If it doesn't come out Italic, dreams/memories will also come after a ~*~

Small warning- if you don't like flashbacks you might not enjoy this chapter. I, my self, find they give the characters more depth. But that's just me. Too bad, this is my story!

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I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away… -Nelly Furtado

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"Wolves!" Estel cried panicked and nearly dropped his bow.

"What shall we do, what shall we do!" He heard Bilbo cry. "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!" Estel took a deep and shaky breath and was about to take out an arrow when Gandalf grabbed his arm.

"Up the trees quick!" Gandalf said, already running with Estel to look for one.

"Get on my shoulders." He told the youth, whom complied, jumping up the tall man's shoulders and clutching for dear life. Gandalf started to climb a large pine tree at the very edge of the glade. Estel shut his eyes as the boughs scratched at his face. His eyes were still shut when Gandalf ducked from a branch, sending Estel headfirst into it. He yelped and lost his hold on Gandalf and started to fall down the tree.

"GANDALF!" Estel yelled, as he grabbed a hold on a slender branch, not more than six feet from the ground. His entire body was sore from hitting all those branches on the long way down and his arms were throbbing. He looked down and saw wolves gathered at his tree, snapping their jaws at him and trying to pounce at him.

"Ahh!" He cried as one nearly bit his dangling leg. He quickly swung his legs out of the way, which only served to strain the branch further. He watched with dread fascination as the branch he held onto slowly snapped, bit by bit, until the branch began to lean back, closer to the tree trunk.

This was not good.

Estel tried clawing at the trunk and got a hold on it, right before the branch snapped completely, sending it diving to the waiting, open jaws of the wolves. He dug his nails deeper into the tree, afraid to even breathe. He felt his fingers slipping down the trunk.

"No!" He cried as they finally came loose, sending him too diving straight to the open mouths of the guarding wolves.

Or at least it would have had Gandalf not chosen that moment precisely to reach the boy and grab his shirt.

"Hang on!" Gandalf said, as he slowly lifted the boy to his branch. The boy lay quivering on the strong, big branch, panting.

"That was close," Gandalf commented, shaking his head. "I was truly afraid I would not reach you in time. But luckily it seems you are a skilled tree-climber."

Estel smiled widely, though still shaking. "It comes from the years of sneaking back into my room after curfew, when my window is that high up."

"Indeed?" Gandalf smiled amused, but he quickly sobered. "Come now, we must climb back up to where we were. Get on my back."

"Oh no," Estel shook his head vehemently. "I think it will be safer if I climbed alone this time." He said, and started climbing in front of Gandalf. Gandalf shook his head in awe. The boy kept surprising him, drawing courage from some hidden place. Yes, he could very well fill the position he was destined to fill, to bring men together under a strong leadership to more glorious times. But in order for that to happen he had to survive this adventure first12.

"Where are the others?" Estel asked, once they were safe again. "I hope Mr. Baggins found a tree all right, I don't think he climbs trees."

"No, he does not. I saw Dori getting out of the tree in order to help him up, the poor soul. To answer your first question the others are there-" Gandalf pointed at four different trees, all guarded by wolves.

"Why do they keep on coming?" Estel asked all of a sudden.

"I beg your pardon?" Gandalf asked confused.

"The wolves, there must be hundreds of them!" And indeed there were; hundreds and hundreds of wolves kept coming and formed a great circle in the glade.

"Must be a gathering of some sort," Gandalf muttered, eyeing the great grey wolf in the middle of the circle. He hushed Estel and perked his ears, trying to catch the wolves' conversation.

Estel edged closer, careful not to fall off the branch, and tried to listen as well. They spoke in the dreadful tongue of the Warg, which Gandalf understood, but he wasn't the only one…

~*~

"Hey there!" Gandalf said, as Estel bumped into him, seeming in a hurry. "Where are you rushing off to?" It was a clear spring day without a cloud in the Rivendell sky, and Gandalf was sitting on a bench, smoking his pipe and enjoying it.

"I'm off to hunt a wild Beast!" Seven years old Estel said importantly, sticking his chest out with pride.

"Oh?" Gandalf asked suspiciously. "I wonder what Lord Elrond has to say about that…"

"Nothing," Estel said quickly, realizing his position. One wrong move and it was bye bye Wild Beast.

"Nothing?" Gandalf asked surprised. "That is truly odd, as I seem to recall a certain Elf Lord telling a certain messy child that he is not allowed to go hunting till he is older." He leaned forward, smoke blowing from his pipe.

"Perhaps he changed his mind," Estel tried to no avail.

"Estel-" Gandalf said warningly.

"Alright, alright- perhaps he does not know," he admitted, hanging his head in shame. "Please don't tell him, I saw Elladan and Elrohir going hunting and if I catch up to them they'd let me hunt." The look in his eyes was unbearably miserable.

"I cannot do so, you know that," Gandalf said gently, picking Estel up and placing him on his lap.

"Why not?" Estel pouted, his grey eyes hurt.

"Well, for starters I am a guest at your house, it is rude for a guest to lie to his host about the whereabouts of his son, hmm?" Gandalf's eyes twinkled.

"I want to go hunting," Estel said earnestly, not willing to give up.

"I dare say you will have your share of hunting when you're older, but at this moment you will be a good little boy and listen to your father's rules. Now, tell me master Estel- what do they teach you in school?"

Estel sighed deeply. "Well, we have archery classes, which are the only interesting thing to do there. Most of the time they bore us with historical stories about some great Elf or another that did something magnificent."

"What is wrong with those stories, I thought you liked adventures," Gandalf asked curiously.

"I do, but the 'magnificent things' that they teach us about in school are architecture and poetry, rarely about any great wars or courage. Who wants to hear about how you build a house inside a tree trunk or around a river?"

"Not all lessons are that dull, I'm sure."

"Really? Name one," Estel challenged him, his arms crossed. Gandalf picked the boy up and placed him next to him on the bench.

"Languages."

Estel snorted. "Those are the worse! Why should I care about anything other than the one I speak? Everyone hear speaks Elvish."

"What about communicating with other beings?" Gandalf blew another smoke ring.

"I speak basic tongue, my mother taught it to me," Estel said proudly.

"Alright then, what about languages that are important to a hunter?" Gandalf challenged, crossing his arms.

"What languages are those?" Estel asked eagerly, any mentioning of hunting drawing his complete attention.

"Well, there are the languages of such animals as birds, wild cats, wolves-"

"You know the language of the wolves?" Estel asked excited. "Teach me, Uncle Gandalf," his eyes pleading. "Please?"

~*~

Estel wasn't as learned in this tongue as Gandalf the Grey was, but he understood enough to realize they planned a meeting with the goblins in order to raid the woodmen's village. And that they thought the party was woodmen spies.

"This is not good, is it Gandalf?" Estel asked quietly from his perch.

"No, I'm afraid it is not," Gandalf said darkly, trying to come up with a plan.

"We don't have much time, the goblin soldiers will come down from the mountains any moment now." Estel's voice grew colder. "And they do know how to climb trees."

"You understood their conversation," Gandalf nodded, not that surprised at all. "You see? Not all lessons are in vain."

"I would have rather not known what they said, and be able to hope they get bored and leave us be," Estel replied. "What are we going to do, Gandalf?"

Wordlessly Gandalf began collecting pinecones from the branches and set them blue fire. He threw them down to the circle of wolves; they hit several wolves (including the grey leader) and caught their coat on fire. Estel watched with growing hope as the wolves howled and started rolling over, running around and looking for water. He smiled broadly and reached for his bow, knocking several arrows in it.

'Steady,' he thought to himself, concentrating on the fast beasts. 'Follow their movement.'

~*~

"Estel!" Elrohir said exasperated. "I thought father told you not to come hunting with us."

"He might have," Estel said, adjusting his arrow sack. "When was the last time you listened to something Father has to say?"

"He has a point," Elladan smiled mischievously.

"But he is nine mortal years of age, how on earth can he know anything about hunting?" Elrohir complained. "Besides, Father will literally kill us if he finds out we took him hunting."

"If he finds out," Estel smiled brightly. "I won't tell."

"Neither will I," Elladan said, eyes twinkling. "How about you, brother?"

Elrohir sighed, seeing he was out numbered. "Very well then, but if he catches you I was the one protesting."

"Yay!" Estel cried jumping and was quickly shushed by the twins.

"Be quiet!" Elladan whispered. "We don't want to scare it."

"What are we hunting?" Estel whispered excitedly, crouching next to them in the bushes.

"That-" Elrohir said, pointing at a huge black boar.

"Wow," Estel's eyes grew wide. "That is the biggest boar I have ever seen!"

"When was the last time you saw a wild boar?" Elladan asked.

"Maybe I haven't ever seen a wild boar before," Estel admitted embarrassed. "Look- it's moving!" Sure enough, the boar began to trot down the path, the three brothers carefully after it.

"Why do we not take our bow and arrows and kill it?" Estel asked confused. "Why sit here doing nothing?"

"We are not doing nothing," Elrohir sighed impatiently. "We are studying its movements."

"Why?" Estel asked confused.

"So we can hunt it," Elrohir snapped quietly, eyes trained on the beast.

"Why not simply shoot it?"

"Because, if we make too much noise, or miss by just a bit, the boar will run off and we will lose it." Elladan explained softly, slowly extracting the bow. "If we study its movements, we can predict how fast it will move and even where it will move to." Estel nodded and tried to learn the boar's movements.

'Watch the boar,' he instructed himself. 'Where will it go to?' He watched the boar in utter silence and fairly soon he began to see a pattern in the steps, rhythm in the strides. He tried a few guessing games, guessing where the boar will move to next. When he got several right, he glanced at his elder brothers and nodded to them. Without a word, the three knocked an arrow in the bow and released it in unison.

~*~

Estel remembered that day as if it were yesterday. His arrow was the first to get to the boar, hitting him in the thigh. His brothers were the ones who actually delivered the killing arrows, but he felt a swell of pride in himself nonetheless. But that pride was crushed when they got home and Elrond found out Estel went hunting. There was a weird glint in the Elf Lord's eyes as he asked if Estel killed the boar, a glint Estel didn't understand. When he heard that his wasn't the fateful arrow a sigh of relief escaped his tight lips, before the admonishing came. Estel never understood that sigh or that glint, but he had a feeling he was beginning to now.

Estel shook his head and quickly released several arrows, most of whom reached their target. Though the wolves moved faster than the boar, Estel caught up on their rhythm, and managed to kill several wolves and maim several more. He heard Bilbo and the Dwarves cheering Gandalf as more and more wolves caught fire. Gandalf spared only a glance at the boy, before returning his attention to the wolves. The Wargs that caught fire ran into the forest and set it alight in several areas, but the wolf-guards, remained near the trees, leaping and howling near the trunks.

Then goblins came running up yelling; thinking some form of battle with the woodmen was at place. The sat down and laughed when they saw what really happened. Soon they stacked ferns and brushwood round the tree trunks, others beat and stamped the fire out, except for the one near the trees where he Dwarves were. They fed the fire with leaves and dead branches. Soon the fire started licking the fuel piled under the trees; the smoke was in their eyes and they could feel the heat of the flames. The goblins started dancing round and round in a circle and sang a dreadful song:

Sixteen birds in five firtrees,

Their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!

But, funny little birds, they had no wings!

O what shall we do with the funny little things?

Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot;

Fry them, boil them and eat them hot?

Then they stopped singing and shouted out: "Fly away little birds! Fly away if you can! Come down little birds, or you will get roasted in your nests! Sing, sing little birds! Why don't you sing?"

"Go away! Little boys!" Gandalf shouted in answer. "It isn't bird-nesting time. Also naughty little boys that play with fire get punished." He said bravely, taunting, though he was rather scared.

"I'm in a right mind to sing them to sleep with my arrows," Estel muttered angrily, trying to take his mind off the flames, very near their tree. "Horrible, nasty creatures."

But the goblins took no notice of Gandalf and continued singing.

Burn, burn tree and fern!

Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch

To light the night for our delight,

Ya hey!

Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast 'em!

Till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;

Till hair smells and skins crack,

Fat melts, and bones black

In cinders lie

Beneath the sky!

So dwarves shall die,

And light the night for our delight,

Ya hey!

Ya-harri-hey!

Ya hoy!

And with the Ya hoy! The flames were under Gandalf and Estel's tree and within a moment it spread to the others. Gandalf quickly climbed to the top of the tree, with Estel following close behind.

"I am sorry, my dear child," Gandalf said to Estel sadly, regret lining his face. Estel looked at him confused, but before he got a chance to ask him what he meant by that, Gandalf prepared to leap.

"No!" Estel cried frightened, knowing fully well that although he would have probably killed many goblins in the process, it would have been the end of him. Suddenly the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above and seized Gandalf in his talons. Before he swept away with the wizard, Estel pounced on the Eagle's back, holding tightly, but still hitting his small knuckles against the eagle's back.

"Let him go!" Estel cried, plucking several feathers. The eagle let out a cry before turning his head to the silly little thing causing him pain.

"Estel! Leave the Lord of the Eagles alone! He does not wish to harm me, he is saving our life! Forgive him dear Lord, but he is a young and reckless lad. He thought you meant me harm," Gandalf explained. "Estel- look!" Estel looked down puzzled and watched as one by one eagles swooped down, their talons tearing at goblin faces. Others went to the tree-tops to retrieve the Dwarves. Estel watched dizzily as Bilbo grabbed Dori's leg, swinging in the air.

"Poor Hobbit!" Estel cried out sympathetically.

"Don't worry about Bilbo, he is a stout Hobbit- he'll be alright," Gandalf said from the eagle's talons, his mood improved by much. Estel relaxed a bit, but not his hold on the eagle and he watched with fascination as the view changed in a dizzying way. He leaned forward and hugged the eagle's neck, afraid of falling from this height. He did not know how long the flight lasted, because after a while he closed his eyes. When he felt a hand on his shoulder he dared open them, and saw Gandalf's smiling face, and realized they landed. He allowed Gandalf to lift him off the eagle and looked around.

"Where are the others?" He asked curiously, as he looked around. He was on a wide shelf of rock on the mountain-side. He saw no path leading down and assumed one could only do so by flight.

"On their way," The Lord of the Eagles answered. "I told the others to bring them here." Eswent to a corner to sit down, feeling like his legs weighed a ton. It was probably one of the scariest experiences in his life, and he did not wish to repeat it any time soon. Gandalf and the Lord of the Eagles started to speak with one another and before long all the others were there as well. Estel drew closer to the group and learned that Gandalf healed their leader from an arrow-wound. Gandalf started to discuss plans with the Great Eagle for carrying them away and setting them well on their journey across the plains below.

The Lord of the Eagle refused to take them near where men lived. "They would shoot at us with their great bows of yew," he said, glaring at Estel's bow in a way that made him hide it. "For they would think we were after their sheep. And at other times they would be right. No! We are glad to cheat the goblins of their sport, and glad to repay our thanks to you, but we will not risk ourselves for dwarves or a man-child in the southward plains."

"Very well," Gandalf said. "Take us where and as far as you will! We are already deeply obliged to you. But in the meantime we are famished with hunger."

"I am nearly dead of it," Bilbo said so weakly, nobody save for Estel, who stood next to him, heard. Estel smiled at the good-old Hobbit's words.

"That perhaps can be mended," the Lord of the Eagles said. The eagles brought up dry branches for fuel, and rabbits, hares and a small sheep. Bilbo was too weak to help, and so the Dwarves [with the help of Estel, who had to get his mind off food] managed all the preparations. Gandalf sat back and rested, after doing his share in setting the fire, since Oin and Gloin lost their tinderboxes. Soon they were all well fed and content, and went to sleep. Estel cuddled near Gandalf, who was staring transfixed at the fire.

"I was scared," Estel said quietly, shivering but not form the cold. "But I knew that it would be alright, because you were there and you did not give up hope. You were brave all the time, talking back to those horrific creatures." He looked up at the wizard to see he was sound- asleep and snoring. Estel chuckled lightly, before drawing nearer to him and planting a kiss on his broad brow.

"Good night Uncle Gandalf, you silly wizard," Estel whispered, as sleep overcame him. He yawned loudly, before turning over and falling fast asleep, dreaming of meadows and lakes, but also dreaming of adventures.

-END PART 6-

Ha! Finally!

Sorry about the long delay, I was in summer camp for a month, then went to Belgium and Holland for 10 days. But I started writing this chapter a day after I got back (yesterday), and a chapter of this story takes about 2-3 days just to write it.

ElvenOnes- welcome aboard, good to have new people interested in my little humble story. Just don't turn all Aralondwen on me and stick 5 reviews on one chapter and kill me if I don't continue. More than one review a chapter from the same person and I delete it.

I got school on Sunday, should be interesting. But I finished writing my book, so I should have more time for my computer stories, only my smart dad put a new whatever in and I have no files! All my stories, original stories, not on ff.net are lost forever! AAAAAH!

Enough venting, I like this story, and the character [gotta admit he makes a better and cuter hero in the hobbit rather than Bilbo, right? The nagging and complaints get to you after a while!] Aragorn is the coolest, most courageous and with the most issues! And a younger more happier version of him? What a challenge! Well, I'm going to keep writing this story, and hopefully it's like wine: Gets better with the chapters [instead of years? Never mind!]

Ivy