EPIC: A Demigod's Tale by Frodo Baggins

Chapter 9

"Aw man, my tomato burst!" 

Luke struggled to return to reality from the midst of his deep sleep. What's with tomatoes? he wondered, trying to remember where he was and what he had been doing. 

"Can I have some bacon?" asked Pippin. 

"Okay. Want a tomato, Sam?" asked Merri. 

Luke sat bolt upright, realizing that Sam, Pippin, and Merri were gathered around a small fire. They were cooking bacon and tomatoes in a small frying pan. Frodo was a sleeping lump at the fringe of the cave, still out cold and oblivious to all. 

"What are you doing?" Luke shouted in a panic.

"We saved some for you and Mr. Frodo," Sam said, holding out a plate with a pile of greasy bacon.

Luke stood up and hurried to stamp out the fire with his foot. "Put it out, you fools! Put it out!" he yelled. Luckily, the fire was a very small one, and it was quickly snuffed out. The warm orange glow disappeared from the cave, leaving them all suspended in the cold blue light of the night. 

"Well, that's nice! Ashes on my tomatoes!" Pippin complained. 

"What in the blazes were you guys doing?" Luke demanded. 

"Having a midnight snack," Merri explained. "Turns out that keeping night watch is even more boring than it sounds."

"I already told you this job isn't for fun!" Luke snapped. "Bad guys are looking for us. We're trying to avoid detection, not send out a flare to tell the enemy where we are!"

"What? Like they could see a tiny campfire from space. That's impossible!" Merri scoffed.

At that instant, a brilliant light shone over the small group. Luke looked upwards to see a spaceship descending from the sky. He felt a presence so strong that he knew that whoever it was must be a powerful and malevolent enemy. He shivered, feeling the cold anger of that presence...and yet, oddly, something about it felt almost...familiar. 

"Man, c'mon! That's just not right!" Merri complained. 

"We should get to the top!" Luke barked. "Sam, wake up Frodo!"

"Oh no!" yelled Pippin in alarm.

Luke tensely looked over his shoulder back at Pippin. "What's wrong, Pip?" 

"There's ashes on my bacon too!"

"Just shut up about your stupid night snack!" Luke yelled, feeling so angry that it felt like he was seeing red. Was anyone taking this seriously except for him?

Sam woke Frodo, who was completely disoriented and didn't seem to know what was going on. The group of five bounded up the stairs, leaving their supplies behind. They emerged from the stairwell to see a black ship land not too far away from the mountain. Its ramp lowered and a single figure emerged. In the moonlight, the figure was wearing armor and a helmet, and a cape flowed behind him as he began his ascent up the mountain. 

"Oh my gosh," Pippin said, clearly starting to hyperventilate. "We're all going to die!"

"We're not going to die," Luke said in an attempt to be reassuring. "We just need to work together."

Despite his words, Luke felt like his mind was blanking out. He could feel the menace and hatred within their approaching enemy, but he wasn't sure how. He sometimes sensed things that no one else could, and after a while he had realized that these feelings were unique to him. He had stopped mentioning it to anyone else, because he figured it was just a power that he had inherited from his mother Hecate. Sometimes he could sense the presence of another being, and some felt stronger than others. This particular being was sending out large ripples, and the force of it was almost overwhelming to Luke. He felt afraid of facing someone who was such a superior opponent, but he readied his magic, preparing to start by shielding his friends from any oncoming attack from the enemy. He had to protect his comrades and the Ring, no matter what.