Ariel: We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Orthanc!
Caeli: Who really needs to bleach his beard.
Ariel/quickly plaits Saruman's beard with a tartan ribbon/
Saruman: OI!
Ala: You know, what he really needs is bunches… /ties Saruman's hair into two high bunches/
Tin: And fake freckles/uses eyeliner pencil to draw freckles on Saruman/
Saruman/hides behind palantir/
Gandalf: Saruman, you're a disgrace to wizardkind, hiding from four teenage girls like that/sees what they've done to Saruman/ Ah. Ok. Um… /runs/
Tin's pot plant: I WILL RULE THE WORLD!
Tin: Ok, that was random… /pot plant shrugs/ Wait… how the hell can a plant shrug?
Tin's pot plant: Like this/demonstrates/
Tin: Uh, yeah, ok, whatever. Anyway, much as I wish I did, I don't own Lord of the Rings (who would want to anyway? He's just a massive eyeball) and neither does Ala. But I DO own my pot plant, sadly, (pot plant: OI!) and me and Ala share ownership of Ariel and Caeli.
Tin's pot plant: Oh congratulations… I think you might have managed a three syllable word just then… (Tin: OI!)
Chapter 21
Ariel POV
After spending three days helping smush up herbs to save greenish, half-dead hobbit, I slept for the whole of the 24th. I woke up when Caeli came in and shoved an apple down my throat, saying that I wasn't allowed to go a whole day without eating anything, and while I summoned up the energy to eat the apple she told me all about the members of the Fellowship that I'd met. I laughed when she told me that Aragorn would have made a good hippy – sure, in the books and the movies he looked like a friendly, peace-liking sort of guy, but personally I thought that he'd killed way too many orcs to be able to honestly walk around saying 'peace, dude'. I told Caeli that and we spent a happy few minutes imagining Aragorn walking up to the Mouth of Sauron wearing a toga and holding a bunch of flowers instead of a sword, and saying 'peace, dude!' Yeah, sure, as far as I know hippies don't wear togas, but it was a funny picture.
"You are so lucky," we both complained at the same time. I'd just told her about smushing herbs to care for the greenish, half-dead hobbit, and she'd told me all about the people she'd met.
"Me? I spent three days squashing herbs and being ignored by a bunch of elves who were seriously peeved that I existed!" I said incredulously. "How is that lucky? You spent three days meeting the Fellowship and snogging your boyfriend!"
"But you got to meet Frodo!" she said jealously. I stared at her.
"Point one: he was unconscious. Point two: he was green. And point three: I spent three days with elves who hate me!" Caeli shrugged.
"Still, I wish I'd learnt healing instead of you," she told me. I rolled my eyes.
"So you wish you could have spent weeks learning names of dried bits of plant instead of spending weeks with Glorfindel?" I asked. Caeli shook her head sheepishly. "Unless, of course, you have a crush on Elrond…" I let the sentence hang. Caeli whacked me with a pillow. Obviously, this provoked a pillow fight, and Caeli beat me easily. Of course, the fact that she stole all my pillows probably didn't help me.
The next morning, Legolas and Elladan escorted us to the council. According to Elrond, there was no way that we could go to the super-wonderful Council of Elrond in our usual dresses. I did protest, and try to convince him to let me wear my pink one that I had got for my birthday, but it didn't work. At least I got a pretty red dress out of it.
"Bring forth the ring, Frodo," Elrond said majestically. The shy hobbit (no longer green) reluctantly stood up and put the ring on the little stone table. I rolled my eyes as I saw the blank, almost drooling expressions of nearly everyone in the room. I didn't know why, but the ring just didn't hold any interest for me at all. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. Every time I looked at the ring, I felt an incredible sense of boredom. The sort of boredom that only occurred in maths classes which discussed Pythagoras or circle theorems. The sort of boredom that made me want to slit my wrists or fall asleep, but I was so bored that I couldn't.
Maybe the boredom is the effect that the ring has on me and Caeli too, judging by her expression. So instead of making us love the ring and go crazy wanting it, it makes us hate it and go crazy from boredom.
Once everyone had told their story of why they were there, why they were the most wonderful people in the world, and why they should have the ring, etc, Elrond looked at me and Caeli expectantly. Caeli made me start our story of where we came from. I always had, and always would hate speaking in public. When I made a speech, my voice always went squeaky and I always realised I had nothing important to say. At least this time, it was easier, because I just needed to talk about home. I told people the basics of home: the way that we used machines all the time, the type of government we had, the everyday things that people did, like school, and then I told them about the two world wars. Everyone looked suitably horrified when I told them about the first world war, where there wasn't a real reason for it to happen, but their faces were so shocked it was almost funny when I told them about world war two, the Nazis, and all the horrible things that they did. Once I'd finished shocking them all, Caeli finished off by telling everyone how we got to Middle-earth.
"Your world sounds very interesting," Aragorn whispered to me. "If you have time, would you tell me more about it?" I nodded, smiling at him. I'd talked to him for a while before the Council actually started, seeing as Caeli had made us sit in alphabetical order. It had been quite funny, actually, the fuss she had made about Frodo and Gandalf needing to sit together. I'd had to repress the urge to roll my eyes and say 'Duh, what letter comes after F for Frodo? G for Gandalf! You are the weakest link! Goodbye!" but I'd bitten back the comment.
Elrond quickly decided that the ring had to be destroyed by dumping it in Mount Doom.
Feed it to a hobbit! Feed it to a hobbit! Feed it to a hobbit! I mean, wouldn't hobbit stomach acid destroy the ring? Or at least, just take eagle express over to Mordor and drop the ring in the top of the volcano! Seriously, these people are idiots!
Everyone started fighting over who would take the ring, and I sighed. I looked over at Caeli and crossed my eyes, sticking my tongue out. She returned the expression and we both giggled. Then when she started panicking and looking at Frodo, I giggled harder, realising that she honestly hadn't noticed that Gandalf was sitting next to Frodo like he was supposed to. I decided to play along and pretended to start panicking.
"Are you alright, Ariel?" Aragorn asked concernedly.
"I'm fine, but Caeli hasn't realised that her seating plan has worked out the way it was supposed to in the movie. So she's panicking, and to be honest I just want to see her face when she realises that Gandalf is sitting there right next to Frodo like he's supposed to. So, in the name of making Caeli more observant in future, could you pretend to be worried about me?" I asked. Aragorn grinned, then pretended to look worried when Caeli looked over at us. She came over to try and comfort me and I pretended to panic.
"I will take it… though I do not know the way," a small voice said. Caeli, for some reason, started crying. One by one, Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir, Gimli, and the hobbits joined the Fellowship.
Shall I go? No, I can't, because I'm not in the book. But there has to be some reason for us being here. And I can heal, so that might be useful. And I really don't want to let Legolas leave for three months. But on the other hand, I don't want to leave Caeli here. But if I go, she'll come too, so that wouldn't be a problem, I guess. So, I suppose the pros of going definitely outweigh the cons.
"I will also do my best to help Frodo on his quest," I said, walking up to the Fellowship.
"There can't be a woman in the Fellowship!" declared Erestor. I glared at him, already planning to get him back for that blatant little piece of sexism.
"If she's going I am!" Caeli said, coming over. I grinned, then my face fell when Elrond stopped her.
"No, Caeli," he said firmly. "I see Ariel's reasoning, and although I know that she disagrees that there maybe any purpose for you two girls here in Middle-earth, I am not willing to take the chance that there is, and have you two not fulfil it." No one spoke.
"But she doesn't know how to fight or survive or-" began Erestor. I glared at him.
Ariel's guide of how to survive. 1)Breathe. 2)Have a heartbeat. 3)Eat. 4)Beat up Erestor for instant mood boost, warding off depression/suicide.
"Neither do the hobbits," said Elrond calmly. "The fellowship must be formed for reasons of companionship, I believe that Ariel will get along well with all the fellowship, Legolas especially."
That's me, Little Miss Friendly! And it goes without saying that I get on well with the guy I love.
"Then why can't I go? I'm her friend!" Caeli protested. I wished that she wouldn't, because it was obvious that Elrond wasn't going to be changing his mind any time soon.
"Only one of you needs to go to ensure that the quest runs as it does it does in your book, Ariel is the elder of you-"
"By ONE MONTH!" Caeli shouted. I started crying – it was hard enough to know that I was going off on a quest that had a high chance of me not surviving, but Caeli's insistence to come too when I could see that she wouldn't be allowed gave me that horrible feeling of having a numb, painful spot in my chest where my heart should have been.
In the end, Caeli said that she was staying, and we were announced as the Fellowship of the Ring. I made a mental note to talk to Elrond about that title later – I was definitely not a fellow, and didn't really appreciate being labelled as one.
After the council, the Fellowship plus me (even though I knew that I was part of the Fellowship, it was still hard to think of the Fellowship as having me in it) stayed behind to talk.
"Miss Ariel, are you a lady or a princess in your home? Because everyone else in this Fellowship seems to be someone important. I mean, there's the Elven Prince, then Lord Boromir and Lord Aragorn, then Mr Gimli's father went with Mr Bilbo, and Mr Merry and Mr Pippin are part of important families in the Shire, and Mr Frodo's the ringbearer, and Gandalf's a wizard… I was just wondering," Sam asked me nervously. I shook my head.
"Nope, I'm just plain old ordinary Ariel. No fancy titles or anything," I reassured him, and he looked slightly happier. I supposed it was quite intimidating when you thought about it, because me and Sam were really the only ones with fancy names. "And I'm definitely glad I don't have a title, because in my country, all the lords and ladies and the royal family wear really, really stupid hats all the time. So if I was royalty I'd have to wear a hat and that would not be fun," I told him.
"Ariel, why do you want to be part of this? You know what is going to happen, you know that we will probably have to fight," Legolas asked sadly.
"I know what's going to happen, so I'm coming to make sure that it does. And I'm also coming because there's no way that you're going off without me. And if I'm not mistaken, the main point of this Fellowship is to protect Frodo, and me being able to heal has already helped save him once. And seeing as he's only been here four days, that's not a bad track record for me," I told him. Most of the Fellowship, except for Legolas, looked confused by my choice of vocabulary.
"Track record?" Boromir asked.
"I meant that… I can't change it exactly into the way you guys speak, but it basically means that I'm not doing too badly. It's just an expression. I have a lot of weird expressions, so you might as well get used to them," I said apologetically.
"What country is your… England… most like? Rohan or Gondor?" Boromir asked curiously.
Oh yippee. How to explain that I might be from the future of one of them and I have no idea which one?
"It's not all that much like either of them. It's kind of a mix of both, but the countryside parts a few hundred years ago were quite like the Shire. There's cities like in Gondor, but there used to be lots of fields and forests like in Rohan. There was this thing called the Industrial Revolution when people suddenly started using machines to do things that people had done, and since then the world is very different to how it was before," I told them. "So… does anyone feel like telling me about their countries?"
I spent a nice couple of hours listening to descriptions of dwarven mines and Minas Tirith and the Shire, and then everyone drifted off to have dinner. I wasn't very hungry though, so I stayed sitting there, enjoying the peaceful company of Legolas and Gandalf.
"Gandalf, can I ask you something?" I asked suddenly. Gandalf looked at me.
"Of course," he said, smiling. He was very grandfatherly, and I grinned back at him.
"Well, I was wondering… what's Valinor like? I mean, I'm never going to go there obviously, because I'm not an elf or a ringbearer, so I was wondering if you could tell me what it's like?" I asked. Gandalf looked surprised at the question.
Uh oh… should I have asked that? I mean, how much do most people actually know about where the wizards come from? Because in the stories, the respect that some people give to Gandalf is really not enough for someone who happens to be a god.
"I can certainly try to describe it for you, but it is quite hard to describe," Gandalf said. "Well, Aman is very different from Arda. The first thing one sees when the ship arrives in the harbour is white shores. White, beautiful shores, and beyond that is Aman. The colours are sharper, more beautiful, and everything glows with life, as if it is the very essence of life itself. There are many brilliant sculptures made of a glass so clear it appears silver, and the very air itself is calming," Gandalf said.
"It sounds lovely… like the garden of Eden," I said quietly.
"What is the garden of Eden?" Gandalf asked.
"Paradise. The first few chapters of the Bible – that's a holy book about God – talk about how when God made the world, there were two humans, Adam and Eve, and they lived in a paradise. But then the devil persuaded Eve to eat an apple from the tree which God had told her not to eat from, and Adam ate it too, and so God said they couldn't live in Eden any more and he punished them by sending them out into the world," I said softly. Gandalf smiled.
"That sounds quite like the story of the Elves leaving Aman," he said. "Maybe the stories are about the same place." I nodded.
"Maybe they are. But if Valinor is so much more beautiful than here, in Rivendell, I don't think I could cope with it. It's lovely enough here for me. And I'm not sure I'd want eternal life, either. If I lived forever by going to Valinor, I wouldn't ever see the people I know who've died. And I think that seeing your dead family and friends is the best part of dying," I said.
"I can't pretend to understand the mortal concept of death, because it has never happened to me," Gandalf said thoughtfully. I bit my lip, realising that I was going to have to watch him fall to his death in a few months time. Of course, I also knew that he would come back to life, but watching someone fall to Death-by-Balrog really wasn't something I wanted to do.
Caeli's POVOn the night of the 25th Ariel came into our room just before midnight. She'd been in some party thing with the rest of the Fellowship all celebrating their own greatness I'm sure… I can see the sign on the door 'Admittance to members of the fellowship of the ring only, commoners not allowed'. Yup, I was feeling, just a touch left out, I mean this was a major thing there were going to go off and save the world and I just had to sit in Rivendell and wait.
"Hey Caeli, I'm back!" she called as she came in at last. I lay still in my bed and said nothing. "I know you're not asleep, Caeli!" she called.
"I'm not," I said shortly with my back to her.
"What's up?" she asked and I heard her coming over to my bed.
"Enjoy the party?" I asked sarcastically.
"What party?" she asked sounding puzzled.
"The great Fellowship lets-get-together-and-become-mates party," I said sullenly.
"Party? That? Heh, in my dreams," she said sitting on the end of my bed.
"Yeah, great, now you're trying to convince me that they're all horrible people so I don't feel bad, great tactics," I said, still not looking at her.
"They're not horrible people, I never said that, they're all lovely people it's just that we spent most of the time going through each other's whole past lives to date, which was… actually really boring," she said.
"It was?" I said in surprise, sitting up and looking at her for the first time since she came into the room.
"Yeah, and there just so… different, you know? I mean we're talking about people who are more likely to attack TV than watch it," she said grinning.
"So?"
"So, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna get through a year minus face-wash discussions! I'll probably go crazy and die of…"
"Zits?" I suggested.
"Exactly!" she said enthusiastically, missing the joke somewhat.
"Hmm,"
"And, I'll miss you…" she said sadly.
"Yeah, I'll miss you too," I replied.
"Sure you don't want to reconsider?" she pleaded.
"Nah, Glorfindel's here, I'm here," I said firmly.
"What about me?" she asked in a small voice. I looked at her.
"I can't be in two places at once, there's only one of me," I said.
"Oh, and Glorfindel needs you more?" she said folding her arms.
"Well-"
"Glorfindel's an elf lord, he loves you but he will accept it if you need to go," she said starting to talker faster "but me, I'm gonna be all alone in a group of nine guys from a DIFFERENT WORLD!" she said, suddenly starting to become upset. She had a point, Glorfindel didn't need me to survive, she needed a friend. Either way I would be hurting someone, Glorfindel or Ariel…
Or Glorfindel or Ariel….
Or Glorfindel or Ariel…
Or… this is so unfair! Ok, I'm in doubt… when in doubt eat chocolate… no chocolate… when in doubt…blame someone else
"Elrond wouldn't let me go anyway," I said.
"You think you need someone's permission to go? There are other ways out of Rivendell other then with the fellowship…" she said mischievously
"You've been planning this haven't you!"
"Well…" she said innocently
"Ok, let's hear the plan," I said.
"You have to say you're going first,"
"But…" Don't think of Glorfindel don't think of Glorfindel, Middle-earth needs you more… that was such a Mary-Sueish statement you know? Ok Middle-earth might need you more…. "Have you got a coin on you?" I asked suddenly.
"What on earth for?"
"To flip it," I said.
"Caeli this is a life or death decision! You stay here you live, you go with me you die!" she said. I frowned at her "Well… you might but-," she admitted.
"Exactly, not certainly so you need to flip a coin! Look, just trust me," I said.
"Ok, just don't decide only on the what a stupid coin says," she said as she went to rummage in her bag. She produced a 2p coin and threw it to me.
"Heads you go, tails you don't," she said.
"You still have English money? I thought you changed it all for-"
"Just flip it!" she interrupted.
"Right," I flipped it. It was heads. I smiled.
"I'll go," I said.
"You what?" exclaimed Ariel. "You're making this decision on a coin with even less brain power than me!"
"Well kinda, cause I was glad that it was a head you see, so I wanted to go all a long really,"
"That's clever," she said nodding. "What about Glorfindel?"
"Was part of your plan letting him know or not letting him know?"
"Not," admitted Ariel.
"Probably best," I said sighing… this was gonna be hard. "So, what's the plan?" Trying not to think of Glorfindel for a moment.
"Basically, the fellowship goes first with me, then… this bit's genius," she said grinning. I raised my eyebrows.
"Surprise me," I said.
"I do a Hansel and Gretel!" she announced.
"A what?"
"I leave a trail of bread crumbs! … Or something similar,"
"And then?" I asked, almost afraid to hear what crazy plan my even crazier best friend had come up with. I mentally winced.
"You come after us once everyone has gone back to their own business after seeing us off," she said proudly. I physically winced.
"People will worry about me though, they'll probably send out a search party," I said anxiously.
"Not that far they won't and anyway, you can leave a letter behind explaining why you've gone," she explained. I nodded. "You ok with that?" she asked. I nodded again and tried to smile.
"Good," she said.
Over the next few weeks and months I made myself uncommonly busy (uncommonly busy for me that is). The two most important things on my survival plan were making sure I could swing a sharp pointy object and be able to hit something (preferably thus incapacitating the said something) and getting to know the fellowship. After all is was them who were going to have to pull me out of the numerous uncomfortable situations I felt sure to find myself in.
I found that I could accomplish most these tasks by spending most of the time I wasn't eating or sleeping (actually cancel the eating bit – yay for picnics!) at the training grounds.
The only problem was that most of the fellowship who could fight were training the rest of the fellowship, which as far as they were concerned, didn't include me. But happily the elves where only to keen to help me (read: laugh at my pathetic efforts) from time to time. In my own most humble opinion I was quite improved since I first plonked into Middle-earth uninvited. I now had a chance of surviving fights with such fearsome creatures as turtles, mice, and few species of pigeon.
My usually reliable morning lessons with Glorfindel were now become notably less reliable and even verging on sporadic due to him being otherwise engaged teaching the midgets… hobbits… sorry. However, me being the perfect, understanding person I am I told him that I quite understood the fellowship's needs were greater than my own. This frequently resulted in Glorfindel reflecting on how glad he was that I wasn't in the fellowship and more than once I had become slightly sniffy and upset because its was hard for me to lie to him all the time about something I knew was so important to him. I told him that I was just feeling ill but then Boromir started to think that he had given me some strange Gondorian illness that I had no immunity to… bless his cotton socks, he's gonna murder when he finds out.
Ariel continued her healing lessons and every now and again we would find excuses for me to come and watch so that I at least knew the basics. It was a bit like being a female 007, secretly gathering intelligence on the latest elven healing techniques!
In December we realised that there was something else that we simply had to make happen: Christmas! Of course we found that the elven abode of Rivendell was quite unprepared for its first ever Christmas. It was completely lacking in tinsel, Christmas crackers, electric Rudolfs and singing Santas. But despite our lack of brains and common sense some thing we do not and have never lacked in are creativity, imagination, enthusiasm and volumes of randomness and when planning a Middle-earth Christmas those are the most important ingredients!
"Right so wadda we do?" I asked. We had called council of Christmas in our room,
participants: me and her.
"We need stuff," she said. I looked around our room. "Don't even think about it we need everything in here… namely our beds!"
"Hmm"
"Think outside the box," she said.
"Never understood that phrase," I admitted.
"Neither did I, shame really…" she conceded.
"Wait… the box… I KNOW!" I said jumping up excitedly.
"What?" she said looking up at me quizzically from the floor.
"Seamstress!" I said happily clapping my hands. Ariel's face lit up.
"Right, let's go!" she said scrambling up. We ran all the way to the seamstress and then skidded to a halt outside her door.
"Ok, what are we going to do, we can't just grab stuff then leave," I said
"You distract her, I'll grab stuff and take it out of the back door," she said.
"Deal," I answered. We entered.
"Hey Itarille!" I greeted her.
"Hello Caeli and Ariel," she said sweetly.
"Hi," said Ariel quickly disappearing into the storage room. Itarille looked slightly puzzled by this behaviour I guess this is where I come in…
"So… how's Elrohir?" I asked. If elves blushed, she was blushing.
"He's very well…" she smiling. Guess I'm gonna need to be doing more talking that her… I took a hopefully not too noticeable deep breath.
"I hear he's training the hobbits to use a sword? Might be at the training grounds right now actually, so sweet those hobbits, totally adorable don't you think? I mean they totally bring out the maternal side in every female, not that I can speak for you fair elves of course but really, doesn't you're heart just melt whenever you see their tiny little arms wielding those huge elven swords, or maybe you haven't been down to the training grounds to see them yet, no? That's a shame I would really recommend it, I always find I learn best from others, what about you? Don't you agree that everyone should always do their best to learn from other people's mistakes? You know, then maybe we could build a better more peaceful world together, the Republic of Heaven like in that book, what's it called? I love that book, its got some really insightful views everything don't you think? Like everything from religion to politics to love to philosophy…" behind her Ariel gave me the thumbs up. "ah well, if you haven't read it don't worry about it, it's been lovely talking to you and I really hope it works out well for you and Elrohir, bye!" I smiled sweetly at her total look of bewilderment and then elegantly exited.
I arrived back in our room to find Ariel in the middle of a huge pile of paper, wool, fabric, ribbons, thread and scissors.
"Wow," I said. She smiled.
"Thank you," she said happily. "What first?"
"Easiest first," I announced and picked up some elven paper and scissors, "Paper chains!"
We spent most of the evenings of December 'making Christmas' as we called. Soon we had a massed a whole load of paper chains, Christmas pom poms, Christmas cards, party hats, Santa hats (yes we can just about sew if you give us a month) and one huge picture of Father Christmas with a sack of presents. Whenever someone came into our room we would kick everything under our beds (one of the advantages of being a girls was that people always knocked before entering… wish it was the same at home).
The fellowship was due to depart on Christmas day in the afternoon… of course they didn't know it was Christmas day… yet.
On Christmas day we both got up early in the morning, even Ariel made a definite effort. First stop was the great hall. We trailed our paper chains in circles all around it and attached a party hat to each chair with a specially decorated one for Elrond. We hung our picture of Santa up at the end of the hall to complete the effect, the whole time giggling hysterically. We decorated a few of our favourite trees with Christmas the pom poms and then rushed back to our room grab Santa hats. We put a hat on each and took some more to plonk on the heads on unsuspecting elves (and maybe hobbits and men if we saw any).
"Ok, you ready?" asked Ariel just before leaving our room.
"Yup," I said
"Right…" she said and then we both whispered together:
"One, two, three..." and then on the count of three we both ran out of out door and screamed to the whole of Rivendell (please bear in mind it was still the very early hours of the morning):
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
"YAY!" I screamed at the top of my voice happily as we ran round Rivendell yelling all the way. "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
"AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!" yelled Ariel
"JOYEUX NOEL!" I shouted whilst crazily spinning round and round in circles.
"GLÜCKLICHES WEIHNACHTEN!" shouted Ariel, joining me. By this time elves were starting to come out of their rooms to gape, frown and otherwise point accusing fingers at us.
"BUON NATALE!" I added.
"No Italian elves!" Ariel shouted at me.
"NO GERMAN ONES EITHER!" I yelled back laughing and jumping and down, generally enjoying the hyperness of our current situation.
"WE WISH YOU A…" began Ariel "come on sing!" she called from the top of a tree she just climbed.
"WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!" we sung together in a beautifully, wonderfully out of tune duet. Ariel decided to finish the song with an elegant but not so thoughtful leap off the tree. Luckily Legolas was there to catch her. Just behind him I spotted Glorfindel.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" I yelled happily as I jumped into his arms and plonked a Santa hat on his head. "You look lovely!" I exclaimed, admiring his elven Father Christmas look.
"Thank you, so do you," he replied looking up at me with a happy just bemused expression on his face. "Now, would you like to explain why-"
"What's Christmas?" asked Elrohir from behind me, he also had a Santa hat on presumably courtesy of Ariel.
"It's when Jesus was born!" laughed Ariel; grabbing Elrohir by the hand and swirling him round and round. "And you've got to see the great hall!" she squealed. By this time there was quite a crowd around us and so we all proceeded to the great hall.
"Am I going to have carry you there or can I let you down?" Glorfindel asked me.
"Well it's Christmas day," I said employing puppy-eyes. "Which is, of course, a day of great celebration for my people…"
"Very well," he said grinning.
"Thank you!" I squealed and kissed his Santa-hatted head as I enjoyed by free ride to the great hall and breakfast.
Elrond was already sitting in the great hall with a few other elves, all wearing their party hats upside down. I burst out into a fit off giggles at the ridiculous site and jumping down form Glorfindel's arms I went round all the elves turning round their party hats and putting ones on those who can't figured out a use for them yet.
By the time I got back to my seat (which was a long time later, there are a lot elves who need breakfast, and the ones who didn't were woken up by us any way) I found Ariel vividly bringing to life the nativity story for all who would listen - which was most of the hall.
"And then when he was born a massive, glowing golden star appeared in the sky," she exclaimed excitedly to an enraptured audience, "and there were these three wise men," I instantly adopted a wise-man like pose to the amusement of all around us. "And there saw this star, and they thought it was really cool so one wise man says to the other-"
"Let's follow that star!" I said in an exaggerated posh accent (obviously the elves didn't get it but Ariel liked it).
"And so they followed the star," she continued.
"On camels," I added.
"How can you follow a star?" asked Pippin, his eyes wide.
"You can do what ever you like in stories," I explained.
"And then an angel…" said Ariel. I promptly took off my Santa hat, grabbed a party hat and scrunched it so it became a halo a put it on my head.
"Came to some shepherds,"
"Baaaaa!" I baa-ed
"And told them that they've got to leave all their sheep and because the Son of God had been born and they had to go to Bethlehem to go visit. And so they went all the way to Bethlehem to say hi to Jesus,"
"Waaaa!" I provided the sound effects.
"And the wise men came," back to thoughtful wise man pose for me. "And they brought him gifts cause they were lyke loaded! Not really but anyway, they brought him Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh, and that," she said taking a deep breath " is why it's Christmas!"
HAPPY EASTER!That was a nice kinda cheerful ending compared to the last ending :D enjoy it while it lasts!
I'm sure I don't need to say this but if we got the nativity all wrong or something or offended anyone of any religion then we are very very sorry, it's not meant to be taken seriously. I know this probably doesn't need saying, but probably better to be safe than sorry
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