Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize!

Applejack456 – Once again, thanks so much for letting me know! I'm sorry… But anyways, thanks a lot for reviewing! Yeah, I couldn't really fit them in either, so I just kinda made a new plotline :)

Chapter 21

Cave - March 2, 3019

"Strider! Strider! Wake up!" shrilled two voices. Aragorn moaned and rubbed his eyes, forcing himself not to simply roll over and ignore the excitable Merry and Pippin. Of course, he knew that sometimes the hobbits actually did wake him up for something important, but more often than not, he was rudely awoken to be dragged off to see another stalagmite that the hobbits somehow found extremely unique and amazing.

"What do you want now, master hobbits?" sighed the weary ranger. The hobbits' hairy feet pattered over.

"Well, we were at the cave mouth smoking some Old Toby, and then Gandalf came over with a butterfly on his hand and told us that he was going somewhere else to look for Gwaihir and that he would be back soon and to tell you as soon as you woke up!" cried the hobbits in enthusiastic unison.

At this, Aragorn sat up straighter and scanned the cave, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. Indeed, it seemed as if Gandalf was missing. "Thank the Valar that the Eagles are drawing near," he muttered to himself. Gandalf had sent for the Eagles the day that the Fellowship had been swept away by the current that the wizard had sent to fetch them, yet the great birds still had not arrived. The members of the Fellowship had held many meetings, wondering what to do if the Eagles never came, and each and every meeting had been concluded with the decision that Middle Earth was all but lost if the birds chose not to help. Gandalf had been repeatedly sending messages via butterfly to the Eagles, but the wizard had never received a reply until today.

"Exciting, is it not?" asked Mei from behind Aragorn. The ranger jumped and sent an accusatory glare at the bored fairy. "Now do not look at me like that! I say, good! We are finally getting some much needed action around here!" The fairy's dark brown eyes glinted with excitement.

"Ah, yes," agreed Aragorn. "Perhaps then you will finally leave me alone. I tire of your constant pestering. 'Oh Aragorn, tell me about this herb! We don't have it in the Silver Isles! Just think about it! You could be saving fairies' lives if you taught me about it!'" the ranger imitated. Mei stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh no, just because the eagles are finally bringing some excitement into our lives does not mean that I will stop bothering you. Until the eagles arrive, you are sitting right here and telling me more about herbs in Middle Earth." The fairy maiden plopped down on the rough ground and stared at him expectantly. Aragorn groaned and flopped backwards dramatically.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Frodo sat huddled by the fire, watching as Sam turned over some sausages. "Sam?" he asked suddenly. His gardener glanced up briefly from his sausages.

"Yes, Master Frodo?"

"Do you think that the Eagles will actually come?" Sam stopped, surprised at his friend's question.

"Why yes, of course they will," he answered firmly. "Gandalf said they would, and he never lies, you know. He's a wizard, mind you, and wizards arrive exactly when they mean to. Perhaps it is the same with the Eagles." Frodo considered that for a moment.

"But what if they don't make good on their promise? What will I do with the… with the Ring? The Fellowship has spent the last three days desperately trying to think of another method, and so far we cannot find one! I hate this foul Ring, I truly do, Sam. Why did it have to come to me?" Frodo continued, his eyes frightened and his tone turning more and more desperate. Sam appeared stunned at Frodo's hopelessness and immediately began rummaging in his pack.

"Come on, I know it's in here," muttered the gardener. Frodo glanced up from his rant, dumbfounded that his friend was ignoring his rant to look for something.

"What are you looking for, Sam?" wondered the dark-haired hobbit. Sam did not reply.

"AHA!" cried the portly gardener victoriously. "Here it is!" Sam pulled out a glowing glass phial and thrust it in front of Frodo's face. The ringbearer stared at his friend incredulously.

"Sam, this is the phial that Galadriel gave to me. She said that I was supposed to use it when all other lights have gone out. There is still plenty of light in here," pointed out Frodo. Sam frowned for a second before a brilliant smile lit up his face.

"There's a corner over there," pointed the light-haired hobbit earnestly. "Daylight doesn't reach that corner. Maybe if you go stand in that dark corner with the phial, you'll feel better, Master Frodo." Frodo laughed quietly at his friend, who was still looking at him expectantly.

"Oh Sam," he chuckled. "It is good to have you here with me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sakura and Legolas sat atop the outside of the cave, watching the first rays of the morning sun spread across Middle Earth. The sky was painted rosy hues of creamy orange and pale rose, fingers of blue spreading inwards towards the horizon. The two had climbed up the sides of the cave an hour earlier with a burlap sack of apples to share, staying within the boundaries that Gandalf had set to prevent themselves from falling through where the stone was aged and weak. "Do you think Gandalf will return soon?" wondered Sakura as she crunched thoughtfully on an apple.

"Hmmm…" considered Legolas, "I know not. I cannot see the Eagles nor do I hear them, so I suppose that they are still quite a ways off from this cave." Sakura heaved a mournful sigh and laid down upon the cave's roof.

"I am ever so impatient," she complained. "Usually I am not this squirmy, but I have heard amazing things about these Eagles and I want to see if they are true or not." Legolas laughed at her, sprawling his own long limbs out next to the fairy.

"My father told me all about the Eagles," he murmured, rolling over on his side to face her. "He said that they came to our aid in the Battle of Five Armies like nothing he had seen before. Their wings are huge and their talons are sharp, and their enemies flee at the mere sight of them." Here, Legolas stretched out his arms enthusiastically to demonstrate the vastness of their wings, his fingers curled over to symbolize the talons. At his earnest expression, Sakura collapsed into laughter and smacked him on the chest.

"You do know that ponies and Eagles do not mix well, right?" she asked him merrily. Legolas scowled at her.

"Caterpillars and Eagles do not mix either," he rebutted mockingly, poking her shoulder jokingly. Sakura stuck her tongue out at him and rolled over onto her stomach, tumbling down a slight hill in the rock carefully so that the sack of apples on her back remained intact.

"I hear from Gandalf that butterflies and Eagles mix well," she pointed out. "When shall you ever call me a butterfly instead of a caterpillar? A caterpillar princess does not sound nearly as graceful as a butterfly princess." Legolas chuckled and mockingly glared at her from the top of the stone hill.

"For your information, I prefer caterpillars to butterflies," he told her. "They are far more special than butterflies. They have certain airs of innocence about them that butterflies seem to lose in their metamorphosis. And besides, who could resist that fuzzy green skin and pointy antennae?" Sakura chuckled with him. The elven prince's smile faded as he gazed softly at her, the rising sun casting her sharp features into deep relief. He had brought her up here to tell her that he cared for her, that her face had been emblazoned in his mind and heart since the first day when she had fallen out of the tree, that he loved her and never wanted to let her go. Legolas began to sit up, his eyes never leaving hers. Suddenly, the stone below them began to rumble.

"Legolas, what is happening?" questioned the princess. The elf flinched, startled. "I thought we were on the rock right above the Fellowship! Gandalf said that this area was safe!" Legolas' keen elven eyes scanned their surroundings deftly. Gandalf had told them not to leave the zone where the stone was orange. Glancing down with horror, the prince cursed under his breath. The shaking stone beneath Sakura was pink.

"We must have moved into an older section of rock when you rolled down the hill!" cried Legolas. "The safe area is up here where I am. Quickly now, we must move before the roof here crumbles!"

Yet it was too late. With one final shudder, the ancient rock that the fairy was seated upon began to crumble. The stone growled, then fell away almost completely, leaving Sakura's legs dangling over the edge of the cave, her hands clutching onto the slippery rock of the cave.

"Legolas!" she yelped, trying to grasp onto the rock but finding no good handholds. "Help!" Her amethyst eyes glimmered with fear. The cave groaned once more, and this time Sakura slipped to the edge of the rocks, clutching desperately on a lonely weed poking out of the stone cave's top.

"Sakura!" The Mirkwood prince scrambled downhill to follow her, reaching a hand out, but he could not grasp her arm without falling down the steep incline himself.

"I cannot reach you!" he cried. "How far away is the ground? Can you safely fall without injuring yourself?"

"No!" screamed Sakura. "There are stalagmites peppering the ground beneath me! If I fall, I shall surely impale myself to death!"

"Then fly!" bellowed Legolas. "Let go and use your wings." Sakura's hands slipped further as the poor weed strained to support her slight weight, its roots slowly coming out.

"I told you, I cannot! The bag of apples is strapped to my back, I cannot unsheathe my wings, and there is no way to let the apples go without letting go of this weed!" screeched the fairy. Legolas' blue eyes filled with panic as root after root unburied itself, leaving only one root straining to support the fairy and her apples' weight. He could not stand it anymore. He would not let the woman he loved die because of his own carelessness in not realizing that they were on unsafe land. Steeling his resolve, he attempted one last time to catch her before she fell to her death.

"Eru save us!" he cried, and leapt forwards to secure Sakura in his arms. His hands pressing against the apples in the fairy's sack, he hoped with all of his heart for a miracle, but to no avail; his weight carried the couple off the roof of the cave and down towards the lethally sharp stalagmites waiting below eagerly, their tips sanguine and bloodthirsty in the pinkish light of the sun. Legolas squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting his death. He pressed his lips desperately to the cheek of the woman in his arms, glad that if he was to die, it was with her in his arms. Then all of a sudden, his body vibrated painfully as a gargantuan feathered body collided with his.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Isengard – March 2, 3019

A man of diminutive stature slunk over the filthy grey floor of the tower, his dark robes betraying his presence. Saruman ambled in a deceptively calm manner beside his window. "Wormtongue," addressed Saruman in a pleasant voice. "There has been a change of plans." Wormtongue raised his oily head, his snake-like eyes flinching from the light streaming in from the window.

"Ch- change of plans?" he asked fearfully. Saruman's agreeable demeanor immediately darkened.

"Yes, you deaf piece of slime!" hissed the wizard. "A change of plans!" His face twisted into a snarl for a moment before it slipped back frighteningly quickly into his usual mask of tranquility. "We have no further need of Rohan," dismissed Saruman. Wormtongue's yellow eyes widened.

"Rohan? But – but we need Rohan!" cried the human, thinking of the lovely Eowyn that he was so close to having. Saruman turned on his heeled boots sharply, his sharp eyes glittering beetle black.

"What is this?" he asked softly, dangerously. "Does the worm dare to defy his master? Does the worm forget that his master has but to crush his foot down to mangle and kill him?" Wormtongue shrank back into his robes.

"Apologies, master," he sniveled pitifully. "I meant nothing by it!"

"Oh, but you did, Grima," hissed Saruman lethally, still advancing upon the increasingly fearful Wormtongue. "That human wench has infected your mind with delusions, and I shall not tolerate it."

This time, Wormtongue wisely kept his mouth shut although internally he cried out.

"Anyways, there are more important matters at hand here," waved away Saruman, once again turning away to gaze out his window. "I have found evidence of a civilization once thought to be lost to my reach, one that's power makes Rohan seem only like a single dead body amongst the thousands in Shelob's lair." Wormtongue bravely raised his head.

"What of Theoden, master? His mind weakens further every second." Saruman snorted.

"We have no need of that foolish horselord. The fact that his mind was so easy to infiltrate only proves that Rohan is not worth keeping. His treasured riders have weakened and turned to drink, and he will represent no obstacle to us. The land that I have in mind shall be magnificent when we have conquered it. It is called the Silver Isles, home to the winged fairies of ancient tales."

Wormtongue snorted in laughter. Fairies? Had his master gone insane and reverted to the mental state of a five-year-old girl? His answer came in the form of a sharp rap on the head by Saruman's staff.

"Scoff not, lowly worm, for I have evidence of their existence," warned the wizard. "Runes written in a foreign tongue, ones that involve the shape of the moon in just about every character, can mean only one thing: fairies are real, and they are here in Middle Earth and fighting against the power of the two towers." Grima recoiled from his master's vicious eyes.

"But master, why have I never heard of such a land if it is so magnificent?" Saruman turned abruptly.

"Because you are an idiot, Grima," hissed the wizard in return.

"But where is it master?" insisted the slow servant.

"Not in Middle Earth," muttered Saruman balefully. Grima's sickly forehead furrowed.

"Then how will you conquer it?" His master brought his hand back and slapped him across the face sharply.

"You let me worry about that," growled Saruman. Grima whimpered and held his stinging cheek.

"I suppose you don't know, then," he murmured under his breath.

"Oh, and Grima?" The servant glanced up fearfully.

"Do not dally with your precious Eowyn. We have a war to plot."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You know what it is that has happened in Middle Earth, do you not, old friend? questioned a worried mental voice.

Titania sighed, her eyes gazing emptily out upon her realm from the royal balcony. "That I do, Galadriel, but there is nothing that I can do but prepare my troops for war."

The Lady of Light exhaled heavily. I would send my Galadhrim to your aid, but unfortunately we elves have not been gifted with wings as your kin have. The fairy queen smiled regretfully.

"I know you would aid us if you could, but this is a battle that I shall have to face myself. A difficult battle it will be, yes, yet I do not blame my daughter for losing my granddaughter's book. Perhaps it is better this way."

Better? Your people face war for the first time in thousands of years and you think that it is better? Titania, your mind crumbles with old age! cried Galadriel indignantly.

"Oh, Galadriel. Would it be better if Rohan had to face the forces of Isengard with no warning and a mentally unstable king controlled by Saruman? You were the one who reminded me that I must care for the people of Middle Earth as well as my own to be a proper queen! And besides, in order for Saruman to wage war upon my people he must first find a way to get here!" reasoned the queen. "By the time he finds the means for that, our army will be mobilized and ready." The elven lady shook her head slowly, her golden hair glinting softly in the light of Lorien.

Then I wish you the best of luck, old friend. Saruman is devious and tricky. You may be surprised at how quickly he finds a solution to his transportation problem, warned Galadriel.

Titania snorted, a childish glimmer amazingly similar to Sakura's appearing in her eyes. "Well, perhaps he will be surprised at how quickly the army of the Silver Isles can mobilize!"

Cheek! cried Galadriel. You and your cheek! It has always gotten you into trouble, even when we were children! The two queens sat in silence for a moment, wistfully remembering their childhood and easy friendship. Ah, how I miss the days when we were young and still in Valinor, lamented Galadriel. How I long to see the light of the Two Trees once more. Titania smiled bitterly, her misty eyes gazing far away.

"At least the Valar may grant you a chance," she murmured. "For my mother's choice to separate our lands from Valinor, all of my people shall pay the price. We will never see the faces of the Valar nor shall we meet our elven friends in Valinor ever again."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cave – March 2, 3019

Sakura opened her eyes cautiously. She was met with deep brown feathers billowing in her eyes. Warm air whirled around her ears powerfully, and the fairy heaved her body upright so that she could sit up. Sakura's eyes bulged. She was sitting upon an Eagle! The great beast's powerful wings churned the air with far more strength than her own wings had ever been able to manage. The land around them blurred, distorted by the wind caused by the Eagle's wings, and Sakura gazed around her with wonder. "Amazing, is it not?" asked a gentle voice. Sakura shrieked. A strand of pale blonde hair drifted past her shoulder.

"Legolas!" she cried, patting a hand over her jumping heart. "You frightened me! I forgot that you were there for a second." Legolas chuckled deeply, the vibrations from his chest rumbling through Sakura's body. The fairy blushed as she realized that she was still pressed flush against him.

"You forgot me?" complained the elf laughingly. "Surely not me, the heroic pony that jumped off of a cave to save you!"

"More like you, the pony with a hero complex that knocked me off of a cave," pointed out Sakura with a cheeky grin. Legolas harrumphed.

"Is this how I should expect to be treated from now on?" teased the elf. "Now that the Eagles are here, you want nothing more to do with me! Woe is me!" Sakura turned to glare at him, and Legolas' breath left him in a whoosh as he realized how close his face was to hers.

"Legolas Greenleaf, you know perfectly well that is not how it is," reprimanded the fairy with a merry glint in her eye. "What would I do without a fellow shikshin to have eating competitions with me?" Legolas chortled at the reminder of her eating habits. All of a sudden, the Eagle below them drew its wings close to its body, and the pair shrieked as their world lurched rather unexpectedly.

A couple exhilarating seconds later, the great bird decelerated its descent to a slow dive until its massive talons touched the ground. Legolas hopped off of the Eagle, steadying Sakura with one arm around her waist. The Eagle lifted its hooked beak to the sky and let loose a piercing cry. Five similar cries answered. Blurs of brown and white swept by, too fast even for Legolas' eyes to see. Each Eagle carefully landed, every bird touching down near the first Eagle but one. Atop that one eagle sat Gandalf the White, his robes gleaming softly as he clambered down. "I am back," he announced. Three excited squeals came from the Fellowship's cave, and two hobbits and a very excited fairy tore out, skidding to a stop before Gandalf.

"THEY'RE HERE, EVERYBODY!" screeched Pippin excitedly. Murmurs came from the cave, and the remaining members of the Fellowship meandered out cautiously. Mei was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her hands clasped tightly behind her back as if she was trying to restrain herself from grabbing onto fistfuls of the Eagles' feathers.

"Ah, here is the rest of the Fellowship," Gandalf told the Eagles. Gimli muttered an awed greeting, the hobbits chorused their hello's with wide eyes, and the two Men inclined their heads respectfully. The Eagles blinked back, their wise brown eyes scanning the Fellowship. Gandalf raised his eyes to meet those of the Fellowship.

"I present the only hope that Middle Earth now has: the Great Eagles of Manwe."

This wasn't one of my favorite chapters to write. I don't really know why, but PLEASE tell me what you thought of it, and feel free to make any suggestions for the plot. I am always happy to know what my readers want to see. Anyways, READ AND REVIEW! PLEASE! Or else I will probably not update for quite a bit if I have no inspiration (hint: you guys are my inspiration!). Feed the hungry authoress!