A/N
What is wrong with Mary Sue Stories?
Overly Perfect: There is nothing wrong what so ever with the Mary Sue character. You might as well send Chuck Norris into Middle Earth.
Stereotypes: Every Mary Sue always plays the same role (unstoppable teenage girl around 16 years old).
No Mike Sues: Am I the only one who notices that the people who fall into Middle Earth are always girls? That's sexist against boys!
How did it happen?: Is it just me, or do none of the ways that Mary Sue falls into Middle Earth make sense?
Lego-romances: Girls! Girls! I know everyone loves Legolas but does every story have to have one?
Romances In General: On the rare occasions where there is a romance between a Mary Sue and someone other than Legolas, it usually ends up being a sixteen year old getting involved with a member of the fellowship who is over a decade(s) older than them. I know that it was appropriate in the Middle Ages, but now it's just plain creepy. The youngest fellowship member is TWENTY NINE, that's still a THIRTEEN year age difference. EWWWWW!
If You've Seen One, You've Seen Them All: No matter who the Mary Sue is, or what they do, the result is always the same. Boromir and/or Haldir lives, Mary Sue and Legolas fall in love, and the rest of the story continues to follow the movie in every way. There is almost no change and no emotional journey that the Mary Sue takes.
Boring!: (following #7) There may be the occasional added line here and there from Mary Sue, but other than that, every Mary Sue story basically follows the script word for word.
Why Movie Version?: (following #8) It may be easier to write Mary Sue adventures through the adaptations of the movies, but if a Mary Sue did fall into Middle Earth, wouldn't they fall into the book version, since that is the original Middle Earth?
Because everyone else is doing one… that's right, I've decided to give it a go. Why? I honestly have no idea. So far, I've only ever liked one Mary Sue story out of the many that I've read/tried to read, but I guess I'm just bending to Mary Sue pure pressure. I'm still working on my other story: The Shield of Undomiel, but I like having more than one project to work on, just so I don't get bored. Will I be breaking some of the rules above? Unfortunately yes, but only when it can't be avoided. These two characters will be based on my brother and I (with different names of course), and if there is something we cannot do in reality, it won't happen in this story. Wish me luck.
P.S. No copyright intended, this story is not meant to offend Mary Sue authors (I apologize now if I do), I don't own anything except the OC's
Chapter One: We Accidently Run Into A Barrow-Wright
It was the weekend of September 28th, 2013, (should have posted this yesterday) and what was I doing? I was blindly following my brother through the woods behind our farm, without asking any questions. Hi, my name is Susan McGlashan, my brother's name is Eric, and we are not normal.
My brother is younger than me by a year and a half, but everyone thinks he's the oldest because he's taller than me by almost five inches. Even before he was taller than me, people didn't' think I was older; instead they just assumed that we were twins. Eric likes to say it's because I act younger than him, and the worst part is, even when I put high heels on, he's still taller than me.
No matter how much we look alike, we are completely different from each other. While I'm in my room reading fiction and fantasy, he's in his room researching wilderness survival skills and taking notes in his own personal Edible Plants journal. I like to tease him about his many survival kits that are stored away in his bedroom but he always come back at me with chirps about my own little medieval mind set. It all comes down to the fact that I sometimes let slip the occasional medieval word or phrase by mistake. No thine's, thee's or thou's, or anything, but when I say things like: "I'm facing a dire deadline" or "your memory serves you ill," then I never live it down. We absolutely hate each other, but on rare occasions when we're not arguing, we get along really well; in fact, if we weren't related, we'd probably be pretty good friends. Doesn't make sense I know, but that's a brother and sister relationship for you.
Our time together (not arguing) is mainly spent in the barn shooting targets with our bows. That's another thing about us: we're archers, and not compound archers. We use traditional bows without high tech gears. It took longer to learn how to use a longbow, but it felt more natural using one, besides, during hunting season when we're in the woods, a long bow is not as delicate to carry around compared to a compound bow.
Today however, we were not hunting for deer, we spending the night. I was currently suffering a severe case of writer's block with the fantasy novel that I have been writing for years. It had been driving me crazy for weeks, until I got the idea of putting myself in the exact same situation as the characters in my story. I was hoping find some more writing inspiration this way. I got stuck writing at a point where my characters were wandering through a forest, so I decided to spend the night in the woods out behind our farm. Eric of course was coming with me because apparently I'm (and I quote) 'at risk at getting lost on our own property,' and he was in the mood to go on a survival trip anyways. Our parents had to work so they wouldn't be with us, but we had our cell phones if we got into serious trouble.
The plan was to take Eric's smaller survival bag, a couple sleeping bags, and nothing else. no tent, no food, just natural resources for the whole weekend "we're weird, I know, don't judge us." Surprisingly it had to be over twenty degrees because Eric's hair was curling under the humidity. It was just a mess of blond curls. Mine did the same thing, so I tied it in a ponytail to keep the curls out of my eyes.
We'd walked off the beaten path a while ago and were weaving through the thick bush to a place where Eric had built his own little survival camp. 'So where's this log shelter you keep telling me about?' I asked him.
'Just past these trees,' he answered. 'I haven't been there in a while. Hopefully it's still holding up.' He suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked behind us as if something were bugging him. I followed his line of sight but didn't know what we were looking for. 'Hey, Su, you know which way we go to get back to the house right?'
'No… I thought you–' he shook his head and then stared directly at me. "Were we lost already?" I could tell something was up. 'You've got to be joking!' I groaned, but as soon as I said that, that little evil grin that I hated so much appeared on Eric's face and he started to laugh.
'Yep, I am,' he said 'you should have seen the look on your face. You would have been so lost if I didn't know where we were.'
'No I wouldn't,' I argued 'I'd just walk east, I'd hit home eventually.'
'Really?' said Eric 'which ways east?'
"Dam!" I mentally cursed. I couldn't tell. It was the middle of the day, so the sun was pointed directly in the sky, so I couldn't look at the direction that my shadow was pointing. Randomly, I took a wild guess and pointed in the direction we had just come from, but by the amused look on Eric's face, I could tell I was wrong.
'Nope,' he said looking at his watch, 'that way's east.' Eric extended his hand to the left
'Well, I would have guessed that if it were a different time of day,' I said. 'I can't see where the shadows are directed. I know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I'm not stupid.'
'You don't need the tree shadows to know which way's east or west,' said Eric 'all I did was angle my watch so that the hour hand faced the sun and then looked in the direction between the hour hand and the twelve o-clock mark to get north and south. You see? North, south, east, and west.' He demonstrated his knowledge by pointing to each direction as he spoke. I rolled my eyes at him.
'Nerd,' I mumbled under my breath, but he heard me and laughed again.
'Pot calling the kettle black! You're more of a nerd than I am.'
'Am not,' I argued, 'I'm just a different kind of nerd.
'Yeah, but at least I'm a smart nerd, you're just a geeking nerd,' said Eric.
'Yeah, but technically I'm only a half blood nerd on our mom's side.' He raised his eyebrows at me and smirked.
'Wow, just knowing that makes you a nerd.'
'Shut up,' I said, and we kept going. We came over the hill and there I saw Eric's camp. Eric had stacked fallen logs together for the walls, and thatched a roof made out of fern branches. it would have been amazing, accept, only one wall was still standing, and the roof had caved in, but even then it actually looked pretty impressive considering that he built it himself, it just needed a bit of fixing up.
'Well,' I said, walking up to the campsite, 'if this is shelter, then one wall and no roof make a house.' I couldn't resist, after all, it was a Lord of the Rings quote. I even did a voice imitation of Sam Gamgee when I said it. Eric raised his eyes at me, recognizing who's voice it was supposed to be (we had just watched the first movie last night) and he did not looked impressed.
'Lord of the Rings? Again, really?'
'What?' I asked.
'Admit it, you're obsessed.'
'I'm not that bad.'
'No?' he asked. 'What's in your backpack?'
'My novel,' I answered casually.
'Is that all that's in there?'
'Probably not, I didn't empty my school stuff out of it, so I... Oh.' He caught me. Eric knew that I was reading The Lord of The Rings on the bus. I unzipped my bag and lo and behold, I found my copy of the Ring's trilogy, with all three books printed in the same cover. Yes, I was obsessed.
'Busted,' he said, sprouting another evil grin on his face.
'Yeah, okay,' I confessed, 'but I'm not the only one who loves it. Did you know that The Lord of The Rings is the most read book in the world, other than The Bible?'
He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head 'What?' I asked again.
'We desperately need to get you a boyfriend.'
'Oh shut up.'
We spent the rest of the afternoon fixing up the shelter. Repairing the roof was the hardest part, but we managed in the end. By the time the sun was setting, the shelter was all done, and I was starving. Eric had started the fire for us with his flint and then began roasting some roots that he found. They tasted a lot baked carrots, but even after eating them I was still hungry. I saw a berry bush nearby and walked over to it. It was a wild rose bush, which meant that the berries were safe to eat. They were red and looked like miniature cherries.
'Don't eat those!' Eric shouted, just as I had pulled a couple of them off the bush.
'What!' I said. 'They're wild rose berries. They're edible right?'
'Yes, but they also have hairs inside them which are used to make itching powder. You squish one of those by accident and you won't stop scratching.'
'Oh.' I looked down at the berries which suddenly didn't look so appetizing, and threw them into the bush.
'You're welcome,' he said sarcastically.
'Yeah, yeah.' I answered dryly. I decided that it was time for bed, and crawled into my sleeping bag.
'Sleep tight,' teased Eric. 'Don't let the wolves bite.' He was trying to scare me.
'Not going to work,' I told him. 'You know we don't have wolves around here.' I rolled over onto my back. There were a lot of stars overhead, like diamonds sprinkled throughout the heavens. "Awesome metaphor. I should write it down before I forget." There was a crescent moon shooting up from the east, and before I knew it, I was lost in my own imagination, thinking up story ideas for my novel.
A dog's bark brought me out of my daydreaming, and I tensed up immediately. "Okay, maybe I'm only a little scared, but that's to be expected right?" Suddenly, I heard howling coming from right behind me, and leapt out of my sleeping bag with a start, screaming my head off. Laughter suddenly filled the camp, and I finally realize what just happened.
Eric.
'Go'cha!' he said triumphantly, cupping his hands up to his mouth, and making another wolf cry.
'You Jerk!' I yelled at him, and stormed out of the camp site.
'Aw, common Susan, it was just a joke!' he called, but I didn't listen to him. I hated this part of any camping trip we take, when he plays these "jokes" on me. The woods were always creepy at night, and with my crazy imagination, it was easy for Eric to scare me.
Looking around, I noticed that a white fog had started creeping around my legs. Tree shadows loomed on every corner, shaping the darkness into terrifying shapes and forms. I turned to head back to the camp, but I found myself not knowing which way to go. "Shit. He's never going to let me forget this." At the risk of being humiliated, I called out his name.
'Eric!' There was not answer. 'Eric where are you!' I waited for him to call back, but till, there was no answer. "Is he ignoring me? What is going on here?" This was when I started to panic. 'Eric, stop it, this isn't funny! Answer me! Where are you?'
'Here.' A cold voice whispered, and my body froze.
"That was definitely not Eric."
'Hello?' I whispered, my voice croaking a little bit. 'Who's there?' for a moment, everything was still, and I heard nothing, but then a faint and distant cry broke the silence.
'Susan? Susan.!' It was Eric, he sounded worried.
'Eric!' I dared to call back. 'Follow my voice!' I started walking blindly through the dark and was about to tell him to keep talking so I could find him, when the cold voice spoke a second time.
'Here,' it said again. Suddenly, a dark shape was standing before me, with two pale eyes that stared directly at me.
'He is here. You are here. I have come.' Six feet away from me, it was, grim and dreadful, and slowly, it approached. I didn't know what to do.
'What do you want!' I choked, just as it reached me. A cold steel grip clasped onto my neck, and I remembered no more.
I was trapped in a nightmare, but I didn't understand it at all. I didn't know where I was. There was mist everywhere around my feet, and the ground seemed as flat as a marble floor. The sky was black and without any stars, but there was a dim light somewhere in the stretching distance. I tried to follow it, but couldn't move. I was frozen. Somehow I knew that I wasn't alone, but whoever was with me, stayed out of my sight.
'Susan.' Someone said. It was Eric's voice that spoke, I'd recognize it anywhere, but the way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine. He wasn't calling me, or getting mad at me or anything; instead, he sounded more like he was just acknowledging me as he would a dim shadow. There was no emotion in his voice at all. I wanted to call out to him, but couldn't. I couldn't speak at all.
At that moment, a soft yet solid noise echoed over the ground. There were footsteps. Someone was coming. "Could it be Eric?" I wondered hopefully. A shape had appeared out of the mist now, but I still couldn't call out to him. Tap-tap-tap, went the sound of his footsteps, and as he got closer, I began to see the features of his face.
It wasn't Eric – that I was now certain of. The man was too old, somewhere in his forties. I'd never seen him before in my life. His hair, blond and thick, reached down to his back, and his clothes were green and gold, and looked like they were made of some kind of linen. His eyes looked as deep as the mist, grey and calm, and with them, he looked upon me with suspicion and wonder.
"This has to be some sort of dream," I thought. "I don't remember waking up. I don't even remember going to sleep"
'What trickery is this?' he asked glancing to me, and then to my left side.
"Who else is he looking at?" I thought. "Was it Eric?" I could only assume that it was. He looked back at me and spoke again.
'Who are you Strangers?' he said, and to my surprise, I found that I could speak again. It was just as everything was growing dark again, and the man began to fade away with the mist. I didn't want him to leave. I was afraid and didn't know what would happen to me if he left, so with the most effort that I could possibly manage, I called out to him.
'Help us!' I cried, and everything went dark again.
From his dream, the man awoke. 'This was no mere vision,' he knew. The faces of the two children which he had seen, were clear and frightening in his thoughts.
Help us, the child had cried, but ere he could reach them, they were swept into the mist, and carried beyond his aid. Hopelessly he watched their forms fade until he was left alone facing the darkness of the east. a soft glowing light lingered behind him, but he could not turn, and from all around him, a clear voice cried out to him, with words as clear as water:
Seek for they who are unknown,
To Imladris they wander
New branches of fate they shall have grown
In the Northern Lands yonder.
Paths of old shall be remade
Where many a test shall be taken
Doom and peace shall be waylaid,
A new fellowship shall waken.
Of what purpose the dream was to his king and to Rohan, he did not know, yet this man was not a witless fool. Théodred was his name, son to Théoden King of the Golden Hall, and he knew that his dream was a message sent by a power beyond his reconing. To Imladris, the voice had said, instructions alike to those of Denathor's son, who had stayed in Edoras many months ago. Boromir, a friend and ally against the growing darkness of Mordor, had told him of his dream, and now that Théodred dreamt of a vision of likeness to Boromir's, he would not tarry any longer where he lay. He would follow Boromir's road to Rivendell, even if his father bade him otherwise.
He guessed to knowingly that the retched worm Grima would find some reason against his going, but as the king's son, Théodred would not heed crooked Wormtongue, but even as he thought this, did his thoughts stray to Éowyn. Could he leave his father's niece alone with that worm watching her steps. Nay, he would leave her a dagger, one that she could carry when her sword was kept elsewhere, and Éomer, his aunt's son, would surly put death upon the worm if he crept to close to her.
Theodred was not eager to leave them behind, but he could not turn this dream of his away when others were also called to the house of Lord Elrond Half Elven. He remembered that Boromir spoke of a council there, where a token shall be revealed to them. If he was chosen to represent the people of Rohan in this council, then he would not delay any longer. Théodred would leave Edoras that very night.
A/N: Well...? Good? Bad? What did you think? Should I continue it? If you're wondering why Susan is such a B**ch, it's because I'm going to write from both hers and Eric's point of view, and I'm making them both enemies to each other in the beginning. Hence the title.