Author's Note: Hello again! Here we return, and now Asuna and the other elvish girls are now ready to begin their adventure. But will it have a fair ending? I don't know!
Also I do not own Sword Art Online or the Lord of the Rings.
Chapter Four
The Road through East Eriador
"The Road goes ever on and on, Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can."
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Asuna marched through the dusty yet pleasant paths of Hobbiton as she left for the new quest along the eastern road. She had only been inside this so called "Shire" for less than an hour, but as the time rolled on she quickly realized why this game was meant to be a big deal.
"Wow this map is incredible!" The brown haired teenager exclaimed with a glowing grin. "I mean even if that Klint guy is worried his game won't have a good story, the graphics and landscape are far superior to anything I've ever seen."
Lisbeth trailed behind her with a smile just like Asuna's. "Yea no joke. I love the little guys with furry feet too! They all have funny names, and they're super polite!"
Leafa nodded in agreement. "Yea, if I actually liked reading I would consider picking up that Hobbit book and finding out what really happens."
Asuna nodded and pointed ahead. "Well you're in luck, because the three of us are going to do exactly that!"
Lisbeth liked Asuna's mood, but sighed. "Um yea…listen I know we've played a lot of games, but this map looks like it's gonna be huge. Plus the creepy Annatar guy said there are no characters in this game, or at least the human-ey ones…how are we supposed to ask a bunch of irrelevant NPCs where the quest goes?"
Asuna stopped at a fork in the road and scratched her chin as she picked to walk right. "Well we already have one lead. Annatar told us our next stop needs to be Rivendell, so I guess we're going to Rivendell!"
Lisbeth shook her head. "Yea, we'll trust the creepy guy on that, but when he gives us cool rings we have to put them away…"
Asuna held her head high. "Lisbeth we can't go around and use items like that, it's kind of cheating. Besides…what if he wants us to put them on for some secret reason we don't know about?"
Lisbeth argued back. "Yea? Well what if he wants us to go to Rivendell?"
Leafa tapped her chin. "Well I mean this Rivendell place has to be in the Hobbit, otherwise this quest would be a waste of time. So I don't think he'd benefit from hurting us without getting through his quest and letting us test it for him first."
Lisbeth sighed. "Yea I guess so…anyway do we even think we're going the right way?"
"I dunno, let me check!" Asuna stopped and pulled out a paper map. She then got a quizzical look on her face because all the writing was in a completely foreign language unique to the game.
Then, Asuna traced a finger along a line, and as it passed through a long stretch of road, she finally found a long spine of mountains running vertically down the map's center.
"Well there! Those look like mountains to me! I bet one of them has to be lonely!" She then tucked away the map and continued moving forward.
Lisbeth shook her head and followed. "Yea…I guess that'll be the entire trip." She then raised an eyebrow as Asuna started humming. "Um…so even though Kirito is missing you seem to be in a pretty good mood."
Asuna nodded. "Well yea, this world is amazing! I know we don't know where Kirito is, but how many seconds of our lives have been wasted from worrying about Kirito in the past? Knowing him…he always finds a safe way out."
Asuna told herself that, but she also knew that it was actually Kirito who taught her to enjoy the world around her, regardless of the negative feelings. As a result, she tried doing just that.
Leafa nodded slightly and had to agree. "Yea, you are right about that one. Maybe we are worrying too much!" Either way Leafa and Lisbeth still remained puzzled at the sight of such a calm Asuna, especially after she just pulled that intimidating poker face out in front of Annatar back in Bag End.
However, before the conversation could carry on, Asuna pointed at a wide swath of forest that sat just south of the path.
Instantly, she looked ready to run off the road. "Wait the map said this place is pretty unique! We should stop in for a minute!"
Lisbeth tilted her head. "Um…what exactly is this place called?"
Asuna pulled out the map and tried to match it with Annatar's notes, one page of which provided a very poor translator for only a few early sections of the map.
"It says…it's called…the Old Forest!"
Asuna wanted to say more, but just then a whirl of wind blew by and caused a strange sound to come from the trees of the forest.
"Oh no!" Lisbeth yelled. "We have no weapons until we find a real town, and we can't use those rings we were given. I ain't going in no spooky forest without a weapon!"
Leafa started to ponder. "Well, does it offer a short cut or something?"
Asuna looked at the map. "It trims part of the road, because the original track goes all the way around the north end. It might be like 30 minutes of saved time!"
"Yea…" Leafa nodded. "I mean, I doubt Annatar would make a hard place this close to the original spawn."
Leafa and Asuna gave each other a nod and walked in the forest, and soon after Lisebth let out her breath and followed.
Now, the three girls were wondering around the darkened green of the Old Forest for some time, at least long enough to forget the time of day. They could see sun beams shooting through the branches overhead, but no actual make or direction could be determined from it.
Asuna tried to keep a cheery face on the entire trip, but Leafa kept right behind her with a look of panic and alerted fear.
Leafa also looked a little tense, but not like Lisbeth who was just easy to spook. Leafa started hearing weird things along the entire forest path. They almost sounded like…voices.
However she was quickly distracted as her party of 2 extra halted in front of her, with Asuna holding the map and Lisbeth looking over Asuna's shoulder.
"Let's see…" Asuna began to ponder their next route. "I think we need to go this way to make it back onto the road."
Lisbeth tried to look at the map, but the creepy branches overhead were stealing her attention. "Y-yea? Well just find the quickest way out and use it!"
Leafa started feeling a shiver roll down her spine as another weird voice came from the far back side of the path. "Y-yea I agree with Lisbeth. This forest almost sounds like its talking…"
"OH SO I'M NOT CRAZY!?" Lisbeth was half relieved and half frightened as the truth was slowly being revealed. Now she and Leafa were both pining for an exit as fast as one could be delivered.
Asuna put the map away and turned to the left. "Fine, the road should just be over a few extra hills. We'll miss the rest of the short cut, but maybe you guys are right…this place is starting to…"
Lisbeth and Leafa went to ask why Asuna stopped talking, until they too saw the monstrously overgrown tree that sat in a clearing right up ahead. Its grey willow branches gnarled up into the sky like claws, and its leaves looked withered and dried. Also, the front was also starting to look like a face the closer you walked towards it.
Long story short, it was not a tree meant for staring at.
Lisbeth realized that and tried to walk around it. "Okay that does it, no more creepy tree for me! We're getting out of here right now…!" She went to continue speaking, but her foot stepped on an exposed root, and right then the ground shook from underneath her feet, and the tree trunk started to shake.
"Oh no…what was that?" Asuna turned to see a frozen Lisbeth not willing no move another inch. The next thing you know the tree started shaking chaotically around in place, and right then long and mangled branches came out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the three girls' waists, quickly lifting them all up and into the air.
As the girls flew into the air they all screamed and smacked the tree's limbs with ferocious back lashes from their fists, but to no avail the hits were doing absolutely nothing.
Lisbeth started yelling from her own coiled branch. "OKAY I THINK IT'S TIME TO USE THE RINGS NOW!"
"HOLD ON!" Asuna yelled back as she managed to unpin the note from her pocket. "I THINK I FOUND THE SECTION ABOUT THIS PLACE…YEA THIS IS THE OLD FOREST!"
Leafa was starting to get dizzy as she yelled back. "IS THAT FROM ANNATAR!? WHAT DOES IT SAY TO DO!?"
Asuna tried to concentrate. "IT SAYS IF YOU FIND YOURSELVES IN THE VIOLENT CLUTCHES OF THE OLD WILLOW TREE…MAKE LIKE THE HOBBITS OF THE SHIRE AND WAIT FOR MERRY OL' TOM BOMBADIL TO COME TO THE RESCUE…"
"OH THANK GOD SOME MINDLESS NPC IS GOING TO SAVE US!" Lisbeth cried out with sarcasm as the tree started spinning her around with all her yelling making everything worse.
Then Asuna finished her read. "…PLEASE NOTE TOM BOMBADIL IS NOT YET IMPLEMENTED INTO THE MEO GAME YET!?'"
"WHAT!?" Leafa and Lisbeth both yelled at the same time, and that only made the tree mad. It began thrashing them around harder and harder, and right then two rings fell out from their pockets, one of white and one of red.
"OH NO NOT THE RINGS!" Lisbeth tried to get her ring back, but was once again hurled into the air.
Asuna looked to see she had no chance to get either ring, but then realized Leafa's was still safe. "LEAFA! YOU HAVE TO TRY USING YOURS!"
"WHA!? B-BUT WHAT IF I…!?" Leafa sounded nervous to break the code, because she didn't want to endanger her or her friends any more than they already were.
Asuna tried to explain. "IT MAY UNLOCK YOUR MAGIC POWER FROM ALO! YOU CAN TRY USING A SPELL TO SET US FREE! JUST TAKE IT OFF WHEN YOU'RE DONE!"
"BUT I ONLY KNOW WIND SPELLS! WE'D PROBABLY NEED FIRE TO HELP GET US OUT OF…"
"NOOO…!" Lisbeth interjected as she was about to throw up. "WIND SOUNDS GOOD USE WIND!"
Leafa sighed with the little breath she had and tried to wiggle her ring free. Then, after inhaling her crushed lungs with air, she put the ring back on. Right away the serge of powerful energy flew through her veins just like before, and as a result she tried unlocking an extremely powerful wind spell from ALO.
She kept her voice at a low monotone as her hands started to glow with golden light. "I control the winds in this forest. Now…bend to my will!"
Nothing happened, and the result came in the form of a large explosion and black smoke which damaged Leafa, her friends, and part of the tree's branches.
However, the tree didn't sound ready to drop them, but that blast pretty much made up its mind on whether or not to kill them.
Asuna and Lisbeth felt more breath leaving their crushed lungs as the former spoke up. "Try…*cough*…it…again…!"
Leafa closed her eyes and summoned what little energy she had left, and this time she once again yelled at the top of her lungs.
"I CONTROL THE WINDS OF THIS FOREST! NOW, BEND TO MY WILL!"
Then, a large gust of violent storm wind howled through the clearing and nearly uprooted the large willow tree. As it did the beastly plant was forced to release its captives and fling backwards to try and readjust to its movement from the winds.
Leafa and the others crashed to the ground, and as they all collected their breaths. Asuna and Lisbeth grabbed their rings.
Finally, Asuna started smiling and rubbed her head. "So…no more forests for this trip?"
As soon as the three young ladies made it out of the Old Forest they found themselves quickly back on the east road and onto their next location. After stopping in at the lovely Village of Bree, they all found a nice table at the village's Prancing Pony, which served as a local inn and tavern.
Lisbeth had left to talk to the barkeep, and she also took the map with her to clarify where they needed to go next. This left Asuna and Leafa sitting alone at their corner table with tired eyes and full glasses of ale.
"Ugh…that walk from the Shire was pretty rough." Leafa said as she rubbed her lower back. "I'm just glad we found chairs."
"Yea…" Asuna sounded equally exhausted as she took a deep breath. "All in a day's travel I suppose." She then sat up.
"Hey, I'm sorry if it sounded like I was snapping at you in the forest. That spell you used was pretty cool."
Leafa smiled back and waved a hand. "You were snapping at me? I just figured that was you choking and yelling from the tree branch." She then pulled out her ring and set it on the table. "Yea…we need to figure out a way to unlock this power without wearing these things."
Asuna nodded. "True but I doubt it'll be that easy."
Then both girls took a sip of their mugs, and right then Leafa spoke up.
"Hey Asuna…if you don't mind me asking…how are you so calm and collected with Kazuto missing?"
"What do you mean…?" Asuna sounded embarrassed, as if she hadn't been worried enough for her missing boyfriend.
Leafa spoke quickly. "No I don't mean I like that! I mean…I'd love to just tell myself he'll be fine. This game really is pretty neat...I was just wondering how you're able to convince yourself that even with Kazuto being gone."
"Oh…well hmm let me think." Asuna had to collect a thought for a moment before she smiled and grabbed Leafa's hand.
"I guess it was seeing my old rapier today. It sort of brought me back into the days of SAO…man my first days in there were just as rough. I remember trying to convince myself I needed to fight to survive, and sometimes I even just considered giving up. Then one day I found a kid sleeping in a field, and then I noticed that instead of frantically trying to return home to the real world, he was taking a nap, and enjoying his time that he had in SAO."
Leafa looked confused until Asuna laughed.
"That boy was Kirito. He taught me that no matter what, I can't waste a day of my life thinking of the negatives, especially when I'm surrounded by a world full of positives, and positive people."
Leafa knew Asuna was referring to her and her other friends, and as a result she smiled back. "Wow, that's really sweet Asuna…"
Then, both girls were interrupted as Lisbeth finally came back, and as she did she slammed the map down with one hand and a tall mug of ale with the other.
"Alright I found out which way to go...Asuna you were right. We need to keep heading east and make for the House of Elrond? I guess it really is in this Rivendell place."
Asuna nodded and raised a glass. "Alright sounds good, we'll pick up or travels tomorrow. Until then let's have a drink on our first day in MEO!"
Leafa had no problem raising a glass to those words after her quick conversation with Asuna just moments before, and as Lisbeth paused for a moment and looked at her two crazy friends, she sighed.
"Well…I guess that's better than what I had to say."
Sorry if this chapter felt short! I thought so a little bit, but I had fun when I read it back to myself so i think it works! For the record SAO doesn't offer a lot of material for character personalities outside Kirito and Asuna. We see them all a lot, but they usually get dwarfed (actually even Asuna kind of falls behind Kirito.) I really like this story cause it let me expand more with these characters. For example I know Klein is probably the show's main comic relief, but I always get a vibe that Lisbeth is too, because she can be kinda snappy and goofy. Also Asuna and Leafa are supposed to have a pretty close relationship, but the real series kind of just put it together without resolving Leafa's awkward opinion on Asuna and her relationship with Kirito. I wanted to show they're all 3 pretty close to one another (and the others too, wherever they are!)
Anyway that's numba 4! The Hobbit never took us through the Old Forest, it was the Fellowship book, but I wanted to twist as much of the original story up as I could to keep it from getting too boring/predictable or copy and pasted. You may note that I implant several great quotes from the LOTR series into the dialogue of some characters just for nostalgia/fun, so those can be more easter eggs for you! (Also did anyone figure out the meaning behind the name "Klint Rojer" yet?)
Chapter 5 tomorrow maybe? I dunno I have a big test for my school program tomorrow, so I may take a break. Or I might upload until the weekend, and just make this story a 5 day/weekday upload story. I'll figure something out! Like always comment and Review!
