Author's Note: Hello, friends! It is good to be writing again! I am now in college, and I honestly spent probably more time on this than I should have. Laugh out loud. This story is told in four acts and a post-credit scene, and the title of each one comes from a different language corresponding to friends I have from around the world. I've broken it up as I have for dramatic effect, but it's designed (ideally) to be read in one sitting. In this first chapter containing Acts I and II, the title of I is Afrikaans for K- from South Africa, and Chapter II is in Gaelic Irish for M- and J- from Belfast, and F- and A- and E- in Northern Ireland-the True Narnia. For Narnia and the North! Green and White Army! And of course C. S. L- and JRRT, as well, my ultimate inspirations.

Disclaimer: I don't own this. As if.

INTO THE WEST

Where Frodo Went

I

Totsiens

("Goodbye")

"But you can't go, Master Frodo! You mustn't!"

Frodo looked with loving pity on his faithful servant, as the sun set across the waters painting the whole land in red and gold and draping twilight across the world.

"Oh, Sam. Dear Sam." That was all he said. Then he kissed the three noble hobbits, Pippin, Merry, and of course, Samwise.

Steadfast, ever stalwart friends,

Even to the bitter end,

he said, and boarded the ship with the elves.

Each of the hobbits was weeping, but none more than Sam. Finally, even as the mariners were untying the ropes and the captain making ready to leave, Sam cried out once more to his master.

"But, Master Frodo!" he cried, "Where will you go?"

Frodo shouted over the night winds blowing in from the sea. "We go westward, Sam!" he shouted gladly, face radiant in the fading twilight. "To the land across the sea from whence those first men came to our shores! Good-bye, good-bye! And—Sam! Do give my love to Rosie!"

"I will, Master Frodo," sobbed Sam. "You know I will."

And with that, he departed from them, and from their world entirely. Pippin sang "Into the West" by Annie Lennox as they watched the ship sail off into the falling red sun. As they watched, they weren't sure if they saw it dip under the horizon in the distance, or if it just disappeared into the burning crimson glory of the sun.

II

An Turas

(Voyage)

Frodo and the elves sailed all night in darkness and wind, and through the next four days till the hobbit began to despair, wondering if there even was a land across the sea at all…

But on that fourth night they spotted a small island, and they passed more as they sailed over the next days, though they stopped to harbor at none. They were in uncharted territory now, but there was no time for exploring.

Then finally, on the seventh day—

"Land!"

Frodo ran up from belowdecks. Could it be?

"Land! Land!" cried the watchelf.

Racing desperately to the very stern of the ship, he scoured the distance with anxious eyes. He could just barely see a thin dark crust lining the horizon. When he saw it, all the breath went out of him, and he whispered,

"The West."

All that day and through the night the Western Lands increased in thickness along the horizon, but it wasn't until the next morning—the morning of the eighth day at sea—that they finally drew up close enough to make out the features of the place. It was a bright green land—more green even than the Shire!—and a land of soft, rolling hills. In the distance to the south a glistening castle was nestled in a little bay. The wind began to blow stronger behind them as they raced up to the New World, to the Western Shores.

The ship put down anchor and everyone boarded the landing vessels, two of them. They could smell the sweetness of the land even as they rowed in, mingling the odor of fruits and flowers with the beloved smell of the salt sea. As Frodo's hair whipped in his eyes, he thought he saw something very peculiar…

"Elrond!" he said, pointing into the hills. "Look! Do you see what I see?"
"I see the finest and most lovely land my ancient eyes did ever hope to know," he said, "but what is it you see, good Hobbit?"

"I see… People!"

Elrond agreed. Above the beach on the verdant slopes a small riding party was playing, shining in the golden light of the morning sun.

"I count four—five riders!" exclaimed Frodo.

"Three men, and two women—youths I should say, unless the people of this land grow only a little higher than Hobbits," jested Will Turner the sailor. That is, Legolas, I mean.

"Yes, indeed," murmured Elrond. "But… There is something else with them, though I know not what it is."

"A great beast, though tame, it seems to me," expostulated Legolas.

"Make no assumptions as to the tameness of great creatures in a land unknown to you, Legolas," said Elrond.

"Indeed," said Frodo, "nor—about the might of small people!" Hobbits have an uncanny ability to turn almost invisible when they want to sneak about, magic rings or no. Human beings are most susceptible to it, but elves fall victim to a master disappearer, and indeed, Frodo son of Drogo, the nephew and apprentice of Bilbo Baggins the great Sneak himself, was not to be trifled with. When he had heard Legolas' remark about Hobbitkind, he had—unseen by any in the craft—began to thread his way through the closely-packed bodies to where the offending elf stood. It was just as Frodo said this that he jumped suddenly onto Legolas' back, taking him totally off his guard. As Legolas struggled with his attacker the whole vessel rocked, but fortunately elvish landing craft are constructed sturdy and wide enough that it did not overturn. When they finally removed the giddy hobbit from his triumphant position, the elf was shame-faced enough. A win for the little people it was.

The small riding party had seen their sailing ship from far off, and were now coming off the hills to meet them on the beach. They were young as Legolas had guessed, two young men and two girls of fair skin and dark hair, and another young lord of a slightly ruddier complexion. All were certainly princes and princesses—perhaps even young kings and queens—in this land, and each led his horse. With them, padding quietly beside the horses, was the great beast which had seemed to play with them earlier on the hills. It was a Lion. And It was the biggest most golden Lion you ever saw!

"See how their steeds fear not the Beast!" gasped Legolas, as the small party came finally up to them.

"Hullo, there!" said the tallest and fairest of the young lords. "Who are you, how do you do, and what business have you in Narnia?"