Disclaimer: See first chapter
Stalking the Fellowship
By Frufru the PiXiE and Candyfloss
Chapter Three: Tackling Caradhras
Mo squeaked and quietly ran up to a lone tree and tried to climb it, unfortunately, its branches were too high, so instead she huddled as close to the trunk as possible holding her breath.
As Mo heard Legolas walk slowly past her she froze, not moving, until he eventually left. As he crouched next to Aragorn, seemingly in conversation, she took her chance and ran away.
Upon her arrival at the camp she shook Maddy and Fran awake hurriedly, "We need to move! Legolas he heard me. We need to move!" She whispered urgently.
Fran, a deep sleeper, decided that for once she should get up. The girls put their backpacks on their backs and silently retraced their previous steps to another house.
Hours later the sun rose, but the Fellowship stayed where they were. "Why aren't they leaving?" asked Francesca.
Maddy sighed and brought out a book from her bag 'Journeys of Frodo' she flicked through until she got to a page entitled "17: The Misty Mountains" which contained a detailed description of how the Fellowship would have spent their days.
"10 miles?" asked Francesca, "They say that's slow! This person has got to be joking! I am not walking 10 miles in one day!"
"Fran keep your voice down! Just because we can't see them at the moment, doesn't mean they can't hear us!" said Maddy glancing at Fran.
"I'm hungry," whined Fran choosing to ignore Madeleine, yet again.
"So are we," agreed Mo.
Maddy looked around and walked off towards a bush near by. She picked the few berries from the sparsely covered bush and brought them back.
"Aren't you meant to wash them first?" asked Fran.
"The only reason we do that is because of the pesticides and weed killers used when growing them. Those don't exist here so they needn't be washed. I'm surprised you even asked, I thought you'd just stuff them into your mouth."
Francesca made a rude gesture.
"How do we know these are safe?" asked Mo, still holding the berries.
"My Girl Guide training," Maddy replied rolling her eyes.
"Some how I'm not that comforted," said Mo dryly.
"Well, Fran's not dead yet," Maddy offered.
"Well if these don't kill me, the Mines of Moria will," Mo popped two in her mouth and started chewing them.
"So... how so you think we got here?" wondered Mo.
The question was left unanswered.
"How long are they in Hollin?" asked Fran.
Maddy looked at the book, "They left Rivendell on the 25th, but I don't know when we are."
"Look at the Map!" Mo suggested.
Maddy looked at the other large map. "It's here! Today is the 7th Afteryule: January. They start walking up Caradhras tomorrow. They turn back just after the 11th for Moria."
"Joy!" exclaimed Francesca sarcastically, looking west to the very large, imposing mountain range.
Legolas suddenly looked up, "You can hear them?" asked Aragorn in Sindarin.
"Aye, the same one makes the most noise."
"I think we should ignore them, we're meant to be doing this secretly."
All three girls had become very weary, as trekking through snow was ten times more difficult then doing so on 'normal' land. It was also very cold, which no one had prepared for. To retain heat they clothed themselves in as many layers possible.
"Remind me why we're doing this again," said Fran.
"We have to follow the Fellowship. We don't know of anyone else who would trust us," answered Madeleine
"You just want to see a glimpse of Legolas again," said Fran.
Suddenly a snowball hit her on the back.
"OI!" Fran yelled.
"What's wrong now?" Mo was getting fed up with Fran's whining and Maddy's frantic pacing to get closer to Legolas on the mountain slopes above.
"Something hit me, someone is throwing snowballs, and it's not funny."
"It can't be us because we're in front of you, so maybe some snow dropped from the slopes," said Mo, attempting to convince Fran to shut up and carry on trudging through the thick layer of snow.
"Ow!" Screamed Maddy.
"Not you too?" asked Mo.
"Ok ... someone is definitely here with us! Hello. Who are you?" ordered Maddy. Another ball of snow suddenly came hurtling through the air hitting Maddy squarely in the face.
"Who ever it is, they don't like Madeleine," giggled Fran.
"It's the snow!" observed Mo, "the snow is attacking us."
"Trust Madeleine to lead us into a haunted path" Francesca's sarcasm had returned.
"How the hell was I supposed to know that the snow didn't like being walked on?" replied a snow topped Madeleine. "Come on, quick, we need to get off this path."
The girls begun to move as quickly as humanly possible through snow; the snow, however, had different ideas; sending tennis ball sized snowballs with a core of pure ice.
Maddy saw a cave entrance through the barrage of white and black blurs flying in front of her glasses. "Mo, Fran. There's a cave to our right." Mo and Fran nodded and headed that way.
Maddy was first inside. She dusted off the snowflakes from her P.E. kit and curly hair. Fran soon followed dusting herself off and rubbing the bruise a rock had caused upon impact. "Er... where's Mo?" asked Maddy.
Both girls looked cautiously out of the cave entrance. Mo had fallen. Blood was spilling out onto the crisp white snow from her head. The snow was still pelting snowballs at her prone body.
"MO. MO!!!" Gasped Maddy.
A/n Hi! PiXiE here! Thank you Kaye (Yet again) for reading through chapter two and pointing out all of those grammar errors! Wonders if ff.n would try and take down story again. Don't worry we don't take offence serpent of light we knew there were spelling errors in this story, I had intended to sort them out at the start of my summer holidays (24th June) but unfortunately ff.n kinda made the decision for us. And no, Fido didn't give us any warning, we just got an email saying that Stalking has been taken down due to spelling, grammar, general English really… Banana4422, point out errors! That way I change 'em. Loudmouthstar, yes this story is finished, it was finished at the end of March though I don't think it will have been completely posted until erm…August/ September, so many chapters! Nicky lol, and so I've updated pulls mallet away from you
PiXiE