A/N: So....how many people don't realize that I don't own tLoR yet? Well, for the few that don't quite understand....I don't own anything to do with tLoR...

::grin:: I'm so very happy!!! Thank you so much to Shanley, plasticChevy, Cath Sith, and KazraGirl for reviewing my story! You've just made my day...not to mention make me want to right more of the story. :)




Chapter 6: Tales of Dismay



Ninsèa lisuàn,
The beckoning calls upon me
Asuäe isaüne
Sending me deeper into my despair




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rogue stood in the room which once held the famous shards of Narsil. She did not wear her normal outfit, but rather a loose fitting violet nightgown. It was a rare occasion to find Rogue in a dress, and even more rare to find her in a color rather than black. She had taken her sword off, and two of her daggers, yet kept one concealed under her dress. The room was poorly lit, with only three candles lit on either side of the room. Rogue stood with her back towards the statue which once held the shards of Narsil. She faced a wall on which a mural was painted...a mural which depicted the first War against Sauron and Isildur's 'defeat' of Sauron. The candles' lights flickered on the wall, casting eerie shadows on parts of the picture.

Although Rogue seemed to be lost in her thoughts, she heard Elrond enter the room without having to turn around.

"What brings you here, Elrond? Asking me to leave already, are you?"

Elrond, not looking pleased on having to talk with Rogue, walked towards her, stopping a few feet behind her. "No, Anédia, that is not why I came here. And I did not ask you to leave last time, either. You left on your own free will."

"Yet I was not welcome here, either. For me to stay would to be staying in a place where I was not wanted," Rogue replied, her voice giving away how she destested what Elrond had just said.

"It does not matter right now, Anédia. Right now I wish to know what you know about this threat....Saroshder." Elrond replied, brushing away Rogue's loathe.

Rogue turned around and smirked slightly. "And, pray tell, why should I say everything I know about Saroshder to you?"

Elrond seemed to grow annoyed. "Because I wish to know what the Fellowship is going against...if this is an impossible journey, well...."

Rogue looked at Elrond for a minute or two, studying him. Finally, she spoke. "I know many things about Saroshder, Elrond. Many of the things I know I can not pass along, for there is no way to explain them. But I can tell you this: Saroshder is a Shadow Creature, one that lives in the shadow's of Mordor. The day causes no damage to it, and I do not know why it does not hunt during the day as well as the night. Perhaps it is because Mordor does not wish to be known by all of Middle Earth quite yet..."

"A Shadow Creature....I thought they had been gone from Middle Earth for many centuries..." Elrond said, his voice sounding distant.

Rogue watched him for a second, then continued. "I have never seen Saroshder with my own eyes, but I have never heard of anyone that has and lived to tell about it. The creature is intelligent, and is capable of creating armies and following orders, which is what I believe it is doing. Sauron must be using Saroshder to follow through on his plans."

"And death...do you have any idea of how to destroy it?"

A slight look of dismay came over Rogue's face, but then disappeared again. "Not I, nor anybody I have ever heard about knows how to destroy Saroshder."

This news seemed to dishearten Elrond. "The Ring, it seems, was an easier problem to worry about."

"To believe this would be an easy journey would be foolish for anybody to believe. I will lend my knowledge of the Shadow Creature and Mordor as much as possible, but even with the Fellowship on this journey, I can not say I see a bright ending."

"Good night, Anédia, good night. That is what I wished to know from you...I will not question your ways of getting into Rivendell or even why you decided to come. That is for you to know. For now, sleep and eat well, for the journey will not provide you that." With that, Elrond walked out of the room and went to his bed chamber.

Rogue was left standing in the room by herself, where she had first started. She rarely listened to Elrond's advice, however, sleep sounded good to her at such a late hour of the night. Before leaving the room, she bent over each one of the candles and blew them out.

~*~

Aragorn sat at the dining room table, with Pippin and Merry sitting across from him. Both Pippin and Merry were sipping on some apple cider...both had wanted some beer or wine, but Aragorn and Legolas convinced them not to drink the night before their journey. Legolas also sat on the opposite side of Aragorn, yet he sat near the end of the table, leaving many seats between him and Merry. Boromir leaned against the wall, right where the wall angled inwards and became a window. Gandalf was also standing near the window, looking outside. Frodo and Sam sat near Aragorn, watching the rest of the Fellowship. Gimli sat alone, pulling out a chair from the table and moving it a little further away from the table. Everyone of them seemed to be thinking of the journey which would start tomorrow, and the new member which had joined them today.

Boromir shook his head. "We should not have let the girl come with us. Only bad things can come of people like that....she didn't seem quite...right."

Strider nodded. "I agree...her presence makes me uneasy, and I do not feel as though she will tell us the complete truth of whatever we ask her."

"Then why even allow her on the journey, Aragorn? You are King of Gondor...you should have more sense than that!" Boromir exclaimed.

Aragorn, still calm and thinking about the decision of allowing Rogue on the journey, quickly replied to Boromir. "We have already gone over this, Boromir! She might have information that we need, information that will actually help us to destroy this threat!"

"Aragorn is right, Boromir. I can feel that she is hiding something, but of what, I do not know. And for an elf to act the way she does....it is unthinkable. I have never seen such an unruly elf in my entire life. Yet, she might be the saving grace of our journey..." Legolas agreed with Aragorn.

"Or the death of us," Boromir mumbled.

Just as Aragorn was about to reply to Boromir, Legolas hushed him. "Footsteps at the door. She comes..." Legolas said quietly, intently watching the door of the dining room.

The door swung open and Rogue entered the dining room, still in her violet nightgown. She was seemingly unarmed, and from a distance, she looked like a normal elven maiden. Standing in the doorway, she looked at the group in a sarcastic, amused sort of way. "And here I was thinking that all of you would be asleep by now."

Aragorn nodded to her. "That would be, except that none of us could sleep."

Walking over to the table, Rogue picked up a pitcher of water which had been sitting on the table. Pouring some water into a glass, she answered. "Worried about me coming along, no doubt."

"Well at least she realizes when she's not wanted," Boromir mumbled to himself, forgetting that she was elven.

Rogue chuckled at Boromir's ignorance. "I do not worry about not being wanted. After awhile, you get used to that."

Frodo, trying to stop any confrontation Boromir might start with Rogue, quickly asked a question. "Your name's Rogue, isn't it? That's not your true name, is it?"

Rogue smiled, almost looking pleasant for a second. But only for a second. "Rogue is what people call me, yes. That is not my birth name, but I tend to prefer it than people using my true name."

"If you don't mind, we wouldn't mind knowing your...erm...birth name...." Pippin cut in, trying to help Frodo out.

"Questioning little things, aren't you? Well then, since you asked, and haven't been too rude to me," she shot a look at Boromir, "my birth name is Anédia." Rogue seemed to grow soft for seconds at a time when talking to the hobbits, yet tended to hide it away quickly.

Legolas smiled, trying not to chuckle.

Rogue noticed him. "Tell me, what is so funny? Where are you finding humor in what I just said?"

"No where, Rogue...Anédia. I was just thinking about the meaning of your name...'silver star'."

Rogue looked at him suspiciously, but decided to drop the subject. Being an elf, he would probably cause the most problems for her on the journey. Besides Boromir...but that man did not think things through enough to be of any trouble. "Rogue. I go by Rogue."

Merry, realizing the obvious, spoke up. "You don't know our names, do you? Well, I'm Merry...that's Pippin...and that's Frodo, he was a Ring Bearer last journey, and that's Sam....and..." Merry went on and introduced the Fellowship to Rogue. Aragorn gave a nod when his name was mentioned, and so did Boromir, yet Boromir's nod was more curt and quick. Gandalf turned around from the window for a second to say a hello to Rogue, and the rest murmered their hello's when their names were mentioned.

Boromir suddenly spoke up again, much to the dismay of the rest of the group. "Tell us, if you know we do not trust you and do not especially want you to come along on the trip, why are you coming anyways?"

"What makes you think I WISH to go on this journey?" Rogue answered, almost indignantly.

"Then do not go! We will be able to live through this journey even without your help!"

Gandalf turned towards the bickering two, alarmed. Before he could try to calm Boromir and Rogue down, Rogue was already answering Boromir. Her voice was cold and defiant, and she spoke as though she had already seen the future. "You do not even know anything about Saroshder, and yet you still believe you can defeat it? Let me tell you this...I will not go if that is the will of the Fellowship, but you do not realize the fate you would be choosing. You will not be able to defeat Saroshder, and then, if you are still alive, will be helpless to stop the destruction it causes because you have failed. The first to fall will be Rivendell," Rogue told the Fellowship, looking at Legolas when she talked of the fall of the Elves, "along with Lothlórien, Mirkwood and all other elven homes. Next to fall," she continued, looking at Aragorn this time, "will be Gondor. The reign of men will come crashing down and men will have no more strength than the ants that live in the ground. Then, the mines of dwarves will be attacked, and the dwarves' might and legacy will be killed before a blink of an eye," Rogue said, now looking at Gimli. "The last to fall will be the Shire. Hobbits shall not be left free, and their peaceful world will be crushed," she ended, looking at Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam one by one. "All that will be left is Mordor...."

The Fellowship looked at her, wondering if what she proclaimed of could ever happen. It certainly seemed like it could not, but in their hearts, they knew she spoke the truth. Rogue closed her eyes and tried to regain her composure before speaking again. Opening her eyes, her voice grew softer, yet her eyes still were cold and icy like they had been. "Now, tell me if that is the fate you wish upon Middle Earth. If so, I will leave all of you and go my own way tomorrow when you leave."

Boromir seemed visiably shaken, and did not respond. Gandalf spoke up finally, though. "I believe I can speak for all of us when I say we wish you to come along with us. You obviously know much more about this threat than any of us do..."

Rogue looked around the room, but no one made eye contact or even spoke. Nodding to Gandalf, she replied. "Then it is settled. I shall go with you during the journey. I will leave at any time during the journey if you wish me to be gone before the end." With that, she took her glass and walked out of the dining room, went upstairs and quickly went into her room and closed the door behind her. Putting her glass on a table by her bed, she tried to sleep. But all that she could think of what had just happened. Her past. Oh, it was those blasted memories of what she had done when she was younger that made her the way she was...but she had not told them lies about what would happen if they failed. Her heart whispered a warning to her, a warning which told her not to go on this journey. It seemed to hold only grief and misery for her...something the others would never know. Turning on her side, she closed her eyes tightly and tried to block the memories which started to haunt her mind...

((A/N: Sorry if that was a bad chapter...))