise) suggested that I use the shadows to support my weight as we traveled. I was hesitant, but Hallie told me I was being stupid.
And so I used my shadows to make myself a little hovercraft, and we were on our way. It was a little bumpy (thus the messy scrawl in my journal right now...), but I didn't have to walk, and we could go at normal pace.
"Hey, could I see a map?" I asked. Even though my friends thought otherwise, I didn't have the map of Middle Earth memorized. Hallie handed me a map, and I looked at it, tracing the path we had taken so far.
And then something caught my eye. "Oh my gosh!" I freaked out. I really should have figured this out earlier, but I was kind of knocked out so my brain hadn't been functioning properly.
Hallie raised an eyebrow at me. "What? Are you okay?" Of course I wasn't okay. Don't be silly.
"We're going to the Misty Mountains!" I half-squealed. I was...slightly hyper...but it was a good change from the depressing mood we had been in for a while.
"And your point is?" Hallie looked at me like I was crazy. Which I was. But whatever.
My eye glinted mischievously. "She's going to sing," Iris mumbled.
And I did.
"Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day
To find our long, forgotten gold..."
Hallie rolled her eyes. Gimli, hearing me sing the familiar song, turned around with a grin, joining in on the next stanza.
"The pines were roaring on the height
The winds were moaning in the night
The fire was red, it flaming spread
The trees like torches, blazed with light..."
It was just the movie version of the song...but the real version was really super long, and it didn't really apply to our journey anyways.
Hallie smiled slightly. "Very nice. Sounded better when Thorin sang it though."
Gimli looked very confused. "Now 'ow did ye 'ear Master Thorin sing it?"
We looked at each other. "Uhh..we have a friend...named Thorin," I said lamely.
"Interesting," Gimli looked incredulous, but said nothing more, much to our relief.
"We should sing something to annoy them," Hallie suggested, indicating to Iris and Eddy.
I grinned. I liked this idea. I looked back at Iris and Eddy. Iris was laughing at something Eddy said. Cue the evil look from me and Hallie.
"There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don't got a lot to say
But there's something about her
And you don't know why
But you're dying to try
You wanna kiss the girl..."
Iris and Eddy looked up in surprise, and glared fiercely in our direction. We grinned and kept singing.
"Yes, you want her
Look at her, you know you do
Possible she wants you too
There is one way to ask her
It don't take a word
Not a single word
Go on and kiss the girl..."
Their faces were bright red...and it was hilarious.
"Sha la la la la la
My oh my
Look like the boy too shy
Ain't gonna kiss the girl
Sha la la la la la
Ain't that sad?
Ain't it a shame?
Too bad, he gonna miss the girl..."
They looked away from each other. Man...they were deeeep inside the river of denial.
"Now's your moment
Floating in a blue lagoon
Boy you better do it soon
No time will be better
She don't say a word
And she won't say a word
Until you kiss the girl..."
By now, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Haldir looked back at us with perplexed expressions on their faces. This was the best moment of my life. So far. Iris was glaring at Hallie and me, and Eddy wouldn't look in our direction. We continued... one more stanza to go.
"Sha la la la la la
Don't be scared
You got the mood prepared
Go on and kiss the girl
Sha la la la la la
Don't stop now
Don't try to hide it how
You want to kiss the girl
Sha la la la la la
Float along
And listen to the song
The song say kiss the girl
Sha la la la la
Music play
Do what the music say
You got to kiss the girl
You wanna kiss the girl
Go on and kiss the girl..."
Aragorn was smirking. Legolas raised an eyebrow with a slight smile on his face. Gimli was laughing. Haldir looked like he was trying not to laugh- which is a pretty funny expression for an elf. All eyes were on Eddy and Iris, who had bright red faces. Their arms were crossed, and they were both glaring at us. We just laughed. And laughed. It felt so good.
Though I'm pretty sure they're going to try to get us for that later. Of course, we've done that many times (not singing to them- just trying to embarrass them about their secret love for each other), and they haven't embarrassed us quite as much yet. Hopefully they wouldn't go as far as to mention Hallie's fangirling over Aragorn... or our many jokes about Legolas' perfect hair...
Iris walked a little bit faster and fell into step with Hallie and I, while Eddy jogged to catch up with Haldir, who was a bit ahead.
"You guys are horrible," Iris said, "I can't believe you did that."
"We did... what must be done," Hallie sighed, dramatically, before bursting into laughter.
Iris rolled her eyes. "I knew I shouldn't have told you guys about that on the ship..." she mumbled.
I laughed. "We would have figured it out anyway," I said, "I mean, the way you two look at each other and spend most of your time together flirting... even the elves noticed."
Iris blushed, which only made Hallie's and my smiles get bigger. We teased and tortured her about "Tree" (her secret name for him) for an hour as we walked along. Soon, though, the sunlight began to wane and we had to stop so Gimli could start preparing dinner while it was still light enough to see.
While we waited for dinner, the archers practiced archery, Hallie practiced more with her rune-magic (it's more like combat magic, but I guess Legolas doesn't know what that is). Iris and I tried to figure out some of the shadewalking stuff.
I showed her what I could do. I made myself look like her, which she thought was really cool but weird at the same time. I showed her how I could use my shadows to deflect objects and fight.
"This really is a cool skill, Liz," she said.
"I know. Raordell said that I was one of the most powerful shadewalkers he had ever seen," I told her.
"What I don't understand is how shadewalking possesses people and makes them want to do evil. I mean...the user is in control, not the shadows. How exactly do you...feel when you're manipulating the shadows?"
"Well...I feel really powerful. But after I use my powers, I feel a lot weaker. It draws on my energy, so that's why I feel so drained afterwards."
"Hm...this might sound really far-fetched, but maybe shadewalking draws on your dark energy. Arwen told me that everyone has light and dark energy inside. And if shadewalking draws on the dark energy, when you let it get out of control, it takes over."
"Great." I groaned. "So, what do I do?"
"I think that if you learn to have more control, and to stay level-headed in battle, you'll be fine."
"I'll keep that in mind," I said. Just then, Hallie walked over.
"Hey, Iris, do you think you could help me figure out this rune-magic thing?"
"Sure," Iris said. Then she turned to me. "Is that okay?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," I said. Iris and Hallie left, leaving me more confused than ever.
Eddy - June 12th - Happy Birthday to Me (Whoo-hoo. Catch the sarcasm?)
I've had a lot of nasty birthdays. Like the time my cousin almost exploded my cake when I was five. Or the time the party streamers caught on fire and the fire department had to come. The worst one, I think, was the time that my dad messed up the reservations and we ended up not having a party at all.
This was far worse than that. First of all, it was freezing cold, blowing snow everywhere, and I couldn't even feel my face anymore. We had finally reached the Misty Mountains. And it was terrible. Who in their right mind would travel along these mountains? Although...admittedly, we weren't exactly the worlds sanest people. More like the world's craziest.
And of course, it's my birthday. La-de-da. I'm sixteen. I should be spending it with cake and presents, not lembas and a blizzard. Oh, I almost got crushed by an avalanche too. I can see the headlines now: BOY DIES ON SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY. Well, at least I'm not Liz. If she died, she'd never turn sixteen. She'd never be able to drive. Of the four of us, Iris is the oldest (her birthday's in December), Hallie's second oldest (March), my birthday's in June and Liz is just really young, with her birthday in August.
So anyways, this was probably the worst birthday ever. Let's just get attacked and we can have a party. And everyone forgot my birthday! It was partly because none of us were really knew what the date was (our phones had run out of battery long ago). My friends are usually pretty good at remembering birthdays. Except that one time when we forgot Hallie's birthday and celebrated it a month late. But hey, it was a good celebration. We kind of...kidnapped her...but that's a story for another day.
Speaking of time, I wonder how time works between our world and Middle Earth. When we get back, will it be like Narnia, or will everyone be freaking out because we've been missing for three-ish months? Maybe somewhere in the middle. Maybe I'll be lucky and get to actually celebrate my birthday when we get back. If we get back. But then, how old would I be?
See, these are the weird questions that run through my head when I'm tired, annoyed, mad, and all of the above.
Wouldn't this all be easier if Gandalf just came back from the Grey Havens? Why did he leave when he knew that we were going to show up and really really need his help? Everything would be so much easier with some moths, eagles, and magical light. He could probably strike Raordell dead without very much effort. I really want that guy dead, by the way.
It was a very slow trek through the mountains. I felt like it was going to take us twice as long to reach Moria, but apparently we were almost there. Maybe three or four days left, according to Aragorn.
I tried to cheer myself up with thoughts of happy times, warmth, and food. It didn't work. "It's going to take a lot to cheer me up," I mumbled. Actually, I said it in a regular voice, because no one could hear me above the howling of the wind anyways.
Finally, we stopped for the night. We huddled around the fire. Nobody talked much. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli discussed paths. Well, they tried to. The map wasn't cooperating. Every time they successfully situated it so they could all see, the wind acted up again and blew the map away. At one point, Gimli said a few curse words in Dwarvish and almost slammed his axe into the table.. Hallie, Liz, Iris, Haldir, and I huddled together for warmth.
Suddenly Hallie and Liz shared a kind of "look", and I grimaced as they burst out singing another Disney song. I think it was "Colours of the Wind". But hey, you really can't tell. With all the wind. Ha. I just got that joke. Although, the only colours in this wind are white and grey. Iris rolled her eyes at the duet and scooted closer to me, which of course made my side tingle wherever I touched her. And my face heated up. Gosh, I sound like an idiot.
She moved in closer to me, leaning a little on my shoulder, and kind of whispered in my ear, "Happy Birthday, Eddy." I was so shocked and overwhelmed by her presence that I almost fell over. I was staring deep into her green eyes, and she was looking into mine.
"Uh... thanks," I said, still staring at her. Uh, thanks? Can you be any more of an idiot? I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "What-what I mean is, thanks for remembering my birthday. It means a lot... especially out here."
Iris smiled. She looked so pretty when she smiled. It was unfortunate that I hadn't gotten to see her smile as often. Unable to help myself, I smiled back. We sat there for a while, wrapped in a blanket, our hands and faces barely warmed by the fire, smiling at each other like idiots. I then decided to make it my personal goal to make sure she smiled as much as possible.
Suddenly, I heard Hallie exclaim, "Oh my gosh!"
We all looked up. "It's... Eddy's birthday! I can't believe I forgot!" she shrieked, "We need to sing to him."
"Haven't you done enough of that for one day?" Gimli grumbled, annoyed by the ever-present wind, and the lack of cooperation from the map.
Hallie, Liz, and Iris sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and then Aragorn taught us a traditional Gondorian birthday song. Unwilling to be bested, Gimli taught us a dwarvish birthday song. When we asked Legolas and Haldir if the elves had any birthday songs, they started singing what had to be the most beautiful song I'd ever heard. Funny thing, though, was I swore the tune was vaguely similar to our version of "Happy Birthday".
We exchanged birthday stories over the fire as we ate lembas. We spent a good portion of the night (or maybe day, you really can't tell) talking and laughing.
It was the best birthday I've ever had.
Well, this was an exciting chapter, wasn't it? Eddy's sixteen (interesting fact: it means he can date- we all know where this is going), and Hallie and Liz have discovered their love of singing Disney songs. I do promise, though, that they get bored after Eddy's birthday.