A Rather Epic Game of Ping Pong
1: A Strange Scene to Set
Quite a lot of people know about the War of the Ring. It was very well documented in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic (I do like that word) book "The Lord of the Rings". However, there's not really much detail about what happens afterwards, and the account in the appendixes is almost annoyingly short. And so it is that hardly anyone knows of the upcoming tale.
For the Fellowship met up one last time, along with some old friends (or enemies). Afterwards, no one present could satisfactorily explain exactly how the reunion happened. Some were almost certain they had received an invitation, whereas others would swear that nothing had ever been planned.
Gandalf, as the only person there who had 'the wise' after his name as one of his titles, was left to think up an explanation. He toyed for a while with 'an evil trap' and 'secretly filmed for You've Been Framed', but in the end settled on Fate. It was meant to happen. A slightly annoying conclusion, as it's nigh impossible to explain, especially to hobbits, who aren't so used to that sort of thing. Of course, the hobbits he was explaining it to were considerably more used to that sort of thing than the majority of their furry-footed kind, which simplified matters somewhat.
However, exactly why Fate wanted it to happen remained a mystery, even to Gandalf. Mind you, most things about Fate remain a mystery. The best guess anyone could come up with was that Fate was in dire need of a laugh. You would, if you were Fate, wouldn't you?
And so it was that Gandalf, taking a stroll early one morning whilst on a visit to Gondor, maybe a year after the battle of the Morannon, felt suddenly compelled to take a completely different turning to the one he had planned to. He walked bewildered through the stone-paved streets, until he was faced with a pair of wide wooden doors. And stood outside them, a very familiar crowd of people, looking just as surprised as he felt. Surprised, that is, apart from three. Legolas, being an elf and all, had more ability to accept the weird and wonderful than even Gandalf. Then there was Aragorn, who had been wandering about the stranger regions of Middle Earth for so long that nothing surprised him anymore. Finally, there was Boromir, who had just been resurrected, meaning that going to an unknown building for no given reason was one of the more normal things that had happened to him that day.
It was with many cries of delight (and a quiet mutter of "oh no, something must have gone wrong, Gandalf's here!" from Gimli) that the fellowship welcomed their wizard. Gandalf smiled graciously at everyone (apart from Gimli, who received a glare that would have made most Uruk-hai run to their caves, but only made the dwarf snigger) before being hit with a metaphorical brick wall comprising entirely of questions. Being, as is already stated, not entirely sure what was going on himself, Gandalf quietened his friends with a quick "let's wait and see, shall we?" That kind of thing usually worked. Sure enough, the fellowship (even the hobbits) fell silent, and, no longer allowed to pester the wizard, turned their attention to the small gaggle of black cloaked creatures who had arrived whilst they had not being looking.
It was Sam who finally broke the tense silence as their new companions were recognised by all. "But Mr. Frodo, sir, those look mightily like the orcs," he stuttered. "And I'd swear that the one they're bowing too is just a giant eye floating in mid air. A giant eye who should by all rights be drownded, deaded and utterly deceased-ed." Sam had been writing even more poetry since he had returned to the Shire, and it was beginning to tell.
Gandalf himself had been studying the forces of evil. There was Sauron, of course, as well as Gollum. The Lord of the Nazgul was there with some of his minions, an envoy of orcs and Shelob the spider. After yet another head count, of both sides, the wizard came to a rather strange conclusion, even compared to what had already happened that day. Both sides, the forces for good and evil, were of equal numbers. What is more, they were exactly the numbers required for a table tennis tournament. Silently shaking his head, Gandalf strode towards the entrance of the strange building, the rest of the company at his heels.