Aunt Taylor's Library

Chapter 21 (Ellie)

(Ellie)

I thought it was totally amazing when Marie killed those orcs. I could even get through her Dutch rant. Then we started walking, in peace in quiet.

For about thirty seconds.

Then, the whining started.

"Ellieeeee, there's blood on my knife and clothes," Marie said, holding up her knife. I could see the blade glinted in the moonlight as it filtered through the trees, and it was covered in disgusting, black Orc blood. I instinctively backed away from it.

"Ew."

I couldn't see her face, but I knew she was pouting. "Fix it."

"I can't! We can clean it when we get to Bree."

After a few minutes, she started again. "Ellieeeee, when will we get to Bree? I need new clothes!"

"Let me guess, Orc blood?" Tyheim said sarcastically.

I could almost feel the glare.

"No," Marie muttered, her voice dripping with more sarcasm than Harry Potter in the Goblet of Fire, "it's grape juice. What do you think?"

"Get your butts off the sass train," I snapped, turning to glare at both of them. "This is serious! We are lost in the middle of a creepy forest full of orcs and there is a high likelihood we will die. Stop arguing!"

That shut them up for maybe two minutes, then Marie started whining once again. "Ellieeeee, my knife is sticky now."

And on it went. We plodded on for hours it seemed like, with Marie's constant whining and Tyheim's constant grumbling. Finally, Tyheim had had enough.

"Ellie, make her stop!"

I didn't answer. Id tried telling them both to shut up multiple times, and it hadn't seemed to work, so I had given up and tried to tune them out. Apparently, that hadn't worked either.

"Did you bring any duct tape?" Tyheim asked suddenly.

I stared at him. "Yeah, I brought duct tape, along with a convertible and a good Twilight book. Oh wait, that doesn't exist here. Not that a good Twilight book exists anywhere..."

Tyheim rolled his eyes. "Don't have to get so sassy, Ms. 'Get-your-butts-off-the-sass-train'," he said, mimicking me poorly. Marie seemed to think it was hilarious, though.

I rolled my eyes, annoyed, and stomped off, letting them run to catch up.

Eventually, we made it to Bree. As we were walking up to the main gate, I heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance. That put me in full panic mode. I banged on the small door in the gate, and a man opened it, staring sleepily out at us.

"Who's there?"

"You have to let us in, we're traveling with some hobbits but got separated." I hoped my tone was steady enough to conceal my panic. I felt Marie tense next to me as she heard the approaching horses as well.

The man took an insanely long amount of time considering that. "Ah, yes, well, I did let four hobbits in earlier..."

"We were with them!" I said quickly. "Could you let us in?"

"I suppose so..." He slowly opened the door for us, and we ran through. I didn't even stop to thank him before dashing down the street, looking for the Prancing Pony Inn.

Marie spotted it first, and dragged us inside. We ran right into a tall man. And I mean ran into him. He didn't fall, but we all fell backwards.

I looked up into the surprised face of Aragorn. He frowned at us, then quickly held out a hand to both me and Marie and pulled us to our feet. Tyheim picked himself up, dusting off his clothes as he did.

"So, you must be the three children Gandalf mentioned," he murmured.

I nodded quickly. "Frodo, and the others, did they make it safely?" Of course, in the book, they did, but if our arrival here changed the story...

"They're safe. Come with me." He started to lead us up the stairs, then noticed Marie's pitiful state. "What happened?"

"Oh, you know, killed an Orc..." Marie fumbled.

"Killed three, actually," Tyheim said proudly.

"Well, I'm sure Butterbur can find you some clothes..."

The fat man waddled out just then, stifling a yawn. One look at Marie and he scurried away, returning a few minutes later with clean clothes. Marie took them gratefully, then Aragorn led us upstairs to where the hobbits were sitting, discussing the day.

Frodo got up to meet us as we walked in, smiling in relief. "We were quite worried!" he exclaimed.

"What happened to you?" Pippin asked, indicating my sister.

Marie blushed, then ran off to change while Tyheim and I took turns explaining what happened.

Eventually, we all settled down on cots on the floor. Marie and Tyheim fell asleep almost instantly, but I couldn't, for some reason. Ever since we'd arrived, I'd been wracking my brain for a way to fix the story. Of course, the problem was obvious: no ring. The solution seemed simple, just get to Rivendell, but that wouldn't explain why the ringwraiths were chasing us. If Bilbo took it, why were they even bothering? Why bring Sam and Merry and Pippin? Why the rush? Something didn't add up, I just had to figure out what.

~~~~

So, have you figured out what's happened yet?

I know some of you have, since some of you (*cough* Girl_In_Fandoms *cough*) are basically in on the writing process, but have the rest of you realized what's up?

Sorry if I've made it glaringly obvious.

Vote and comment!

~Ellie