Eowyn! And Aragorn! And Legolas! Yay!

I'm glad y'all are liking it! Thoughts/feelings/predictions welcomed and the next part is here! Sorry Eowyn&Co don't come out more, but i wanted to have the action proceed some.

==============================================================

Part 7.

Hex sighed, twisting around in her saddle for a last look at Beorn's home. He had been a kind host, and what with Éowyn and Aragorn, and, most especially, the shortish man whom she had known at once for Tom Bombadil (though she wished he'd explained what he was doing at Beorn's house), she wished she could have stayed there forever. Gandalf and Legolas, however, had been anxious to keep ahead of the goblins (Ha!, thought Hex, the goblins aren't getting any further than Beorn's doorstep if I know anything about Aragorn), so they had set off again after only two days.

WildSong, too, was remembering those days. Never, she thought, never had any two days been so magical before. Éowyn had been as kind and sweet and passionate as a summer dawn, as a shimmering dewdrop, as only the inspiring heroine she was could be; and Aragorn... WildSong sighed and sank into memories of him, memories that she could never, never forget.

Jay, however, was glad to be on the road again. Their stay had been, to say the least, pleasant, but Mirkwood and the end of their quest was so close. And the goblins were nearer every day. They had to find the jewels, and soon.

"We're a day away from Mirkwood," Legolas said eagerly. "We ought to get there pretty soon now."

A day away... a day away, and Mirkwood the Great would be before them. "Gandalf," Lupine said, "where along the borders of Mirkwood are the jewels? Are they on this side of Mirkwood or the other side? and the borders of Mirkwood go on forever."

"Oh gracious, you expect me to know everything don't you?" said Gandalf. "I have no idea. We'll have to find them."

Oh, well... that made everything harder again. They might not find the jewels for days yet. Lupine became silent, her eyes following their path and the path of the brilliant sun, thinking of all the adventures and friends they had encountered so far.

That night they slept in a little grove of trees that made them all think of Mirkwood. Legolas said they might have been able to reach Mirkwood that very day, if they had hurried; but they hadn't hurried, and besides Gandalf had taken a rather roundabout route (to avoid goblins, he said), so they could only hope to reach the forest tomorrow.

The next morning when Peregrine woke, it was to a strange feeling of being cold. She opened her eyes and rose, amazed. As far as she could see, the world was locked in ice; even every branch of the trees, every plant sticking up, was cased in transparent ice of glass-like perfection. The ground was white with snow, over which was a thin layer of crystallized snow that only cracked slightly when you set your foot on it. It seemed as if all the earth had been shut away from her by the ice.

As the other CBers and Legolas awoke, they wandered through the grove, never ceasing to be amazed at each new sight of breathtaking beauty. The sun was just rising, and the ice sparkled with thousands of different colors. Peregrine's eyes shone a cool blue, and it was only hunger that finally drove her back to the camp, where the others were also assembling.

They were half-way through breakfast when Peregrine looked up and exclaimed, "Where's Gandalf?"

Her words hung on the still air for a moment, and everyone realized the implications of them. "Oh, why must he always be disappearing?" Artemis exclaimed, jumping up.

In a moment they had once more scattered through the grove like leaves blown by the wind, all of them promising not to wander too far. Artemis went forward a little on what was probably the path they had been following. "Gandalf!" she called, her voice echoing back to her from a million places in the still, frosty air. "Gandalf!" It was the wrong season for snow anyhow - why was there this strange enchantment? "Gandalf, where are you?" It was pointless to try and find him. He might have left them ages ago. He might be anywhere by now. She returned to the camp, only to find that the others had had similar luck. "What are we to do?" exclaimed Amethyst.

"Wait for him until he shows up, I suppose," Echo said crossly. "Honestly, some people."

In the end, Gandalf showed up very soon, and very unconcernedly. "Here we are again," he said, walking into the grove. "Good, you've had breakfast. Now we shan't have to waste any time on eating. Come along!"

"Gandalf!" Artemis exclaimed, the first one of the CBers to find her tongue again. "Gandalf, where were you?"

"Can't I take a walk without finding everyone in hysterics when I return?" Gandalf demanded, his voice cross but a glint of humour in his eye. "I was just going ahead to see how close we were to Mirkwood. We're quite close - ought to get there in an hour. And I found something that might lead to the jewels."

Everyone was glad he was back, and in a few minutes they were following him towards Mirkwood.

"Gandalf, what's with the ice?" Scuttles asked with a frown as they walked along.

"I don't know," Gandalf admitted pensively. "I just don't know. It oughtn't to be here, and I can feel in the air that something's wrong. Something; I'm not sure what. Careful, there, it's slippery."

"I know," Scuttles said, and walked on in silence. He, too, had felt that undercurrent to the air, sinister, warning. How could there be danger in anything so spectacular? He touched the handle of his sword, warily watching the shadows.

"What's that?" Amethyst asked suddenly, pointing to a streak of smoke that rose up behind a hill, a smudge against the dazzling blue sky.

"Ah, that. That's what I wanted to show you," Gandalf said.

As they topped the rise, they saw Mirkwood spread out against the horizon, a thin dark line that could scarcely be recognized as a forest. A thrill of excitement leaped up inside Amethyst. Mirkwood! There was Mirkwood at last, the end of their journey.

Except that, if she had known it, it was scarcely the beginning.

Thank you for your prediction, Jay! As it turns out, you are quite right...

now I am not going to repeat all my boring introductory thing, because you all probably know it backwards and forwards and inside out by now, but it hasn't changed.

==============================================================

Part 8.

Echo only glanced at Mirkwood. Her attention was drawn to the pillar of smoke, rising ramrod straight against the sky, and, oddly enough, issuing from the ground itself. There was no fire, no crack in the earth - nothing but the soft smoke rising slowly from the ice. "What - " she gasped.

"Does this have anything to do with the jewels?" Scuttles asked.

"Ah," Gandalf said, and led them down the hill to where the smoke rose. He passed his wand through the smoke, and instantly the wand glowed light blue, then dark blue, red, green, lilac, silver and finally a fierce gold that seemed to cast light around all the cloudy hilltop. "The colors," Gandalf explained, "of the jewels. The blues are sea and sky, red's fire, green's earth, lilac's wind, silver's ice and the last, of course, was sunlight. We must be close to the jewels." But he hardly needed to speak, because everyone already understood what it meant.

"It's all very well to say that the jewels are close," Darkvine said. "But where? They might be anywhere."

"Is that green on the hills over there?" Echo said slowly.

They all looked. It certainly seemed to be green, green like grass covering the hills far away to their left. And as they drew closer, they saw that it was grass. The ice ended suddenly, and the hills were covered with verdant grass and clover, and starred with flowers. It was a welcome sight after all the blinding whiteness, and Echo felt drawn to it. She, and everyone else too, went over to those hills.

Beyond these hills rose more hills with not a trace of ice or snow ont hem, although the snow stretched away behind and to either side of them. There was a lilting peace in the place - it felt as if some gentle enchantment had been laid over it. But it was definitely a good enchantment, once that neither blocked nor trapped them.

And yet an element of magic was drawing them onwards, beckoning to them, and they all instinctively followed its call because it was such a beautiful call. There was a sweet elusiveness in the air that spoke of magic, and summer, and all things that were right and lovely.

And then they topped another rise and saw below them a small cup of grass and sunlight, with hills rising in an irregular circle around it. The sunlight did not come from the sky, which was still cloudy, but from a flashing jewel that rested on a carved stone slab supported by a short pillar - something like a bird bath, except more impressive, more delicately and beautifully made.

Around the Sunlight Jewel on the smooth stone were three other jewels: a blue stone with shifting, haunting depths for the ocean; an emerald, deep and dark and powerful, for the earth; and a glowing ruby with an inner flame leaping up inside it for fire. They were the Jewels.

Spellbound, the CBers and Legolas and Gandalf drew silently closer. There were runes around the edges of the stone, they noticed, and carvings of birds and beasts and dragons and dwarves and hobbits, and other lithe, unrecognizable creatures. The whole craftsmanship of the delicate carvings was finer even than the work of dwarves, and the stone itself gave off a soft light, distinct and different from the blazing fires of the jewels. It was a spot surrounded by the purest magic there was.

"But where are the other jewels?" Hex asked finally, breaking the silence that hung about them.

That was the question. Looking more closely, Echo saw that there were hollows in the stone for each jewel to fit into, and that there were three empty hollows. "Those goblins must have gotten here first after all," she exclaimed angrily, straightening up. "They must have taken a route that didn't lead past Beorn's house at all. For gracious sakes, why didn't we go straight on?"

"It couldn't have been the goblins," Artemis protested. "They would have taken all of the jewels. Could it be that some of the jewels were lost from before?"

"Read the runes," exclaimed Legolas, bending down.

"We can't read runes," Poinsettia reminded him absently.

"Then I'll read them aloud. They say: To all those who pass this way, do not touch these jewels. Elves, dwarves, wizards, dragons, hobbits and humans of this land - you must leave these jewels where they are, for here they have lain since the beginning of time, and should lie until the end of time. If somehow this magic is defied, a still deeper magic ordains that none can take more than three jewels, and those three any of the jewels that are not the Sunlight Jewel. And even more than this, these jewels cannot be used in this place; they must first be dipped in any waters beyond the Edge of the Wild, and then brought back here, before their power may be used by any being in this world."

"Ah," Peregrine said flatly, and there was a short silence.

"So the goblins, not being mentioned in the writing, took the ice, sky and wind jewels, and left," Hex said slowly. "That would explain the ice, then. The Ice Jewel probably went and made some ice as it was being taken, and there you are."

"Well, then," said Gandalf, "we'd better do something. All you Chatterboxers, not being humans of this world, can take the jewels and head off for the Edge of the Wild. I'm staying here, to protect the Sunlight Jewel and tinker around with my magic to see what I can come up with; and any of you who want to could, I suppose, stay here with me. But some of you will have to go. Who's going and who's staying?"

==============================================================

So here we go: you can post and say whether you'd rather go or stay (soon, please!) - there'll be plenty of adventure on both sides, I assure you. I'll choose for anyone who hasn't said after a few days. Thank you!

Oh, @Flamie, it's the Edge of the Wild, not the Edge of the World, unfortunately...