I walked beside Frodo, who was quite quiet. His face was mostly blank, focused on making his way to Bree. His body was walking on, but his mind was numb and likely asleep, preferring not to think of the great duty he had taken on. I nudged him lightly with my elbow, hoping to break him from his trance. "Frodo?" I asked softly.
He shook his head a little and then looked up at me. "Yes, Fali?"
I swallowed. Gandalf had been (rightfully) angry with Gideon and I. The lecture was quiet in volume but stern and hard in meaning. I had felt reduced to the role of a naughty child. Gideon was pale and uncomfortable through the whole speech of Gandalf's. Our punishment was given: accompany Frodo and Sam on the journey to Bree. Despite myself, amid the shame of prying and regret, I did feel a small thrill for the adventure of it. Bree was only a few days away, and by no means a dangerous journey. I had traveled the distance with my family to come to Bilbo's party. But now the road was traveled with a purpose.
Gideon was less fond of the idea. His first voiced concern was what our parents would think when they realised our beds were empty the next morning and we were not about in the Shire. His second was if we were found by thieves or ruffians on the road. I had very good form in telling Gandalf that the prying had all been my doing, and Gideon had wanted to return to the inn from the start, but it did not help the case. He knew of the Ring, and so he must come with us. We were allowed mere moments to return to the inn, pack the essentials, and depart. Gideon wrote a note, but because he could not tell of anything, it shortly said: Do not worry. Will return to you. Fali and Gideon.
I really had made a mess of things…
"Fali?" Frodo nudged me this time for I had taken a turn to lose myself in thought.
I looked back to him. "Are you angry with me for eavesdropping?" I asked. "I'm so sorry I did. But I had no idea you were dealing with something so serious."
Frodo did not reply right away, which made me feel all the worse. "You don't hate me now, do you?" I asked. I glanced behind me, at Gideon. He was keeping an eye on Sam, who looked more and more worried to be venturing farther from home. I had been surprised to hear that he had not made it any farther than an old scarecrow in the wheat fields. "Gideon would hate me right now, if I were not his sister. He can't hate me, but he does not like me very much right now, and I feel terrible for doing this to you."
"No." Frodo shook his head. "I suppose I'm rather glad to have you along, and Sam, and even your brother." He sighed. "I'm not sure if I'm meant to do this. Hobbits are made for the Shire, and not much else." He looked up at me. "You love adventures, so you're better suited for such things."
"Maybe." I shrugged as we entered a corn field, pushing the long stalks out of our path. "But from the sound of it, I still think this journey rests on you."
"How?" Frodo asked. "I've never done anything like this."
"Well…think of it like this." I said, encouragingly. "Master Gandalf cannot take it because he is too powerful. The less powerful one is the better. I've known you since you were a baby…"
"Fali…" Frodo found this embarrassing for some reason.
"What?" I asked. "I have. On with what I was saying before you interrupted me…" I continued. "It' important whoever carries the Ring has no power to be manipulated for the purposes of evil and doom, and as long as I've known you Frodo, you've been an ordinary hobbit, no magic or greed to speak of. Greed, there's another thing..." I interrupted myself. "That's why dwarfs cannot have the Ring. Much as I love my kin, we are notorious for harbouring treasure. Just think of my bloodline, my great-great grandfather passed on Dragon sickness for generations. So I can't hold such a thing."
"What about Men?"
"Men are a bit unpredictable." I said. "Some have honour and others don't, and you never know what you'll get."
"And elves?"
"They're preoccupied, as we saw earlier." I alluded to the caravan of elves we had witnessed, going toward the sea to sail away. I turned to him seriously. "Now you're just trying to find a way out, but trust me, this was meant for the work of a hobbit. You don't desire power, you have no power to manipulate, and I don't think you can hate anyone." I smiled at him. "I wouldn't trust the Ring in the hands of anyone but a hobbit, if you ask me." Frodo grinned back, looking much calmer.
"Mister Frodo!" Sam called out suddenly, sounding quite frantic. Frodo and I spun around to find ourselves surrounded by corn.
"I think we wandered a little too far." I said.
"Fali!" Gideon called out for me as well. "Where are you?"
"Over here, Gideon." I called back.
"Frodo? Frodo?" Sam continued to call out. The hobbit and I retreated in our path a few steps, returning around a bend in the corn field. I spotted Gideon from behind, looking around in the green blur of the corn stalks for me.
I tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm right here." Gideon spun around, looking almost spooked that something had poked at him through the crops.
Sam came around, and spotted us all, looking much relieved. "I thought I'd lost you." He sighed.
"What are you talking about?" Frodo asked. Granted, it was difficult to see much with so much corn in the way, but it would be hard to truly get lost from each other.
"It's just something Gandalf said." Sam replied, adjusting the pack he wore.
"What did he say?"
"Don't you lose him Samwise Gamgee, and I don't mean to."
"Sam we're still in the Shire." Frodo replied. "What could possibly happen?"
I was about to voice my agreement, and attempt to make the hobbit laugh, teasing him with some witty remark on how dangerous corn could be, when something did happen. It was all blur, but I distinctly felt Frodo latch hold of my sleeve, in effort to keep himself upright, and accidently pull me down with him, the two of flattened to the ground. My head struck a rather rough patch of roots, and my head buzzed with an ache and blurriness. I saw the flash of red, and thought for a second that we had been turned over by one…or was it two?...very large foxes. I blinked, and the fuzziness in my head cleared. No, not foxes I realized.
"Frodo!" Pippin spoe, rather excited to have encountered a friend. "Merry, it's Frodo Baggins!"
"Merry? Pippin?" I asked, nursing the back of my head a little.
"Hello Frodo!" Merry greeted, the four of us still struggling around in the earth. "And hello Fali!" He noticed me.
"What are you two doing in a corn field?" I asked as Gideon gave me a hand and pulled me up.
"Merry and Pippin…" He sighed, not as excited to see them as they were to see us. "It all figures." He muttered under his breath.
"Get off him!" Sam said roughly as he took hold of Pippin's shirt and pulled him off of Frodo.
"So sorry for knocking you down, princess." Pippin said, while picking up dropped stalks of corn from the ground.
"Hold this." Merry passed a bag filled with other vegetables to Sam.
"Did you take those?" Gideon asked.
"Merry! Pippin!" I chastised them both.
"We'll share." Pippin promised, his form of an apology at the moment.
"You've been into Farmer Maggot's crop!" Sam scolded them.
Then the most dreadful sound of baying hounds was heard, and who was fairly close. Corn stalks rustled, and the feathery tips of them swayed as the animals ran, following the scent of the mischievous Pippin and Merry…who were now standing right beside us. An angry voice accompanied them, no doubt a very displeased Farmer Maggot.
Pippin grabbed hold of Frodo and ran. Merry grabbed hold of his bag of vegetables and ran. I looked up time to see a wicked looking scythe, and hear the curses of the farmer. I grabbed hold of Gideon's hand and pulled him. He was too surprised, like Sam, to break away from the spot, and too conflicted with his morals.
Hoping to return the stolen vegetables was a nice thought, but hardly a good idea right now.
Gideon, when pulled from his spot, took off on his own, quite frightened to be caught by hounds like the rest of us were. Soon, it was him who was pulling me along instead of the other way around. Quickly I turned my head around and shouted out "Sam!", for the hobbit had not yet moved, and was looking from the produce in his arms to the approaching farmer, and back to the produce. Sam immediately dropped the vegetables on the ground and ran.
I let Gideon guide me through the mess of green stalks, feeling the leaves of them snap back and slap me in the face a few times.
"I don't know why he's so upset." I could hear Merry ahead as we began to catch up. "It's only a couple of carrots!"
"And some cabbages." Pippin added, lightly. "And those few bags of potatoes that we lifted last week, and the mushrooms the week before."
"Mahal…what haven't you two dug up in his garden?" Gideon asked them.
"His parsley…it's wilted." Pippin answered honestly.
"Yes, Pippin." Merry cut in. "My point is, he's clearly overeactin'." The hounds gave a nasty bark at us. "Run!"
The corn suddenly disappeared and I found myself slamming into Gideon's back, who had bumped into the hobbits ahead of us. "Careful!" Gideon said sharply. I managed to peer over his shoulder and notice that the ground had stopped, giving way to a sort of gorge, on the edge of a forest.
"Look out!" I hissed, grabbing Gideon's tunic by the fistful and pulling him backward. Such effort to save him was all in vain. Sam burst wildly out of the corn, looking as though a monster was after him and not a dog and his master. He was too busy looking behind him, making sure he was not pursued, to notice the drop in our path ahead of us, nor the fact that we had ceased running. I felt him collide into me with a great force, momentum of which caused everyone to be pushed forward too far. Merry at the front of our party swayed on the edge of the gorge for a second, his eyes widening as his arm flailed around for something to grasp.
There was nothing but air, and so one after the other we were all cast over the edge. There was the sickly sensation of falling, such as when I missed the last step on an Erebor staircase. Unlike those slips however, I did not have the ground inches away to quickly catch myself on. The ground came, uneven and heavily sloped, and collision with it was half pounding into its surface and half sliding down its surface.
We all ended up tumbling into a great tangle of arms and legs and bodies at the bottom, in a heap. I had a number of leaves caught up in my hair, and the hobbits were spitting various bits of dirt and forest from their mouths.
"Oh, that was close." Pippin wheezed, trying to pull himself out from under his friends.
"Ow…I think I've broken something." Merry groaned, and pulled out a broken carrot from beneath him. All his vegetables had been lost in the tumble it seemed. I smirked at him, and let a small snort of laughter escape.
"You're lucky it wasn't your neck." Gideon said, carefully crawling out from underneath us.
"Trust a Brandybuck and a Took!" Sam snapped at the two of them.
"What?" Merry shrugged, brushing dust from his jacket. "That was just a detour, a shortcut."
"Oh please…" I sighed. "That was a very narrow escape if you ask me."
"A shortcut? To what?" Sam asked, still annoyed now that he had dirt and leaves all over him, and we were currently disoriented, having no idea if we were on the right path or not.
"Mushrooms." Pippin replied, pleasantly surprised to see more food after he and Merry had just lost their stolen vegetables.
Merry, Pippin and Sam all scrambled over to the mushrooms they had found, and began to harvest and divide the bounty among themselves.
"At least we'll have something nice for supper tonight…more company too." I said optimistically.
"We're off the trail now." Gideon was examining a map.
"I think we should get off the road." Frodo said, not interested in the mushrooms like the others.
"Are we far off?" I asked my brother.
"Not badly." Gideon said. "If we cut through the forest, there's a river we can follow along to Bree."
"That would be a lot better than walking the entire way there."
The wind howled, tunneling through the bent trees and seeming to screech almost. The red headed hobbits looked up, cautious.
"Get off the road! Quick!" Frodo yelled. Gideon grabbed my hand and pulled me away this time, sensing real danger.
An ominous mist rolled into the forest, floating high and blocking out the low sun. The light faded, the tree turned to dark silhouettes, the whole forest becoming a place of shadow and dark mystery. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise, instinct telling me we were being followed, and not by a hound or a farmer. I took up behind my friends, herding them all, my hand flinching to the hilt of my blade, which had yet to be pulled from my belt. "Hurry! Go, go!" I whispered intensely to them.
Frodo disappeared behind a tree, followed by Gideon and the rest. I followed, and was pulled down and pushed into a small pit in the ground, beneath overhanging roots. I fought to control my rapid breathing, to handle the amount of adrenaline in my veins. I could hear something approaching…heavy footfalls? A low whickering alerted me that it was really a horse. I looked up through the one hole through the roots I had above me, half covered by moss. There was a dark figure, clad in shadows it seemed. No part of his skin was visible, his hands bore metal, his hood was pulled high, his face concealed in darkness. I felt something stir within me, an eeriness that unsettled me. Gideon was stiff beside me, his eyes closed in what looked like focus, trying not to move.
I felt something run across me, and at first I thought it only a chill, but my eyes flicked over to a very large spider dancing across my shoulder, coming too close for comfort to my neck. I noticed other pests then, ants, worms, insects with a hundred legs. A very nasty pit we had found ourselves. I felt the spider step across my neck and had to contain a flinch that my body wanted to have.
The dirt in the roots above me trickled down, the dark, evil figure that had pursued us kneeling above. It breathed heavily, inhumanly. My heart pounded in my ears, sounding a thousand times more loud than it was. I touched the hilt of my blade again, trying to gather some courage. It might be needed.
Everyone looked uncomfortable among the grime, and with the figure overtop of us, hoping he didn't glance down. Frodo looked most uneasy, his eyes pressed closed tight, and his body shaking. I was behind him and could feel him shivering. I saw Sam grab hold of his hands, and it wasn't until then that I figured he had been holding out the Ring.
I thought our discovery was upon us, but Merry had the thought to throw away his bag of mushrooms and few rescued vegetables. A rather great sacrifice for a hobbit.
It rolled among the foliage, and the Rider looked up with a sharp hiss and whisked off with a great, also inhuman, speed. We waited until the sound of hooves disappeared, before we burst from our cover and sprinted away. Once a distance had been put between us and the Rider, we stopped, and heaved for breath.
"What was that?" Merry gasped out. Frodo stared at the Ring in his hand, but said nothing.
"Nothing good." Gideon gave short reply. "Come." He nodded to an overgrown trail. "This is our road. Keep alert." He looked back at Merry and Pippin. "It isn't safe to be alone out here anymore. You'll have to follow us to Bree."
"So far from home?" Pippin asked.
"It'll be alright Pippin." I encouraged him. "We're to meet Master Gandalf at the inn of the Prancing Pony."
The mention of the Grey wizard seemed to calm everyone's mind, and we were able to resume traveling as twilight surrounded us. When the sun descended and the moon rose our fears lit up again, every snap of a twig and scuffle of a nocturnal animal causing our heads to whip around.
I scanned ahead of us, trying to see through the mists. Every gap looked like a Rider. I paused, studying a rather large one. No, that was no gap in the mist…
I pulled the hobbits and my brother behind trees, and watched as a Rider patrolled the road ahead of us. "What now?" I whispered.
"Perhaps we should turn back and walk around him." Gideon suggested.
"Too long." I said. "And he may follow us."
"That Rider in black was looking for something…or someone." Merry at last wisened to our pursuer's purpose. "Frodo?"
"Get down!" Sam hissed and we all crouched further to the ground.
"I think he's leaving." I said, as the Rider turned toward the mist and made to go that way. "We must move now." I said firmly, hand on my sword.
"We must leave the Shire." Frodo said. "We must get to Bree."
"Quickly." Gideon added.
"Right." Merry nodded, thinking quickly. "Buckleberry Ferry. Follow me."
We rose from our hiding place and began to run quickly and quietly away. I took up the rear again, herding them forward like a ewe does her lambs, memories of looking after them in younger years flooding back. I glanced behind me…
The Rider stared back through the mist.
My throat tightened, and then I yelled "Run!" They took off, and I raced after them, urging them forward, and this time pulling out my sword, the metal flashing in the moonlight. There was a screech, pitched and close by, and the pounding of hooves. A second Rider approached from the bank above us. "Hurry!" I shouted.
"This way!" Merry yelled.
"This way, follow me!" Pippin urged us. "Hurry!"
Gideon grabbed my elbow once more, his own sword drawn, and hurried me ahead, the two of us passing Frodo.
"Frodo, hurry!" I shouted, trying to reach for the hand of my friend.
The port was right ahead of us, and the Riders right behind. Merry shouted for Sam to untie the rope, but I quickly cut through it with my sword, Gideon and I rushing onto the ferry. The hobbits pushed off from the dockings.
"Wait!" Gideon tried to slow them, and I saw why. We had outrun Frodo, who was now racing for his life.
"Frodo!" I shrieked.
The gap between the dock and the ferry increased as Frodo ran, a Rider at his heels. We all shouted for him, trying to escape, and trying to stall enough to save him.
"Hurry!" I yelled.
Frodo, very out of breath, raced along the dock and leapt onto the ferry, collapsing into his friends. My own arms caught the hobbit, tucking around him safely and pulling him to the floor of the ferry. I looked up see the Rider stop, his horse rearing up, the two of them shrieking still.
He retreated, and my heart was able to beat once more. He passed us like a shadow, followed by the second Rider, and then even a third.
"Mahal…there are more of them." I breathed. "Frodo? Frodo, are you alright?"
The poor hobbit looked scared, and pale. He nodded slightly, glancing up. "I'll…be fine." He finished.
I hugged him close, my hand atop his head, pulling it comfortingly onto my shoulder. "You're very brave." I whispered. "Thank goodness."
"How far to the nearest crossing?" Sam asked.
Merry replied that it was Brandywine bridge which was twenty miles away. We had a respite to catch our breathes and put some distance between the Riders and us. I removed myself from Frodo and went to Gideon's side. He looked rather shaky.
"Gideon?" I asked softly.
He looked over to me, his face full of concern. "Fali, what are we doing here?" He asked.
I knelt beside him and put my arm around his shoulders, not knowing the answer to give.
REDRydingHood- Haha, she was thinking on her feet
It'sareview- Yes! Finally we can get to the actual quest