Moving On

Chapter 6

The trek up the mountain was dangerous. The rolling hills had become steep ledges and the temperature continued to plummet lower and lower. Samantha walked with her cloak wrapped tightly around her as they entered the snowy terrain. It didn't seem that bad at first, but when the snow was several inches deep and became harder and harder to walk through, her opinion began to change.

Samantha looked at her companions. The hobbits were also clinging to their cloaks as they marched through the snow. Their light weight bodies allowed for minimal sink-age into the ever-deepening snow. Gandalf, Aragorn and Boromir seemed to tolerate the conditions well, their endurance and experience making the trek less of a challenge for them. Gimli's body sunk into the snow, nearly covering up to his waist at times. The dwarf did not attempt to lift his legs above the snow, instead he only pushed through, like a snowplow. Legolas seemed to know what he was doing. Graceful steps and movement made his maneuvering through the snow look easy. He even stood on top of it at times. Samantha herself grew tired of lifting her feet to take another step, so she took after Gimli and began plowing through. It was hard, but tolerable.

Eventually the drifts leveled out and they were able to walk sum-what normally. The vast mountains began to seem like that of the Sahara desert's dunes, only with snow instead of sand.

Aragorn and Gandalf looked at their companions. The hobbits were growing tired, their faces flushed red from the cold, and everyone could hear the chattering of Samantha's teeth through the wind. The sun was only an hour from setting and so Gandalf called for camp. A protruding rock created a decent enough spot to set up camp. Boromir took off a pack from Bill the pony that was full of firewood and began constructing a fire with Aragorn. The hobbits all moved to gather the food supplies. They had adapted well to only eating one or two meals a day.

Samantha walked over to Gandalf, "How long do you think we'll be in the mountains?"

Gandalf looked at the girl with a little concern. She held her cloak tight around her as if her life depended on it. It was obvious she wasn't handling the cold as well as the others. "Perhaps a week or so more." He said simply. "Are you weak to the cold?"

"I've never handled it very well." She laughed and wiped her nose, feeling it drip.

Gandalf saw the fire started to life and he told her firmly to rest next to it. She could only nod as she found a good spot and sat down. Pippin watched her for a moment, "Are you okay, Samantha?" he asked her as she proceeded to take off her boots and socks.

Thankful that she didn't have frost bite she grinned, "Yeah, just drying out my socks." She took out another pair she had in her bag and placed the new pair on and allowed the used ones to dry by the fire. Letting the heat soak into her cold body, she looked at the rest of the hobbits, "How are you guys holding up?"

"Well, it's bloody cold for sure!" Pippin stated.

"I don't think I've ever been so cold before for so long." Merry chimed in.

"It's not as cold as dipping in the river in the fall!" Sam said with a quick laugh.

This caused Frodo and all the other hobbits to burst with laughter as the four of them reminisced about the times as children to go swimming when their mothers told them not to.

Samantha smiled at the stories but pulled her cloak closer to herself. She had always been weak to the cold. While zoning out she didn't notice Boromir sit next to her until he had already draped his own cloak around them both. "You seem cold, are you alright?"

She looked at him with a surprised expression. If her cheeks had not already been red from the cold it would have been really obvious that she was blushing. "Uh, yeah, other than cold I'm fine." She wasn't used to such gestures and told herself she was thinking too much into it. 'No need to blush. He's just being nice and sharing body heat. It's for survival,' she told herself.