The Tale of Adulas
by Dinledhwen
Part 6
“I’m not so sure about that Gimli. Celeborn did say that he possesses a
natural ability for magic. Just because he hasn’t shown that side of
himself yet doesn’t make him any less dangerous. However, we could
throw a few obstacles in his way that might slow him down enough to
allow us to get there first,” I suggested giving them all a mysterious
smile.
Aragorn was the first to pick up on what I
was hinting at. “If your idea is to work, we must be close to the
hollow and the tree,” he said thoughtfully. “Otherwise Herudae will
have the time to make it past any obstacles we put in his path.”
“We are. So long as nothing unforeseen happens, we should reach the tree shortly before nightfall.”
“Then let us go quickly,” Aragorn said while taking a step to the west.
“But first I must find my two knives,” I said
over my right shoulder as I headed over to the place where the Uruk-hai
had grabbed me. Legolas followed and together we searched the tall
grass. Fortunately we found them undamaged, and I slipped them back
into their scabbards.
“If you don’t mind me saying this but I
believe you need some lessons on how to use the knives more
effectively,” Legolas said in a low voice as we made our way back to
the others who were waiting by the stream.
“And I will gladly accept those lessons when we have the time,” I whispered back eagerly.
So I resumed the lead once again quickly
heading upstream to the west along the grassy south bank with Legolas,
Aragorn, Gimli, and the Galadhrim following behind in single file. We
traveled in this fashion for over an hour before I stopped where the
stream made a sweeping turn to the north. Here the south bank was high,
steep, and covered with small stones which would roll out from under
foot making the climbing difficult if you didn’t approach the slope
with care. Something I was hoping Herudae and his Uruk-hai wouldn’t do
in their haste to follow us.
“This is first obstacle I had in mind,” I said to Aragorn who looked at the slope doubtful as did Legolas and the Galadhrim.
“That is no obstacle!” Gimli snorted while
starting to climb straight up. “We Dwarves can do this in our sleep,”
he said over his right shoulder. However, he had only taken a few steps
when he slid all the way back to the bottom. Again he tried but with
the same result. Finally the dwarf backed up and made a run at it. He
did manage to climb a bit higher only to slide down once again to the
bottom. He was about to try again clearly determined to make it this
time when Aragorn placed a hand on his left shoulder to stop him.
“I think Adulas has a better way of
approaching this slope,” he said smiling down at his friend who was
frowning and muttering something about a blasted slope under his
breath.
“Now don’t feel bad Gimli. I also had the
same idea at first until I discovered all you have to do is approach
the slope at an angle and take one slow step at a time making sure that
one foot is planted firmly before going on with the next,” I said.
“I’ll go first.”
So in this manner I slowly began to make my way up. When I had climbed several feet, I turned and said “See it’s not that hard.”
Then everyone else started up the slope. Just
as we were nearing the top, Gimli suddenly slipped and would have slid
backwards all the way to the bottom on his stomach taking half of the
Galadhrim with him if it hadn’t been for the quick reaction of Legolas
and Aragorn to stop him before he had gone to far. Finally after some
assistance from behind, Gimli made it up to the top along with everyone
else. Here we stopped for the moment.
“Let it not be said that Gimli, son of Glóin
will not admit when he has made a mistake. Adulas you were right. That
indeed was an obstacle.”
I smiled down at the dwarf who now wore a layer of rock dust down the whole length of his front.
“Just how many more of these obstacles are there?” Aragorn asked in an inquiring tone of voice.
“Only one more,” I simply replied.
“Hopefully not like this one,” Gimli said while trying to shake the dust out of his long beard.
“No Gimli, it isn’t.”
For the remainder of the afternoon we headed
west over the broken rocky ground and under the spreading limbs of the
oak trees. However, dark storm clouds began to gather ahead of us and
now were covering the sky with their inky blackness causing a premature
dusk to fall over the land by the time we stopped at the edge of a deep
fissure which opened up the forest to the north and south as far as the
eye could see.
“This is the second obstacle,” I said while
we looked down into the dark shadow below. Although the bottom wasn’t
visible, the faint sound of water flowing could be heard indicating
there was a much larger stream there. “There’re two ways to cross
this,” I continued. “The first is to go around to the north. That way
is the easiest but also the longest. The second involves using those
two trees over there.”
I then pointed to the south where two mighty
oak trees stood a short distance from us on either side of the fissure
with their leafy branches meeting out high over the opening in the
ground. Needless to say a very dangerous way to go especially now as a
breeze was beginning to blow rippling the leaves and moving the thinner
branches.
Everyone looked at me in amazement.
“Adulas either you are very daring to walk this path…” Aragorn said but then paused.
“Or I’m insane?” I finished for him.
“Actually I have only crossed here once and that was when I was being
chased by a mother bear with cubs and had no choice if I wanted to get
home. But this is why I feel now is the time for all of you to have a
say as to what we should do next.”
Then there came a low ominous rumble of thunder from above.
“It looks as if the weather has made that
decision for us,” Aragorn said scanning the stormy sky. “The quicker we
can get across and into the shelter of the forest the better we will be
than out in the open to the north.”
“Why not wait here for the storm to pass and then go to the north?” Gimli asked clearly hoping to avoid climbing these trees.
I then kicked myself mentally for not
remembering that while dwarves can work wonders in stone, they’re not
known for their tree climbing abilities.
“Because Herudae and his Uruk-hai will surely catch up to us by then,” Aragorn replied giving his friend a reassuring smile.
So everyone agreed that this was the way to
go although Gimli did so still somewhat reluctant with the whole idea.
Then I led them over to the base of the oak tree. By now the breeze was
blowing stronger and the rumbles of thunder more numerous.
“I’ll go first,” I said before jumping up
lightly and catching hold of the first branch above me. From there I
nimbly swung myself up onto it. A few seconds later Legolas joined me.
“Be careful Adulas,” his voice said softly in my mind.
“I will,” I replied back before I
suddenly realize he had not actually spoken to me. I could see by the
surprised look on his fair face that he had heard me the same way.
“How is this possible?” he asked just as baffled by this new discovery that we could hear each other’s thoughts as I was.
“Maybe it has something to do with what happened between us when we first met in Celeborn’s chamber,” I said thoughtfully.
“Yes that was a special experience,” Legolas said. Then he smiled at me. “I have never felt anything like that in all my long years nor have I heard of anyone else.”
“Neither have I.”
“Is there something wrong up there?” Aragorn asked from the ground his voice bringing both of us back to the task at hand.
“No everything is fine,” I quickly replied before starting to climb once again.
Due to the massive size of these oak trees it
wasn’t difficult to find branches thick enough to bear our weight. But
the distance between the branch used to stand on and the next one up
proved to be a challenge especially for Gimli. The poor dwarf had to
suffer the indignity of being pushed up from behind and hauled up from
above like a sack of potatoes by the Galadhrim and Aragorn. All the
while he protested loudly about the placement of hands on certain parts
of his body and roared “Not the beard!” when one of the Galadhrim
accidentally grabbed hold of it while pulling him up. When we finally
reached the branch high above the ground which we would use to cross
over to the other tree, I knew in the end I would have to do something
for Gimli although I had no idea what that would be to make amends for
all of this.
“Good food and drink will do for a start,” I heard Legolas say.
“Well that won’t work for I can’t cook unless it’s to heat up something in the microwave,”
I replied while looking over at the other tree. The branches between
were moving more with the breeze than those closer to the trunks.
“What is a microwave?”
“I’ll explain later. This crossing isn’t going to be easy with this breeze blowing.”
