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Bold = Elvish

Chapter 2: Council

At 10 o'clock the following morning, Avanwa received a slight knock on her door.

"Come in!" she called.

Looking away from her vanity mirror for a second, Avanwa saw Legolas enter and threw him a smile, before turning back to the mirror and continuing her struggle to pin back her hair. Realizing that what Avanwa was trying to do required at least three hands, Legolas walked over till he stood behind her, replaced her hands with his own, holding her hair so that she could pin it into place.

Smiling back at him in the mirror, Avanwa took one last look in the mirror, turning her head side to side, double-checking her appearance. Before standing and stopping at her wardrobe pulling the customary silver Lothlórien tunic over her grey breeches and shirt, then turning Avanwa led Legolas out of her room and down the hall.

"Good Morning, Avanwa." Legolas said pleasantly.

"Good Morning." Avanwa returned equally as pleasant.

Legolas offered Avanwa his arm and the two mindlessly chatted till they arrived at the courtyard where the meeting was being held. Legolas bowed before releasing Avanwa to her seat and turned to sit across the circle with his own delegation.

The elves watched as first Lord Elrond arrived with Gandalf, the two men seating themselves on either side of Avanwa. They were closely followed by the delegation of men and finally Aragorn with the young hobbit ring-bearer Frodo.

Once everyone had arrived, Lord Elrond began the meeting saying,

"Friends of distant lands, you have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands on the brink of destruction, none can escape it. You will unite or you will fall." Glancing around at the weary faces of the rest of the council, he continued,

"Bring forth the ring Frodo."

All eyes were on Frodo as he slowly walked to the center of the circle, placing the ring on a stone podium, before turning around and quickly returning to his seat. Avanwa let out a slight gasp as she felt the immense power of the ring flew over her skin. Looking up she found a fear similar to her own of the immense death and destruction the ring has caused in the eyes of Aragorn and Legolas.

Before all three pairs of eyes shot to the representative of men, Boromir, as he had introduced himself to Avanwa last night, proclaimed,

"It is a gift!" before standing and continuing just a vehemently,

"A gift to the foes of Mordor. Why not use this ring? Long has my father the steward of Gondor kept the forces of Mordor at bay, by the blood of our people are your lands kept safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy! Let us use it against him!"

Voicing the thoughts of many throughout the circle of the idiocy of Boromir's plan, and men's seemingly inherent weakness, Aragorn answered calmly,

"You cannot wield it, none of us can. The one ring answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master.

"And what would a ranger know of this matter!" Boromir shot back hastily.

Immediately both Legolas and Avanwa jumped to their feet. Avanwa attempting to get pulled back down by Gandalf, as Legolas told Boromir,

"This is no mere ranger. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."

"Aragorn?" A bewildered Boromir questioned, "This is Isildur's heir?"

"AND heir to the throne of Gondor!" Avanwa added angrily.

"Sit down, Legolas, Avanwa." Avanwa glanced over at Legolas and seeing the anger still apparent in his eyes slowly sank down in her seat.

"Aragorn is right. You cannot use it you have only one choice the ring MUST be destroyed." Gandalf said bringing the true focus of the meeting back into perspective.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" said the dwarf Avanwa had scared the day before, before grabbing his axe and attempting to strike the ring. The whole council winced as Gimli's axe broke and the ring remained unscathed.

"The ring cannot be destroyed dwarf by any craft we here posses, the ring was made in the fires of mount doom and only there can it be unmade." Avanwa explained tersely.

Lord Elrond then added,

"It must be taken deep into Mordor, and cast back into the fiery cavern from whence it came. One of you must do this."

Shaking her head at Boromir's rightful fear of Mordor and the evil that lay dormant there, and the lack of courage once again displayed by the leader's of men, Avanwa looked down at her hands that were clasped in her lap before groaning slightly, hands over her ears as the dwarf provoked Legolas and his men into a quickly heated argument.

As the rest of the council quickly jumped to their feet, Avanwa heard a quiet, almost too quiet to be heard amongst the commotion even with her elfish hearing, Avanwa heard a timid voice say,

"I will take it."

Looking up, Avanwa saw she was the only one who heard as the commotion continued just as before, noticing this she looked at the speaker, young Mr. Frodo Baggins, and said,

"Well go on lad, speak up. You made it this far. Making you more qualified than anyone else. Go on."

That seemed to be all the nudging the young hobbit needed. Taking a few steps forward, Frodo tried again,

"I will take it. I will take the ring to Mordor. Though, I do not know the way."

"I will help you bear this burden Frodo Baggins." Gandalf said, "As long as it's yours to bear."

Aragorn soon joined Gandalf at Frodo's back saying, "Be it my life or death, I will protect you. You have my sword."

"And you have my bow."

"And my axe."

"You carry the fate of us all little one, if this is indeed the will of the council, Gondor will see it down." Said Boromir.

Avanwa could barely contain her laughter as the hobbits, Same, Merry, and Pippin jumped out of the bushes and rushed to join Frodo. Looking at the group, Avanwa quickly saw that young Frodo's eyes were not on his companions but instead on her. Seeing the hope in his eyes, Avanwa slowly stepped forward, before kneeling down to be on the hobbit's level. Placing her hands on his shoulders, Avanwa teasingly said,

"Of course I'm coming little one. Never fear, you can't get rid of me that easily. 'Sides this group needs a women. Imagine how much trouble a group of men such as yourselves would get into without a women to look after you." And with a slight chuckle, and a tap on Frodo's now smiling face, Avanwa stood and went to stand behind Frodo with the rest of the group, between Gandalf and Legolas.

"10 companions. So be it. You shall be the fellowship of the ring." Lord Elrond declared bowing slightly to the group.

However as Pippin said, "Great. Where are we going?" Avanwa lost it and burst out laughing along with Aragorn and Gandalf.

"We leave in a week. Prepare yourselves." And with a final nod, the fellowship dispersed.