Fear and Loathing in Middle Earth

Note: Only the idea of this combination is mine; all the parts belong to either Hunter S. Thompson or J.R.R. Tolkien. (I'm sure you can all figure out which is which.) And I borrow them lovingly, while wearing aviator sunglasses and a funny white hat, and drinking vodka and cranberry juice in lieu of smoking pipeweed or... well, anything that was in that suitcase in the back of the Cadillac.

***

We were somewhere around Eregion when the pipeweed took hold. I remember someone saying something like "What's that black thing?" And suddenly there was a terrible roar in my ears and the sky ahead of me was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the rocks. And a voice was screaming: "Crebain! From Dunland!"

Then it was quiet again. The halflings were making breakfast for the third time today. "What the hell are you talking about?" one said. No point mentioning the bats, I thought. The poor bastards will see them soon enough.