Elandili

by: Kristall

A/N: If you think that I own LOTR, you have my permission to sail to Valinor with Legolas. Translation: I don't own LOTR any more than I own the moon (which is not at all). Enjoy.

Chapter 3: Visit to Valinor

There was silence for a moment after Elan ran from the room. Elijah looked at Billy, Dom, and Sean. Billy was the first one to speak. "What was that all about?" Elijah and the others shook their heads. They were all baffled by Elan's strange behavior.

"Whatever it was, she was terrified. Did you guys see her face? As white as a sheet, and her eyes were as wide as they could be.", said Sean. Viggo joined in as the other Hobbits nodded. Orli, John, and Liv also came over to the table to sit down.

"Yeah, but what was she so terrified of? There's nothing outside or inside that could have scared her, and she's never been afraid of anything. So what could set her off like that? It was like she suddenly ran into the Black Riders or somethin' like that." No one knew the answer to the riddle. As the others debated the subject, Elijah quietly slipped from the table.

He found Elan in her room, sobbing. Taken aback, Elijah turned to leave the room, but she noticed him and muffled her sobs long enough to ask him to stay. Elijah nodded as Elan's lower lip trembled again. She tried to hold it back, but it was no use. She started to cry again.

Elan heard the door close, and then felt Elijah's arms around her. She could her his voice: "Elan, please, what's wrong? Did Viggo finally beat you in a match? Come on Elan, stop crying and tell me what's wrong." A few minutes passed and finally Elan could get out a bit about what was bothering her.

"My family. I miss them so much. I wish I could see them again. It's been so long since I last saw them...more than twenty years. I can't go and see them, I can't even talk to them...but I don't want to leave here either! I want to see my father again!" Elan said nothing about the visions of the Riders. She would not be able to handle that again right now, and she knew that it would confirm every single one of Elijah's suspicions.

It was midnight before Elan fell asleep. Elijah tucked her in and went to his own room. He now had another question to add to what had scared her so much. How could it have been well over twenty years since she last saw her family, when she was only eighteen years old?

Since Elan was so good at rock climbing, she was the one who planned nearly every rock climbing sequence in the trilogy, especially for the Mount Doom and Amon Muil shoots. Right now, she was halfway up a slope of Amon Muil, and about to show them how to fall down a cliff face. Elan deliberately grabbed a handhold that couldn't possibly hold her weight as she pulled herself up. Sure enough, the rock broke, and Elan let herself fall three meters (nine feet, nine inches) before catching herself on a ledge. She was smiling, for she had heard the reactions of the ones below her, even though she was fifteen meters (almost 49 feet) up. She pulled her self up onto the ledge and stopped short. Her...her father was there.

Elan took two steps back in surprise and felt herself falling. She had stepped off of the ledge. It was too late to save herself. She fell like a rock, slamming into the rocky ground below. She saw dark shapes coming, and then sank into oblivion as wave upon wave of darkness rolled over her.

She woke with a start. Looking up, she saw Elladan standing beside her. Then, Elrohir came into her view, taking his brother's place at her side. "Ada?" The single word was a question and accusation at the same time. Elrohir smiled sadly, understanding both meanings to the single word. He reached out and stroked her hair.

"I am sorry it has been so long Elandili, but you stayed until it was too late to call you to Valinor from Middle-earth. And then the Valar had to come up with a way to open the gate between our worlds again. Only the dead know how to travel here, and they never leave their halls. In a way this is real, in another it isn't. In this place, Valinor, is your spirit, or most of you life force. In the place where you came from, where you've lived, is your body: in a coma."

Elandili nodded and turned her head. The others would be frantic about her. But how was she to get back to her body? In the meantime, she could be with her family for a while. Elandili got out of bed and pulled on the dress that her father gave her. It was exactly like the one she had worn in Rivendell the day she had been welcomed back from Gondor.

Tears of happiness pricked in her eyes, and she gladly followed her father out to the terrace. There were three figures she recognized instantly: Frodo, Sam and Bilbo. She gave a cry of delight and ran to hug them all. She didn't even notice that Elrond had joined the group, as well as the others from the Fellowship. When she did notice them, she did a double take. Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Aragorn and Arwen were all there. She laughed and ran to hug Arwen. "How is it possible?"

"When our bodies floated into Valinor, our spirits came to claim them, for they wanted to be with family and friends again. We alone of the dead have returned from the halls of Mandos." Elandili merely smiled happily. It was a dream come true for her, and yet...what would she do about her friends back in New Zealand? Would she always be torn between two worlds?

Elrohir put a hand on her shoulder, as if he could read her mind. "The Valar said that they wished to speak with you when you woke up. They are waiting for you." He stood up and started to walk away. Elandili looked towards the others and Elrond nodded. "Go on child. The Valar should not be kept waiting, and we'll be right here when they are finished with you. Run along now." Elandili smiled at him and ran after her father. She felt like she was ten again, going with her father to Mithrandir to start her lessons with the wizard.

The Valar were waiting for her when she arrived with her father. They greeted her and one of them gestured for Elandili to sit down. Elandili would have preferred to stand, but she had just been through the experience of having her life force nearly ripped completely from her body, and she was tired. As Elandili sat down, the Valar who seemed to be in charge asked her if she were happy in the world she had come from. Elandili answered without hesitation.

"The only thing that spoils my happiness there is not having my family with me. But here, I find that while I have my family, I miss my friends." The Valar all nodded, pleased with the answer. Elandili had been honest, and was not afraid to speak her mind even to them. There had to be a fitting reward for this, but what? They decided to ask Elandili.

Again her answer came without hesitation. "The best reward you could give me would be to allow my friends to come and live here with me and my family some day. And also to let me go back for a while, until we finish what we're working on. I hate having an unfinished job on my hands."

The Valar smiled at her last remark, but then they grew thoughtful. Her wish was impossible, unless Elandili's friends came with her, or at least followed her through the same gate. Could they open it more than once? As if Elandili knew what they were thinking, she spoke up. "I know that it is easier to open a path between Valinor and my current world from Valinor. If you allowed me to go back to finish this job, then Ada could come and get me. Later on, when it is time for my friends to come, whenever those times are, I can go back to get them. You can hold the way open for at least two days, and that would be plenty of time."

The Valar smiled at her proposition. "You know much about us and our abilities. Very well. We shall follow your plan. Take these, they are copies of the ring of Gondor. Give them to your closest friends, the ones you want with you, and if you need more, just have a word with the smiths. Then, when they are ready to come, the ring will glow blue, calling them to Valinor. They should go to the place where you left from, and then you can go and get them. This is the greatest gift we can give to the race of Men, and in this new age, only a select few are even worthy of coming to Valinor. Choose wisely, for once given, the gift can not be recalled. Do you understand?"

"I understand completely, and I will follow your instructions to the letter. But how am I to get back at all? You know my body is in the other world."

"You will stay here for a week while preparations are made. At the end of the week, you will sail back with your father. We will arrange it so that he can leave the rings as a gift for you in your room, which will let you slip back into your body. Once you are in your body, you will wake in about eight hours."

Elandili bowed her thanks to them and was released then. As she left she heard one of the Valar whisper to his neighbor: "That half-Elf is nobler than many I have met. The friends she has have to have a lot of worth for her to consider them her friends in the first place. We will not have to worry about whom she chooses to come here, for all of her friends will be worthy as her of coming here." She smiled at these words of praise, and went back to the terrace where her friends and family were. They spent the rest of the day remembering old times, and they asked Elandili many questions about how she had been.

Chapter 4: Going Back

At the end of the week, Elandili sailed in a small boat to the western shore of the North Island, where she had been taken. Elrohir had the sack of rings, and Elandili herself had been given one her father would slip onto her finger when they got to her body.

The trip inland was uneventful, and it took them only a few hours to get to the hospital. The visiting hour had just begun, and Elandili spotted the four Hobbits walking to one of the rooms. She followed them, leading her father after her friends. She stopped outside of the door to listen to what they were saying. Elijah was speaking. "You know, it's funny. After a fall like that, you'd expect her to still at least have bruises, not to mention broken bones. But looking at her now, you'd never know she had a serious fall. She might as well have been taking a nap."

"Yeah, it is weird. But stop worrying about that an' start worrying about how long it will be before she wakes up. If it's too soon, I won't have enough time to get the welcome back party together."

"Dom, you are an eternal optimist, you know that?"

"Nothin' wrong with being optimistic, Billy. Better than just wishing there had been some way to save her. That sort of thinking wastes brain power." The others chuckled at that.

Just then, Elrohir walked in, which brought an abrupt halt to the laughter. "Who are you?", demanded Sean.

"I'm a friend of Elan. Could I just leave this on the table? It's a gift for her, and this is a ring she left behind the last time I saw her. I'd like to give it back."

"Sure. The table's over here. Where are you from?"

"A suburb in San Francisco. But I'm thinking of moving here. It's so much more peaceful." Elrohir put the bag on the table. "I'd better go now, I've got an appointment that I have to keep. My best wishes to Elan, and good luck on your movies." As he left, the others thanked him. While their backs were turned, Elan slipped into her body. The monitors showed the improvement instantly. The guys looked at the monitors, and called a nurse in to translate. When they got the news that Elan would now be fine, they cheered quietly, so that they wouldn't disturb anyone else.

They started to leave at the end of the visiting hour, only to be invited to stay. As the nurse explained; "You're in here every moment you can get in the room anyway. She's being moved to a larger room, since her recovery is assured now. And the larger room is almost completely soundproof, so if you want to call in your other friends who come, you can wait for her to wake up." The guys thanked her, and called up the others from the hotel. Even Pete came for the stake out.

They were just about to drift off when Elan moaned and opened her eyes. The cast were happy to have her back, and said so many times. Elan smiled at them, and scolded them. "You should have gone to bed and come tomorrow. Go on now, get. You can come back in the morning." The others grinned and said good night. Elijah remained for a while though.

"We missed you. You were gone for a week." Elan smiled at him.

"I know. I missed you guys too. But now I'm back. Anything left for me?"

"You mean aside from the paperwork piled up on your desk? I'm only joking. Well, there was this one guy who came in earlier today. He left a small sack on your table, and he gave your ring back. It's on your finger. Do you want me to call him?"

"No. He's gone now, you wouldn't be able to reach him. 'Lijah, I've got to tell you something."

"Save it for later. The filming will be finished soon. We still have all of the Mount Doom sequences to do, as well as the Elves leaving to go to Valinor, but that's it. We're taking a break now, until you're back at work, 'cause we all know that you would skin us alive if we left you out of the final scene. Tell me when we finish filming."

"I'll do that. Good night 'Lijah."