A/N: Hey! Posting this up tonight because I'm getting up early for a band thing tomorrow and won't have time to post it tomorrow—so in a way, this chapter is early! :D
Review replies:
DORK DOG: Maybe… we'll see… :P
Ginny: I like the idea, but reading the runes in English is quite different to Westron (because all the runes Phillip was reading was in English, as most of them was Julia speaking to the other three when there were no Westron speaking people around and no need to speak Westron; anything say Barliman would write down would translate into Westron), and Olivia can't actually tell the difference when she is speaking in English and Westron—to her it all sounds like English, so she can't conceivably teach him… :/ But it would be cool!
Not a lot of reviews, so onto the chapter!
…..
[6th March, T.A. 3019]
"Maybe… maybe we could swim it…?" Julia suggested feebly, as they stared down into the swirling depths of a river in which swimming was barely plausible even before the rain. Nobody spoke for a long moment, feeling the weight of the sudden reality that there was no way they were going to cross the body of water.
"No," Alatar finally spoke, "No, there is no way we could possibly swim it. We shall have to seek other methods."
"'Other methods'?" Ginny frowned.
"Oh, yeah, there are lots of other ways," Damien piped up.
"Like what?" Ginny shot back.
"Like… I mean… we could always link arms and walk across." Damien suggested.
"Like the girl scout thing," Julia remembered.
"Maybe Damien was a girl scout." Ginny said.
"The current is too strong, I fear we would all be swept away even for our linked arms," Alatar spoke, gesturing towards the river, "We need a more creative method."
"Well, in the meanwhile, if I would be allowed to make a proposition," Belegil said suddenly, "We should fill up our water bottles here before we continue."
"I agree!" said Alatar, "It will be a long trek across the Brown Lands—and I do not believe there is much in the way of water in those desolate plains."
And so the travellers reached into their packs for their leather canteens—one for individual use, and a larger one for extra provision—and one by one stooped to fill them.
Julia uncorked her larger one and knelt at the bank, dipping it gently into the water. It was startlingly cold and the current was stronger than she had anticipated—it caught her by surprise. Her fingers loosened slightly—only slightly, but it was enough—for the water prised it from her hand and swept it away in a flash.
"Dammit!" Julia cried, standing and watching her canteen disappear downstream.
"Oh," Alatar said, "This is ill fortune."
Julia looked up at him regretfully, biting her lip.
"Still," he added, "We have many bottles."
It wasn't long before the remaining canteens had been filled and the eight of them were standing once more on the bank of the biggest hurdle they had faced in their journey thus far.
"Maybe we could…" Damien faltered.
"It just… seems impossible," Lola said, staring down into the swirling current.
"Nothing," Alatar boomed, "And I repeat, nothing, is impossible, Lola Evans."
"Well, I mean," Lola said meekly, "I can think of a few things. Like, us reaching Rhun within the next 24 hours."
"Most things," Alatar said, "And I repeat, most things, are relatively plausible, Lola Evans."
They stared down into the Anduin once more, at the fast flowing current and their hopes being swept downstream. It did seem relatively impossible, and the longer they stared, the more it seemed to be so.
"How fast could the current possibly be?" Aiden scowled.
"Oh, no, definitely too fast for us to swim it," Damien gave him a sidelong glance.
"Well, I mean," Aiden shot back, "Look,"
He stepped forward and knelt at the water's edge, placing his hand in the river. At first, the water simply rushed past his hand, as it would normally do. Then, slowly, so slowly no one quite noticed at first, the water began to part around his hand, exposing a slither of the brown riverbed underneath.
Aiden fell back in shock, holding his arm as far away from him as possible, breathing hard. He stared, wide-eyed, up at the others.
"What the hell…?" Ginny breathed, eyes fixated on the spot where Aiden's hand had been, mouth parted slightly.
"Did anyone else see that?!" Aiden demanded, head twitching as he looked around at the astonished faces of the bystanders, "What the hell was that?!"
Alatar moved forward, eyebrows furrowed, passing his staff from one hand to the other, deep in thought. "Try again," he said.
"What?" Aiden said incredulously.
"Try putting your foot the water," Alatar elaborated, scratching his beard.
"I…" Aiden trailed off, "I… okay."
Tentatively, he lowered his leg into the river. As soon as his foot made contact with the water, it began to part. Slowly, he kept going until it reached the riverbed, which was brown with slick mud and rock. Soon he was standing in the river—and was not even a little bit wet.
"I don't like this…" Aiden's voice was rising with fear.
"Aiden, you… can control the water…" Julia was staring at him, puzzled. He was standing in what had become a small circle of riverbed around which the water was flowing—almost as if kept out by invisible barriers.
"Nope!" Aiden cried, jumping back up onto the bank, "I really don't like this!"
"Aiden, if you can control the water, we can get across!" Damien pointed out.
"I don't… I don't know if I can," Aiden said, "This is scary, what is actually happening?!"
"Aiden," Alatar spoke suddenly, looking at the man from under thick white brows, "This ability is odd, but it would be our means of crossing this body of water. Try controlling it with your mind. Think what you want it to do. I have not yet figured out why, but it seems to respond to you."
Aiden shook his head vigorously, "I really don't like this."
"Come on," Julia said, looking down at him and smiling a little, "It's sort of cool. And it's gonna be the only way for us to cross."
Aiden looked from her and back to the water, and then at Alatar. Finally, he lowered himself back in again. As it had before, the water parted at his will. He stood there for a moment, poised slightly, almost like he was trying to figure out what to do. Then he closed his eyes.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, very slowly at first, then speeding up, the water in front of him began to part also, creating a direct path to the other bank. The water, having nowhere to go, began to pile up behind the invisible barrier, a few drops spilling through as Aiden turned to face the others, still on the bank.
"Hold your concentration!" Alatar called, moving forward.
Aiden turned quickly, closing his eyes once more, keeping the path in place. Alatar turned to the other six, who were staring, bewildered at what was taking place before them.
"Come," he said, "Now is our chance to cross,"
Collecting their packs, the five humans, wizard and elf jumped down into the path. The stones and silt were difficult to find traction on, but they managed to move forward without slipping. Before long they had crossed the vast width of the Anduin—without need of a raft, and without even getting wet.
When they looked back across the river, they could spot the figure of a man standing before a great wall of water that had accumulated in the time it had taken to cross. He seemed to be staring, dazed, puzzled at the supernatural phenomena he appeared to have created. Then he turned and began to run.
As he sprinted down the path the great wall of water began to collapse in his wake, falling, thundering, roaring as it hit the riverbed and began surging downstream. It's vast kinetic energy forced into waves of sound like a thousand bass drums pounding upon their ears, and the path they had just walked across became a swirling mass of white water.
Aiden reached the other side a few seconds before the entire thing fell apart, leaping onto the bank and collapsing on the ground, chest heaving with the effort of every breath he took. He looked up and a face came into view.
Alatar was looking down at him, and he smiled as he spoke, "Well done, son of Ulmo."
…..
[8th March, T.A. 3019]
"Two tankards!" Olivia's voice came over the din of the parlour, penetrating Phillip's ears for being the only voice he could understand. He turned, fumbling for a tankard, and began to fill it.
Olivia's head poked around the door to the kitchen. "You okay in there?"
"Yeah," Phillip breathed, setting the full tankard on the bench and reaching to fill the other, "Yeah, all good."
"Great," Olivia said, taking the tankard on the bench and the other Phillip handed to her, "It's beginning to slow down."
"About time," Phillip said, wiping his hands on a cloth. Ordinarily, Phillip wouldn't have been helping in the kitchen—his jobs were more to do with cleaning up—but the inn had become very busy and Barliman had enlisted his help in the filling of tankards and plating of bread and cheese. It was certainly a more stressful job, but if he was honest he found it better than doing dishes and wiping down tables.
Olivia laughed, and turned around to leave, apron swishing about her. Phillip leant against the bench, squashing the cloth in his hands. Hopefully they would finish up soon. They had only worked in the inn for four days but Phillip was already tiring of it.
Olivia appeared once more, a few moments later, "Three more tankards. Last one, Barliman says he can handle it from here."
"Great," Phillip said, taking an empty tankard.
It wasn't long before the pair of them were slipping out through the door and down the hall. The air was so sudden and cold on Phillip's face, and he realized he hadn't noticed how hot it had been in the common room, and the kitchen in particular.
As soon as they opened the door to their room, Phillip opened the chest, chucking the gun inside. He had made a habit of taking it with him when he went down to work; out of a paranoia that it would be taken.
Perhaps this would have been a blessing; he hated the thing. But it was also his only weapon in this world of orcs and monsters and dark lords, and to lose it would be the full stop at the end of his death sentence.
"Oof!" Olivia flopped down onto her bed on her stomach. Phillip closed the lid of the chest and turned to face her. She was watching him from where she lay unmoving on the bed, face partially buried in sheets and mattress with only her eyes visible.
"Sup," she said.
"Hi," Phillip said, making his way over to his bed and sitting down, setting to work removing his shoes. Once he had done so, their eyes met and there was a long silence.
"So," Phillip said, "Rivendell,"
Olivia let out an exasperated sigh, "Every bloody time! Phillip, we can't leave just yet. We still owe Barliman."
Phillip sighed in a manner that was exasperated also, "But I need to be there now,"
"Phillip, we don't even know whether they're still there," Olivia argued.
"Exactly," Phillip pointed out, "We need to get there before they leave!"
Olivia frowned at him, "It doesn't matter—we still can't leave yet. We owe Barliman,"
"Look, I don't know Barliman all that well," Phillip said, "Never spoken to him. But he doesn't seem like the sort of guy who would hold it against us to leave if we had a good reason. Which we do."
Olivia raised her eyebrows, "Yes, going to a place we don't even know the way to, to look for a girl who we're not even sure is there, yeah, that definitely seems like a good reason."
Scowling, Phillip got up to hang his jacket on the doorknob, "Yes, it is a good reason. I didn't die for nothing."
Olivia didn't reply. The silence was long and painful. Phillip sat back down on his bed and the woman across from him couldn't quite meet his eyes.
"…okay," she finally spoke, "We should… leave in another few days. We have to at least done a week of work for Barliman. And probably give him the rest of the coins."
Phillip exhaled. "Okay," he said.
The silence stretched on for another couple of minutes. Eventually, Olivia sat up and pulled back her sheets.
"Well… I'm going to go to bed. Night," she told Phillip, slipping underneath them.
Phillip watched her for a few moments, before finally replying, "Night."
It wasn't long before he too had gotten in to bed and fallen asleep, to dream of Julia and her bright smile and her vegetable lasagna and the cherub salt and pepper shakers that still existed somewhere on his kitchen bench top.
(The ones he'd never have the chance to accidentally knock to the floor and see smash onto the linoleum into hundreds of pieces of ceramic shrapnel. Bummer.)
…..
[7th March, T.A. 3019]
Acres upon acres, miles upon miles; all around, stretching on for an eternity—there was nothing. Underfoot only dirt and barely the occasional tuft of grass, a state that extended in every direction. In the distance, through the misty nothing all that could be seen was the formless shapes that were the terrain, rising and falling.
Lola shifted her pack on her shoulders and pressed forward, trying to block out the nothingness that threatened to steal her from sanity. The Anduin had become grassland, which in turn had become The Brown Lands. And now, it seemed, no matter how they walked, there was nothing else for the Brown Lands to become. It simply reached on and on into the withered distance, desolate and deserted.
It had only been a day that the travellers had walked in this place, but it was already beginning to drag them down. It seemed to take away their words, steal their conversation, silence them.
The bleakness of the entire situation was beginning to drive Lola mad. She needed something to do… something to distract her from nothing…
She looked up at the sound of footsteps making their way towards her, and was greeted with the sight of Aiden. He, with the exception of maybe Alatar, seemed to be the only person who's spirits had not been dampened. Ever since the incident at the Anduin, when he had found his Valar parent, he had seemed a little more happy—perhaps a bit more purposeful. As he walked towards her, he was grinning.
"Hello, Lola Evans," he said, slipping into her stride, "Nobody else seems to want to talk, so I guess I'll hang out with you,"
Lola felt herself flinch. "Oh, haha, yeah…" she replied.
"This place is pretty sad," Aiden observed, glancing around, "I wonder what happened to it?"
"It used to be home to the Entwives," Lola explained, "They used to have gardens here. But… one day Sauron drove them out, because he wrecked the land. Maybe he set it on fire or something? I dunno,"
"Oh," Aiden said, "That's… pretty sad,"
"Yeah…" Lola trailed off.
"I guess there's no water here then," Aiden kicked a clump of dirt. It skittered across the terrain, curving away from them to the right.
Lola watched it. "No," she said, "Not anymore. That's probably why we filled up our canteens in the Anduin."
"Yeah…" Aiden agreed, "Do you know how big is this place is?"
"…big," Lola said after a pause, "I don't know. Maybe twice the distance from Bree to Rivendell? More than twice the distance?"
Aiden laughed, "Maybe I should just ask Tran,"
"Yeah," Lola said.
There was a long awkward silence. Lola's brain had a seizure trying to think of something to say. The usual. Finally, she blurted out, "I ship you and Damien,"
"What?" Aiden said, and then burst into fits of laughter, "Oh, no, yeah, Damien is bae."
Lola grinned, "You guys would be the cutest thing ever,"
"If I was gay I would be gay for Damien," Aiden said, "But I'm not gay, so…"
"Totally straight?" Lola raised her eyebrows.
"Totally straight," Aiden repeated, grinning at her.
Lola glanced away, her mood suddenly growing very dark. "Not that it matters," she muttered.
"Not that what matters?" Aiden frowned.
Glancing up once more, Lola bit her lip, "I mean… not that it matters what your sexuality is,"
"No, I guess not," Aiden mused.
"Yeah…" Lola trailed off, looking at the ground.
"Okay, well, I'm gonna go ask Tran about how big this place is," Aiden said, beginning to turn off, "Seeya, Lola Evans,"
"Bye," Lola replied, and he was gone.
"Nobody else seems to want to talk, so I guess I'll hang out with you,"
For a few minutes she continued walking, playing back the conversation in her head. The good bits, the awkward bits, the bits that could have meant something.
Then she wondered how many people there were between nobody and you.
…..
A/N: Whelp, there it is! New Valar parent, some fun stuff, some angsty stuff, it's all good.
The story is going to begin to speed up a little, as we are like 54 chapters in and I feel like it could be beginning to drag… just fyi. :/
Hope you enjoyed, please leave a review! It would make me happy. :)
