Late that night, as Arwen and Aragorn were whispering sweet nothings to each other, Elrond was busy sneaking out of Rivendell. Not that it was all that difficult, in his youth, he had been quite the expert at getting out of places (hey, the twins had to have got it from somewhere!).

Once out in the open, he started on his way to Mirkwood, where he knew the one person who could help him was located…

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The next morning, the fellowship gathered at the gates of Rivendell. Nobody, aside from Arwen and Bilbo, noticed the lack of attendance that was taking place on Elrond's part; neither saw fit to mention it, and even if they had, it is unlikely that anybody would have cared.

Frodo was cowering behind Sam; his uncle still creeped him out.

At last, they made their way out. Frodo, being who he was, automatically turned to the right, only to have Gandalf take hold of his shoulder and direct him in the opposite direction. Few noticed Sam come up and conk the wizard on the head for his efforts, and, as in Elrond's case, nobody would have cared too terribly much about this, either.

Gimli was stuck with the task of leading the pony, Bill. Bill was just an average pony with a bad past he was trying to forget about. There was nothing all that special about him (unless you were Sam, who had been most reluctant to let Gimli lead the horse, but had agreed when he was told that the horse had to be at the back and Frodo at the front).

'Hello Gimli.' Bill said suddenly. Gimli stopped walking, mid-stride, throwing him off balance and then into the mud. Legolas hid a silent snicker and patiently waited for the dwarf to get up.

'Did you just speak?' Gimli asked the pony.

'Of course I did!' Bill replied. Gimli wondered how this was all working, as the horse' mouth wasn't moving at all…

'Hey, this pony can talk!!!'

'What are you on about, Gimli?' STRIDER asked.

'It's Bill I tell you! He's talking!'

'Right Gimli, it's all in your mind.'

'All in my mind? That's it! He must use telepathy!' Gimli thought suddenly. The thought that the elf who was standing near by had been throwing his voice never even entered his mind; This was probably because he thought the Prince of Mirkwood was a mute. Legolas smiled happily, but his fun was interrupted as Merry and Pippin suddenly burst out into song.

'Weeeeeee wish you a merry Christmas we wish you a merry…' and so on.

Frodo covered his ears and tried to scream loud enough to block them out. Legolas, with his sensitive elf ears flinched and only just managed not to shriek.

Boromir, who's on-going commentary was drowned out by the song, promptly went over and knocked both hobbits unconscious. It was decided that they would take a break. They had, after all, been walking for a good number of days.

Due to the fact that, even though nothing was happening, Boromir continued to inform people what they were doing, STRIDER went over to him. 'If you don't shut up, I'll knock you out.' He said.

'I'm a captain of Gondor, you wouldn't dare!' Boromir replied.

'Yeah, well, I get to be king of Gondor one day!' STRIDER yelled happily.

'What?' this was too much for Boromir. 'You? King? Gondor?'

'Yup! Aren't you looking forward to it?! I know I am.'

'You're… Aragorn?'

STRIDER smiled, Frodo came over. 'How many names do you have?'

'183, 201, 051.' STRIDER said proudly. 'I could list them, if you like!' And, before any of them could stop him, he launched into the list. 'Well, STRIDER, Estel and Aragorn you know. There's also Elassar, Elf-Stone, Arialliano, SuperMan, Hulk, ManWhoPlaysWithPlasticSwords- though I don't know where that one came from. Anduil isn't plastic…' he held out the cocktail-sword. 'Anyway, there's also…' Frodo tuned out. He was sorry he'd brought it up.

Merry Pippin and Boromir had now woken up, and the last was now teaching the other two how to fight. It was a request they'd made, part of their let's-think-up-interesting-ways-to-kill-Frodo game. Legolas was listening half-heartedly to a conversation between Gandalf and Gimli about the mines of Moria. When Sam heard the topic, he rushed over and put in his 2,000 cents. Apparently, Sam had always wanted to see dwarfs. Gimli took immediate offence, saying that he was a dwarf.

'Yes, but you use conditioner! Ha ha ha ha ha ha hahahahaha!' Sam guffawed. Scowling, Gimli went off to sit on a rock.

Something on the horizon caught Legolas' eyes, and he went over to get a better look. A massed cloud of blue somethings was heading towards them. Bill suddenly decided to tell Gimli that there were blue birds coming at them.

When Gimli mentioned this to Gandalf, the wizard got really upset and ordered them all to hide. Apparently, he'd used to have a pet blue-bird as a child but had accidentally forgotten to feed it. Ever since, he had had an insane fear that the bird was going to be re-incarnated and come to extract it's revenge.

Not that he shared this with the rest of the fellowship.

At last, the birds had passed, and Gandalf suddenly decided they needed to take the mountain pass instead. As soon as STRIDER had recovered from the beating Sam had given him for hiding with Frodo, they were off again.

Gimli had been trying to convince the others that Bill really could talk when Frodo suddenly 'slipped' and fell down a short way, tumbling through the snow that now covered the earth.

Boromir picked the ring up. It had somehow managed to fall off of Frodo's neck, even though the chain was supposed to be short enough to not fit over his head. Unfortunately, the elves who had measured the chain had neglected the fact that the majority of Frodo's head circumference is hair.

'I want the ring! Give me the pretty ring!' Aragorn cried, his voice like that of a child about to have a temper tantrum.

'Uh, no. I think I'll just give it to Frodo…' Boromir's voice trailed off as he caught sight of Sam looking at him expectantly. 'I mean, Sam, is it all right if I give this to your master?'

Smiling, Sam nodded.

The fellowship continued up the mountain.

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Bookworm2000, don't worry, STRIDER won't have a chance to get as dirty as he was- Lothlorien will see to that, *s*