Chapter 5

I thought my brain was exploding; what in the world? How could I get into a book?

I reviewed everything that happened yesterday afternoon when I was still in New York. For the first time, I thought I might be in love with my old Sunshine Middle School.

"Aurora!"

Suddenly, I realized that Cynelith was yelling my name. She looked really worried. "I thought you were going to faint!" she yelled. "You looked so pale and scared."

"I'm not scared," I said. "I'm just so surprised and now I'm a little bit happy."

That was true because I really love the book The Lord of the Rings. I was reminded that when I was little, my biggest dream was to go into the world of The Lord of the Rings.

We kept on riding. Cynelith told me many things about her and her country. They were so cool. But at the same time, I was still wondering how I got here.

"Ouch!"

Suddenly, my left shoulder became really hurt, like fire burning on it. Cynelith helped me look at it. According to her description, there was a mark on my left shoulder. I knew the mark - that was my birthmark. But it had never hurt so much before. And from her description, my mark looked a little bit golden and looked like it was going to pop out.

"Maybe this is not a normal birthmark," she said. "You only got hurt in this place. Maybe your birthmark has something to do with here. There is a connection between you and this place."

How crazy! I thought my brain was really going to explode.

"Where are we going?" I suddenly asked.

"Depends on our captain's orders," said Cynelith. "This team's job is to look out of the bank of Rohan's river and stop the enemies who want to go past it."

What kind of connections could I have with this place?

The sky became dim. All of us were tired. Thank God that Théodred stopped at last. "We are having a rest here tonight," he said.

But before Cynelith and I jumped off of our horse, many arrows flew by and struck on the ground. "Orcs!" Théodred cried. "Get on your horse and be ready to fight!"

However, it was too late. Many orcs rushed to us like crazy. They shot their arrows, thrust their spears, and swung their swords. I was shocked. Fear was grabbing me, and I thought I was going to die.

Just then, Cynelith kicked the horse with the side of her foot, using all her strength. The horse neighed and ran madly. I hugged Cynelith's waist tightly to not be thrown off the horse. Suddenly, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made my blood run cold.

"Cynelith!" I yelled as loud as I could. "Look, Théodred!"

We looked back and saw Théodred lying on the ground. His chest was all red. There was a thick spear stuck in there. Cynelith screamed and turned the horse around as fast as she could. We rushed to his side.

This was the first time I had seen Cynelith cry. My first thought was that she was brave and happy and had never been sad. But in front of that half-dead respected captain, my tears dropped down like a necklace without a string, too.

"Take her…to that Elven lady," said Théodred faintly. "She will tell her…everything to do. As fast as you can. You are…always a good rider, Cynee…"

"Then what about you?" cried Cynelith. "How can I leave you here alone?"

"I'm not alone," he said. "She's our last hope…"

Someone grabbed my hand and pulled me up. We got on the horse and left. All the way on the road, we were crying for him.