Chapter 1: Setting the Board
"Claire...", a voice whispered in my head. " Claire...she's looking at you..." I yawned in response, slipping back into consciousness opening my eyes slowly. I turned my head towards the voice, which was not in my head at all, but in the desk beside me.
"Who cares, it's about time she realizes that she bores me to tears." I rubbed my eyes, and faced Professor Kilburn. She looked at me with an aggravated expression. When I registered for this course, I sincerely thought it would be singlehandedly the greatest course I would ever take. Oh, how wrong I had been. Professor Hillary Kilburn was the only person in the world that could make me hate J.R.R. Tolkien's work. The course itself, called Into the West: A Comprehensive Study of the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien had nearly brought me to tears of happiness when I saw it as one of the few courses that fit nicely into my heavy schedule. As a raging Tolkien fangirl, this had been an opportunity I could not miss. But as if The Silmarillion wasn't boring enough, Kilburn managed to make it worse.
"Ah, Miss Ackerman, you've finally joined us back in Arda." Professor Kilburn mused obnoxiously. Her face went hard all of a sudden, and she approached me slowly, "Now tell me, what is the significance of the Two Trees of Valinor, and what are their names?"
I stammered for a moment, gathering my thoughts out of dreamland, before sputtering a response, "Telperion and Laurelin."
"Their significance?"
My mind went blank. For the life of me, I could not remember the significance of the two trees. I'd all but memorized the Encyclopedia of Arda! There could be no way that I had missed this detail. But still, as much as I scanned my vast and useless knowledge of Middle-Earthian lore and history, I could still not recall what the damned trees did.
"I don't remember." I replied, quietly. Ten bucks says she tells me that had I been awake, I would know exactly what the significance of the Two Trees of Valinor was,
"Well, had you been awake, you would have been able to answer that question, Miss Ackerman. Now, luckily for you, I need someone to help me correct freshman term papers on just that topic." She stopped for a moment, a ghost of a smile tracing her lips, "Perhaps you would like to meet me in my office this afternoon and help me."
I groaned as she walked away and continued her lecture, this time I paid good attention. But before long, I was daydreaming again. This time, not quite sleeping, but thinking solely of the hot date I had tonight, which thanks to Kilburn, I would be late for. Perhaps I could explain it to her? Not likely. Someone like her has spent their entire lives fantasizing about elves in tight breeches, and learning to play Dwarven jigs on the fiddle. I doubt any man who wasn't of Numenorian descent had ever crossed her mind. No, I would have to show up and help her correct poorly written and botched freshman papers all evening, missing my date with Peter.
"Hey, she's right you know. I know she's boring, but this course is actually worth credits. It would do you well to pay attention, I know how badly you're failing Calculus." James said quietly, beside me. James was my best friend, and my biggest critic. "And I'm sure Peter will understand, he's madly in love with you. You could tell him to jump off a bridge and he'd do it."
I snickered at that. Peter and I were on the verge of starting a very healthy romance. A romance that will have to be postponed until Friday night, now. My own fault, I know.
Finally, after another hour of butchering the excitement and action of Middle Earth with her endless droning, Kilburn ended her lecture with yet another writing asssignment, and I all but ran out of the room. As I was about to get into my car and drive away, praying to Eru that Kilburn would have forgotten about this afternoon, she pulled up beside me in her rusty Honda Civic,
"Ah, good, you're just on time to follow me to the Herzberg Building, and my office." she said, rolling down the window.
"Yeah, I figured I'd get there early, to have more time to...correct." I lied, smoothly. Or at least, I thought it was smooth. She gave me a pointed look, and drove off, with me right behind her.
* * *
"So you have...two hundred fifteen freshman students?" I asked, sighing inwardly. She nodded, and dropped a rather massive stack of papers on my lap.
"Mind you know your facts before challenging anything, Claire. But, knowing you, you'll know it all. Unless it's about the Two Trees, that is." she said, patting me lightly on the shoulder. "I am going to make some tea, I'll be back shortly. Can I get you some?"
I shook my head, "No, thank you."
She walked off into the adjacent room, the teacher's lounge. I lifted the heavy stack of papers off my lap, and layed them out according to class on the desk that had been set up for me. Casually, I flipped through the first few, cringing at the grammatical errors and misunderstood facts. I looked around the room curiously, eyeing anything interesting. Kilburn was sure a strange woman, with posters of the Lord of the Rings movies all over her office walls, and a bookshelf filled with various versions and editions of Tolkien's works. Beside the bookshelf was a small table, with a large wooden box on it. I got up from my seat, and walked quietly over to the box,
"Are you sure I can't get you anything, Claire? A soda, perhaps?" Kilburn called from the other room, I jerked, suddenly,
"Er, no, I'm fine, thank you!" I replied nervously. I was being far too nosy for my own good. The box was beautiful, made from a very light, almost white wood. It was inlaid with what seemed like a Celtic pattern, but different. Silver leafing donned the edges of the lid, and it glinted in the dusty sunlight as I lifted the top to reveal the contents inside.
Inside was a small dagger. A beautiful weapon, to be sure. Its hilt was of a dark leather, and seemed to depict a battle scene in silver leafing. I lifted the dagger from its velvet encasing, and pulled it out of its sheath. The blade was smooth and bright in the light of the afternoon sun. It was lighter than I'd imagined it would be, and felt comfortable in my hands.
"Would you mind doing me a favour, dear? I seem to have left my mug on my desk, would you fetch it for me?" Kilbrun called loudly again, from the lounge. I jumped slightly, dropping the blade. My palm stung a bit as it slid out of my hands. A small amount of blood began to flow from the tiny wound,
"Yeah, sure, no problem" I replied shakily. Hastily, I put the dagger back in its box, and grabbed a tissue for my hand before bringing Kilburn her mug. I sat down at the desk and eyed the small cut, assesing the damage. After deciding that it barely needed a band-aid, I quickly began the tedious work of correcting the term papers.
Later that evening, I could be found walking back to my car, my hand cramped from the corrections. I checked my cell phone for any messages, and found one from Peter,
"Hey, James told me that you got stuck correcting papers for Kilburn. Sorry to hear that, I was really looking for to being with you alone for once. Anyways, call me later, we can figure out another time to hang out. I miss you, Clairebear."
I smiled fondly at his stupid nickname for me. He knew very well that I hated nicknames, and yet he refused to stop calling me 'Clairebear'. Peter was wonderful, and seemingly perfect. Tall,dark haired, and sickeningly sweet, I couldn't get enough of him. He was quite different than I was, being a Science major, and all. His sense of fun was a little more prominent, as well. I was known to stay cooped up in my apartment, reading and sipping coffee. He was known for going to rock concerts and playing rugby. Yet, for whatever reason, we got a long famously, and he was the only guy I had ever met to tell me how beautiful I looked with my glasses on.
That night, I fell asleep, rather restlessly. I had dreams all night of the dagger in Kilburn's office, and of Peter, and of the Two Trees of Valinor.
* * *
I woke the next morning to the smell of leaves and fresh forest air. I groaned, I must have left the window open overnight, again. Groggily, I looked around me for my glasses. Instead of my glasses however, I found the roots of a great white tree. Peering upwards, I found the branches and leaves of said tree, a mallorn tree, only native to the elven kingdom of Lothlorien.
It must just be a strange birch, I thought to myself. Even so, what on earth was I doing outside? Had I started sleepwalking recently? I was too far a long in my college career to be a victim of hazing...I must have been dreaming. Too much Tolkien in one day will have you seeing mallorn trees, I suppose. This explanation was quickly brought to death by the pair of strong arms lifting me easily off the ground, muttering in some language I could not understand.
I began to struggle, "What the hell are you doing? Put me down! Put me down!" I yelped, still reaching for my glasses. I let my eyes focus for a moment on the face of my captor. His pale blue eyes stared back at me, curiously. My nose began to itch as a lock of his long white-blond hair tickled my the tip of my nose,
"Where do you hail from?" the being asked, putting me down, but keeping a strong grip on my wrist,
I thought, for a moment, before replying, "Uhm...Rhode Island?"