So, it seems several people are quite worried about what's going on with John and Susan... Well, you get part of the answer in this chapter! And another cliff-hanger. (Sorry, not sorry!) But I will be updating again soon, so you won't be left in suspense for too long.
Also in this chapter, we see Lucy! Yay! And Jill and Eustace make their grand entrance to Middle Earth. I had a lot of fun writing them, as I always picture them as best friends who do as much annoying each other as anything else. But don't worry - much as they enjoy bickering with each other, they still will drop any argument instantly to rush to each other's defense against any threat, be it anything from a life-threatening situation to an unkind comment from one of the bullies at school. :)
Adara watched as Aragorn left the room everyone was sleeping in. Space was limited with all the refugees that were crowding Edoras until their villages could be rebuilt; so all the high officials were bunking in the same room, with the exception of Eowyn, of course. Adara would have been another exception, but still no one knew she was female.
Her bedroll was spread between the sleeping places of her two nukar. Peter was asleep, but Aragorn had felt the need for some air. While Peter was used to crowded quarters as all five siblings shared berths on ships and tents during campaigns, Aragorn was used to sleeping under the stars with one or two other people nearby. Even the Fellowship had been a big group for him, although since they were still under the stars it wasn't as big an adjustment.
With a sigh, Adara closed her eyes. She had a bad feeling, but wasn't sure why. She just had this nagging sense of impending doom. Moments later, the Amator fell into an uneasy sleep.
A cry woke her with a start a few minutes later. Adara jolted upright, and glanced wildly about the room. Pippin was holding and staring into the black ball, which was not so black anymore. It was wreathed in orange flames. Suddenly, Adara remembered something she had read in the libraries of Rivendell, and knew what the object was. Palantir. Adara leapt to her feet just as Aragorn and Legolas burst into the room, effectively waking up everyone still asleep.
"Aragorn, no!" Adara cried in an effort to stop her nuka before he grabbed the palantir from Pippin, but she was too late.
Now Pippin was lying still, apparently unconscious, and Aragorn was rolling on the floor fighting with the presence in the globe he held.
Peter leapt forward before she could move and kicked the thing out of her brother's hand. Gandalf threw his cloak over it, cutting it off from view.
Adara knelt by Aragorn's side, helping him sit.
"Are you alright?"
He nodded, refusing to look at her. She glanced at Peter worriedly; he met her eyes with a confused expression as Aragorn gently pulled away from her touch and stood on his own.
Gandalf was kneeling by Pippin, trying to wake him up. Merry, Legolas, and Theoden were clustered around them. The room gave a collective sigh of relief when the hobbit gave a start and looked up at the wizard.
"I'm sorry Gandalf! I'm sorry–" He turned his face away, his guilt making him unable to look Gandalf in the eye.
"What did you see?" Gandalf demanded. "Look at me! What did you see?!"
"A tree… There was a white tree. It was burning! The city was on fire…"
Pippin shook in horror. "I saw… I saw HIM! I heard his voice inside my head. He asked my name… I didn't answer."
"What did you tell him of Frodo? What did you say of the Ring?" Gandalf demanded, almost yelling.
Pippin looked straight at him, and shook his head. "N-nothing. I didn't say anything."
Gandalf stared at him for a long moment, before letting out a heavy breath and turning to Aragorn.
"And you, Aragorn. What did you see?"
The man glanced at Gandalf and shook his head. "Nothing pertaining to Frodo. Nothing useful. Our enemy showed me my greatest fear; he tried to break my will. That is all."
Gandalf gave him a look and was about to ask something else, but Adara laid a supporting hand on Aragorn's arm and stepped forward.
"Leave him alone, Gandalf."
The King's men, and Theoden himself, all looked shocked that Hiljar had spoken once more. Then again, it had been in defense of the brother that he loved, so perhaps it was not so surprising after all.
Even now that Theoden and Eomer knew that she was female, Adara spoke with her male voice. It was not from any particular desire to conceal her identity, but more from force of habit.
Gandalf had a short staring contest with the Ranger, and then nodded. He did not press the matter, but let it go. However, the look he gave Aragorn made everyone sure that he would be asking again later.
Aragorn touched her hand, turned, and left the room. Adara watched him go with surprise, and suddenly knew what Sauron had shown him. He had seen her die.
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"What?" Susan gasped. "John, what – what are you saying?"
He laughed darkly. "That you made my job very easy. Now, you belong to us!"
His voice rang with malice. She backed up unconsciously, stuttering. Instinct kicked in immediately.
I have to play for time.
"B-but… You said that you loved me! You told me…" Susan stammered brokenly, backing up a little more.
He watched with evident amusement. "Do you really think that you can escape me, Susan?"
Her eyes widened as he moved toward her, and Susan blindly turned to run. A sharp pain in her scalp brought her up short, almost in tears. That had hurt. John had stopped her by grabbing her hair simply to cause her pain. He could have just as easily as grabbed her arm instead, but he did not.
"None of that now." He cooed in her ear. "We are going to my Master."
Before she could so much as blink, a strange darkness surrounded her. Susan felt a pulsating power in the darkness, and suddenly extreme pain such as she had never felt before. She screamed, but nothing changed. She could no longer even feel John's tight hold on her arm. There was nothing but darkness and pain.
And then there was fire. It was all around her, lighting the darkness with a deep sinister glow. Now everything was red in the light of the flames, endless red as far as she could see. The pain intensified.
Susan screamed again, praying that somehow this awful nightmare would end. After a minute the fire disappeared, and her pain with it. Susan opened her eyes, wondering when she had shut them.
She swayed dizzily, aware of John's hold on her arm once more. His grip was tight enough to hurt, but she was actually grateful. Without it, she would surely have fallen.
Blinking, Susan tried to see her surroundings. She was on the very top of some sort of stone tower. The gray lands beneath her reached just to the edge of her vision, where mountains reared up against the gray sky. Here and there on the ground she could see small lights, most likely fires. There were also dark clusters that Susan instantly recognized as companies of men (or other creatures) gathering for war. The fires were mostly sprinkled evenly throughout these companies. But the thing that constricted her chest with fear was directly behind her.
She didn't know what it was, but she could feel its power, its magic. It gave off the same pulsating feel that had tormented her in the darkness and the fire. It also gave off a reddish-orange light that reminded her of the fire. Susan shuddered.
John's hand yanked her around so that she was facing the thing she feared. Susan nearly screamed again, stopping herself just in time. A giant Eye made of flame was suspended between two prongs of the tower, and it was staring at her.
"So. You have secured the Gentle Queen." It said.
There were no words to describe its voice. It was a sound like nothing she had ever heard.
No. I have heard something like it, somewhere.
The Witch, she realized. Jadis's voice had been smooth and alluring, while this voice rasped and growled viciously. Yet they held the same malice, the same evil. Susan began to tremble uncontrollably.
"I have captured her, my Master." The man she had thought loved her was groveling before the Eye, dragging her down as well.
"What of the others? This is not the one I need." The Eye demanded angrily.
"Master, they all disappeared. It is my belief that they returned to their beloved Narnia."
"The nukar of the High King is in Arda. The High King will come, if he has not already. And the Just King – he is here. I have met him in a battle of wills. But where is the fourth? It is the Valiant Queen I need most!"
"If the High King is here, the Valiant Queen is as well. The girl Jill, who is close to all four save this Queen, said that both the Just King and the Valiant Queen had gone to join their brother, the High King. If she is here, my Master, then we should have little trouble finding her – should we not?"
The Eye seemed to consider for a moment, and then the suffocating weight of its displeasure lessened.
"As for this woman… She will be useful. Her brothers will not idly sit by while I have her here. They will grovel before me, and swear their allegiance to buy her safety."
It seemed pleased with this thought.
Susan's heart leapt into her throat. No! Hearing that this… thing wanted her little sister was bad enough. She couldn't bear the thought of Peter and Edmund subjecting themselves to this evil in order to save her.
They wouldn't do it anyway.
While she didn't want them enslaved to this evil, the thought that there was nothing they could do, or would do, given the options, gave Susan a horrible sinking feeling. She blinked back tears of despair, and forced herself to speak. She was the Gentle Queen of Narnia! She would not crawl in fear before this thing.
A tiny voice in the back of her head reminded her that she had spent the last years fighting to forget Narnia, denying that she was a Queen at all. Angrily she pushed the doubt away. Narnia was all she had to cling to now. Oh, why couldn't she have been something other than Gentle? Why couldn't she have been the valiant one? She needed Lucy's calm courage now, but all she had was a desperate cowardice that forced her to rally her spirits for her own sake.
"My brothers are noble men. They will not bow the knee to evil. And they will grovel before no one, man or other creature. They will not sell their souls to buy my life. I would be ashamed of them and refuse to acknowledge them as my brothers if they did so – and they know it. More importantly, Aslan would be ashamed of them. They will not betray their King." Susan forced her voice to steady.
The eye turned its deadly scrutiny on her, and she felt herself falter.
"You speak of shaming Aslan as though you thought it a bad thing. Yet that is the very thing I have seen you do for years. You have denied his very existence. Foolish Queen – this is what gave me access to your mind and heart. You have given yourself over to evil. You belong to me now."
To her horror, Susan realized that it was right. Suddenly she felt a searing pain in her head, and fell to her knees. The person that rose from the ground was not Susan.
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"So, how long do we have to sit here before we know what we're supposed to be doing?" Jill asked as she and Eustace sat hidden in a clump of scraggly thorn bushes.
Aslan had not exactly been clear when he sent them here. Enigmatic as ever, he only said that they must wait until the ones they were to help arrived. Oh, and that they would know these people when they saw them.
Eustace sighed. "You know as much as I do, Jill."
"I'm just saying, he could have given us clearer instructions."
Edmund laughed softly. "Jill, this is Aslan we are talking about. His instructions are always very clear – eventually. At first they always seem a perfect muddle. You remember the signs he had you memorize when we went to Narnia, don't you? Perfectly logical, sensible instructions. They made absolutely no sense until we reached that point in our journey, and then they became perfectly clear. We just have to wait. If he said that we will know them, then we will know them."
"I know. Sheesh. I'm just saying, I'd like to have a clue how long we're going to be here before we actually start doing something useful." She stared about in distaste. "And he could have picked a more lively spot. Everything is dead, dying, or covered in thorns. What is wrong with this place? It's like it's sick or something."
"It probably is sick, Jill. I don't think we're in friendly territory. Just look at that!" Eustace pointed to a distant mountain that glowed with the lava it spewed forth, and a sinister tower lit by the glow. "That doesn't look wholesome."
"Certainly not." Jill wrinkled her nose. "And the way everything is fenced in by the mountains… It's like we're in a giant cage controlled by the tower. There's something evil there, Eustace, I can feel it. It's giving me the creeps. I'd take those horrible cannibalistic Harfang giants over this place and whatever's in that tower."
Eustace agreed with a nod. He scanned the area around them over and over, watching for potential danger. He didn't feel safe, even hidden in the thorns as he was. This land was sick, and full of evil.
Through the night he watched, while Jill slept beside him, huddled close for warmth.
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"El?" Adara asked quietly.
Aragorn had stayed out all night, and she hadn't seen him again until Gandalf called them together the next morning to decide what was to be done. The three nukar had escorted him to the stables, and then the wizard left for Minas Tirith, taking Pippin with him. Adara had been sad to see the hobbit go.
Aragorn turned to her and gave her a small smile. "Yes, Ad?"
"Are you going to avoid me all day? Or are we going to talk about this?"
He sighed. "You know what I saw." It was not a question.
"I can guess."
Her brother nodded. "I will not allow it to affect me."
Adara watched him for a moment, then pulled him into a hug. "Do not fear for me." She whispered. "Aslan has always watched over me, and will not cease to do so now. Besides, the Dejen endures. Until it passes away, I cannot die."
Aragorn closed his eyes for a moment. "You are right; I had forgotten the power of your people. Sauron is a liar, and will use whatever means he can to dissuade me from continuing in this fight." He opened his eyes and gently kissed her forehead. "Thank you, my sister."
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Lucy strolled through the streets of Minas Tirith. She had proven herself an able healer, as all the city knew, and there was not a single sick child or wounded man left in the Houses of Healing. Those who came now were healed quickly through her arts. The whole city was talking about her amazing skill; one of her patients had been a man so badly wounded that he had no chance of living, yet she had healed him.
Of course, it had been simple. Lucy had put a drop of her cordial into a cup of water when no one was looking, and made him drink the whole cup. Moments later, his wounds were gone. He knew that she had done something, as the water had a strange sweet and altogether wholesome taste, and had asked her later. Lucy had simply smiled and told him that she was an experienced healer, and knew remedies that no one born in Gondor had ever heard.
But now, with the inhabitants of the city mostly in very good health, there was little for Lucy to do. She had taken to walking the streets and befriending the children. Often she joined them in their games, wild and rowdy though they sometimes were. It became a common thing for the townsfolk to see a lovely young woman and a group of urchins engaged in a rough game of ball in the middle of the street, scampering out of the way whenever a horse or wagon came by.
"Lucy! Lucy! Come play with us!" A small boy shouted.
Lucy smiled at him and happily added herself to the losing team. She skillfully stole the ball from an older boy and kicked it to the boy who had called her. The next few minutes were hectic as everyone dashed about, with Lucy in the middle of it all. She had gotten quite good at the street games, and everyone wanted her on their team, so when they finished that game they had to start another with Lucy on the opposing side. Her dress was by this time dirty and torn, but she didn't care.
In the middle of their second game, a silver stallion came galloping up the street. The children scattered out of the way, and Lucy stared curiously at the riders of the horse – an old man dressed in white was riding with a small child in front of him. To her surprise, the stallion abruptly halted.
The old man peered down at her, and suddenly called, "Young lady. What is your name?"
"Lucy." She answered, without a moment's hesitation.
The man nodded. "I thought so. You look a great deal like your brother."
"My brother!" Lucy exclaimed, startled.
"Yes. Your brother Peter – I have not had the honor of meeting your other brother. Adara has told me much of your family."
"Why, you must be Gandalf!" Lucy realized aloud. "And this is Merry, or Pippin?" She asked eagerly.
"Pippin." The child – not child, hobbit – said quietly.
"Come Lucy. We must see Denethor right away, and it might be better if you were present." Gandalf gave her a hand up onto the stallion.
"Lucy! Where are you going?" One of the children cried.
"Back to the seventh layer. I'm sorry; I'll have to come play again tomorrow. Go ahead without me!"
The stallion began to run again. Lucy wrapped an arm around Gandalf as the horse ran, feeling as though she might fall off otherwise. She was a good rider – but this horse was fast!
With her other hand she stroked the horse's flank.
"Aren't you a beauty!" She murmured. "What is your name, Lujayn Emyr?"
She had not expected the horse to answer her.
"I am called Shadowfax, your majesty." He said courteously.
Lucy gasped, and laughed aloud. "Shadowfax? I had not thought there were any talking animals in this world. How glad I am to find I was wrong!"
The horse snorted slightly with exertion, bobbing his head as he ran.
"My people, the Mearas, come from your kingdom. We are descendants of Raghu of Narnia, who served the Amator."
Lucy cocked her head, thinking. "Raghu… Yes, Adara told me of him once. So did my friend Suzume, who carried me when we went to war. He was the founder of your line?"
"Yes, your majesty. All those of direct descent from him can speak, as I can. And all who have his blood can understand the speech of the other light peoples, whether they can speak themselves or not. Your brother, the High King, rides such a horse."
Lucy smiled. "I am glad. I miss Narnia so – I am glad you are of Narnia, even a little. But I do not think Shadowfax a sufficient name for you – may I call you Lujayn, or Emyr? You are silver, and it is clear you are king of your people."
"Call me what you wish your majesty. You do me great honor."
Lucy smiled. "Then I will call you Lujayn, for I like the sound of it better than the other."
Gandalf shook his head slightly. "I suppose that by this time I should be used to the oddities of your family, Lucy. Still, you manage to surprise me at every turn."
Lucy laughed lightly as they came to the citadel.
They dismounted, and the girl gave Shadowfax a kiss on his muzzle. He nuzzled her shoulder before allowing himself to be led away by groomsmen.
"Treat him well!" Lucy ordered, putting on her 'scary face' as the boys always called it. It was the look she would use when she wanted to intimidate someone or get her way in another monarch's court.
The groomsman swallowed nervously and nodded. "Of course, my lady."
"If I find that you have given him anything less than the very best you have to offer, I will not be pleased. You do not want to make me angry." She then gave him a winning smile and followed Gandalf and Pippin up to the doors of the great hall, arriving just in time to hear Gandalf tell the hobbit, "Actually it would be best if you don't speak at all."
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"Jill! Jill!" Eustace hissed in his friend's ear, shaking her awake. They had established a system – Jill watched all day, and Eustace watched all night. They had been here two days already, and were growing very tired of waiting.
"Go away." Jill muttered, yanking her arm away from the annoying boy who was disturbing her precious slumber.
"Wake UP!" He whisper-shouted in her ear, causing her to sit up very quickly and rub it.
"Bother you." She grumbled, trying to lie back down.
"Oh no you don't!" Eustace grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Would you wake up and be sensible! I'm trying to tell you something!"
Jill glared at her friend. "I noticed."
"Then listen!"
"Alright! I'm awake! I'm listening! What's so all-fired important?"
Eustace pointed out of their clump of bushes. "Look over there!"
Jill peered out. She saw two small figures crawling into a clump of bushes a little ways away, and wondered if maybe these were the people they were supposed to help. But she was still grumpy from her rather rude awakening, and decided to be obstinate.
"Alright. I'm looking."
"What do you think?"
"Everything is as grey as it was yesterday. This is not a sunrise worthy of interrupted sleep. Goodnight – you're on watch till full light."
"Jill!"
"What!"
"I know you saw them!"
"Saw who?"
"Jill!"
"No silly. I'm right here, not over there. Whatever are you talking about?"
Eustace groaned and yanked on his hair. "Girls. Why couldn't I have been paired with Peter, or Edmund! Did it have to be a girl?!"
"Of course. You need me. And I need sleep."
"ENOUGH!"
The bush that the two small people had disappeared into shook abruptly, and Jill saw two small faces peer out fearfully toward where she and Eustace were hidden.
"Now you've done it. You had to go and yell. They heard that, you know."
She was pretty sure that she saw steam begin to come out of his ears.
"Are you alright? You look awfully red. You better not be getting sick now, cause I think that's probably who we're supposed to help. I'll go say hello – you should maybe wait here until you feel better."
Jill quickly crawled out of the bush, laughing to herself.
"Jill!" Eustace growled, following angrily.
"Yes?"
He glared at her. Oh, if looks could kill! Not only would she be dead, but her body would also probably be burned to nothing. She grinned at him, and turned back toward the bush where the two people were hiding.
"Hello!" She called cheerfully, but quietly in case there were unfriendly ears nearby.
The two people looked at each other, and slowly slipped out of the bush. They were very small – they looked like children! And they each had a drawn sword in hand.
Jill glanced over her shoulder at Eustace and sighed. He was still glaring at her.
"You're not making a good first impression." She hissed, and then raised her voice enough that the children could hear. "Honestly, you look like you've eaten something rotten. Mr Grumpy-pants! Stop being a bad sport. You woke me up, so I teased you. It's not that big a deal!"
He sighed and stuck out his hand. "Fine."
She shook it with a grin.
"But never again!" Eustace warned her.
Jill giggled. "No promises."
The two children looked at each other, then back at the strange people in front of them.
"I'm Jill. Jill Pole.' Jill introduced herself. Then she gestured to Eustace. "And Mr. No-fun over here is my friend Eustace. Eustace Scrubb. We've been waiting here for you for two days."
There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that these were the people they were supposed to help. Like Aslan had said, she had known them right away.
They both just stared at her.
"Now then, would you mind introducing yourselves? Cause we don't have a clue who you are, where we are, or what's going on. All we know is that Aslan sent us here to help you. He really should have sent Edmund instead, Ed's much better at this sort of thing."
"Jill." Eustace cut in. "You'll just confuse them with talk like that – they don't even know who Edmund is!"
"Does this Edmund have any other names?" The brown-haired child asked suddenly. The one with black hair stayed silent, sizing them up.
"Edmund Pevensie. Also know as King Edmund of Narnia, also know as the Just." Jill informed him, although she couldn't imagine why he had asked.
"And how do you know this Edmund?" He asked.
"Edmund is Eustace's cousin, and both of our friend. But you act like you know him?" She asked.
The child looked around, and carefully pulled a beautiful dagger out of his shirt. "Do you recognize this?"
It was made of shining metal, and had a blue and white handle. Etched onto the blade was a tiny symbol – a dragon. Eustace's eyes widened, but Jill shook her head.
"Never seen it before. Why?"
Eustace cut the child off before he could respond. "I recognize it. That's Edmund's dagger. Addie gave it to him during the Golden Age. It's an Amator dagger, with a spell so that it'll cut through just about anything. He loves that knife – never lets it out of his sight." Eustace's gaze became hard, and suspicious. "Where did you get it?"
To his surprise, the child looked relieved. "From Edmund the Just, King of Narnia. He gave it to me at our parting."
"You know Edmund?" Jill asked happily. That would simplify matters. The children were more likely to trust them if they trusted Edmund and knew that Eustace was Ed's cousin.
"Yes." The dark-haired child spoke for the first time. "Edmund is known to us. As is his sister Adara, whom we call Hiljar. We also know of his other siblings – but he made no mention of you."
"Well, I'm offended. I shall have to take it up with him." Jill made a hurt sound.
Eustace covered his eyes with his hand and groaned. "Jill!"
"Yes?"
"Try not to be obnoxious, okay?"
"Why?"
Eustace carefully ignored her. "If my knowledge of the dagger isn't enough to prove our relation, perhaps I can prove it some other way?"
The first child's face brightened. "Do you also have the mind-link?"
"The what, now?" Jill asked.
The dark one spoke again. "Edmund told us that Aslan had given him and his siblings a way to communicate through their minds. When he was speaking with his siblings, he grew tense and lost focus on the world around him."
Jill looked to Eustace. "Can we do that? Aslan didn't mention it…"
"I don't know. I'll try, I guess, but I don't know how."
Eustace put his head down and closed his eyes. He furrowed his brow in concentration, mentally calling for Edmund. After a moment, he gasped and his eyes shot open.
"I rather think we can do it, Jill. At least I can. That was the weirdest thing I've ever felt. Hang on, Ed's trying to talk to me."
He concentrated again. A moment later he was mouthing words, though he didn't actually speak out loud. He nodded, and regained his focus on the world around him.
"Edmund says that you are friends of his, and that if you want proof you can prove us the same way you proved him – whatever that means. And he said to greet you both for him. But which one of you is Sam, and which one is Frodo?"
"I am Sam." The brown-haired child said. "And I am already sure of your trustworthiness – but I will prove you anyway." He thought for a moment.
"Tell me who it was Hiljar dreamed about. You can ask Edmund – he will know what I mean, and give you the answer. That is the proof by which we can be sure that you are who you say you are."
Eustace smiled. "That sounds like something Ed would have come up with."
Sam nodded. "It was his idea."
"I'll ask."
"No, let me. I'll see if I can communicate that way too – it'll be a bother if I can't." Jill said.
Eustace nodded, so she closed her eyes as he had done and concentrated. She wasn't sure what she should be concentrating on… But she would do her best. She tried to completely cut herself off from the world around her, and when she did she seemed to feel something strange all around her, as if she could almost read other people's minds. Was this the connection?"
"Edmund?" She thought, wondering if he could hear her. Suddenly one of the minds she could feel became sharp and in focus (how that worked she wasn't sure, but whatever) and she heard a reply.
"Jill?"
"YAY! I FIGURED IT OUT!"
She could hear Edmund laugh softly.
"Good for you." There was amusement in his voice.
"Don't laugh at me, I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Anyway, Sam wants to know who Hiljar dreamed about. He said you'd understand…"
"Hitomi."
"Hitomi?"
"Yes."
"Who's that?"
Edmund sighed. "An old friend who is no longer with us."
"You're not going to tell me?"
"No."
"Ok. I'll be back… Maybe."
She pulled away from the connection and found herself blinking in the grey light she had been living in for two days.
"That… was weird. I feel like I'm going nuts, talking to somebody in my head!" Jill muttered. She shook her head as though to clear it, and looked at Sam. "He said it was Hitomi – though I haven't a clue who that is. He wouldn't say."
"That's alright, the name is enough. Are you satisfied, Mr. Frodo?"
"Of course, Sam."
Mr. Frodo? They aren't children? But they're so small… And they don't look like dwarves…
"If you don't mind my asking… What are you?" Jill wondered aloud. "I've never met people like you before. You're not human, and you're not dwarves…"
Frodo nodded. "We are hobbits."
"Oh. Okay."
Sam grinned. "You don't know what hobbits are."
"No… I'm afraid I don't."
"Perhaps it would be better to explain some other time, Sam." Frodo told him with a smile.
"Oh, yes. We were just about to make camp for the day – we've been travelling at night, you see."
Jill nodded. "Of course. Here, we've been camped out over here – it should be big enough for all four of us."
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Adara stood beside Peter in the great hall of Edoras. There was a lot of bustle and pomp going on around them, but they completely ignored it. Some of the men passing through would stop to give them curious glances, but the King made sure that Hiljar and his brother were not disturbed.
"No wonder he was so on edge." Peter murmured. "Seeing your death must have been quite a blow for him…" He trailed off.
"Do you think that what he saw will truly happen? The Palantir cannot lie, but Sauron is a master of tricks and deception. He could easily show something and make it seem other than it was. Is it then a trick of his, something that will be, or something that may be only?" Adara responded just as quietly.
"You are Amator. You will not die of old age – your people can only fall by the sword. Yet we know that all die. You must die in battle, then, as no one can live forever. I think that what Aragorn saw will be – at some time. But the Dejen endures, and so it cannot be a thing of this present time. It is a trick, I think. You must die at some time, and Sauron made it seem as though your death would come now."
Adara nodded. "Petri, when you–"
"The beacons are lit!"
At his shout, every man in the place turned to see Aragorn running wildly toward the King's throne and coming to an abrupt halt directly before it.
"The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid."
The silence that followed as all waited for Theoden's decision was heavy and almost tangible. Then the King nodded.
"And Rohan will answer!"
As Theoden turned to his aide and began giving orders, Aragorn found his way to his nuka's side.
"Rohan will answer!" Adara exclaimed softly. "I thought that he was angry with Gondor. Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell? At least, such was his opinion at Helm's Deep."
"I think he changed his mind when the elf-host arrived." Peter smiled.
"I care not when he changed his opinion. All that matters is that the kingdoms of men will unite." Aragorn murmured.
The three made their way outside, where they stood still, staring at the flames flickering on the distant mountaintop.
"Rohan will answer – but how long will it take?" Peter wondered aloud. "Will the Riders reach Minas Tirith in time?"
"They must." Aragorn replied grimly. "They cannot fail."
