Book I: The Fellow-Sheep of the Ring

One crisp November night, just as two hobbits arrived to Hobbiton’s third pre-holiday feast, the wind howled, the earth shook, and suddenly every last hobbit in the village was transformed into a sheep-hobbit creature – a baa-bit.

“What a bummer,” said Lamb Wise, sadly.  “I was going to ask the girl with blue ribbons to dance.”

“You still can,” said Frodo Baaa-gins, chucking.  “Except now she’s a sheep with blue ribbons!”

While Lamb Wise pondered his next move, an old man suddenly fell from the sky and crashed into them.  

“I apologize for crashing your party,” said Gandalf the Grey Shepherd.  His magic flying broom had been replaced with a shepherd staff.

“Drop in anytime,” quipped Frodo.

Gandalf continued, “The eagles sent word: The evil villain Sau-ram-moo-n has placed on a curse on all of Middle Earth, I mean Sheeple Earth, transforming all creatures into sheep or sheep-related a-baa-minations.”

“The real villain is whoever keeps coming up with these terrible puns,” interjected Lamb Wise. 

Gandalf laughed, filling the air with smoke rings, and continued, “We must act at once if we are to break the curse.  We must plot a course for Moo-ridor.”

He unraveled a scroll before them, containing a map of Sheeple Earth.    

“There’s so many options for how to get there.  We could take the Misty Moo-ntains, the Raging River, the Cave-in Caverns, even the Mines of Moo-ria.  You know the old saying: one if by land, two if by sea.”

Suddenly, Lamb Wise sneezed, flipping the map over, and they could see runes appearing anywhere it was lit by the moo-nlight.

“Lamb Wise, you’re a genius!” exclaimed Gandalf.  “I’ll bet these moo-nic runes will reveal exactly how to get to Moo-ridor.  Interesting, it appears to be some sort of riddle…”

Enter the answer in the Gleam contest, the continue to Book II.