Chapter 5: Minas Tirith.
"Legolas, I need to tell you something." Odette said, finally finding her Fiancé. "I...I have to leave and Aragorn wants you to stay here." She said.
"Where do you have to go? And why?" He asked, not liking this, after him just getting back from helping Aragorn find help. "I just got back and I was hoping we could do something. Do you think that you could stay a little longer?" He asked her, looking at her pleadingly.
"I don't think so, Aragorn wants me to go to Rivendell and get Havok and then go to Lothlorien and get some more help, I'll return after that, but I don't know how long it will be, no more than half a year. If I don't return by then, something is wrong, Rivendell is a couple of weeks away, if I don't basically kill the horse trying to get there. Then I have to go to Lorien, and that will take most of the trip back. So it will be several weeks with just travel, and no one knows that I am coming for help, so then I have to find help, then I have to talk to the Lords and Ladies of the realms, so that will take awhile for everyone. I just have so much to do, but I will try to hurry." Odette said, as they walked toward the stables, so she could get her horse ready, which Gandalf had told her she could use in times like this. "I need to go get Shadowfax. I must hurry." She said, opening the doors.
"Well, I'll help you get ready, but I wish you didn't have to go, we need to spend time together if we're to get married." Legolas said.
"I know, and that's why I'll try to hurry, but I can't promise anything." Odette told him, looking up to him.
"I love you Odette." He said, startling her.
"I love you too, but I have to go." She said, getting on Shadowfax.
"Goodbye." He said as she rode away.
As she was about to go out of the gate to the lower city, she saw a familiar face. "Arwen, would you like anything from your father or say anything to him?" Odette asked as she stopped the horse right in front of Arwen and Aragorn.
"I don't think so, but thank you. Just make sure you get here in one piece." Arwen told her.
"You listen to her Odette, I hate to send you to do this, but you're the only person that I can send that knows the people and the language and the Havok won't try to kill if you take her without explanation, which you cannot tell anyone except for the Lords and Ladies, other than we need help with this war." Aragorn told her.
"Well, I was going to tell Legolas, but I didn't think that you would want me too, so I just told him that you asked me to do something for you." Odette told him. "But, if I'm to make it back soon, I had better start going."
"Goodbye Odette, I'm sure I will see you again, Aragorn, I'll see you later, I'll let you two talk." Arwen told them, starting toward the stables.
"Odette, I want you to be careful, as much as possible. More and more, it looks like you will become heir when Arwen and I die. She…might not be able to have children, so unless we take in a homeless child, then you will become sole heir, and you will be queen. But right now, just come home safe. Promise you will try to not get into too much trouble." Aragorn told her, looking up at her and giving her, his look.
"I'll try, though, probably not too hard." Odette told him, starting to smile at the thought of making him get protective.
As she rode away from Gondor, Aragorn stood looking on from the watchtower, making sure she didn't get into trouble too soon on her journey.
As she rode, she started talking to Shadowfax while she thought, about her life, and the ride ahead of them. Since it was only mid-morning when she left, she did not stop until nightfall, and when she did, she took care of Shadowfax first, then made her dinner, and went to sleep.
When she woke up, it was still dark, but something was wrong. Shadowfax was shying from a spot in the woods not far away from him.
"Calm down, Shadowfax, I'm sure you see a bird or something. Rest, you need to sleep, we've got a long way to go in the morning." Odette said to the horse, getting a bit annoyed. "I would like to sleep, since Aragorn said that he would pry to see how much sleep I get, and to patronize me if I don't get enough."
At that the horse snorted, still eyeing the woods.
"Fine, I'll untie you, just in case, but you better not run off if I get back here, if I'm not back in five minutes, then you can run off, but I would like to be able to hurry in the morning." Odette said, getting dressed and grabbing her weapons. "I can't believe I'm talking to a horse, and trying to comfort him. I'm going crazy." She said, more to herself than to Shadowfax. "Gandalf did say you were intelligent," she said, untying him, "The bad thing is, he didn't say how intelligent."
As she walked toward the woods, she thought about what she was missing with Legolas, thinking she would be very warm right now, instead of getting chilled because of a horse seeing something. "Darn horse, I need to sleep, if I didn't have to come fast, then I would have left you at Minas Tirith. Would have done me some good." She said, looking over her shoulder at where the horse would be.
Amidst all of her grumbling, she didn't hear it, but someone, or something, snuck up on her, grabbing her from behind.
"All right, Ork, you will not live to see tomorrow, since you have put up resistance from Minas Tirith." Said a voice that had a good sound too it, yet was trying to sound tough and like he would kill without question.
"Back off, otherwise I will have Shadowfax go for Aragorn, and you will die a slow and painful death." She said, and as she talked she felt the grip loosen, sensing he knew she was a woman. "And, if you are not smart, I will cut you're heart from you and feed it too the orks, even though I hate them. So, release me." She said, somewhat in a commanding voice, making sure he knew she would carry it out.
"You will come with me, even though you made your voice like a woman's, you will not fool me." Said the voice, "Just so you die knowing, I am taking you to a cave, learn the whereabouts of your pathetic people, and tell King Aragorn. Then I will be able to come back, since my father banished me, along with my sister. I will get my revenge on you orks!" The words Orks, was said with a vengeance.
"Ork, you idiot, I'm Odette, Aragorn's sister, you nitwit." She said, wanting to sleep.
"You must call him King Aragorn, you incomparable thing. I will not allow you to call yourself his sister either, it is dishonoring his name. And why would his sister be out by herself, in the middle of middle earth?" He asked, thinking he had caught her.
"Because, he told me to go to Rivendell, get some Elves, talk to Elrond, or would you prefer LORD Elrond, then go to Lorien, get some more Elves, talk with the Lady, and head back to Minas Tirith, for the battle, since I also have to get Havok, and she knows I'm coming, and Legolas and Aragorn know how long I should be, and Aragorn can read my mind at this great distance, you had better pray for mercy from them, cause if I have anything to say about it, you won't get any.
As he carried/dragged her back to the cave, which was about two minutes away, she thought about Shadowfax, then as loud as she could, whistled, signaling him to find help.
"Stop making noise to you're friends, it will not help you." The man said, putting his hand on her mouth.
"Then why are you scared when I signal Shadowfax?" Odette countered, knowing he had to give in sooner or later, hoping it would be sooner.
"I am not, because you didn't signal that great horse, because it was given from the royal house of Edoras to Gandalf the White, and then from Gandalf the White, to a member of the royal house of Gondor. That means that either you are telling the truth, which I very much doubt, or you are a lying thief. I'm guessing the lying thief." He said, finally coming to the cave.
"Would you rather me hold still, so you can tie me, or should I try to escape to help you make a point you are desperately trying to prove, which has not yet happened. Either way, I'm not giving in to you're arguing." She said, wanting to kick him in the shins.
"Since you seem to believe you are a member of the royal family, prove it." He said.
"Do you know about the secret, that, since it's a secret, everybody knows about, with the royal heirs being able to use their minds for reading others, and sending images?" She asked, thinking this would do it?
"Of course I do." He said, thinking that she was an idiot, thinking that she could read his mind, or send mental images. "Go ahead and try, you won't be able to."
"I will, unless you are of strong mind, which it seems, you are not."
As she sat there, she slowly drew herself in his mind, then Aragorn, then put those with some of her parents, and then told him to 'Light a candle, then you can see for yourself.'
"What the…" he said, getting startled when he did light a candle. "How did you do that?"
"Just like I told you." She replied. "Now can I go and get to sleep?" She asked, her eyes drooping.
"It is a image, you must know Sauraman, it is impossible that you do this thing you say." He burst out, stepping back.
"Either way, you believe it, or you don't, your choice, but I will not stay here for long, I guarantee that." She said, closing her eyes and trying to lie down, as comfortable as possible, and sleep.