The Ring goes to Italy!

by Odeena Sabnach

Chapter 2: Trouble... (already?!)

Although I had been literally counting the seconds until leaving, about half an hour after our departure I came to realize that what I had dreamed of as the adventure of a lifetime was in fact boring as hell. With Lisa too deeply engaged in reading Silmarillion and Rhett snoring with his head leaning against my shoulder (thank the Valar he wasn't drooling, like my little sister usually does), there was nothing much that I could do except look out the window. And a trip through the south-western part of the country is the dictionary definition of dull.

Just as I was starting to doze off, I felt someone shake my shoulder. "What?" I groaned, putting on my best 'I'm-gonna-bite-you' look. BIG mistake. A second later, I found myself looking - no, staring with my jaw hanging - at a very pissed-off-looking teacher. "Uh, I mean, what is it? ...Ma'am?", I added, remembering all-too-late about politeness and everything.

"Do your friends have their passports?"

'Duh', I thought. 'Otherwise, how the heck would they be coming alone?' "Yes, ma'am", I answered aloud.

"Go and gather them. We should reach the customs soon."

"Thank goodness", I sighed under my breath.

I got up, apologized to Rhett for having woken him up (although I could have bet anything in the world that he hadn't been sleeping after all... I was beginning to suspect he was suffering from the 'Paul' syndrom - i.e., the 'Hopelessly-in-love-with-Odeena' syndrom), and made my way to the back of the bus.

I must say, the guys were handling the trip rather well. Okay, except for Arwen, who had already used up half of Sam's stock of paper bags (you can imagine what for) and Haldir, who had the misfortune of sitting next to her.

"Why, hello there!" Boromir greeted me in his enthusiastic manner. "How's it going?"

"Um... good...", I said. "Listen, we're gonna hit the customs any minute now, so I need all your passports."

"Okay", came the answer, and Boromir handled me his passport.

"Don't look at the picture", Faramir whispered confidentially. "It'll give you a heart attack."

I chuckled. "And the rest of you...?"

"Will they give it back, precious?" Gollum asked, looking even more miserable than usual.

"Well... yeah..."

"Good." He kissed his passport goodbye (eww!) and handled it to me. "Takes good care of it!" he whimpered. "He is my life... my life... my... preciousss..."

"Get a life!" someone shouted from behind. I agreed with him completely.

"My passport is in my bag", Legolas said.

"Mine too."

"And mine."

"And mine as well."

Uh-oh.

Least you recall, all the bags had been turned into a single gem, which was now resting comfortably in Gandalf's pocket. This was not good. Fortunately, just then a loud 'boom' came from somewhere behind me, and the bus jerked to a halt, throwing me on the floor face-first.

"Ow", I said, although my voice was largely muffled by the carpet thingy that was on the floor.

Being the gentleman he is (most of the times), Boromir rushed to help me up. The other passengers were largely confused, and some were even panicked. Gollum, for instance, was screaming some nonsense about an invasion of the Uruk-Hai and was cowering under Haldir's chair, while a hysterical-looking Arwen kept demanding what's going on.

"Not to worry, folks" - that was the driver, speaking on the microphone - "we just have a flat tire."

"Oh, joy", Gimli groaned. "Now we're gonna be stuck here for an age."

"I'll say..." Suddenly, an idea popped up in my head. Pretending that I had to take Arwen outside for some fresh air, I beckoned Gandalf to come down and retrieved everyone's passports from the gem. As everyone got out to stretch their limbs and wait for the flat tire problem to be solved, Saruman flied overhead on his Nazgul-dragon-thingy and waved at us enthusiastically. I shook my fist in reply. This was definitely not my definition of keeping a low profile, as I had told him to do.

About half an hour later, with the tire changed, the guys refreshed and Boromir sulking with a fresh brown eye (courtesy of Aragorn, of course... the usual 'It's-my-kingdom-not-yours' thingy...), we set off again. Another half an hour later, we entered the customs. A refreshing drink, a luggage check and some fussing about Arwen's passport (for some strange reason, her hair was red in the photo) after, we crossed the border. Finally, ten minutes after, we were entering the proud state of Hungary.

"Finally", I sighed, leaning back in my seat and closing my eyes. "Now, I can die happy..."

"Why would you want to die?" an old lady in the seat behind our asked, glaring at me over her spectacles. "You're so young..."

I coughed and pretended not to have heard her. Old ladies can get really chatty, and I was not in the mood for a conversation where every topic started invariably with 'In my time...' Instead, I leaned my head on Rhett's shoulder - and I'm sure he blushed a little... poor guy... - and shortly after I fell asleep.

We had about thirty-two hours to go...

Author's note: Chapter three up! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, because I'm practically reliving my whole trip to Italy! :) I hope you liked it. More coming soon! Please R&R! (And please excuse the unusual abundance of question marks!)