Well, you asked for it...a sequel to the Glittering Caves journey...and guess what? You got one! I'm honoured by all the positive feedback for DoS and I really do appreciate you all, in fact if it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't be writing this so this sequel is entirely your fault!
Disclaimer: In case you haven't noticed, I'm not JRR Tolkien and do not own LotR or any of the characters (alas). The description of Wellinghall is from TTT with a few alterations.
Before I start I'm going to thank those who reviewed chapter seven of TGC, or as it's now called DoS, because I can't really do it anywhere else:
Eregriel Gloswen: Once again, thank you for providing a dose of much-needed motivation. You've made a lonely authoress very happy :). And thanks for the ideas, they really helped. Look out for some of them in later chapters!
kj&cl rules: spectacular—cool!! I'm spectacular!! Thanks cl and friend. : P
A/N: This chapter is like what The Hobbit is to LotR. That is, the proper events start next chapter but this intro one is essential to the plot. It will involve some light humour at Gimli's expense, I know it's breaking a few rules but although I like being unconventional I promise not to do it again. My idea of Gimli has been influenced a bit by the movie version since DoS so if he sounds a bit out-of-context, just bear with me.
The two entered Fangorn Forest this time in the company of Fangorn himself, albeit well behind the Ent's long strides. As they neared the edge of the wood, Gimli hung back obstinately. The dark eaves looked forbidding and unwelcoming when viewed from the clear glow of a bright spring morning. Realising his friend was no longer at his side, Legolas, who was forging eagerly ahead, turned and went back to him.
"The sooner you are inside, the sooner you may leave," he reassured the reluctant Dwarf.
"I will spend a year for each minute that passes in that gloomy fustiness," retorted Gimli.
"If that does not comfort you," said Legolas, "remember you are honouring a bargain. If you refuse to come further than this, you will shame yourself by going back on a promised word. And when you have come through Fangorn," he added, "I grant you will remember this moment as one of childhood foolishness."
Gimli grunted in assent, and continued reluctantly but determinedly forward to the eaves of the Forest. Legolas quickly drew in front once more. Treebeard had paused to allow the two to come nearer, before he led them onwards. When he was but a few yards away, Gimli suddenly slowed. Though he would consent to be led through the Forest, he refused to come any closer to an Ent than felt comfortable to him. The Ent in question, however, looked shrewdly at him without speaking, his eyes growing deep and full of understanding.
Legolas had now reached the edge of the wood and stood waiting, a little impatiently, for Gimli to overcome his distrust. But at that moment, it was only his love for Legolas that made the Dwarf move forward past the dim eaves of Fangorn.
As they entered the forest, Treebeard spoke. "You say you wish to visit the deep places of my realm. Well, hoom, I cannot show them all to you—that would take many months, and I daresay you have things to do and homes to return to. I will show you what I can of the wonders that may be found here in the little time we have."
"We are grateful for your hospitality," said Legolas. "We did not expect such a welcome from you. All we see will be greatly appreciated." At the last sentence Gimli opened his mouth to mutter something, but caught Legolas' warning glance and subsided.
"Hoom, well, I do not have visitors very often, especially fair folk as eager as you seem," replied Treebeard, somewhat pleased. "We will stay in one of my Ent-houses, hoom, Wellinghall I think, for tonight, and in the morning I will take you to see what I can safely show you of the Huorns."
At the name of Wellinghall both companions looked up at Treebeard in wonder and excitement; they had heard of the place through Merry and Pippin and were now eager to see it for themselves.
But at the mention of the Huorns Gimli's eyes opened wide, startled. He stopped short. "Huorns?! The fighting trees that swallowed the orcs in the Deep!" Trees were acceptable, Ents could be with time, but Huorns were something he was not prepared to face.
Treebeard stopped and turned around to face the Dwarf. "Of course. I should think you would be interested to see them, being yourself a warrior." Gimli did not deign to reply, and Treebeard strode on, slowing his pace to account for his smaller guests.
Legolas easily kept the pace, speaking with Treebeard now and then in the elf-tongue while gazing around him in wonder, but Gimli, perhaps partly through lack of motivation, continually lagged behind. When many miles had been travelled and the Ent-house was still nowhere in sight, his head began to sag and he stumbled over irregular roots in his path. Suddenly he stopped and abruptly sat down beneath one of the towering trees.
Legolas, glad of the excuse to halt and look around him properly, slowed and presently called gaily to his friend. "Hurry, Gimli, if you do not wish to lose yourself. There is not far to go now."
Gimli, however, refused to move. He would not go another step, so he said, without some knowledge of how many more must be taken.
Treebeard seemed slightly irritated with the Dwarf's behaviour. Slowly he strode back to him, and, without a word, lifted the protesting Dwarf off the ground and onto his broad, woody shoulders. Gimli soon realised his predicament and quietened down, and the small party proceeded in relative peace.
With the hindrance of Gimli's slow pace removed, they reached the Ent-house well before dusk and came to the two tall evergreen trees standing as silent guards. Though the two had never seen it previously, Legolas and Gimli immediately recognised Wellinghall from a description Pippin and Merry had given them before they left Minas Tirith:
"Beyond the trees is a wide level space, as though the floor of a great hall had been cut in the side of the hill. On either hand the walls slope upwards, until they are fifty feet high or more, and along each wall stands an aisle of trees that also increase in height as you go inwards.
"At the far end the rock-wall is sheer, but at the bottom it has been hollowed back into a shallow bay with an arched roof. A little stream escapes from the springs above and falls down the sheer face of the wall like a fine curtain in front of the arched bay. The water is gathered again into a stone basin in the floor between the trees, and from there it spills and flows away beside the path, out to rejoin the Entwash in its journey through the forest."
Treebeard set Gimli down and the three entered the hall together. The Ent, as was his custom, stood under the sparkling waterfall for a moment before passing in. Once inside he lifted two large stone vessels onto a table in the center of the hall. The back of the cavern, though the sun still shone, had become already lost in shadows.
As Treebeard placed his long, gnarled hands over the two stone jars, they began to glow—one with a clear golden light as of long-forgotten summer mornings; the other with a rich green radiance, as a young leaf filled with the joy of its short life. The small cave became filled with a refreshing blend of the two lights, like soft morning sunrays glancing through trees high above. The trees outside the hall also began to glow joyfully, their every leaf edged with a golden, or resonant copper, or emerald green light.
Watching this transformation taking place, the Elf and Dwarf marvelled at the words of Treebeard. "The wonders that may be found here." How, they wondered, could there be anything in Fangorn's groves more beautiful than this.