Travelers

Chapter 45 - The War Between Friends

Jacob stepped out of the hut and immediately noticed the hoof tracks in the dust. Mal must have ridden by on her horse. He thought about everything they had learned talking to Ryan's brother. Before they left, he had morphed back into his orc form. Shak the Wise, he had called himself. Jacob tried to keep his mind on following the path that the tracks laid out before his feet, rather than the disturbing thought of forgetting everything he had done so far and returning to his old boring life. Then again, he would have rather thought of that than let his mind drift to his traveling companion. She had made it clear she only wanted to be friends, and he intended to respect that.

Jacob wasn't a great tracker, so it wasn't long before he lost the signs that led him where Mal had gone, but he had gotten one or two lessons from Strider, so it got him that far. He knew the general idea of where she was heading either way. She was headed for the black gate. The path they were on lead straight to the gate itself from the southern mountain wall. He knew Cat and himself would need to camp out before they reached the gate, but he didn't want to do so until they reached the Ash mountains at least. The jagged peaks would provide some cover from prying eyes, not to mention that they could easily retreat into the mountains, though few had ever crossed into Mordor through the mountains due to their immensely steep slopes and their harsh, unforgiving conditions.

They reached the point where the path met with the mountains and curved to run parallel to them both to the North and South. They walked to the base of the mountains and set their camp up.

"Hey, want help with that?" Jacob asked as Cat struggled with the fire.

"Oh, don't be so chivalrous. You know I know how to do this better than you do anyhow. Not to mention that this came with Mal's talent, so we're both out of practice."

"You know, you're right. I was trying to be chivalrous. It comes with being a knight, like I would consider myself," He said defensively.

"You're not the only one you know," Cat mumbled. She was right about that, he had to concede. He was preaching to the choir about being a knight, because she actually was a knight of Gondor. In all their adventures, he had never actually been a knight.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I guess I'm just on edge," Jacob admitted after a few moments of silence between the two of them. They sat for just a few more minutes and talked about simple, meaningless stuff. He cracked a joke and she scowled at him. He had thought it was funny, but he definitely had a different sense of humor than most people. Maybe than most girls, he didn't know. Then again, Cat was not most girls.

He shooed the thought from his head especially while she was talking to him. If he let his mind drift to the many things about her that he appreciated then he wouldn't have been able to speak clearly. He quickly ended the conversation and mentally berated himself for being stupid. He turned to his bed roll and tucked himself into it. It was an odd change from the Redwins' house or his bunk on the Hero's Blade.

He woke to the dead fire and a chilling wind that seemed to slice right through his bed roll. He turned over to look at Cat, and his tired mind allowed him to think about only her for a minute, then he remembered the previous night and quickly shook his head to fling the thoughts from his brain. He stood and shook her lightly. She startled for a second thanks to his cold hands. How they had chilled so fast, he had no clue.

"Hey, time to get up, Cat," he said in a gentle voice. She stretched and moved out of her own bed roll. The two of them quickly packed their things back onto the small packs on their backs and set off. Jacob munched one of rations he had as they walked, and he hoped they would be able to reach the black gate by the end of the day. To his surprise, the gates were in sight only shortly after midday. He saw that nobody had repaired them from Vince's display of his immense power that no doubt saved thousands of men their lives in that battle. They were still swung wide and bent, despite being several arm's length thick. They rested behind one of the doors, letting it guard them from unfriendly eyes. They would be done soon. They would out of Middle-Earth.