daw....

night time.

I decided to take the pass. I almost wish I hadn’t, but it is too late to turn back now. And besides, I have a bad feeling about taking the gap.

The path was hard and treacherous. It was very stony, with little room to walk. Most of the time, I lead Tela by her reins. There were times when the path disappeared altogether, and we had to walk in the river. Mercifully, it was shallow, and I did not get too wet in the icy water.

Because of these conditions, we did not get far. I’d say we are not even half through the ‘pass’.

To be entirely honest, before I reached the river today, there was an old road. Tela ran over it fast, but in the few seconds that we were over it, I felt the same, intuitive tug. I shrugged it off at the time, I was in a hurry and we had not stopped long enough for me to understand the feeling. But now that we have stopped, I checked my map. The road leads into the mountains, to a place called Moria. I’m sure I’ve heard the name somewhere; I think it is an abandoned dwarf-city. Those places can be huge, I’ve heard, and I’m in no mood for getting lost in some old tunnel system that’s long been abandoned.

But back to now. Not half an hour ago I discovered a shelf that has plenty of room to rest for the night. I've built a small fire, just enough to read by and cook the fish I caught. I'm quite disappointed, as I've seen neither bird nor beast to test out my archery and fill my stomach on. The sky is getting darker, and the enthusiasm and determination that filled me earlier today has given way to fear. Just now an inauspicious looking flock of large, black birds flew overhead, and ridiculous as it sounds, I feel that they are trying to spy on me. But what interest would a flock of birds have in me? They were probably just migrating to a warmer climate, for indeed, today there has been light snow falling steadily. It has stopped now, and the sky is clear. But the bright stars do not ease my fear. I cannot sleep because of it, and though I will pay dearly for it tomorrow, I will stay up and write a bit more. About me, I suppose.

I will not say where I came from. Only my story since I came here. I was found by an elven merchant ship, at the mouth of the river at the Gulf of Lune. The captain took me on board, and sailed me up river to the small refuge of Celondim.

The elves were amazed at me. It was quite plain that I was not one of them, yet the only place I could have come from was out of the West, over the sea, as I admitted that I had never heard of Middle Earth. But the only men ever to come out of the West were the Numenoreans, and that was long ago. No men remain in Numenor, leaving the Undying Lands. But that was impossible, as only elves and the Valar dwell there, so the elves, being at a loss, sent me to Rivendell.

When I arrived, Elrond first let me rest. I had not done so properly since being found, and I slept for three days. After that he questioned me extensively on where I came from, who I was. Things were pleasant there, in the Last Homely House. When Elrond was not talking with me, I could listen to the elves sing, or read in the library, or just sit in the gardens and think.

For the same reasons that I will not tell you about myself, I told Elrond only the bare minimum of what he asked of my past. He understood completely, and it was during these conversations of ours that he discovered my talents. It was then that he asked me if I could aid him, and all of Middle Earth, in a task that he would not name. Though I much enjoyed staying in Imladris, it had the feeling of being without time. I felt that I could stay there all my life and feel that only a few days had passed, or that if I stopped to read a short poem (which are few, among the elves), when I finished it could have been days later.

So I accepted. He told me only where I needed to go, and who I needed to find. But he also told me to trust my instinct always, which is how I ended up on this god forsaken path in the mountains.

Ah! How the wind bites at this hour of night, I must have been sitting here reminicing for hours! The fire has already burned down to embers. Oh, how I shall regret this in the morning....