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As Alli walked, she looked for road signs. She found some, certainly, but the only purpose they seemed to serve was to tell her that she was currently in Mordor and that she should have a nice day. She looked at the kamura bobbing along behind her and cursed (though not quite as colorfully as before, with Mardil) the fog. She couldn't see where she was going and was thankful that there seemed to be no traffic. Suddenly she sprawled on her stomach and hit her head on a rock, causing her forehead to split open and bleed down the side of her face. This did not much improve her disposition.
When she could see straight again, she pulled a spare bit of cotton from her bag and pressed it firmly to her injury. Once the bleeding had stopped, or at least slowed a lot, she took a look at what she'd tripped over: a body.
Ugh... why is it always me that has to deal with this sort of thing? she asked moodily, conveniently forgetting that she'd never actually ever had to deal with an abandoned body. A breeze blew the fog away enough that she could see his bruised face: Hookbill the Goomba.
Alli beckoned to the kamura-man. "Do you have any experience with injuries? I'm good enough at fixing my own but I don't want to hurt him any more than he already is."
Hookbill groaned and spoke, flinching away from the kamura-man's (conveniently a doctor also) touch. "It was... Màrîo." And then he fainted and [even more conveniently] had no more lines in this adventure.
Alli thought for a few moments, beginning to harbor a few ill-wishes toward this Marty-o character. Trouncing all over poor innocents like Hookbill? The Goomba never did anything to Marty-o and yet the fat little hobbit felt the need to walk all over him. And wasn't it this same hobbit that Roggie had mentioned? And-- with this, Alli pulled out the periodical that she had began reading back in Lûndûn. As the kamura-man carried the unconscious body of Hookbill the Goomba to a nearby convenience store for aid, Alli sat on a serendipitously placed rock and flipped to the article. Yes... Màrîo. The kilt-clad man was wanted for attacking him, but here two innocents had been attacked by the very hobbit now being treated as a king in Saint Gimli's Hospital. Did nobody else know? Was the kilt-clad man innocent? Alli stood up, hoisting her bag, and fell back down.
Oops... she thought. Note to self: skipping breakfast and then bleeding profusely aren't good for somebody with low blood pressure. The ground swimming around her feet, Alli pretended that she was no longer dizzy and began to walk. She was on a mission. Who cares about getting out of Mordor, she thought. I have to find out the Truth. I have to make sure the right criminal ends up behind bars.
And then a large gas-guzzling SUV pulled up beside her.
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