Miss Adriellyn told me that the woods we would be crossing next were called the Trollshaws, because up in the mountains to the north, the Ettenmoors, there were trolls, and sometimes they come down into the woods. "They didn' use t', though the Elfs says they did long 'go, and they been startin' again," Miss Adri told me, "so we got to keep an eye out."
As we left camp, the winds picked up, and I was glad that they'd held off until we were out of the Lone Lands and under tree cover. It was a warm wind from the south, bringing with it a break in the chill, along with high, thick clouds, not enough to make the day dark, just drab and sunless. I had to take off my cloak in the sudden warmth, and even the furs that remained felt too much, but I hadn't brought any change of clothes apart from the fine tunic I would wear in Imladris.
The warmth also stirred up the wildlife, already more numerous in these woods. Miss Adri sharpened her senses, and kept holding up a hand to stop us as the path wound through gorges and defiles, then creeping forward once she was sure it was clear. Once, we had to wait as a hungry wolf, probably a scout for a pack, trotted through the gorge ahead of us. Foolishly, I nocked an arrow and let fly. Even if my aim had been perfect, the wolf's dying cry would likely have called its pack. So it's lucky my bulky gloves caught on the string, and my arrow sailed high over the wolf and sank into the soil beyond it, eliciting no more than a twitch of its ears. Miss Adri gave me an icy glance that told me without words not to try again, and instead we waited until its wandering took it off the path long enough for us to dart by.
While Miss Adri explained to me the reasons I shouldn't've shot, I took off my gloves. "Going to have to practice with the winter gloves on," I mused to myself, because even if I shouldn't've let that one fly, there might be another I should, and I might not have time to take gloves off. If not on this trip, then more so while we crossed the High Pass come spring. Archery with my work gloves was easy enough, and I'd done plenty of that, but not with the bulky fur-lined gloves Miss Sareva had made me.
Towards the middle of the afternoon, with the cloud cover at its darkest, I got my first sight of a troll. Miss Adri held a hand up to stop me, and I peered ahead expecting another wolf. Took me a moment to realize that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, that what I took to be a pile of boulders that seemed to be moving was actually a troll and the reason we'd stopped. It moved slowly and aimlessly, with no hurry to leave the path. After a while, Miss Adri dismounted, holding Rascal's reins tightly, and gestured to a slope leading off from the path behind us. I followed suit, and soon we were wending our way through the woods.
With more wildlife about and the threat of more trolls, and the trees too thick to see very far in the cloud-dimmed grey, we had to go very slowly. Had I been here alone, I would have been able to find the path once more, simply by heading south; but it would likely have taken so long, without Adriellyn guiding along routes she knew, that the chances of encountering something dangerous before I found the road would have been all but certain. When we finally emerged on the path, having to make our careful way down a steep descent to do it, we’d come far enough through the woods that I could see neither the troll nor the defile it had been blocking. "Well, tha' were quite a thin'," she said, which broke the tension; and on we went.
By this time we were near enough to the river that I could hear its flow. At the fords there were a few dry spots in the middle of the river, tiny islands, and it was on one of these that we set a fire to heat up some of Miss Bottle's cakes in river water to make soup. It was too small, and too damp from the spray of the flowing water, to make camp on; so she led us to a small ledge, a bit downriver on the west side, overlooking the river, and we made a camp there. "Keep the fire goin'," she warned me; "keeps the bears at bay." I hadn't seen any bears, but I slept lightly so I could add wood to the fire every hour or two, just to be sure.
I would probably have slept lightly anyway. Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I will see Imladris for the first time.
