Perhaps Galadriel�s not wanting to inform us about Rhosgobel was a silly sort of punishment for her lack of wisdom concerning my sudden appearance. Maybe she was hoping Mallor and I would get lost in the wilderness as payback because she couldn�t see into her little mirror and find a reason for my presence. Thankfully, her husband was a really awesome person, else Mallor and I would be lost in the wilderness right now, and that would be bad. Things were beginning to look up every so slightly.
Now, according to the book and the advice that Celeborn had given us, Rhosgobel was right on the western border of Mirkwood. To get there all we had to do was continue northward out of L�rien, cross over the Gladden River, and go further north still until we reached the Old Ford and cross the Anduin River there. The book said that that our Rhosgobel was placed between the Old Forest Road and The Carrock.
I had no idea what exactly a carrock was and I thought the road into Mirkwood was poorly named. I decided that I should ask Mallor his opinion on this, seeing as we were just traveling silently anyway.
�Mallor, do you not think The Old Forest Road is an odd name?� I asked.
He turned to look at me with a puzzled expression. �I do not think so. Why would you ask?�
�Well, I thought that, seeing as the road is in Mirkwood, that the elves would come up with a better name for it. I mean, they are probably thousands of years old and I would think in all that time they would come up with a better name than �The Old Forest Road,� I explained.
Mallor groaned and shook his head. �You are a most peculiar child, Manda. Is it customary to drop babes on their heads where you come from?� he teased.
�It is possible. I just think it is a rather silly name. I mean, everyone knows it is a road. Everyone knows it goes through the forest. Hopefully everyone knows it is rather old. I just see it as being a statement of the obvious. What do you think?� I asked. I thought I had a reasonable point, even if this conversation was stupid.
�I think, lass, that if we ever hope to get our answers you ought to stop questioning the ways of beings elder than yourself. And for goodness sake, find something more logical to mull over in your mind!�
I stuck out my tongue at him. Just because the elves were old did mean I couldn�t question their ways. If you are stupid you are stupid, no matter how shiny you are or how pointy your ears get. At least that was my way of thinking. Deciding it was not in my best interest to get on my traveling companion�s case so early on in our day, I let the subject drop. We barely spoke at all until after we had crossed the Gladden River and were heading to the Old Ford. That turned into quite the episode.
You see, Firefoot proved to be the complete opposite of his name when that part of our journey came. One might think that a horse whose name refers to feet swift like the flame would not enjoy lolling around on a river bank all day long. Apparently we were all of us deceived on that one. The rascal just kept loafing around on the muddy banks of the Anduin when we tried to get him to cross the Old Ford. Finally I went on this tirade of how I was hungry and wanted to make camp on the other side of the river and that if the horse didn�t get moving now I was going eat him.
The whole tirade and my threat did not make very much sense, but the sight of me running around screaming death threats was enough to scare Firefoot, Mallor, and his horse straight over the ford. Sometimes having a short temper and being mentally unstable paid off. Sometimes it nearly got you committed to a mental institution. Thankfully, the latter did not exist in Middle-earth; my fears were subdued.
When we finally crossed the Old Ford we were right outside of Mirkwood. This was a good thing, so long as there was no real need to go into the forest. I knew there were things with more legs than I�d care to think about in there that would be more than glad to eat me for dinner. So, we built a camp close to the river bank and the next morning Mallor and I started looking for this Rhosgobel that the book detailed. We had been reading it on and off during the journey and we had learned a good deal.
We had discovered who lived there and that was most important. Apparently a wizard by the name of Radagast lived there. That rung a few bells. I had heard of him somewhere before, though where I could not entirely place. Now, of all the wizards I could have ended up having to seek out, Radagast was the last one on my list. I didn�t have any bad feelings about this, though, and Mallor and I had a mutual feeling that we were getting somewhere with our search for answers.
So, when we discovered the small wooden cottage just on the forest�s borders we were excited.
Our answers were hiding behind a homey little door with a welcome mat.
