-- Celon o Naur Lhûn --
--River of Blue Fire--
Chapter One: Anduin the Great
As the blue light died, Orlando saw the river had turned into a narrow and swift channel at the bottom of a deep canyon. Their leaf-boat had transformed into a small open canoe made of silvery wood. Fredericks found a paddle and hastened to keep the craft in balance amid the wild waters. Orlando picked up another and helped his friend. He had never paddled a canoe and expected to have trouble at first, but it seemed the boat was so well balanced, or Fredericks so skilled at steering, that it glided on effortlessly. Or perhaps it was part of the programming of whatever simulation they had tumbled into – the river looked dangerous but crafts floated placidly as ducks in a pond, albeit faster. It would be a true relief to be in a virtual world built to be as safe and user-friendly as that after the gigantic jungle of monster insects.
"Where are we?" Fredericks shouted over the roar of the rapids.
"I don't know – and where is Renie?"
"Not here, it seems."
"Maybe they didn't come trough. I mean, we'd have seen them by now."
"I guess so. Fredericks sounded morose. "But how could that be? They went through like the same time we did."
"Maybe there are different levels on the river. Maybe flying through sends you somewhere different than sailing through."
"But then we'll never find them! They could be anywhere!"
"I know. I suppose... look!" Orlando pointed at something ahead.
Slowly, as they passed through the mist rising from the water, the shapes of the rock ahead where revealed to be, not natural formations, or simulations of them, but the work of man. On either side o0f the river two mighty figures each raised a left arm high in greeting. The statues were immense and awe-inspiring – two giants of stone, bearded men with crowns on their heads and axes in their right hands. They seemed ancient, ravaged by wind and weather.
"Fenfen! I thought we were done with being lilliputs!" Fredericks exclaimed.
"We aren't, scanbark. These are the Argonath!"
"Is that supposed to mean something?"
"This is Middle-Earth! Lord of the Rings, the one book I keep telling you should read."
"Oh! So one of these Otherland people have made a simulation based on that..."
"Yes. I don't think they have the legal right, the Estate is still against commercial simulations – unless whoever made this place actually is one of the heirs of Tolkien... no, they aren't that rich."
"So... you know this place?"
"Like the back of my hand."
"Then please tell me there isn't a waterfall right after the pillars! The current's getting faster!"
Orlando closed his eyes and thought hard. Rauros was close, but he was almost certain they weren't there yet.
"The river flows into a lake... wide lake, takes a day to cross... on the other side, three peaks, waterfall behind them. Keep to the middle! We'll be fine!"
And then they were past the statues and floated on Nen Hithoel. The trees on its banks bore the colours of fall. Orlando was soon busy explaining to Fredericks everything he could remember about the geography of Middle Earth, particularly the course of River Anduin. When he proceeded to recount the events of the book that had taken place here, his friend interrupted:
"So you are saying Mordor is right behind those mountains? And the company was ambushed by orcs and a Nazgul? I wouldn't worry if this was in Middle Country, but as it is I would prefer not to die just yet."
"I'm not sure what era we are in, but by the age of the statues I'd guess it's after the War of the Ring. Maybe there are no orcs anymore."
"And what if, in this simulation, the orcs won the war?"
"Jeez! We'll just have to find out. I'd still recommend camping on the west bank."
It was dark when they drew up the canoe beneath Amon Hen. Nonetheless Orlando wanted to climb up the winding path.
"I'm too tired to be interested in a view, and besides it's too dark to see anything!" Fredericks complained.
"Don't you understand? It's a magic place! There is a throne and whoever sits on it sees things by magic! I want to see how they have simulated that!"
"All right. But I'm only coming because I suspect you're so charged up you'll see things that aren't programmed anywhere outside your head!"
When they had climbed about halfway to the top, Fredericks suddenly asked:
"This throne place – it's known to everyone in that book?"
"More or less."
"And I suppose anyone who wanted to make or visit a simworld like this would know it?"
"Certainly."
"Only it occurs to me that this path is kind of narrow. Not what you'd expect of a regular stop of the local sight-seeing tour."
"So? Maybe it's just programmed that way."
"Nine times out of then, suspicious chairs and thrones in gameworlds are traps. And didn't you say something nasty happened to Frodo when he sat on the throne?"
"Well yes, but that was only because he was wearing the Ring. Aragorn went there too and nothing happened."
"No magic, either?"
"Well, no. But I'm still going to give it a try."
The world was indeed dark, the moon wreathed in clouds, the sun long set beyond the Misty Mountains. Tol Brandir rose like a finger or a Freudian metaphor, and Amon Lhaw was a shadow wreathed in mist. The mist weaved its way up from the dizzying depths of Rauros, where the water plunged with a steady rumble, roaring, thundering ever and ever.
At the summit there was a circle of flagstone, surrounded by the ruins of walls, and in the mi9ddle the seat itself, set on four mighty pillars. Orlando climbed the steps and sat down.
He was disappointed. Nothing happened. Then, slowly, Fredericks and the mountain and the noise of the falls fell away and he was almost bodiless, in a world of vision alone. And such vision! First of all he felt his head turn northwest, and he saw Shire under a starlit sky, lights shining in thousands of round windows, and he sighed in relief. All was well with the hobbits, at least. Then he looked north, up the mountains and beyond them. A valley opened to his eyes, and there the lights were a million, some moving on a river, or swinging on boughs. Marble and sandstone, jade and alabaster were the pillars and terraces and statues, but the central mansion was built of bricks and wood. Rivendell, the last Homely House. But why were they so few, the elves dancing in the gardens, singing in the halls, sitting at the tables, and so many the empty corridors and dark windows? There was the answer – Three lords sat at the end of the highest table, two of them identical and dark haired, the third so very wise and sad, with hair of silver. Elladan, Elrohir, Celeborn. Closer to, on the near side of the mountains, golden leaves caught his eye. Amid the trees and in their branches lanterns shone like fireflies. But Caras Galadhron was sparsely populated too, these days. In the east lay Mordor, or the place that once had been Mordor. How it had changed! There were houses and fields where Orlando remembered the wasteland on the maps. On the slopes of Morgai, young trees reached up in every crack they could plant their hungry roots. The gates of Morannon stood open and unguarded. Ditches had been dug to dry the Dead Marshes. To south he looked, and saw the City of Minas Tirith, watchmen on her walls. The river Anduin streamed beneath a new bridge at Osgiliath, between restored Ithilien and cornfields on the plain of Pelennor. To the sea the river went, and in a harbor that had to be Dol Amroth, a ship was being built, a ship made of silvery wood. At last he looked to west, and saw sunset over the sea, and the stars reflected, and something else, something blue shining under the waves –
And then he felt someone watching him with curiosity, someone hidden, someone very powerful. He screamed in terror. Sauron! The enemy was upon him! Then he felt a hand take his hand, two hands grasping him, pulling him away from the chair. He felt more than saw Fredericks lead him down the steps, to sit at the lowest. It took a while for Orlando to catch his breath.
"You were right! I felt something – someone saw me."
"Any idea who?"
"No. I thought it was Sauron, but that doesn't scan – I mean, I know where we are now. I mean, when we are now. It's after the war and everything seems peaceful. And I saw the blue light. It was in the ocean! In the bloody ocean far in the west! As if the river wasn't long enough! This world is vast, I tell you, simply tremendous!"