The Fellowship's Silvertongue: Part 3

We Were Just Here.

"I think I'm happy about returning to Gondor," I said. 

Gandalf and Aragorn had left before us to Minas Tirith, their presence was needed sooner than ours. I was riding with Legolas, Gimli, and the hobbits. 

"Why is that? I didn't have the best time in Minas Tirith." Said Pippin.

"Well, a lot of our friends are there, there won't be a threat of war. Also, protein." I replied.

"Protein?" Legolas repeated. 

"There's meat in Gondor. In Rivendell, there is only greens and fruit." I said. "I for one, am big on meat."

"Well then, I'm not the only one," Gimli commented.

I laughed, then took notice of the low sun in the west. "We should move faster. The coronation is in two days."

"I agree. There is no need to take it easy when there is no evil against us." Legolas nodded.

"Think you guys can handle it?" I turned back to the four hobbits on little ponies.

Elrond provided us with horses for the journey, I was put on a horse, what many call a dapple grey. His name was Dyauh, he was a great horse, but he was no Sheika. 

The hobbits nodded and gave their ponies a kick. I did as well, but, only into a canter. Although I had ridden with the Rohirrim at the Pelennor, while a lot of them were galloping, I was at a fast canter. Luckily, Dyauh was fast.

"I should teach you how to gallop." Legolas turned his head to me.

"Is it scary?" I asked.

"Yes," Legolas answered. My head jerked towards him. He smiled. "That was a joke. It is quite fun actually."

"Alright." I nodded.

~•~•~•~

When the sky had darkened, we stopped for the night on the border between Gondor and Rohan. Sam and Frodo began collecting sticks for a fire, I laid out mats for us to sit and sleep on, Legolas shot down two birds, and Merry and Pippin collected mushrooms and almost every plant that looked edible to them. Gimli... Well, he smoked a pipe.
Sam started the fire and put a pot of water over it. Merry and Pip were about to throw all of the plants they had found into the pot when I stopped them.

"Hold on. We should check if they're edible before we get sick." I said. "Here, lay them out on my mat and we'll take a look."
The two dumped the pile in front of me. I began with the mushrooms because those are most likely to be poisonous. I turned one mushroom upside down and took off the stem, inside, were black spots. 

"Ah, see? This is poisonous. One bite and in the morning you'll be in a lot of pain." I showed Merry and Pippin.

"That looks terrible," Pip commented.

"Exactly." I threw the mushroom aside and moved on to the second one.

By the looks of it, I could tell it was a morel. Mr. Wes, my old mentor, would often take me mushroom hunting, morels were his favorite.

"Now this one is edible. Pick out all the ones that look like this and set them beside the pile." I held up the morel. Merry picked them out and set them to the side. 

I picked through all the mushrooms, a lot of them were inedible and moved onto the plants. I picked up a long plant that had a little bulb on the bottom. A chive.

"Is it edible? Cause, I just started picking stuff, I pulled on it, and it came right up like an onion." Said Pippin. 

"Yep, it's edible. It's a chive, and it tastes exactly like an onion." I answered.