Cleff kept looking over her shoulder, as she hung on for dear life on Gandalf's faithful steed, Shadowfax. After her dreaded (or hilarous) encounter with the Living Ringwraith who was once her best friend Ash, Cleff escaped Isengard and decides to go to a main pint where Ash's first target will be – Bree.
"Run, Shadowfax! I got to get to Bree at once!" Cleff screamed through the whipping South Wind. "Ash is a stalker, and I got to protect one thing she's stalking for sure – Frodo Baggins and the One Ring!!!"
Then at instinct, Shadowfax halted in the middle of a crossroad. "What is it boy… gotta pee?" The horse was annoyed and threatened to throw Cleff off his back. "Ooookay boy, calm down…" She looks around to see two signs leading to two roads, one "Bree" to the right and another "Shortcut to Rohan" to the left.
"Rohan?" she exclaimed. Shadowfax impatiently pummeled his hooves into the ground. Cleff held her forehead, having a headache, at the same time, checking her back if anyone is following. "I haven't read the 'Two Towers' yet Shadowfax… and I am not some could call a 'perfect' Cliffhanger…" she sighed. "But I reckon you must return to Rohan, to King Theoden." Cleff grunted and dismounted the horse. She put the sack (with the heavy book in it) over her shoulder and headed towards the road to Bree. "I'm going to Bree alone, if you wouldn't mind. Enjoy your return to Rohan…" Just then, the horse stopped on her trackes and whinnied, nuzzling his nose on her shoulder.
"Now, now Shadowfax," she muttered softly, stroking Shadowfax's mane. "I thought you wanted to go to Rohan? I'll go to Bree on my own, and I'll BE SAFE. So stop worrying! Gandalf will pick you up there, I hope." And with one last attempted push from Cleff, Shadowfax rode off to Rohan.
Cleff sighed as she watched him trot off on an amazing acceleration, getting farther and farther away in the growing darkness. "Nasty little pony," she muttered. After saying that, Cleff quickly gasped and stepped off the road, in case Shadowfax would ride back and kick her hard in the rear. (Snicker, snicker.) "Oh well," she sighed as she turned towards the road to Bree. Then suddenly, she gave a swift sharp look over her shoulder, for a last check if anyone is still stalking her.
"Stay off the road…they will never stop hunting you… Go back to where you belong, old friend…Time is against you, go to Bree as soon as you can, as long as Frodo and the hobbits are still… alive!"
Cleff can hear Gandalf screaming at her now and Ash taunting her… as she made her way out of the dark woody forest, jumping at every rustle of a bush or a hoot of an owl. Dark misty shades are growing all around, as night is swift approaching. For the last time, a mouse screeched, and that sent Cleff into screaming.
"OH YOU SWEET F***IN VERMIN!!! YOU LITTLE SON OF A-" she kept screaming *expletive* words as she nastily stomped on an escaping mice chased by a lot of wild rats. "EEEEKKK! YUCK!" Cleff exclaimed, as the dark, icky stuff hid under a swampy hole. "Ok, calm yourself, compose yourself, Clefe… pant…pant…one more time you scream out like a f***in' maniac… I shouldn't be saying those words…"
Suddenly, an owl hooted sharply and landed on her shoulder. Startling her. An eerie shriek filled the whole forest.
"EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! VEEEEERRRRRMMMMIIIIIINNNNNN!!!"
Cleff started flailing her arms wildling, running off at a unbelievable speed, powered by adrenalin rush, as blood pumps into her body, powering her spine, which enhances muscle motion- (Wait a minute, this is my respiratory and nervous system accounts! Damn! All those schoolwork are gonna pay for invading my brain!!!), as she ran throughout the forest, without any sense of direction.
Suddenly she halts, and it begins to rain. It splatters all her messy hair full of twigs and a open sack, draining the mushy, humoungous book of the Cliffhanger. And all Clef could sport is a look of insanity.
"Sh**!"
After drawing up her hood, and walking all soaked in the rain, grumbling angrily to herself, Clefe, halted as the bushes and clearings decreased, finally revealing what she was looking for in almost an hour – Bree's Main Gate.
"Finally! Of all freaking hell I have been, and losing a great old wizard who leaves me a heavy friggin' book as burden, I can sleep peacefully in the Inn of the Prancing Pony!" she exclaimed, wiping her eyebrows. "If there aren't any prancing ponies who are going to ruin my sleep…"
The rain fell harder as she broke into a run to find quick shelter by Bree's guradkeeper's gate. Just when the wooden brown gate was so near, she clashes with something hard and LIVING, running at the same speed as she does, and she plummets right on the ground with an angry THUMP!
"Ooof!"
"Ow," said a familiar voice, Cliff swore she had heard a day before. She looked up to wipe mud and water from her face to come face to face with three cruly haired hobbits, and a small one, lying on the ground, obviously the one she crashed heads with.
"Stand up you evil Black Rider!" screamed one at her, holding out a large cooking pan threatening her. If she was only in a good mood, Clef could have died with a fitting laugh. But with all the mud on her face, an her heavy sack split open because of the stupid's book inexplainable heaviness, she just couldn't help but do what Ash could have done in the first place – strangle him.
"You freakin' piece of a halfling loser-" she said in a clear, rumbling voice, accompanied with a strike of thunder (it was raining after all), when one of the hobbits interrupted her.
"Oh my, Sam! It's just a little girl!" he said, making Clef shake.
If it was a good situation, Cleff really could have died laughing. But since she got high blood pressure because of all the food back in Bilbo's party and she's got black mud all over her face, she just stood up, boiling, and she can't help doing –
"YOU BASTARD PIECE OF A LITTLE –"
Cleff was beside herself, and she has caught one of the cute, little hobbits with a green scarf (Yeah. You know who THIS is.) in a headlock. The others stood and watched, gaping at the both of them. The smallest of them, the one whom Cleff butted heads with, stood up, and nudged a red and fuming Cleff on the head.
"Master Cleff! I didn't know –" said a bruised, battered, shocked and muddy Frodo. "You just arrived to accompany us to Bree in time!"
She pushed the smaller hobbit out of her chocking headlock, and gave Frodo a small "Eh?" Then totally shook her head. "In time… yeah. I need to warn you! The Ringwraiths are after your Ring!"
Frodo gave her a small, disappointing nod and said, "We know." He helped Cleff up as a shocked Sam dropped the pan. "By the way, my companions here are Sam, whom you know, Merry Brandybuck, " points to a robust but mischevious looking hobbit. "And Peregrin Took," he points to the one Cleff had a headlock with. "He's fond of calling himself Pippin."
Cleff noticed the two hobbits as the two troublemakers with the smuggled firecracker in Bilbo's Party. She just gave them a grim little smile as suddenly, the Gate opened, with a tall man peering from the inside.
"What's all that racket all about?" glared the Gatekeeper. He peered over the four small people, and a flustered and fatigued girl about the age of fourteen. "Four hobbits! No five!"
"Wait a minute, I am a child! As in – HUMAN ? !" she said, waving her hands up and down, rolling her eyes. Merry and Pippin looked in at her in fear. The Gatekeeper snorted as raindrops thumped down his hood. "Fine then, four hobbits and a child! What is your business in Bree?"
Frodo stepped up and screamed, (To Cleff's shock) "WE CAME TO STAY IN THE INN OF THE PRANCING PONY! OUR BUSINESS IS OUR OWN!" Cleff and Sam stepped back, as the Gatekeeper let them in. Clef has to stoop down as she entered the Gate, muttering, "How tall have I grown?" The hobbits look back at her with blank expressions. "Never mind."
Frodo kept throwing nervous glances at Cleff as they passed tall wagons and tall menacing people leaving and strolling Bree in the rain. He seemed to be expecting a dastardly black-hooded rider to appear out fo nowhere and trample him down, squashing the five of them to bits.
Well all Cliff had to scream, since she was so irritated, so fatigued, so tired, and so annoyed to hear Merry and Pippin doing some senseless jokes like "What do you get when you cross a road with a hooded freak?" "A nasty kid in mud! Hahhahahhahah…" She just can't help but to strangle Pippin again. Then suddenly, some horse let loose and almost hit her on the head. She screamed back at the owner, cursing in the rain, "I'LL GET YOU IN THE MIDDLE EARTH COURT IN TWO MONTHS YOU LOUSY SON OF A *****!!!" Frodo had to make sure she was ten inches away from him.
They sooner or later entered the Inn of the Prancing Pony, as the warm light soared back into their surrounding. Frodo took off his hood and approached the bartender called "Butterbur", as Merry, Sam, Pippin and Cleff collapsed on the floor.
"I'm tired," Pippin said softly, craning his neck, looking nervously at Cleff. "And hungry too."
Cleff sighed and nodded. "All I need is some sleep. And then I can get myself composed again. Sorry if I created a riot out there, Sam, Merry… Pippin. Uh, could you accept my apology?"
Pippin and Merry exchanged glances and gave each other a hobbit version of a high five. "Well done!" both said in unison. All Sam could do was mysteriously smile, stand up and pat Cleff on the shoulder. Somehow, Frodo returned to them, looking glum. "He hasn't seen Gandalf for six months," he mustered softly. The five had a small huddle. "What do we do now?" Merry spoke softly, then they all turned to Cleff.
"What?" she said I a small squeaky, guilty voice, as if she ate Gandalf. "You were the last person Gandalf was with, Cliffhanger Clefe. Do you know where he is now?" said Frodo softly, all eyes set on Clef.
She couldn't tell the future to these hobbits, about Gandalf's betrayal on Isengard by that nasty Saruman wizard, for she is sure that it was a neat trap for her and Gandalf, by sending Ringwarith Ash onto the fields to seek her. But somehow, she could lie for a moment.
"Gandalf told me to go straight ahead, to look after you," said Clef softly, getting curious glances from Butterbur behind the counter. "But I do not know of his fate. Nor mine." She bent down closely to whisper to them and said, "I suggest we spend the night here and continue our trek tomorrow, is that a deal?"
"Good idea," Frodo said, trembling. With that small and quick council of about half a minute, Frodo turned to Butterbur to decide on his plan of checking inn the rest of them in the Prancing Pony.
"Yes, little master?" said Butterbur.
Frodo gave them one last glance before replying and said, "We decide to spend the night in here. Four hobbit beds and a regular bed for our female companion. Is that a assurance?"
"Why yes, four hobbit beds and a regular. How about a hamburger to go with that – no. Wrong line. So, may I know your name, little master?" said the old bartender, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill.
Frodo was about to reply when something hard, heavy, sweaty and disarming fell on Butterbur's head. Frodo naturally backed off and was pulled into a hug by an unknown force.
"What the-"
A high pitched voice filled the whole inn. Merry, Pippin and Sam stood in shock while Cleff was frozen as hard as stone. A female girl, with long blonde hair, tight in a braid was hugging the life out of Frodo, her cheeks as red as… I dunno. One of Pippin's scarfs?
"OOOOOOHHHH!!! Hobbitttts!!! I luv yooouuuu…" she echoed, as she saw Merry, Pippin and Sam, who quickly hid behind a stammered and shocked Cleff who was staring at the girl as if she was the most dangerous child in all dimensions possible.
"Sh-sh-shea S-sandman? The v-v-virus of Middle Earth?" she stammered. The icky little girl nodded, with Frodo still struggling in her tight headlock hug. ("Le'mme go! Le'mme go! Women!")
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THE SAKE OF THE HEAVENS, NOT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!"
