Disclaimer: I do not own anything belonging to Tolkien.
The main purpose of jumping from the top of the waterfall into the swimming hole was to help Ella overcome fear. At least, that is what she told herself while she was falling. As soon as she hit the frigid water though, she instantly regretted it and began thinking of a hundred other fears she could have chosen to face. Ones that weren't quite so rash or cold. The air was forced out of her lungs and her skin tingled painfully at the cold water. Frantically she kicked off from the bottom to reach the surface again. When she had reached air and had pushed her wig out of her face, Ella looked and realized that the current had carried her further than she had intended. Now she was dangerously close to the part of the swimming hole that emptied itself into a river. Furiously paddling herself towards the shore, Ella felt her fingertips brush the stone before she was swept downstream.
She continued to try to move towards the shoreline, and soon became aware of a figure darting along after her. The water splashing in her face prevented her from clearly seeing who it was, but it wasn't long before she felt another hand grasp her arm and haul her out of the water.
"How did you end up in the water, Ella?" It had been Elladan who had pulled her out, and who was now wrapping her in his cloak.
"I-I-I jumped of-off the le-ledge." Ella managed to say between her chattering teeth. The elf shook his head, and began to walk her quickly back to Rivendell. As they walked, Ella soon became aware that she had lost a slipper while she swam and that her wig was only half on. She began to straighten it while they entered the House and Elladan came to a sudden halt.
Elrond, Aragorn, Boromir, Gandalf, and Elrohir had come hurrying to meet them. The Sons of Elrond had just begun to begin their hunt for the remaining Ringwraiths when they spotted Ella in the water. Elrohir had gone back to Rivendell to get help, while Elladan stayed and fished her out.
"Ella, are you alright? What has happened?" Lord Elrond asked, checking her over for any injury.
"I-I'm fine. J-j-just decided to take a sw-swim, is all." Ella replied to the shocked group.
"What madness drove you to jump in the river at this time of year?" Gandalf cried.
"I had to find my courage." She answered.
"At the bottom of the swimming hole?" said Elrohir drily.
"Actually Boromir helped m-me think of it."
"I most certainly did NOT tell you to jump into a river! Nor did I imply that it would help you find courage!" Boromir spluttered, "If you had any plans to do what you did, then I had no knowledge of them and would have stopped you when we spoke earlier."
"I am sorry." Ella said quickly, raising an apologetic hand, "I did not mean to imply that you had anything to do with this. However your words earlier were helpful to me and in my decision making."
"Ella, we need to get you inside and into a new change of clothes-"Lord Elrond began but Ella continued speaking.
"No wait! I want to say this first: I will go with them, and will make sure things go according to the stories in my homeland. I have some conditions though: the first being that it will be understood by all that I cannot interfere in any way. This means that if anything bad should happen, then it was meant to be and no blame can be laid on me. Second, I want to learn some form of self-defense. In my home we do not learn skills to fight. It is not common knowledge. And lastly, I want to learn some skill to survive in the wild. I do not care if it is something as small as stick gathering; I want to be helpful to this company. Are these fair?"
"Your terms are reasonable, Ella, but we will not come to an agreement now. Let us gather the rest of the company in the library and get you dried off, and then we can discuss them." Lord Elrond spoke with some finality, and Ella went off to her room at a brisk walk.
She hung the borrowed cloak over a chair to dry as she closed the door, and then removed her wig and remaining shoe. Peeling off her clothes she grabbed one of the towels from her wardrobe and dried off before launching herself into her bed. The soft blankets wrapped tightly around her quickly brought warmth back into her limbs, and she was loath to leave her cozy cocoon. After being snuggled in for about five minutes, Ella began to extract herself from her bed. She changed into a new gown and went to put on her wig. The cold, sopping, tangled mess of hair on the table did not look at all appealing, and Ella opted out of wearing it. 'They would have to see me without it at some point.' She rationalized.
Wrapping her own cloak around her shoulders for extra warmth, Ella picked up the borrowed one and headed to the library. She could see that she was the last to arrive, and the room instantly became silent as she walked in. Looking at the shocked faces, and feeling a little uncomfortable being stared at, Ella spoke,
"I know it was very strange of me to swim in the river in October, but it helped bring me to an important decision."
"Your hair!" Pippin cried, not being able to contain himself any longer, "What happened to your hair?"
"My hair? Oh! You mean this?" Ella rubbed her head, "What you saw earlier was not my real hair, as you can see. Ehm, when I come here in July, my hair was gone. This is what has grown back so far."
"Perhaps you had better go into further detail regarding your initial coming to Rivendell." Gandalf said slowly, "Before any decisions are made regarding you accompanying the ring bearer."
Ella nodded and her eyes suddenly lit up, and she asked for a moment before running from the room. She came back shortly carrying a small, framed canvas, and was a little out of breath. Removing the cloth covering the frame, Ella looked it over carefully before slowly turning it to show the others.
"This is me upon my arrival to Rivendell." She said over the gasps. Even Lord Elrond seemed surprised at her newest creation. After allowing them time to look back and forth from the drawing to Ella, she turned it away and placed it against the desk.
"There were lots of troubles in my homeland." She began, and told them everything that she was able to remember of the years before she found herself in Middle Earth. After an hour and several questions had passed, Ella had recounted the change in government, the deaths of her father and Maggie, and her imprisonment.
"Now that you know these things about me, Frodo, do you still wish that I accompany you?" she asked, and there was a long silence.
"Yes, I do." Frodo replied with a nod, "Lord Elrond has told us already of your wishes before we leave Rivendell."
"Do you think that they are fair? Do all of you? " Ella looked around the room as everyone voiced agreement.
"There are two things that we would like to add, Ella." Aragorn said, "We have all agreed that it would be wise for you to have a chaperone. Should our journey take us to any of the cities that were spoken of earlier that could be safe havens for you, then this person would remain with you. They would also be the one to find someone within the city to be a more permanent guardian for you. Does this seem reasonable?"
Ella thought it over for a moment before asking, "How are you to choose who will accompany me?"
"It would all depend on where we go." Gandalf said, "For example, if our path were to take us to Mirkwood then Legolas would become your chaperone. It would be his duty to find someone to take his place should he decide to continue on with the ring bearer. We have all agreed to take part in this depending on where our path takes us."
"Very well then, I believe that this is a fair agreement." Ella said after some consideration, "What is your second?"
"We have discussed this at great length and have decided that it would be best for you to be in disguise." Gandalf spoke carefully.
"That is fine wi-"Ella began.
"You would be disguised as a man." Gandalf interrupted, and there was silence.
"That is fine with me." Ella repeated and again she managed to shock everyone, "What is so surprising?"
"We expected a little bit of resistance at the last one. Instead you accepted it far more easily than the first." Aragorn explained.
"Indeed, most women in Gondor would be appalled at being asked to dress like men." Boromir added.
Ella shrugged, "In my home most women wear trousers and many have their hair cut like mine. I had always wondered what I would look like with short hair." Another pause,
"How do you tell the men and women apart?" Gimli asked.
"The same way anyone else would." Ella replied, and drew in the air an hourglass shape.
"Then it is all settled." Lord Elrond said, and the conversation moved on.
Now that everything had been agreed to, the next order was to begin the necessary preparations for the journey to Mount Doom. It was decided that Boromir would help her training in self-defense and that Ella would also begin to study plants and roots. Sam and Aragorn were appointed to help her identify plants that were edible or could be used for healing. As the party began to disband, Erestor entered the room.
"Forgive my intrusion, Master Elrond, but I wanted to inform you that your sons are prepared to leave now and are waiting for Lord Aragorn." He said, and Aragorn stood and thanked him for the message. "I also wanted to report to you an interesting story I heard today. It seems that our master chef was pulling in his nets from the river this afternoon and came across the most peculiar thing. When he showed it to me, I asked if I could bring the item in question to you to see what you could make of it." Erestor reached into the pocket of his robe and began to pull something out, "He said that it appeared to be the fin of an odd fish, and yet there was no fish attached."
He held up the 'fin': it was a small, damp slipper. The very same one that Ella had lost earlier that day, and there was much amusement in Erestor's eyes. Ella took the shoe from him, thanked him, and took her leave; laughter followed her down the corridor, making her shake her head and smile. 'That Elf thinks he is so clever.' She thought to herself.
It seemed to Ella that November came and went in the blink of an eye, and as December began she found she was feeling very nervous. Her training with Boromir was coming along well enough, but she still felt unprepared for battle. Initially it had been incredibly difficult, almost to the point where she wanted to give up. It wasn't just the physical demands that had frustrated her, but Boromir's style of speech and her accent. Often times he would use vocabulary that Ella called 'high speech', or rather words that were more formal than she was used to. Her accent also caused trouble when Boromir asked her to repeat herself three to four times before she would draw in the sand what she was saying. It took about a week before they both began to understand one another; Boromir used slightly less formal phrasing, and Ella tried to enunciate her words as best she could. He was a very strict and thorough teacher, and taught her to fight with sword and knife as well as hand to hand combat.
"Even the best soldiers in Gondor needed years of training." He told her on one particularly grueling afternoon, "Do not be discouraged. Now come at me again!" And he prepared himself for her strike.
Ella gave a slight sigh and loosened her shoulders; they had been training for the past two hours with only one break. She had gotten used to this pattern, but today Ella felt that he was coming on much harder and faster than before. She was drenched in sweat, but didn't dare stop moving because she would quickly become cold. Lifting the sword and moving into position, they circled one another until Ella lunged at him. In the blink of an eye she was on her back, her sword lie a few feet from her hand, and the wind was knocked out of her. She sat up with a groan and waited for the world to stop spinning before she worked her way to her feet. Then the word she most dreaded,
"Again."
"You are getting better." He said an hour later as they finished, "You have come a long way since we began a month ago."
"I am still only a novice, and although your training is very intense I still have some worry." Ella confessed as she sheathed her blade.
"I would be worried if you did not have any concerns." Boromir replied, "There have been battles where even I grew worried. The key is to not let that fear show. If your enemy can see your fear, then he knows that he has already won the battle."
Thanking him for the day's work and for his encouragement, Ella then took her leave of the sparring court. After taking a long, hot bath she dressed and lit the lamps in her room and sat at the table. There were two small stacks of books there; one containing information about plants and roots, the other to help practice Westron. Taking a book from each, Ella closed her eyes and mixed them up on the table until she couldn't remember which was which.
'Whatever book I hold is the book I study until supper.' She thought, and opened her eyes, 'Plants it is.'
It was simple memorization of the shape of the leaf, the described texture, smell, and taste. Since winter had arrived it was difficult to obtain most of the plants in her books, but Gandalf alluded to travelling south. Which meant warmer weather and a chance for her to be tested on what she had learned, something that almost worried Ella. While she had no doubt she was beginning to differentiate between helpful and harmful, being a month away from studying would prove to make it all the more challenging. This made her study all the more, and there had been more than one occasion where Athwenyë had to come and remind her that it was time for supper. Tonight was no exception, and the elf laughed as she warned,
"You will learn yourself to death, Ella! If you continue on the way you do."
They made their way to supper, and the remainder of the evening Ella spent with her friend. As the departure of the Fellowship drew nearer, Ella found she had very little time alone. When she was alone it was to study or prepare for her journey. She had even stopped dreaming for quite some time, but Ella was a little relieved by this. Usually her dreams caused her sorrow and confusion, and she was glad to be free of these for the time being. Still, she made a note to herself to ask Lord Elrond for a small supply of his tea blend in case of nightmares while traveling. The last thing the Fellowship would need is for her to have a fit of hysteria in the wilderness or worse, in Moria. Ella decided to call her studies complete the week before the expected departure, and devoted all of her time to thoroughly enjoy her time in Rivendell and with Athwenyë. It was a week that seemed to pass all too quickly.
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