I awoke again to the sun in my eyes. "You’re finally awake!" Merry exclaimed, "Now, if only we could get your friend to wake up…" He looked over at Katy still, deep asleep, nearby.
I walked over to her, and kicked her lightly, "Katy, it’s time to get up!" I announced. She barely even stirred. So, I tried a different approach, "Katy, quick, someone’s trying to steal your PS2!" I exclaimed.
She bolted upright, "What? Where?" She demanded as she looked around, confused.
"Relax," I encouraged her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Your Playstation is safe at home… Actually that’s where I had hoped to find myself wake up at." We quickly finished breakfast, Aragorn and the hobbits had already eaten but had kindly saved some for us.
"Are you off to Bree then, ladies?" Aragorn asked us.
"We were only planning on spending the night there." I lied, "We are actually heading to Rivendell to meet with lord Elrond. Could you direct us there?"
"We ourselves are headed that way," Aragorn told me a bit reluctantly, "you are welcome to accompany us that far." As for me and Katy, we eagerly accepted his offer.
"It will be dangerous." He warned, a last attempt to ward us off.
"That’s ok," I said, "I’m sure we’ll be much safer with you and your cool sword to protect us… Strider." I had to consciously remind myself to call him by the name he had given.
We started off in silence; and we walked… And walked… And then we walked some more. I got bored, and decided to mess with Aragorn a little, not heeding my own advice to Katy the night before, "We’re heading to Weathertop, aren’t we?" I asked.
" Yes, we—wait a minute, how did you know we were heading there? I never told you that," Aragorn said, getting suspicious as any good Ranger would.
"Weathertop is a very nice place this time of year." I replied coolly, even though I’d obviously never been there before, "And besides, we just came from Midgewater implying you don’t want to be seen, it’s the obvious next step."
Aragorn silently mused over this for a while, he had thought their path to be somewhat less obvious. So we walked on in silence once again.
"Oh look!" I exclaimed to Katy some time later, "A coconut! I wonder if a swallow could have carried it here?" I stooped down to pick up a large rock.
Katy, playing into my little game as she was also bored, replied: "It depends, I don’t think a European swallow could carry a coconut of that size, and besides, swallows don’t migrate…"
"Yes, I realize that, but maybe the swallows are larger here, more like the African swallow. They could carry it." We stopped upon seeing the odd looks coming from the hobbits, and Aragorn just looked like he was trying very hard to ignore us.
"That’s a rock." Pippin informed us.
"So it is!" I exclaimed, pretending I hadn’t noticed, "What do you think could’ve carried a rock all the way out here, Katy?" I asked, marveling over this new discovery.
"Gee, I don’t know, rocks are much heavier than coconuts…" We were both very bored from walking, so we were proportionally weird. We aren’t usually this weird… Really we aren’t! Don’t look at me that way Katy!
That conversation died out a short time later and less than fifteen minutes of silence after that I was once again immensely bored. "She didn’t get married," I blurted out quite randomly.
"Yes she did." She retorted, immediately picking up on our age old argument about whether Yuna and Seymour really did get married in Final Fantasy X or not.
"No, she didn’t" I said.
"Yes, she did." Katy argued.
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did too." Pippin piped in, he was feeling left out.
"Pip, don’t get involved," Merry told him, "Don’t encourage them."
"Sorry." Pippin mumbled.
"Will all of you kindly be quiet?" Aragorn asked barely managing to keep from snapping, "We are trying to go with stealth as you noted yourself earlier, lady Rachel, and even the birds may be spies."
We were quiet after that, neither me or Katy wanting to be on the wrong end of Bob. Aragorn was thankful for the quiet and continued to lead us on. About ten to twenty minutes later, he looked back at us—I think he thought we might have fallen behind since we were being so quiet. And few minutes after that he looked back again. Then again, more nervously this time. The hobbits, afraid Aragorn thought someone was following us, started looking behind us as well.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Aragorn finally asked.
"Like what?" I asked from behind a wide grin. He tried once again to ignore it, but soon he was looking at us nervously again.
"Why do you keep on looking at me like that?" He demanded again.
"Strider!" I snapped, "quiet, we’re trying to go with stealth! Even the birds may be spies, you know!" Then to Katy I said in a hushed voice: "That’s a really nice sword isn’t it?"
"Sure is!" she agreed and we both continued to smile at Bob.