Sorry for the long wait everyone! I had to deal with depression, sickness, exams, more depression, more sickness… I'm really mean to Aragorn in this aren't I?
Anyhoo… chapter five, coming right up!
I don't own the characters. I won the depressing story I put them in.
"Merry," Pippin said calmly and kindly, when they had been following Sméagol for about half an hour, "Can I have some pipeweed?"
Merry ignored Pippin, and thrusting his nose high into the air, he walked ahead so that he was level with Sméagol. Pippin sighed. Merry was still giving him the silent treatment.
"So, how far to where we're going?" Merry asked Sméagol.
"You'll sssee…" was the ambiguous answer.
Pippin shivered. This Sméagol creature was making him feel cold and very, very insecure. Sméagol had this grey coloured skin and strangely shaped hands and hardly any hair. Legolas had told him once never to trust anyone with dodgy hair, i.e. trolls, orcs and dwarves, among others. He never mentioned a type of creature that was like Sméagol. Pippin wondered what type of creature Sméagol was. He didn't want to ask - one, that would give away the fact that he was totally ignorant, and two, he thought it would sound rude.
Another that was strange about Sméagol was that he kept murmuring to himself (if Sméagol was in fact a he, a fact that Pippin was sort of doubtful about) and making noises in the back of his throat that sounded like gollum, gollum. The word 'gollum' sounded somehow familiar, but Pippin couldn't remember where it came from. Probably the name of one of Farmer Maggot's dogs.
Pippin noticed that they were walking mostly downhill, which could only be a good thing, as it meant they were coming down from the mountains and getting out of the snow. But then he frowned. If the Ring was lost in the snow, and the were going out of the snow, then…
"Merry," Pippin whispered urgently, "Merry, I think there's something wrong with this."
Merry still ignored him. But Pippin persisted.
"Merry," Pippin started again, "I don't even know why we're following this creature. I'm supposed to bring you back to the others and that's that."
Merry did not answer, nor did he acknowledge that Pippin was talking at all.
"Look at his hair!" Pippin tried again, taking a different approach, "Remember what Legolas said about people no having nice hair? Remember how he said never trust -"
"You're listening to Legolas?" Merry yelled, "You'd listen to that boring, predictable, good-for-nothing-but-shooting-arrows pretty boy rather than me, your own cousin?"
Pippin looked at Merry for a second. "He talks!" he suddenly yelled, delighted. "He talks, he talks, he talks!" he chanted, grabbing Merry's hands and spinning him round and round.
Merry found himself spinning with Pippin, an activity he had enjoyed when they were both younger. Unable to control his happiness, Merry laughed and laughed, finally collapsing in a giggling heap on top of Pippin, whose sides were also hurting.
"I missed you, Pip," Merry whispered when he had stopped laughing, his eyes suddenly teary.
Pippin beamed at the cousin he adored, his face covered in snow.
"I missed you too Merry."
Boromir led the way through the snow, glancing back every now and then to check that everyone was still following him. He had to make a good leader, and he would not let anyone run off, like Aragorn had done.
"Is everyone doing alright?" Aragorn, walking just a few paces behind Boromir, called back along the column, as he had been doing every five minutes for the past half an hour. Aragorn had much the same idea as Boromir, to make an exceptional leader. In order to do this, he felt maximum communication with the group was necessary.
A chorus of ragged "Yes," met his question, and it was clear that everyone was indeed alright but Aragorn was not satisfied with the response.
"No! I'm supposed to say, "is everyone doing alright', then the person after me -" he turned and glared at Legolas - "is supposed to say 'Charlie', then he person after him, and so on, until the last person, who says 'Goose'. Understand? Now let's do it again. Is everyone doing alright?"
"Charlie," said Legolas.
"Charlie," said Sam.
"Charlie," Frodo managed to croak out.
"Moose," called Gimli from the back.
"No! Not 'moose', it's 'goose'!" Aragorn shook his head. "Let's try that again. Is everyone - Ouch! What are you doing?"
Boromir had just stopped dead in his tracks. Aragorn, too busy with his lectures about Moose and Goose, had walked right into him. Aragorn peered around his shoulder to see what had caused the abrupt stop.
Down on the more level snowfields beneath them, standing in the endless snow, was an army of orcs, armed to the teeth, sitting around an enormous campfire and laughing at something one of them had said. They had not noticed the Fellowship yet.
"Don't trust them," whispered Legolas, "you can always judge by their hair."
"We need to find cover," said Boromir, "We'll never be able to take all of them on."
Quietly they inched back along the path.
"In here!" Gimli called softly and indicated a cave cut into the mountain they were up against. As silently as possible, the six of them filed into the cave, settling themselves down around the walls. The cave was dark and damp, from the snow that had drifted inside and melted because the cave's temperature was somewhat warmer than outside. It was very dark inside, so that none of the could see anyone else.
"So," Aragorn said pompously, "Are we all here? Let's do a check. Charlie!"
"Oh, shut up!" Boromir snapped, "Can't you see that we're in mortal peril?"
"Well, really Boromir," said Legolas thoughtfully, "None of us can really see anything. It's much too dark!"
Boromir rolled his eyes. "Well since we're not going to be doing anything for a while, I'm going to take a nap. Someone should keep a lookout."
"Yes," chimed in Aragorn, "exactly what I was just going to suggest. Er… who wants to be the lookout?"
No one replied. The sound of Boromir's snores filled the cave.
"Alright…" said Aragorn, "I guess I will do it…" and he moved himself to the mouth of he cave and sat, staring into the snow that was outside.
Yay! Another chapter! Wow… our friends seem to be in a lot of trouble. I wonder what Merry and Pippin are going to do about Sméagol? Hmm…
Does anyone have any suggestions about how I could end this? I have a vague idea, but I want other opinions too. You readers rock!