Eliza's Adventure (Aragorn Love Story)

- 4 -

We continued journeying toward Rivendell and I enjoyed the company of the hobbits. Sam was brave and kind, always looking to make sure Frodo and the others were okay. Merry and Pippin were loud and full of laughter and stories. Frodo was intelligent and responsible. He was the voice of reason, the courageous leader who carried the biggest burden, which Strider begrudgingly told me about after I nagged at him for several hours.

Speaking of Strider, I gazed at the man walking ahead of us. He is quiet but from the few conversations we have had I've noticed that he is caring and kind and intelligent. He is constantly looking back at the hobbits and myself to make sure everyone is fine. Also, he is even more well trained in the wild than I am.

I jogged to catch up with the man and asked, "How do you know how to survive in the wild so well?"

He huffs a small laugh and says, "I'm a ranger, I've been living in the wild for quite some time now."

Curious, I asked, "Where are you from?"

Strider seemed to tense up a little at the question. "Where I am from has had little impact on my life. I was raised in Rivendell and from there I became a ranger."

"Kinda cryptic but I'll accept your answer for now." I said with a small smile.

Strider looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face. "Now where is it you hail from m'lady? The way you speak tells me you're not from around here."

I hesitated. I figured it wasn't best to tell a man I barely know that I'm not from this world. I settled on saying, "I've spent a good amount of time in the Woodland Realm."

Strider laughed a little again before mocking me, "Kinda cryptic."

I rolled my eyes at him with a small smile and turned to see how the hobbits were doing. They were all talking among themselves when we reached the peak of a small hill and the chattering stopped. In front of us loomed the tower of Amon Sul which I have only seen from afar a couple of times.

"We will rest here for the night." Strider stated and we all climbed the tower.

I could feel my eyelids beginning to droop as Strider passed out four swords to the hobbits. I hadn't slept for days but I felt like I had to protect them so I tried to jerk myself awake.

Noticing my feeble attempts, Strider crouched beside me on the ground and nudged my shoulder. "I'm going to go have a look around. Take some rest. You will be safe." I opened my mouth to protest as I glanced at the hobbits but he interrupted my thoughts. "They will be fine for the short time I'm gone. You need to keep up your strength." I had barely nodded before he was out of sight and I was asleep.

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Mmmm, something smells good and I'm so nice and warm all the sudden. There must be a fire going... hang on... a fire...A FIRE?!

I jerked myself out of sleep and saw Sam, Pippin, and Merry cooking something over a roaring fire, Frodo curled up asleep a couple feet away.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I whispered loudly. "You're going to give away our location! Put it out!"

The hobbits quickly put it out but it was too late. A terrible screech filled the air and we all fell to our knees holding our ears, the noise startling Frodo awake.

"Nazgul!" I yelled. "Run to the top!" I grabbed my weapons and ran after them, praying Strider was close by.

I gathered the hobbits as close to me as possible and waited, with my sword in front of me, for something to appear. Suddenly, the nine Ringwraiths were all around us, closing in. With a yell, I started swinging but my sword barely did any damage to the black riders. I continued to fight or at least distract them from the hobbits. However, I was overrun pretty quickly. I turned just as one plunged their blade into Frodo's shoulder. I screamed and tried to run over to him but another one swiped at me and I collided with the side of the tower. I slumped to the ground trying to fight against the darkness surrounding my vision as my ears rang. I could see out of my blurry vision the shape of Strider fighting away the Nazgul with fire.

Finally, I was able to push myself up and I crawled over to Frodo who was fading fast. Strider chased away the last Nazgul and ran to us. "He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade. This is beyond my skill to heal. He needs elven medicine." He hoisted Frodo into his arms and turned to me. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Worry about Frodo." was all I said as I started making my way down the tower, banking on pure adrenaline to push away the throbbing in my head and the dizziness that threatened to take over.

We ran as fast as we could until we made it to a small clearing. We were all exhausted and if we wanted to make it to Rivendell alive, as much as I hated to admit it, we needed to take a break.

"We're six days from Rivendell! He'll never make it!" Sam shouted. I slouched against a rock, pain ripping through my head. For the moment I was glad everyone's focus was on Frodo. Everything turned blurry as I saw Sam and Strider run off, probably in search of herbs.

Suddenly, a bright light entered the clearing. I heard words being spoken in elvish and my vision cleared enough for me to see Arwen kneeling over Frodo. Arwen has been a good friend from when I first arrived in Middle Earth. I gave a small smile as I saw her gallop away on her horse with Frodo, convinced they would be okay.

Then, Strider entered my vision, crouching in front of me. "Okay, now let's take care of you." He said softly. "Can you walk?" I nodded and stood up when dizziness took over and I crumpled. "Okay Eliza, I gotta move you to the fire alright?" I felt myself being carried and sat up against another rock but my body felt almost numb.

"I saw you collide with the tower. You need to stop hitting your head or you're going to get a concussion." Strider gently put a hand under my chin and titled my head from side to side staring into my eyes. "Scratch that. I think you already have one," he frowned. "We got to get you to Rivendell quick too. You need rest and to be away from anything that could cause more injuries to your head. But tonight, we rest here."

I watched as Strider took care of rolling out my bed and carefully adjusting me so I could lay down. "Thank you Strider." I whispered and I was asleep before I could hear his response.