AN
This story is a one-shot created in a whirl of inspiration: and the deeper meaning is something important to me as a writer. So please read and enjoy: but understand what I am trying to say. If you would like to comment then please leave a review, I love hearing what people think. Thanks to my beta for checking this: and agreeing that I should post the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Lord of the Rings", or any of the characters and places created by Tolkien. I do however own Laura and the other characters you will not recognise.
Laura growled in annoyance, and resisted the urge to bang her head against the desk repeatedly. Looking up at the man - no the elf - in front her she knew it would just make him think she was crazy. He pointed to the book, impatience clear in his deep grey eyes, and she sighed nodding in resignation and went back to painstakingly trying to read the words in front of her.
The sounds of silly giggling and obnoxious voices did nothing to improve Laura's mood. Those stupid annoying little girls were so amazingly perfect. Of course they hadn't had to spend four months learning how to even talk with these people. Oh no they had magically been able to speak Weston. Oh and wonder of all wonders Sindarin too! Laura on the other hand had been mortified to find that no one spoke English, so she had been learning slowly and arduously to talk to the people here. And had those girls offered to help? Of course they hadn't - they were too busy showing off their fighting prowess or saving the world!
There were two of them, and they had found themselves here at the same time Laura had; but they, it seemed, had some amazing destiny to fulfil. When Laura had finally learnt to speak Westron she had found out that she was here purely by accident. A knock on effect from them being pulled here. The injustice of it was obvious. Laura had never wanted to come here. She had never asked to be dragged from her home, her family, her job, and the people she loved. The others had: she had heard the elves speak of them, they both had tragic pasts filled with hurt and anger and pain. Yet Laura saw no repercussions. No sign of the obvious effects these sorts of things should have on the human psyche. No; these were girls were happy, annoying and at most points undeniably rude.
When Laura had finally managed to drag herself battered, tired and bruised into the beautiful city, she had accepted their hospitality in almost awe, even without the ability to communicate. She had nearly died of embarrassment as she saw the disrespect the girls showed, as one of them shouted at the Lord of the realm. She had not known what they were saying because she had not learnt how to speak Westron at that time. That was the other thing; how unfair was it, that these too transported here by wishes were given the ability to speak these languages with no effort, no work.
They could fight as well; she knew they thought themselves better than the elves at it. Yet how could it be so? The elves who had countless years of learning - who had skills built up over centuries - how was it that these obnoxious children could wield swords as if they had done it every day of their lives, and could fire arrows that never missed the target? Laura had not had the time to actually try to learn any of this, back home or here. She had trouble even lifting a sword and she doubted she would be able to pull a bow string a few centimetres, let alone to her ear. It annoyed her no end, that these girls had such natural talent. Perhaps if they had one of these abilities then she would accept it graciously, but it was almost unnatural. No one was that perfect!
They were mortal like her; but they always looked perfect, they were both amazingly beautiful, nearly as much so as the elves. Laura's dull brown hair and muddy brown eyes made her feel insecure when next to the elves, and next to two from her world who looked as such, she felt even more outclassed. Of course there would always be beautiful woman that made Laura feel jealous, but why did Laura have to get dragged here with two of the most sickeningly good-looking girls? It was almost fake! No one could be that perfect; have so few flaws, yet these two were.
So Laura tired and exhausted had fallen into a dreamless sleep on arrival. She had awoken almost forgetting her situation, but quickly remembered as she tried to sign to the young elven girl that she needed to find the bathroom. The girl had run out terrified after a few minutes, and Laura extremely embarrassed had had to try and go through the same set of charades to a young male elf she met upon leaving the room. Who, after blushing bright red, had quickly pointed to a room a few down from hers.
To top it all off, these girls who had remarkably adjusted to the change of moving worlds and into a time so dramatically different from their own, seemed to believe they had some all incredible destiny. They were all ready and set to save the world, yet it seemed nothing could ever be that simple when it came to those two. One of them, who for some completely unknown reason considering she was meant to be perfect: had taken a ride outside of Rivendell and fallen into the hands of a group of orcs. Remarkably outnumbered the girl had fought bravely, killing over half of them single-handedly before being unfortunately knocked out and having to be rescued.
From what Laura had learnt when she finally learnt the rudiments of the language, the girl's rescuer had been the extremely handsome Legolas of the woodland realm. From reading the books in Rivendell's library, of which in about four months Laura had read an entire two, she had learnt that he was from Mirkwood, and was the son of Thranduil. Of course by now it had come as no surprise to Laura that the handsome prince had fallen quickly and hopelessly in love with the girl who she had found out eventually went by the name Shadow Feather Moonlight. Laura had nearly cracked up when she heard it; the girl's parents truly must have been evil.
So now they stood just outside on the grass; which could be seen through the window in the room where she sat - Shadow, Legolas, the other girl whose name she had never found out along with a couple of other fawning elven males. It seemed that both girls were not short of admirers among the elven population. Laura could not quite fathom why. Surely there were countless beautiful elven females for them to choose from; in fact she had seen first hand there were.
Arwen Evenstar to name one - the daughter of Lord Elrond. Laura had had trouble even talking to the beautiful elf, she had seemed almost ethereal. So why would they choose one of these mortal girls to fawn over? They would die eventually, and however beautiful, their personalities left a lot to be desired.
The two girls for some reason intensely disliked Arwen; probably because she took some of the elves' attention away from them. Considering they had this surprisingly heavy burden of destiny on their shoulders; they couldn't half bicker and squabble about trivial things. If it had been Laura she would be more panicking about having the responsibility of helping all these people, but no, ogling good looking males and arguing about who was the better swordswoman was obviously a more productive use of time. Then again; them being such amazing fighters, they should have no trouble saving the world. Yet Laura couldn't help but remember, no matter how valiant: Shadow had not been opposed to being saved by a handsome elf from a terrible fate.
They didn't seem at all bothered by things which immensely bothered Laura, like the fact she could never brush her teeth properly; and when it was that time of the month, however ingenious, the middle earthen way was not a patch on tampons. She was beginning to doubt these girls were even human at all; they never got a pining for chocolate, or a longing to just watch TV, all the things that back home Laura had taken for granted. It didn't matter how much of a destiny they had here, surely there would be something about home they missed. You couldn't go living eighteen years -which was apparently the age of the two - without having something that you would miss were you to leave. Laura had countless. There were things here that she supposed were much simpler here than back home, but she wasn't sure if it was a good thing.
For Laura the language barrier had created many problems; it had been the cause of much toil and suffering; she had broken down and cried quite a few times, after failing once again to ask directions to the dining hall. This had caused some terrified looks as elves had panicked not knowing what to do with the sobbing mortal woman whom, it seemed, had broken down and cried for no reason. For the girls however there was no such problem. It seemed they had been gifted by Eru himself with the ability to converse fluently in both Westron and a form of Elvish known as Sindarin. What reason Eru had for deciding that Laura should not be allowed such an ability she didn't know; she probably wasn't pretty enough or perfect enough for that.
The girls' also had a gift with animals; one of them had managed to ride an elven horse, which many said could never be tamed, whilst the other had a pet big cat of some form. It was not a lion of tiger - she wasn't quite sure what it was - but to Laura it was terrifying and she thought it looked pretty evil. That in itself was another thing; Laura had been regarded with distrust bordering suspicion on first arrival, they had believed her a spy for The Dark Lord. The other two, however, they had welcomed with open arms. She had been glad to know she was not the only one to be met with suspicion, as she had a conversation with a travelling merchant who had met with a similar amount of interrogation. Why should these girls be omitted from such questioning? She understood why the elves treated her how they had - safety was important - but why have one set of rules for one and entirely different for another?
Laura had coped with the injustice for months; listening as the girls describe their meetings with many from Rivendell and other elven realms. Managing to keep her disgusted sighs inside, as Shadow rambled on about Legolas and all his perfect qualities; if he really was as sickeningly sweet as she made out, perhaps he deserved her. No that was wrong she would not wish those two girls on anyone, let alone the elves who had painstakingly taught her how to speak and now how to write in Westron. To say she hated them was unfair; but probably true. They were just too perfect, too unreal everything about them screamed perfection, but yet they were remarkably 2D. It was only this that stayed Laura's annoyance.
On some level she felt pity for the girls. Without flaws she found them dull, there was nothing interesting about them. They were too perfect, too fake. Even the elves for all their beauty and grace had flaws, her teacher the lore master Erestor, was amazingly wise and knowledgeable as well as being a pretty good warrior. First hand however Laura knew him to be impatient, incredibly shy, and too little prone to laughter. The girl's were so 2D she wondered how the elves could hold conversations with them. Of course they knew far too much about every subject for their own good, and were really bad listeners; they talked far too much.
She also pitied them for their naivety; for some reason they seemed to think that this great destiny of theirs was a good thing. They knew nothing of the realities of the world. They existed within the boundaries of Rivendell, yes the world looked good and beautiful, as was the elven way. From Erestor's words however Laura knew middle earth was on the brink of war, that outside battles would rage and people would die. The girl's did not seem to comprehend this; they wished to be in this world yet she did not think they would be ready to take the good with the bad. The inevitable possibility, that no matter how good, how perfect there was a large chance that they would die.
They did not see past their own thoughts and their own desires, they did not look at the consequences for others. Herself for instance. It was they that had brought her here - a mistake, true - but it was their doing ultimately. They did not think of the people they left behind in their world; no matter how tragic their pasts, they could not have been that perfect and had no admirers there – look at how many they had here! They did not think of the consequences their presence here had, the consequences if they failed the task set for them. They were almost fearless: but that did not make them brave that only made them foolish.
It was not only her that saw like this: for however many fawning admirers they had, there were some here, who wondered about them. For people who questioned them Laura was glad: the two girls hated them of course, the beautiful elleth who had mocked them. Yes perhaps it was cruel, but at least there was someone who saw through the façade, who questioned the girls' shining perfection. Her reasons for disliking them were not as they had claimed because she was jealous, or even because she hated mortals. For elves are not as judgemental as humans, or prone to such prejudices: well except for the dwarves. It seemed even elves were capable of holding grudges. No she disliked them because like Laura, she saw how fake they were, and she wondered how so many could love them as unreal as they were.
So Laura sat trying to decipher the words on the page in front of her, listening with one ear as Lord Erestor went through again the difference between the two sounds she had confused. All the while watching as the two girls wiled the hours away laughing their cares away with their elven loves. Probably practicing archery and outshining the elves with their skill, or getting ready for some ball, in which they look more beautiful than all the elves in Rivendell. So Laura sighed dramatically once again, longing for home, longing for those she left behind and all the things she missed, stuck here with those two infuriating girls.
She virtually ran from the room as Lord Erestor said she could leave. Not that she had anything to do, anywhere to go. With the girls here she had made no friends, even the elves could not help but like them, and in comparison Laura was insignificant. So she fled outside: it did not matter that she wasn't really friends with anyone: they were all polite and the beauty of Rivendell was something very few mortals had the chance to enjoy. It was a saving grace for Laura: that she was mortal, for even if she never returned home, although she still had hope, at least she would die perhaps to be reunited with those she knew in death. The girls wanted to be immortal, Shadow so she did not have to be parted from Legolas and her friend so she did not have to leave Shadow's side. She could not see how they could long to live forever, but then again there was much about them that should have been impossible. The most unjust part was that they would probably get their wish, they would be immortal, at the expense of others such as her who had no choice most likely.
She looked up sharply as she heard the warning bell; it signalled attack of some form. She wanted to run and run, back to her room as she had done before, but the shouts of Shadow and her companions to come and join them drew her closer to the boundaries of Rivendell. She looked around but they were gone: probably fighting their intruders, and still looking amazingly perfect after doing so. The stench of death made Laura gag, as she turned ready to flee back inside.
As she did so however she felt an agonising pain in her back and then nothing: merely darkness.
So Laura died, shot in the back. It was not until a few hours her body was found, the arrows could not be identified as Orc. And I personally still hold the suspicion that it was Shadow and her companion who were responsible for Laura's demise. Except, perhaps that is not possible, for they were too perfect to make such a mistake as shooting an innocent in battle. I do know however that neither girl has been given any blame for that matter, despite the fact it was their fault she was in middle earth: for being there was Laura's own fault as well, in some small way.
Perhaps, however, her fate was for the best; for Laura may never have found her way home. Had she arrived of her own accord, I am certain Laura would have found at least some happiness, as we all would eventually. Yet in the shadow of those such as Shadow, and her companion who I have affectionately dubbed Mary-Sue real people such as Laura can never flourish. Drowned in a sea of perfection and things they can never match up to; they are often lost amongst people like Shadow.
Perhaps this is a message: as to whom I am not quite certain. Laura's tale was not really classed as tragedy, for as she herself said attention focused solely on perfection the loss of people like Laura is little noticed. Yet I will remember her, and I hope you too shall, for her story is one little told. For where is the interest of one who came to Middle Earth only to die? Yet I have told it, for others out there such as Laura, and for those who get happier endings than she did.
As for Shadow and Mary-Sue? I have no real knowledge of what became of them; you can draw your own conclusions I suppose. It is most likely that they had a happy ending: that they completed their destiny, and became immortal. That Shadow married Legolas and became Queen of Mirkwood: or Eryn Lasgalen, for they had opportunely found themselves in near Rivendell for the time of the War of the Ring. As for Mary-Sue, I'm sure she found herself in love with an equally handsome, dashing and famous elf, and they were just as happy.
Yet is it wrong of me to hope? That perhaps they did not get such a perfect happy ending. That they like Laura felt some consequences for their actions. But alas it is a false hope. For stories such as Shadow's and Mary-Sue's are the ones that have lived on, and should you find other such as Laura's maybe they should be treasured for the real tales they are. For I know should I find myself stumbling upon such a tragic tale, I will not hesitate to share it, for amongst the sea of people like Shadow we could do with more people like Laura. So please for the sake of Laura's memory remember that their can be some truth and some real people who have found themselves in her position. And that with as many Shadow's and Mary's as there are out there, if you look hard enough there are people like Laura, who long to be remembered for who they are.
Read and Review and tell me what you think.