"Black Lion of Middle Earth."

Chapter 4

"Mission objections."

Slowly and a bit stiffly Aragorn turned around to face the person with whom he'll, hopefully, travel from now on, his body still tense with shock, surprise and fear from the unsuspected assault on his hand.

The man sitting in the 'reserved' table was gazing down at a piece of paper, as if he didn't hear Benvin greeting him from two tables away. Holding a scalding cup of what he assumed to be tea, one of his legs resting atop of the other and his right hand twirling another large, metal needle in such speed that it formed a blurry, silver circle in his palm.

He was dressed in a black cloak-like armor, that stuck to his body like a second skin and allowed full flexibility, unlike the ones humans and elves use that were entirely made of metal. With a lot of pockets located around his legs, torso and back. What occupied them, Aragorn could only guess.

Such as the hilts of two swords sticking from behind the stranger's back. The said blades looked nothing like the one he himself was carrying.

Instead of having a normal round pommel, a lean grip, a cross-guar and a chappy like every sword in Middle Earth, these twin blades had a longer handle cloaked in some sort of sword wrap and square shaped hand protector. The rest of the unique blades was covered by the man's back, which was unfortunate since the young Ranger would like nothing more than to see the blades in full glory.

Aside from the strange camouflage armor, the figure had the lower part of his face covered with a mask of the same color and his forehead was protected by a dark-blue bandana, separating the short, black spikes that was his hair from hitting his eyes.

Though the newcomer showed no acknowledgment to Benvin's greeting and invitation, the barman seemed unfazed by his behavior.

"What have I told you about sneaking in without a proper greeting?" The elder human said, waving a finger at the newcomer as if he was reprimanding a naughty child. "And what took you so long to arrive here, anyway?" Ben then looked out the window. "Usually you're here before the sunsets!"

"I arrived according to my usual timing, Benvin-san." The voice that came out from behind the black mask surprised Aragorn, instead of being rough, scratchy with a husky tone, it was gentle, smoothing and almost melodic. As if it was specially made to sing songs so beautiful that they would melt the coldest of hearts, completely unfitting to the otherwise dangerous looking person it belonged to. "You just didn't see me."

The barman sighed and shook his head, muttering something about 'infuriating ninjas'. "One day you're going to tell me exactly how you keep avoiding the doorbell, every time you enter my inn." Aragorn could swear to Valar, that he saw the lips behind that mask twitch into a smile. "But right now my two companions have a mission for you, so come over here and get acquainted."

The ranger stared wide-eyed as the taller figure sighted and, after slowly rising from his seat, made his way over to them. Without making so much a sound during the whole journey, despite the fact that he had two giant, fork-like swords strapped to his dark-blue belt, along with a couple of strange throwing knives tied together with a string.

Frowning, Aragorn kept his gaze on the warrior.

For someone who claimed to not have a single drop of elven blood flowing in his veins, he moved more silently than any of the elves he came to know. Including Glorfindel, his adoptive father, Elladan, Elrohir and Haldir who could be insanely silent when the situation called for it.

For a second he wondered if the warrior could sneak on a doe feeding her young, being as silent as he was but quickly dismissed the idea as childish.

"Gandalf, young Strider." The barman's voice pushed him out of his thoughts, making him focus his attention on the older human. "Let me introduce you to one of my family's oldest friends, Raion of the Western Temple."

The man in question smiled with his eyes and gave them a salute with his right hand. "Yo."

Gandalf stood up and returned the smile. "A pleasure to meet you, Raion." The wizard then extended his hand which the warrior gladly, if not a bit hesitantly, took. "I am Gandalf the Gray and this, fine fellow over here is my companion, Strider." Aragorn briefly caught the other warrior's eyes, as he raised to greet him.

They were colored in such a pail blue the ranger swore they were once a nice light blue, before somebody decided to vanquish all the color from them.

"The pleasure is all mine, Strider-san." Raion spoke, nodding his head in a greeting. The ranger realized, quite displeased, that the black clad man was a few inches taller than him. Not by much but the future king of Gondor rarely had the honor of being taller in Lord Elrond's realm, with all the elves surrounding him being at least a bit taller because of their superior race, and cherished greatly every time he found himself be bigger than a fellow human.

But, since their new companion was definitely not human (just because he hid the pointy parts of his ears under a headband, doesn't change the fact that he's an elf), he supposed he shouldn't feel to discouraged. There are races and fellow humans smaller than him, after all.

Nodding to Raion's greeting Aragorn followed Gandalf's lead and sat down, Raion seemed to be perfectly fine standing before Ben pulled him down by the sleeve of his cloth armor.

"Don't be rude, Reo." He scowled clasping a large hand on the younger one's shoulder, as if to make sure he won't leave. "Besides, these are fine lads. They won't bite you."

The ranger had to force down a smile at the bright blush that appeared on the uncovered part of Raion's face, as the said man tried to hide his embarrassment from his voice.

"I know they won't bite me, Senpai." Raion managed to grumble out. "It's just that…I've been sitting for a long time now, both on saddle and in my usual chair and my limbs seemed a bit more comfortable with standing at the moment."

The barman rolled his eyes. "Of course they do, Reo." He gave the younger man a knowing glance. "And I didn't see you barely a week ago, hunched over in the trees in a sitting position for nearly the entire day, without moving so much a muscle. Your limbs didn't bother you much then, now did they?"

Aragon heard Raion snort. "I was on a mission back then, Senpai and it required complete stillness from my body in order to be completed. I couldn't let the orcs targeting your inn know I'm there so they can just shoot me down the minute they arrive, now could I? So that doesn't count."

"Oh?" Ben looked doubtful. "So the belief that you simply don't like getting too close to people because that the ninja way, is a false on-"

"-And speaking of missions." The younger looking man chose that moment to cut the innkeeper off with both word and a cold glare. "My Senpai here, mentioned you have one for me, Gandalf-san." He spoke with an undisturbed calmness, sounding as if he didn't hear the wizard speak about the destination they were heading towards, just a few minutes ago.

Gandalf smiled at the young elf before him, puffing a stream of smoke through his nose. "That is correct, my friend."

"I would like to know the details of this mission, before I agree to anything." Raion said looking deeply into the Isari's light-blue eyes.

"A wise policy." The wizard nodded, agreeing. "What would you like to know?"

"Firstly, the amount of time it's going to take." Raion stated, pulling the silver needle out of the table and polishing it with a black cloth he pulled out from his backpack. "I may be free for the time being but that can't stay so, for too long. I'm needed here. The people of this village are constantly plagued by orcs and goblins trying to steal food and, occasionally, even children." The elf then lifted the smooth needle up to the light and watched the candlelight reflect of the smooth metal. "Their men have never faced the cruelty of war and the only life they ever took is that of a deer or a rabbit, mainly because this place is so small it's mostly overlooked by the king of Rohan, whenever he calls men to join his army so there was no need for them to learn swordsmanship." Satisfied by his work, the dark haired warrior placed the needle in one of his leg pockets where, Aragorn assumed, it belonged. "As you can see then, I am these people's only line of defense when it comes to invaders that do not mean well."

Both the wizard and the ranger nodded, that question was not one that will make Raion reconsider joining them. They were always hurrying with the Ringwraith's constantly getting closer to Frodo's location than everyone would like.

Aragorn suspected that their fast pace (slowed down a bit by Marry and Pippin) in which they planned to travel, will satisfy the strange elf.

"We suspect our overall journey to take about six months in total." Aragorn answered picking up his untouched beer. "But there is a large chance that we will have to go faster."

As the elf thought through the new information, both the ranger and the wizard waited patiently for his next question.

"How many more people will be going with us?"

"We will regroup in Rivendell with six other party members, why?"

The non-elf shrugged. "Just curious." Sensing there was more to it, none of the humans spoke. With a sight Raion continued. "As my Senpai already informed you, my usual line of work are solo missions." His voice then lowered to a whisper. "This one will be the first group mission I had in years."

Having a wage feeling that this was a sensitive subject, Aragorn swiftly changed it.

"Any other questions?"

"Just one: What will be my objection during this task?"

This time it was Gandalf that answered. "I believe that your role in this mission will be much easier, than the ones you've previously encountered." The wizard said taking in a large intake from his pipe. "Your objection will be to simply ensure that we reach our destination without getting separated, caught or, if it's in your power to prevent it, hurt."

The unnaturally pale-blue eyes, blinked. "I'm supposed to be a…babysitter?"

Aragorn nearly chocked on his liquor trying to suppress a chuckle.

Gandalf, however didn't have that kind of problem and laughed freely. "Although the jobs are similar to each other, I assure you that the proper name for your task is undeniably 'Bodyguard'."

Raion nodded. "I see."

"So what do you say, Reo?" Benvin placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Do you think you can handle this little trip to Mordor?"

The black haired non-elf was silent for a minute. "Are you sure you can handle the villagers if orcs were to attack?" He asked almost fanatically but the elder human just waved his concerns away.

"Relax, Reo." Ben calmed his friend. "Whatever you led yourself to believe, we are not as helpless as you made us sound and thanks to your lessons in that taijutsu thingy, orcs are nothing we can't handle."

The warrior frowned, or at least narrowed his eyes. "The fact that I taught you a few basic katas doesn't automatically make you and your fellow villagers, shinobi of my level."

"But it does mean we know how to fight." The barman countered. "Come on, Raion. What are the chances of orcs attacking us right now?" The non-elf in must have sensed it was a rhetorical question, because he left it unanswered. "Second-to-none." The pudgy barman continued. "So stop worrying about something that won't happen. We are big boys, Reo we can take care of ourselves." He reassured again. "Besides, I have a strong feeling that these two," He mentioned at Aragorn and Gandalf. "are going to need your help more than we will."

For a very long minute, the self-believed, non-elf said nothing before sighting.

"Very well then, Senpai." He then looked at Gandalf. "I accept the mission, Gandalf-san."

The Isari smiled. "Excellent. When will you be ready to leave?"

Raion shrugged. "It will not be necessary for you and Strider-san to wait for me, Gandalf-san." He said standing up. "I will catch up to you once I'm done preparing."

Aragorn blinked. "That's impossible. No horse is that fast."

The non-elf just smiled at him.

"Don't you worry Strider-san, my stallion has never failed me before." He then walked up to the nearby window and opened it. "Until we meet again, sayonara." With a last salute he jumped out, disappearing from view.