The Strangers in Middle Earth

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Chapter Eleven

Departures and Meetings

'After that he showed me his plans for when he's done with this world. He showed me cities being destroyed, armies fighting, and Widford Castle being destroyed.'

I looked up at everyone gathered in the Golden Hall, listening to what had happened that night when I looked into the Palantir. Theoden King and several of his advisors, Gandalf, the members of the Fellowship of the Ring, as I later learned they were called, as well as the leaders of our company and Richard, were standing in the room listening to me.

'But I thought you said there may not be a way back,' said Lord Robert, his eyes fixed on Gandalf.

'Because I believed there wasn't but,' Gandalf seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, 'but there are rumours that Sauron's master, Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, had discovered a way long ago. If Sauron knows his masters methods, he could invade your world if Middle Earth falls.'

'Damn,' my uncle growled.

'So there could be a way of forcing Sauron to hand over what he knows,' Robert suggested.

'How arrogant are you?' Father Harold snapped at him. 'For goodness sake, this is more than just trying to find a way home, it's about trying to save it, save our world and all of Christendom. If Sauron lives, our world is in danger.'

'An argument for later,' my uncle shut them up.

'Either way,' said Gandalf, 'we now know of the enemies plan. Sauron knows that there is still strength amongst the Free People of Middle Earth, and that the Heir of Elindil has come forth. With this, there may yet be enough courage to challenge him so he will stamp out this spark while he still can. He will burn Minas Tirith to the ground before he let's the Free People unite under the banner of the King of Gondor.'

'What is Minas Tirith?' Edmund finally asked.

'The capital of Gondor,' Aragorn told him.

'We can afford to lose one city,' said Marcus.

'Not Minas Tirith,' said Gandalf. 'It is the greatest beacon of strength left in all the kingdoms of Men. If it falls, the spirit of all who stand against Sauron will be broken forever.'

'I'll go,' said Aragorn. 'They must be warned.'

'No Aragorn. Your path is on a different road,' he then spoke to him quietly so none could hear him before turning to Theoden. 'If the beacons of Gondor are lit, Rohan must be ready for war.'

'Tell me,' the King of Rohan said proudly, 'why should we come to the aid of those who did not come to ours? What do we owe Gondor?'

The uneasy silence which followed was almost painful, and I looked over to my uncle who appeared to be the only one who was not surprised at the kings declaration.

'Theoden King,' Gandalf finally broke the silence, 'the beacons will be lit and for the sake of all the peoples of this world and perhaps every other world, I hope Rohan does what is right. I will ride for Minas Tirith, and I will not be going alone.'

His eyes fell on Pippin who now looked to be regretting every decision which had led him to that point.

'Gandalf,' my uncle spoke up, 'when will you leave?'

'In an hour, I need to ready supplies.'

'Sire,' my uncle then said to Theoden, 'at the Battle of Helm's Deep, my company and I served you well. Now the war has turned south to Gondor, and I believe that should be where we go.'

'As the leader of your company, that is your right, Baron.'

'Thank you, my king. Gandalf, wait for two hours. I'll need to discuss this with the leaders of my company.'

'Very well.'

After that the leaders of the company went into a side room of the hall to discuss our next move and unfortunately, I was not in that room with them. However, the following is a good approximation of what was discussed. Once everyone sat down my uncle started the discussion.

'I apologise for making a decision by myself, but I believe I am right.'

'You want us all to charge into Gondor into another impossible siege?' Robert asked, incredulous.

'Yes, and we won the last impossible siege, didn't we? I think we're on a winning streak.'

'We got lucky. If Gandalf had been an hour later, we'd all be dead.'

'Dead?' asked Father Harold. 'Why do you fear death unless your life has been so craven that salvation is impossible for you to achieve?'

'When I start preaching, Father, feel free to lecture me. While I'm discussing war, don't lecture me.'

'What is the matter with you?' the priest snapped and stood up. 'Your lands, your titles, what does it matter if Sauron destroys it all? We must fight and we must win!'

'Sauron might know a way to get back.'

'You want to make a deal with a monster who sends legions of savage beasts to butcher innocent men and women?'

'Robert,' Edmund finally entered the debate, 'I want to go home too, but we need to decide if that's worth it.'

'Your wife is dead, you have nothing to lose by fighting Sauron. God's Teeth, the wizard just wants to use us as tools in this war, that's why he didn't tell us about this Morgoth's knowledge!'

For a moment Edmund's face palled before turning red with anger and he was about to shout when Jason banged his fist on the table.

'I actually do have nothing to lose and I say we fight, but we're basically mercenaries now, and how do we know that Gondor will accept us into their service? Why should we all go there when we might not be accepted? I say one of us leads half the men to Minas Tirith to make sure we'll be hired and then the rest of us join them. If we're not accepted, we regroup back here.'

'And if Rohan goes to war?' asked Marcus.

'We re-enter Theoden's service.'

'Am I being ignored completely here?' Robert asked them.

'Yes,' Father Harold flatly responded.

'So be it. Jason has the best option out of a lot bad options then, but I don't like this. By doing this, we are condemning ourselves and our men to exile forever in this world, and our loved ones will be doomed to suffer at the hands of Tudor.'

'If our families are smart, they will submit,' my uncle told him. 'I'm not happy about it, but we have no choice. They will keep their lives and hopefully some of their lands. Are we all agreed on Sir Jason's suggestion?'

They agreed to it and my uncle nodded.

'Excellent. In that case, I will go to Gondor, and I'll take our Yoemen and our mercenaries. Sir Jason, will you accompany me?'

'I'll be glad to,' he answered.

'Marcus, go and tell Richard that he's coming too.'

'Of course, father.'

Just over an hour after my uncle looked over the men who would be going with him to Minas Tirith, Thomas and Mathew Fendrel, the latter still dealing with the normal after effects of drinking, Isaac of Wearmouth, Robert of Wessex, Richard of London, Luke Smith, Judah Tyler, Oswald of Jarrow, his music would be missed by those of us who would remain at Edoras, they were all our bowmen. Furthermore, the other yeomen who fought as men at arms accompanied my uncle, Robert of Tynemouth, Edward of Bristol, Samuel of Hereford, Tom of Westmoreland and Edward Johnson. All of our mercenaries in the company accompanied him as well, Sir Jason of course was a part of the group, as well as Richard Bakerson, Thomas Tinker, John Scotson, Daniel of York, Humphrey of Newcastle, Nicholas of Dover and his twin brother William of Dover, Luke of Essex, the foreigner Heinrich of Worms, Edward Carpenter, Edward Edwardson, Wat of Carlisle, William Tyler and Peter of Pevensey. In addition was of course my uncle and Richard. As they lined up outside of the cities stables with their horses, all of them with their armour in large packs on their backs, there was no time for slower pack horses, they would carry everything with them. Granted they were laden down, but they would still move faster. All of their horses in addition seemed to look at Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, with awe, and seemed to stand taller in his presence.

'Good luck,' Marcus said to his brother and embraced him.

'I'll try, but you know me, always getting in trouble.'

We laughed as he said that but then, with absolute seriousness, the two brothers looked at each other.

'If I don't survive this, well, I'll see you in Heaven.'

'We'll see you there,' said Marcus.

'Just try to stay alive cousin,' I then added and hugged him. 'Goodbye.'

'Bye John.'

'Marcus,' my uncle then said to his eldest, 'be careful while I'm gone.'

'I understand father.'

'Good. In that case, let's go. Riders, mount!'

They all climbed onto their horses while Gandalf helped Pippin onto Shadowfax which they shared for the journey. The line of horses thundered out of Edoras and my cousin and I watched as they journeyed across the open plains of Rohan from the cities walls. When they became little more than small dots on the horizon, we began to walk back up the hill towards the tavern.

'Are you worried about them?' I asked Marcus.

'They're all good fighters but, I can't help but be afraid. Do you remember when we were boys and we saw our fathers ride out for battle?'

'I feel like that again, like a child.'

'Come on, let's get some practice in. By the way, have you talked to Sunniva yet?'

'Not today. Why?'

'Do you remember much of last night?'

'I remember Richard vomiting but not much after that.'

'Oh Lord. John, you kissed Sunniva during the dancing.'

At that I stopped walking and looked at him, a grin on his face.

'Please tell me you're joking.'

'Absolutely not cousin. You kissed her, she kissed you back, you danced some more and then you fell asleep and she went back to her house.'

'Bloody Hell.'

'Are you going to talk to her?'

'Yes,' I answered and quickly began walking up the hill while Marcus's laughter chased after me.

Eventually I reached her house and after taking a moment to get my breath back and calm down, I knocked on the door. For a few nervous seconds which felt like hours, I waited until one of Sunniva's servants opened the door.

'Good morning Sir John,' she said and curtsied.

'Is Sunniva here?'

'Of course. Please come inside.'

The house was made up of a main living room, four bedrooms and a kitchen at the back of the house. I waited in the living room for a moment until Sunniva emerged from her bedroom with a smile on her face.

'Hello John,' she said somewhat nervously.

'Erm, Sunniva, I, well, I wanted to say I'm sorry.'

'Yes, about the kiss. Look, we had both had a lot to drink.'

'Yes I know but I should have behaved properly. Your father asked me to make sure you were kept safe and I failed at that.'

'Stop being so melodramatic,' Sunniva told me. 'Look, it was tiny and we just kissed when we'd had a few, it's nothing.'

'I thought you'd be angry with me.'

'Why would I be? It was just a drunk accident.'

'Well, good, at least we're not bothered by it.'

'Good. So, in that case, we can agree that my father's request that you keep an eye on me still stands.'

'Of course.'

'Good. I'm going to go riding this afternoon and I think you should keep your promise by coming with me.'

I was only slightly taken aback by her request, but I certainly didn't dislike the idea of spending some more time with Sunniva and testing the limits of my new horse of course.

'I'd be happy to.'

'Thank you, John. I'll see you just after lunch.'

'I'll see you then.'

After I left, I thought about how close to a disaster I had just been to. If Sunniva had been less level-headed I would have been in serious trouble and I was grateful for her relaxed attitude about our kiss. I spent the rest of the morning with Marcus at the training grounds, not practicing but watching the companies squires and local boys practice with wooden swords, all the while shouting helpful advice and placing bets on who would win. Father Harold, surprisingly, gave a lot of advice to the young men and boys, even using a wooden sword and demonstrating the art of combat to them, gaining a few questioning looks as to where a priest had learned to use a blade, although his well-spoken manner and excellent literacy suggested he was from a noble family so as a boy he may have learned before becoming a man of the cloth.

I met Sunniva by the stables after we had both eaten and after getting our horses ready, we began our ride. I allowed Sunniva to lead us as we rode across plains of her country. The place was beautiful, reminding me of the moors of Yorkshire and the County of Durham. After we reached a hill from which we could see the ford over the River Snowbourne we stopped for a few minutes to talk.

'There are few things I love more than riding,' Sunniva told me.

'Your people do love horses, it is on your banners and carved on every building.'

'We're the Rohirrim, anyone who can't ride by the time they reach adulthood we think they were born in the wrong kingdom. May I ask, but what is England's banner?'

'We change it a lot, depending on the king, but it's usually showing a red field with a golden lion, though the emblem of the House of York, the rightful rulers of the realm, is a white rose.'

'Rightful rulers?'

'It's a matter up for debate, depending on who you ask. The Houses of York and Lancaster have been fighting over it for a while.'

'Who was winning when you left?'

'Lancaster sadly.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.'

'Now that I've answered your question, could you answer one of mine?'

'I didn't realise we were playing that game,' she chuckled. 'Go ahead.'

'Why have you been talking with Father Harold a lot? I don't want to sound like I'm prying but I'm just curious.'

'It's, well. After seeing how fearless he was while we were all huddling in the glittering caves, I have been curious about his, about your beliefs.'

'You are?' I asked, surprised.

I had known people over the years who weren't Christian, to be precise I had met a few Jews, but considering how strong they held their own religion, I was surprised that Sunniva would be so willing to think about the Catholic faith.

'Yes. After talking to him I think that a lot of it is, well, interesting at least.'

'I see. You want to convert?'

'I think I might, but I'm not sure yet.'

'Alright. Whatever you decide, I'll be there for you.'

'Meaning?'

What did I mean by that, I thought to myself after the words left my mouth.

'I meant as your friend,' I quickly answered.

'As my friend. Of course. Should we keep riding for a while or head back to Edoras?'

'Whatever you want.'

'Another half hour,' she said and pointed to an outcrop by my guess about two thirds of a mile away. 'I'll race you there.'

She then sent her horse galloping forwards less than a moment before the words left her mouth, leaving me behind.

'Cheat!' I jokingly shouted after her and started in pursuit, the both of us laughing as we rode.

AN: And the English company is divided as Baron James leads half of his men out towards Gondor while John and Sunniva grow closer in Edoras.

Altogether this chapter was fairly short but I don't want to make them too long for no reason. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and please let me know what you think.

Review Response:

ATP: I believe that if Gandalf had just told Father Harold about his full origins, there is a good chance that Harold would not believe him fully. Furthermore, belief is not based one stablished facts, but rather the ability to do something with all your heart without a full explanation. I personally will never do that to another Human but to God, He is the only one worthy of such devotion. Therefore I had Father Harold present at Theoden's "Exorcism" so he would see Gandalf's powers and be convinced to support him without the full explanation for what he is.