Thanks for stickin' with it everyone! We're finally getting to more exciting stuff!
"Alright everyone, time to head out!" He whispered loud enough for all those dozing to hear, not wanting to alarm the elves. I rolled to my knees and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I folded up my blanket and grabbed my bag. I walked toward the path we'd taken to get to Rivendell. A hand fell on my arm; it was Bilbo.
"Where are you going?" He asked in worried confusion. I looked down at him with a grin; regret hiding behind my eyes.
"This part of the story has to unfold without me." I turned to him and grabbed his hands in mine, "You're going to have to be extremely brave in the things to come! I know you have the strength to do amazing things! You keep true to yourself and down you listen to the doubts of others!" I said pointedly looking in Thorin's direction. Bilbo nodded in understanding and smiled shyly. I let go of his hands and walked to the bridge we'd crossed before, "Don't worry, I'll meet you at the edge of the Misty Mountains. Goodbye!" I waved to him and the rest of the company.
I was not really looking forward to this but this was the only way things would work out. I just hoped with all my heart that the dwarves didn't think I'd betrayed them to the Goblins or something. I knew Thorin would probably be furious no matter what because the only one who would know of their trial in Goblin Town would be Bilbo, and he wouldn't be sharing the reason anytime soon.
I tried not to dwell too much on what the company would be going through in the next few hours. I concentrated my thoughts on not tripping over my own two feet. About halfway to my car I began to realize that I was alone, wandering through an unknown (to me) area. I remembered all of the dangerous things creeping around Middle Earth. I straightened my back and stopped for a moment, listening. I couldn't hear anything but I knew that didn't mean much. I started walking at a quicker pace. I could see the boulders my car was hiding behind. I was sure my imagination was running away with me but my fear was still there, irrational or not.
I jogged the last few meters to my car and clicked the unlock button on my keys. I creaked the dented door open and snuck myself in, closing the door quickly behind me. I sat in silence for a moment, exhaling sharply. Leave it to me to frighten myself over nothing.
Just as I was putting the keys in the ignition a shuffling in the bushes around five yards away had me catching my breath. I quickly fumbled with the buttons on the door until I found the 'lock door' button. A head shot out of the brush, an ugly, deformed head with discolored skin and sharp teeth. I ducked my head behind the dashboard. That was an orc. I prayed there was only one. I hoped it would go away, that it hadn't noticed Grandpa or I. It was severely unlikely that it had missed us though. We pretty much stuck out like a sore thumb. I snuck a glance at the creature. It was nastily shuffling in my direction. I ducked down again tears of fear prickling my eyes. Oh man, what was I going to do? I could NOT fend this thing off!
I kept my head down and made my breath as small as I could. Not that any of this would help, he'd obviously noticed us hiding among the rocks. I could hear him shuffling about when he'd made it to us. I heard metallic clinking and it only took me a moment to figure out he was poking at Grandpa with whatever weapon he had. I shot up without thinking, ready to yell at him. Once our eyes met though, I realized how dumb I'd been. He had made it to my side door and was peering down at me with a dripping smile. I shuddered and jumped away. He lifted his sword to the window and scratched the tip down the glass with a loud screech. He spit something in a language I couldn't understand before he pulled something up to his lips. I realized with a shock that he was probably calling all his friends with a horn signal.
"No way buddy!" I shouted as I jolted forward and slammed the driver's door into his armored body. Uhg, Grandpa must just hate me now. This car would never be the same I sobbed inwardly. The orc was crumpled on the ground I hesitantly opened the door and grabbed the sword and the horn from the creature. I jumped back in chucking the extra luggage into the passenger's seat.
I started the engine up in a hurry as sped out of my hiding place. Nothing else was around from what I could tell. Gandalf had told me which way I should go to get my car through the mountains. It followed along the river in between the mountains. Rain had begun to fall and the river was higher than I was really comfortable with. I had to go though so I drove, half of my car splashing the rivers beach. I was so grateful for four-wheel drive.
The terrain was pretty horrendous and I was almost flying out of my seat with everything in the path. As if things couldn't get worse boulders began raining down around me. I was nearly crushed as, what seemed to be, half the mountain slid into the river. I was whipping the car around multiple obstacles hoping that I wouldn't be smashed to a pancake. All of the concentration on dodging actually took away from the fear of it all. I was too preoccupied to think of anything but what was ahead of me. Small boulders were falling onto the roof of the car. No doubt denting and scratching the pain, though by this time I had to wonder why I was even worried about that stuff anymore. Grandpa already looked terrible.
The boulders finally stopped falling and I was able to drive semi-normal. My hands and arms were nearly numb from my death grip on the wheel. The river continued to rage on and I sloshed about on its edge. It was getting dark now and my speed had slowed. I hesitated to turn on my bights for fear it would attract whatever nasties that lived in these mountains. I was beginning to tire. All of this action had just about worn me out and I hadn't slept all that well in Rivendell. I just hoped that I'd be able to catch whatever signal Gandalf was planning. I figured I still had quite a drive ahead of me before I reached the end of the mountains so I continued sleepily up the river.
I decided to pull out my little iPod Nano and plug it in, hoping to keep myself awake and alert. I flipped through my library and cranked the volume up to "Eye of the Tiger". I figured that if I was rocking out I couldn't very well fall asleep. After a couple hours of blaring music I figured it was time to keep my eyes peeled for Gandalf's signal. I turned my music off and scaled the mountains edges with my eyes, waiting for something that obviously screamed "here we are!" I didn't notice anything and I was running out of mountain.
The faint glow of sunlight could be seen in the distance. I slowed again searching the mountainside more vigorously. A small arching flame on my left caught my eye. It was almost like the trail of a firework. I concentrated all my attention on that area. Sure enough more and more arches of fire came and the whole mountain ledge was alight with flames. I circled around the flaming ledge realizing it would be more of a chore than I thought to get to the company in this car. I noticed a small area curled along the mountain. It came up at a sharp angle and was pretty uneven but it would get me there. I had to loop around to get to it and once I was heading up I realized how bad of a path this really was. Bits of the path had fallen off and the ground was slanted dangerously downhill. I had to fight of panic as it pushed its way into my chest and my throat. I tried to keep my mind on the path ahead and not the deadly drop just a tire slide away. Finally the flames of the cliff ledge blazed in front of me and I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. I nearly skid onto the landing in my haste to be on more solid ground.
Pine trees were felled all around and flames were licking at every blade of grass in sight. A single pine tree tottered over the edge of the cliff. I could see the dwarves squirming around on the branches, trying to keep hold. Before all the dwarves, though, was a pack of orcs and wargs, all nasty looking and poised to attack. A white orc stood above them looking very much in charge. I tried to keep my panic down when I realized the situation. I wouldn't be able to get the dwarves out of this as easily as I had hoped. The white orc sat tall and grinned with wicked teeth. I shivered when I thought of what I would have to do to get the dwarves out of his clutches. I breathed in shakily.
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