The next morning was a foggy one, the air being so thick with moisture I could barely see five meters ahead of me, usually less. We had to wait out most of the morning with the boats still on the bank until the fog lifted enough for us to easily see our surroundings.
Once the fog had mostly lifted Aragorn and Legolas set out. They left to find the portage trail and expected us to wait there with the boats. It was a long, boring wait and the rest of the Fellowship were unwilling to try any of our ideas.
"Hey, Katy…" I mumbled, sitting sprawled out on the bank of the River looking at nothing in particular.
"Yeah, Rachel?" Katy shortly replied in the same manner.
"I’m bored." I mumbled again, not willing to move as it may cause me to be less bored.
"Me too." Katy agreed, "Want to do something?"
I thought for a while then sat up. Katy turned slightly to watch me. As she caught the look on my face her own slowly took on the shape of a mischievous smile as well, sure that I had thought up something fun.
"Hey, guys, let’s go!" I said all of a sudden, just loud enough for the various members of the Fellowship gathered around to hear.
Pippin looked at me confused, "Go?" He asked, "Go where?"
I shrugged, "I don’t know, up River a little maybe."
"Why?" Sam asked.
"Ah… No reason, Sam. Just to… Have a look about, it was too dark to really catch the scenery last night." I said quickly, going over to my boat and encouraging Katy to do the same.
"Hold on, you want to take the boats upstream?" Boromir asked.
"Just for a little while!" I said in my own defense.
"Yeah, Aragorn and Legolas will never know we were gone." Katy agreed.
"What are you two up to?" Frodo asked.
"Up to?" I asked, "Us? Nothing!" I said, "Right, Katy."
"Uh, right! We aren’t up to anything! We want to see… Scenery!" Katy agreed a little too enthusiastically.
"Don’t listen to them Mister Frodo!" Sam said, "I’ll wager they’re up to no good or my name ain’t Samwise Gamgee!"
"Calm down, Sam." Frodo laughed.
"But what are the two of you up to?" Merry pressed.
"Nothing!" I insisted.
"Hrmph." Gimli snorted, "You are, everyone here can see it so you might as well just ‘fess up."
Katy and I exchanged glances. "It’s not like we’ll be very far away, they’d be able to find us pretty quickly." I said hastily.
"’They’d be able to find us’?" Boromir asked, quoting my own words, "I thought you said you only wanted to go for a little while."
I sighed, "You guys never let us have any fun." I complained, sitting dejectedly on the bank once again.
The two trackers did eventually return and we hadn’t even been able to pull any pranks on them. It was rather disappointing.
Aragorn and Legolas told us there was a portage trail not far from here, the hardest part would be getting all our boats up there, but after that it should be relatively easy. So the two men, being the strong, handy guys they are, carried all of our boats up the bank and to the trail while the rest of us carried the supplies.
"So, now what?" Katy asked once all the boats had been carried to the first destination.
"Now we carry them past the rapids." Aragorn told her, "It should be easy enough for everyone to carry their own boat."
Katy and I exchanged a look before both grabbing our boat and pretended to pull upwards on it, once we had it lifted about half a foot off of the ground we let it drop and feigned exhaustion, "It’s too heavy." I panted.
"Yeah, we can’t do it." Katy said between labored breaths as well.
"Oh well, guess you guys will just have to carry ours." I said.
Aragorn raised an eyebrow at our antics, "Merry and Pippin seem to have no trouble lifting their boat." He told us. We looked over to where they had indeed already picked up their boat with ease, "Are you telling me those two little hobbits can outdo you?" He asked.
We didn’t reply. "I guess you were right, Aragorn," Boromir said, feigned distress in his voice, "this really is no place for maidens."
Katy and I looked at each other as Aragorn and Boromir continued their ploy, "I think we could give it one more try." I suggested to Katy.
Katy nodded, "Yes, we could try once more." She agreed.
Together we lifted our boat again, "That’s funny, it seems a lot lighter this time." I noted.
"Yes," Katy agreed, "maybe some water dripped out while it was sitting there."
"That must be it." Aragorn agreed, sharing a smirk with Boromir.
"Okay, Everyone, follow us." Legolas said as he and Gimli started down the trail with their boat first.
Return to contents here