Aragorn led them down city block after city block. They found that great care needed to be taken of the Hobbits or they were liable to be jostled away. Few people seemed to take any notice of the Fellowship's strange clothes and extremely varied statures beyond a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe there are Hobbits somewhere around here," remarked Frodo hopefully, recognizing this. A businesswoman in four inch stiletto heels passed them, smoking a cigarette and chatting gaily on a cell phone. Legolas had another fit of coughing.
"That is worse than the stuff you and Aragorn smoke all the time!" he exclaimed to the Hobbits. They agreed.
In spite of the uneasy situation, none of the Fellowship's tongues were any less busy than usual. Merry, Aragorn and Boromir made a game out of trying to guess the purpose of various structures and objects, in which the others joined in from time to time. Boromir deciphered streetlights fairly quickly, and secretly resolved to encourage their introduction into Minas Tirith should Aragorn ever become king. A store on the corner happened to be a barber's shop. Aragorn had to drag Legolas and Gimli away from the window, where they were studying the remarkably short and exotic hairstyles pictured on both men and women. Since there was a salon almost every other block, he was kept quite busy. Bakeries were also extremely attractive to the hobbits, though they claimed even the smells declared the poor quality of the goods, as compared to hobbit baking. But, by watching out for each other, they arrived safely in the real retail district, far away from the dizzying 50-story office buildings.
"Well, at least someone was trying to bring a little beauty to this desert," said Legolas. A water fountain surrounded by palm trees, a variety of flowers and a bit of lawn was certainly a relief to the eyes.
"What say we rest a bit here?" suggested Boromir. "The air in this place is decidedly energy sapping." Wearily the hobbits flopped on the grass, while the taller members of the fellowship sat on a low wall. Merry noticed Pippin looked pale.
"Are you alright, Pip?" he asked concernedly. Pippin looked back at him mournfully.
"No! I'm hungry, and sick, and tired, and we're in a strange place where there are no Hobbits or even Elves and everything smells so and it doesn't even seem like Middle-Earth at all! Why did we ever come here?" he moaned. Boromir was rather ruffled at his race not being on the preferred list, but he didn't say anything.
"Well, at least you aren't wet," said Sam semi-cheerfully. At that instant, several silver pipes popped out of the ground. Before Merry could say, "What's that?" the stunned 0Fellowship was drenched.
"What was that?" exclaimed Gimli after the sprinklers disappeared.
"I don't know," replied Boromir irately.
"This is all your fault, Frodo!" Legolas cried. Frodo was flabbergasted.
"Mine! What-- Pippin splashed the Mirror!"
"Well, if you hadn't told us about it, we wouldn't have come," Boromir retorted, taking Pippin's side.
"Yes, and if the Lady Galadrial hadn't shown Frodo, he couldn't have shown us. Let's not start blaming each other." Aragorn silenced them." Come, it's all wet here now, we will move on."
Belatedly the travelers continued their pointless tramp. Suddenly Aragorn stopped in front of a Barnes & Noble.
"What's the matter, Strider?" asked Frodo.
"Nothing's the matter. It's just, I've never seen so many books in my life!" The others looked too in wonder, but Merry strolled over to the opposite window, and gasped.
"Come over here, now!" he cried." Look at this!" he ordered when they came.
"The Lord of the Rings ...The Fellowship of the Ring... The Two Towers... The Return of the King...The Hobbit...The Silmarillion," read Frodo slowly.
"This is queer and no mistake!" said Sam. "Do you suppose they've had a Dark Lord too?"
"Nothing for it but to ask inside." suggested Merry, but Aragorn was already in the door, with Legolas and Boromir on his heels. There was a closed sign on the door.