Disclaimer: I wish I owned the lotr characters but unfortunately I don't.
Ch 28 Trapped
Ned was sat hidden amongst the trees she was trying desperately to keep out of the way of the Wraiths that were still looking around the forest. They already had two people, Ned didn't know why they wanted any more. She wondered if Fred and Bob had been reunited yet but thought that maybe it was too early. She had hoped that her earlier small psychic experience might come back and tell her something but nothing happened.
The Hobbits were also sat still doing exactly as Ned told them to do. They were a little nervous at being left alone with her especially seeing as she was injured, they knew there was no way she could defend them if they were found.
Frodo was worried about Ned's condition, he had tried to ask her if she was alright but she had refused to say anything to him. He was genuinely worried about her, he still couldn't understand why he was so concerned it was obvious that she wasn't. He wished that Bob was there with them, she seemed to understand Ned a bit better than Frodo did. He wondered how Bob was getting on, she had been very brave going off to Middle Earth like that.
Sam was also concerned about Ned but not for the same reason as Frodo. Ned seemed to know these woods fairly well and if she died or passed out on them Frodo and him would be lost and on their own in a strange place they knew nothing about. Sam didn't know if they could survive on their own if Ned was gone. There would certainly be little chance of them ever finding a way out of the Forest. Although right then Ned didn't seem to be doing a lot anyway. In fact she was doing nothing. Sam decided to wait patiently and see what happened. After all there was nothing he could do about it.
Ned finally turned round and faced the Hobbits who were sat looking at the ground with sad expressions on their faces. Ned didn't need to ask why they were sad.
"Bob will be fine. She's far stronger than you think she is and she won't let you down, that I can assure you."
"How do you know that?" Sam asked.
"Because she knows what's at stake, she knows that if she fails then so does your quest and she won't let that happen."
"I hope you're right." Sam mumbled looking back to the floor.
"Look, I've known Bob for some time and she won't give up and she won't fail. I suggest we get out of here. We need to find somewhere to take shelter, it won't be long before the Wraiths start looking for us again." Frodo and Sam nodded, pleased to be moving again but also a little concerned about what Ned had said. Both Hobbits knew that she and the others knew more than they were letting on.
Frodo decided to ask about it, he wanted to know what Ned had meant when she said that Bob knew hoe important their quest was.
"What did you mean when you said about our quest? How did you know about it?" He asked.
At first Ned said nothing. "I just know okay." She said after a while of thinking.
"How? You're not from Middle Earth and you certainly wouldn't know Lord Elrond at Rivendell. The only people who know the details are the people who were at the Council of Elrond and you weren't there so how do you know?"
Ned didn't know what to say. She knew that she couldn't tell the Hobbits the truth about how she knew but she also knew that she had to tell them something or they would keep asking questions until they found out the truth. She didn't want to tell them that their world came from the imagination of a writer and that none of it was considered real on Earth.
After a while she said. "We just know certain things about you and your world." She said knowing there would be more questions and not looking forward to answering them. She was right.
"How do you know? Is it written somewhere?"
Ned decided it was as good an excuse as any and replied. "Yes. It is recorded, everything you might do in your quest. Kind of like a prophecy." The perfect escape.
"Who wrote it?" Frodo continued. Ned decided that it wouldn't be a lie to tell them a little about Tolkien.
"A man, a long time ago."
"What man?"
"I can't remember his name." She lied.
"How did he know what was going to happen to me? He couldn't have known about the quest."
"I don't know how he knew but he just did."
"Did he prophesise how I died?" The question made Ned halt. She looked at Frodo in shock; she hadn't expected to be asked that.
"What?" She said in disbelief that he had asked the question.
"This man did he know how I died?" Frodo seemed remarkably calm about the question.
"I.I don't know."
"You're lying. Is it bad?" Frodo continued with a slight crack in his voice this time.
"I don't think I should say."
"Why not?" Frodo persisted.
"Because it's not my place to change your future. You have to work this out yourself. If I told you anything about it it would change what will happen and if that happens you could change the whole timeline."
Frodo said nothing in reply but just nodded knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Ned. She spotted the look on his face, like he needed something more.
"Frodo, we all have to live out our lives. We never know what will happen and we can't change the past. Everything you do now will affect what happens later on and I can't afford to change that. You should do what you think best all the time and remember what you set out to do." She smiled at him and he looked gratefully back at her.
Ned surprised even herself with these words. She didn't realise she could be so wise.
"I just thought. You sounded just like Gandalf." Frodo smiled.
Ned was shocked, she was being compared to an old wizard. But at least coming from Frodo that was a complement.
**
Bob sat in her cell thinking about what to do next. Her plan hadn't gone exactly right but at least in Orthanc, which she was thankful for. Fred was now being tortured because of her. She could still feel the now dried blood that had come when she had nailed Fred's hands onto the side of the box. They had made her torture her own friend. She had come to rescue Fred and had ended up just hurting her more.
Now she had to think of something to get out of Orthanc, all she needed was an opportunity. The trouble was that she didn't know anything about Orthanc and had no way of getting out herself or getting Fred out.
She wondered if Fred had ever tried to escape, she couldn't imagine her friend just sitting in a cell and doing nothing. Fred would have at least tried which was what Bob had to do now. She got up and walked around quickly inspecting the cell maybe finding a weak place. From what she could see the stone walls were pretty solid.
She found a small hole in the wall but there was no way she could get out through there. She tried to look through it but there was nothing but darkness. She looked around the cell some more but found pretty much the same thing. There was no obvious form of escape. She went to the small window that was too high for her to reach. She could see moonlight shining through but knew that she would never be able to escape through it. Even if she could reach it somehow she couldn't fit through anyway. It was so frustrating. She tried to think of what they did in the films when they wanted to escape a prison. Unfortunately her mind was blank.
Bob sat back down on the bed and looked around her. It was then that she noticed something gleaming in the corner of the cell. The small beam of moonlight was hitting something and making it visible. She couldn't see exactly what it was from her place on the bed so she got up and cautiously walked over to it. Something told her to be afraid of what she might find but she couldn't resist seeing what it was.
She edged closer. When she was closer she could see that it was some form of metal although she didn't know what kind. She took a closer look and saw that the metal was attached to something. A skeleton. She saw the hollow skull and panicked. Bob jumped back and let out an involuntary scream, she hadn't been expecting to find the remains of someone in her cell and it frightened her.
After she had recovered slightly she moved towards the skeleton trying to tell herself that the dead couldn't hurt her but still she moved slowly as if it was going to jump up and grab her. She finally plucked up the courage to crouch down and take a proper look at the skeleton. She noticed that it was quite small, probably a Dwarf judging by the helmet it wore on its head.
The glinting she had seen was a coat of armour, mithril. The most precious metal in Middle Earth. She reached out and touched it not really knowing what to expect. The Lord of the Rings movie came to her mind and she remembered Gandalf explaining that it was worth a lot of money and was very strong. She looked over the skeleton again and noticed something else that caught her eye. It was a medallion of some kind. It had a small red jewel in it and beautiful markings around the outside. It was hanging on a chain around the Dwarf's neck.
Bob picked it up and examined it. She soon realised that the markings were in fact a form of writing. Of course she couldn't translate it and decided it would be a waste of her time to even try and figure it out. It did look like it belonged to someone important and with the armour would be worth a lot of money in Middle Earth.
Bob gently undid the medallion and held it in her hands. It was definitely made by the Dwarves as she could feel how heavy it was. She also thought it would be a good idea to take the armour, it might come in handy later on and would protect her from the Orcs that she might meet during her hopeful escape.
She moved closer to the skeleton until she was right up next to it. Luckily all the flesh that had once been there had long disappeared but she hated to think of this body rotting away in the cell. She also didn't want to think how he died.
She pulled on the armour to see what would happen, when nothing did she pulled harder hoping to loosen it. She felt it come away from the Dwarf and grabbed the bottom and started pulling it up hoping to lift it over the skull. She was doing quite well until she saw something moving inside the now exposed rib cage. She looked again to be sure that it wasn't just her imagination. This time she was sure, she saw something big and black inside, a rat. She screamed at the new discovery. The rat was disturbed and scuttled away from the body. Bob didn't know what to do, she was terrified that something else was inside and she didn't want to disturb it. She took a deep breath and told herself that it was just a rat and it couldn't hurt her.
She continued to pull the armour off and just as she was about to pull it off the skeleton collapsed and fell to pieces leaving the skull looking up at her with hollow eye sockets. She didn't move back or scream this time knowing that there was nothing inside and that it was her fault the skeleton had crumbled. She quickly grabbed the armour and shook it off admiring its beauty.
"I think I need this more than you." She said for no particular reason. She looked at the medallion at her side and thought that she might need it for trading if they were stuck in Middle Earth. Bob had never seen anything like it. There was something about it that made it look important.
Bob got up and looked once more around the cell keeping an eye out for the rat that had scurried away, she knew it would probably be back later. She didn't know what to do next. It was clear that there was no escape from the cell, she decided there was no point wasting her time by checking the cell again. She looked at the things she had just collected and thought she had better put the armour on. The Orcs could come back any minute and she would be no good to Fred if she was dead.
Bob took her jacket off and slipped the armour underneath and zipped the jacket back up hoping that no one would notice the thin armour. At least this way was giving her a chance at rescuing her friend and not getting killed by Orcs.
She sat down on the bed and thought about what she could do next, there had to be something she could do to help Fred, she obviously couldn't tell Saruman about the Ring and Frodo but she also couldn't let her friend suffer. Bob was glad that she no longer could feel the psychic link between her and Fred, as terrible as that sounded Bob couldn't imagine having to go through what Fred was right now.
**
Fred had tried to scream as loudly as she could but the feeling of the bugs crawling all over her made her throat dry up so much that she couldn't speak let alone scream. She didn't really feel the pain in her hands because her mind was so concerned with wanting to escape those awful bugs. It was her two worst nightmares rolled into one. She knew Bob did the right thing by not telling Saruman anything but she wished she didn't have to go through this.
She felt something trying to crawl through the sack they had placed on her head and hoped that it wouldn't reach her face. Luckily none of the bugs seemed to be biting her, yet. She decided there and then that she would never complain about spiders in her room ever again. This was definitely the worst torture she had had so far. The hot pokers and whips were better than this.
As if as a reminder that this statement wasn't true she felt a sharp pain go through her from when she had been hit earlier on. She wanted to cry out but found that her voice still wouldn't allow it.
Fred wished she could move and make herself slightly more comfortable, if that was possible but the box was so small and every time she even moved slightly the nails hammered through her hands hurt so much that she had to stop. It was frustrating not being able to do anything at all about her situation. She tried to ignore the bugs and the small space and tried to reinact Lord of the Rings in her mind.
It didn't work, the more she tried not to think about it the more she thought about it. She wanted to get out of there. She told herself to calm down and tried to control her rapid breathing, as it would be no good to hyperventilate. Fred hoped there was enough air inside that box, it seemed like she was suffocating.
Fred knew that she needed to get out of there but at the same time knew that there was no escape from the inside. It was killing her.
**
Ned, Frodo and Sam were still walking looking for somewhere suitable to camp, Ned wanted to be both sheltered and able to see what was going on, her typical hard specification. Frodo and Sam were just tired and wanted to find somewhere to rest and go to sleep.
Finally Ned stopped and declared that she had found the right place. Frodo and Sam gratefully sat down and took the bottles of water out of their bag. They were tired of seeing the same forest and walking for so long. They were used to journeying far but this was almost too much plus Ned kept a swift pace and they were worn out very quickly.
"I'll go and make a fire. I think it's going to be cold tonight and we don't want to freeze."
"Do you think it's a good idea to be building a fire when those Wraiths are looking for us? We're meant to be avoiding them not attracting them." Frodo said.
"Yeah well it'll be no good to anyone if we die of hypothermia tonight. We also need to eat and I don't really want raw sausages do you?" Ned said impatiently. She was angry at always having to explain herself to the Hobbits. She didn't know why but she knew this was going to be a long night and she was not looking forward to it.
Ch 28 Trapped
Ned was sat hidden amongst the trees she was trying desperately to keep out of the way of the Wraiths that were still looking around the forest. They already had two people, Ned didn't know why they wanted any more. She wondered if Fred and Bob had been reunited yet but thought that maybe it was too early. She had hoped that her earlier small psychic experience might come back and tell her something but nothing happened.
The Hobbits were also sat still doing exactly as Ned told them to do. They were a little nervous at being left alone with her especially seeing as she was injured, they knew there was no way she could defend them if they were found.
Frodo was worried about Ned's condition, he had tried to ask her if she was alright but she had refused to say anything to him. He was genuinely worried about her, he still couldn't understand why he was so concerned it was obvious that she wasn't. He wished that Bob was there with them, she seemed to understand Ned a bit better than Frodo did. He wondered how Bob was getting on, she had been very brave going off to Middle Earth like that.
Sam was also concerned about Ned but not for the same reason as Frodo. Ned seemed to know these woods fairly well and if she died or passed out on them Frodo and him would be lost and on their own in a strange place they knew nothing about. Sam didn't know if they could survive on their own if Ned was gone. There would certainly be little chance of them ever finding a way out of the Forest. Although right then Ned didn't seem to be doing a lot anyway. In fact she was doing nothing. Sam decided to wait patiently and see what happened. After all there was nothing he could do about it.
Ned finally turned round and faced the Hobbits who were sat looking at the ground with sad expressions on their faces. Ned didn't need to ask why they were sad.
"Bob will be fine. She's far stronger than you think she is and she won't let you down, that I can assure you."
"How do you know that?" Sam asked.
"Because she knows what's at stake, she knows that if she fails then so does your quest and she won't let that happen."
"I hope you're right." Sam mumbled looking back to the floor.
"Look, I've known Bob for some time and she won't give up and she won't fail. I suggest we get out of here. We need to find somewhere to take shelter, it won't be long before the Wraiths start looking for us again." Frodo and Sam nodded, pleased to be moving again but also a little concerned about what Ned had said. Both Hobbits knew that she and the others knew more than they were letting on.
Frodo decided to ask about it, he wanted to know what Ned had meant when she said that Bob knew hoe important their quest was.
"What did you mean when you said about our quest? How did you know about it?" He asked.
At first Ned said nothing. "I just know okay." She said after a while of thinking.
"How? You're not from Middle Earth and you certainly wouldn't know Lord Elrond at Rivendell. The only people who know the details are the people who were at the Council of Elrond and you weren't there so how do you know?"
Ned didn't know what to say. She knew that she couldn't tell the Hobbits the truth about how she knew but she also knew that she had to tell them something or they would keep asking questions until they found out the truth. She didn't want to tell them that their world came from the imagination of a writer and that none of it was considered real on Earth.
After a while she said. "We just know certain things about you and your world." She said knowing there would be more questions and not looking forward to answering them. She was right.
"How do you know? Is it written somewhere?"
Ned decided it was as good an excuse as any and replied. "Yes. It is recorded, everything you might do in your quest. Kind of like a prophecy." The perfect escape.
"Who wrote it?" Frodo continued. Ned decided that it wouldn't be a lie to tell them a little about Tolkien.
"A man, a long time ago."
"What man?"
"I can't remember his name." She lied.
"How did he know what was going to happen to me? He couldn't have known about the quest."
"I don't know how he knew but he just did."
"Did he prophesise how I died?" The question made Ned halt. She looked at Frodo in shock; she hadn't expected to be asked that.
"What?" She said in disbelief that he had asked the question.
"This man did he know how I died?" Frodo seemed remarkably calm about the question.
"I.I don't know."
"You're lying. Is it bad?" Frodo continued with a slight crack in his voice this time.
"I don't think I should say."
"Why not?" Frodo persisted.
"Because it's not my place to change your future. You have to work this out yourself. If I told you anything about it it would change what will happen and if that happens you could change the whole timeline."
Frodo said nothing in reply but just nodded knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Ned. She spotted the look on his face, like he needed something more.
"Frodo, we all have to live out our lives. We never know what will happen and we can't change the past. Everything you do now will affect what happens later on and I can't afford to change that. You should do what you think best all the time and remember what you set out to do." She smiled at him and he looked gratefully back at her.
Ned surprised even herself with these words. She didn't realise she could be so wise.
"I just thought. You sounded just like Gandalf." Frodo smiled.
Ned was shocked, she was being compared to an old wizard. But at least coming from Frodo that was a complement.
**
Bob sat in her cell thinking about what to do next. Her plan hadn't gone exactly right but at least in Orthanc, which she was thankful for. Fred was now being tortured because of her. She could still feel the now dried blood that had come when she had nailed Fred's hands onto the side of the box. They had made her torture her own friend. She had come to rescue Fred and had ended up just hurting her more.
Now she had to think of something to get out of Orthanc, all she needed was an opportunity. The trouble was that she didn't know anything about Orthanc and had no way of getting out herself or getting Fred out.
She wondered if Fred had ever tried to escape, she couldn't imagine her friend just sitting in a cell and doing nothing. Fred would have at least tried which was what Bob had to do now. She got up and walked around quickly inspecting the cell maybe finding a weak place. From what she could see the stone walls were pretty solid.
She found a small hole in the wall but there was no way she could get out through there. She tried to look through it but there was nothing but darkness. She looked around the cell some more but found pretty much the same thing. There was no obvious form of escape. She went to the small window that was too high for her to reach. She could see moonlight shining through but knew that she would never be able to escape through it. Even if she could reach it somehow she couldn't fit through anyway. It was so frustrating. She tried to think of what they did in the films when they wanted to escape a prison. Unfortunately her mind was blank.
Bob sat back down on the bed and looked around her. It was then that she noticed something gleaming in the corner of the cell. The small beam of moonlight was hitting something and making it visible. She couldn't see exactly what it was from her place on the bed so she got up and cautiously walked over to it. Something told her to be afraid of what she might find but she couldn't resist seeing what it was.
She edged closer. When she was closer she could see that it was some form of metal although she didn't know what kind. She took a closer look and saw that the metal was attached to something. A skeleton. She saw the hollow skull and panicked. Bob jumped back and let out an involuntary scream, she hadn't been expecting to find the remains of someone in her cell and it frightened her.
After she had recovered slightly she moved towards the skeleton trying to tell herself that the dead couldn't hurt her but still she moved slowly as if it was going to jump up and grab her. She finally plucked up the courage to crouch down and take a proper look at the skeleton. She noticed that it was quite small, probably a Dwarf judging by the helmet it wore on its head.
The glinting she had seen was a coat of armour, mithril. The most precious metal in Middle Earth. She reached out and touched it not really knowing what to expect. The Lord of the Rings movie came to her mind and she remembered Gandalf explaining that it was worth a lot of money and was very strong. She looked over the skeleton again and noticed something else that caught her eye. It was a medallion of some kind. It had a small red jewel in it and beautiful markings around the outside. It was hanging on a chain around the Dwarf's neck.
Bob picked it up and examined it. She soon realised that the markings were in fact a form of writing. Of course she couldn't translate it and decided it would be a waste of her time to even try and figure it out. It did look like it belonged to someone important and with the armour would be worth a lot of money in Middle Earth.
Bob gently undid the medallion and held it in her hands. It was definitely made by the Dwarves as she could feel how heavy it was. She also thought it would be a good idea to take the armour, it might come in handy later on and would protect her from the Orcs that she might meet during her hopeful escape.
She moved closer to the skeleton until she was right up next to it. Luckily all the flesh that had once been there had long disappeared but she hated to think of this body rotting away in the cell. She also didn't want to think how he died.
She pulled on the armour to see what would happen, when nothing did she pulled harder hoping to loosen it. She felt it come away from the Dwarf and grabbed the bottom and started pulling it up hoping to lift it over the skull. She was doing quite well until she saw something moving inside the now exposed rib cage. She looked again to be sure that it wasn't just her imagination. This time she was sure, she saw something big and black inside, a rat. She screamed at the new discovery. The rat was disturbed and scuttled away from the body. Bob didn't know what to do, she was terrified that something else was inside and she didn't want to disturb it. She took a deep breath and told herself that it was just a rat and it couldn't hurt her.
She continued to pull the armour off and just as she was about to pull it off the skeleton collapsed and fell to pieces leaving the skull looking up at her with hollow eye sockets. She didn't move back or scream this time knowing that there was nothing inside and that it was her fault the skeleton had crumbled. She quickly grabbed the armour and shook it off admiring its beauty.
"I think I need this more than you." She said for no particular reason. She looked at the medallion at her side and thought that she might need it for trading if they were stuck in Middle Earth. Bob had never seen anything like it. There was something about it that made it look important.
Bob got up and looked once more around the cell keeping an eye out for the rat that had scurried away, she knew it would probably be back later. She didn't know what to do next. It was clear that there was no escape from the cell, she decided there was no point wasting her time by checking the cell again. She looked at the things she had just collected and thought she had better put the armour on. The Orcs could come back any minute and she would be no good to Fred if she was dead.
Bob took her jacket off and slipped the armour underneath and zipped the jacket back up hoping that no one would notice the thin armour. At least this way was giving her a chance at rescuing her friend and not getting killed by Orcs.
She sat down on the bed and thought about what she could do next, there had to be something she could do to help Fred, she obviously couldn't tell Saruman about the Ring and Frodo but she also couldn't let her friend suffer. Bob was glad that she no longer could feel the psychic link between her and Fred, as terrible as that sounded Bob couldn't imagine having to go through what Fred was right now.
**
Fred had tried to scream as loudly as she could but the feeling of the bugs crawling all over her made her throat dry up so much that she couldn't speak let alone scream. She didn't really feel the pain in her hands because her mind was so concerned with wanting to escape those awful bugs. It was her two worst nightmares rolled into one. She knew Bob did the right thing by not telling Saruman anything but she wished she didn't have to go through this.
She felt something trying to crawl through the sack they had placed on her head and hoped that it wouldn't reach her face. Luckily none of the bugs seemed to be biting her, yet. She decided there and then that she would never complain about spiders in her room ever again. This was definitely the worst torture she had had so far. The hot pokers and whips were better than this.
As if as a reminder that this statement wasn't true she felt a sharp pain go through her from when she had been hit earlier on. She wanted to cry out but found that her voice still wouldn't allow it.
Fred wished she could move and make herself slightly more comfortable, if that was possible but the box was so small and every time she even moved slightly the nails hammered through her hands hurt so much that she had to stop. It was frustrating not being able to do anything at all about her situation. She tried to ignore the bugs and the small space and tried to reinact Lord of the Rings in her mind.
It didn't work, the more she tried not to think about it the more she thought about it. She wanted to get out of there. She told herself to calm down and tried to control her rapid breathing, as it would be no good to hyperventilate. Fred hoped there was enough air inside that box, it seemed like she was suffocating.
Fred knew that she needed to get out of there but at the same time knew that there was no escape from the inside. It was killing her.
**
Ned, Frodo and Sam were still walking looking for somewhere suitable to camp, Ned wanted to be both sheltered and able to see what was going on, her typical hard specification. Frodo and Sam were just tired and wanted to find somewhere to rest and go to sleep.
Finally Ned stopped and declared that she had found the right place. Frodo and Sam gratefully sat down and took the bottles of water out of their bag. They were tired of seeing the same forest and walking for so long. They were used to journeying far but this was almost too much plus Ned kept a swift pace and they were worn out very quickly.
"I'll go and make a fire. I think it's going to be cold tonight and we don't want to freeze."
"Do you think it's a good idea to be building a fire when those Wraiths are looking for us? We're meant to be avoiding them not attracting them." Frodo said.
"Yeah well it'll be no good to anyone if we die of hypothermia tonight. We also need to eat and I don't really want raw sausages do you?" Ned said impatiently. She was angry at always having to explain herself to the Hobbits. She didn't know why but she knew this was going to be a long night and she was not looking forward to it.