Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Tolkien's works nor do I own any right to the films or merchandise. This fanfiction is purely for entertainment purposes and to keep my sanity during my son's naptime.
AN: Salutations, friends! I hope you enjoy this little reality check spin on the 10th walker. Review and rate :D
She made it.
She was here. Actually here.
Middle Earth.
"That's what I'm freakin' TALKING about!" Chloe thrust her small fist in the air so hard she felt her shoulder ache in protest. "I freakin' did it! I did the thing! Oh, my god I actually did the thing!" She began to pace back and forth, frantically pushing her long, copper colored hair out of her eyes as she drank in her wild surrounding. The landscape was shockingly green and everything about it screamed 'untouched'. Rolling hills dappled with wild lavender and a few other flowers she didn't recognize seemed to move like water under the breeze. A pair of birds flew overhead, diving around one another gayly while twittering in song. Granted, there was no actual giant sign or physical marker of any kind that said 'welcome to middle earth', but the pure, totally unspoiled beauty that surrounded her was completely unmistakeable. How could a place like this be anything else?
And the air...
Chloe took a breath, hesitantly at first, then deeply. Pulling in everything she could Chloe became almost light headed at the absolute purity of it. She could smell the flowering scent on the wind and it positively elated her. She could almost taste it. There was no pain, either. No coughing, no hacking, and no awful wheezing! She chewed the edge of her blue painted fingernail and swayed lightly, feeling suddenly drunk as a giggle bubbled up into clear outright laughter. A crisp breeze embraced her hard enough to lift the hair off of her shoulders and Chloe shivered in delight, hugging her bare arms and curling her bare toes into the cool earth. A light misty fog clung to the edges of the horizon.
Wait. Bare toes?
"Seriously?!" Chloe gasped at the realization she was still wearing nothing but the light blue hospital gown. No shoes, no pants, and for god's sake not even underwear!? Her head whipped around instinctually as she tugged ferociously at the embarrassingly scant ties in the back. Hospitals had come a long way when it came to their patients modesty but there was still quite a bit to be desired in Chloe's opinion. Gone were the days of having your rear end hanging out but there were still ways to unintentionally expose your goodies, like it or not.
After reassuring herself nothing was showing and she hadn't ended up flashing some poor defenseless elf or dwarf in the distance, another frigid breeze prompted Chloe to start moving. She could forgive the logistics of her state of dress. She took another breath. As mortifying as it was, it wasn't the end of the world because she was here and she was going to meet her destiny no matter what.
She was going to marry Legolas.
Chloe sighed reverently, clutching lightly at the sweet flutter in her chest.
"The question is... where, exactly, do I go?" She had seen the movies a thousand times. She had read the book two thousand times. She knew if she was going to meet up with her future husband her best bet was to head to Rivendell and wait him out. Either he'd already be there, getting ready to destroy the one ring or he would probably be on his way, right? Easy choice. Besides, in all the fanfiction she'd ever read all the female leads always ended up in Rivendell one way or another and things always worked out just fine once the got there. They were greeted by Elrond, brought under his tutelage and/or admiration, and in a couple of days (give or take) they met up with the whole Fellowship at the Council of Elrond and snagged themselves a place in the adventure. Simple.
Decision made; she would go to Rivendell.
"Which is in which direction, exactly?" The excitable tremor in her hands had calmed somewhat as she glanced in every direction. "Landmark, landmark...give me a landmark." Green fields in every direction offered no help. Squinting hard, Chloe could vaguely make out a collection of trees in the distance ahead of didn't look like much at first, almost appearing like a grey smudge on the horizon but after another hard look Chloe was certain they were, indeed, trees.
"Elves like trees, right?" Her teeth were starting to chatter and that fact alone was more than good enough for the teenager. After all, she hadn't come all this way to die of exposure. She had a job to do and a handsome, brilliant, sweet elf to marry.
"Onwards!" She squealed, happily pumping a fist into the air and skipping off in her chosen direction. Chloe's elation lasted through many happily sung verses of Disney songs, Sound of Music spins, and flower picking as she made her way. Eventually, though, she ran out of songs. Spinning seemed less fun and more silly and she'd picked as many flowers as she could hold. After a few failed attempts at weaving some sort of flower crown she abandoned the blooms altogether.
After walking long enough for the shock and awe of her arrival to begin wearing thin, Chloe could indeed see the trees more clearly now but other than that... she seemed to be making no progress at all despite the ache in both her legs. The day was gray and misty which made any attempt to guess at the time of day beyond her ability. Her eyes watered immediately if she even tried to glance upwards through the bright gray sky to seek out the sun. How long had she been walking? Five minutes? Twenty minutes? An hour? More? Chloe found herself beginning to frown.
The idea of taking a rest and sitting had cropped up more than once but the grass, which now reached well past her ankles, was still very wet with mist or dew or possibly an earlier rain. Chloe was already dressed in glorified bedsheets and she refused to suffer the indignity of a wet bottom as well. She was even beginning to sweat, despite the chill in the air. Grunting in annoyance she plodded on, hissing every other step as the bottoms of her feet met with some sort of twig, bramble, sharp stone, and on one occasion a very bewildered frog.
It was only when her muscles began to ache to the point that Chloe relented to a sort of strange crouch, that the small smattering of trees became visually apparent. A few more minutes of walking and many stops to crouch and rest she could tell they weren't just a few trees after all, it was actually a full blown wood. Chloe would even go as far as to say it was a forest. This perked her up immensely as she wobbled to her feet. Elves lived in forests, right? Or at least Legolas did. Maybe she was actually closer to Mirkwood?
"You know, in the films, they didn't nearly spend enough time on the walking aspect, I think." Chloe huffed, swatting at the errant mosquitos that had decided to make their presence known. While Chloe had surely understood middle earth was it's own world, the sheer vastness had understandably escaped her until she came face to face with actually crossing it.
Chloe had never even walked a mile before but this felt like at least ten of them. Possibly twenty. Walking wasn't supposed to be this hard, was it? She growled, smacking her forearm and hopefully a mosquito as well. Her ankles itched with the constant brushing of the cold, wet grass and she nearly groaned with relief when the foliage finally tapered off as she approached the edge of the forest. This offered a more mossy, dirt packed ground than the meadow she'd arrived at and had been traveling through for god knew how long now.
She did sit down then, still opting for an awkward sort of side-sit in case any dew seepage occured. Her stomach gurgled slightly, a nudging reminder that she hadn't eaten yet. She itched, she stank, and she was starting to feel numb in her toes; she was not adding dirty butt to the list. Chloe sighed.
"I hope the elves have sandwiches or, like, a wrap or something." They seemed like wrap people; lots of lettuce and thin breads and stuff like that. Chloe braced her hands against the ground before pulling them back immediately, frowning at the wet dirt that clung to them. She brushed them off against each other as best she could but even after reluctantly using her gown to wipe them they were still stained dark with sticky earth. She didn't need to look at the bottoms of her feet to guess they were in way worse shape. She shivered again. The wind was practically biting now.
"What the hell season is this even?!" It had been mid-July when she'd...left. Judging by the icy crispness of the weather here it was looking more like late autumn... or early spring. Chloe stood, rubbing her arms awkwardly with the clean backs of her hands and began to proceed into the forest.
The trees were thick and tall and it was only on the youngest and shortest ones she could make out tiny white flower buds. Hardly any of the trees had more than a handful of bright green leaves.
"Oh, spring, then." Chloe mumbled to herself. Where would that put her timeline wise? The book told her it would be winter before the Fellowship set off to save everyone but the films clearly depicted an early autumn. Chloe sighed impatiently at the idea of having to wait all summer and possibly all autumn for Legolas to arrive.
She could always send word, Chloe supposed, stepping over a downed tree sapling. Not that she was sure, exactly, of what 'sending word' entailed but people used the term fairly frequently in all the fanfiction she'd read. Was is some sort of carrier pigeon system, she wondered? Or perhaps something more magic related if it involved the elves. Chloe momentarily pictured some sort of sophisticated tree walkie talkie system. That idea perked her up momentarily as she debated what, exactly, she might say to her future husband that would prompt his immediate arrival.
Prince of Mirkwood, you don't know me but come to Rivendell it's very important... Love, Chloe
Dear Legolas, I've come to help you save the world as you know it. Also, could you bring a dress or something is size Medium?
Hello, it's me your wife (or soon to be) I need you to come pick me up please?
None of these sounded particularly eloquent and left Chloe half wondering if any of it might sound more put together in elvish? If only she could write more than a handful of words…
Researching the elvish language had started out as a top priority but it wasn't more than a few vowels past Mellon nin that Chloe hit an absolute grammatical roadblock. The world wide web was more than a little spotty when it came to the elvish languages and after tripping over the deep defined historical context of Sindarin vs Quenya vs Ancient Noldorin Chloe's head was spinning. She had, however, managed to master one key phrase:
"Gi melin, Legolas." I love you, Legolas. Chloe's pale cheeks reddened saying it aloud. She'd whispered it to herself countless times sometimes even in front of the nurses after yet another blood draw. It had been total gibberish to them and thus her own personal secret. Here, however, you were just as likely to find elvish speakers as you were to come across a Spanish speaker in the real world. Meaning, It wouldn't exactly be a 'secret' anymore.
"Gi melin, Legolas." Chloe repeated to herself, a little louder this time. Her cheeks blazed with heat but she forced her shoulders back and repeated it again and again, louder and louder until she was fairly shouting. She had to be comfortable saying it outloud if she was planning on saying it to his face, right? The idea seemed daunting at first but Chloe pictured Legolas' charming reaction; a bright smile, perhaps even a delighted laugh? Maybe even a kiss-
A branch cracked loudly behind her and Chloe froze, hands flying to her mouth. Jiminy frickin crickets. It was the elves, wasn't it!? The scene as the Fellowship tread into Lorien territory flew to memory. Embarrassed heat filled her face at the prospect of turning around to face the probable dozens of armed elves with confused and possibly very judgemental faces. What a first impression! She probably looked like an idiot! She groaned.
"Okay, can we rewind and you all pretend you didn't hear that just now? Like, any of that?" Chloe took a deep, steadying breath and turned around mustering up her very best 'pleased to meet you I promise I'm not crazy' smile.
The wolf stood barely fifty feet from her, eyeing her intently as it crouched.
It was a fair guess the wolf hadn't been judging her bold declaration of love.