Chapter 5: A Lost Realm And Mountains

The Journey of the company had begun. And they travelled on foot. They were led by Gandalf and Aragorn and they seem to know a lot about the land. After walking for many days the company now reached Hollin, which Gandalf told them was inhabited by elves long ago. The wizard then declared their main route to their destination but in the meantime they will rest at Hollin for a day. Price, Mactavish and Nikolai quickly settled down and joined a meal with the company. As they ate their companions then asked them questions of their curiosity of the three strangers starting with Peregrin asking Captain Price.

"Well sir, Gandalf told us that the three of you were soldiers. Your appearances were very strange, and Lord Elrond said that you came from another land named Afghanistan. Err… what are those objects that were hanging on your backs?"

"This?"

Answered Price as he pulled his M4A1 and shown it to the company.

"Yes sir."

Answered Pippin. The other hobbits came and they were joined by Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli for they too were curious about these men.

Price then said as he displayed it to them,

"Here is a gun, a Colt M4A1 Rifle with an M203 Grenade Launcher. It has thirty rounds or bullets, could fire full automatic and semi-auto with an effective range of 550 yards."

"That is an impressive weapon Captain Price, But I see no blade or shaft in it but only holes one small and the other quite large. So how does it kill?"

Asked Gimli who was interested in the weapon.

So Price did a weapons demonstration of the rifle on how it worked and also did a disassembly of it and then Legolas then said with wonder as he looked at the dismantled rifle,

"Your weapon is broken Captain, Could you have another one?"

"No I just disassembled it now I am going to put it back again."

So Price started to assemble the rifle and talked about its importance in maintaining those kinds of weapons. So after he finished his demonstration. The company sat amazed and Boromir said to him before he and the other companions decided to sleep,

"It was a good weapon Captain Price, may it show its usefulness in combat soon I am glad that we have men who have powerful weapons."

Price just nodded. Soap and Nikolai came to him and said,

"Nice weapons demonstration Captain, they look very eager to know about us and our stuff. But I hope that they would trust us."

They looked around and saw Aragorn and Sam taking the watch so they started to take a short nap. Then something happened Aragorn quickly hissed to Sam to lie flat and still and hearing this the three took cover quickly gripping their rifles but they saw that they were only large crows but they still stayed in their hiding place and when they have passed out of sight they got out and asked themselves,

"What are those crows?"

Later they knew that were crebain and the place that they were staying were being watched, so they have to move by night. The company now started their journey again. And they now have to climb the mountains and go to pass named Cradhras to reach the other side so by the advice of Boromir they took faggot for making a fire and they set out again. Hours later they had already climbed a part of the mountain but afterwards Aragorn said that they were still far and the a storm was on them. The company tried to move and it was very laborious. Mactavish remembered his mission with Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson in Kazakhstan where they had to climb cliffs and and infiltrate a base to recover the ACS module in the middle of a snowstorm. But this storm was far too harsh for the company and even for Nikolai who was used in the very cold conditions. So unexpectedly the company halted and took shelter in a cliff wall. They were all freezing and even Frodo had to be roused by Boromir. So Gandalf gave them a mouthful of a cordial called miruvor. After they drank they now started to light a fire and it was very hard to light up by their means so Price approached and took out his lighter and said,

"Alright, Ill help you, I've got this lighter and lets see if it works."

So Price set to work with his lighter the company watched as he tried to light the wood but every time his lighter had a flame he tried to ignite the wood but it was useless because of the wet fuel. So Price resigned and put the lighter back in his pocket. Then Gandalf picked a faggot and said something that made it ignite. So the Company enjoyed the fire but it was for a short while and there are more snow to pour down so they decided to retreat down the mountain so they moved again but the storm brewed up again as they moved and they have to make a path so Aragorn and Boromir toiled to make one Price, Soap and Nikolai also joined them to assist them if they could and provide them covering fire with their rifles in case of enemy presence. Aragorn and Boromir worked on the path with only their arms and legs then Legolas sped by to find the sun which confused the three. After the five men returned Aragorn carried Merry and Boromir carried Pippin. The two men returned to carry the last two hobbits. At last they got down and were out of the mountains. Price looked at the mountain and muttered,

"Well that was close. I hope that Gandalf has a plan B. "

And the company went down again for another path.