Liberation

Chapter 4

Agent 9 became conscious in a most uncomfortable position; he was dangling by his knife bandolier from a small, decrepit thorn tree. It was uncomfortable as his entire left leg had somehow become caught in a set of vines (with extra thorns) that hung from the aforementioned tree. However, as unusual as his situation was, Agent 9 was not particularly surprised, these sorts of situations happened every other night whilst he was in training. Although, he mused, his current predicament was a result of a magical explosion, rather than excessive drinking and a bet on who could climb a cathedral faster.

He looked down, the drop wasn't far, although he knew he would probably get scratched quite badly on the way, he also could only move one leg, which he used to cut the bandolier, flexing his muscles in a certain way to make a short but very sharp blade shoot out from the heel of his boot. He gently sawed away at the leather strap, which eventually snapped under pressure and dropped him headfirst through the lower branches of the tree onto the ground.

He massaged his leg to get some feeling back into it then limped off into the forest toward the edge of the camp. As he reached the bushes he heard voices and a squelching noise from behind him, turning round he saw his two targets clumsily making their way up the side of a large crater in the centre of the 'clearing'. He observed that an explosion seemed to have taken place, a fairly powerful one if he was to judge, as many of the trees around the outside of the pit had been uprooted and thrown a good distance outward in a rough circle shape. These trees made for excellent cover as the Agent moved around the rim of the crater and further into the forest. He occasionally glanced backwards to check he wasn't being followed, but he adversaries seemed to just be talking.

Then he started. He heard shouting from the clearing, keeping out of sight he quickly scaled one of the fallen trees, using the large clods of earth in the roots to keep out of sight. He was just in time to see the big Orc pick a charging man up and slam him into the floor. The man crunched as he fell.

"Ouch" muttered Agent 9. He had decided that he would abandon this contract, he'd say that the two were too heavily guarded, and that he had tried to assassinate them but failed. He crept back towards the trees that were still standing, bringing another portal device from his cloak, he was lucky these were undamaged, he thought they might have malfunctioned after his fall and might not work, but the one in his hand, and, as he patted down his cloak, the rest of his 'contingency measures' seemed all to be in place. He glanced back over his shoulder to make sure nothing was near to interrupt the teleport and applied pressure to the middle.

Nothing happened.

He felt a slight tremor go through the device, but then it sat inert, this was most puzzling, the small pieces of metal had always worked before, even between continents, even areas high in latent magic. This worried Agent 9, he could feel waves of energy practically rolling off the small piece of metal, but no matter how he manipulated, prodded, and eventually hit it with a rock, it would not work.

This worried Agent 9, ever since he had brought the devices several years ago they had always worked, always getting him out of tough situations and close calls, so it alarmed him somewhat that it didn't work now.

He decided he had to find out where he was; perhaps the man his targets had caught knew something about it. He doubted it, probably just some farmer he though, but it was worth a try. Agent 9 put the device back into a pocket in his jacket and made his way back toward the clearing, night was falling and the Orc was getting a fire going whilst the small elf searched the man, who lay unconscious on the floor. Half an hour passed with not much happening and the Agent hiding in some bushes, quietly observing his prey. The elf called something to the large Orc and passed him the unconscious man's sword, Agent 9 thought it looked rather small for the Orc, but he seemed pleased to have a proper weapon. Agent 9 himself had many concealed knives and various other dastardly object about his person, and was therefore not too worried about his enemies being armed. The Orc got a small campfire going, then wandered off, presumably to scout the perimeter, eventually returning with a dead rabbit, which he proceeded to prepare to eat, cooking it on a spit on his improvised 'oven'. Meanwhile, the elf had found several things in the man's pockets, several gold coins, "Good to know the currency is the same, wherever we are." Thought Agent 9 at that, the elf also sound lots of documents that looked important, and was busying himself trying to understand them, he took them over to the Orc's rabbit and tore off a chunk, careful not to drip the juices of the unfortunately deceased animal onto the papers.

After a while, Agent 9 started creeping closer, he wanted to get a good look at the man on the floor, but at the same time not be seen, he lay down behind a log and waited.

"Find out who he is yet?" asked Vark, munching on a rabbit leg.

Taelan sat, still reading the documents, "Seems to be someone from Lorderon, the language bears similarity with those of that area, but its not exact and I cant understand it, although I would guess that these are orders of some sort, judging by the layout." He said, waving the offending piece of paper at his friend.

Vark looked thoughtful at this, "Maybe it's in code?" he asked.

"Perhaps, but I doubt it, there's no effort to conceal what it says and no repeating patterns from what I can tell, I think it's just an older variation of the language, or some other form of dialect." Explained Taelan, briefly holding the document upside down in an attempt to make it more readable.

Vark laughed at his friend's antics, "So," he said, after swallowing another mouthful of food, "What are our options?" he asked.

Taelan looked thoughtful at this, setting the papers down on a dry patch of grass, he sat in deep thought, steeping his fingers and resting his chin on them. "What we need is information." He said, then having an idea, he went over the events that brought them here. "How did this happen?" he asked, indicating the devastation around them.

Vark also thought for a moment, "That assassin was trying to escape, you blinked closer to him and I threw my axe at him, but it hit something in his hand, then I ran up and asked what was going on, then everything went blue and that's about all I know." He said.

Taelan nodded, "Did you see what he was holding?" he asked, receiving a shake of the head from Vark he went through the possibilities. "Well he seemed to be retreating, so maybe it was a teleporter, you know, the electric kind the gnomes make?"

"Bloody gnomes" Vark grumbled under his breath.

"So," continued Taelan grinning, "perhaps your throw disrupted the teleport, combined with my blink, and made it mess up?" he asked, theoretical magic was not his strong point.

Vark also wondered at this. However, both their musings were cut short by the sounds of their captive waking up. Vark dropped his food in the fire, the grizzle sizzling in the embers and picked up the man's sword, hefting it he nodded to Taelan, who got up and went to interrogate the man, Taelan drew his knife and started to question the man on the floor. However, their prisoner apparently did not understand them and simply started resolutely back at Taelan, Vark shifted in his seat ready to go to his comrade's aid if the need should arise.

"Who are you?" Taelan called over to the man, still stalking toward the prisoner, who just sat there, Talean looked back at Vark, an eyebrow raised questioningly. Vark nodded once, knowing what was coming next, he once again contemplated the usefulness of his friend's magic.

Taelan put his hand on the man's head, his new ring flashing brightly, and absorbed the man's knowledge, it would take him a while to categorise it, and given that the pair had invented the particular technique themselves no-one else knew about it, apart from their previous captives, but they were all dead and their ghosts exorcised, so they weren't telling anyone. Taelan finished with the man and staggered back, this was a common occurrence during the spell, with the entirety of the man's life absorbed as well as all his knowledge and experiences it tended to take Taelan a while to be able to accurately and safely use it all. Vark stood up and went over to his friend, standing behind the man who now lay in shock on the muddy ground.

Taelan began to speak in another language, presumably the captive's, asking him questions, the man answered him, slowly at first, and very suspicious of the elf's motives. After about half an hour Taelan had confirmed most of what he had taken from the man's mind, and looked at Vark, nodded once and went back to the fire. Vark stooped down, took the man's head in his hands, and twisted it violently. The man's eyes widened suddenly in realisation, then a loud crack that rang through the clearing was heard and the man slumped to the ground, his head twisted unnaturally to the side.

Vark straightened up and followed his friend to the fire. Waiting for him to speak before asking any questions. He stuck the sword he had been holding in the ground, and sat down, Taelan was sitting across the fire, staring into the flames, Vark knew his friend used this as a meditative technique, one Vark had taught him in fact.

"We have a problem." Said Taelan eventually, looking up from the fire and toward Vark.

"What?" asked Vark obviously.

"We are on a different world." Said Taelan, pausing to let this revelation sink in. "Have you noticed the stars?", he motioned upwards at the night sky. "Even Draenor has similar starts and clusters to Azeroth, but we are far far away from anything familiar, even with the differences between different stars in space and the rumours of what the Draenei have uncovered, we may even be in a different dimension." He said, still looking up.

"Can we get back?" Asked Vark.

"No, not yet at least, I have no idea how we got here, and that is just as important. Also even if I did know, I would need a lot of equipment and I would probably have to build a lot of it, given the technological level of this world." Replied Taelan, looking back down.

Vark thought for a while after that, then abruptly picked up the sword and hurled it into the undergrowth, a rare display of emotion for him to show. He then stood and started pacing, turning ever few steps, his body language betraying his frustration. "So where are we?" he finally asked, pausing briefly in his walk to ask the question.

"Middle Earth." Answered Taelan, "An environment similar to the Eastern Kingdoms' but with obviously different distribution, but a similar political situation."

Vark finally stopped, interested at his friend's information. "In what way?" he asked, sitting back on his log.

"The world in inhabited by several races of note, Elves are the oldest, similar to the High Elves before the Sundering, then Men, of who there are several types, most notably the 'Númenóreans'" at this strange word Vark looked puzzled.

"West?" he interrupted, suddenly getting a flash of understanding from his elemental side, Taelan nodded at this interruption.

"Actually it translates to 'Westernesse' or 'most Western' in what the people here call the 'Common Tongue' but apparently this particular people sailed away from Númenór, due to a catastrophe of some kind, and landed here. They had a large empire but it fell into ruin, due to a number of factors that are currently unimportant, however, one of these factors that is rather important in my explanation, sits before me." Taelan explained, grinning and looking at Vark.

"Orcs" Vark said quickly, suddenly more interested in the story.

"Well done" replied Taelan happily, "Apparently you destroyed their empire and are carved out a territory of your own."

"theres a catch." Said Vark knowing his friend too well.

"There is, but I'll get to that later. After the Orcs there are goblins, quite similar to our own 'home bred type' actually, and also ogres, but in this world they are called trolls and are bigger than the ogres at home. Also Orcs and goblins ride wolves, also known as wargs." Said Taelan.

Vark nodded at this, happy that some things were the same wherever you went. "Anyone else significant?" He asked.

"Dwarves." Taelan replied, "They seem to be identical to the ones living in Ironforge, except they aren't nearly as advanced, probably because gnomes don't exist here."

This threw Vark slightly, but he quickly recovered, "What a pity." He said sarcastically, "We won't have anything to punt!"

Taelan started laughing at this, remembering Vark's strategy when confronted with a gnomish mage when on duty, simply to run up and kick it in the chest, at which point it sailed halfway across the battlefield and collided with the enemy commander, winning them the battle. Vark received a commendation for this.

"Quick thinking and unorthodox strategy!" Taelan gasped between laughs.

"Okay stop now." Vark said reluctantly, "Keep going with your story."

Taelan nodded and composed himself, calming down from the amusing memory. "Well actually, we do have gnomes…sort of." He replied. Vark look quizzically at him at this. "They're called the Holbytla or Hobbits for short." Taelan smiled at this. "No pun intended there, but when I said 'sort of' what I meant was that they look like gnomes, to an extent, but don't have the same character, and most of them live in a land called 'Shire', for the most part, they seem to be just really short humans."

"I'd punt that" said Vark darkly, smiling in a rather menacing way.

"I doubt you'll get chance to. They keep to themselves." Taelan replied. "So there we have the so called 'Good Races'"

"So there we have the so called 'catch'" Said Vark ironically, "Let me guess. We've landed in the First War." He said.

"A surprisingly accurate analogy actually." Taelan said. "But instead of the Burning Legion, who doesn't seem to exist here, there's the Dark Lord Sauron."

"Now that is interesting, we know the Legion moves from planet to planet, but to see that they haven't yet got to here implies that we are really quite far away from their territory." Mused Vark.

"Indeed, but there are similar circumstances, Sauron is some kind of powerful being from a race called the 'Valar' who seemed to be between the Titans and demons like Kil'jaeden in terms of power. However, Sauron is only a lieutenant to another called Morgoth, but we don't need to worry about him because he was apparently chained and cast through something known only as the 'Door of Night' but is prophesied to return during the end of days and be finally defeated in Dagor Dagorath which translates as 'Final Battle'." Explained Taelan, taking a breath after speaking for so long.

"I see, tell me more about this 'Sauron'" Vark replied after digesting the information. "I also assume you're getting this information from legends and suchlike?" He asked.

Taelan nodded his assent, "Yes, but Sauron is a real threat, however is somewhat diminished of late."

"In what way?" asked Vark.

"He lost his jewellery" replied Taelan rather flippantly.

"Explain" said Vark.

"Sauron reigned in the land of Mordor, also known as the 'Land of Shadow' it is a wasteland of fire and other nasty things, but he desired greater power, so gathered and corrupted various races, the Orcs foremost, into a great army in secret, which he was going to use to conquer Middle Earth. But on the outside, he was just a very powerful sorcerer, and using this deception he communicated with the 'Free Peoples' in an attempt to subvert them to his purposes." Taelan paused in his explanation, wishing they had invented a way of giving rather than taking knowledge, it would have made this whole excersise superfluous, "So, Sauron goes to the dwarves and elves, them being the most skilled at forging and magic respectively, and he learns from them, then he gifts them with rings." He said.

Vark was starting to understand where this was going, "And presumably the rings are magically powerful and very useful to the users."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Taelan, pleased that his friend was picking it up so quickly. "Three rings were given to the Elves, seven to the Dwarf, and nine to great Kings of Men. But, another ring was made in secret in Sauron's fortress, Sauron enchanted this ring during its forging to hold dominion over the others, and it was, and is, known as the Great Ring of Power."

Waiting to check that Vark had understood everything he continued, "Upon the ring, Sauron left this inscription; Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."

"That sounds oddly familiar." Said Vark, considering the language.

"It should." Taelan replied, "Its structure is very similar to some of the older Clan's orcish, particularly the Mag'har, and I am fairly sure it is also similar phonetically. The inscription translates into "One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Darkness Bind Them."

Taelan paused as Vark digested this information, Taelan also considered it, but continued his tale, "Eventually Sauron attacked and several centuries of war followed, but he was defeated, and retreated into Mordor, then an Alliance of Men and Elves attacked his stronghold, and in the Battle of Dagorlad the One Ring was cut from his hand by Isildur, son of the King, Elendil and was then claimed by Isildur. But later the Ring betrayed Isildur, so that he was slain by orcs at Gladden Fields, and the Ring was lost for centuries."

"And now the people of Middle Earth live in peace and harmony, working together in a spirit of brotherhood and friendship?" Asked Vark.

Taelan laughed at this, "Hardly!" he scoffed, "Sauron's spirit now exists as a huge, lidless, flame wreathed Eye atop his fortress of Barad-dûr. And even worse! These" he paused and waved the sheaf of parchment at his friend, "these, tell us that the One Ring has been found again, and the Dark Lord has dispatched his servants after it, to get it back to him and bring him once again to full power!"

"And now some good news please." Said Vark cheerfully.

"The Rangers, a group of Men and Elves and, surprisingly enough, half-breeds, are watching the Shire and preventing it from being attacked, also an Elf-Lord called Elrond is organising a council to decide what to do, oh, and according to these, one of the Hobbits has the Ring now and will soon make his way to the council to present the Ring." Explained Taelan, "So all is not lost."

"So what do we do?" Asked Vark, he had somewhat of a plan, but didn't want to share it just yet.

Taelan was quiet at this question, they had several options, but none of them however was particularly promising. After a minutes silence, he spoke, "We spy on this council." He said.

"Um, okay then." Vark said, this was not his idea or anywhere near it, but he decided he'd go with it. Then, thinking that his friend may have left something out, "Where are we in relation to this council?" He asked.

"About twenty miles north-west, we are in a forest called the 'Trollshaws', which understandably is inhabited by trolls, there is also a small village of farmers and woodcutters south, they saw our teleportation and that ranger came up to investigate, tough luck for him." He said, motioning to the aforesaid corpse.

"Well while the night is young, we need to get some things done, first I need a weapon, my axe disappeared after I threw it, and we will also need something more than that cloak to cover you, stealth should be our priority here, rather than speed, if as you say the Ring has not yet set out." Vark said, and stood up and started down the slope southwards.

"True, but this news is old, according to the papers today is the 22nd of October, the Ring having set out a month ago, and from the man's knowledge the Ring should reach Rivendell, the home of the elf Elrond, in a few days. Therefore, speed is fairly important, but I also agree about stealth. I can maintain an illusion spell for glamour, to impersonate the ranger, go down and buy a large cloak, better make it two to disguise you, but we'll never pass you off as human, or an elf for that matter, you're too big, what are you now?" Taelan asked amusedly, "Eight feet or something?"

Vark puffed out his chest with pride, "Nine, Nine feet now, for your information."

Taelan shook his head, "So I'll have to go down, mind you, we might not have to be disguised for long, I might have a plan."

Vark looked down at his friend from all his Nine feet of height. "What is it?" He asked, navigating around a boulder and down the slope toward the village.

Taelan waved him off, "No, not yet, too many variables, and too little information, the man knew a lot, but I'm still trying to get my head round it all, furthermore, he was traveling for a long time, so much of the information is out of date."

"Alright, so you go down and steal some things, come back up and we, make our way to Rivendell?" asked Vark, hurdling a small stream.

Taelan didn't reply at first, having levitated his way across the stream instead of jumping, he touched town on the bank and resumed walking, "Something like that, I might not need to steal, I could probably just ask for it, say I ran into an huge, great beast of an Orc, who attacked me, but I drove it off, however I lost my sword so I need a new one, I also found that it had taken captive a young elf who needed a cloak to keep him warm, him being distrustful of large groups of people." Taelan said, smiling as he made up his 'encounter'.

Vark laughed at this, "The best lies have some truth in them after all." He said.

Taelan shrugged, "The story doesn't matter as long as we get what we need."

Vark nodded at this, then stopped, he thought he had heard something. "Wait" he said softly.

Taelan also stopped, and looked around him, into the gloom of the forest.

Agent 9 cursed, that Orc's hearing was incredible, and it was the second time he had heard the Agent, which was impossible, given that he was making absolutely no noise! His training saw to that. Maybe he was sensing the Agent of something. Regardless Agent 9 knew he could only keep up his stealth for a short while with these two, both seemed unnaturally perceptive. Well he knew he would have to come out soon, either to murder the two or to help them. After a few seconds making a decision, he cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Oi! You two!" he yelled, a trifle inelegant but it served its purpose. He then took of his bandolier and belt, carefully removing several of his poisons and his garrotting kit, he wrapped them up in a bundle and lobbed them toward the pair, landing a few feet away from them it spilled open, showing lots of his weapons, he then yelled at them again, "Truce!" then stepped out into view of the suspicious pair.

He held his hands up in a gesture of non-aggression, both of them were ready for combat.

"What do you want?" The Orc asked angrily, obviously recognising him from several hours ago.

"According to your friend, there is no Alliance here, and therefore, I have no allegiance to anyone here and therefore, no reason for me to try and kill you, also, he's the one with the info." Agent 9 said, pointing to the elf.

The big Orc looked slightly puzzled at that, then understanding, he turned to the elf, who shrugged at him, leaving the decision to the Orc, Agent 9 knew he would be hard-pressed to defend himself against these two without his weapons and devices, and no to mention without a surprise attack, but the die was cast and he would live (or die) by the Orc's decision. Then he noticed something strange happening, the brances above the pair were rustling and actually moving toward the Orc, they formed an arch over him, and a gentle breeze rushed through the trees, Agent 9 felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck.

"He comes with us" The Orc said, opening his eyes, the trees and forest abruptly went back to normal.

The elf looked at the Agent suspiciously, "Sure? I could vaporise him if you'd prefer." He said, glancing at Agent 9.

Said Agent admitted that he was scared at that, but also wanted to know why the Orc was keeping him. "Why?" he asked the Orc, stepping forward.

"The Earth has spoken." The Orc replied mysteriously, "Name and Skills." He said, looking at the Agent.

"Agent 9, SI:7, Alliance Intelligence." Replied Agent 9, standing to attention in the face of an authority figure.

"Alliance Intelligence doesn't exist here Nine" Said the Orc, "Get your stuff, you're going in with Taelan, I assume you heard the plan?" The newly christened 'Nine' nodded at this, and the Orc turned back and kept going down the slope, "I'm by the way, Captain Vark, Warsong Outriders. Just Vark now, he's Magister Taelan, Blood Mage of the Sin'Dorei" Vark said, motioning to Taelan.

Nine absorbed this, and walked toward his bundle, picking it up he replaced his things and fell into step with the elf, who looked at him quizzically.

"What was that thing you had that made all this happen?" the elf asked, quite calmly, Nine thought he would be more angry at him for unintentionally stranding them all there.

"One of these." Replied Nine, reaching under his cloak to bring out one of the portal devices. He passed it to Taelan who examined it, "It's an instant teleport device, that one's set to SI:7 Headquarters, we contracted some gnomes to make them for us to get Agents out of dodgy situations." Nine said, explaining the device.

"And you activated it, but Vark's axe disrupted it and it focused on the next teleport matrix it could find, namely my spell." Said Taelan, handing the device back.

"Something like that." Nine replied shrugging. He then directed his attention toward the Orc a few paces in front of him, "What happened back there?" he called out to Vark.

"I was communing with the Earth, it said you could be trusted, otherwise you'd be dead." Vark said bluntly.

"Oh" mouthed Nine, then was quiet, they had come to a cliff, and had to find a way down, he began getting a thin rope out from around his waist, and looked for a convenient stump or something to drape it around. But the elf apparently had more to say.

"He may not know you so well, but I do, so, what happened back there?" Taelan asked.

Vark chuckled at this, "Try a summoning spell." He said, "An imp perhaps."

Taelan looked at him strangely, but shrugged and pulled out some powder from his robe and drew a rough circle with it on the ground. He stood in it and raised his arms, chanting under his breath he closed his eyes, a soft purple light emanating from under his lids and giving him an otherworldly appearance. After a few minutes of what Nine considered fairly easy magic, (given that it was one of the easier demons to bind and summon since most Warlocks learnt the spell quite early on), nothing happened.

Taelan opened his eyes and stopped chanting, "I can't" he said, rather obviously but also quite unusually in Nine's opinion, Taelan was fairly powerful so it should have been easy for him.

"I know" said Vark, "Just testing a theory, now try a water elemental."

Taelan redrew the circle and re-commenced the ritual, the only difference being that his eyes went blue this time. However, the same thing happened, absoutly noting.

"I can't" Taelan said again, looked rather frustrated this time.

Vark inexplicably smiled at this, "That is because Norgannon never came here. And thus, Malygos never existed here, and thus, magic itself does not exist here." He said, shocking his companions.

"B-But the ranger's memories speak of wizards!" Taelan said, wrenching himself out of the shock of this revelation.

Vark shook his head at this, "They are a race called the Maiar, similar to the Valar, of which Sauron is one." Vark looked again at the circle of power on the floor, "That little test was me finding out if the magical and elemental forces on this planet were sentient."

"I see, I couldn't summon the imp because demons just don't exist here and I couldn't summon the elemental because the various Wardens of Water and etcetera also don't exist here." Taelan said, finally understanding. Then he looked at Vark again, then raised his hand and shot a fireball into a rock, melting it slightly.

"Wow" said Nine, "That was far more powerful than it should have been !" He said, looking at Taelan who was examining his hand as if it were a foreign object.

Taelan tried a frostbolt this time, shooting it at the same rock and turning it a sizable chunk of it into solid ice. He looked up at Vark standing at the edge of the cliff. "Explain." He commanded, putting his hands on his hips.

Vark laughed at this. "When you throw a fireball, or use any of your magic, you have to subjugate it to your will do you not?" Vark asked.

Nine finally understood. "Of course! Since the Wardens don't exist there are no elementals which means elemental magic, of which arcane is just a conglomerate, exists without limits!" he looked at Taelan, "You just got a massive power boost." He said, eyeing the elf.

"But, I got an even bigger one." Said Vark from behind them. "As there are no shamans, and very few of these 'wizards' the latent power of the earth is relatively untapped, if you think about it the earth sustains an incredible amount, what with thousands of mages and shamans at the same time using spells, all of which rely on the energy flow of the earth, and then take into account the millions of elementals, everywhere, from ones like Therazane and Ragnaros, to the type that inhabit a campfire. This means that even though mages and other magic users are rare here, they are very powerful." Vark explained. "Watch this." He said, then he crouched, kneeling on the floor, facing out over the cliff, he laid his hands on the floor, and energy streamed into them, light pulsing through his veins, collecting in his chest and his head, eventually shining so brightly the other two had to look away. They felt the earth shake, and much of the surrounding foliage burst into flame, but light shone from the plants as well, so that even though the flames flickered and danced nothing was harmed, the man and the elf heard a peal of thunder and looked upwards, clouds had gathered and lightning filled the sky, forking in impossible directions, rain thudded down, water torrenting down their bodies and through the trees around them. Taelan felt invigorated, energy flooding into him from the rain and the plants around him. He looked toward Vark, now a hulking shining being, Vark stood and walked toward them, as he walked small flowers grew from his footprints, the flames dwindled and faded into nothingness or were extinguished by the rain, which also faded away and the clouds dissipated, the moon shining on Vark and making him look like he had silver skin.

The Orc stopped before them, the light from his body fading and the natural green colour of his skin returning, He looked down at the ground, then up at his friends.

"We have been given a task." He said, Taelan and Nine looked up and him expectantly, the unnatural energy that had flooded their systems a moment ago all but gone. "We have been given authority over Arda, you are both shamans now, you will adapt to your new powers, but our first task is apparently to destroy Sauron, which Arda has inferred is our greatest threat, at the moment."

"Arda?" Nine asked, in light of this new information he did not really know what to think.

"The name of this planet, I have communed with its spirit, and it was apparently impressed with me." Said Vark not-so-modestly.

Taelan grinned at this, "So what do we do now? Can we 'shape the world as we please and subjugate its creatures for our evil purposes'?" he said sarcastically.

Nine grinned at this, he was wondering about it as well.

"No, we've only been given a power boost, but we don't command, or rather we do, but only through sufferance, rather than actual dominion." Vark explained, "But, as I think you have already guessed." He looked at Taelan at this point. "We have been given was I might call 'free reign'"

"For the Greater Good? Or something similar?" Taelan asked, these were not the normal stipulations of power.

"Effectively yes, we appear to be a new type of shamen." Vark replied.

"Right, so what do we actually do now? Are we still headed to Rivendell?" Nine asked, he didn't know if this changed things or not.

"No." Said Vark, shaking his head, "I can maintain surveillance on the council once it starts, then have it relayed back to be later on, at the moment we are going to Mount Fang."

"Where?" Asked Nine puzzled but accepting of the situation.

"Isengard." Taelan replied, referring to another of the ranger's memories, which apparently he understood perfectly now after his 'encounter' with Arda. "The stronghold of a wizard named Saruman. He is head of the White Council, a group of powerful individuals opposed to The Red Eye."

Vark laughed at this, "Quite the contrary, he is working with Saruman, breeding an army in the caves below Isengard and preparing to launch an attack on the country of Rohan."

This was some news to Taelan, Vark's information and that of the ranger's conflicting. "Why?" he asked.

"He was corrupted by an artefact called a Palantír" explained Vark, "He now serves Sauron, we're going to kill him."

"And how exactly do we do that?" asked Nine, "We can't attack if he has an army just sitting there, also as you say he is a wizard and previously one of the most powerful ones at that."

Vark grinned at that again, "We three are now easily more powerful than him. However, for my plan to work we can't expose ourselves. Firstly, I will say that I am an Emissary of Mordor, that should get us through the gate, then eventually we will come to the wizard himself, at which point I, being the strongest will distract him, and Taelan here will neutralise his powers, whilst we are doing that, Nine can stab him in the face or something, but I'll leave the actual killing blow to you." He said, looking at Nine.

Taelan and Nine digested their assignments and kept walking, eventually Nine got tired of trekking across the countryside and sped up to fall into step with Vark.

"Are we walking all the way?" he asked, Taelan nodding in agreement.

Vark looked thoughtful at this, "Depends if you mind how we get there." He said mysteriously.

Taelan broke into a jog to join the other two, having to walk faster to compensate for his stature. "What are our options?" he asked, a variety of transport flowing through his mind, horses foremost, he supposed they could perhaps steal some along the way. "Walking we should take perhaps two weeks to get to Isengard, that is, if we do not encounter some hardship along the way. Or local resistance. Particularly to you" He said, nodding toward Vark.

"True" said Vark, "But you do not take into account terrain, which would probably bring the journey up to three weeks, at the least, however, I may be able to arrange transport or an…alternative…sort."

The other twos eyebrows were raised at this, but they remained silent, Taelan knowing when his friend was planning and Nine following the elf's lead.

They walked in silence for several hours, not encountering any wildlife, or other locals, and eventually came to a large river.

"The Loudwater." Said Taelan in explanation, "There is no crossing for several leagues, one at the Fords of Bruinen, but I would not cross there." He said, shivering slightly.

Nine gave him a questioning look, Vark having accepted Taelan's reference, even if he did not fully understand it. In response Taelan indicated the water, "This marks the boundaries of Elrond's domain, and he has some measure of control over the water. And he would therefore know of our presence here if he does not already."

Vark then ruined their enthusiasm with the revelation that "He does." Taelan was obviously shocked at this, but Vark continued "Anyone of a reasonably level of magical power knows that something happened last night, the levels of power we demonstrated on that cliff effectively wrote 'we are here' in forty-foot letters that were on fire for all to see, I have no doubt that both Sauron and Saruman have knowledge that a new power has risen."

Vark then walked down toward the shore, the river was fairly wide, and they doubted that they could swim it quickly, also taking into account that neither Vark nor Taelan had ever needed to go swimming, and therefore did not know how to.

Nine, following this line of reasoning, posed a question. "Sooooo?"

Taelan chucked at this, turning toward Nine he held out his hands and pointed them palm downwards, and proceeded to fly across, alighting gracefully on the opposite bank.

Vark nodded toward their recently grounded friend, "I would use the phrase 'we will cross that bridge when we come to it', but it would be ridiculous here, so instead, we make our own bridge." Vark then knelt on the bank, placing a hand on the stony shore, and a bridge of earth formed across the river, Vark stood, then held out an arm to allow Nine to walk (very unsteadily) across the bridge.

Later on, the two friends and their new companion/assassin made camp by a small pond, they arranged the fire to keep them warm during the night, having no natural ways of making fire, Taelan directed a stream of it from his palm to the piled wood, igniting it. Vark congratulated him on his precision and lay down to rest." Our transport will arrive in the morning." Said the Orc, waking the other two up, they tried to question him about it, but he would not be drawn on the subject, they soon fell back to sleep, but Vark stayed awake. He got up and walked into the forest, away from their campsite, listening to the sounds of the forest around him, small birds called out to each other and nocturnal mammals snuffled in the leaf-litter.

Vark seated himself under a large oak tree, a red squirrel scurried up the branches at his approach and sat in the leaves above him. As he sat, he called out to his 'transport'.

"Brother Wolf, we await you as the sun rises."

Several minutes passed, his message being transmitted across the plains to the footstep of the Misty Mountains to the east, but after this time, a response came back, a set of growls and yelps.

"We come Strange One, if you still hold true."

"I do, our pack will be acknowledged."

"We will be there as the sun, come to a ridge overlooking the mountains at dawn and we will be there."

Satisfied, Vark stood and went back to camp, knowing that he would not need sleep tonight, he sat by the fire and played with the flames, moulding them into shapes and figures, after some time, he heard a screech above him, looking up he saw a shadow pass over the moon. No doubt one of the great eagles that lived in the peaks of the Mountains, perhaps spying on them, we he could do nothing about it now and lay down, at least giving himself the illusion of sleep. He lay like that for several hours, then, when he saw the sky growing light above the mountains, at this, roused himself and his companions and guided them to the hill that was their rendezvous.

His companions were most puzzled by their seemingly random location, for Nine's part, he was very appreciative of the landscape, usually having little time for thought for natural beauty. Taelan meanwhile was rather bored, not being interested in the landscape, he sat on a rock and practised levitating a pebble he had found. At the appointed hour, just as the sun's rays crested over the snowy peaks of the mountains the group heard howls.