Chapter 124. We climb a winding slope 

At last, Tall Hat, the Master, and the Dwarf come back down the steps. Tall Hat seems protective, at least to my eyes, treading his way slowly downwards, holding Master by the hand – or might Master imagine he is steadying the old man's descent? In any event, it feels to me as if they are together in spirit as well as in body.

The Dwarf, on the other hand, seems as slow and reluctant to descend as he was eager to spring upwards in the first place.

'But what did you see?' Youngest hobbit demands while Master is still several steps from the bottom.

'The Walls of Moria,' Master answers, sounding weary to my ears. He trudges down the last few steps, says a word of thanks to the wizard, and pulls his hand free of Tall Hat's grasp. On reaching my Samwise and me, he pats my Sam's shoulder... but his eyes are filled with sorrow for some reason, and I can smell his distress as he comes up to me and stops to stroke my jaw.

'And a large lake where the valley used to be,' Tall Hat adds, perhaps naming the reason for Master's weariness.

I'm so very sorry, dear Bill, the Master whispers to me, so low that I doubt even those closest to us – my Sam and the Youngest hobbit – can hear the words he speaks. So very sorry.

I rub my head against his arm and see him lift his hand to his eyes, quickly, as if to wipe away tears. But I must be mistaken, for his hand moves to the strap behind my ear, as if he thinks it needs adjusting. And then he pats my neck and turns away with a sniff, rolling his shoulders as if to release some tension there.

'We will have to find a way around the northern edge of the lake,' the Dwarf says, leaping down the last few steps, the smell of impatience pouring from him. 'For it has swallowed the road and bars our way to the Gate.'

'But how do we do that?' Youngest says, sounding dismayed. 'Is it a wide lake?'

'Not so wide as it is long, Pip,' Master says. I think he is trying for a reassuring tone.

'The first thing we must do is climb to the top,' the Dwarf says briskly.

My Sam eyes the stairs. 'Surely you don't mean Bill to climb this steep stair!' 

The Dwarf snorts and dismisses me with a wave of his hand. 'Of course not!' he says. 'We must go up by way of the main path and then see where it leads us.'

'Remember, Pip?' the not-very-Merry hobbit says, sounding kind and patient – a sure sign that he is tired and discouraged. 'As Gandalf said before they climbed the stair... as he remembered it, the main road, if it is not much changed, winds away to the left and loops as it climbs to the level ground on top.'

'Why should it not be much changed?' Youngest hobbit says under his breath to me, scratching my neck under my scraggly mane. 'Everything else is!'

'Come,' Tall Hat is urging, moving along towards where the main path ought to be (Dare I hope?) and waving to us to follow. 'We must make all the speed we can!' The Fair One runs forward lightly, to walk by his side, and the Dwarf is not too many steps behind them.

'Come along, Bill,' my Sam says, tugging at my rope.

Youngest walks beside me. 'Make haste,' I hear him say under his breath. 'And it will be all-uphill, I've no doubt.'

And the not-very-Merry hobbit has taken Master's arm, the two of them have moved ahead of us and are walking together as if on a rest-day stroll. The younger cousin is talking in a low voice as they go, perhaps telling a story? For when he stops talking, the Master laughs, though it sounds strained to my ears.

'I could use a good jest myself,' Youngest mutters, but then he falls silent, seeming to concentrate on making the best speed he can on the long uphill climb.

Our two Big Men are behind us. The wind brings me the smell of alertness, even wariness. Perhaps they fear the wolves are even now on our trail.

For the Sun is swiftly gliding down the sky as if eager to find her rest this day. For myself, I would not mind a rest at the end of the day, myself, though I cannot seem to shake the foreboding that there is no rest for me – or for my Companions, for that matter – in the offing.

'What's the matter, Bill?' Youngest says to me, and I realise I have been shaking my head and neck in response to the thoughts I'm thinking. 'Have you got a fly in your ear?' He waves his hand about. 'I've not seen any other living things in this forsaken country besides ourselves...'

He is panting for breath, and as I press forward, he tightens his hold on my neck, and so I pull him upward, poor fellow. I do not regret the extra burden he poses. We must make haste, as Tall Hat keeps reminding us.

For I do not want to be caught out in the open if the wolves should come in the twilight. And the afternoon is rapidly passing...

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Author notes:

Some thoughts here are derived from “A Journey in the Dark” in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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