The morning dawned clear and cool.. Well, to those that were up to see it, anyway. Gandalf scowled when he emerged from his tent, seeing the eight up and about, while the rest lounged about in bed. Stalking over to the first tent, he shook it.
"Lazy! If we intend to get to Mordor, we must leave at dawn! No sleeping past the sun.. Rise!" Gandalf gave the tent a kick and was rewarded with a groan.
Jaina's head stuck out the opening, glared at the wizard, and emerged with the rest of her body. Jaina stretched.
"Dawn is an illusion.. A true Jedi knows that day begins at noon. However, I will go along with your insane plan.. For now." She grinned, looking back at the silent tent. "But have fun waking up my friend there, he'd sleep through a star nova."
Gandalf scowled again at the tent, then stuck his staff into the doorway as Jaina stalked off towards the Falcon and its refresher. She winced at the yelp from Zekk as he inadvertantly experienced the wizard's skill with fire.
Some time later, the entire group was gathered around the firepit. Zekk, Tahiri and Jacen all bore scorch marked pants, and were pointedly avoiding Gandalf. Lowie and Chewie had returned from their tree-shelters, and with the assistance of the hobbits, managed to put away all leftover food from the previous night. Tenel Ka looked refreshed, as she had taken a short run at dawn to awaken her senses. Surprisingly, Legolas had accompanied her, saying he needed to clear his head and smell the morning. Across the pit, Han, Leia and Luke stood by the pile of tents and sleeping equipment that had been dismantled from the night before, along with the group's share of dried meat and preserved food. The stores of food from the company's gifts in Rivendell had dwindled. This would do for now, but Aragorn was already planning to go on hunts to make up for the lack of trail food.
At last the final group memeber joined them. After his run, Legolas had asked Han for the services his ship offered. Since no one knew when the next time a shower facility would be available, the elf had washed the odor of unclean Aragorn out of his hair. Legolas kept telling himself to find another tent to share, butit was easy to win the nightly pillow fight with his current roomates, and everyone knew hobbits slept in the nude.
Smelling of exotic flowers, and subsequently making Aragorn back up to retain his 'manly' scent, Legolas joined the circle. Gandalf wrinkled his nose, and spoke to all.
"If your time wasting is finished, we can leave. Are all the packs set?" Gandalf asked the hobbits, and Han. Sam nodded, and glancing at his wife, Han nodded as well.
"Very well." Gandalf whistled loudly, and from the distance, and neigh was heard. Bill, a brown shetland pony, galloped in from the brush, and stopped beside Sam. Everyone except the fellowship and Luke looked surprised. Leia looked at her brother. Luke shrugged.
"Heard him last night. They let Bill roam during the night and when they stop for hunts." Sam packed up the pony with whatever equipment was not in packs, then looked to Gandalf. The wizard nodded, then came over to the Jedi.
"Can your droids manage good speed over rocks and hills?" Jaina, who was closest, shook her head. "No, Artoo's wheel-treads can't take rocks well, and both are quite slow." Threepio began to sputter indignantly, but everyone ignored him.
"So I have thought. We will tie the smaller machine tothe pony'srump, while the C3PO will ride astride. The pony is only partially laden now, with the extra divided amongst your group." Ignoring Threepio's rantings of doom and bad feelings about this, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli managed to tie the golden annoyance to the pony, and strapped Artoo behind him.
With this, the entire company shouldered packs and sheathed or clipped swords away. At this time, Gandalf happened to notice Boromir's truncated sword. He scowled, and Boromir told him what had happened. When arrived at the part of the story where the lightsaber went cleanly through his blade, Gandalf eyed the Jedi with intrest.
"Your swords may well be the turning point of our journey. Any orc who tries to take the ring from Frodo will be easily cloven. Yet, Boromir, you have wasted your sword, even if it was to find the powers of these new weapons. How do you plan to defend yourself if we are beseiged by orcs?" Gandalf fumed at the poor Gondorian.
"Oh.. Don't worry, Gandy, I have an extra blaster he can borrow.." Ignoring the wizard's glare at the nickname, Han sprinted off to the Falcon, and returned carrying his spare blaster and a power pack. After Han explained the weapon, Boromir's face lit up. Zekk, who understood fully the man's love of fighting, foresaw an violent outcome for any creature coming up against Boromir.
With a shake of his head Gandalf took a long draught from his hip-flask, and set off down the trail. Aragorn and Frodo, who was still nervous of everyone new, fell in behind him, followed closely by the rest of the company. Luke and Legolas took the rear, both able to watch for unexpected attacks. The Quest of the Ring continued, now 22 strong.