The Other Territories: A Pendragon Fanfic

There was much work to be done. It was hard labor, and I relished in the opportunity to take my mind off what I had done by destroying the flume. Saint Dane was trapped here, forever. He couldn't leave, but neither could I. But I had done it to save Halla, and when it came to saving Halla, I would sacrifice anything.

The island of Ibara was full of good cheer. We had beaten Saint Dane, beaten his armies, and for all the losses, we had prevailed.

The homes were the first thing to be rebuilt.

Then we began the beach cleanup. We melted the Quillan dado robots, and I was glad to see them gone. The faces stared at us as we gathered their heads, 'cause they were the first to go. They looked too intelligent, and some still moved. The lumps of metal were dropped in the sea, and were never seen again. The skimmers were also melted into the plastic-metal from Cloral and dumped into the blue waters.

That took about two to three weeks, and I thought of nothing but the work. But then one strange day I went to the site of the dead flume. It was buried.

No way in, no way out. Or so I thought.

But then I felt something behind me.

I wasn't alone.

"Why hello, Pendragon! What a strange coincidence to see you! Isn't this a lovely view of the ocean?"

I turned slowly to face my mortal enemy. Saint Dane's icy blue eyes bored into me as I stood there in front of him. He chuckled. I hate it when he chuckles. It's a madman's chuckle.

"So you thought you could keep me here, did you? You are such a petty excuse for a Traveler, Pendragon. That is your biggest mistake. Forgetting my superior powers. You and all the dead others." Chuckle. "For 'tis better to die sooner than late, or die not at all."

"I did keep you here, didn't I? Otherwise you wouldn't be here, would you?" I said to take my mind off his last remark. It sounded like he was quoting something.

"Ah, but I wanted you to see the show."

Now I was on my guard. What "show"? Somehow my good judgment said that it wouldn't be good. Freaking Saint Dane and his riddles.

"Goodbye, Pendragon. Have a nice day." And with that, he turned into his smoky form and sank into the stones at my feet.

I gaped at the hill of rock. Saint Dane had outwitted me again. He was gone, into the buried flume and leaving, going to a place called "Middle Earth" (Saint Dane had said that just loud enough for me to hear), if the faint but sweet jumbled music below was any way to judge. And then he was gone.

And Halla was in some seriously deep shit.

It was weeks later. I had convinced the tribunal to lend me diggers to unearth the flume I had just buried. It took over a month, and for me, every day was filled with never-ending despair. I had to leave, and I had to leave now, otherwise Saint Dane would win another territory. Halla was in danger, and the lead Traveler was still on Ibara.

When it was finished, I explained that I was going after the bad guy that caused the battle to the men I had worked with, and the same to the tribunal. What they didn't know they didn't need to. And so when the flume was uncovered, I left with instructions for the flume to be re-covered.

I hiked down to the flume site with nothing but the clothes I was wearing. As I stood before the magnificent cave, I wondered where Middle Earth came into the picture. I had been on every Earth territory, and Middle fit nowhere.

And for some reason, it rang a bell.

But that was where Saint Dane had gone. So I called out the name.

"Middle Earth!"

As I was sucked into the inviting zero gravity of the flume, I automatically began to see the holographic images of the territories. There were the Bedoowan knights, a silver dygo, and other familiar images.

There were some new ones, ranks of men in shining armor, a column of beautiful people arrayed for battle holding tall bows, and the oddest picture, a group of nine people, that still I definitely thought looked familiar.

Two of them were men, both with shoulder length hair, but one of them was wearing travel stained armor, the other in a worn leather, both with swords at their hips. There were also four short people that looked like something I had seen before, one carrying a ring around his (I suppose it was a he) neck. The others were one of the fair haired people I described earlier, this time wearing green and brown, and a person I could clearly tell was a dwarf. The last was an old man, carrying a staff and wearing grey.

Strange. Isn't that…

The flume deposited me in a curtain of black. No time to think now. If Saint Dane was here, there were quigs, too. I slowly stood, and let my eyes adjust to the dark. A minute later, there was a soft click behind me and light spilled into a space in the chamber in front of where I was standing. The light came off from the right, but I could not see the source.

"Hello? Who goes there?"

"How do you know anyone's there, Thalion?"

"Didn't you hear the music?"

"I'm sure it means nothing and you were hearing things."

"No, I'm positive that there was something going on. I'm curious. Come on, mellon nin."

The two people, guards from their tone, were entering the chamber. And there was nowhere to hide in the flume.

And that's when the spider-quigs attacked.

Just before the guards came into view, I looked up. 100 yellow eyes came into view and silently began to climb down the wall.

There was only one thing to do.

"Hey! Over here!" I yelled. The guards came running. I looked up again.

The quigs were gone. I think Saint Dane could somehow control them, because in every other circumstance in which I stepped out of a flume onto a territory with Saint Dane on it, the quigs attacked. This time, not even a touch.

The guards were here. They came running up on swift and silent feet and apparently better eyesight because they noticed me right away.

"See Meldiron? I knew there was an intruder in here."

"Okay, you win. But how did he get here?"

I spoke. "My name is Pendragon. I don't know how I got here, wherever here is."

"You are in Mirkwood, in the palace of King Tharanduil."

Then it hit me, where all these fancy names, Middle Earth and the nine people.