Disclaimer: Hi I'm the disclaimer. I'm here to tell you that mouse angel
own a whole lot of crap, which would make it impossible for her to own any
part of Lord of the Rings.
A/N: Sorry this took so long. I've had so much school work and a huge softball tournament so I really couldn't do much, but here it is at last. Thanx for the reviews. I love u people. just to answer some of my reviews . Yah I do know about the Zed (Z) thing and the eh thing cuz I live in Canada. To Cassie-bear01: it's a good idea. I'll definitely use it, but not in this chapter though. Look for it soon in upcoming chapters. Aaanyways on with the chapter!!!! R&R!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4
"What?" I actually heard my neck crack about three times as I whipped my head around to face Lara.
Lara just nodded.
My eyes widened, and all I could do was gape at her. "Why?" was the first word I could force out of my mouth. It was a very stupid question; Lara didn't need a reason for anything.
"Because I think the company may need you before the end of our journey," she replied. "We are very reckless people. You are not. It could be useful. Besides," she added with a sly grin, "we could use some comic relief."
I hated to think of myself as comic relief, but it was probably the only thing that I would be good for.
"Can I say no?" I asked.
"Of course," replied Elrond. "None are obligated to go on this journey."
I looked around, with huge eyes (my eyes hadn't yet returned to their normal state) at the Council then the Fellowship. I evaluated the pros and cons, as my favorite aunt had taught me to do when faced with a decision of this magnitude. There were really only one for each category. Con: I could die. Not a pleasant thought. Pro: I get to gawk at the good-looking Elf for an innumerable amount of days. Eventually the 'I get to gawk at the good- looking Elf' part of me won, and I decided to go. I think it was also because death seemed so remote, even though the big practical side of me knew it wasn't, I tended to ignore that side.
"I'll go," I declared. I heard quite a few groans from the Company. "Live with it," I told them. "Blame your wonderful Elf mage, or whatever the hell she is, cuz she invited me."
So I joined the Fellowship (better known as the freak-clique, which I fit into perfectly). I went and stood behind the hobbits, with the other normal sized people (except Gimli, who was quite a bit shorter than the rest of us). I was surprised to find that only Aragorn, the old man, and the good- looking elf were taller than I was. I was about five foot eleven and a bit, which was quite tall. It was an odd thought to have, having just seemingly signed my death warrant, but I have those odd thoughts at inappropriate times very often.
"So be it," declared Elrond, as a found my place among the other members of the Fellowship. All we needed now was Wayne Gretzky to lie down in front of the hobbits, and you would have had the Fellowship hockey team. "You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."
"Great," said Pippin. "Where are we going?"
This set me off into another fit of hysteria.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We had a huge feast that night. It was our Parting Feast. You know just to make us want to stay even more than we already did. Personally I thought it was just done to try to tempt us to stay to test our will power. Bad if we stayed, good if we went. I think it was particularly directed at me. Well I wasn't going to give in that easy. I was going to go on the journey, and I was going to enjoy myself tonight.
I found an unexpected friend in Gimli. He seemed to have a bottomless bag of stories, that I enjoyed listening to. My favorite was that of his father's Gloin (who was, I discovered later, a little more soft spoken) and the thirteen dwarves and Bilbo Baggins (a hobbit) who journeyed over the Misty Mountains (God knew where those were) to a dragon's den to retrieve their gold . It also explained how the talking Ring had come to Frodo. Bilbo had found in Gollum's (um who, or more to the point what, was Gollum?) cave and Frodo had inherited it, though Bilbo had never known it's evil purposes.
Throughout Gimli's stories, however riveting they may have been, I couldn't help glancing at the good-looking Elf, whose name I had discovered was Legolas.
"You seem interested in the Elf, miss, very interested," remarked Gimli, as he caught me staring at Legolas for one particularly long stint. "You should perhaps not be. They are not the best folk to be fraternizing with."
"Are Elves just as racist as Dwarves?" I asked, trying to keep him away from the subject of my interest in Legolas.
Gimli looked at me, confused. "Racist?"
"You know, against Dwarves. Well that's not actually the definition of racist, but that's what I mean."
"Yes, very much so," said Gimli confidently.
I shook my head disapprovingly. "You should learn to get along better."
"It would be difficult."
"Yes, it seems so," I drawled, rolling my eyes at his stubbornness.
Eventually the feast ended, and I felt like throwing up. I had eaten way too much, following the council of Gimli (which I vowed never to do again). We were invited to the Hall of Flame, where there was to be singing and dancing.
After a while I got bored of the mystical songs in another language (although I wouldn't have thought I would considering how many good-looking Elves there were there) and wandered off. I wanted to go to bed, but I hadn't been shown to my room. In fact I hadn't even been offered a room. This was probably because I had run off almost immediately after the Council, to go explore the waterfalls, and punch myself for joining. When I had returned the Feast had already started and there was no time to be shown to a room, or change. I still had my jeans, t-shirt, and hooded sweatshirt on that I had worn for the past week or so. I really needed some new clothes. And a bath.
It took me a little while to locate someone who could show me where I could find any one of these things. Finally I found a lady Elf who looked to be in her early thirties wandering through Rivendell. I approached her.
"Um," I said, not quite sure how to phrase the question. She smiled encouragingly at me. "Um, could I, I mean, um, is there anywhere I could take a bath, and perhaps wash my clothes."
"Of course," she said. "We must find Lillanin." She grabbed hold of my hand and began to drag through Rivendell. "My name is Anya." She was very chatty. She talked about anything and everything, not even expecting an answer from me. I just nodded and smiled and hoped she wouldn't be too offended. She didn't even notice my silence. She just kept on talking at me. Had it not be for her pointed ears, she would have fit in perfectly with the 'popular' crowd. Eventually she began talking in another language and I just tuned her out entirely, but kept on smiling and nodding absently.
Finally I heard, "Ah Lillanin," and then more speech in another language.
"Oh Anya," replied a middle aged Elven lady. Her long dirty blonde hair was just beginning to go gray, or in her case silver. She looked to be in her late forties. She wore a kindly smile on her face that was warm and inviting. "I'm sure you've been talking to this girl in Sindarin and yet have you not figured out that she does not speak it?"
"Oh," said Anya bashfully. "I did not realize. Why did you not say anything?" she asked turning to me.
I just turned away shyly. There was a moment of awkward silence, before Lillanin intervened.
"Come," she said beckoning me to follow her. "I will show to your rooms and the bathing house. Oh my child," she cried with horrified expression on her face. "You do need some new clothes. I will find a few dresses and a nightgown."
She led through the streets and walkways of Rivendell to a small, rather open room. Only curtains and two thin walls separated me from the outside. The main chamber consisted of a bed and a large wardrobe. I made a mental note to go inside and have look to see if I could find the magical land of Narnia, though I wouldn't be much better off there than I was here.
Lillanin went into a small separate room that looked to be the bathroom, and came back with a towel, facecloth and nightgown.
"This is to be your room my lady."
"April," I corrected. I did not like being called my lady. It made me sound like one of those Middle Ages sluts who slept with every man that she found it convenient to do so. I certainly did not want that image.
"Alright April," said Lillanin. "I will show you to the bathing houses."
The bathing houses were not far from my room. We came to them and I saw many other Elven women in a large steaming pool. Horrified I realized that these were communal bathing houses.
Lillanin must have noticed my horrified expression. "Is something wrong, ma la - April?" she asked.
I did not want to be anymore of a hassle to Lillanin. "No," I said with a forced smiled. "I'll be fine."
She smiled. "Good. There is soap over there in the far corner over there." She pointed to a bunch of bar and glass bottles. "Will you be able to find your way back to your chambers?"
"Yes, I'll be fine," I lied. I counted on wandering Rivendell for couple of hours before I actually found my room.
Lillanin nodded and left. Quickly I stripped, trying not to call attention to myself. I slipped quietly into the water hoping that the Elves wouldn't hear. I was not so lucky. They heard me and, interested, came over. I felt very self-conscious. I had never considered myself that ugly, but compared to these women I was a hag.
"Ooooh look at her ears," said one that sounded particularly ditzy. She felt around my ears as I rolled my eyes. She didn't notice.
"Doesn't it hurt?" asked another one.
"No," I said in duh-like voice. "Look." I began twisting and flicking my ear in different ways (which really doesn't hurt). They all my gasped at my obvious abuse of my own ear. "It really doesn't hurt. I'll prove it to you." I reached for one of their ears, but they all shied away from me.
"No it hurts us," they said pathetically.
"Riiiight," I said rolling my eyes again.
I left them to their cowardliness and swam over to the far end where the soaps were. I examined the bottles. None of them looked quite like Pantene Pro-V, but it was better than nothing. I picked up one of the bottles and dumped some of the shampoo-like-but-not-quite-so-factoryish-feeling stuff on my head. It smelled of fresh flowers, which bugged me because I would smell like flowers for the rest of the evening and probably the next day as well. Oh well that couldn't be helped. I scrubbed the stuff into my hair, rinsed it out and looked for conditioner, belatedly remembering that this world probably didn't produce it. Feeling that I didn't need to waste my time checking each bottle to see if they did, I grabbed a bar of soap I scrubbed my entire body down twice. I needed to do it three times, but I wanted to get away from the Elven ladies.
I swam back to the edge of the pool where my clothes were. I suddenly remembered that I hadn't washed my face, which needed washing more than anything. I ran out of the pool butt naked, nearly slipping on the pool deck, grabbed my facecloth and hurl myself back in. My cannonball jumped sent a huge wave over the Elves. They were outraged, but so ditzy that they didn't do anything more than hurl what I thought to be insults at me in another language (presumably Sindarin).
I washed my face quickly, and did the same streak I had moments earlier, except this time with about ten Elves watching me. I reached my towel in seconds and threw it around myself. I toweled myself as dry as I could get in 30 seconds, threw on my nightgown and the little slippers Lillanin had given me and ran out the door, the sound of giggling Elves following me into the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Twenty minutes later found me still wandering around Rivendell in search of my room. I had checked many only to find that they weren't mine. I had actually once walked in on a couple doing things that I thought Elves should never. But alas, they were only.human-like. After that I didn't check any rooms without at least knocking.
As I wandered aimlessly, I came upon Lillanin.
"Out for an evening stroll, April?" she asked as if it were perfectly normal for me to be wandering around in nightgown and slippers and carrying the dirty laundry.
"No I was looking for room."
"So you could not find it on your own. I was wondering when you look for me for assistance." It didn't cross her mind that I might have had much more difficulty finding her than my room because she moved and my room did not.
She led me to my room. I rolled back the covers and fell into bed and was asleep immediately.
Only minutes later it seemed, I was being awakened
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was preparations day. We had to pack.
They had lain out a number of loose dresses, obviously meant for such a long and demanding journey.
"I am not wearing those," I informed my maid servant upon seeing my new wardrobe.
"But you must my lady," she cried (she still hadn't gotten the sentence 'call me April'). "What else will you wear."
"Pants."
She looked horrified at the idea. "But you are a woman," she protested.
"And practical too. Its much easier to travel in pants than dresses."
"Alright."
So my wardrobe was changed to pants called breeches (which looked way too spandexy, but I accepted them not wanting to push my luck any farther than I had already done. I had hoped that would have jeans but they didn't), shirts, long pullover type things that came down to my knees called tunics, underwear and things that looked like bras, boots, and a long hooded cape, obviously meant to be worn like a wind breaker. Then came the backpackish type things except that they looked more like biggish briefcases that you slung over your shoulder; they were not nearly as comfortable as a backpack. Luckily I was travelling pretty lightly. I had only (and I use 'only' very lightly) three sets of my clothing (excluding the cape and boots), a thing that was meant to be sleeping bag, and water bottle (they called it a 'gourd' but I had difficulty getting my tongue around it so I just called it bottle). They didn't make me carry pots and pans or food supply, besides which I think Sam was more than happy to take it all himself.
Finally we were all prepared.
We were all gathered at the entrance to Rivendell. There was a large crowd to see us off. Apparently destroying the talking Ring was that important. They all looked so sad. It made me think that we might not come back alive. This was not a pleasant thought. I tried to force it from my mind, but the subject of my own death was ever present in my consciousness.
Elrond gave a final speech reminding us that we were by no means obliged to go on this mission (Frodo was except from this liberty). The way he said, I would have expected him to think that half of us would turn back half an hour after the trip started. I felt him making this point especially for me. It made my weak resolve to go stronger. I was going to prove him wrong. Stupid Elf.
So we were off, walking through the tunnel-like entrance to Rivendell. Aragorn was the last to leave. He stood rooted to the spot looking back upon a beautiful Elven woman, who was crying as he finally turned his back to leave.
I turned my attention from the sad scene back to the road ahead.
"Mordor Gandalf," I heard Frodo asking the old man. "Left or right."
"Left," replied Gandalf.
I grinned. It was a light start to Mission Impossible 10.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoa seven pages. Didn't think it would be that long. Yah I know that chapter kinda sucked, but it'll get better. Review!!!!!!!!!!
A/N: Sorry this took so long. I've had so much school work and a huge softball tournament so I really couldn't do much, but here it is at last. Thanx for the reviews. I love u people. just to answer some of my reviews . Yah I do know about the Zed (Z) thing and the eh thing cuz I live in Canada. To Cassie-bear01: it's a good idea. I'll definitely use it, but not in this chapter though. Look for it soon in upcoming chapters. Aaanyways on with the chapter!!!! R&R!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4
"What?" I actually heard my neck crack about three times as I whipped my head around to face Lara.
Lara just nodded.
My eyes widened, and all I could do was gape at her. "Why?" was the first word I could force out of my mouth. It was a very stupid question; Lara didn't need a reason for anything.
"Because I think the company may need you before the end of our journey," she replied. "We are very reckless people. You are not. It could be useful. Besides," she added with a sly grin, "we could use some comic relief."
I hated to think of myself as comic relief, but it was probably the only thing that I would be good for.
"Can I say no?" I asked.
"Of course," replied Elrond. "None are obligated to go on this journey."
I looked around, with huge eyes (my eyes hadn't yet returned to their normal state) at the Council then the Fellowship. I evaluated the pros and cons, as my favorite aunt had taught me to do when faced with a decision of this magnitude. There were really only one for each category. Con: I could die. Not a pleasant thought. Pro: I get to gawk at the good-looking Elf for an innumerable amount of days. Eventually the 'I get to gawk at the good- looking Elf' part of me won, and I decided to go. I think it was also because death seemed so remote, even though the big practical side of me knew it wasn't, I tended to ignore that side.
"I'll go," I declared. I heard quite a few groans from the Company. "Live with it," I told them. "Blame your wonderful Elf mage, or whatever the hell she is, cuz she invited me."
So I joined the Fellowship (better known as the freak-clique, which I fit into perfectly). I went and stood behind the hobbits, with the other normal sized people (except Gimli, who was quite a bit shorter than the rest of us). I was surprised to find that only Aragorn, the old man, and the good- looking elf were taller than I was. I was about five foot eleven and a bit, which was quite tall. It was an odd thought to have, having just seemingly signed my death warrant, but I have those odd thoughts at inappropriate times very often.
"So be it," declared Elrond, as a found my place among the other members of the Fellowship. All we needed now was Wayne Gretzky to lie down in front of the hobbits, and you would have had the Fellowship hockey team. "You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."
"Great," said Pippin. "Where are we going?"
This set me off into another fit of hysteria.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We had a huge feast that night. It was our Parting Feast. You know just to make us want to stay even more than we already did. Personally I thought it was just done to try to tempt us to stay to test our will power. Bad if we stayed, good if we went. I think it was particularly directed at me. Well I wasn't going to give in that easy. I was going to go on the journey, and I was going to enjoy myself tonight.
I found an unexpected friend in Gimli. He seemed to have a bottomless bag of stories, that I enjoyed listening to. My favorite was that of his father's Gloin (who was, I discovered later, a little more soft spoken) and the thirteen dwarves and Bilbo Baggins (a hobbit) who journeyed over the Misty Mountains (God knew where those were) to a dragon's den to retrieve their gold . It also explained how the talking Ring had come to Frodo. Bilbo had found in Gollum's (um who, or more to the point what, was Gollum?) cave and Frodo had inherited it, though Bilbo had never known it's evil purposes.
Throughout Gimli's stories, however riveting they may have been, I couldn't help glancing at the good-looking Elf, whose name I had discovered was Legolas.
"You seem interested in the Elf, miss, very interested," remarked Gimli, as he caught me staring at Legolas for one particularly long stint. "You should perhaps not be. They are not the best folk to be fraternizing with."
"Are Elves just as racist as Dwarves?" I asked, trying to keep him away from the subject of my interest in Legolas.
Gimli looked at me, confused. "Racist?"
"You know, against Dwarves. Well that's not actually the definition of racist, but that's what I mean."
"Yes, very much so," said Gimli confidently.
I shook my head disapprovingly. "You should learn to get along better."
"It would be difficult."
"Yes, it seems so," I drawled, rolling my eyes at his stubbornness.
Eventually the feast ended, and I felt like throwing up. I had eaten way too much, following the council of Gimli (which I vowed never to do again). We were invited to the Hall of Flame, where there was to be singing and dancing.
After a while I got bored of the mystical songs in another language (although I wouldn't have thought I would considering how many good-looking Elves there were there) and wandered off. I wanted to go to bed, but I hadn't been shown to my room. In fact I hadn't even been offered a room. This was probably because I had run off almost immediately after the Council, to go explore the waterfalls, and punch myself for joining. When I had returned the Feast had already started and there was no time to be shown to a room, or change. I still had my jeans, t-shirt, and hooded sweatshirt on that I had worn for the past week or so. I really needed some new clothes. And a bath.
It took me a little while to locate someone who could show me where I could find any one of these things. Finally I found a lady Elf who looked to be in her early thirties wandering through Rivendell. I approached her.
"Um," I said, not quite sure how to phrase the question. She smiled encouragingly at me. "Um, could I, I mean, um, is there anywhere I could take a bath, and perhaps wash my clothes."
"Of course," she said. "We must find Lillanin." She grabbed hold of my hand and began to drag through Rivendell. "My name is Anya." She was very chatty. She talked about anything and everything, not even expecting an answer from me. I just nodded and smiled and hoped she wouldn't be too offended. She didn't even notice my silence. She just kept on talking at me. Had it not be for her pointed ears, she would have fit in perfectly with the 'popular' crowd. Eventually she began talking in another language and I just tuned her out entirely, but kept on smiling and nodding absently.
Finally I heard, "Ah Lillanin," and then more speech in another language.
"Oh Anya," replied a middle aged Elven lady. Her long dirty blonde hair was just beginning to go gray, or in her case silver. She looked to be in her late forties. She wore a kindly smile on her face that was warm and inviting. "I'm sure you've been talking to this girl in Sindarin and yet have you not figured out that she does not speak it?"
"Oh," said Anya bashfully. "I did not realize. Why did you not say anything?" she asked turning to me.
I just turned away shyly. There was a moment of awkward silence, before Lillanin intervened.
"Come," she said beckoning me to follow her. "I will show to your rooms and the bathing house. Oh my child," she cried with horrified expression on her face. "You do need some new clothes. I will find a few dresses and a nightgown."
She led through the streets and walkways of Rivendell to a small, rather open room. Only curtains and two thin walls separated me from the outside. The main chamber consisted of a bed and a large wardrobe. I made a mental note to go inside and have look to see if I could find the magical land of Narnia, though I wouldn't be much better off there than I was here.
Lillanin went into a small separate room that looked to be the bathroom, and came back with a towel, facecloth and nightgown.
"This is to be your room my lady."
"April," I corrected. I did not like being called my lady. It made me sound like one of those Middle Ages sluts who slept with every man that she found it convenient to do so. I certainly did not want that image.
"Alright April," said Lillanin. "I will show you to the bathing houses."
The bathing houses were not far from my room. We came to them and I saw many other Elven women in a large steaming pool. Horrified I realized that these were communal bathing houses.
Lillanin must have noticed my horrified expression. "Is something wrong, ma la - April?" she asked.
I did not want to be anymore of a hassle to Lillanin. "No," I said with a forced smiled. "I'll be fine."
She smiled. "Good. There is soap over there in the far corner over there." She pointed to a bunch of bar and glass bottles. "Will you be able to find your way back to your chambers?"
"Yes, I'll be fine," I lied. I counted on wandering Rivendell for couple of hours before I actually found my room.
Lillanin nodded and left. Quickly I stripped, trying not to call attention to myself. I slipped quietly into the water hoping that the Elves wouldn't hear. I was not so lucky. They heard me and, interested, came over. I felt very self-conscious. I had never considered myself that ugly, but compared to these women I was a hag.
"Ooooh look at her ears," said one that sounded particularly ditzy. She felt around my ears as I rolled my eyes. She didn't notice.
"Doesn't it hurt?" asked another one.
"No," I said in duh-like voice. "Look." I began twisting and flicking my ear in different ways (which really doesn't hurt). They all my gasped at my obvious abuse of my own ear. "It really doesn't hurt. I'll prove it to you." I reached for one of their ears, but they all shied away from me.
"No it hurts us," they said pathetically.
"Riiiight," I said rolling my eyes again.
I left them to their cowardliness and swam over to the far end where the soaps were. I examined the bottles. None of them looked quite like Pantene Pro-V, but it was better than nothing. I picked up one of the bottles and dumped some of the shampoo-like-but-not-quite-so-factoryish-feeling stuff on my head. It smelled of fresh flowers, which bugged me because I would smell like flowers for the rest of the evening and probably the next day as well. Oh well that couldn't be helped. I scrubbed the stuff into my hair, rinsed it out and looked for conditioner, belatedly remembering that this world probably didn't produce it. Feeling that I didn't need to waste my time checking each bottle to see if they did, I grabbed a bar of soap I scrubbed my entire body down twice. I needed to do it three times, but I wanted to get away from the Elven ladies.
I swam back to the edge of the pool where my clothes were. I suddenly remembered that I hadn't washed my face, which needed washing more than anything. I ran out of the pool butt naked, nearly slipping on the pool deck, grabbed my facecloth and hurl myself back in. My cannonball jumped sent a huge wave over the Elves. They were outraged, but so ditzy that they didn't do anything more than hurl what I thought to be insults at me in another language (presumably Sindarin).
I washed my face quickly, and did the same streak I had moments earlier, except this time with about ten Elves watching me. I reached my towel in seconds and threw it around myself. I toweled myself as dry as I could get in 30 seconds, threw on my nightgown and the little slippers Lillanin had given me and ran out the door, the sound of giggling Elves following me into the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Twenty minutes later found me still wandering around Rivendell in search of my room. I had checked many only to find that they weren't mine. I had actually once walked in on a couple doing things that I thought Elves should never. But alas, they were only.human-like. After that I didn't check any rooms without at least knocking.
As I wandered aimlessly, I came upon Lillanin.
"Out for an evening stroll, April?" she asked as if it were perfectly normal for me to be wandering around in nightgown and slippers and carrying the dirty laundry.
"No I was looking for room."
"So you could not find it on your own. I was wondering when you look for me for assistance." It didn't cross her mind that I might have had much more difficulty finding her than my room because she moved and my room did not.
She led me to my room. I rolled back the covers and fell into bed and was asleep immediately.
Only minutes later it seemed, I was being awakened
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was preparations day. We had to pack.
They had lain out a number of loose dresses, obviously meant for such a long and demanding journey.
"I am not wearing those," I informed my maid servant upon seeing my new wardrobe.
"But you must my lady," she cried (she still hadn't gotten the sentence 'call me April'). "What else will you wear."
"Pants."
She looked horrified at the idea. "But you are a woman," she protested.
"And practical too. Its much easier to travel in pants than dresses."
"Alright."
So my wardrobe was changed to pants called breeches (which looked way too spandexy, but I accepted them not wanting to push my luck any farther than I had already done. I had hoped that would have jeans but they didn't), shirts, long pullover type things that came down to my knees called tunics, underwear and things that looked like bras, boots, and a long hooded cape, obviously meant to be worn like a wind breaker. Then came the backpackish type things except that they looked more like biggish briefcases that you slung over your shoulder; they were not nearly as comfortable as a backpack. Luckily I was travelling pretty lightly. I had only (and I use 'only' very lightly) three sets of my clothing (excluding the cape and boots), a thing that was meant to be sleeping bag, and water bottle (they called it a 'gourd' but I had difficulty getting my tongue around it so I just called it bottle). They didn't make me carry pots and pans or food supply, besides which I think Sam was more than happy to take it all himself.
Finally we were all prepared.
We were all gathered at the entrance to Rivendell. There was a large crowd to see us off. Apparently destroying the talking Ring was that important. They all looked so sad. It made me think that we might not come back alive. This was not a pleasant thought. I tried to force it from my mind, but the subject of my own death was ever present in my consciousness.
Elrond gave a final speech reminding us that we were by no means obliged to go on this mission (Frodo was except from this liberty). The way he said, I would have expected him to think that half of us would turn back half an hour after the trip started. I felt him making this point especially for me. It made my weak resolve to go stronger. I was going to prove him wrong. Stupid Elf.
So we were off, walking through the tunnel-like entrance to Rivendell. Aragorn was the last to leave. He stood rooted to the spot looking back upon a beautiful Elven woman, who was crying as he finally turned his back to leave.
I turned my attention from the sad scene back to the road ahead.
"Mordor Gandalf," I heard Frodo asking the old man. "Left or right."
"Left," replied Gandalf.
I grinned. It was a light start to Mission Impossible 10.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoa seven pages. Didn't think it would be that long. Yah I know that chapter kinda sucked, but it'll get better. Review!!!!!!!!!!