Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR.

A/N: Thanks to all of you who favourited or followed. You all are awesome.

Winniefawn: I'm glad you liked the chapter! Oh wow, radiologic-technologist...It sounds like an interesting field! Enjoy this chapter too :)

Marie0907: I'm glad you liked the chapter. Enjoy this one too :)

Narylfiel: Honestly I find conversations harder than anything else. Enjoy this chapter too :)

Hope you enjoy! Please RR.

Chapter 8: Unbelievable.

'It only has a slight colour.' I frowned as I looked into my reflection in the small pond we had come across. The bruises had nearly vanished in the past nine days since the incident but my back still ached. It should've been fine by now had we not needed to keep moving. Due to the galloping of Barnaby, my muscles had constantly been stressed. Now I was suffering the results in the form of constant cramps. Had I been in California I would've had complete bed rest at least for the few initial days. I would've been constantly pampered. I could only imagine the extreme worry my mother would have felt had I been beaten up like that at home. The condition in Middle-earth was quite different from what I had wished for. It was true that I had suffered numerous cuts and bruises. The tear in my upper arm itched and burned every time I changed the dressing but Èohere had suffered a large gash in his chest and I had been absolutely gobsmacked when he had gone about doing his chores and riding as if it didn't hurt one bit. I wasn't even sure of how many cuts and bruises he had. I would've winced and groaned and thrown tantrums in my own home, but here, after seeing Èohere I was just embarrassed. I was too weak to protect myself. After all, I hadn't exactly needed that much protection back in America. Yes, I carried a pepper spray when I was going to walk, especially in the dark but that was it and I was hundred and one per cent certain that pepper spray wouldn't have exactly done much damage to those monsters.

'Orcs' My thoughts turned bitter. No wonder Èohere had been so angry when he had mentioned their name once. They were despicable creatures. Huge, monstrous, filthy...

Never in my life had I hated a breathing creature more. It was not just the fact that they had hurt me more than I had ever been hurt in my life but the fact that they had made me realise, once again, how much different I was from this world. Èohere had killed them to save my life and yet I was horrified. Even physical abuses weren't allowed in California. Killing... It just left a sore taste in my mouth. I was a doctor for God's sake! This was just the opposite of what I lived for back home. I wasn't unaware of the reality that I had asked Èohere to teach me sword-fighting. In that spur of the moment, I had not cared for anything but my own well being. My own life. But when I gave this matter a little more thought I was horrified to even imagine, for a fleeting moment, that if we come across something akin to that incident, I would've to kill a being.

I shook myself out of these thoughts. This incident had not as much messed with my body as much as it had with my mind. I was homesick before. But in Bree, sometimes when the work was too hectic or when almost half of the town gathered to chat and there were gossips and laughter and amazing food and pure, genuine happiness, I would forget, even if for a moment, about my home. Here it was a whole different story. In the last ten days, I had wanted nothing more than to run out of this parallel reality. I just wanted to continue my old life. I just wanted to wake up like before, on my soft bed. I wanted to feel the comfort of jeans and T. I wanted to feel the purpose I felt when I wore my dress clothes. I wanted to have those nights out with my friends. I wanted to taste my mother's cooking and wanted to hear my father's long rants about soccer. Hell, I even wanted to hear my sister pestering me.

I closed my eyes desperately. It took a while for me to will my tears to go back. I was tired of crying each darned day. I was tired of it all. This was not who I was. This was not me. I just wanted my old life back. Was it too much to ask?

I splashed my face once more after I heard Èohere's voice. Letting the damp coolness of the water calm my disturbed thoughts. Walking back towards Barnaby, I swung on top of the saddle. I adjusted myself and squeezed Barnaby's sides so that he started galloping lightly. Even though Èohere had kept the pace low in the past few days, we were nearing the mountains. It seemed that in the next few days we will have to trek our way towards across the misty mountains. From what I could see, this range held up to its name. The huge peaks were covered with snow at the top and grey wisps covered the length of them. The mountains covered almost the whole north-south middle portion of Arda. There was no way we could steer around them unless we went through Isengard. I had asked Èohere about it before and he had been vehemently against the idea of going anywhere near that place. I didn't argue. There was no reason not to trust his decision.

Barnaby gave a slight jerk that caused me to focus once more on the road. Looking up I saw Èohere smoking pipeweed on his horse. I shook my head in exasperation. Honestly, this man was going to die in the coming few years if he continued to smoke this much. As if sensing my gaze, he looked back and smirked at seeing my expression.

"Something you are worried about, Miss Lane?" I scoffed, turning my head slightly.

"Nothing much," I drawled "just thinking where I shall bury you if by any means you fall dead due to tobacco poisoning." He laughed at this.

"I'm not joking," I humphed slightly, "You can really die due to excessive smoking!" He didn't even pay any heed to my insistence and took a long swig out of his pipe.

"As you say, Miss Lane." He replied and after a moment's hesitation added: " You do have the ability to say the strangest things."

I could feel my eyes shrinking mockingly. Thinking it a lost cause, I gave the back of his head another infuriated glare and fixed my attention onto the rolling scenery, hoping to find something to interest me during the long day.

Three days later we reached Hollin, our last destination before the misty mountains. I was transfixed by the scenery. In my travel from Bree till here I had seen many villages and structures but nothing as outstanding as this. Even though these were only the remains of what seemed to be a glorious city, they were breathtakingly beautiful. There was something strange about the very atmosphere of this place. Somehow it gave vibes of being more nature-friendly, although this term could be applied to the whole atmosphere of middle earth. I was so mesmerised by the place that I didn't even realise when the two days we passed through the city were over. I asked Èohere about this place later on, when we were already beyond the remains of the city and the huge looming mountains were upon us. He told of the elves that resided here. I was quite surprised when he said that elves were immortal and breath-taking creatures. Their existence too pure to be of this world. That they were superior to the race of men. The fictional elves that I knew in California were the small, tiny sized Santa helpers, with large pointy ears and sly expressions. This new knowledge of elves nearly destroyed my conception of them.

'I'll just make new concept when I see them for real. Breath-taking creatures, pssh, as if!' I thought amused. How much different can Middle Earth elves be from Santa's elves? I'll leave it until I meet them to find out.

Èohere stopped the gallop just as we reached a valley at the foot of the mountains. He swung off his horse and motioned for me to do the same. He spent the next hour trying to decrease our travelling baggage, not that it was large initially, as much as he could.

The position of the sun indicated that it was only noon. Why we stopped when we could go on for more than six hours, I had no idea. But if Èohere was doing it... I got off of the horse and assembled my things. I then strapped the bag on my shoulders above my cloak. Èohere looked around the valley for some time, assessing the few different paths that were already present there. I was sitting on a small jutting rock a few paces from him when he motioned me over. I walked over to him and stopped as I reached the start of a seemingly narrow path. It weaved and circled through the peaks and vanished from my field of vision after a few turns. The mountain we were going to climb was huge and rocks bulged out from random places. At the angle, I was standing more than half of the mountain was invisible due to wispy clouds.

"We shall start from this path, Miss Lane. It is going to be a long walk which I can only hope that you have the strength to do so." His tone was slightly mocking. Honestly, what was he, a two year old to want revenge from me? It was true that excessive tobacco could prove fatal. Just because my tone had been offensive... I shook my head faintly. Shifting slightly on my feet, I got ready for the long walk.

Hold on a moment, What the hell? "Are we going to walk!?" I wasn't sure that my voice could get this squeaky even if I try to make it. Èohere looked at me surprised.

"What did you expect?"

"I mean," I said, trying to make him see how impossible it was with our limited supplies. "what will happen to our horses?" Excuses were just coming out of thin air. He stared at me for a moment, as if trying to see that I was serious or not. After a long moment, he said: "They'll find their way, Rohirrim horses are no common breed, our horses know how to find their homes themselves."

Was he serious? Find their way? What was this, some sort of magical fiction movie? When he raised his eyebrows in silent question I nodded slightly. I was sure that my expression couldn't get more non-believing than it already was. I turned my face, trying not to show Èohere my scoffing expression. After all, the first thing you learn about a Rohirrim person is their bond with their horses.

I looked on vexed as Èohere said something softly, in another language, most probably Rohirric, and set off the horses. I was worried about Barnaby, he wasn't even a pure Rohirric horse. We looked on for a moment as the horses galloped in the opposite direction from ours and vanished across the horizon. Èohere turned his back first, stepping a bit further on the track.

"It is time for us to leave Miss." He said looking back at me. I fought the urge to facepalm myself for thinking that this journey will be as easy throughout.

"Yay!"I said in a monotone, "I couldn't have wished for a better way to travel." Ignoring Èohere's questioning look at my use of English I stepped beside him and started walking along the path. I could basically feel the roll of his eyes behind my back.

To be continued...

A/N: I'm so sorry that after so long it is such a tiny chapter with no real development. I have already formed the synopsis for the next chapters and will try my best to write two chapters in the next few days. :)