Nine Little Ring Bearers

It´s very frightening to start a new chapter. Especially if you´re not so sure about what you´re going to write. You are afraid that this is that chapter where all begins to go wrong. That the story won´t have enough "magic" anymore.

So, I´m afraid. Has anyone else had these kind of feelings when writing? Well, I just have to write those feelings down and make the Fellowship fear. . .

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Chapter 5

The Fellowship had travelled a long time up the Misty Mountains. They were heading towards the pike Caradhras. There was a pass there and they were planning to go through the pass to the other side of the shadowy mountains. It had started to snow and snow gathered to the path which the Fellowship was taking.

"Is it still a long way to go?" Pippin asked tired. He was floundering in the knee-high snow, trying to force his frozen legs to move.

Merry was tramping behind him with an frustrated look. "Oh Pippin. Just look up. We are not even near Caradhras yet," he declared. Merry and Pippin were the last ones of the climbing group and they were beginning to straggle from the others. "And would you mind walking a little bit faster. I don´t wish to get stuck in the snow with you alone."

In the other end of the slowly moving line Aragorn and Gandalf were discussing. "It´s snowing hard," Aragorn stated dimly. "I hope the snow won´t block our path."

Gandalf looked around pondering. "If it won´t start snowing faster, I think we can continue this way," he said and went on quietly: "You know Aragorn. The other ways are too dangerous. We can´t risk to take them." Aragorn nodded gravely.

Strider and the grey wizard moved on a while in silence. "We must not let anything evil happen anymore," Aragorn started. "That deprivation was almost too big for us," he said gazing tight at Gandalf.

Gandalf sighed. "You are right. We must be cautious," he admitted unwilling to say more.

Aragorn looked questionable at him. "I know you don´t want to cause more grieve by talking about this, but we have to. Who knows what might happen later if we won´t find out what killed Legolas." Gandalf seemed suffering but Aragorn didn´t stop. "You know he was killed. An elf wouldn´t just slip down from a cliff and hit his head on a rock," Aragorn said laughing darkly and then his face became grave again. "We couldn´t find any rocks from the ground near the place we found him. But we found something else." Aragorn put his hand on his bag and took forth a piece of black stone. A bloody piece of black stone.

Gandalf turned his glance quickly away. "That doesn´t prove anything," he blurted out. "That might be the stone where he hit his head when he fell. How can you say that someone . . . killed him with this?" he looked fearfully at Aragorn.

"We found it under some bushes. It was thrown there. Someone tried to hide it," Aragorn told desperately. "I know you know too that he was killed, you are wiser than me. Why can´t you just admit it?" he said looking begginly at his old friend.

Gandalf had remained quiet calm but now he became furious. He placed his hands on Aragorn´s shoulders and prevented him from walking. "Don´t you understand, Aragorn?" he almost shouted. "If we tell everyone that Legolas was killed by someone, what would happen to our company? How would the athmosphere change? We would fear every noise, every shadow, everything unusual. Frodo has to bear a great burden already. We cannot enlarge it." There was no sign from the fearful Gandalf anymore. His voice was determined and his decision final.

Aragorn´s countenance grew pale. Carefully he mumbled out a concession. "You are right. It is best for our quest to leave this subject. As I said, you are wiser than me," he said troubled.

Gandalf noticed that he was still holding Aragorn´s shoulders and let go. "Good that you understand. Because this is the only way to. . ."

Gandalf could not finish his sentence because a loud roar interrupted him. The Fellowship was walking beside a high precipice and next to them was a deep gorge.

"Watch out for the snow!" Boromir´s yell made Gandalf and Aragorn see the avalanche which was falling on them. Quickly they nestled themselves against the precipice and then the snow fell.

After the last rests of the avalanche had fallen there was not anything else to be seen than white snow. No sign of the company which had few seconds ago marched beside the gorge. Suddenly a hand appeared upon the snow. Then another hand. Aragorn made his way out of the snow and started to help the others. Soon everybody was taken out from the bank of snow. Almost everybody.

"Where is Gimli?" Pippin noticed. The members of the Fellowship looked in all directions.

"He´s still in the snow!" Boromir shouted. Everyone, including the hobbits, started throwing the snow away. Merry even tried to dive into the snow. But they could not find the dwarf.

Unexpectedly Gandalf sat down on the snow and shaked his head. "No use to look for him," he said.

The others looked at him astonished. "Why not?" Sam asked. "We can´t leave him to freeze to death!"

Gandalf shooked his head again. "The gorge," he told slowly. "He has fallen down to the gorge."

The seven companions of the Fellowship looked disbelieving down to the deep dark gorge, trying to see its bottom, but in vain.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I kind of like this chapter (at least more than the previous ones). Gandalf and Aragorn are arguing and so. But the ending is boring, I admit.

FanFiction has been broken already almost two days when I´m writing this and I´m getting desperate! I wrote this chapter ages ago but I haven´t been able to put it in the Internet. Hopefully it won´t take very long to repair FF. I will be on a scout camp the whole following weekend and if FF doesn´t work on next morning (Friday) I can´t download this new chapter before Sunday evening. So sorry if you had to wait!