Chapter 5
The trip to Cadhras was cold, miserable, and mostly uneventful. The girls were hyperactive, the hobbits were hungry and cold, and Gandalf was worried about the sanity of his invisible friends. There were only a few minor incidents along the way to cause pause for thought.
The morning had been early and gray. Mistier and colder than the others that they had awoken to, but everyday was like that: worse than the last. Erika and Gandalf were sleeping late that morning because they had been up late working on Erika's powers. Now Katie and Legolas were taking their early morning watch. Katie barely noticed the sleep deprivation now because the chocolate kept her awake and she was getting more and more used to the elfish body.
Both had their backs turned from camp, not fearing that danger lied within, so Chelli found the perfect opportunity to take revenge on the deep sleeping wizard. Dragging her pack, which she and Jenny had been lucky enough to stumble upon a couple days earlier, Chelli stopped over her dozing friends. She reached into the pack, smiling happily to herself, and pulled out a small box with a girl with pink hair on the front. She took a flask of water and dumped it on Gandalf's head, hoping that the wet would not awake from his dreams of Isengard. Gently massaging, she poured the content of the box into Gandalf's gray hair.
"This is going to be a much better color for you, Gandalf the Pink! Happy Day of Revenge to me! I cannot wait to see the look on his face. Just wait and see if he ever names anyone Petunia ever again," Chelli whispered maniacally and dumped more water onto his head revealing Gandalf's hair, which was now an atrocious hot pink. She giggled and got back into bed.
When Gandalf woke up and noticed that his beautiful gray beard was not a shocking pink, he let out a string of elfish curses, causing Katie to blush and cover her ears and Legolas, Aragorn, and Esther (the only others who now how to speak elfish) to gape at their mild-mannered friend.
"Merry! Pippin!" Gandalf thundered his rage shaking the remaining water from the branches above them. "You are in deep trouble! I think I shall turn you both into… into… Frogs!"
And he had. Merry and Pippin had barely had time to begin pleading their innocence before they were green and croaking angrily at their laughing friends. Sam and Frodo carried them that day until they made camp that night. Paige knew something though and cornered Chelli at the edge of the sleeping clearing.
"What did you do to Master Gandalf?" Paige asked accusingly.
"It's not permanent, Paige. I was gonna use it to play a joke on Katie, but Gandalf seemed a better candidate. I needed revenge for that stupid name and the sugar rush that Jenny is going through right now. Please, don't tell," Chelli plead.
"Alright, but only because I don't particularly care for the name Lara, and Michelle has been going insane from the chocolate," Paige answered walking back to the camp. "By the way, that was great revenge."
Gandalf still sported slightly pink hair. Erika's favorite game was to joke with Gandalf that the pink aura would never go away. He was getting very good at dirty glares. Jenny giggled every time Gandalf screwed up his face into his best 'I-am-evil-look'.
At the moment the fellowship was resting halfway up Caradhras, everyone huddled around a small fire that Erika had been able to produce. Katie was just finding the usefulness of being able to walk on snow now that she had realized that her allergy to cold had faded slowly away during their trip up the mountain, and Jenny was staring dreamily at Legolas who was running around on top of the snow with his blonde hair flying.
"I have an idea," Katie said walking over to the group. "Let's build a snow man. I finally get to play in the snow, and I want to build a snow man."
"We must be leaving now. How many days do you want to stay on this frigid mountain?" Gandalf asked.
Katie nodded at Gandalf's wisdom and began to follow Legolas up the mountain. On the way, she picked up Michelle and carried her as the snow began to get deeper and deeper. Finally, it was waist deep as they reached the summit.
The winds were howling and snow blinded everyone. Lips were chapped and faces were red from cold. Legolas walked along the top, keeping watch for more crebain coming to find where they were now. The female counterparts of the fellowship tagged along behind quietly, all jokes were gone, and Jenny's chocolate was uneatable do the fact that it was so cold that they could not bite the chocolate off.
Unexpectedly, a voice came drifting over the mountains chanting in a strange tongue. Legolas looked for the source but could find none. He became worried.
"There is a fell voice upon the air," He said to Gandalf who was behind him.
Gandalf turned to look at the fellowship as recognition hit him like a lightening bolt. "It's Saruman!" he screamed, afraid of what peril was coming upon them now.
A great rumble began and all despaired at their new predicament. The sound was like that of a mouse listening to a lady step on the hem of her new dress and ripping it. All looked about them in fear, hoping and praying that the sound was not what they believed it to be.
Their prayers were dashed as chunks of snow fell like boulders atop of them. Smothering the fellowship in a layer of powdery sugar, leaving them feeling like a cake that had been iced. Each person struggled with the suffocating snow, trying to feel their way from below the icy blanket.
Legolas and Katie were the first to stick their heads out and peer around. Katie climbed through and quickly sought hands or feet of her friends. Arms appeared from under the snow, seeming to grow from the snow's depths. Eventually everyone became uncovered and safe from the harm of suffocation.
"We must get off the mountain," Boromir yelled as Jennifer ran to make sure her companion was alright, "make for the gap of Rohan and take the road west to my city!"
"The gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard," Aragorn yelled back over the violent winds.
"If we cannot pass over the mountain, let us go under it. Let us go through the Mines of Moria," Gimli suggested. Ashley hit him, causing his helmet to clang.
"Stupid, stupid dwarf," she muttered nursing her hand.
Erika looked at Gandalf hoping he would choose what she was going to suggest. "Moria would be much safer than the Gap of Rohan, Gandalf," she suggested into his ear.
He ignored her, thinking about the horrors that lay in wait at Moria. Finally he spoke, "Let the Ring-bearer decide."
Frodo looked incredulously at Gandalf, and Michelle made Katie carry her to him so they could once again comfort him in his decision. Frodo looked at Sam who offered no help, than back at Gandalf.
"Frodo?" Gandalf asked afraid of the answer but ready to accept it.
"We will go through the Mines," he finally answered not so sure of his decision. \
"So be it," Gandalf and Erika answered together, and the fellowship began to make their way back down the mountain towards Moria.
