One Geek to Rule Them All

An Unexpected Journey

"What is this 'Tolkien' of which you speak?" Strider asked in all seriousness, furrowing his brow further.

—nut job. He was a nut job. Of course he would be.

"Are you kidding me?" asked an unimpressed Kitty. Even she knew who that was, although she preferred Harry Potter.  "Tolkien's the guy who wrote—mph!" She grunted in annoyance when Devin suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth and pulled her aside.

"Shh!" Devin hushed her friend urgently, pulling Kitty closer to pull her aside and whisper into her ear behind her hand. "We can't just tell him it's all a work of fiction. He obviously thinks he's the real Aragorn! Who knows how he'd react?"

"Well, what else are we supposed to do? Just play along?" whispered Kitty in response, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over her shoulder at the clearly delusional man, who was still eyeing them with suspicion.

"Yeah, at least until we can get out of this forest," Devin whispered with a nod for confirmation. "I'm not sure I even know where we are anymore. I thought we were only in the water for a minute or two, but this doesn't look familiar at all. We must have drifted pretty far. That guy might be crazy, but if he spends all his time playing ranger in here, then he might be able to lead us back to the trail," she reasoned.

"Ohh. Good thinking," Kitty whispered. "I was just gonna suggest we hit him over the head and run."

"We'd probably just end up even more lost," whispered Devin with a wry smile. "Just let me handle this, okay?" Kitty straightened up as they both turned back to face 'Strider' again. "Since you said they call you Strider 'around these parts' am I correct in thinking that we're somewhere near the village of Bree?"

Strider blinked at that. They did not know where they were? But they were right outside the Shire. They could only have just come from the River Baranduin (Brandywine). In fact, he had almost taken the smaller one for a hobbit until he noticed her feet were smaller than was usual for one and were shod in strange, bright blue shoes, the likes of which he had never seen before; and he had seen much over his long life as a ranger.

"Because, if we are near Bree, and you are looking for a certain hobbit in possession of a certain item as a favor to a certain grey wizard... we just might be able to help each other out," Devin said cryptically. "We're not your enemy. As you can probably tell from our foreign clothing, we are both strangers to this land. We're just two cold, wet, and lost girls looking for the nearest trace of civilization. We have no interest in the ring or its current owner or a lost king, but we do have a clue as to where you can find what you seek. If you help us get to the nearest village safely, then we'll tell you where to find them, deal?"

"How do I know I can trust you? This could be a trap for all I know," he said reasonably, holding her gaze.

"We have no proof of innocence beyond our own word," Devin replied calmly, returning his even stare with her own. "I'll leave that judgment up to you. But as I've said, we're strangers to this land. If you leave us alone out here we could very well die from hunger and exposure. I don't think you want our deaths on your conscience. You seem to have enough  to worry about already." Kitty glanced between the two of them, watching silently as her petite friend stared down (or up) the possibly dangerous and paranoid delusional man before them.

"Very well," said Strider, allowing himself to relax a little around them. He finally removed his hand from his sword. "I shall escort the two of you to Bree. In return you shall tell me all the information you have on the hobbit I seek as well as how you came to know of my search for him." Although the ranger found it disconcerting that they seemed to already know so much about him and  the ring-bearer, these two girls did not appear to be agents of Sauron. For one thing, the eyes of this girl, Devin, were too clear and honest for that. He glanced at Kitty, who was still eyeing him with no small amount of skepticism and staying protectively close to her smaller friend. She obviously did not trust him either. He kicked some dirt on the small fire to put it out. "Follow me." They would have to make haste if they wanted to reach the village by nightfall.