Journey to the King

Welcome back to chapter 4 of Life in the Shire. Enjoy. Please R&R

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Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry and Gandalf set off early the next morning to go to the King and inform him of the news of Frodo. Everybody met at Bag End and then they were on their way to the King. Merry and Pippin were trying there very best to be good and not get into any trouble. So far no one had noticed that Pippin had stepped in many things, bad things, except for Merry whom Pippin kept showing his foot to everytime he stepped in something new.

By early evening all four hobbits were tired and restless. 'Gandalf can we take a break? We have been walking all day nd my feet hurt.' Frodo said rubbing his feet.

'We can stop. But not for long. Get some rest I need all of you to be energized by the time i wake you all up. Get to sleep.'

Frodo found a flat bit of ground and set up camp and fell asleep. He had a horrible dream about the Ring and Gollum again. All the way through he heard 'My Precious, My Precious'. He finally woke up not long after with Gandalf's face staring at his.

'Frodo, are you ok? Another bad dream?'

'I'm ok, Gandalf. Do we have to get going now?'

'No not for about another hour. I thought that i should give you a good rest as your the reason we are all out here.'

'Thankyou, Gandalf.' And with that Frodo went back to sleep but had a much more enjoyable dream.

Frodo awoke again with Gandalf's face at his again. 'Frodo we need to get moving if we are going to get to Isengard when we need to. I will give you ten minutes to get ready.'

Frodo got out of bed and packed up his bed. He had breakfast which was much better than Lembas bread. Before long they were back walking along the long, winding road to King Theoden.

After a while the sun had started to go down creating a very red colour in the world and making the trees seem scary. Pippin and Merry saw the trees and had decided to walk ahead instead of creating little games along the way.

'It feels kind of usual to be walking on a quest doesn't it Mr Frodo?' Sam asked after a while.

'Yes it does, Sam. It feels like it was only yesterday that we set out to destroy the Ring in Mordor.'

Suddenly Frodo colapssed on the ground, gasping for air.

'Oh no! Gandalf! Something's wrong with Frodo!' Sam shrieked.

Gandalf came rushing over to where Frodo lay.

'Peregrin Took go fetch water from the River.' Gandalf said handing Pippin a small flask.

When Pippin got back to Gandalf, Frodo and Sam, Gandalf poured all the water in the flask down Frodo's throat. Frodo regained strength and asked what happened.

'Well all that I know is that Sam was calling for me eargently so I came rushing over and asked for Pippin to fill this flask up with water and then you came back. I don't know how though. Do you Sam?'

'Well we were talking about Mordor and then after you had said Mordor you colapssed.'

'Hmm, maybe the damage is worse than i thought.' Said Gandalf. We need to get a move on to the King.'

The next day was taken slowly for the sake of Frodo gradually getting weaker and weaker. Frodo was starting to get a bit agitated as everybody kept asking him if he was ok and if he needed rest. But he was polite and did not ask them to stop once. Sam kept a close eye on him as did Gandalf when Sam was asleep.

Frodo went to sleep with ease knowing that nothing should happen to him as he was now under constant watch of Sam and they could not, however, save him from his evil, re-occuring dreams.

Frodo awoke quite suddenly the next day, but felt refreshed and ready to walk on to Isengard.

Gandalf spoke after a while of nothing but the sound of prodding footsteps along dirt and grass. 'We should reach the king's castle in a little over a day, if my calculations are correct.'At this good news everybody suddenly picked up there pace.

By lunchtime everybody was starving. Merry and Pippin offered to finish anybody's lunch if they couldn't. Needless to say that everbody ate their lunch.

After lunch everybody was happy to keep going. Everybody had a spring in there step. Suddenly Sam stopped where he was. He turned around to Frodo and said with a kind of sadness in his voice. 'It's raining Mr. Frodo. We need to take shelter.'

Frodo looked up and felt rain drops on his face. He was slightly annoyed but the rain felt refreshing as he had not witnessed rain for a fair while.

'There is a cave over there, we can take shelter in that for a while until the rain dies.' Said Gandalf.

Everybody clambered into the cave. It was a bit small for all five of them but they managed it without any hassle.

The rain lasted all afternoon and well into the night. They cooked tea. Pippin was happy as there was enough for seconds.

'Well we may as well bunk here for the night.' Said Gandalf smoking his pipe. Everyone got ready for bed within the next half hour, except for Gandalf who took watch for a while just outside.

Frodo woke up suddenly after another horrible dream. His shoulder was agonising but he tried to stay quiet so he went outside and stood next to Gandalf.

'Can you not sleep, Frodo?'

'No, Pippin is snoring loudly and my weathertop wound is painful. I thought that fresh air might help.'

'Frodo you do know that it will never heal and that the pain will never cease, don't you?' Gandalf had a serious and stern look on his face.

'Yes, I do, Gandalf. It's just it normally hurts during the night and it is starting to deprive me of sleep.'

'I know, Frodo, I know. You should probably try and get back to sleep, it is going to be a long day tomorrow im going to try and get us to the King by tomorrow night if I can. Goodnight, Frodo.'

'Goodnight, Gandalf.' And with that, Frodo went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until he was shaken awake by Sam.

The next afternoon they could see the outline of the King's castle in Isengard.

'Gandalf! Look, the Castle of Isengard!' Said Merry with excitment in his voice.

'Yes, Meriadoc, the King's castle of Isengard.'