Legolas stared into the fire conscious of every ones eyes on him as he began his tale. "We don't know when the pyramid appeared. One day a group from Lorien were hunting in the north of Mirkwood and they came across some strangers. They wore few clothes and carried staffs of lightening. These strangers attacked them and only one escaped to bring the news to us, he was badly injured and it took all of our arts to heal him. The north end of Mirkwood has become closed to us, but we have managed to pass through in secret and there we found the Golden Pyramid. These strangers appeared to be wizards that control lightening and fire. They can bring the sun from the sky and surround themselves with its power. They have not interfered with Lothlorien yet, but we are afraid it is only a matter of time and there are fewer of us now that remain in middle earth to protect her."
"Exactly were are these invaders?" Gimli asked as he stroked his beard absently considering the information.
"Close to where the River Anduin springs from the mountains, between the mountains and Mirkwood. They control all the open land there.
"Were there any people in the area they landed?" Jack asked bringing Legolas's eye to his face.
"No. The land was unoccupied as is it not very fertile," Legolas explained, "why?"
"Then there has been a lot less loss of life than there could have been," Jack commented as he shifted his weight to find a more comfortable spot to lean against and shifted his knees. "The Goa'uld are ruthless, if there had been a population there it would have been enslaved or killed. What I don't understand is why they have stayed away from Lothlorien and Rivendell. They are clearly spreading their influence in a much more devious way than normal for them."
"Not for much longer I think," Legolas commented and looked at Teal'c, "these people look very like you." Teal'c nodded his head at the statement of fact but made no response.
The group settled down around the fire to sleep until dawn. Teal'c took first watch and wandered away from the light to adjust his eyes to the darkness surrounding them. Gimli and Legolas settled down and begun a low conversation so as not to disturb the rest. Jack watched them for a while and could see, if he had not known from the book that these two had been friends for a long time. His eyes wandered to the other side of the fire were Daniel and Sam Gamgee had unfurled their bedrolls and gone immediately to sleep. Sam Carter was a little further around the fire and appeared to be restless. Settled in her bedding with her eyes closed did not fool Jack for a minute, she was not sleeping. In fact, he realised she had not spoken to anyone since the race to save the dwarves.
Jack made his way over to sit beside her and gently touched her shoulder. She jumped and shot up, arm reaching for her weapon. "OK Carter, nothings wrong," Jack whispered so as not to disturb Daniel who was nearest.
Sam gazed up at him immediately with fully focused eyes, "Sir?" Jack smiled wryly and settled beside her, so she sat up. Sam wondered what was on his mind and leant forward to grab another cup of coffee before settling back. "Problem Sir?"
"This whole mission is a problem Carter. None of this makes any kind of sense to me and we need to know why we are here and what we need to do to get to this Goa'uld. What is he after, because he sure as Hell isn't interested in this planet itself."
"I concur Sir. They have to be looking for something specific. I have been racking my brains looking for a reason, never mind the problem of Tolken and the book. These two things cannot be connected can they? No, no, there is no way they can be connected. We need to first find out what they want here other things will wait for later."
"I concur," responded Jack with a solemn face and a twinkle in his eyes. "So what do you think they are looking for? Well there is one thing we do know Carter."
"What is that Sir?"
Sam tilted her head on one side and looked up at him in a cute way that caused him to pause and gather his breath before replying, "that whatever it is, the mountains where they landed conceals it. If they were mining they would have enslaved the population to do the work so it is not a mineral deposit of any kind."
"But," Sam finished the thought, "somewhere in those mountains is something that would give Indra power of some kind. Riches are secondary to them, power and control is their primary objective."
Jack nodded his agreement and then looked across to the fire. He decided that Carter was completely unaware of how cute she was and that he needed to find something else to occupy his mind. "I think I will go and relieve Teal'c so that he can Kel no reem. Now you can get some sleep." He stood up and walked away from the fire and the disturbing influence of his Second in Command.
As they spoke they were completely unaware of a pair of elfin eyes watching them curiously. "There is an attraction between them but they ignore it, I wonder why?"
Gimli looked across at his new friends and then back at Legolas. "You trust these people?"
"Treebeard trust him implicitly, as for the rest of his race we do not know. However, these three people and the one with the mark have shown themselves to be strong people and worthy of my trust," Legolas responded with a smile.
"Then why do I sense that they worry you?"
"Not worry me, I do not understand how they could exist. They are a tale from the Hall of Fires come alive. Stranger still is this book that Jack gave me to read." He waved the tome in front of Gimli's face, "It is their equivalent of our fireside tales and tells the story of our Middle Earth! Can you explain this to me?"
Gimli looked at his disturbed friend with a wise eye and said gruffly, "you like these people and trust them to help us. Nothing else is important." Then he looked at his friends and commented. "Tomorrow they will go back to the halls to warn our people of these invaders and tell my father that I have gone with you and the strange friends of Treebeard to defeat this new threat. We will again fight side by side my friend!"
Legolas laughed and nodded, "I will still beat your tally of the foe," he informed Gimli.
"We shall see," he responded and smiled as he settled down to sleep.
The following morning Gimli said goodbye to his friends and the group set off for Rivendell. They now made good time without too many delays and made it to the Last Bridge after two days and camped in a stand of trees close to the river.
Jack's instinct was for a cold camp and extra vigilance even though they were so close to Rivendell. When Legolas asked why, Jack told him they still had the woodland to penetrate. "Indra knows we are here, how is not immediately important but the snake will not let us reach Rivendell. It has already shown us that he believes we are a threat. I don't know exactly why but I a quite happy with the role."
That night they all slept lightly with double watches and a couple of hours efore dawn the assault Jack was expecting came.
Reviews welcomed and additional character requests considered. This is an ongoing story published as I write it so it only has a general direction, LOL!
Indra - sign of the bull
Top of river Anduin
Above MIRKWOOD
