Welcome to the Walk,
Maeggaladiel! You seem to be walking very sure and steady, and making good time. It's a pleasure to have you.
48 miles, almost to Stock
For the past few miles we've had up and down roads, which can be quite annoying at times. At first it's delightful, for one is always trying to guess what will be over the next hill, and who will be over the next hill, and what will happen when one climbs the next hill... but after some time of such guessing, it grows dull and monotonous, and I begin to wish the road would make up its mind and go either up or down very steadily! As soon as I grow accustomed to walking up a hill, I'm going down one, and the other way around.
A few miles back we saw a frightening, crouching figure cloaked in black. It was no Hobbit, certainly, and none of the Elf-kind creep in that way. It seems most likely that it was a man, yet why he would go on in that way I don't understand. He crept along the road, stooped over, and he was sniffing, as if trying to catch some scent. I have never seen any man act that way, and nor have I gained such an impression of horror at the sight of any man... there was an atmosphere of dread as this cloaked figure passed by. Since I saw him, my heart hasn't been nearly as light. The bends in the road that used to give me a delightful expectation of what might lie around it now give me a chill of fear, wondering if perhaps that stooping black figure will be crouched down before me.
And furthermore, since I saw him, the weather has become more gloomy. Even as I write, a thick fog has descended and swirls about me. The feeling of light adventure had disappeared, and now where my feet once tripped and skipped, they drag now, as I glance apprehensively over my shoulder to make sure we are not being followed by that crouching figure.
It will be altogether comforting when we reach Crickhollow. To be surrounded by walls and covered by a roof will ease my mind, I am sure. I'm equally sure that my imagination has run away with me, and the fact that the man was shrouded in black excited my thoughts. It can't be something so frightful as it seems to be.