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Just a reminder
' ' Thought
" " Speech
He was sitting in a small room with Elrond, Glorfindel, Aragorn and Gandalf. Elrond and Aragorn were adamant that Link should not get involved with anything about the ring at all 'if it weren't for the topic at hand, I could say that it was nice to see father and adopted son fighting for the same cause.' Even after Glorfindel, with a little probe from Link, said that he was about the same level of skill than a full-grown Elf. Gandalf was on the opinion that Link should accompany him, so he could train his magic, but he would understand if the elves preferred for him to be trained at another time. The discussion was on such an impasse that it had been degraded into complete and utter bickering. After a while, seeing as no conclusion was coming forth, Link decided to have a more active role.
"It´s not that I would like to go." Link made a pause, so everyone could hear what he had to say… "I know I need to go; I can´t stay here." Gandalf, with a wary expression, said "why do you think that child?" Link took a deep breath and said: "Because Sauron thinks I have the Ring, and if I stay here his armies will be on your doorstep." It took a moment of utter silence, and then Gandalf asked "don´t tell me…" but Link nodded "After I woke up, the first thing I did when I found myself alone was to try the Ring on" he heard a quite incredibly coordinated gasp "After about a minute, I had a conversation with him, he was honestly quite rude" he heard a hysterical snort mixed with what appeared to be a cough, "We had a lot of disagreements about many different things, and I said that I would personally see the damned trinket of his destroyed." At that point, both Elrond and Aragorn faces were ashen, Gandalf gave a snort that he quickly tried to turn into a cough after the look that Glorfindel gave him.
After a moment, Link continued "I´ve read a lot of books here, I´ve seen the defenses of the city, and I know that it could not stop a horde of determined Orcs from invading…" He made another pause, poor Elrond was really needing a glass of water it seemed… after the pause, he continued: "I´ve also read a lot of theories on the effects of the ring on people. I know now why Sauron thought I would be caring the ring. There is a theory written on one of those books that an Elf child would be a perfect bearer due to the innocence or some other bogus reason. It is completely untrue, by the way."
Link took another pause, before continuing "I think that Frodo should be de one caring the ring, he seemed less affected by it than me, but still, Sauron thinking that I have the Ring gives us a great opportunity." Aragorn at this stage put a hand over his face and said, "Why do you think that?" Link then smiled "Because I should be a decoy. Let Sauron think that I have the ring, let his attention be focused on me alone, while Frodo slips into the shadows, and throw the damn thing into the fires of Mount Doom."
There was silence that endured for some time, until Gandalf finished thinking "His plan does have a lot of merit…" He raised a hand almost immediately, knowing the objection that would come from the Elf lord and his surrogate son "It does, and you know it." But then Elrond cut him "I would rather leave middle earth and sail to the west with Link than to see an ELFLING being put in such a danger." Yelled Elron, enraged.
After a moment where all the presents were stunned with the emotions shown in the Elf Lord, Link said with a calm voice "War does not distinguish between the young and the old, or if you are an Elf, a Man, a Hobbit, or a Dwarf, especially when it´s a war about survival. What makes you think that my life is more important that the lives of the human or dwarven children, why should I be spared when I know they will not be? Is it because of the rarity of whom I am? Am I more important than they are, more deserving of a life than them?" Link took a moment to gather his own thoughts, Elrond had really hit a nerve this time "We have a chance of finishing this right now, let´s not wait for the enemy to learn how to build ships that can cross oceans."
The Kokiri stood up then "I will leave for now since I said what I needed to, just know this, I will travel with Frodo, with your blessing or not." He turned around and was about to leave when he stopped "Do not blame the Dwarves either, I would have found out eventually." Having finished what he wanted to say, he left the room.
Sometime later Link was sitting at the same bench next to the river again, occasionally throwing some rocks at it, at some point in the last few weeks it had become his favorite spot in Rivendell. It was already late afternoon when he heard someone coming. "I wonder what the terrible fish had done to deserve this treatment." 'Arwen…' He did not turn to look at her, just stopped throwing the rocks, and stared at the flowing waters. She continued "father and Aragorn were quite upset…" at that Link turned to face her, smirking a little. "Are they still?" she just nodded in reply.
Link took a little time to think, but eventually he said "I can understand that, in a perfect world if someone would say to me that they would put themselves in danger for no reason, I would be quite mad as well…" he looked up at the sky "but then, we are not in a perfect world, we are about to go to war, with an enemy that is both more powerful and resourceful then us..." He then turned to her "If you are fighting such a foe, why should we run away? Why can't the four races of middle earth fight together?" "I understand that if you live long enough, you usually don´t want to bother yourselves with petty fights… But this is not such a thing, this is a fight against the personification of evil with an army of flesh-eating monsters. I´m sorry, I just can't see the logic on your dad's mind… Let´s just sail and leave middle earth to its fate is not something I´ll ever agree on…" Link took a hand over his face in frustration "I´m sorry, I know I´m missing a lot of facts, that I should not judge period, especially before I know the full story, it´s just… I´ve seen this before, this acceptance of doom for a lack of a better word, and it´s just as frustrating now as it was in the past."
When he removed the hand from his face, he saw that Arwen was smiling kindly at him. "I do agree with you," She started "I also think that we should still fight, that going away will just delay the inevitable… I´ve been called young and naïve, but still, I will not leave this land to its fate." She looked up at the sky "I have too many things that I love here to run away, and if I did, I would be a miserable person for the rest of my days." She took a moment and turned to Link "Your assertiveness about the situation is sound and your proposal of what to do is logical and based on facts. You are also capable enough to do everything you said you would. It´s just that we are not usually able to find this kind of capabilities on a person this young, and because of that, it might be a little longer for people to see the soundness of your arguments. I will help you with that, as well as Gandalf I should think." Link gave her a sincere smile at that, and a simple thanks.
It was one week since then, and after a lot more discussions, a lot of bickering, and Link having to tie a duel with Aragorn, he was finally accepted on the Council. He was given some new clothes to wear to the occasion, with all the golden details that the elves loved so much, but in the end, he decided to go with his trusted Kokiri clothes. He felt that if he let them choose, his clothes would become practically a pass time for all the female elves in Rivendell, that worry was unhelpfully not dismissed by Arwen so he started to say to anyone that would listen than to change his green grab would be against his guardian last wishes. It was a complete lie but at least he got a little piece of mind.
Before the meeting, he had insisted on coming to it as the ring bearer. He was dead set to make everyone believe that he would be the one carrying the ring to mount doom even the people that would go with him. Again, it took some convincing from Elrond and Aragorn, but he managed to do it with the help of Gandalf and Arwen. Some days prior he had already told his plan to Frodo and was surprised to see the Hobbit agreeing to it. He found Frodo on his bedroom, getting ready to go as well, since the hobbits were allowed to participate representing their own race. The Kokiri didn´t even need to say anything, Frodo just stood there, and in the next moment tossed the ring with its chain to Link, who grabbed easily. The hobbit said seriously then "let´s hope it will be alright in the end…". Link just smiled "It will be, you´ll see" he said with a big smile, "Thanks, by the way!" He said, waving the weapon of the enemy around as it was a toy.
It was finally happening, he was coming to the council with Gandalf and Frodo, Aragorn just steps ahead. As the people seated in the chairs around the stone center, some spared a glance on him, and he waved at the gathering of dwarves that were seated opposed to where he was. He obviously had already met the other elves present, and every one of them had invited him to visit their helms and lands, to which he said he would do whenever he found time. Most elves there saw him with confusion, and Link had played it safe by just waving at them and then avoiding their gaze altogether. Link for his part, was playing the role of an innocent little lad, even waving his legs around after he seated on a chair that was obviously too big for him, 'damn the elves were tall'.
Elron then said his opening speech, "friend of old… threat of Mordor… We would unite or we will fall…" he was seeing the look in their faces, and at least they seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. It was then that Elrond said, "Bring forth the Ring, Link" and he could immediately hear the gasps of the dwarves and elves alike. The men present he had not seen yet, and the Hobbits were trying their best to be as stoic as possible. He jumped out of his chair, took the ring of his neck, and out of the chain, and deposited it on the stone table as careless as he would dare, he then quickly turned around and went back to his chair.
Link knew that most of the elves present wanted to ask why was the elfling caring the weapon of the enemy, but they were beaten by the man who seemed to be so entranced with the thing that nearly grabbed it in front of everyone. After Gandalf said something in black speech that almost made the sun set earlier than usual but was successful in stopping the man, they were all seated again. What happened next was a lot of discussion on all sides, and a lot of cheap accusations were thrown around. He was honestly getting tired of all the fighting and pettiness. The only important thing he heard was what an elf said, that Aragorn was supposed to be a King of Gondor, he would have to ask the ranger when he get the chance.
After some time had passed and before a dwarf would start a fistfight with the same elf, he stood up, and shouted as loud as he could "I will take it!" He had to say two more times before the room was silent again "I will take the Weapon of the enemy to Mordor and will throw it on the fires where once it came, no need to fight over it." "And why would we let a child do it" said one of the men. Link made his best are you stupid face, with a head tilt and everything "Because most of you can´t do it, you would fall for its lies…" "and it lies a lot, I have to tell it to shut up at least once every 30 minutes." Well Link was quite pleased with his performance, and he could tell the hobbits were barely holding up the laughs at this point.
After that little display, when it was time to decide who would help him, all the elves said they would want to, and most of the dwarves as well, which made Link quite happy. In the end, after another round of discussions, it was decided that the group would be composed of two elves (Glorfindel and Legolas), one Dwarf (Gimli) two Men (Aragorn and Boromir), Gandalf and, funnily enough, the four Hobbits. After the group was named Fellowship of the Ring by Elrond, they ended the meeting, agreeing to start their journey in two weeks' time.
It was late afternoon the day after the council, while Link was again on his favorite place by the river, he had already given the Ring back to Frodo earlier in the day and was just admiring the view when he was joined by Gandalf. At first, he just nodded for the wizard to sit by his side on the bench, which he did moments later. "I just wanted to say thank you again, for being a part of this, and for helping Frodo, I feel he would be a lot worse if you were not here." Link just nodded at that, he never knew exactly how to receive thanks before... "And I asked this to be made for you." The wizard then got a very familiar ring on a very familiar chain from his pockets… Link looked at the ring, then it hit him "It´s a fake! Nice! Thank you, it might fool some mindless Orcs or at least it will keep some more gullible people from targeting the original one from Frodo." He took his ring and chain and placed it on his neck, felling the weight of the metal but nothing more.