Hi again. Thank you all for supporting this story so much. It means a lot and I'm glad you are all still enjoying it. Here is the next instalment.

A day at the zoo

It was another day out for the company in Ibiza. Today was going to be a day at the zoo, as chosen by Sam. The zoo was merely a bus ride away but it was that bus ride that nearly caused Gandalf to loose his staff, Aragorn to tie the driver up, claiming that he was going too slow and the rest of the passengers on the bus fleeing in fright.

Thankfully, despite many mishaps, they all arrived in one piece. They argued over which animals they wanted to see and decided that it was probably best if they all stayed together and just worked their way around.

The first animals they saw were rabbits. There was a very large cage with high wire mesh surrounding it and the fellowship stood, not very impressed, looking at the rabbits. Sam wanted to catch one for supper but he was told that they couldn't catch these rabbits, which he thought very strange.

Next were the lions. These were a bit more impressive. They came to the side of the cage and when one let out a very deep roar, Frodo hid behind Gandalf's long cloak. Sam was wondering off talking to himself.

"Wow! Look at those pretty flowers. I have never seen flowers like that before. I will have to take a closer look."

He made his way towards the flowers, which involved climbing over a very high fence and dodging a few little pools of water. He was stood gazing down at them and deciding whether or not to take a few home with him when he heard the same deep roar as he had heard before. He turned around to find that he was face to face with a lion.

"Erm...Hi Mr Lion. I don't suppose you would mind if I took some of these flowers would you?" He stuttered. The lion roared. "Hehe. Thought so. I'll just go then."

He turned around and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He headed towards the rest of the Fellowship, they would save him.

"Look at that funny looking rabbit over there." Aragorn laughed. "It's going to get eaten by the lion."

"Aragorn, that funny rabbit is Sam. How did he get in there?" Legolas soon realised.

Sam came racing towards them. He was calling to them but as he got closer, and not seeing the fence separating them, he ran straight into it. He was knocked backwards for a few seconds but as soon as he caught sight of the lion once again, he ran.

"Oh dear oh dear. What would you all do without me?" Gandalf muttered as he pointed his staff towards the lion and sent a blinding light out from the end of it. The lion was stunned and this gave Sam enough time to climb out.

"See, no problem." He muttered through chattering teeth.

They moved on to the next lot of animals before anything else could happen.

"Isn't it sad?" Pippin told Merry. "All these animals locked up in cages like this."

"They should be let out." Merry agreed.

"Yeah they should. It's mean to keep them here while everyone looks at them."

"Yeah, ooh look tigers."

The Fellowship were all now gathered around the tigers cage and Gandalf had a firm hold on Sam's collar. They moved on from the tigers and headed towards the birdhouse.

They had only been in the house for a few moments.

"Crabain, from Dunland. Hide!" Legolas called.

The Fellowship all dived for the nearest table, chairs, cupboards and anything else they could find. They sat there for about ten minutes before slowing coming out again and looking at the birds flying around them in various cages.

"Legolas, these are not Crabain."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?"

"Oh dear!" Gandalf said once again.

"Well, at least I wasn't nearly eaten by lions." Legolas added, defensively.

They moved on from the birdhouse and continued to walk around looking at the animals. Sam got rather excited when he found elephants. He claimed they had spelt their name wrong on the sign but he was amazed nonetheless.

"Wow, look Mr Frodo. No one will ever believe this back home."

"Erm, Sam. You've already told everyone back home about six times each."

There were many more animals after that and soon it was time to stop for dinner. They were sitting around a large bench enjoying their sandwiches when Aragorn spotted a place, not far from where they were sitting, where you could ride horses. He was missing his horse back home so he thought that by riding one of these, it would make him feel better.

He paid and jumped on a tall black horse. There was a woman in front of the horse leading it but Aragorn was bored by this and he kicked the horse in it's flanks causing it to go running off around the fenced area. He led the horse around the fence and then decided it would be fun to go over it.

The horse was soon jumping fences and benches around the eating area before Aragorn finally led it back to the very startled woman.

"Wow, that was amazing." She told him as he jumped down. "You are very good on a horse. Where did you learn?"

"My Father taught me of course." Aragorn told her.

"Oh, was your father a great rider?"

"He wasn't great but he liked to ride."

"Oh, did he do shows or ride for fun?"

"No he rode to get around from place to place. How else are we supposed to get to where we want to go?"

"Oh, well...There is a competition taking place this afternoon. Would you consider entering?"

"Ohh! A competition. Yeah!"

Aragorn was soon back with the others telling them all about the competition he was going to win later on. They all assured him that they would be there to watch.

"Where's Gandalf?" Aragorn asked, suddenly realising that he wasn't there.

"Oh, he went to buy a bag of sweets."

"Ok, I have to go and prepare my horse." Aragorn smirked.

"We'll meet you there in a bit when Gandalf gets back." Gimli told him.

After he had left the Fellowship soon realised that he was going to be unbearable to live with if he won this competition. They waited until Gandalf got back and then headed over to the large benches where they found good seats and waited for it to start.

It started no sooner had they sat down and Aragorn led his horse perfectly through the many obstacles and jumps.

"Would you like a sweetie?" Gandalf offered one to everyone. Frodo stuck his hand into the bag and pulled out a gummy sweet in the shape of a ring.

"It has come back to me." He murmured to himself. "My precious."

"That is not the one ring." Gimli told him.

"Yes it is. It is mine now." Frodo had the ring in his hand and he was carefully stroking it.

"That is not the one ring. Look!" Gimli snatched the ring from Frodo's hand and pushed it into his mouth. He ate it while Frodo screamed at him.

"You ate my ring. My precious."

"Will you to be quiet?" Pippin asked as he was trying to watch Aragorn.

The competition ended and Aragorn came trotting up to the finish line pleased with himself and the horse. He was even more pleased when he was given the winning prize of a bunch of flowers, which he gave to Sam, an envelope of money, which he intended or buying presents for Arwen, and a small silver crown, which he wore high on his head. He told everyone that this crown would be the one he wore rather than his other. His other was cheap and this was much more expensive. He took the other off his head and threw it into the nearest bin. Everyone protested but he wouldn't listen.

It was almost time to go home and as the company sat on a bench talking, or listening in the case of most, to Aragorn's tale of the competition, Legolas wandered off. He had spotted a very small ride for young children. It was a ride in the shape of a giraffe. Legolas sat on it and put his money in. It began to move backwards and forwards. He flung his arms around the next of the giraffe and clung tightly to it.

"I wanna get off." He moaned. At last the giraffe stopped moving and Legolas slid down, standing on very shaky legs. He felt a hand on his shoulder and spun around.

A man and a woman were standing behind him. They were looking him up and down and gazed especially at his ears and fair face.

"What kind of creature are you?" The man asked.

"I-i-i-i m-m-m-m a-a-a-a-." Legolas tried to tell them that he was an elf but he was shaking so badly that the words only came out as stuttering, which sounded like a very strange animal noise.

"Well, whatever you are you are very beautiful." Legolas blushed as the woman spoke. "You would raise a lot of money in this zoo. I've never seen or heard anything like you before." The woman now sounded more like she was talking to the man than actually talking to Legolas.

Legolas quickly realised what they were talking about and his face fell as the man pulled a small tranquilliser gun from behind his back. Legolas didn't even have time to shout to the others. The dart hit him in his arm and he slumped to the floor.

*~*~*~*~*

When Legolas woke up he was lying in a large cage full of straw. There was a swing made out of a tire in the centre and a bowl of all kinds of fruit next to it. Legolas walked over to the bowl and started eating the fruit. He had completely forgot that he was in a cage.

The man and the woman who had spoken to him earlier were standing outside the cage.

"Wow! I've never seen anything like before." The man said.

"Me neither. It seems to be settling in very well." The woman added as they walked off.

*~*~*~*~*

"Where has Legolas got to?" Gimli asked as they all stood gazing around them. "It's nearly time to go home."

"We'll have to split up and look for him. We have one hour. Gimli, Gandalf, Aragorn you got that way. We will go this way." Sam took charge once more and they split up to go in different directions.

It was Aragorn that spotted Legolas. Legolas was clinging to the sides of the cage shouting to anyone that would listen. Aragorn, Gimli and Gandalf rolled up to the cage laughing.

The hobbits heard the laughter and also came running to the cage. When they saw Legolas they too burst into hysterics.

"Unidentified animal." Sam read as he pointed to the sign.

"Yes, yes very funny. Just let me out." Legolas pleaded.

It was several minutes before Gandalf could control himself enough to let Legolas out. He opened the cage out and Legolas walked out brushing the straw from his clothes.

"If we are letting this 'animal' out." Merry told Pippin. "We might as well do the others."

Merry and Pippin ran off and before anyone could stop them, they had begun to open all the doors to every animal cage in the zoo. Soon there were hundreds of animals chasing each other. There were people running away from the animals and the zookeepers were beginning to come out.

There was no choice for the Fellowship. All they could do was run as the animals and zookeeper gave chase.

Did you like? I know I usually reply to all your reviews at the end of this chapter but I just haven't had time recently. I'm very sorry but I thought it would be betetr to post the chapter without any replies than make you wait even longer. I promise I will reply to you all next chapter but there is still one message I want to give you all:

Everyone: Thank you!!!