A/N: I don't marshmallows...nor how you eat them either...
Chapter Thirteen.
On the road again, more camp talk, Sarah's attempt of camouflage and the mysterious disappearance of Aragorn.
When we last left out heroes, they were beginning their journey to the refuge of Helm's Deep. Mac, Dave and Steph were given ponies to ride, just incase they grew tired of walking. Sarah rode on a horse alongside Legolas, with Ally trailing behind to stop any fangirlish activity which might occur through this. Angela followed, riding next to Gimli, who was on a horse led by Éowyn. Chatter arose amongst the group.
"It's true, you don't see many dwarf women," said Gimli, rambling on. "And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance they're often mistaken for dwarf men," Éowyn looked confused, and glanced back to Aragorn, who was following them on his horse.
"It's the beards," he whispered, motioning with his hand underneath his chin to represent a beard. Éowyn turned, trying to hide her laughter.
"So does that mean you're a woman too?" asked Ally, enquiring with the dwarf, who seemed to ignore the question and continue to stare at her. Ally shuddered, turning around.
"And this in turn has given rise to belief that there are no dwarf women, and that dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground," stated Gimli, scoffing at this statement, starting to laugh. Éowyn too burst into laughter, unable to contain it any longer.
"Which of course is ridiculous, Ah!" shrieked Gimli, as his horse unexpectedly takes off, riding off at such speed it caught everyone's attention. Angela's horse caught up with Sarah's, the two starting to laugh at the dwarf, who had fallen off his horse and onto the ground, Éowyn rushing forward to comfort the dwarf.
"It's all right, It's all right," huffed Gimli, lying on the ground. "Nobody panic. That was deliberate, it was deliberate,"
"Sure it was, Gimli," nodded Steph, not believing the dwarf.
"And don't worry, we weren't panicking either," echoed Ally.
"I'm sure you were worried," laughed Sarah.
"No," stated Ally, sternly.
Darkness began to creep in, and the Rohirrim stopped to make camp. Our heroes sat around a campfire, having yet another group discussion about random things.
"It's so good to sit down," sighed Ally, who was glad for the rest as she was exhausted.
"What are you talking about?" asked Steph, raising an eyebrow. "You were sitting on your horse all day,"
"You know what I mean," shrugged Ally.
"You know what we need?" Dave spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Marshmellows,"
"Mmm, marshmallows," Mac echoed.
"Where's Petri with refreshments?" queried Sarah, looking around.
"Hello," a shadowy figure said, the group looking up at them, "Here you are," Sarah took the packet of marshmallows from the stranger, who disappeared into the night.
"Well, that was random," Steph shuddered, yanking the bag off Sarah and taking her own marshmallow out, placing it on a stick and sticking it near the fire. The others soon followed, and were joined by Gimli and Legolas, who had become curious as to what the group were up too.
"Legolas, come sit with me!" Ally exclaimed, motioning the elf over. He looked at her, and went to sit with Sarah, who handed him a marshmallow on a stick, the elf reluctantly deciding to roast a marshmallow also.
"I wish Seth was here," frowned Ally. A twig snapped behind her, and everyone turned to see Seth Cohen standing behind Ally. He sat down next to her and smiled.
"I'm only here for a moment," sighed Seth. "If that wizard-guy found out I was here, I won't live long enough to see another Chrismakkuh,"
"I understand," frowned Ally, giving Seth a hug good-bye as he slowly began to disappear into the night.
Her attention was drawn back to her friends, and the roasting of marshmallows which had initiated. Sarah had somehow gotten her marshmallow stuck on her nose, the elf trying desperately to reach it with her tongue, but wasn't succeeding. Dave and Mac were sitting next to each other discussing the conspiracies of Area 51, Steph and Angela were talking about which hobbit they thought was the cutest, Angela thinking Ryan and Steph thinking Pippin. Gimli had toddled over to the group and was standing in the shadows, observing. He decided to go and sit next to Angela and Steph, and began retelling the journey so far, in his own perspective. Ally soon joined them, listening inventively. She then looked around, not seeing Aragorn anywhere in the vicinity.
"Where is Aragorn?" she asked, concerned.
"He's over there," Sarah said, pointing off to her right. "He looked like he wanted some time alone,"
The group, excluding Sarah, Legolas and Gimli, soon lay on the ground, and were ready for sleep.
"Aren't the stars pretty?" commented Ally, glancing up at the sky.
"I wonder if it's the same galaxy we see back home," Mac said, starting to miss home.
"Could be," Dave nodded in response.
"I wonder if Ryan is okay," Angela muttered to herself quietly.
"Hum, so many questions," Steph trailed off, the group soon falling into slumber.
The next morning, the group awoke.
"Goooood morning," cooed Mac, as the group arose.
"Did you even sleep?" asked Angela, glancing at the wide-eyed hobbit.
"I slept a little..." said Mac, glaring around.
"She was hyped up on marshmallows," said Ally, shaking her head.
"Yes," nodded Steph, glaring at the hobbit, "she kept me awake also continuing to ask 'Steph, are you awake?' AND she keep staring at me, I was so freaked out by it," continued the hobbit, shuddering.
"What happened to your partner in crime?" asked Sarah directing her question to Mac as she walked over to the group to join the conversation.
"He went to offer Gimli a marshmallow for breakfast," nodded the hobbit.
"This should be interesting," Steph nodded, getting up from the ground and walking around trying to find the hobbit with the quest to give Gimli a marshmallow. The others shrugged, and soon followed. They came across Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli sitting in front of a fire. Dave was standing in front of them with a stick and the packet of marshmallows at his side some of them had fallen from the bag and littered the ground. Angela glanced at Gimli's axe and saw pink and white marshmallowy bits sticking to the blade.
"I think Gimli tried to kill the marshmallows," the elf said, laughing at the thought of it. Sarah giggled also, imagining how frustrated the dwarf would have become after being told he could not destroy them, like the ring at the Council of Elrond. And then she laughed at the rocks bouncing off the ring and starting Ryan's quest to annoy the crud out of the dwarf. Both elves sighed.
"And this is what you do," said Dave, picking up the stick and putting a marshmallow on it.
"Oo can I help?" asked Mac, racing over to be Dave's assistant in the Mashmallow-toasting-lesson.
"Maybe you should have done this last night," shrugged Steph, figuring that the two of them would probably become even more hyper from eating marshmallows from breakfast, as a result from eating marshmallows for dinner and supper and a midnight snack last night.
Mac held the stick over the fire, and raised an eyebrow as the marshmallow began to melt into the fire.
"Are they supposed to do that?" asked Angela, eying the pink gooeyness which stuck to the stick.
"You broke the marshmallows, Mac," laughed Sarah.
The group was soon over the marshmallow fiasco, and began day two of their journey to Helm's Deep.
"And here we are, in the wild savannah of...Middle Earth," said Steph, putting on her David Ettingburough accent. Angela raised an eyebrow at this.
"She does it way better than me," shrugged Sarah, as Steph continued her narration.
"And in front of us we can see the hairy-footed hobbitous which enjoys eating, eating and more eating," continued Steph, glaring at Mac and Dave who had decided to share the rest of the marshmallows between them, dropping random marshmallows on the ground as they tried to walk and hold the bag.
"Excuse me?" asked Mac, her mouth full of marshmallow.
"Nothing Mac," Ally said, grinning at her, which then turned to a look of disgust when she looked down and noticed she had stepped onto one of the marshmallows which the hobbits had dropped was sticking to the bottom of her shoe. "Ewwww," the human shuddered at the sight.
The group all glared at Gimli, who rode by on his horse, again led by Éowyn, who spoke to Aragorn.
"And over to our right," Steph's narration continued, "We have the stumpy-footed camel. This species is remarkably rare and is known as the Gimlious Dwarfous," Sarah cocked at eyebrow at this. "How did you know about that?" she asked, wondering how her hobbit-friend had found out about the Gimli-is-a-camel-thing.
"Angela told me," nodded Steph, who cleared her throat to continue being David Ettinburough, "The Gimlious Dwarfous enjoys eating, drooling, attempting to woo the one Ally, and falling down,"
Everyone's attention was soon turned to Gimli, who had yet again, fallen off his horse. Legolas shook his head at the dwarf lying on the ground struggling to get up, again, getting aid from Éowyn and Aragorn to help the dwarf onto his horse.
"And I thought you were bad at riding," said Legolas, cocking an eyebrow at Sarah, the elf pouting in response.
"I'm not that bad," she shrugged, "I've overcome falling off it when I dismount," she grinned at the elf, who grinned back.
"To our left," said Steph, glaring at Sarah, "is the Elfious-FanGirlous-Stalkious...Thing,"
"Thing? This should be interesting," the elf state, raising an eyebrow.
"This species of creature has a lot of unknown qualities about it," said Steph, grinning.
"Aw," frowned Sarah, "I wanted to hear about me!"
"Not everything is about you, Mobbs," said Ally, poking her tongue out at the elf.
"Well," said the elf, talking to herself, "it should be!"
"You're really good at that David Ettingburough accent," said Angela, talking to Steph. "You should become an actor,"
"I am," nodded Steph.
"And I'm her roadie," a voice came from behind.
"Oh no," Ally, Mac, Dave and Sarah said in unison.
"Who is that?" whispered Legolas to Sarah.
"It's just another person from my world," replied Sarah, rolling her eyes as the group stopped to wait for the person, who was jogging up to them.
"There must be a portal where people are sneaking into," said Mac, Dave nodding in agreement.
"Let's hope some unwanted people don't come in," Steph sighed, thinking about all the other people who could possibly pop into this story if the narrator chose to incorporate them.
"Too late," muttered Ally, "What do you want, Sarah?" huffed the human, as she picked up a marshmallow in readiness to throw it at her.
"I wanted in on this story too," said the girl, folding her arms in protest.
"All who want Sarah in on the story say I," Ally announced.
Crickets began chirping, and if you listened closely you could hear a pin dropping in the distance.
"I!" a voice came from behind, recognizably Gimli.
"That's still like...all of us against you," said Steph, glaring at the dwarf.
"Plus, one Sarah is all we need," grinned Angela, Sarah laughing at that because she agreed.
"Aw," the other Sarah frowned, looking at the ground.
"Be gone!" yelled Ally in her best wizard-type tone, throwing the marshmallow at the girl, who disappeared in a puff of smoke. "No need to thank me, all in a day's work," the human said, grinning gleefully.
"Well, that was random," commented Dave, shoving another marshmallow into his mouth.
"Everything seems to be random in this story," sighed Angela.
"Of course," nodded Sarah.
Angela rode up to join Aragorn and Éowyn, joining in their conversation.
"Where is she?" asked Éowyn, curiously, "The woman who gave you that jewel,"
Aragorn seemed to stare off into space, obviously have a flashback of his own.
"How come he gets to have a flashback, and I don't?" Sarah huffed, folding her arms in protest.
"Because your flashbacks include either something random or you in a fan-girlish mood," replied Steph, Mac, Dave, Ally and Angela all nodding in agreement.
"My Lord?" muttered Éowyn, trying to get Aragorn's attention.
"She is sailing to the undying lands with what's left of her kin," said Aragorn, his tone lamentable.
Everyone looked as Háma and Gamling ride past them, trotting ahead of the group and observing the plains in front of them. All of a sudden, Háma's horse is spooked, the creature jumping onto its back legs, standing up in fright.
"What is it?" asked Gamling, concerned. "Háma?"
"I'm not sure," Háma replied confused.
"Maybe it saw a marshmallow from Mac and Dave's bag and got scared," said Ally, offering a suggestion.
Suddenly, a rather large, ugly looking creature (no, not Gimli,) sprung from a rock above the position where Háma and Gamling were. Háma is knocked off his horse, the creature, which was noticeably a Warg, strode over to the defenseless Háma and killed him in one bite.
"Poor Háma!" cried Angela, horrified at what just happened, everyone's attention on Gamling who drew his sword, fighting with the orc who was on the Warg that killed Háma. Legolas stride forward, shooting an arrow at the Warg, the creature dropping dead instantly. The orc, who was suddenly thrown off his dead creature for transportation, is also killed by Legolas.
"My hero," Sarah ogled the elf, everyone rolling their eyes at the elf. Aragorn went running up to Legolas, staring at him for a theory on the situation.
"A scout!" the elf cried, turning to Aragorn, the human racing back to the rest of the group, heading over to King Théoden in particular.
"What is it?" asked the King, demanding an answer. "What do you see?"
"Wargs!" announced Aragorn, "We're under attack! Over here!"
"Well, this can't be good," muttered Ally, exchanging glances with her friends.
"Warg attack!" Aragorn announced to the group, racing over to Éowyn and mounting his horse.
"All riders to the head of the column," yelled Théoden, barking the command at all his soldiers.
Gimli, who had fallen off his horse in fright of the Warg, was attempting to remount his horse.
"Come on, get me up here!" growled Gimli, who got help from Éowyn again, "I'm a rider, Ai!"
"I should go help!" stated Angela, riding off also.
"Okay, here's the plan," said Sarah, looking at her friends. "You hobbits should get to Helm's Deep, 'cuz...you're hobbits and such, and Ally you should go with them for protection,"
"But we want to fight!" replied Dave, eagerly.
"Yeah, let us fight!" echoed Mac, nodding.
"Well, I need to help Legolas either way," nodded the elf in return, riding off as she saw her elf-hero perched on top of a hill, surveying the land.
There was chaos throughout the Rohirrim mood, the women screaming. Aragorn, in amidst of the chaos, mounted his horse and rode off to join the other fighters. Théoden approached Éowyn on his horse, looking at her.
"You must lead the people to Helm's Deep," he stated sternly, "Make haste,"
"I can fight," said Éowyn, protesting.
"No!" said Théoden, firmly, "You must do this, for me," added, calmly. "Follow me, Hyah!" Théoden rode up to the hill, Aragorn, Angela and Sarah soon following behind. Gimli attempted to join the group, however his horse and he were in disagreement to which way they should be going.
"Forward, now," said Gimli, commanding the horse which was going backwards instead of forwards, "Go forward!"
"Make for lower ground," shouted Éowyn, turning to the panicking Rohirrim. Gimli's horse started to move forward, the dwarf cheering triumphantly at this. "That's it, come on!" he growled, as he and the horse began to catch up to the group.
"Stay together," ordered Éowyn, leading everyone else in a rush to get to Helm's Deep
safely.
"So what do we do now?" asked Dave, turning to his friends.
"We should fight!" shouted Steph, eager to race on and help fight off the wargs.
"Yes! Let's kick some butt!" agreed Mac, nodding.
"Okay, let's go," nodded Ally as the group mounted their horses to go and help the fight.
"Yeehaw," cried Dave, as he rode on his horse, the group slowly catching up to the other fighters.
Legolas stood on top of a hill in the distance, observing the Wargs. He draws his bow, slowly taking out approaching wargs. Gimli approached, the elf grabbing the horse's chest-strap and swinging himself onto the horse in front of Gimli.
"I wish I could do that," sighed Sarah, Angela raising an eyebrow at the fan-girl.
Dave, Ally, Steph and Mac approach the hill. Dave suddenly stopped his horse, Mac's horse colliding into it, Steph's horse colliding into Mac's horse and Ally stopped several inches from colliding into Steph's horse.
"What's the hold up?" Steph asked, trying to keep her balance on the horse.
"Those," said Mac, pointing at the rather large, ugly beasts which the orcs were riding towards them.
"Eep," muttered Dave.
"Okay, maybe you guys should catch up with the other people heading towards Helm's Deep," said Ally, uneasy about her hobbits friends fighting the hairy monsters, who appeared to have rather sharp teeth.
"They remind me of Mrs Paynter," muttered Dave.
"Or even worse, Mrs Taylor," said Mac, nodding her head.
"Or the twins," shrugged Ally, glaring at the hobbits.
"We're not going anywhere," said Mac, folding her arms.
"I disagree, let's go," said Dave, looking around nervously.
"Come on Dave," said Steph, glaring at him, "For once, stand up and be a brave hobbit,"
By this time, the Wargs and the fighters had clashed. Gimli, once again, had fallen off his horse, and is on the ground on his back struggling to get up. Legolas, who went to turn around to help the misfortunate dwarf, was involved with fighting a Warg Rider which had charged at him. Gimli picked up his axe, and growled at his opponents A warg approached the dwarf, growling menacingly him.
"Bring your pretty face to my axe," sneered the dwarf, wavering around defensively.
"If he finds that pretty, I'd hate to see what his interpretation of ugly is," shouted Sarah to Angela, both elves fighting off their own enemies.
The warg ran towards Gimli, the dwarf waiting for the impact. However, it never came. Legolas rode up, shooting the warg behind the head, instantly killing it.
"Ahh!" cried the dwarf, frustrated, "That one counts as mine!"
"Eww," cried Sarah who looked at her arm. "There's like...unknown black stuff on my arm," the elf squealed, rather disgusted.
"That would be orc blood, m'lady," the dwarf said, nodding to the elf, who cried out in agony.
"That's gross!" the elf said, poking her tongue out in repulsion, Legolas and Angela snickering at the elf's reaction. "Get it off, get it off!" cried Sarah, who lost her balance and fell off her horse. A warg noticed this and ran towards her.
"Eep," the elf cried, ripping up some grass and placing it in front of her face as camouflage. Just as her end was about to come, the warg stopped dead in its tracks. Only, it had no head, as King Théoden had ridden past, beheading it as he went.
"EWWW!!" cried Sarah, who scrambled to her feet. "I don't like this, not one bit,"
"Grow up Mobbs," said Ally, who rode in onto the scene.
"I thought you guys were on your way to Helm's Deep?" inquired the elf, confused.
"We were," nodded Steph, "But we thought we didn't want to miss out on the action,"
"Plus," added Mac, "We were quite amused by your melodramatic reaction about the orc blood and such," the hobbit shrugged.
Suddenly, the whole group was fighting. Dave had figured if he stood behind Mac, he'd be fine, until a warg approached him from the rear.
"AHHH!!!" cried the hobbit who shut his eyes and swung his sword, hitting the warg. "Yay," he cheered.
Dave then turned to Gimli, who seemed to be swinging at anything that came passed. He and Mac tried this same technique, and were succeeding.
Angela, who had gotten a warg rider to the ground, gave it a karate kick in the stomach before finishing it off.
"Go the karate moves!" cheered Sarah, grinning at her elf friend who grinned back.
Sarah's attention soon turned to Gimli, who had a warg growling at him. The dwarf swung his axe, hitting the warg in the face. The warg fell to the ground. But it fell on top of Gimli.
"AHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!" laughed Sarah, who was quite amused by the dwarf trying to push the warg off of him. "Eep," cried the elf, as a warg began to chase her around. She ran passed Gimli, Aragorn riding up and beheading the rider on the warg, the rider's warg confused about what happened to its rider.
"Stupid creature," muttered Gimli, trying to lift it up.
"Little stuck there, are we Gimli?" teased Steph, who looked up and saw an orc climbing over the warg towards Gimli. Gimli reached up and snapped the neck of the orc. "That wasn't very smart," shrugged the hobbit, getting into a sword fight with an orc.
"I'm getting the hang of this," said Ally, finding a stick and bopping an orc on the head, knocking it out cold.
"And I see you have your stick back," nodded Angela.
Another warg approached Gimli, climbing over the dead warg and orc which were already on top of him. The dwarf's eyes widen at this. Aragorn sees this, and rides up, grabbing a random spear, impaling the warg and killing it. Gimli groaned at this, finding it hard to move. Aragorn then rode off, fighting with a warg rider. The orc jumped off. However, Aragorn went over the edge of the cliff with the warg, his hand stuck in the rigging. The Rohirrim, at this time, were finishing off the last of the orcs and wargs which littered the ground.
"Stack's on Gimli!!!" Dave cried, climbing up onto the two wargs and orc which were on Gimli. Mac soon joined him, the two hobbits dancing on top of the pile.
"I'm not with them," said Steph, talking to a random Rohirrim fighter, shaking her head at the two.
"You two get off there," said Ally, sternly, "You don't know where that's been,"
Mac and Dave frowned, sliding off the pile. Gimli slid himself out, and brushed himself off.
"Thank you, m'lady," the dwarf said, grinning at Ally, who rolled her eyes at him.
"I was referring to you," she scoffed, walking off to her friends.
"Where's Aragorn?" Angela asked, looking around.
Legolas noticed an orc laughing rather evilly on the ground.
"He sounds like Sarah," said Mac, grinning.
"Shut up," said Sarah, who was in the process of trying to wipe her arm on whoever she could find.
"This can't be good," said Ally, worried about where Aragorn was.