A bit beyond the cottage the High Street is called the Great Road again; where exactly this
name change occurs is not quite clear, but surprisingly enough no wars have been fought over it yet. Once you have reached Alatar Forest it is definitely the Great Road though; as you enter the forest, on your right hand side there is a large meadow with picknick tables dotted around it and something you can't quite see in the middle. This is Dragon Meadow, also known as Restaurant Gardens, the place1 where one of the most controversial restaurants in culinary history stood not so long ago. All that remains now of 50 Ways is a memory of the best food ever and this peaceful meadow where dragons2 frolic and people sunbathe (or possibly the other way around).
The hazy area in the middle is where the singularity that holds the Restaurant is contained. It is quite safe, as it is surrounded by alternating teunciness/reality fields. Just this side of the perimeter fence keeping dragons and people out of the T/R field is a small plaque that
commemorates the final battle3 for the restaurant and honours those that stood for the food they believed in.
Beyond Dragon Meadow we come to Alatar Forest, where Alatar dwells (well d-uh!)
with her Ents and Huorns. Much more could be said about the place, but travellers tend to stick
to the road in here (at least the ones that come out again do), so all outsiders can tell about
the Forest is that it is a green and pleasant looking land, and they would not want to spend the
night in it. This opinion is a mystery to the locals, who know that the Forest isn't all that dangerous if you know what you're doing.
If you are brave enough to go in though (and sensible enough to stick to the rules and not tease the Huorns) you really should pay a visit to Alatar's Hut of Records, where you can find out much more about Balrog Cuttings and its inhabitants...