The Long Way Round

The journey was much different after that night. With both of their secrets told, the two travelers quarreled less and the trip actually became more enjoyable. Making their way into the western edges of Rohan, they stopped in a small village for supplies. Then the trek northward began. Going around the Forest of Fangorn added a considerable amount of time to their trip. Claire calculated the date and thought it interesting that on the night that they had encountered the Uruk-hai was the same night that the Fellowship encountered the wolves near Caradhras.

They tried to keep their distance from the very edge of Fangorn. Even Elrain had heard the tales of the dark things that lived there. Claire told her that there were in fact Ents living there and that they would play a part in the tale. Elrain was impressed, now putting more stock in Claire's predictions, yet she still advised caution.

As they passed out of sight of Fangorn and headed further north, their journey was in its third month. Along the way Elrain had told Claire more about the Realm Jumpers and the unique abilities that Elrain had observed in her past companions.

"I once knew a man whose special ability was that he could gain the attention of anyone he wanted," Elrain said one evening around the campfire. "A strange power, but more useful than you would think. Our mission was to obtain a gemstone that was poisoning the well of a town, but the well was 'sacred' and anyone who touched it would be sentenced to death. This Realm Jumper distracted the whole town for 5 hours while I and others retrieved the gem. Poor fellow."

Claire chuckled and took a swig of water from her flask. "How did he figure out he had that ability? Did he just one day realize that everyone couldn't look away from him?"

"It's not always as simple as that," Elrain said shaking her head and smiling. "A Realm Jumper's ability is powered by Eru, but the wielder must continuously activate it. Much like the sight."

"The what?"

"What you called the 'eye glowy-thing'. Remember? It lets us see things the way they really are?"

"Oh yeah," Claire said nodding. Elrain had told her the day after the evening at Isengard. Apparently this ability was given to every Realm Jumper regardless of who they were and it showed them the "true nature of things." Claire wasn't entirely sure what that meant or how it worked. Elrain had explained that it was extremely useful for seeing in the dark, which was why she had used the sight that night near the Urku-hai outpost.

"Another interesting thing about Jumper abilities," Elrain added, "Is that they are only given to 'official' Jumpers. Or rather, those who have used the Wood Between the worlds."

"Are there other ways to travel to other worlds," Claire inquired.

"Yes, but they are hard to find. You might call them 'Portals'. The are usually left over from when worlds are created but they are highly unstable. Many of them eventually close. Sometimes they can be created by magic, but that is very rare."

"Anyway," the elf said, going back to her previous subject, "It is said that each Realm Jumper gets their ability from exposure to the Wood and then the power of Eru activates them. Though I have heard of cases where no clear abilities manifested at all. It's hard to say and extremely unpredictable. There have also been cases where non-Jumpers, those who had not officially been called, found their way into the Wood and then later manifested abilities. This is also very rare."

"Is time travel a special ability," Claire asked.

Elrain's brow furrowed. "No. Are you asking this because of Eru's fourth gift to you that you told me about?"

Claire nodded. "The opportunity to correct the past. I thought maybe that was my special ability."

"No," the elf said. "That 'opportunity' is what we call a 'realm spell'. It is a spell that affects an entire world." Elrain paused and considered her next words carefully. "Realm spells are extremely costly, even when sanctioned by Eru. You cannot effect an entire world without some kind of repercussion. It is all a matter of who or what will absorb the consequences. I once heard of a Jumper who used a spell that let her reverse the rotation of a planet. The results were beneficial to her cause, but the subsequent gravitational reversal caused terrible storms across that world. It recovered, but not before many lands were flooded."

"But why do that if such grave consequences would occur," Claire asked.

"Well, which would you have? The Ring of Power fall into Sauron's hands and the whole of that story you hold go to pieces, or a flood across the entire landscape? The point is that Realm Spells are only to be used when the consequences are worth it. And it is because of this factor that they are extremely risky to use. Only use your time travel option if absolutely necessary. Indeed I would advise you not to use it at all."

"Yeah," Claire said looking down at her hands absentmindedly. "That's what Yavanna said. I have just always thought that it would be fascinating to time travel."

"Well you already have," the elf said. "When you travel between worlds you are essentially time traveling. Each world had its own separate time. Indeed another term for 'worlds' could be 'times' or 'ages'." The elf cupped her hands together like she was holding a ball. "Each world is separated by its own bubble of time. When you enter a world, you break through that bubble. That is why in order for you to travel through time, you must leave this world and enter it again. Once you set foot in a realm you are bound by its time, yet when you break free you can move as you please. The catch is that you never know 'when' you will be when you enter a world. If you wanted to go to a certain realm and find someone, it would be extremely difficult. I found this out when I was searching for Jadis. Even if I had been able to go to Narnia, there was no guarantee that she would be there. I might arrive after she was dead or perhaps even before she arrived there. Eru is in control ultimately, which is why all time travel must be sanctioned. Even jumping from world to world on a whim can be very dangerous. Calculations and planning must be made."

Claire found all of this extremely fascinating. It was amazing that even things like magic and time travel had strict rules and laws. She had always thought that the supernatural was often a massive deus ex machina fix all. But the more Elrain told her, the more she came to realize that even the most magical ability had rules. Rules that carried a heavy cost when broken.

As they drew closer to Lothlorien the woods became thicker and the hills higher. The terrain was more difficult and they both were looking forward to staying in one place even if it would only be for a few days. Elrain informed Claire that she had been to Lothlorien before and had met Galadriel. In fact Elrain had lived there for quite some time on another mission to Middle-earth, so she was confident that the elves would remember her. This was reassuring to Claire who remembered how suspicious and guarded the elves in the Golden Wood could be. When the Fellowship entered it, Legolas and Aragorn had vouched for them, so she hoped that they wouldn't run into too much trouble with Elrain leading the way.

On the last night that they made camp before reaching the borders of Lothlorien, they had talked, shared a few more stories, and then quickly fallen asleep. Claire however found herself awoken in the night, but she wasn't sure what the cause had been. As she peered over the edge of her cloak that was wrapped around her, she saw the star-lit clearing that they were camped in. The fire had long gone out. She thought she could see the faintest light in the east which made her wonder if it was perhaps very early morning.

As she pondered this, she got the sudden sensation that she was being watched. The woods were too quiet for early morning. Not a breath of breeze stirred anything, which made the tree to her left seem all the more strange. One of the branches high above was shivering. It bounced and she could hear a scratching noise, like a squirrel or something with claws scraping bark. It was dark, so Claire chalked it up to just that: a squirrel.

But then it moved. There was a soft whoosh and the branches of the tree directly in front of her shivered. There had been no squirrel and even if there had been one, no squirrel could have jumped that far. "Do they have flying squirrels in Middle-earth?" she thought to herself.

The tree branch in front of her shivered again and this time there was a distinct thunk on the ground at the foot of the tree. This time she had actually seen something that made her hair stand on end. Two distinct indentations were made in the leafy floor of the wood. They had appeared when she heard the thunk. The only possible explanation spun in her mind and she almost yelped in fear.

"Elrain," she whispered as she shook the sleeping elf. "Wake up! There is something in the woods with us."

"Hmm?" The elf sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"There's something invisible in these woods," Claire said quickly. "Use the sight and see what it is. Quick! It's right in front of us."

Elrain gave her a confused look, but the girl's concern was enough to convince her. The elf closed her eyes meditatively for a moment. When she opened them, that soft blue glow lit up the leaves in front of her. She scanned the area and said, "I don't see anything. Are you sure you weren't dreaming?"

"No," Claire retorted. "Look right there. See those footprints?"

"I see indentations in the leaves, but I don't see…." She paused and stood up to get a closer look. Walking over to where Claire had indicated, she crouched low with her back to the girl. "If these are footprints they weren't left by a person. They look like prints from...cloven hooves. But they're huge."

Elrain turned around to Claire to say something else, but froze, her eyes growing wide.

"Claire it's behind you!" Elrain yelled and Claire nearly jumped out of her skin. The girl reeled around and drew her sword in one swift motion, a move that surprised even her. It's amazing what fear can do in the heat of the moment.

"What is it?" Claire said frantically staring into the trees. She could see nothing and the thought of something she couldn't see lurking there chilled her to the bone.

"I don't know," Elrain said. "It's not Morlyg. I would be able to tell if it was a demon. It's some kind of winged person." She paused and then said into the darkness, "Who are you and whom do you serve?"

No response came from the dark cluster of trees. Claire heard a whooshing sound and Elrain took a step back, staring up into the trees. "It flew off," she said astonished. She peered up into the canopy. "It just spread its wings and flew off. It's gone."

The two travelers stood in silence for a moment. The sky in the east was turning a subtle shade of pink and a few birds could be heard singing in the distance. Whatever it had been, it was indeed long gone. Claire was very glad that they would be entering Lothlorien soon. She didn't want to spend another night in the open knowing that something invisible that Elrain couldn't identify was lurking somewhere amongst the trees.