Hee hee J I posted today especially because it had been exactly one year since I posted the first nine chapters (all at one time). I'm so happy. *wipes a tear away* Well, the anniversary made me happy, but also the fact that I wrote my first battle scene (and very successfully, I might add)! The whole chapter took me 6 hours to write. Four of those were in one sitting. Phew!
Special thanks to Princess Flame for reviewing… *counts* nine times in a row (wow!) and to Nuquarniel, who warned me about the invading spoons (thanks! *tiptoes around with her frying pan*).
But extra special kudos to Jennifer, who submitted the 600th review! *showers Jennifer with confetti* The thing that tells y'all the number of reviews I have has always been a bit off… I have 604 and it's telling you I have 610. But no matter. Six hundred, WOW!
This chapter is super long just for the anniversary (my longest yet!), so enjoy… well, as much as you can… considering what I did. *crawls under a giant frying pan to hide*
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Chapter Twenty – The Wrong Place at the Wrong TimeLegolas was being a butt. "Butt" as in annoying, jerk, git, not the thing that you sit on or kick. Riley had considered Haldir a jerk at first, and that was about the only ugly thought she'd ever had about Elves, but boy was she having them now! She had tried using other words to describe exactly what Legolas's current attitude was, but she had only come up with one thing. However extensive her vocabulary had become over the years, she at least had resorted to one uncreative and juvenile word. He was a butt!
So she'd gone over everything she could think of to find out what was wrong. At some point, she had come to that age-old "It's because he likes me" thing, at which point she had snorted and muttered, "Yeah, when Mordor freezes over." So unless Elves had girl problems she didn't know about, she was out of ideas.
When Legolas's mood stuck the next day, Riley met ice with ice, and that affected everyone. For one thing, Boromir, although he hadn't heard a word of the conversation, seemed deeply offended that the Elf of the Fellowship had upset the Traveler. The Hobbits sensed the sour mood between the two, and tried their best to stay out of the way. Aragorn was watching them with concern, but Gandalf seemed strangely amused by the row. Gimli, on the other hand, had deemed himself correct about Legolas, and was bragging now, more than ever.
Riley took to walking with the Dwarf simply because his boastful prattling went on and on and on and on and on…. It provided a distraction from the constant, "Why is he angry with me? What's wrong? What did I do?" and the most prominent question: "Is he right?"
After being pushed into the spotlight at a young age and so directly after such an emotionally-changing experience, she had almost reinvented herself. The reserve, the shyness that had been imbedded into her actions had to be put aside, but she quickly discovered from watching other stars fail that even the smallest mistake could change everything. Her career could be toast, which she really didn't mind, though she did love it. But she was mostly worried about people talking about her in that disrespectful, I-can't-believe-she-could-be-so-stupid way. That's where her childish antics had come into play. Her faults she had always carefully hidden, but there were some things that could still make her look like a fool. So she covered it up and made the faults people did see endearing. And that's where Legolas's accusations came in.
Because he had been right, and Riley hated that more than she'd ever disliked anything in her life. She felt like screaming and crying and breaking glass ornaments and hurting Legolas for seeing what she had hidden from everyone so meticulously.
So, though she walked with Gimli, she began to isolate herself. She was so angry that no one seemed likeable anymore. She knew in her mind that she did like them… but she was so furious in her heart that she could not bring herself to reach out for comfort to those that were more than willing to help.
And so the third day inside Moria passed with a stony, tense silence. That is, of course, after Gimli shut up.
* * *
Let me get this straight, Riley thought to herself as she sat grumpily on a rock away from the rest of the Fellowship. It takes him an hour to figure out that he can just smell his way out?
Yes, Gandalf had gotten lost and the rest of them had gotten bored. At the moment, Pippin was going over his list of comments ("Merry? Why are we here? Merry? What's Gandalf doing? Are we lost? I think we are….") and Riley was gazing over the expanse of the cavern they'd just walked through, mostly trying to quiet her mind. After the original yelling-at-Legolas in her mind, she had taken to not thinking or feeling anything at all except hopelessness. Even though she knew how the story ended, she had begun to feel as if she didn't, and she couldn't see a way out.
She didn't know it, since she hadn't seen a mirror in years, but her sense of helplessness gave the impression that she was dying. Not in a painful screwed-up-face way, but in a fading-away sort of way. The rest of the Fellowship watched in dismay as, over just a few hours, Riley's eyes had dimmed so that their normal brilliance was now a dull sea-green color. Consequently, everything around her began to seem lifeless.
"Merry?"
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
Riley rolled her eyes and spotted Frodo climbing hurriedly up to Gandalf. "There's something down there!" he exclaimed quietly, gesturing back to the cavern.
"It's Gollum," Gandalf answered.
"Gollum?"
"He's been following us for three days," he murmured.
"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-dur."
Duh, Frodo, Riley thought to herself with a small spark of her usual humor.
Gandalf nodded slightly. "Escaped. Or was set loose. He hates and loves the Ring as he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."
That was a really bad bridge of subjects.
"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance," Frodo said vehemently.
"Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and many that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."
Yeah, O Frodo of the Nine Fingers.
"I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Don't we all. But she wasn't thinking so much about the Ring.
"So do all who come to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. There are other forces in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also 'meant' to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
You mean this is all gonna be okay? I should tell Leg--… can't. Oh.
"Oh! It's that way!" Gandalf said, allowing his voice to actually be at a normal volume. The Fellowship roused and looked up expectantly.
"He's remembered!" Merry exclaimed happily.
"No," Gandalf said, climbing to his feet, setting his hat on his head, and stepping towards the stairwell. "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."
Huh, I'll remember that one.
The stairs seemed endless, but of course they weren't, since that would make Arda a pretty big place. When the Fellowship emerged from the vertical tunnel, they found themselves in a wide-open space so large that Gandalf's light at first only penetrated a few feet from the staff.
With a "Let me risk a little more light", the staff suddenly lit up the entire expanse of a great hall. Riley blinked in surprise. She'd never seen anything that huge.
"Behold the great realm of the Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf," Gandalf said, his voice echoing throughout the entire hall. Who cared that the thing was old, it was majestic all the same.
"There's an eye-opener and no mistake," Riley heard Sam mutter.
Walking across that hall was not the most fun thing in the world, since you didn't seem to be getting anywhere. If you took ten steps and then looked around, you'd swear you'd only moved a foot. Nonetheless, they did make progress.
Quite suddenly, Riley realized exactly how close to the end of her journey she was. She had completely forgotten that she was only meant to go to Lothlorien, so technically, her adventure would be over by the end of the day. If she hadn't been so desperate to get away from Legolas, she would have begun her preparations for a long debate with mucho-scary-Elf-lady.
It wasn't so much that she wanted to part with one of her dearest friends, but she certainly was not keen on having to be around him every second of the day. She just wished that Legolas had not been so truthful. Stupid honest Elves….
All of a sudden, Gimli gave a shout of dismay and charged off towards a chamber off to the side of the hall. Riley stared after him in surprise. She'd forgotten about that part….
The Fellowship followed the Dwarf quickly. Riley sprinted into the chamber and stopped behind Gimli, was howling with sorrow, thumping his helmet repeatedly on a large stone tomb in front of him. Riley had always found the helmet-thumping funny, but somehow, it didn't carry isn't usual hollowness. She actually felt sorry for Gimli, and for Bilbo, who would eventually find out that one of his friends had passed away. Poor Balin….
"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared," Gandalf said sadly.
Riley winced. Why didn't he warn Gimli that his cousin was probably dead? But then she remembered. Ha. I'm complaining because Gandalf has a splinter, and here I am with a whole tree sitting on my head. I know everything. Why aren't I warning them?
Gandalf handed Pippin his hat and staff and bent to pick up an old, crumbling book. Dust poured off of it and it threatened to fall apart as Gandalf opened the cover, scanning the pages for something of interest.
Riley heard Gimli muttering a prayer she'd never heard before ("Kilmin malur ni zaram kalil ran arag. Kheled-zâram. Balin tazlifi.") and Legolas muttered to Aragorn, "We must move on. We cannot linger."
"They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums, drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming." The ominous words echoed in the silence of the chamber. They were followed suddenly by an odd crackle and the sound of chain dragging across stone.
Riley winced. She had forgotten about that too. The bucket that the chain was attached to followed a skeleton down the well, banging and smashing against the sides. Because it had been quiet for so long, the sound seemed much too loud to be safe. Riley held her breath, foolishly agonizing over the silence as the noise died out. Now the silence seemed too loud.
While the rest of the Fellowship let out their breaths in relief after a few moments to tense waiting, Riley swallowed and backed towards a wall, suddenly desperate to be hidden.
"Fool of a Took," Gandalf snapped, slamming the book closed. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"
Riley stepped away from the wall, angry beyond belief on the poor Hobbit's behalf. Time of vent some of that frustration. "Hey," she hissed savagely. "He was curious. Don't tell me you've never been curious, Gandalf! He made a mistake. No one's perfect!"
"You seem to think yourself perfect," Legolas grumbled softly. Nobody except Riley seemed to hear it. She rounded on him.
"Legolas, go sniff a cactus!" she spat, drawing her sword and stalking towards the door.
Then the drumming started. At first it was only one beat, and was gone so quickly that you had to question if you'd really heard it. But several beats followed soon afterwards, and you didn't have to the choice of ignorance any longer. Riley stuck her head out the door to make sure that there weren't any Orcs to be decapitated yet.
"Frodo!" Sam exclaimed as Frodo drew his sword. Sting was glowing blue.
Riley peeked out the door again and could see shadows moving towards her.
"Orcs," Legolas hissed, and everyone sprang into action.
Aragorn herded the Hobbits towards the Wizard. "Get back! Stay close to Gandalf."
Boromir raced past Riley to look out the door, luckily pulling his head back just in time to miss two arrows aimed at him. Riley jumped. Seeing large arrows narrowly miss your friend's head is a bit disturbing, if you didn't know.
Aragorn ran to the door and helped them slam it shut. "They have a cave troll," Boromir said with false enthusiasm, leaning against the door. Riley backed away from the door and helped Legolas toss weapons to the men to help hold the doors closed.
It all seemed to go too quickly. A second later, Legolas was dragging her backwards to hide behind Gandalf with the Hobbits and leaving her while he went to head the Fellowship with the three other capable warriors. Then the door started shaking.
An overwhelming wave of dread washed over Riley as the door began to be torn open. Legolas and Aragorn each fired an arrow through the growing holes, successfully taking out what she assumed were Orcs. Before they could take any more shots, however, the door burst open and Orcs flooded the room.
Riley's first impression of Orcs was one of disgust. They were filthy and hideous and they reeked to high heaven, even from across the room. Even to look at them without a sickening feeling was near impossible. She had never seen anything so foul, and was hard pressed not to empty the contents of her stomach on the floor of the tomb.
For a moment, the five less-experienced fighters only watched in horror as their friends shielded them from the attacks of the vile creatures, but when Gandalf gave a yell and leapt into the fray, they knew they had to follow. The Hobbits weakly imitated Gandalf and, giving feeble war cries of their own and brandishing their swords, they jumped forwards to attack with frightened faces. Riley swallowed hard, standing paralyzed for longer than was prudent. She had never been so afraid in her life. The sword in her hands felt heavy, as though her arms had turned to jelly, and she watched, terrified, as the fighting began. "Oh no," she murmured fearfully, wanting more than anything in the world to be somewhere else.
But while she was trying her best to ignore the Orcs, it seems the Orcs did not wish to return the favor. One particularly gruesome fellow ran at her, waving his sword in front of him like an idiot. Before Riley fully registered what exactly she was doing, she had used her own sword to knock her opponent's weapon aside and had cleanly separated his head from his body.
The practice she had been so horrible at had paid off. She blinked as the Orc's body fell to the ground, spurting black blood from the neck, and looked at her own sword, which was held in front of her, her entire body having taken a defensive posture.
A thundering caused the ground to shake, and a cave troll suddenly broke its way into the room. Riley looked up in surprise. She had not expected it to be so big.
Legolas fired an arrow directly into the right side of the cave troll's chest, but the thick skin caught it before it reached any internal organs. Watching the cave troll scream in outrage, Riley decided right then and there that she would someday smack Legolas very hard over the head for making the troll angry.
By defect, the troll's fury was directed at the first thing it saw. Poor tiny Sam shouted and rolled out of the way, scrambling under the troll's legs and a giant club smacked down on the ground where the Hobbit had been. The troll may have been slow, but its size gave it an advantage, and with just a step it had fully turned around to face the Hobbit, who was cowering in a corner. The cave troll raised its foot to simply stomp out the problem, but a sudden tug on the chain around its neck by Aragorn and Boromir caused it to stumble backwards.
As soon as the troll's attention was somewhere other than Sam, Aragorn wisely let go of the chain and turned back to the fighting. Boromir realized too late that the troll was very aware of the fact that it controlled the chain. With a jerk, Boromir went flying across the room, slamming high into a wall and tumbling to the ground, too dazed to move.
Riley took the initiative, since she was so close, and chose to dispatch of the Orc that had decided to get rid of the man while he was unarmed. With a strong thrust, the sword fatally wounded the Orc, and Riley could not bring herself to feel any remorse for the creature, whose eyes were just as cold and depraved as ever. She smirked at the Orc smugly and yanked her sword out of its chest, grimacing at the blood that masked the beauty of her weapon.
A roar of victory from behind her warned her of another Orc's existence just before it impaled her. Or at least, before it tried. Aragorn had taken notice of it and had put a very nice hole in its head. Riley grinned at her friend, and he nodded back in acknowledgment.
By the time Riley had gotten Boromir back to his feet again, Legolas had already leapt onto the high walkway that hugged the wall of the cubed room. Unfortunately this was directly at eye-level with the cave troll, and it was still using its chain to its advantage. Riley watched in awe as the Elf deftly dodged the swinging chain that so easily tore holes in the stone it came into contact with. As Legolas ran up on top of the troll, Riley suddenly spotted a group of three Hobbits hurrying from pillar-to-pillar. She gasped and sprinted towards that side of the room, feeling worry knot in her stomach.
She passed Sam somewhere along the way and vaguely registered his triumphant, "I think I'm getting the hang of this!" as she climbed up onto the walkway and yanked Frodo away from Merry and Pippin just in time to keep him from being injured.
Frodo and Riley huddled on one side of the pillar. Riley peeked out and made sure the cave troll was gone, and the two scrambled around to the other side of the pillar just in time. Frodo pulled her by her sleeve to hide behind the pillar and he let out a relieved sigh just before the troll popped up next to him.
Although she shouldn't have been surprised, Riley couldn't help screaming in alarm. She and Frodo automatically scrambled away from the monster, only to find that it followed them. Riley quickly latched onto Frodo by the arms as the cave troll wrapped a hand around his legs and dragged him off the walkway.
"Aragorn!" Frodo yelled in desperation.
Riley's legs smacked a boulder painfully, and she let go of Frodo, rolling off the boulder and falling heavily to the ground. Pain cut across her body, but she scrambled to her feet and rushed to Frodo just as Aragorn jumped in front of him, pushing the end of a sharp stick into the troll's side. Undeterred, the troll grabbed the stick and used the same method it had with Boromir to rid himself of something unwanted. Aragorn flew into a wall and slumped to the ground, whether unconscious or severely dazed, Riley did not know.
But now it was serious. Frodo was trying desperately to escape, and almost succeeding. She had to make sure things went right! That mithril shirt was protection! She had to make sure…
She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The pain she had felt before was nothing compared to this. Riley blinked in surprise. No. This wasn't the way it happened! This was wrong!
She definitely didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel, but what she did see was infinitely more afflictive.
She saw Shawn's wild hand gestures.
She felt Jeremy's reassurance.
She saw Gandalf's wise face.
She saw Arwen's teasing smiles.
She felt Aragorn's comforting presence.
She saw Legolas's beautiful eyes.
She saw his hair.
She saw his lips.
She saw his hands.
But most of all, she felt that feeling that she had gradually begun to associate with him.
He was so very important to her.
His scathing remarks had hurt more than anything… because he was the person she least wanted to hear them from.
Riley breathed out shakily. The pain was numbing now…. There were black spots floating around in her vision, making it harder and harder to see anything at all.
She wished she'd had the chance to tell him before….
She really did love him more than anything.
With a pathetic, soft little whimper, Riley slumped over, never seeing her friend's faces as they realized what had just happened.
The Elfin Child had been speared through the heart.
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*Speaks through an intercom from under her frying pan so that she's still safe* You guys, I am SO SORRY, but she was going completely Sue, and if you didn't see that then… well… you need help. *nervous laugh* It's probably not the best thing to be insulting my readers right now, is it?
But anyways… I didn't tell anyone about this because I had already made up my mind and really didn't want anyone to change it. Um… I'm just gonna say again that I am SO SORRY.
I'm probably going to do another couple chapters… one from Legolas's point of view, of course, and then the people's at home, just to kind of show what happens when Riley doesn't come back.
I'm sorry again. Please review and tell me how extremely awful I am… I'll read them RIGHT before I write about Legolas so that I'm depressed and that'll reflect in the chapter.
*Offers candy and chocolate and anything else you want as a peace offering*
I am especially begging Arch of Wand (Risa) and Autumn Darkness (my sister) to forgive me… I talk to Risa almost every day and my sister lives in my house and I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I'm too young, I tell you! I can't die before September 22nd! I have my first college class then! DON'T KILL ME!
