They made their way through Dubbin, Aragorn in the lead, Legolas behind him, Savina next, and Gimli at the rear. They didn't talk as they made their way through the bustling city streets, but they walked quickly, Aragorn seemed anxious to get out of the city. Luckily, Savina's house when only twenty minutes from the edge of town, and before she knew it they had reached East Dubbin, which was green and beautiful and sparsely populated by farmers. They walked for hours through East Dubbin.
At first, Savina didn't mind all of the walking; she had expected a lot of walking. Halfway through East Dubbin, though, she started getting really tired, her head lowered and she looked at her feet instead of the same view of the back of Legolas' head. Her mind began to wander; without meaning to, she thought of her father. She wondered where he was, if he was hurt or suffering, if he was even alive. No, she was sure he was alive; her father had never been the type to die.
The question was; where was he?
Suddenly Savina ran smack into Legolas, nearly knocking both of them over.
Legolas steadied her with his arm, "weren't paying attention, were you?"
He hadn't said it to be mean or ridicule her, but Savina could feel her face burning. Just four or five hours into the expedition and she had already made a fool of herself. She looked up at Aragorn, relieved to see that he wasn't laughing, but studying her.
"We're going to rest for a few minutes."
Gimli grunted and tossed his pack onto the ground, "Dwarves are made for mining and battling, not trekking around the whole damn countryside."
Savina took her pack off and set it down against a rock that was on the edge of the path they were following. She stood in the path and looked down the way they had just come, as far as she could see all she could see was the straight brown path with trees along each side.
Legolas was watching her with a look of amusement. He walked over to her and turned her chin with his hand, so that she was looking at the path ahead, which wound up into a small, warm mountain range.
She looked at him, confused. She was about to ask something when Legolas spoke again.
"It's always better to look foreword."
"Why?" Savina glanced back down the path at the way they had come and pointed, "look how far we've come."
Legolas shook his head, "it doesn't matter what you've done, it matters what you do now and ten seconds from now and tomorrow. That," he pointed down the path they had come from, "is gone in the past and exists nowhere except in you head."
Savina was silent for a moment, Legolas was a bit odd. Then she sighed and sat down on the rock next to her pack, looking up at Legolas, who had turned and was staring into the forest. He was beautiful, nearly perfect, in fact. She studied him, searching for a flaw, but she didn't find one. For some reason, that filled her with loathing and unspeakable rage. She turned away quickly, her own feelings sending chills down her back.
Legolas knelt down next to her, "are you ok?"
"I'm fine," she snapped, surprising even herself.
Aragorn turned around and looked at her with his intense eyes, as if probing into her soul.
Gimli tugged on his own beard and looked at her, then turned his eyes on Aragorn, "what route are we taking, Aragorn?"
Instead of answering, Aragorn turned and looked at her. It took Savina a moment to realize he wanted the map, which only she could read. She pulled it out of her vest pocket and opened it.
Aragorn moved to stand next to her and looked down at it, "we're halfway through East Dubbin," he said slowly, pointing on the map. Slowly, he moved his finger to the northeast, "we could either go through Stonewain Valley or over the smallest of the White Mountains."
Mountains, thought Savina darkly, thinking of how much her feet already hurt.
Legolas glanced at Savina, and then back at Aragorn, "perhaps we should go through the valley."
Savina felt grateful and angry at the same time, Legolas thought she couldn't make it through the mountains. Actually, she wasn't sure she could either. She leaned down and looked angrily at the map, maybe she shouldn't have even come at all. She glanced down the path they had come from, it wasn't too late…
She shook her head vigorously; she wasn't turning back, no matter what happened. Savina looked down at the map again, touching Dubbin gently with her finger and moving it sideways along the path they were on, through Stonewain, across The Great River, across more mountains, to Mordor. She rested her finger on Mordor.
Suddenly she felt blind, all she could see was a horrible giant eye that seemed to be made out of fire. A terrible screeching sound filled her head, then she heard her father's voice, "come to me, Savina, I need you."
Then everything went black.