Our Walk to Beorn's

When we landed on the Carrock, Gandalf told us he would leave us soon. Everyone tried to convince to stay. 

But in the end, he told us,

"I am not going to leave you this second. I will stay with you a day or two more. We have no supplies and you don't know where you are. You are a few miles from the path you must take to journey onward. There is someone I know who lives alone not far from here. He can be generous if we don't upset him. We must go and find him quickly; and if our meeting goes as planned, I believe I shall be off." They started to beg him again but he would not change his mind. They even tried to bribe him with a share in the treasure. 

Once they accepted the fact that he would leave, I walked onward to look ahead. They had planned to wash in the river and I wanted to take a break away from them and clear my head. I walked through a field of long green grass and down lines and lines of oak and elm trees. There were birds singing in the trees and I watched them. Then I climbed the last elm in the lines of trees and stopped to think to myself.

And I thought,

"Hmm, let's see. Not the spiders, not Mirkwood..."

"Beorn! We're going to Beorn's! Yay! I'm so excited!" I squealed happily. Beorn is one of my favorite characters. I figured it out just in time too. They were walking towards the trees. I jumped from the tree and waited for them to come. Bilbo was talking to Gandalf; he was probably asking questions. The dwarves interrupted by asking more questions.

Upset, Gandalf explained sternly,

"If you must know, the man I speak of is a skin-changer, he is very strong and tall, and his name is..."

"Beorn," I interrupted out loud.

"How did you know that?" the dwarves asked suspiciously.

"Um... I... Gandalf told me about him when we were talking with Gwaihir," I answered quickly. Luckily, almost everyone believed me. Fili and Kili were the only ones who suspected something. They kept a close eye on me from that point on. They all went back to asking more and more questions and Gandalf answered them as calmly as he possibly could. Dwarves! Why can't they ever be satisfied?

Once they had stopped asking questions, I walked to the front to see if Gandalf had any questions for me. In the middle of the afternoon, we saw plenty of signs that told us that we were close to Beorn's. 

"Brilliant work covering yourself up back there," he winked.

"Thanks," I smiled. "Fili and Kili are onto me. It's so difficult to keep a secret."

"Don't worry, they'll give up eventually. Are you excited to see Beorn?" Gandalf asked.

"Yes, I have been excited ever since I knew," I replied happily.

"And when did you figure it out?" he asked.

"When I climbed the elm and thought to myself," I answered.

"So, the plan is that you, Bilbo, and I will see Beorn first. Then, all the dwarves will follow in pairs," he explained. We walked a few minutes more. Once we arrived at the front gate, Gandalf told them the plan. After they understood, we pushed the gate open.