Go ahead, kill me, run me with your bronze swords and pointy arrows because I know I can't reason myself out of this one. I'm really sorry for not updating this earlier. I broke my promises too so I'm just really, really sorry. However, I'm not the type to leave my story longer than two months so here I am, back to writing this crossover.
Thanks for those people who reviewed, I really am happy you liked the first chapter and really, I'm flattered you guys think that I got RR's writing style down but I think I'm still far from that. I enjoy writing as Percy though xD
I shouldn't be keeping you guys long so here it is!
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings an Percy Jackson because J.R.R Tolkien and Rick Riordan owns them.
The moment we stepped in into their turf, my jaw dropped.
The architecture was out of my world - it looked as if the structures just came along with nature, like it just blended with it. Annabeth would have killed to see what I saw; the buildings gleamed with soft light that reminded me of the moon, walls of earth surrounded it, hiding it completely from the outer world.
It looked like these people were isolating themselves. If they were anything like satyrs then they love nature and peace.
I sensed below us was a river about seventy feet down. This was before we stepped on the bridge, I knew because I was the son of the Sea god.
We passed through some more pointy-eared people. The more I saw them, the more I thought of the kids at the Hermes Cabin. They had the same elfin ears but they didn't have this mischievous look in their eyes like the Hermes Cabin did. They were much more serious.
They didn't whisper and point, they just stared at us quietly until we passed before going back to wherever they were doing.
Legolas led us into some kind of throne room, standing in the middle of it was what I thought to be their Lord. He seemed older than the others, he had long black hair and his eyes had this look of wisdom, like he had lived for over a thousand years - longer than my teacher Chiron, who was the trainer of heroes since ancient times.
The people that escorted us here and Legolas bowed respectively before him.
"Lord Elrond." Legolas said.
He dismissed the others in their language. Legolas went to stand by Elrond's side. Elrond turned to us and started to study us.
"It's not everyday that strange travelers come into Elf realms without permission. Stranger than most, you're clothes are also most unfamiliar with." He eyed Thalia's death to Barbie T-shirt.
"You don't get visitors often?" I asked.
"No young one." Elrond said. "People of your kind rarely venture into the lands of the elves."
"Elves?" Thalia said, obviously not buying in. I wasn't so sure about it either; I imagined elves like Santa's elves with pointy ears, red outfits and really, really short. These people were far from what I imagined, they were tall and graceful.
"Elves don't exist." Nico said bluntly.
"Yeah, but we're not supposed to exist either." I reminded him.
"Okay, let's just say for the sake of the it that Elves do exist. How come we never saw them?" Nico looked at me straight in the eye.
"Yeah Percy," Thalia said, joining in. "I traveled all across America with Lady Artemis and I didn't see any Elves."
"Why are you two ganging up on me?" I said, annoyed. From the corners of my eyes I could see Elrond speaking quietly to Legolas. I didn't know what they were talking about but Elrond looked like he was either amused or confused.
It was probably rude for us to be talking like they don't exist. I remembered when Chiron told me how I would be a myth someday, that I was believed not to be real. I didn't like it so I decided to shut up. Apparently, Nico and Thalia weren't given the same lecture as me. Thinking back to what Elrond said earlier he said that they didn't have that much visitors. Did we suddenly land ourselves on a remote island in the middle of nowhere like the TV show LOST?
I turned to Elrond. "I'm really sorry about my cousins," I said.
Elrond raised a hand and said, "There is no need to apologize. I do not blame you for believing that Elves do not exist. You must have come from a far region where Elves have left Middle-Earth to go west."
"Were in the middle of the earth? I thought that was the equator?" I said.
Elrond and Legolas exchanged glances.
"You do not know where you are?" Legolas asked.
"This isn't one of those places like the Sea of Monsters right?" I asked Thalia. She shook her head, unsure. I turned back to Legolas. "Um... no."
"Did you not come from the North? East? Or are you a Dundleding?"
"A what?" Nico said, clearly offended by being called as something ridiculous as a Dundleding, which I have no idea what it means.
"Listen here, were from America. You know, the land of opportunity?" Thalia said, trying to get something familiar from them. They remained confused.
"I believe we do not know what you speak of." Elrond said, looking perplexed.
"What about McDonalds?" Nico added.
"Forget about McDonalds!" I said.
"This settles it." Nico stated. "We're totally in a different world."
I know I said earlier that I believed that we were in a different world but I thought in the sense that we were far from civilization. From mortals. But what Nico implied was totally different.
"What makes you think that Death Boy?" Thalia asked him. Nico glared at her. "Don't call me that and think of it; we get sucked inside a cyclone, transported in this weird magical forest filled with a secret society of Elves and that were in Middle-Earth. I don't remember a Middle-Earth being in the map and if there was, it would have to be a place where no mortal ventures into and is just marked as unknown and that almost every corner of the earth has been explored already."
"So if this is a different world, how did we get here?" Thalai asked.
"Zeus?" I said. Thalia glared at me. Nico rolled his eyes.
"Yes Percy, my Dad just so happens to be bored and send his daughter along with his brother's sons to another world while all the while just asking to start a war with your Dads." She said sarcastically.
If she was expecting me to say sorry to Zeus I wasn't going to apologize. We were in a different world and no god was going to smite me, turn me into a plankton or make me go crazy. I was going to enjoy this while I still could.
"Kronos?" Nico offered.
"He doesn't have that kind of power," Thalia said.
"He wouldn't be the Lord of Time he wasn't," I said. "There's no god or Titan that has the power to do that. I don't think there's even a god who could do that." I turned to Nico. "There isn't... right?" he shook his head.
"Which means..." Thalia turned to face Elrond. "their gods brought us here."
Gods needed heroes because they couldn't interfere, forbidden by the ancient laws and blah, blah, blah. We did the job that gods couldn't do because partly, we were their kids and the other was that we didn't want to be turned into piles of ashes. I couldn't understand why some other god would kidnap us unless we had a job to do. Didn't they have kids of their own?
Elrond and Legolas were listening the whole time and hardly flinched when Thalia glared at them.
Usually, Thalia's glare could scare anyone. I got used to it after some time and it looked like the elves were hardly fazed at all.
"You must be spreaking of Eru Ilúvatar," Elrond said, his eyes never leaving Thalia's glare."He is the supreme God of Arda, creator and father of all Men and Elves."
I remembered the first time I came to camp and had a hard time believing that gods existed. I thought at first it was 'God' until Chiron corrected me. He called it metaphysical. Their god sounded a bit like 'God' from our world. Nico and I exchanged looks; Nico read the expression on my face and he nodded, he was thinking the same thing.
"Does this... Eru interfere with this world?" Nico asked carefully, trying not to offend the elves.
"Ever since the creation of Arda, Eru has never once interfered with the lives of mortal men and Elves." Elrond's brows were furrowed, like he was frowning but he really looked curious. "Is their a reason as to why you are questioning Eru?" he asked.
"Because only a god can bring us here. Either that, or it's dark magic." Thalia crossed her arms.
I really felt sorry for the elves because they looked pretty confused. I knew how that felt when someone won't give me straight answers.
"You speak as if the doings of the gods are normal for you," Elrond murmured. "Who are you really child?"
"I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus." I thought it couldn't get any awkward after she said that. Elrond waited in silence while he had this look on his face that said, 'And so?'. I knew Thalia for three years. She was confident. Too confident. I put my hand on her shoulder and she turned to me, her eyes darkening like a storm.
"Calm down," I said. "They hardly understand what's going on. We don't even know what's going on."
"Percy's right," Nico said as he stepped up. "They can still help us. We just have to explain."
Thalia took a deep breath and nodded.
"Forgive us Lord Elrond but we're just shocked. We don't come from around here as you can see, we... we don't belong in this world. We came from another world," Nico explained and waited for Elrond's reaction, he looked surprised. I saw that Legolas was having a hard time believing it but didn't say anything. I flashed him a small smile that he returned with his own. "I know its hard to believe but from where we come from, gods are pretty normal in our lives."
"As normal as our lives can get," I muttered. I didn't realize that it came out louder than I wanted it to and now everyone was looking at me. I felt my face going hot as I avoided looking Elrond in the eye because if I looked, I knew I wouldn't be able to control my mouth and somehow spill everything out.
"Gods," Elrond repeated. "We only have one creator yet you speak of more than one divine being."
"They didn't exactly create us the same way they created your kind," I said. Not in the way you think. I thought to myself.
"The gods we're talking about control the forces of nature," Nico said. "Like the sky, sea and the dead."
"And your connections to these gods?" Elrond asked.
"We're their kids," I said.
I didn't think that the silence that followed would be really bad. It was so thick that I could have pulled Riptide out and slashed at it. I couldn't tell what Elrond was thinking, nor Legolas either. After a while, someone knocked and Legolas had to leave but not before giving me a searching look.
There was something in his eyes that I knew well. Hope? I didn't understand why he would look like that.
"You yourselves are gods?" Elrond asked, breaking the silence.
Now that we were past the hard part of convincing him that gods exist, it was getting easier to tell him. I know what you're thinking, Why would you tell a complete stranger your life's secret? Elrond was an elf. A magical creature. I was pretty sure he had experienced weirder things than gods and that talking to three strangers who came out of nowhere wasn't the strangest thing he's ever seen.
"We're actually demigods. Half human, half god," I said.
Elrond nodded slowly. "And so you believe that Eru had brought you here?"
Thalia shrugged. "It's possible,"
"The gods only call for a hero's help when they want something," Nico said. "I take it that something really bad happened around here?"
Elrond could only give him a look before turning away from us. "In the lands of Mordor, evil is rising again after so many long years..." his eyes darkened as if he was remembering something bad.
"I am not sure of what your coming brings, whether hope or doom..." he looked at us. "but know this godlings, all will be revealed in time. You should rest, I must speak with an old friend of mine." He turned away from us again and called for someone. A beautiful elvish lady came in, she had long dark hair, her skin was fair and white, it reminded me of moonlight and her eyes... it was grey. It wasn't stormy grey like Annabeth's, it was like a cloudless sky at night. I could tell she was related to Elrond with the shape of her face and that she was royalty.
She walked towards us and bowed her head. We did the same while Nico stuttered, "You're really pretty."
Thalia laughed and I just chuckled at Nico's blushing face. The lady smiled at him that she appreciated the compliment. "I am Arwen. Your name child?" Her voice was soft and musical. I thought that if she sang, she could even outshine the best singers in the world.
"N-Nico di Angelo," Nico looked down on his shoes.
"I'm Thalia." Thalia coughed as Nico shot a glare at her.
"Percy Jackson." I smiled, I couldn't help it. She reminded me a bit of my mom.
"Arwen my dear, could you take them to their rooms for they will stay the night." Elrond said, never looking back at us as he gazed outside of the window.
"Yes, Father." She curtsied before leading us out.
"Isn't she a bit too old for your taste Nico?" Thalia whispered as we walked behind Arwen.
"Shut up," Nico hissed. "It wasn't like that."
"Sure it wasn't." Thalia rolled her eyes.
"She reminds me of my mom," I said without thinking. Nico nodded in agreement and I realized that Nico might have been reminded of his mom too.
Arwen took us to three different rooms, side-by-side. Thalia took the one on the left while I got the middle room and Nico got the one on the right.
"We will lend you some clothes soon. For now, I suggest you rest. You all look tired," Arwen said.
Thalia immediately went into hers and I heard Nico let out a sigh when he went into his room. I took a moment to prepare myself on what I'll see before opening the handle. Imagine the best room a five-star hotel can give you without and electrical appliance. Forget about air-conditioning when the doors that led outside to the balcony were open and I could feel a soft breeze brushing against my skin even though nothing moved.
There was a large bed with white and gold sheets on it. The frame and some of the walls were golden brown while the floor was light brown marble. I traced the intricate patterns on my bed with my finger. The metal was artistically bended, resulting it looking like golden vines were intertwined with each other to make the bed.
I now knew why Nico sighed. It was too bright but at least not everything was white. Nico hated white. He probably would have gone crazy like his brothers and sisters if he was forced into a straight jacket and thrown into a white room.
After we checked out our rooms, Thalia and Nico came over and sat on my bed.
"I hate white," Nico grumbled as he plopped himself on my bed.
"Get off my bed," I said at them. "You two have your own beds."
"Maybe later," Nico yawned.
"Ditto." Thalia crossed her legs.
I was out of the mood to throw them out of my room so I just pulled out a chair and sat on it, dropping my bag beside the bed.
Besides getting thrown into another world and meeting an Elf Lord, I was pretty relaxed. I felt at peace and it didn't take me long to realize that this could be part of the magic of this place. It didn't feel like the Lotus Casino where once you step in, you'll never get out, brainwashed for all eternity playing video games. I was pretty sure I can walk out of here anytime unless the Elves drag me back inside.
We stayed like that with Nico already out and Thalia looking like she would like a nice nap. I had my eyes closed already and was ready to crash when we heard soft footsteps outside my door. I jerked awake and stood up instantly as if I was fed with my mom's expresso beans. The door opened and came in some old-man-child-thingy. No pun intended. He was the size of ten-year old except that he looked really old with white hair and has really, really hairy feet. Was he some kind of ancient elf? He didn't look wise.
Thalia shot to her feet, startling Nico. He raised himself on his arms and looked at us. "Whas going on?" he yawned.
The old kid turned to look at us in surprise like he didn't notice us there. A smile lightened his old wrinkled face. "Travelers I see! And so young too." He chuckled. "I'm Bilbo Baggins from the Shire."
"Yeah, I'm Percy Jackson from New York." I said as I walked towards him slowly. He nodded and held out a hand. I stared at it for a moment before looking at Bilbo.
"My dear boy, I'm no longer the adventurer I used to be. Don't worry, I won't bite," he said and I shook hands with him. He gave me look up and down before frowning. "New York? I believe I haven't heard of it."
"It's um... located somewhere really, really far."
"Oh? Is is located North?"
"Uh, it's underground." I said and I could hear Thalia face palming behind me.
"Percy!" she said.
Bilbo must have misunderstood us and said, "Don't be ashamed my dear, being related to the dwarfs isn't a bad thing. They're good people once you get pass their stubborness."
"We're not dwarfs! We're humans!" Nico said, wide awake now.
Bilbo blinked. "Is that so? No wonder you have no beard and you're far too skinny as well."
Nico scowled. "I'm not skinny! It's just the clothes!"
"And the hair," Thalia added. Nico just glared at her.
"Your names?" Bilbo asked. Both of them introduced themselves.
"So," I said. "What were you looking for in our room?"
Bilbo turned to me and he smiled a crinkly smile. "Oh I was just looking for my ink bottle. It seems that I have forgotten where I have put it. Ah age," he shook his head. "I forget the littlest things now a days." he sighed.
"How old are you?" Nico asked curiously.
Bilbo beamed. "Why, I'm one hundred and eleven years old my boy!"
Nico and Thalia's eyes bulged. Seriously? No human can live that long, that and we don't have feet that was hairy as big foot's.
"Is that pretty old for an elf?" I asked.
Bilbo surprised me by laughing. "My dear boy, you thought I was an elf? No, no, I am but a Hobbit." I guess that anything that was a man-child was a Hobbit. Bilbo surprised us further though when he said, "Elves and Half-Elves are immortal unless they die in battle or grief or choose to live as a mortal. Why, Lord Elrond for example, he's six-thousand five hundred years old - oh something along those lines."
I probably looked stupid gaping like a fish but I just had to wonder, Elrond was even older than my dad. He looked forty for gods' sakes!
Thalia and Nico weren't looking any better than me.
After a while Nico said, "What's too old for my tastes Thalia?"
I want to point out some things here. There's no NicoxArwen, it's just a joke for those who thought differently. After this one though we'll be meeting the Hobbits and the chapter after the next will be the Council.
I have another thing to point out and it is that I'm not a regular updater. I'm sorry in advance but this might be a weekly or monthly fic because I have three other stories that I update. So again, I'm really sorry.
Thanks for reading and tell me how you guys want to torture me for not updating!
