When Fate Strikes

Chapter 4

We have been trekking through beautiful territory for 10 days. We are now in the Eregion Hills, south of Rivendell. I’d been here several times in the past for Orc hunting trips. The countryside is littered with rocky outcrops and small mountains, with various tufts of green bush poking out of miles of brown grass. There is also a splendid view of the Misty Mountains, all snowed over. It looks absolutely wonderful, but I’d hate to be hiking in those cold conditions in these light travel clothes.

Erynion and I have been walking next to Pippin and Merry for the most part of the journey so far. They seemed quite tired and we constantly have to stop and wait for them to have a snack, or go to the bathroom etc… However they’ve made up for it with their happy faces and tireless chatter. Eryn and I have heard all about the Shire and the many interesting things they got up to there. At the moment they’re recounting a story about a pumpkin, rat and a very cranky old woman.

“You see,” said Merry, “We had been asked by old Mrs Sackville-Baggins to fetch a pumpkin off Farmer Maggot, so being good lads as we are we ran off to Farmer Maggot’s farm.”

“Except we aren’t good lads sometimes,” corrected Pippin, “and we don’t really like Mrs Sackville-Baggins. At all. In fact we rather wish that she and her annoying little son will disappear completely off the face of the planet.”

“Yes, thankyou Pip” said Merry, looking annoyed at being interrupted, “Anyway so we collected the pumpkin off Farmer Maggot and ran off before he noticed we had pocketed some tomatoes from his farm on the way in.”

“But we decided to play a little bit of a prank on Mrs Sackville-Baggins.”

“Pippin!” Merry exploded, “I’m telling the story! Not you!”

“Sorry,”

“Right,” Merry looked a little happier now, “So halfway back to her Hobbit hole we got carving knives and the largest spoons we could find and carved the entire inside of the pumpkin out! Then we found the fattest, most grotesque rat in the whole of The Shire and popped it inside, put the lid on top and delivered the pumpkin to Mrs Sackville-Baggins before running off and waiting for her screams!” Merry and Pippin seemed to find this hilarious and burst out in laughter, leaving Eryn and I walking with smiles on our faces, wondering how these two seemed to get away with almost anything.

“I hope we stop soon,” said Eryn, observing the growling stomachs of the entire Fellowship, “I don’t know how much farther we can go on an empty stomach.” I nodded. We had all been starving and hoping for a proper break for hours now.

The plan, as Gandalf said, is to keep our course west of the Misty Mountains for forty days. Hopefully, by then, the Gap of Rohan will still be safe to travel and we will turn east to Mordor. However we won’t get anywhere near Mordor if we don’t stop soon. Aragorn runs to the front of the group, obviously to talk to Gandalf. A few words were said and then Gandalf nodded, leading us to a large crop of rocks.

“We will rest here for a meal and then continue after a small rest.” He announced. Everyone sighed in relief and walked over to the rocks. I sat down on one and took off my medicine bag. Sam had offered to put it on Bill, the pony that was accompanying us, but I politely refused as I want to have everything on hand if something unfortunate should happen.