CH 8 The great watchtower of Amon Sûl
The next day, Strider woke them a bit later than usual. Instead of waking the Hobbits up about an hour before the false dawn, he woke them up an hour after the sun had risen, not that they could actually see it because it was so gloomy. They also finally left the forest, and entered a very hilly part of the countryside.
The Hobbits noticed that Strider had left Hiryuu to sleep while he cooked breakfast, only waking her after he had finished cooking. Afterwards they left camp. The Hobbits continued to be silent all throughout the morning, this didn't go unnoticed by Hiryuu. Finally after another hour of silence, Hiryuu got fed up.
"Oï, Hobbits. You guys alright? Your so quiet today! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd gone and died on me!" Said the young girl, turning her head to look at the people in question.
"Nothings wrong, Miss. Hiryuu. We were just worried, what with you being wounded and all…" Said Sam.
"Oh Sam. Just because your worried about me, doesn't mean that you have to keep quiet. After all, my father has stated on many occasions that laughter is some of the best medicine that exists! So, how about you all tell stories about where you came from, and about each other! I'll also give however tells me the funniest story today the apple I have left over!"
This got them all talking, at the same time, unfortunately. They kept on wanting to tell their stories first, finally, after a few fights (mostly between Merry and Pippin) Hiryuu came up with a system of who would go first.
So, for the next couple of hours, everyone was laughing, even Strider joined in on a particularly funny stories involving the four of them, and a broken carrot (this one came from the first movie, from when they all went tumbling down the hill, and one of them said they broke something, and takes out a carrot from under him).
That night, the apple was awarded to Sam, for the broken carrot story.
"Strider, how far are we from Rivendell?" Asked Frodo that night.
"Well, tomorrow, we reach the watchtower of Amon Sûl, after that, it's about two and a half weeks to get to Rivendell, less if we make good time." Said Strider, after taking a long puff from his pipe and staring into the small fire Hiryuu had lit earlier.
"We reach Amon Sûl tomorrow? That's great!" Said Hiryuu suddenly.
The next morning, Strider got them back up on the wake-up-an-hour-before-the-predawn routine again. Not that anyone complained it. Once again, the sky was clouded over.
The hobbits kept on looking up, expecting to see rain pour down on them at any second.
Finally, Strider stopped and pointed to a large hill they were headed towards. "The great watchtower of Amon Sûl. We shall rest here tonight."
After climbing halfway up the large tower. Sometimes using old, worn-down steps, and at some places where the steps had been worn down so much, climbing the walls. Lets just say that by the time they (the Hobbits) had reached the half-way point, they were exhausted, and after begging Strider, they were able to stop.
Frodo gratefully put his heavy bag beside the others and leaned back against a wall while Strider and Hiryuu looked out in the distance.
Finally, after a couple of minutes, Strider took something from out of his bag and placed it in front of the Hobbits. He moved aside the clothes to reveal four long daggers, that, in a Hobbits hand, would be the equivalent of a sword.
He tossed one to each Hobbit. "These are for you. Keep them close. We're going to have a look around. Stay here." He said, as each of them removed the sword (dagger) from their sheath and looking at them curiously.
He then left them to fend for themselves. Hiryuu hot on his heels. It went unnoticed to all except Frodo that Both Strider and Hiryuu had a tight grip on the hilt of their respectful swords. But he wisely decided to keep this observation to himself. After all, he didn't want to worry Sam. Well, not anymore than he already was, anyway.
He then laid down and tried to sleep for a bit.
He woke up several hours later to the small of cooking food, as well as a loud exclamation of; 'My tomato's burst! Probably made by either Merry or Pippin. That Frodo was his mind came agonizingly slow out of unconsciousness.
"Can I have some bacon?" Came Merrys voice.
The next thing he noticed was the cracking of wood in a fire. Slowly, his thoughts began to come more swiftly as he became more and more awake.
"Want a tomato, Sam?" Said Pippin.
Frodo turned over quickly as his mind came to a conclusion. He turned and saw Merry, Pippin and Sam, surrounding a small cook fire, eating their first hot meal in a while.
"What are you doing!" He exclaimed as he quickly rose to his feet.
Merry turned to look at him and used his forked as a pointer. "Tomatoes, sausages, and nice crispy bacon."
Sam held out a plate of warm food as Frodo lurched to his feet and quickly ran towards the fire.
"We saved some for you, Mr. Frodo."
Frodo ignored the food and quickly began stomping on the flames.
"Put it out, you fools! Put it out!"
"That's nice! Ashes on my tomatoes!" Yelled Merry as a bunch of ashes landed on all of the food.
Suddenly, all thoughts of food was banished from their minds as a loud screeching, about 100 times worse than nails on a chalk-board, was heard from somewhere at the bottom of the watchtower.
Frodo quickly rushed to the edge and looked down. He was quickly copied by the others. What they saw, they would never forget for the rest of their lives. For coming out of the mist that had gathered at the bottom, were five tall figures, all cloaked in black.
"Go!" Yelled Frodo, as he drew his sword out.
Quickly, they all started to run up to the top of the tower via a staircase beside their bags.
After they had reached the top, Sam, Merry and Pippin formed a circle around Frodo, and looked about widely for any sign of Nazgûl. In the dark of the night, everything to the Hobbits looked like Wraiths in the shadows, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Everything, from the broken statures that lined the top, to the dead trees.
Frodo looked behind him as the others looked in other directions.
From out of the darkness, he saw one, the only sound it made was the clinking of the metal on it's gauntlets as it gripped the hilt of it's sword. Then, with a too-well practised ease. It drew it's long sword, and raised it to it's face, as if saluting him.
Frodo immediately started backing away from the terrifying sight, pushing past Sam and Pippin, who turned to see the frightening sight. Another look around showed them the same thing four more times, as the wraiths slowly advanced on them, as if they all shared the same mind and thoughts.
Merry, Pippin, and Sam, also began to back away, and stood in front of Frodo. Acting like a living barrier.
Slowly, the Wraiths began to raise their swords in, always acting as one, as if they were about to skewer the Hobbits. Which they might have done, if Sam had not courageously launched himself at one of them with a loud cry of; "Back, you devils!"
He immediately began to swing his sword wildly, in an attempt to hit it. But the Wraith was to experienced in fighting, and quickly tossed to Hobbit aside. He was thrown with such force, that, when he landed, he lost consciousness.
Merry and Pippin immediately placed themselves side-by-side to close the gap that Sam's departure had made. But it was all in vain, for they were just as easily, if easier, brushed aside like rag dolls. Living a terrified Frodo unguarded.
Frodo was so scared at that instant, that he dropped his sword and hurriedly began walking backwards. Unfortunately, we all know what happens when a person does that. With a small cry of surprise, he fell onto his back.
As he started crawling backwards in fear, he could've sworn that the Ring was calling out to him in some form of Elvish.
Then, as if he was hypnotized by the Ring, he slowly removed it from his pocket. When he drew it out, he barely noticed that the voice had grown louder. All he noticed was that one of the Wraiths had turned it's gaze onto the ring.
Leaving behind it the other Wraiths, this one quickly advanced upon the terrified Hobbit, it also drew a nasty looking dagger.
"HAAA! GET BACK!" Came a loud voice, as another shadow jumped over Frodo's head and parried the daggers blade with a longer, cleaner blade. As this new shadow fought the advancing wraith, Frodo noticed that the other four had started advancing on him while his as of yet unknown defender was occupied with one.
CLANG, CLANG! Went the sounds of the two swords hitting one another, both fighting for dominance, yet never getting an inch off the other.
Quickly moving behind his defender, Frodo tightly gripped the ring in his fist.
"Frodo, you alright?" Said a familiar voice.
"H-Hiryuu?" Stuttered Frodo.
"You were expecting someone else? Well, doesn't matter if you were. Listen Frodo, I can't keep this up forever, so I need you to get away from here, got it?" Said Hiryuu. Frodo looked carefully at the fighting pair and saw that Hiryuu was losing ground.
"Alright…" Said Frodo, as he looked at his ring. Silently he made his decision to put the ring on, after all, they couldn't catch him if they couldn't see him, right?
As soon as he put it on, Frodo was once again enveloped in a familiar world, where everything was foggy, but six figures stood out like a full moon on a cloud-less night.
Five of them looked like men, almost. For, instead of eyes, all they had were dark holes, that seemed to suck out all good emotions from the air itself. They also had jagged and broken crowns on their heads. Their faces were as pale as can be, and the skin was pulled tightly across their face and their hands looked like skeletons than actual hands. They each had on long robes that twirl around them in an invisible wind, and, like everything else in this weird place, they were foggy, as if he was looking at them through poorly made glass. Each of them was surrounded by a silvery nimbus that appeared to make them glow.
While the first five where hard to make out, the sixth one appeared as clear as day, untouched by the invisible winds and whatever it was that made the people in the real world look like shadows, was Hiryuu. Except this Hiryuu had bat-like wings coming out of her back, and whenever she swung her sword at the opponent, it looked as if the image of a fierce dragon would superimpose itself on Gem, making the sword look like the head and neck of the fierce beast, and Hiryuu's body looked like the body of a dragon.
Fin of Ch 8-
Gin; There! You guys happy now? This is my longest chapter yet!
Everyone; NO! You left us with a cliff-hanger!
Gin: Sweat-drops Yeah….Sorry about that, but I figured that I'd get a LOT more reviews if I did a cliff-hanger. After all, more reviews more inspiration for me to write! (hint, hint, wink, wink)
The author would like to take the time to thank the following reviewers; BloodyPenhand, Absolutly Redonculas.
BTW; you a few of you guys sort of freaked me out a bit, cause you reviewed so quickly after I had updated! Did you add my to your favourites of something? Well, if you did, that certainly made me glad! Keep sending me reviews, and I'll keep giving you chapters!