The Digimon King and The King of Gondor
Chapter 10 Need a Heavy Speaker
XXX
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Normally Ballistamon could tune out the pounding sound that his own wide and oblong feet made whenever he took a step forward. He knew that he was quite a heavy Digimon for his size and because of that he was certainly not what you would call light foot. But he had grown so used to the sound of his footsteps that he barely noticed them whenever he moved anywhere.
Except for now.
Now, it was beginning to get rather tedious. Not because it was an annoying, but mostly because it was about the only sound that there was in this environment and it was being practically magnified by the huge walls of rock that almost always on either side of him. He had been walking around these seemingly unending labyrinth of passage ways and rocks for hours and hours now and it seemed that each direction he took only seemed to have more maze.
Ballistamon was a machine-type Digimon and that meant that he had pretty good sense of direction. He was sure that he was not walking in circles. He was pretty sure that he had been traveling in a straight line, or at least as much of a straight line as you could get in these winding crevices. Now, he was walking up the side of an enormous slope and out into a more relatively open area, trying to gain some altitude so that he could have a look around and find out where he was. And his own heavy footfalls were now seriously beginning to get on his nerves. And he was a Digimon with considerable patience.
The three red Monitamons were still following on behind their larger companion. They had partially scaled the rocks face and were hurrying along as best as they could across the ledge, using their ninja skills to leap across gaps that seemed to be much too large for a being of their size and structure.
It was not easy for them. Monitamons prided themselves on being ninja Digimon but the fact remained that their body design was not... the best design for a ninja. The large television set that they had for a head was, for one thing, no help at all in balance and there were several moments where one of the Monitamons would stumble and almost fell off and have to be caught by his companions before something happened.
Fortunately they had been without nasty fall so far.
The three Monitamons were, significantly better then they had been in the days of the war against the Bagra Army. They had an additional seven years to practice, after all. But unfortunately, when it came to other Monitamons, they were still often very much out of their league.
But they did their best just the same.
None of them said anything. They just followed Ballistamon in silence, trying to locate a way out of this maze of boulders just as he was and not particularly succeeding.
As Ballistamon scaled up the hill, the three Monitamons bounded up ahead to gain some more altitude, leaping off the boulders and onto the slope as they climbed higher up. One of them tripped on a large rock and went rolling several times but managed to pick himself upwards quickly and press on without much of a pause.
Behind them, Ballistamon's feet slipped on the loose slope and he slid backwards several feet, only to throw his thick hands outwards and buried his metallic fingers underneath the pebbles and grit, anchoring him in place for a moment, before he hauled himself back upright and continued on.
"We could do with Sparrowmon or Biyomon right now." Ballistamon murmured to himself. And once again he wondered where the heck are Sparrowmon and Biyomon are or any of the others for that matter. It was like everyone of their friends had vanished of the face of the Digital World. And Ballistamon, like many of the other members of the Fusion Fighters, was also beginning to suspect that perhaps they, along with himself, actually had. And that this was not the Digital World. He had yet to find any concrete proof of that, given that he had not seen any form of life since he'd got here beside the Monitamons. But he was pretty sure that was the case.
The Monitamons gain the summit and looked around them with their eyeless screens. "Oh no!" Monitamon R2 muttered. "We're not even close to finding a way out of this place."
"Is there no end to it?" Monitamon R1 agreed as all three of them looked around and saw pretty much nothing but rocks, rocks and more rocks, with aside order of boulders and extra helping of cliff no matter which direction they turned their gaze.
"There must be an end to it somewhere." Monitamon R3 protested. "There must be. Where are all the cities and the villages and the lakes and stuff like that? There can't just be rocks here."
"Where wherever they are." Monitamon R1 shrugged. "They're not anywhere close by and that's for sure."
Ballistamon reach the top with them. "See anything?" He asked in his grunting voice as he stood as tall as his cube-like body could, his large blue horn raising into the air like lightning rod.
"Nope." Monitamon R3 shook his headset. "Just more and more labyrinth."
"This is certainly a big place then." Ballistamon muttered. "I don't know of any place like it in the Digital World. Though I haven't traveled through as much of it as some of the others. speaking of the others, any sign of them?"
"No." All three Monitamons said at the same time.
Ballistamon sighed. Somehow. "Well, there's not much that we can do except keep walking then, In the same direction. If we go in a straight line then we'll have to come out somewhere. Eventually."
"I hope that it's soon." Monitamon R2 grumbled. "My feet are killing me and we've been walking around for hours."
"Have you guys tried contacting the other Monitamons?" Ballistamon asked.
"Yeah." Monitamon R3 nodded. "They're out of range. We can't connect with them."
"I'm beginning to wish that we had kept using the wristers." Ballistamon muttered. The little devices had come in handy in the fight against Bagramon but none of the members of the Fusion Fighters had been using them recently because for the most past they were all together and rarely separated. When someone was going off on a solo mission, Shoutmon would instruct them to take either a wrister or one of one of the Monitamons with them depending on how far they were going, but there hadn't been any solo missions for a while.
Now, all the writers were stored in Ballistamon's chest compartment. He had not exactly had the opportunity to distribute them before they had been whisked away. And it would have been much more useful to them if he had.
But dwelling on what would have been helpful if the circumstances had been different was not going to get them anywhere and Ballistamon took a couple of steps forward to continue along his current trajectory and back into the maze...
But then there was very distant but very distinct rumbling noise which caused him to halt in his tracks. He half expected the hillside to start shaking, but it didn't. The three Monitamons noticed it too and they each threw out their arms, expecting the same reaction, as if certainly sounded like some earthquake event or at least a deep rumble of thunder. But there was nothing.
"What was that?" Monitamon R3 asked nervously, looking around them.
"I don't know, I don't like it here." Monitamon R2 added. "I really want to get out of these rocks. I much prefer trees."
"Me too." Monitamon R1 nodded. He then look around behind them and pointed. "Look! Look! It must have been that!"
Ballistamon and the other two Monitamons turned around. In the distance behind them they could see what appeared to be some kind of mountain range beyond the rocks, although looking at them more closely they could see that these mountains were darker, so dark they were almost black as opposed to the pale grey of rocks of the labyrinth. And, just visible over the peaks of black were flashes of deep, bright red and orange, rising briefly over the tops and then falling back down to the ground. Like...
"Lava." Ballistamon muttered. "Just like in the Magma Zone back in old times. It must be a volcano."
"A volcano?" Monitamon R1 repeated nervously. "That must be one heck of a volcano if we can hear it's eruptions from this distance away."
"Uh-ha." Ballistamon agreed with a nod of his head.
"Weren't the other Digimon in the Magma Zone?" Monitamon R3 asked. "Maybe we should go that way instead."
But the more the four of them looked at the dark mountains which were probably covered in ash from the volcano, the deeper their feeling of foreboding became.
It was very difficult to send a shiver down Ballistamon's spine considering he had not actually got a spine, but somehow those dark mountains and whatever lay beyond them managed to do it.
"Nuh-uh." He shook his head again. "I think that we should keep going the way we have been going. Besides, it seems to get a little more open direction. Maybe we can find a way out."
"Yes... right." The Monitamons all mumbled amongst themselves, also suppressing shudders at the slight of those mountains. As they turned to follow Ballistamon when the machine Digimon made his way down the other side of the hill they had just climbed, there was another flare up of orange from over the mountains, as the volcano that lay beyond it was telling the four Digimon that they had made the right decision and warning them to not change their minds, or else.
"This sure as heck is one creepy place." Monitamon R3 muttered to himself as they moved on, all of them unconsciously speeding up at least until the mountains were out of sight again. And once again, they were surrounded by enormous, jagged rocks and alleyways that jutted up to the sky like huge, blunt spearheads.
And they just press on, letting the silence, except for the thunking sound of Ballistamon's feet, flow over them once again.
XXX
The place was called Emyn Muil, and as Gimli has said to Aragorn it was a veritable labyrinth of rock and stone with almost no lite in it. It was, in place, also filled with a very dense fog which only made it more difficult for anyone to find their way through the place. It was small wonder that there seemed to be little that lived here.
And now, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, the two Hobbits who had only recently left the company of the rest of the Fellowship and thus escaped from the attack of the Uruk-hai, were trying to pass through.
And needless to say, they were not finding it easy. Not by a long shot.
For starters, neither of them really knew where they were going anymore. Gandalf and Aragorn between them had been their guides during the journey so far, as both of them had wandered far and wide across Middle Earth and knew their way through the toughest of terrains. Frodo doubted that any Hobbit had ever set foot in this rocky maze before, and they only knew the vague direction they were meant to be going in towards Mordor in the East now.
Right now, they were on the side of a cliff and slowly making their way down, using the length of Elven Rope that had been given to Sam by the Lady Galadriel. Frodo had gone first and was slowly trying to climb his way down the cliff, looking over his shoulder and his eyes trying to pierce through the thick layer of fog beneath him.
He was also having to force the extremely vivid dream he had last night out of his mind. He had dream that they were back in Moria, with Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dum and facing the Balrog once again, only this time when he had fallen off, Frodo's perception had fallen with him, and he had watched as Gandalf engaged the fire and shadow Demon in a death-match as both of them fell through the chasm, with the Balrog desperately flailing its huge wings and trying to get some form of control, but being unable to due to the fact it was tumbling over and over uncontrollably, kept smashing into the sides of the chasm and had a Wizard repeatedly hitting it in the chest with a sword.
"Can you see the bottom?" Sam shouted, from where he was climbing down above him.
"No!" Frodo called back. "Don't look down, Sam! Just keep going!"
Sam was not fond of heights at all and he was desperately hoping that the knot he had tied around the boulder at the top of the cliff would hold. It was times like this where he really wished that he was still in the Shire, but he too had to force that out of his mind and try to keep climbing down the thin rope. Almost as soon as he did so, the rope seemed to slide downwards a little and Sam lost his footing. Fortunately, he was able to hold on with his hands, but his front slammed rather painfully into the cliff face. And, as he did so, a small wooden box that could fit into the palm of his hand slipped from a pocket and fell.
Sam spotted it and practically yelped. "Catch it! Grab it, Mister Frodo!"
Frodo looked up and saw the box bounce off an outcropping and drop down to his left. He extended a hand and caught the thing, but a moment later his own feet slipped off the edge of the cliff. And since he was only holding on with one hand, he lost his grip on the rope and yell of fear he plummeted down the side of the cliff.
"Mister Frodo!" Sam screamed as he looked down in horror.
Frodo fell uncontrollably... for about four feet. This was still a long fall for a Hobbit, but he was able to catch himself and stay on his feet, through the unexpected early impact did knock him for a loop for a couple of seconds. "I think I found the bottom!" He called back up as he looked around. It seemed the fog layer had only been so thick that Frodo still couldn't see it. Sam, filled with relief, hurriedly made his way down the rest of the rope until, eventually, he was standing on firm ground once again as well.
"Bogs and rope and goodness knows what." Be grumbled to himself as be stepped away from the cliff. "It's not natural. None of it."
He stepped closer to Frodo and saw him examining the tiny wooden box, which had a miniature clasp holding it shut and an oak-leaf like pattern on the life. "What's in this?" Frodo asked curiously. He was not angry he knew that Sam could be very attached to the things that he owned, just as he was very attached to the people he liked.
"Nothing." Sam muttered, getting very embarrassed that he had asked Frodo to catch the thing and had probably caused him to slip off at all. "Just a bit of seasoning. I thought... maybe it we were having a roast chicken one night of something?"
Frodo stared at Sam in amazement. "Roast chicken?" He almost laughed.
Sam shrugged, though he too knew full well that there was a distinct lack of chicken available to eat. "You never know." He muttered.
"Sam." Frodo shook his head in amusement. "My dear Sam." He flipped open the clasp on the box and opened it to see the trick, white seasoning inside.
"It's very special, that." Sam proclaimed trying to justify it to his companion. "It's the best salt in all the Shire."
Frodo stared at it, new feeling slightly sad. "It is special." He agreed, closing the lid and handing it back to Sam. "It's a little bit of home."
He moved past Sam and the other Hobbit sighed, both of them filled with memories of the Shire, the lovely green country they had grown up in. It was certainly a fair cry from this dull and dreary pile of rocks they were in now.
"We can't leave this here for someone to follow us down." Frodo remarked, staring at the rope.
"Who's going to follow us down here, Mister Frodo?" Sam asked, not seeing the slightly haunted and edgy look that Frodo now had on his face as they both stared up at the rope. Sam sighed as he stowed the salt box back in his pocket. "It's a shame really. Lady Galadriel gave me that. Real Elvish Rope. Well, there's nothing for it. It's one of my knots. It won't come free in a hurry."
Sam did pride himself in his skill with certain domestic task. Gardening was the top of his list, but his ability to tie a knot, was close to it. He grabbed the rope and jerked it to demonstrate the futility to trying to pull it down. To his surprise, the knot at the top of the cliff immediately came undone and the entire coil of rope slid over the side and dropped down to land in a heap right at his feet.
"Real Elvish Rope." Frodo smirked.
Sam stared in bewilderment at the rope in his hand and then back up at the cliff. It seemed that the Elves still had plenty of surprises up their sleeves even if there wasn't an Elf for miles.
XXX
Hours passed, and the two Hobbits kept on walking. They managed to find a thin, winding river through the rocks that was more like a stream than anything else and they refilled their water flasks there, and then they continued to press on into the unknown, clambering up a large hill with a similar intention of trying to make sure that they were going in the right direction. Sam's large equipment of pots and pans tied to his pack weighed him down, but the Hobbit was sturdy and resilient and voiced no complaint.
When they reached the summit, they found themselves looking out over the towering rocks, and like others before them, they could see the huge dark clouds in the sky above it constantly, and sparks of red lightning seemed to flash across the sky in places on the other side. Or perhaps that was the volcano in action. That was the very volcano that they were trying to get to and it seemed that no matter how far they walked it did not get any closer.
"Mordor." Sam mutter through clenched teeth. "The one place in Middle Earth that we don't want to see any closer. And it's the one place we're trying to get to." He lifted his pack further up his back and sighed. "It's just where we can't get."
He turned to his fellow Hobbit, his face grim. They might know what direction they were supposed to be going in now, but the enormous crags and gullies all around them made planning a route towards it completely impossible. Straight wasn't an option. It would be impossible to go in straight line for more than a few meters in this place.
"Let's face it, Mister Frodo." He said. "We're lost."
Frodo most certainly did not want to admit it. They were only a day away from Aragorn and the others and they already didn't have a clue what they were meant to do. Frodo knew little of Mordor. All he knew was that its main entrance was a big Black Gate, that it had the volcano Mount Doom and the tower of Barad-dur and that it was the domain of Sauron. That was pretty much it. He didn't have the first clue how to go about finding the gate, let alone anything else.
"I don't think Gandalf meant for us to come this way." Sam remarked sadly.
The dream from last night slammed into Frodo's mind again. "He didn't mean for a lot of things to happen, Sam." He pointed out, his voice laden with suppressed grief. "But they did."
Sam sighed again and turned away, but then, suddenly, a pull of darkness seemed to be dragged inexorably in the direction of flashing lights we could now see were indeed red lightning and orange lava. There was a sensation that Frodo wouldn't know how to describe, like something in him was pulling him straight towards Mordor and then there was a jolt, the feeling of a sharp presence in his mind and one that was not his own.
Sauron.
Perhaps the Eye had somehow spotted him or it merely sensed that he was getting closer, but the result was the same. Frodo suddenly felt weak and half-collapsed, planting himself on a rock to keep from falling over completely and gasping for breath as the feeling of evil left him.
"Mister Frodo?" Sam asked in alarm, staring as Frodo sat there, breathing heavily and staring at the ground, unwilling to look in the direction of Mordor. Sam did not need to be told what had happened though. He was certainly not an idiot. "It's the Ring, isn't it?"
"It's getting heavier." Frodo gasped, answering Sam's question indirectly. The Ring was constantly calling out. It too wanted to get to Mordor, but for completely different reason and it seemed that as long as he held it, Sauron's very presence seemed close. Frodo reached up and gasped the front of his shirt at the point where they both knew the Ring now hung from the chain around his neck.
Sam knew that this was a good time as any to take a break so he unslung his pack and sit down, looking around inside it. Frodo took a swig from his flask and muttered. "What food have we got left?"
"Well, let me see." Sam murmured, pulling out the first item, a wafer of something mostly wrapped in a green material that looked like a large leaf. "Oh yes, lovely, Lembas bread. And look!" He reach back into the bag and pulled out something else. "More Lembas bread."
Frodo couldn't stop himself from smiling at Sam's exasperation. Hobbits, as a rule, like food to be regular, varied and good. But it seemed that the Lembas bread was the only thing they had, which was something they were going to have to put up with for a while. Nevertheless, it was a useful thing to have. Lembas bread was made by the Elves and was specially designed to be travel rations. One little bite was enough to fill the stomach of a hungry traveler, which meant that you could live for weeks on a couple of slices. which was a good thing, because it seemed a couple of slices was just about all they had left.
Sam broke off a piece and tossed it to Frodo, before taking another piece. Both of them bit into it and instantly felt themselves gaining renewed energy the moment they swallowed.
"I don't usually hold with foreign food." Sam started. "But this Elvish stuff... It's not bad."
Frodo smiled. "Nothing ever dampens your spirits does it, Sam?"
Sam couldn't resist smiling back. But a distance rumble of thunder caught his attention and when he look back up he grimaced and said. "Those rain clouds might."
XXX
The rain hit them hard a short time later, pouring down in torrents. Both of the Hobbits knew that this would be a very good point to stop. They were lost as it was. Heading into rocky labyrinth with vision further obscured by rain which was also making everything slippery would be a very bad idea. So they sought what shelter they could under a rocky overhang, which wasn't much, pulled up their hoods and waited for it to stop.
During the downpour, Frodo had the horrible sensation that they were being watched. His eyes glanced sharply towards the top of the nearest cliff. But there was nobody there. Not that he could see anyway.
But Frodo could practically feel a pair of eyes on him and the thought was sending constantly shivers down his back. He had an equally horrible feeling that... although he couldn't see the owner of the eyes... he knew who they belong to.
It could, of course, be his imagination. But he doubted it.
XXX
"Uh oh. That's just great." Ballistamon muttered as soon as the downpour started. "Just what I needed. Water pouring out of the sky and attempting to rust me through."
The three Monitamons had raised their arms over their heads in a ridiculously futile attempt to shield their monitors from the downpour. They were not used to rain. There were parts of the Digital World where it did rain on occasion. There were even a couple of parts where it never stopped raining. But in most of the rain barely fell at all if ever.
"What do we do now?" Monitamon R1 asked bounding onto another rock. "Shall we keep going... or... whooaahooahoah!" He added as he attempted to jump off and completely slipped, tumbling backwards over the edge of the boulder and bashing his head against the cliff.
"Careful. It's slippery." Monitamon R3 said.
Ballistamon looked up at the sky. The rain clouds were already so thick that it practically seemed like night, even though it was still, in fact, the day.
"As long as it's raining, this place could be dangerous." He observed. "We'll stop here for a while."
"Can we find some shelter first?" Monitamon R2 asked, shaking his TV head and sending spray everywhere.
Ballistamon look around and he had spotted a cave near by. "Hey, I can see a place we can take shelter from the rain." He said as he pointed at the cave he saw.
The three Monitamons look at what Ballistamon is pointing at the cave. "Looks like the cave can shelter all of us together." Monitamon R2 said.
As they hurried inside the cave it seem to have a good cover from the rain. The four Digimon gather together.
"Well, we are out of the rain. All we can do now is for it to stop when is over and we can move on." Ballistamon said to the three Monitamons as he watch out of the cave.
The Monitamons fell silent, and all three of them hoped that one day they too could be as selfless as Ballistamon was to everyone else. But for now they took shelter and waited for the downpour to stop.
XXX
The rainstorm seemed to last for hours and indeed it did, just over three hours. That was three hours the Hobbits sent huddled in their Elven cloaks and trying not to catch a cold as they were practically soaked through. The Elven cloaks did a much better job of keeping them dry then an ordinary cloak would but even they had their limits.
Throughout the entire storm, Frodo had not been able to shake that horrible feeling of being watched. He didn't tell Sam just yet, in case he turned out to be wrong and the Ring was just causing him to become paranoid, which was a very real possibility. But when it relented, he had been quick to press on, despite the fact that most of the terrain around them was still relatively wet.
They kept going as they usually did, scrambling over the rocks and through gullies and trying to get their bearings and not particularly succeeding. They tried to stick together as much as possible, though Frodo occasionally had to wait for Sam to catch up.
And then, eventually, Sam said the words which Frodo had been hoping not to hear.
"This looks strangely familiar." He observed as they stepped up to the edge of another large ravine but tried not to get too close.
Frodo sighed and felt slight despair rising up inside him. "It's because we've been here before, We're going in circles."
Sam's face looked like Frodo felt. They'd been wandering around for so long now and had been aware that they were lost but this... this really took a turn. They were more likely to wander around this maze forever and eventually run out of Lembas bread than they were to find a way out at this rate.
Sam stepped closer to the edge of the ravine and his nostrils were suddenly assailed. "Ugh." He grimaced. "What's that horrid stink? I warrant there's a nasty bog nearby. Can you smell it?"
Frodo sniff and indeed he could smell something quite repulsive. Something fetid and dirty and... familiar. A smell that he had smelt a couple of times before, most especially in Moria. "Yes." He confirmed, stepping closer to Sam. "I can smell it."
Sam seemed to catch the gravity of his tone and looked at him questioningly. Frodo turned around to look back and murmured. "We're not alone."
XXX
As soon the rain let up, Ballistamon had step out of the cave. The three Monitamons followed him out of the cave. They had waited in the cave for three hours long for the rain to stop, as they look around.
"Okay." He observed. "The rain has stopped. We should keep moving."
"Oh, do we have to?" Monitamon R3 groaned. "I'm knacker up by laying on the hard floor."
"Just give me a few minutes." Monitamon R2 whined. "I'm all stiff. I've been laying in the same position for three hours and I'm not a machine like you are."
Monitamon R1 said nothing. He was just stretching his arms and legs.
Ballistamon resisted the urge to sigh. Sometimes these three could be quite trying, but he would never say that to their faces of course. That would be cruel. Nevertheless, they could be relatively exasperating companies as they could still be quite childish on occasions like now when things were not going the way that they wanted them to.
"Look." He said. "I'll carry you if I have to, but we have to keep going. If we just lie here then we're not going to get anywhere in any sense of the world."
He bent down and pick up Monitamon R3, lifting him up to deposit him on his flat head, before picking up the other two in either hand and holding them up before he pressed on more thunking foot noises.
"Thanks, Ballistamon." Monitamon R3 chuckled bearily, reaching up to his large horn. "Your the beat."
"Don't touch my horn please." Ballistamon replied.
"Sorry." The hand withdrew immediately, and four Digimon press on yet again into the unknown.
XXX
Night fell quickly. The rain had taken up a large portion of the afternoon, and not to mention the days seemed to be getting shorter and closer they got to Mordor, and that meant that the Hobbits had not as much time to move as they would have liked before the darkness set in. And still the only thing that they had achieved was to find out just how lost they were. It was practically unfair but they knew that moving about in the dark was going to be as futile as trying it in the rain. They were lost as it was. They did not need it to get worse.
Now, they were both lying side by side on their separate sleeping mats, having done the best they could to make themselves comfortable on the horrible rocky floor at the bottom of a ravine as both Hobbits looked to be out like lights.
But then... there was another sound. A horrible, low and rattling noise that sounded like... breathing. Breathing crossed with hissing with a catch in the throat of whoever was doing it.
And then, above the Hobbits, was the shape. On the wall directly above where the two were laying, something shifted between the rocks stealthily and quietly, barely making a sound as it slunk slowly over the edge of the cliff face and carefully made its way down towards the Hobbits. Though it was dark, the moon was out and, eventually, the shape moved out into the light.
It was perhaps the most thin and gangly creature to reveal its body size on the face of Middle Earth. It was clothed in with nothing but a tattered brown loincloth and its skin was a horrible pasty color with grayish tint to what had once been as a pink as the flesh of a Hobbit. It was as scraggly as could possibly be, with ribs and spine vertebrae that seemed to stick out from the body like they were trying to push themselves out completely. It was no longer than a Hobbit itself but its limbs seemed longer and thinner. Its fingernails and toes were also longer than ordinary, and they were grasping the rocks with ease of a practiced climber as it moved. Its hair was virtually nonexistent, but what was there was long and straggly. When it opened its mouth there were only about nine rotten teeth inside and its eyes seemed to glint in the moonlight.
It's horrible breathing continued to rattle as slowly climbed down the side of the cliff, head-first despite the near vertical drop and, as it drew closer to the sleeping Hobbits, it began to mutter to itself. Its voice was talking and hissing as his breathing, as if someone had a constant grip on his throat as he was talking and he physically had to force the words out of his mouth.
"The thieves. The thieves. The filthy, little thieves. Where is it? Where is it? They stole it from us. My precious."
It was almost as if it didn't know that it was talking. It had now reached a rocky ledge directly over the Hobbits and no more than about five feet above their heads. It crouched low as it peered out over the edge, its lips pulled back in a snarl of anger that revealed its horrible teeth. As it moved out more into the light, long scares could clearly be seen running along its back, as if it had been clawed by some enormous beast or... whipped or something. As it kept talking, its voice seemed to rise in volume, another sure sign that it almost didn't realize what it was doing.
"Curse them. We hates them! It's ours it is! And we wants it!"
It was now leaning out over the ledge and its gangly, grasping hand was slowly descending towards indeed a real possibility. But, as it uttered its last sentence, it was taken off guard because Frodo and Sam both suddenly surged upwards and seized the creature by its wrists, revealing that they had not been asleep at all, but had been listening to its every word and waiting for it to attack.
The creature screech as the Hobbits grabbed hold of it and pulled. Its toes grasped the rock it was standing on with surprising strength but the two Hobbits together were enough to overpower it, so it did the opposite of trying to cling on and jumped off, leaping into a dive that carried its body over in a flip.
Neither of the Hobbits were expecting this action and as the creature dived over their heads they both tripped backwards, their grips its wrists loosening as they fought for balance, twisting around with it and attempting to grab it by the arms and hold it more securely. But the creature landed on its hand grabbing the front of Sam's shirt to pull itself and them pushing against him hard, causing him to lose his grip and stumble backwards, falling over a boulder that tripped him up as he did so.
The creature immediately swung back around and shoved Frodo off of him, pushing the Hobbit away just as easily as it had done with his companion. Frodo landed with a grunt on his back and nearly hit his head, scrabbling backwards as both he and Sam tried to put some distance, which was twisting in a circle now and throwing up the mats they had been sleeping on, eyes wild and half mad.
And then it turned around to look at Frodo and, for the first time Frodo got a look at the creature. He had known who it was all along, but this was the first time he had a good look at him. For it was indeed a him. It was Gollum, the wretched creature that his uncle Bilbo had told him about from his own adventures many years ago. Now, Frodo had seen him before, but only at a distance and now he could see him up close, he could feel his heart rate going up at the sight of him.
And he knew what Gollum was after as well. Gollum had been one of the few people besides Frodo himself ever to possessed the One Ring. And he had possessed it for over five hundred years, meaning the Ring had a very, very firm grip on his mind. Gollum was desperate to get it back, and now that there were finally no powerful and heavily armed Men, Elves or Dwarves to protect the Ring, he had seized his chance.
As Gollum's eyes shot Frodo's way, Frodo saw them widen and a look of recognition and desperation flitted across his features. Frodo's own eyes shot downwards and to his horror he saw the Ring had escaped the confines of his shirt and was dangling on its chain in plain sight on his shoulder. Frodo had little doubt that the Ring had done that deliberately, and now it had the desired effect. Gollum pounced and landed on Frodo full on, his hands gasping for the Ring.
Frodo desperately seized Gollum's hands before he could do so and struggled to keep him at bay. But Gollum was relentless and it became a scrabbling match between them, with each of them trying to throw the hands out of the way as Gollum furiously tried to get to the Ring, and Frodo furiously tried to stop him. Gollum let loose a rasping cry of rage as Frodo succeeded in grabbing his wrists and keeping the scrabbling hands away from the Ring as much as he could.
As Gollum pushed forward, Sam had recovered enough to scramble across the campsite and seize Gollum by the ankle, pulling him off Frodo and earning the other Hobbit a temporary reprieve. But Gollum madly twisted around, putting his body at an angle that looked barely plausible and slammed his hand across Sam's face, knocking him away again and then immediately jumping on Frodo yet again. Frodo still managed to grab the hands of his opponent, but Gollum's anger was growing now Frodo was only just able to hold him back. He also felt his energy dropping at alarming rate, as if the Ring itself had suddenly decided to get involved in the fight and try and help Gollum win. Gollum's fingers got nearer, trying to slip the Ring onto his finger and he even succeeded in touching the Ring, breathing heavily as he attempted to muscle forward.
But Sam was already back up and this time he tried a different approach, scrambling to his feet and jumping on Gollum himself, wrapping his arms around Gollum's chest heaving himself upwards. Gollum screeched in anger and fury as he was pulled away from the Ring yet again, but as Sam desperately tried to haul him away, Gollum succeeded in grabbing Frodo by the shirt. As Sam pulled Gollum, Gollum pulled Frodo, and Frodo was hauled upwards and tossed onto his back yet again with a painful grunt.
XXX
"Hey! I heard something." Monitamon R3 suddenly muttered from his position on Ballistamon's head, pushing himself to his feet and placing a hand up to the ear he did not have.
Ballistamon stopped walking suddenly and all four of the Digimon like him. They unlike the Hobbits, had decided to keep moving through the night as they at least still had some vague sense of direction thanks to Ballistamon, and it took a lot to tire out a machine Digimon like him. Monitamons had been napping on occasion but Ballistamon kept walking, moving his way onward.
"Yeah, I hear something too." Monitamon R1 agreed. "A sound like... a scuffle. Some people fighting and... what is that horrible gurgling noise?"
"I don't know." Ballistamon replied, throwing himself into a run. "But fighting could mean sentient life. Come on. We should check it out."
It was surprising how quickly Ballistamon could move when he wanted to and now he was running full speed. He was, quite literally, a machine and he pounded around and, in one case, through the rocks as they headed towards the sight of the fighting.
It did not take them long to reach it, and they found themselves at the top of yet another ravine. It was not a particularly deep one but as Ballistamon skidded to a halt moments before falling over the edge, all four of them looked down to see the combatants not far below. Two of them appeared to be human children, are with bare and incredibly hairy feet. The other thing... well, none of them had any clue what the other thing was. And currently the three of them were scrabbling with each other, the two children working together against the third and not particularly succeeding.
They also appeared to be too busy to notice the new arrivals above them.
"What's going on?" Monitamon R2 asked. "What are they fighting about?"
"More to the point, what the heck is that thing?" Monitamon R3 gasped, round eyes appearing on his monitor as he stared at Gollum.
"No time for questions." Ballistamon replied, dropping the Monitamons to the ground and taking Monitamon R3 off his head to place him on the ground too. "Stay here and keep out of sight. Those humans are in danger and I've got to help."
XXX
As Frodo tried to regain his breath from where he was thrown, Gollum wrenched himself free from Sam's grip and, before the Hobbit could stop him, bounded on to his shoulders and took a flying leap onto the cliff wall to scrabble his way up it slightly. But this was not escape attempt, for moments later he twisted around and pounced, once again, on Frodo, and this time from above, landing on him and knocking the wind out of him as he seized the front of his shirt and reaching for the Ring.
But this time Sam was on Gollum in an instant, seizing Gollum's body in the air, leaning backwards to lift the creature off his master and friend to hold him off the ground.
But, as Frodo recovered his air, Gollum proved to be much more difficult to hold than Sam had anticipated. As Sam tried to hold him still, Gollum, impossibly, managed to twist his way around in Sam's arms completely until they were face to face and he was practically crouching on Sam's chest. And then, he struck, lashing forward and his teeth bit right for the side of Sam's neck. Sam's Elven cloak softened the blow so the teeth did go in more than about a centimetre, but the shock and suddenness of attack caused Sam to lose his balance and he crashed onto his back.
Gollum's desire for the Ring seemed to be temporarily forgotten, so determined was to teach this Hobbit a lesson. Sam fell and Gollum rolled with him, wildly reaching for his neck and attempting to trap him in an arm-lock and choke the life out of him.
It was at this point that Frodo remembered that he had a sword at his waist and he pushed himself up, hand seizing the hilt and pulling it out. But, as he caught his attention. And also beat him to Gollum. That something was a shadow that fell over Frodo, causing him to look upwards. He yelped in astonishment as something large plummeted down into the ravine above them. Both Sam and Gollum were momentarily distracted by Frodo's yell and look up themselves, right at the point where something bulky, metallic, red and blue landed with "Nah!" It said and a metal hand lashed out and grabbed Gollum by the arm, heaving him off Sam with absolute ease and wheeling around to fling him across the ravine. Gollum practically squealed as he was swung about to crash rather painfully into the wall of the cliff and fell to the floor in a heap of long limbs. He was so skeletal and gaunt that it was amazing that he didn't break any bones in the impact.
Sam stared upwards at his rescuer in complete shock, totally frozen and unable to move. The cube like body, thick metal limbs, round yellow eyes set in an oblong head and enormous horn that stuck out the top all resembled some kind of beetle. But it was nothing like a beetle. It was nothing that Sam had ever seen before.
Ballistamon looked back down at the Hobbit. If he had the ability to frown then he probably would have at this point. Looking at the person he had rescued now he could see quite a few differences to the humans he had met. It was true that he had hardly ever seen any of them without their shoes on, but none of their feet had been as hairy as this. There was also the ears, which were slightly pointed. And though he was small... he didn't... look young. Nowhere near as young as Mikey, Angie, Jeremy or any of the others.
"Are you alright?" He said after a couple of seconds.
"Er... who are... what are... what?" Sam blustered, unable to say anything else or muster many thoughts to process at this point.
Frodo still had his sword drawn and was now pointing it at the creature in front of him, but for some reason he got the feeling that Sting was not going to do much good against this guy.
"I said are you alright?" Ballistamon asked. "You were being attacked and that thing hit you."
Sam's hand went to his neck. There was a little blood but not that much. "I... think I'm okay but..."
"Who are you?" Frodo interjected, still with Sting leveled at Ballistamon and not feeling comfortable about that situation in the slightest.
Ballistamon had always been straight to the point, so he merely said. "My name is Ballistamon. It's good to see you're alright. I heard the sound of fighting so I came quickly and saw it. You don't need to point that at me, I'm not going to hurt you."
Frodo did not lower his sword, which was a good thing. Gollum had been momentarily stunned by his impact with the side of the cliff, but he had come so close to getting it back what he carved. He had actually touched it! And he was not ready to back down just yet even with this new intervention. With a rasping hiss he barreled past Sam and sprang towards Frodo. Frodo yelled and swung Sting in Gollum's direction, and Gollum had enough sense to pull short before he reach the range of the blade.
Sam quickly pushed himself to his own feet and tried to draw his own sword, but Gollum was quick and had some experience fighting against someone who had a sword before. He made a fake lunge at Frodo and the Hobbit, who was inexperienced with a blade as it was, swung at him with a wide are. The moment Frodo's blade had pass Gollum's chest he lunged for real... only for a red hand to seize him by the back of the neck and slam him forcibly into the ground.
Gollum howled as his back slammed into a rock and he scrambled to get up. But before he could do so, one of Ballistamon's large, heavy feet lifted up and descended on his chest, pushing him into the ground and pinning him there. Ballistamon did not apply his whole weight, he was surely that he would kill the creature if he did that, but he applied just enough to keep Gollum from going anywhere without damaging him.
Gollum had no choice but to take this lying down, but he did his best not to. He thrashed and kicked and squirmed and swiped at the air with his grimy hands and splayed feet but this time he wasn't going anywhere. Ballistamon's weight was like that of a large boulder and if he did not want Gollum to move then he was not going to move simple as that. Gollum even lashed his head up and tried to bite his assailant, but his teeth clanged off the metal and he shrieked in anger and despair.
"So that's Gollum then" Sam murmured as he wiped his neck. "The one that Mister Bilbo was always..."
"Sam..." Frodo raised a hand, cutting off his friend before he could reveal anything about their quest to this strange newcomer that had suddenly stepped in and helped them out. He was still eyeing Ballistamon warily, but he felt it safe to say that Ballistamon was not a threat. There was no way of determining his expression since his face was frozen and he had no real mouth, but Frodo certainly didn't get the same air from him as he did with the minions of evil he had felt so far.
Still it was better to be on the safe side.
"Look, Master Ballista." He coughed. "We... thank you for your help. That creature... could have overpowered us."
"Bagginses!" Gollum snarled from underneath Ballistamon's foot, gripping the blue cuboid and trying to heave it off and making no headway at all. "They stole it from us! Sneaky little Hobbitses trying to trick us! Wicked, nasty, metal thing should stay out of this! We wants our birthday present! We wants it back! Gollum! Gollum!"
Frodo shuddered. The noise was just Bilbo had described it, a horrible coughing, retching noise from the back of his throat. But now he was wary again, Gollum had said his name. If this new guy was a minion of evil then he was probably aware of the name Baggins by this point, Sauron would have everyone out searching for the Hobbit by the name of Baggins.
But there was nothing to suggest that Ballistamon had realized the significance of that name. Then his face was so frustratingly unreadable that Frodo just couldn't tell.
"You bet he does." Sam nodded, scowling at Gollum with an expression of loathing as he massaged his neck. "I don't suppose you could do us a favor, whatever you are, and just squish him?"
"Sam!" Frodo rounded on him. "You can't kill him now! He's defenseless!"
"But Mister F... Merry." Sam quickly replaced Frodo's real name just in case. "He's Gollum. He was going to kill us in our sleep. It's what he deserves."
Gollum snarled at him, but then he finally seemed to realized the fact that Ballistamon had him well and truly stuck, and a horrible wailing noise began to come out of his throat. A cry of utter despair and loss that made even Ballistamon flinch. The failure to acquire the one Ring had hit Gollum hard.
Speaking of the Ring, Frodo quickly stowed it in his shirt and hoped that Ballistamon had not seen it. He had no idea who or what Ballistamon was supposed to be, but while he was grateful for his presence as quickly as possible. The last thing that the two Hobbits wanted was to be asked a load of questions that they didn't want to answer, like what they were doing out here.
"We can't, Sam." Frodo shook his head. "That's not the sort of thing... our mentors... would have us do."
Sam still looked repulsed, but he had to admit that Frodo was right. He sighed unhappily. "And I won't kill him either." Ballistamon added for clarification. "It's against everything the Fusion Fighters believes in."
"What's the Fusion Fighters?" Sam asked.
"The name of the army I'm part of." Ballistamon replied simply. "I don't know where the others are at the moment though. I'm a little lost. Do you know where we are?"
Frodo cleared his throat. The word army had set him on edge. "Er, yes." He nodded. "I... I think that this place is called Emyn Muil."
"Never heard of it." Ballistamon shrugged his huge metal shoulders. "Do you know how to get out?"
"Er, yes." Frodo nodded quickly. "You can... get out of here by going west as straight as you can. You could... probably get out from any direction but west is where you want to go find cities and people."
"Thank you." Ballistamon nodded. "But can I ask, what are you guys? I thought that you were human children before... but now I don't think you are."
"We're, uh, Halflings." Frodo clarified. "But, what are you anyway?"
"We haven't ever seen anything like you." Sam agreed.
"Well, I'm a Digimon." Ballistamon replied. "Ever heard of them?"
"No." Frodo and Sam replied at the same time.
"That's what I was afraid of." Ballistamon sighed. "I've never heard of Halflings either. I must be well and truly lost if I've end up outside the Digital World or to any place where Digimon haven't been heard of. This isn't the Human World, is it?"
"Er..." Sam stammered.
"Never mind." Ballistamon shook his head.
Frodo cleared his throat and said. "Look, Mister Digimon. We... thank you again for helping us with our little problem."
"Filthy little Hobbitses! They stole it from us!" Gollum wailed from his place on the ground.
Ballistamon looked up sharply. "You stole something from him? What did you steal?"
"Nothing!" Frodo cried, far to quickly. "He's... he's lying. We didn't steal from him." This was technically true as the Ring had been picked up by Bilbo and not them, but he was so quick to keep the topic off the Ring that Ballistamon clearly noticed this was a sensitive issue.
"It lies! It steals and it lies! They stole our birthday present! My precious!" Gollum hissed.
"He's delusional." Sam countered. "And can't you see he's half mad we haven't taken anything from him, you mark my words, Mister Ballista."
Ballistamon said nothing for several moments and Frodo was certain that he was going to press the matter. But instead, Ballistamon said. "Uh... okay. Fair enough. But what do you want me to do with him? I'm not going to kill him."
Frodo and Sam looked at one another. They were both as eager to get away from Gollum as they were to finish this conversation and leave, perhaps much more so. Neither of them wanted to be anywhere near him and the last thing they wanted was for Ballistamon to find out about the quest they were on. So, Frodo eventually shrugged and said. "Could you take him to some kind of prison somewhere and put him in a dungeon?"
Ballistamon blinked... or would have if he could. "A dungeon?" He asked. "I don't know where any of those are."
"Neither do we." Sam murmured.
"Well, we can't have him following us." Frodo replied. "He's been doing it for many days and we have to go."
"You do?" Ballistamon asked. "Where are you going?"
This was precisely what Frodo did not want to start talking about. "We're going to... the Lonely Mountain." He immediately decided to adapt the stories that Bilbo had told him of his own adventures for use in this particular situation. "Yes, we're going to see the Lonely Mountain. It's a long journey and we don't want to interrupt it for any reason so... can you take him off our hands."
"Take your foot off us!" Gollum was still squirming from where Ballistamon had him pinned down.
"Can I come with you?" Ballistamon asked.
"NO! I mean, no, sorry." Frodo shook his head.
"But I don't have the faintest idea where I'm going."
"Yes but... but..." Frodo was struggling now.
"It's a private Halfling thing." Sam came to his rescue. "You see, it's a... sort of test. When a Hobbit comes of age, he must go on a journey to see the Lonely Mountain to... to prove himself to the Halfling Elders. Um... he's allowed to take one friend with him to help but nobody else is allowed to go with them."
That seemed as good an explanation as any Frodo could think of even if it was wildly made up. Ballistamon stared at them both silently for several moments before he merely said. "Okay. Fair enough."
"Glad you understand." Frodo nodded. "Now... um... we've really got to go. We're already behind schedule and... do you think that you can make sure that... he doesn't follow us?"
"Okay." Ballistamon gave the Hobbits a thumb up. They both stared at his hand in bewilderment for a moment, but then Frodo shook himself and hurriedly began to gather up his possessions. Sam bent to do the same and they hurriedly packed up their packs, watch by Ballistamon the whole time as Gollum writhed on helplessly.
"Thank you, Mister Ballista." Sam turned to him once again.
"That's Ballistamon." The Digimon replied. "Good luck on your quest."
Frodo swallowed. "Yes. Thank you. Good luck to you too, Mister." He said quickly. "Come on, Sam. We've got to get moving. That... mountain isn't going to come any closer to us."
"You got it, Mister F... Merry." Sam coughed, quickly changing Frodo's name a second time.
But, as soon as the two of them stepped forward, Ballistamon cried. "Wait!" The Hobbits froze and turned back slowly and were shocked to the core when they saw Ballistamon's chest suddenly slide open to reveal the compartment inside. Ballistamon reached up with a large hand and grabbed a small device nestled in the center of the shelf his chest had made by folding outwards. It was a small, red device attached to a strap.
"This is a wrister." Ballistamon showed them before tossing it to Sam, who caught it in a fumbling manner and stared at it. "If you change your mind and you need some help in the future then you can contact me with that thing and if I can, then I'll come and help you. If I can't then I'll try and tell someone who can."
Sam and Frodo glanced at each other again and Sam stowed the small device in his pocket. "Thank you." He nodded. "Much appreciated, sir."
And then it happened. Gollum, who had been lying very still for a while now, took advantage of Ballistamon momentarily distraction with the wrister. He had grabbed a rock from the floor and flung it upwards, catching Ballistamon in the horn and causing him to stumble backwards a little bit. The moment Ballistamon's foot shifted, Gollum squired out from underneath it and scrambled forward.
Frodo and Sam both drew their swords and Gollum pulled to a stop. He knew that he was outmatched now and he could hear Ballistamon immediately coming for him from behind so he did the first thing that came to mind, he scampered. He sprang for the cliff wall and scuttled up with all the speed and practice of a four-legged spider, jumping from rock to rock as he made his way upwards and away.
"Hey, come back here and fight." Sam shouted.
Ballistamon spread his arms and roared. "SEISMIC SPEAKER!" Huge sound waves erupted from the speaker built into his chest and surged towards Gollum. Gollum hissed and sprang upwards as the sound waves cannoned into the cliff side where he had been moments before. The impact caused him to lose his grip on the rock nevertheless and slide downwards several feet.
However, he did manage to catch himself again, hooking his fingers around loose holds, and then scampered up and away vanished from sight.
Frodo and Sam were to busy gaping at Ballistamon to really register the gravity of what had just happened. The sheer amount of power that Ballistamon possessed astonished both of them. For a fraction of a second, Frodo wondered if perhaps they might be safer if this guy had tagged along, but Gandalf had said the Ring had greater effect on the powerful than it did the ordinary. Plus, he still didn't know anything about this creature really. And they had to go alone to prevent the Ring from affecting other people anyway.
So he ran. He turned and bolted down the ravine, away from Ballistamon and away from Gollum, wherever the wretched creature was now. Sam ran and followed too.
And yet, as he ran, Frodo couldn't help but feel a spark of pity in his heart for Gollum as he remembered what he had looked like pinned underneath Ballistamon's foot. As Gandalf had said... he had indeed been... pitiful.
But Frodo barely registered the thought. All he really thought about now was escaping them all so they could continue on their quest.
Ballistamon made no move to follow the Halflings, or to track down Gollum. He knew full well that in a maze like this he was going to be very lucky to find either of them again, and it was quite clear that those two Halflings wanted nothing to do with him. That hurt him to some degree. Ballistamon was never to proud to help somebody who needed it but those two Halflings had rejected him.
And one thing that you always had to remember about Ballistamon was that he was logical. He was practical. And he was also always remarkably levelheaded. Some people might have been taken in by the story which the Halflings had given to him, but to Ballistamon it had felt extremely strange and a little rushed and, in places, hesitant.
It was hard to lie to Ballistamon. He usually saw right through it.
"Nah." He muttered to himself. "Those two definitely have some sort of problem."
"Can we come down now, Ballistamon?" One of the Monitamons called down from above.
"Yes." Ballistamon nodded and the three other Digimon bounded over the side of the cliff and bounced down. One of them almost went plummeting all the way, but able to arrest his fall by landing on his backside after twisting violently onto another ledge.
"That was all very confusing." Monitamon R2 remarked. "But I don't think any of them saw us anyway so we did our job right?"
"What do we do now?" Monitamon R1 asked. "Are we just going and leave them to their quest to this mountain?"
"I don't think they're going to where they say they are." Ballistamon murmured. "I think that most of what they were saying were lies. I think that they're in some kind of situation and whatever that is, it means that they didn't want anybody around them."
All three Monitamons stared off down the ravine the Hobbits had dashed down. "Maybe they're fugitives." One of them suggested. "And they're trying to hide from other people in this maze place."
"I doubt it." Ballistamon remarked.
"Then maybe they're on some super secret spy mission or something like that?" Monitamon R3 chuckled.
"They don't look like the right kind of people for spying." Monitamon R1 countered.
"Neither do you, but you do it pretty well." Ballistamon pointed out. The three Monitamons promptly displayed emotions on their screens and said. "Thank you." At the same time. Ballistamon suppressed a chuckle, but then grew more focused and serious again.
"I don't know what that was all about really, but I am pretty sure of one thing." He said. "Whatever is going on with those two, I am pretty certain that they are in some kind of trouble. They were scared of me and scared of that other creature and tried to escape as quickly as possible but their excuses seemed a little bit off to me."
"So they were definitely lying?" Monitamon R2 asked.
"I think so." Ballistamon nodded. "And I accidentally allowed that creature who was attacking them to escape, and I do not think that it is going to leave them alone. It seemed pretty adamant at getting to them even when I was there to confront it. Even if their journey is not dangerous then that creature could be."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Monitamon R1 asked.
"What do you think?" Ballistamon asked, turning to face them. "What is the motto of the Fusion Fighters United Army and King Shoutmon?"
"We can't turn our backs." All three Monitamons repeated at the same time immediately.
"Yes." Ballistamon nodded. "And we maybe in a strange place but that rule still applies. We should try and help them. I gave them the wrister so if they want help they can ask but well... we still need to find them again and..."
"No problem." Monitamon R1 puffed out his chest proudly. "We'll go track them down, they can't have gotten that far yet and we can still find each other when we need to so we can split up if necessary."
"Yeah." Monitamon R3 agreed. "Come on! Let's go!"
"Right!" Monitamon R2 cried, and before Ballistamon could do anything else, they darted forward and vanished from sight as they zipped off into the ravine.
"Wait!" Ballistamon called out after them. "One of you should stay... behind..." He slowly tailed off, knowing that it was no good. The three Monitamons could be blazing fast when they wanted to be and they were probably some distance away already. Ballistamon sighed to himself and stepped over to the rock that Sam had tripped over earlier to settle on it and wait. Wait for the Monitamons to return and lead him to the Halflings.
But, right now, he had a horrible feeling that his part in this particular adventure was over.
XXX
It took about twenty minutes for the Monitamons to locate the two Hobbits. They had fanned out through a large area and were trying not to trip over themselves as they moved through the rocks and across the ravines. Eventually one of them did come across the two as they stood in a ravine below, panting for breath after their long run from both Ballistamon and Gollum.
Immediately, the Monitamon broadcast a signal across the landscape to the other two Monitamons and whispered that he had found the two Hobbits that they were looking for. It took a few more minutes but eventually the Monitamons homed in on the signal of their companion and soon the three of them were together, peering over the edge of the cliff and down at them.
The one with the dark hair seemed to sense that he was being watched again and looked up towards them, forcing all of them to drew back from the edge in the blink of an eye. He hadn't seen them but he was sure something was up there and he quickly ushered his companion further into the huge labyrinth and onward.
The Monitamons kept pace. As missions went this one was relatively easy even for them, all they had to do was stay out of sight and follow the Halflings. Even so, there were still a couple of instances where one of them tripped and almost went plummeting over the edge and, in the second case, caused a pile up of all three.
Once they disentangled themselves and kept on running, Monitamon R1 murmured. "Alright, so we've found them. we should get in contact with Ballistamon and get him to come towards us as well before they get too much further ahead."
"They're pretty far ahead already." Monitamon R3 replied.
"Then we'd better be quick about it." Monitamon R1 tried to take charge. "Someone send a message."
"Er... how?" Monitamon R2 asked.
"Huh?" Monitamon R1 asked, drawing to a halt. "What do you mean how? One of us had to send a message to... oh..." He stopped, wide eyes appearing on his screen. "None of us stayed behind did we?"
"There are still three of us here." Monitamon R3 pointed out. "So yeah. We all went. We can only send transmissions to one another. Ballistamon might be a machine but he can't pick up anything that we send. One of us should have stayed with him to wait."
"Well then, one of us can double back now and get him?" Monitamon R1 said.
"Okay." Monitamon R2 nodded. "Um... does anyone know the way back?"
The three of them all looked around one another at the rest of Emyn Muil which stood tall around them. It looked... pretty much the same to them no matter where they looked. And none of them had bothered to memorize the way back or any landmarks as they had been so focused on finding the Hobbits.
They had no idea which direction Ballistamon was. Or how far away he was. They had not picked up a wrister from him so they could not talk to him either. They were lost... and this time on their own.
"I don't suppose one of us left a trail of breadcrumbs. "Monitamon R3 murmured glumly.
"With what? We don't have bread." Monitamon R2 said. "But seriously, why does this always happen to us? Why do we never think it through properly?"
"Because we're dunces." Monitamon R1 sighed miserably. "We always have been? Always, always, always messing things up for everyone. And now, we've done it again?"
"So what do we do?" Monitamon R3 asked.
Monitamon R1 was silent for a moment but, eventually, he said. "We should stick with those Halflings. Ballistamon can take care of himself. We need to make sure that they stay safe."
The other two Monitamons looked unhappy but eventually nodded and the three of them hurried off after the Hobbits once again.
XXX
Ballistamon sat on that rock waiting for the Monitamons to return for over twelve hours. The sun rose in the sky, rather pale and bleak compared to what the sun was meant to look like and it was slipping down to setting position once again by the time Ballistamon gave up. The Monitamons weren't going to return. They would have done a long time ago if they were. They'd gotten lost and now Ballistamon was totally alone again.
Ballistamon stood there for another twenty minutes trying to decide what to do before he finally came to a decision. There was little point wasting time trying to find the Monitamons or those Halflings, regardless of what else was going on. Both the questing Hobbits and his three Digimon companions would be a very, very long way off. The logical thing to do was keep going and try to find the other Digimon and then perhaps return to try and find them with someone who could fly with them.
And also, regretting each step, he turned and head west.
XXX
The next chapter will involve Mervamon, Cutemon and Agumon with the Fellowship. The two Hobbits Merry and Pippin were captured by the Uruk-hai.
And Saruman is preparing for war against Rohan. Additionally I added 5 OC in the next chapter of the story. There will be more in the future in battles led by captains, commanders or lords as good or evil.
Next time Chapter 11: Malice of Middle Earth.