Legacy of a Nazgul or Digimon ride to Minas Tirith. Chapter 7 – Letter.
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Thus, I continue this thing. I know the Nazgul haven't appeared for quite a while, but don't worry, they will soon enough =)
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…Our heroes, surrounded by many citadel guards, were led to the third level of the city – the level to where common people were not allowed. But because it was deep night, there was not much view of it, all was surrounded by darkness, except the road they were going, lighted by torches.
They were not brought here like prisoners though. Everyone was not wearing any restraints, and distance between them and the guards allowed some freedom of movement. But these measures were not entirely convincing that the soldiers mean no harm now, so children were keeping close to their digimon.
Once they have approached a heavy reinforced metal door, the escort stopped. Soldiers from behind and forward went further and formed some sort of a corridor right to the door. Digimon and children gave a couple of questioning glares to each other.
"I think they want us to go in there…" Rika whispered to all of her friends as one of the guards opened the door and stepped aside.
"It's not like we have much of a choice. Perhaps we will be able to convince that Mithrandir to let us go without much trouble… We're in deep enough trouble already… Let's go." Takato replied with a bit of trembling in his voice and lead the way. The others followed him. Everyone noticed cold blankness in the eyes of the guards who were stalking them, it made them shiver.
As they all went inside, the heavy door closed behind them with a metallic screech. They have found themselves in a corridor, a rather small one too. It led to another door, this time made of wood. Near it there were two more guards. Although they also looked like guards of the citadel, their faces were much more lively and friendly.
"Ahh, the visitors have arrived. Come on in, our leader was expecting you for quite a while. Here you go, and please, don't cause trouble…" one of the guards said friendly as he opened the door and let them in. The group entered through the second door without saying anything.
They have found themselves in a round room. It had little furniture – a bed, a table to write on, a chair, and a rather large bookshelf. There was also a balcony. The room was not exactly lighted – only few torches were burning with dim lights.
Renamon narrowed her eyes as she spotted another being in this place. On the balcony there was standing a person. A rather tall one too, he was a lot taller even than Renamon – the tallest one of the group. His clothes were white, as well as his hair. Although the person was not facing the group right at the moment, it was obvious he was pretty old. In his hand there was a white staff. All added up –this was Mithrandir, the white wizard.
"At last, you are here. Unfortunately, your arrival here was not in the manner I would have preferred, but at least you are here in one piece." The white wizard said rather enthusiastically as he turned around and smiled a bit. This friendly welcome did not make anyone of the group less suspicious.
"Yeah, right, I bet you would have preferred to see us in chains…" Rika replied bitterly. She still was much shaken from their "capture". Gandalf, however, only shook his head in disagreement.
"No, I would have preferred it to be peaceful and without unnecessary bloodshed." He replied.
"Oh, is that so? Then why have you seek your blood-thirsty hounds at us? Or better yet, if you knew our whereabouts, why haven't you come yourself? You are lying old…" Rika almost screamed at the wizard.
"Rika, calm down…" Takato held her hand, and tried to sound as calm as it was possible. It helped. Even though Rika had a temper that ranged from being ice-cold to a fiery and aggressive one, she managed to cool off quickly.
"I apologize for any harm my men brought upon you and your friends. But you have to understand us as well. We encounter three powerful creatures, who are, by some yet unknown reason, accompanied by children. They, I mean you, come from our border with the Enemy, and infiltrate the city, before that you also managed to wreak havoc on one of our outposts. And after all that you sought to meet me. What were we supposed to think? Commander of the forces responsible for your latest … troubles proposed to eliminate you all on sight, and it took me great deal of persuasion to convince him otherwise…" Gandalf explained in a rather long speech.
"So that explains the peacefulness we were met with…" Rika grumped. Takato looked at the wizard for a couple of moments, rewinding in his head one more time what he heard, and came to a conclusion:
"So you're Mithrandir we were seeking all this time?!" this phrase caught everyone off-guard with it's ridiculousness.
"Don't tell me you came to that just now?" Henry asked him while truing to hold back the laugh.
"Um… Kinda. He he." Takato replied and giggled.
"Well, duh, Gogglehead, we were told to find the white wizard, and it can't get any whiter than this." Rika replied to him, referring to Gandalf's clothes, after slapping her forehead.
"Err, and who are you guys, hobbits?" suddenly they all heard a new voice. When everyone turned their head to the source of it, they spotted Pippin. He was hiding all this time behind the curtain.
"Watch whom you're calling a hobbit, shrimp-boy." Rika replied harshly, offended with being called a "hobbit".
"Hey, no offence, I just made a mistake, nothing to get sore for. Anyway, you didn't reply to the question." Pippin said rather cheerfully, as he approached Gandalf and stood beside him.
"I'm Takato, this guy next to me is Henry, the grumpy girl is Rika…" Takato started to introduce everyone, but suddenly received a hit from behind from Rika. Not a strong one, but still unpleasant.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" he asked while rubbing his head.
"For me being grumpy." Rika explained. Pippin laughed a bit.
"Anyway, this is Guilmon, Terriermon and Renamon." Takato introduced the digimon. Pippin looked at them with amazement for a couple of seconds, but soon replied:
"Alright, well, I'm Peregrin. Peregrin Took, but friends call me Pippin."
"Ehem, I am sorry for interrupting your chatter, Peregrin Took, but we have serious matters to discuss." Gandalf chided him a little.
"Oh, sorry Gandalf, carry on, I wont bother." Pippin replied and shut his mouth.
"Gandalf? I thought your name is Mithrandir." Renamon said and looked at the old man suspiciously.
"I have many different names, you can use any while addressing to me. But we really have many things to discuss. There are many questions I want to ask you. Why have you sought me out?" Gandalf asked straightly. Children gave questioning glares to each other, and then Henry took a step forward and said:
"We sought you out because we were tasked to deliver a message to you." An uncomfortable silence lasted for a minute.
"Hm, a message? And from whom, may I ask?" Gandalf asked with amazement. He expected my variants of answers, but not this one. Children exchanged glares again, deciding if they should tell or not, and Renamon clenched fists, getting prepared for a fight just in case.
"It's from … from the Nazgul, from Minas Morgul, sir…" Henry said quietly. Another minute was spent without words. Gandalf looked at them with a rather amazed glare, but slowly it was getting colder.
"So you are spies!!!" Pippin exclaimed as he drew his sword. Renamon made a step in his direction just to make sure he will not try to attack. Her chilling glare however, was enough to make the hobbit's determination to fight disappear.
"Shut it, shorty, we're not talking to you." Rika hissed and made the hobbit silence.
"It is impossible." Suddenly Gandalf said slowly.
"Impossible? Why?" Takato asked loudly.
"Minas Morgul is protected by very powerful magic. Many souls of slain citizens of that once beautiful city inhabit its empty halls, powering up the terror aura around it. Even the bravest of my men went insane because of its powerful magic. And you expect me to believe you, a bunch of children, managed to get in, and out, alive?" Gandalf asked ironically.
"Listen, you, we got into that damned city by accident, through a stupid portal. We don't know why we didn't die from that aura thingy and stuff, but we were asked to deliver this good for nothing message to you. And we came all the way from there to deliver it to you, so just take the damn thing already!" Rika said harshly, being really angry at the moment.
"Perhaps the Nazgul wanted us to pass, that's why they lowered their protective aura by themselves." Suddenly Renamon's voice was heard. Her idea sounded reasonable.
"Hmm… Perhaps you are right. But what I can't figure out, is why they have spared your lives… The Nazgul are the most horrible and faithful servants of the Dark Enemy. They bring death and destruction anywhere they go, sparing no one…" Gandalf said thoughtfully.
"They didn't sound so evil to me when we met them. They were just … kind of sad, and they were not so willing to serve their master…" Takato replied.
"Mithrandir, sir, we are telling you the truth. It's … very hard to explain, but we actually came from another world. Some strange artifact sent us here, and we ended up inside the place which is called Minas Morgul. There we met nine abominations, who called themselves the Nazgul. Fro some unknown reason, they let us go, with only one request – to deliver this parchment to you. We don't know what is inside, but it has to be very important." Henry added. Gandalf looked at the boy with curiosity, still considering whether he should believe him or not.
"Let me see this parchment, and I will decide if it's real or fake." He said with authority in his voice. After hearing that, Takato took the parchment from his pocket and gave it to Gandalf.
"Hmm, it really is magically sealed. Bu I know how to open it…" he muttered as he disposed of the seal with an enchantment and opened the message. When he did it, suddenly, a thunder came out of nowhere. All lights from the torches disappeared and the only thing visible in the darkness that suddenly filled the room was a giant ray of ghastly-blue light coming from somewhere far away from the city. Everyone went to the balcony to see it. The light was coming from Minas Morgul's tower of dark sorcery. Soon Takato came too with a torch.
Gandalf unfolded the message and looked into it. Everyone was peaking from behind his back, but was unable to understand anything. The message was written in some strange language.
"What the hell is this? I can't understand a thing!" Pippin exclaimed.
"This is ancient Numenorian language…There are only few who can still understand it, let alone talk or write in it… Fortunately, I can." Gandalf said thoughtfully as he read the message.
"Well, what does it say?" Rika asked impatiently.
Gandalf turned around and everyone made several steps away from him. He raised the parchment and started to read loudly:
"Mithrandir, in a week after you will receive this letter, Minas Tirith will be under siege. Osgiliath will fall in three days and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. It would be wise to evacuate the troops from there. Also, evacuate all civilians from the white city, otherwise they'll be the first to be slaughtered. Keep the creatures and the children near you. I sense strange power from the creatures, which is somehow linked to the children. That power may be enough to cast aside disaster, if so, their potential is not yet spent. If Minas Tirith will fall, the world of Men will fall with it, but you know this, no doubt. Use the remaining time to muster your defenses.
Er-Murazor, the Witch-King of Angmar."
Gandalf finished reading. The message shocked pretty much everyone, including Gandalf. He was not sure what to think about it. He knew that the attack on Minas Tirith would be a matter of time, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. The thing that shocked him was that his bitter enemy provided him with such valuable information. The nature of such a deed eluded him.
He looked at the visitors again. The creatures looked powerful indeed, at least two of them – the dinosaur and the human – like fox. But why the letter mentioned children? From all reports Gandalf read, the children proved only as an obstacle, a weakness. The letter answered no questions, but rose up even more.
"The Witch-king of Angmar? What does this even mean?" Renamon inquired suddenly. This made Gandalf leave his thoughts and return to reality.
"The Witch-king of Angmar – Sauron's deadliest servant. He has many titles: Captain of Despair, The first of the Nazgul, Lord of Minas Morgul. He is the strongest of the Nine. And he will be the one to lead Sauron's armies here…" Gandalf replied thoughtfully as he watched the thunders and lightning coming from the distant land of Mordor, where the shadows lie.
"The letter mentioned you. I do not obligate you to stay here. You may evacuate with the rest of the civilians, when the evacuation will begin. But if you wish to stay here and fight the darkness that is to come – I will not stop you. We would accept any help we can get…" he added. Children looked at each other again. A decision was about to be made.
"Well, what do you say guys?" Rika asked everyone.
"I say let's do it!" Takato said with determination.
"If what the letter said is true, then, even if we evacuate, and the city will fall, no matter where we run, sooner or later the darkness will be upon us. I think we must help protect this world, because we will be forced to live in it later." Henry said reasonably.
"Guilmon ready!" the dinosaur growled funny.
"Yeah, we'll totally kick butt!" Terriermon added cheerfully.
"Hnh, they won't know what hit them…" Renamon added self-confidently. The decision was made. Rika turned around to face the white wizard, and said confidently:
"We will help you and your men fight this thread. All of us." Gandalf smiled when he heard that.
"We are honored to accept your aid. And we are grateful. I will order immediately to provide you with everything necessary. Plus, you will receive a comfortable place to stay here. It will be a lot better than that hole at the tavern. I am happy we managed to reach an agreement. But it is late, and I trust every one of you is tired. The soldier outside the door will lead you to where you will be staying…" he said. Without much commotion, the children and their digimon left. Tomorrow promised to be interesting…
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Well, that's it. Sorry it's short. The next chapter will be ready soon.
