So, um... This is definitely later than a week. Uh, sorry. But, soccer (or football) started up, and I started reading The Idiot in englsih, which is definitely not a book for those that don't do hard reads! Just a warning for those that are going to read the book.
On a different note, OMG how did this story get +10,000 views!? Seriously, people are awesome, and I ask for as many reviews as possible because they are quite simply encouragement for me to keep writing and get better at writing.
For those that leave reviews, I'm sorry but no responses this chapter, I just don't quite have the time lately. Hopefully next chapter is better!
Confession time, last chapter, kinda sucked, sorry. For those that are confused with the name changes, that is completely my fault, and I will go back (eventually) to fix those little problems, but that time is just not now. Hopefully by summer though, I'll have it updated. Anyways, hope I did better this chapter, and without further adieu, chapter five!
Chapter 5
It was the next day, when Calneth, Frodo and Sam were making their way through a farmers fields, when they ran into the ridiculous hobbits that had previously reminded Calneth of Fred and George. However, this run in with the two young hobbit cousins erased all similarities from her mind. Because while they were troublemakers similar to Fred and George, at least Fred and George were somewhat smart about who they pranked and what they did to cause trouble, these two however something else entirely.
They were walking through farmer Maggots fields, Calneth behind Frodo and Sam a bit behind her, when Sam had briefly lost Frodo and Calneth and became frantic.
"Miss Calneth! Mr. Frodo! Mr. Frodo!" he exclaimed, slightly panicked.
"Sam!" Frodo yelled back to him, turning back around the corner he just turwith Calneth behind him., who was slightly exasperated at the antics of the young hobbit.
"What is it Sam?" Frodo asked, worried for his close friend.
"I thought I'd lost ya," he said morosely, "And I promised Mr. Gandalf I wouldn't loose ya. He made me promise."
And like that, the small amount of annoyance she had previously felt was gone and she was overcome by the fondness she held for the hobbits. She was reminded of how Ron and Hermione had looked as lost and innocent once, how she had once looked like that. It was the regret that she never really got to feel that innocence after she had been left at the Dursely's and after her early years at Hogwwarts. Almost dying and being treated like a house-elf could do that to someone, she reflected sadly.
And then they were continuing on their path towards Bree, and that's when the ridiculous Hobbits ran into them. Quite literally in her and Sam's case. And the unfortunate hobbit that had sent her crashing to the ground got the brunt of her temper.
"I swear to the mother Yavanna! If you do not get off of me before I grab my sword, I will run you through!" Calneth exclaimed loudly to the hobbit that landed on top of her (Pippin she believed).
The hobbit got off of her so fast, she was surprised he was able to still hold his load of vegetables.
"Are those Farmer Maggot's vegetables!?" Sam suddenly exclaimed to the two young hobbits.
"Yep!"
Suddenly, an angry cry went up somewhere behind them and the tips of a pitch fork were easily seen over the heads of the corn fields they were in.
"Run!" Frodo exclaimed, having no inclination to be caught by the obviously irate farmer.
And then they were running, a disguised she-elf and four hobbits dashing away from an angry human farmer. They were quite the sight to behold for any on looking eyes.
Then they were tripping over a small ledge tumbling down closer to the road that led to the human town Bree. A tangle of limbs and small folk, Calneth wasn't quite sure how she had happened to end up at the bottom though.
"You're going to get yourselves killed one of these days!" Sam yelled at them agitatedly.
"You need to relax!" Pippin said defiantly, "It was only a bit of fun! And you dropped the load I handed to ya!"
Calneth rolled her eyes, she did not feel the need to deal with this, besides they had more important issues to deal with at the current moment. Like the little problem with Frodo-
"Get off the road!" Frodo yelled at everyone suddenly, and it then occurred to Calneth that he had been trying to get their attention for a while. And then she saw, or more accurately, sensed what had him so worried and frantic.
The Nazgul were close.
"Get down!" she hissed.
Hiding the small hobbits below a moderately sized tree root was easy, and once she was sure they were out of sight, she easily murmured the spell to activate the cloak that hid her ancestor from Death itself.
The Nazgul were easily ten times more terrifying than the dementors. Because while they would make her feel small and make her remember everything that she had seen, and hear the screams of her friends, the Nazgul made her feel cold, and lost, and then she'd feel the ghost pains of where her scars use to be. Was that how they made everyone else feel? Or was she just special with the magic in her blood and being from a different universe?
Whatever the reason for her reaction was, she was glad that they had left when they did. Too bad she didn't have any chocolate like before.
"We need to hurry," she said resolutely to Frodo and Sam, "They'll soon discover that you're no longer at the Shire Frodo, and they'll be coming at us from all sides eventually. If we don't reach the river that you mentioned by dusk, they will find us."
Frodo nodded in understanding while Sam looked slightly terrified but kept his silence.
"What were those things?" Merry asked, breaking out of the terrified stupor the Nazgul had left him in. "What do you mean their after you? What's going on Frodo?"
Calneth barely repressed a groan of irritation at his questions, and simply let Frodo deal with it as she started to calculate the possible arrival time of when they would make it to Bree and when the Nazgul would intercept them. Their odds were definitely not increasing at this delay.
"Look!" she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Frodo has an item on him that at all costs, must be brought to the elves in Rivendell. So you can either join our little," she briefly struggled for a word to describe their little group of three, "entourage, or leave quietly and try not to get caught by the farmer, that you so graciously angered earlier, or those robbed figures in the process."
And with that, the former group of three, now five, continued onto Bree.
_line break_
It was almost dusk, and according to Frodo, they were almost to the small river that they would then cross to get to the town of Bree.
"Miss Calneth, why do you always keep your hood up? It caused quite the stir amongst Bag End."
Calneth winced, she didn't want people to know of how she was a female elf and then treat her with some form of reverence. And while she had grown fond of the pointed ears, it wasn't like she was exactly use to her knew appearance.
"I prefer it up. Call it an old habit if you will, but I feel more comfortable with it up."
He pouted at the answer, obviously hoping that she would've taken the hood off, but he wasn't going to get any luck with that.
And then she heard it, the sound of hooves in the background, the heavy breathing of horses, and she sensed the fast approaching darkness that wasn't already near her.
"Run," she breathed, then louder, "Their coming. Run! RUN!"
And they were all off in a dead sprint to the river, thankfully the hobbits were still fast even with their shorter legs.
"Almost there," Frodo said between his gasps for air.
But it wouldn't be enough she'd have to hold them off some how, and while she wasn't sure if this plan would work, she had to try.
'Great, here for a few months and I'm already playing the self-sacrifice role.'
She stopped in her dead sprint when she saw that the barge was about fifteen yards away and she whirled around, snapping the elder wand out from the holster and turning to face the riders defiantly.
"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted out through the crisp air, calling forth the happier moments that she had spent with her friends and the moment Hagrid had given her the album with the pictures of her parents.
While not as strong as her usual ones, the figure of Prongs dashed out and rammed straight into the riders, briefly distracting them from their path towards her small entourage.
And with that she was sprinting to the river.
"Hurry!" Sam yelled to her, his eyes peeled to whatever was behind her, and she could give a good guess as to what it was behind her.
She urged her legs to go faster, pushing her elf body to see just how fast she could run. Seeing the only way she'd make it to them faster though was if she jumped, she did exactly that and lunged as far as she could, landing on the small raft in the river.
"How did you do that?" Frodo asked, "With the light and stalling the riders."
She smiled weakly up to him, the smile not fully reaching her eyes, "Magic my friend. Magic."
!(don't mind me... I'm just a line break)
When they finally reached the gates of Bree, the hobbits were out of breath from the running they did to make it all the way there before the riders found a different way across the river, so Calneth was left to speak with the gatekeeper.
"What business do four Halflings and a female have with Bree this late at night?" he asked gruffly.
"Our business is our own," she stated coldly, "So leave it in peace, and we ask not of yours."
He grumbled, "Calm down, just standard protocol."
He opened the gate letting them pass through and into the busy streets of the town even if it was late at night.
"Stay close to me, and don't get trampled," she said to the hobbits that were at her side, "Frodo, where's the Prancing Pony?"
He gestured to her left, "Over there, second building on the left."
Taking a deep breath, she easily pushed out a little magic around herself and the hobbits so that there would be a clear path in front of them to make their way to the bar.
Inside the small bar and inn, she looked to the Hobbits, "Don't wander off. Don't do anything stupid. And above all, do not use your real names, less you want to have to deal with idiot drunken men. Got it?"
They nodded at her words, but she wasn't worried about Sam and Frodo messing up, they understood the gravity of the situation, but Pippin and Merry were still young and could be prone to messing up somewhere along the way, especially with how they were in a bar.
Finding a table was easy enough as she sat next to Frodo, with Sam across from them and Merry and Pippin sitting across from each other. She rolled her eyes at the excitement Pippin had when Merry brought back a round of ale for everyone.
"They have pints!?" he exclaimed excitedly and took off before anyone could stop him.
She sighed, he was more like a boy than a man with his childish demeanor.
And then she spotted him, sitting alone in a corner, with his hood up like she had hers, and smoking a pipe in the shadows. She had a inkling that he had picked that corner for the effect of the shadows though, why wouldn't you want to add a little dramatic flare to what you did? That could only be the ranger, especially with how he was analyzing everyone in the room, but his eyes would always flicker back to Frodo. And she met eyes with him.
Green on blue clashed, and she nodded to him in acknowledgement. Yes, this could only be the ranger Gandalf had mentioned once. But then that begged the question, where was Gandalf? He was the whole reason why she was here after all.
"Who's the man in the corner?" Frodo asked her.
"A ranger of the North, Gandalf mentioned him once or twice before when we were traveling together. I think he goes by Strider if memory serves," she kept his presence acknowledged in the back of her mind, "Have you seen Gandalf?"
He shook his head, "No. Where could he be?"
She sighed, despite thinking that maybe the ranger in the corner may know, she really just didn't know where Gandalf was. Didn't he go see the leader of his order?
"Oh I know a Baggins's," she heard Pippin's voice ring out through the noisy bar, "He's right over there. Frodo Baggins."
She resisted the urge to bang her head on the table, he was either tipsy, or had not even heard her earlier, let alone Frodo when he gave a false name to the owner of the inn. Sadly, she was not the one to go grab Pippin from the bar, but Frodo did instead, and a sudden sense of foreboding settled in her gut.
'This will not end well,' was her one thought when everything went to hell in a hand basket.
Frodo was busy tugging back a very confused Pippin to their table when he was knocked to the ground. A small band of gold came flying out of his pocket as he fell to the ground. But when he went to grab it from the air, it slipped onto his finger, and he disappeared.
Panic and alarm swelled up inside her as she gazed at the spot where Frodo had been less than two seconds before. And then she felt the dormant dark magic swell once more. Throwing up her occulemency shields, she let her magic guide her to where Frodo was. Only to find him being dragged away by the cloaked figure from before.
Not even looking back to see if the others were following her, she sprinted up the stairs that led to the inn rooms, bounding up the steps two at a time. She caught sight of the closing door, activated her cloak and slipped into the room unseen.
"I can disappear into the shadows, all Rangers can," the man was saying, "But vanishing entirely? Not even I can do that."
"But I can," she said becoming visible once more.
He whipped around his hand on his sword noticing her presence as she stood by Frodo further in the room.
"Are you alright?" she questioned him, letting her worry for him become evident.
He nodded shakily so she turned back to the man whose name she still didn't know yet.
"Who are you?" she questioned icily and then added, "Where is Gandalf?"
He removed his hand from his sword, but did not relax, "I am Strider and Gandalf asked me to be here for when you arrived."
She narrowed her eyes, it was possible, but she needed to be sure. "Prove it." Oh how she wished that Fawkes was here with her more than ever now.
"He said to tell you that Fawkes is watching from above, and that help will come to you if the need should ever arise."
She tensed up at the mention of Fawkes from someone she had not spoken to, let alone trusted. But she took his words that were clearly from Gandalf (because really, who else could be vague and helpful all at the same time?) and saved her questions for the old wizard later on.
She eyed him carefully, "You three can come in now," she rolled her eyes, "I can hear you."
Sam and the cousins sheepishly walked into the room, one holding a pan, another holding a pillow, and another yet a candlestick.
"Sorry for eavesdropping Miss Calneth," Sam said sheepishly.
She shook her head, a small fond small on her lips. These hobbits were something else, that was for sure.
(blah blah blah blah blah line break blah blah blah blah blah)
Strider had taken first watch, saying she had obviously taken the watch the other night so she should get some sleep, but she couldn't sleep, not with how the darkness was practically seeping into her bones. Like a chilly cold beginning to settle. She hated the feeling, it was too much like a horocrux.
And then the Nazgul charged into the town, blowing down the gate, and she was suddenly glad they had left the first room and went across the way, less they all be dead now.
"What are they?" she heard the quiet voice of Merry whisper.
"The nine kings of men that were corrupted by Sauron," Strider said, "His most loyal of servants, they are known as the Nazgul."
Calneth scoffed, "Typical."
"What?" he questioned.
She shook her head, "It would be men that fall to the desire of the ring faster than most. For men desire power above all else."
Just look at Voldemort, she though bitterly.
Strider looked slightly affronted at this, but she silenced his argument with, "Isildur fell to the rings power. I'd prefer it the hands of a hobbit because hobbits don't want power, they want peace in life. And while men may desire peace, that does not mean the ring can't corrupt them. I've seen after all. Men driven mad, or already mad, thirsty for power and the right to conquer and rule others."
Stirder considered her words for a moment, and nodded in acknowledgment at the truth in them.
"I can't sleep," Pippin said mournfully.
"I have a story then," Calneth said.
The hobbits gathered together on a bed as she sat across from them, their backs to Stirder and the window as it continued to rain.
"This is a tale from my old land. And, does in fact hold some truth in it."
She took a deep breath.
"There were once three brothers, who were traveling along a lonely road at twilight…"
And done! Seriously, this chapter took forever to write, I'd write a little bit and then I'd scrap I cause it was just absolute trash and I refused to post it. Oh, and last chapter was definitely not my best and for that I apologize, along with the ridiculously long wait that I gave to everyone. How long has it been now? A couple months? *sigh* Sorry! I'm on break though, so I was able to write this chapter out. Honestly, I have a very long list of excuses, namely being sick and finals and family deciding to visit and school in general, but y'all get the gist yeah?
Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter, review and all that fun stuff.
In response to last weeks question, my favorite Doctor is ten, and my favorite companion is Donna.
Next question, (cause why the heck not?) Should let Boromir live by the end of the Fellowship? Poll on my profile!
candiesandfanfics