That night, I had one short dream. It was snowing softly, and I realized I was standing outside an Indian camp. A man with blond, jaw-length hair rode up on a painted horse. I barely heard him whisper oh no as he dismounted. I couldn't see his face (he was turned around), but I looked again at the camp. What I saw almost made me choke. Hundreds of Indians lay dead on the ground. The man turned around, and I saw tears streaming down his face. My stomach still ached when I woke up. Gandalf was standing over me.
"Good morning, Alex. I was about to wake you for breakfast," he said. That sounded good. I hadn't had dinner last night. I was too embarrassed. I sat up and put on the cloak, because it was cold that morning. As I walked toward the fire, Strider turned to me.
"What did Frodo say was the reason for keeping my true name secret?" he asked. When I hesitated, Strider gestured to the seat next to him. As I sat down, I explained.
"Frodo said... If you told me your name, I might have recognized you as Icealdor's heir, and would think badly of you because of it."
Strider nodded, then pointed at the cloak.
"I see Frodo gave you his cloak."
"Oh. Yes. He was worried about me being cold at night."
"Did you sleep better with it?"
"Well, I slept better, but my dreams didn't improve."
Strider was polite and didn't talk while I explained my dream. When I was finished, he nodded and said,"It was only a dream." I wasn't so sure.
That day, as promised, I was given lessons with Boromir. We use sticks instead of our swords so I wouldn't get hurt. Boromir labeled each sword position with a number and called them out as he threw blows. I had to stop after about an hour because of bruises. I sat down on a rock and watched as Boromir trained with Pippin. They used swords since Pippin was more advanced than I was. Boromir made a mistake and accidentally cut Pippin's hand.
"Ow!"
"Sorry!"
Both Pippin and Merry kicked Boromir in the shins and tackled him. When Strider stepped in to try and stop them, they just turned around and tackled Strider, too! I couldn't help but laugh until I spotted Legolas staring at a dark shadow in the sky. I walked over, asking, "Legolas, what is that?"