Chapter 17: Break the Chains of the Past
The days they spent in Lothlórien seemed to blend together, like they had in Rivendell. Quinn was glad to have a break of sorts, spending her time exploring the forest with Merry and Pippin or climbing trees with Toven.
The day after they'd arrived, Tauriel and Legolas had gone on a long walk together, likely to catch up on everything that had happened since they'd been apart. They'd started to spend a lot of time together, and—weirdly enough—Legolas had started taking Gimli into the forest with him, too. Despite Quinn's prodding, neither of them would talk about it once they returned.
At the same time, she felt a little guilty and out of place thinking of everything that had transpired in Moria, and everything they had to face once they began the next leg of their journey. She tried to keep these thoughts to herself, unsure if the others felt the same way. But she felt a little relieved when she spotted Aragorn, Boromir, Toven, and Frodo gathered around a table at one end of their quarters with a map between them.
"Are we leaving soon?" she asked as she approached.
"As soon as we have gathered provisions and decided on a course," Aragorn said. "But Gandalf gave no indication of his plans once we had crossed the Misty Mountains."
Quinn leaned against the edge of the table and looked over the map. "Well, isn't it sort of a straight shot from here to Mordor?"
"It will be quicker to take the river out of Lothlórien." Aragorn traced the winding line with his finger. "But our path will become more dangerous once we reach the Falls of Rauros." He tapped a lake in the river, which was framed by hills.
"We should continue along the river," Boromir said, palms resting on the table. "It will take us to Cair Andros, and then to Minas Tirith. We would be safe there."
A small frown flickered over Aragorn's face, but he said nothing, simply staring at the map in deep thought.
"Whatever road we take, how are we planning on getting into Mordor when we reach it?" Toven asked.
"There are two entrances known to us, and both are heavily guarded," Boromir said. "It would take the might of an army to launch an attack." He glanced at Aragorn. "And only Gondor has left the strength to do this."
"That sounds like a lot of work." Quinn crossed her arms. "You sure there isn't a way to just…sneak in? Then we throw the Ring into the volcano and—" She mimed dusting off her hands.
"And we would be trapped alone in a poisoned land with several legions of orcs," Boromir said. "The ten of us alone cannot stand against the might of Mordor."
"If nothing else, an army might prove a useful decoy to distract the enemy from the real weapon," Toven said, his eyes flickering to Frodo.
Boromir lowered his gaze to the map. "If we wish to destroy Sauron's forces for good, it would be folly to throw away—to throw lives away in the effort." He blinked. "We would need a strong force to succeed in this."
"Frodo?" Aragorn turned to the hobbit, who had been quiet so far. "Have you anything to say on this matter?"
"I think…" Frodo studied the map for a moment, a small frown on his face. "I think that we will face danger no matter which path we take. It is most important that we keep the Ring out of the grasp of the enemy for as long as possible. But I do not know the best way to do that."
"Well, no one expects you to." Quinn patted him on the shoulder. "We've been playing most of this by ear anyway, so I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out once we get closer."
"Very well." Boromir turned and walked away.
As Frodo left the table, Quinn went to catch up with him.
"Hey. How are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm all right." Frodo sat on a bench next to a fire pit set in the ground, and she sat next to him. "Why do you ask?"
"Just checking." She shrugged. "I know it's been a rough past few weeks."
After they'd escaped from Moria, Frodo had hardly spoken to anyone. Sam had been by his side as usual, but she hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him about what had happened. He seemed to be coming back to himself now that they were in a safe place, but he still looked so different from the hobbit who had left the Shire.
"I didn't realize how far we'd come," Frodo said, "until I looked at that map. And now the Shire seems so far away."
Quinn leaned her elbows on her knees. "You getting homesick?"
"I don't know," he said, staring into the unlit fire pit. "Every time I think about it—Hobbiton, Bag End, Bilbo and Thorin—it seems more and more like a dream. As though I've only imagined most of it."
"I get it. I feel that way about my old home. When I first got here, I wished almost every day that this was just some weird dream that I would be able to wake up from. But at the end of the day…I don't regret coming here. Sure, I get attacked by things way more often, and there's no video games or Taco Bell, but if I'd stayed in my home world, I never would have met you, or found Toven…"
Frodo smiled slightly. "You always manage to look on the bright side of things, don't you?"
"It keeps me sane." She leaned back on her hands and looked at him. "We're still here, you know. We got your back."
His face fell again. "That's what worries me. If anything were to happen to you, or…or Sam and Merry and Pippin…"
"I can't make any promises." She ran her fingers over the burn on her arm. "As much as I wish I could. I don't know if we're all going to make it to the other side of this thing." She knew that she wouldn't. "But we're still here, and you're surrounded by people who give a shit. We're all here to help each other out. We just have to make that mean something."
Frodo closed his eyes and nodded. "We will. We'll find a way."
"That's the spirit." She smiled and wrapped an arm around him. "Let's go take a walk, yeah? There's this really cool pond I want to show you."
"You are insane," Toven said.
Quinn braced a foot against the trunk of the tree so she could tighten the rope she'd tied around it. "You know, this was a very normal thing back in my world. And I think you're gonna love it."
She had tied a length of rope around two tree trunks, pulling it so that it was taut and that one end was higher than the other. Quinn stepped back from her work and tested the rope.
"This is just a prototype. I'm gonna show Haldir and see what he thinks. I think this could be a real game-changer for Lothlórien."
Toven put his hands on his hips and eyed the rope. "And how exactly is this supposed to work?"
"You want me to show you?" She took another, shorter piece of rope, this one about three feet long. She looped it around the longer cord and wound both ends around her wrists.
His mouth fell open. "Are you going to slide down that thing?"
"I'm actually going to zip down it. That's why it's called a zip line."
Toven looked over the edge of the talan. They were a good fifty feet above the ground. "If you hurt yourself doing this, I'm going to be extremely pissed."
"Too late!" Quinn took a running leap off the talan. She slid down the rope, her legs flailing as she let out a long whoop. Toven saw a couple of elves on the ground look up in surprise. She hit the other tree with a low thud and fell to the talan below.
"You still alive?" Toven called to her.
"Yeah!" She stood up and shook out her hands. "Didn't realize I was going to slam into that tree."
Toven walked over to the rope and tugged on it. "I'm surprised this didn't come undone."
She spread her hands. "Hey! I learned to tie some pretty decent knots when I was sailing with the Corsairs."
"Oh, so these are Gondor-raiding knots." He shook his head in mock disapproval.
"It's your turn now. I brought an extra rope."
"You're funny."
"What? I just showed you it was safe."
Toven glanced over the edge again. "Yes, and you've also told me not to do risky things just because you do."
"This is an exception. I've given it my seal of approval."
He sighed and looked at the rope. Part of him was tempted to try it.
"I'll catch you," Quinn said.
"Durin's beard…all right. I'll try it once." He picked up the rope, slinging it over the line and winding it around his hands as Quinn had.
With one last prayer that her knots would actually hold, he took a running jump. The rush of free fall swooped through his stomach, followed by the rushing of wind in his ears as he slid down the line. As he neared the tree, Quinn caught him around the waist to slow his descent. He managed to avoid smashing his face into the tree, but as he let go of the rope, he felt both of them tipping over sideways.
They fell to the ground in a heap. Quinn was laughing, and as the momentary adrenaline wore off, he joined in.
"I don't remember the last time I did something like this," he said as they lay side by side, staring up at the waving branches.
"Yeah," Quinn said, folding her hands over her stomach. "I've been slacking."
"Well, we've both been busy. Fighting orcs and such."
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "¿Por qué no los dos?"
Toven snorted a laugh. "What?"
"Why not both? I think zip lines could be really effective in fighting orcs."
He hummed. "Now I'm imagining Legolas hanging by his toes, firing arrows into a pack of orcs as he flies past…"
She chuckled. "Don't give him any ideas."
"All right." He gestured to the rope above them. "What did you really use these zip lines for, back in your world?"
"Just for fun. Seriously. They had these really long ones on the side of the mountain back home. My parents took me once when I was little." She sighed, clasping her fingers over her stomach.
"You never talk about them. Your parents." It was strange to think that he had grandparents, like so many of his friends, but he would never meet them, and they didn't even know he existed.
"I haven't thought about them in a long time. I think it must have been two years since I'd last spoken to them, before I ended up here." Her tone was casual as ever, but Toven could detect a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
"I guess we just…wanted different things for my life. I wasn't cut out for the university life, and I hated the thought of getting an office job and sitting at a desk for forty hours a week."
Toven made a face. "That sounds like a nightmare."
She nudged his arm. "Exactly. Anyway, I dropped out of school, spent most of my time getting high and playing Skyrim, and my parents just got fed up with me. I started sleeping on my friends' couches, taking odd jobs, trying to get a YouTube channel off the ground…accidentally fell of a skyscraper, ended up in a different world in an ancient warrior's body, you know the rest."
His hand tightened into a fist on his stomach. It hurt and it made him angry in equal measure to think that a parent's love and guardianship was something that could be conditional.
"It's been so long, I hardly think about that time in my life," Quinn said. "But I never want you to think I would do that to you. No matter what dumbass shit you get up to, no matter what you decide to be or do, I'm not going to stop loving or supporting you." Her voice wavered.
His throat tightened. "I hope you know I won't, either." He turned to her with a slight smile. "No matter what dumbass shit you get up to."
She let out a watery laugh and sat up. When he followed suit, she reached over and pulled him into a hug. "I think we can start trusting each other a little more. I trust that you know what you're doing."
"All right." After a moment, he pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Then I trust you, too."
That night, Quinn felt more restless than usual.
The others were all sleeping, which meant she had no one to talk to, so she left their camp and wandered into the woods.
The trees took on a silvery glow at night, and combined with the deep shadows and winking lanterns, it felt a little like walking at the bottom of the sea, past walls of rock and winding seaweed. The quiet rustle of the leaves helped calm her nerves somewhat, and she took an unfamiliar path into a new section of the woods.
Eventually, she came to a slight depression in the earth, set between three trees, and took the set of stairs to the bottom. There was a stone pedestal in the center, and what looked like a shallow silver dish on top.
Quinn stepped closer to the pedestal and looked into the dish, which was empty. Maybe this was a birdbath—though, come to think of it, she hadn't seen much wildlife in this forest.
"That is The Mirror."
She jumped and spun around. Galadriel had descended the stairs and was standing a few feet away, her white dress shining even in the gloom.
"S-Sorry." She straightened. It sounded like this mirror was sacred, or something. "I didn't touch it or anything. I was just looking."
"You have permission to look." Galadriel moved over to a nearby fountain, her bare feet moving softly over the grass. She took a silver pitcher and filled it with water, then took it to the pedestal.
"So what does this mirror do, exactly?" Quinn rested her hands on the stone rim as Galadriel poured the water into the dish. "I feel like this isn't the best angle to look at myself."
The corner of her lips curled into a smile. "The Mirror shows many things: past, present…and a possible future."
"Oh. That could be handy."
Galadriel reached over and put a hand over Quinn's. Her heart leaped as she wondered if this was her lucky day, but then she realized Galadriel was looking at her burn. "You have been touched by the Dark Flame."
"Actually, it was pretty bright." She blinked. "Oh, you mean metaphorically."
"There are those in Lothlórien with the power to heal such a wound."
Quinn lifted her hand and flexed her fingers. Though her grip on her sword was still decent, it would be nice to have the scar removed just for aesthetic reasons. But at the same time, she couldn't forget everything that burn had almost cost her, and what she had discussed with Toven.
"I…I think I'm good for now," she said. "Thanks for the offer, though."
Galadriel nodded, seeming to understand. Maybe she was doing her mind-reading thing again. "Will you look into the mirror?"
Quinn shrugged. "Can't hurt."
She leaned forward to get a better view, and was surprised to see that the water looked a lot deeper now, as if she was gazing down into a well. At first, she saw nothing but darkness. The water rippled, though nothing had touched it, and an image flared to life.
It was the street where she'd grown up. There were the palm trees shading rectangular brown lawns, the pink, yellow, and white siding of the houses, the cars parked on either side of the road. An unexpected wave of homesickness clenched her heart—she didn't think she would ever see her old home again.
A little girl slid into view, and Quinn realized it was a younger version of herself, attempting to ride a skateboard down her driveway. It slipped out from under her feet, and she fell onto her ass with a yelp.
"Ouch." Quinn winced. "I see we're doing the top ten greatest hits, here."
The water rippled again, and the image changed. She saw herself, a little older this time, sitting in the basement of a friend whose name she could no longer remember. She picked up a bong and traded it for the Playstation controller in her friend's hand.
"Man, those were the days."
The images shifted, and started coming faster—herself, now as a warrior, climbing up a rocky slope with Kíli. She saw herself riding a horse through a dark forest, standing on the deck of a ship, running through Erebor with a younger Toven on her shoulders.
The water rippled again, and the dark armor of orcs filled her vision. She was slicing through the throng, fighting through the forest to reach someone. Two of the orcs parted, and Toven became visible, lying on the ground with an arrow in his chest.
Dread and panic jolted like ice down her spine. When Quinn blinked, the image had changed again. She was back in LA, sitting in the back of her friend's pickup truck and smoking. When the water rippled again, she was a warrior again, standing in a barren wasteland and facing down a tall, menacing figure dressed in black armor.
With a gasp, she stumbled away from the mirror. It took a few moments to orient herself to the darkness of the forest and remind herself where she was.
"That's not good," she said, her hands clenching into fists. "That's really not good."
"You have harbored these fears for some time," Galadriel said. Her voice was soft and soothing, but it didn't help her calm down.
"You said those are possible futures, right?" Quinn glanced at the mirror again, but the water had gone dark. "So there's still a chance I can change it?"
"Nothing is certain." Galadriel fixed her with a piercing stare. "And not all is as it seems."
"Gotcha. I can still do something." She made for the stairs. She needed to check on Toven. "Thanks for the mirror," she called over her shoulder.
It only took a few minutes to make it back to camp. Everyone was still asleep when she reached it, so Quinn softened her footsteps as she entered. She stood in silence for a while, watching the gentle rise and fall of Toven's chest.
Of course he was fine. No orcs were going to attack them here. But once they left the forest, all bets were off.
Flexing her right hand, she left their camp again and sat down on one of the tree roots a little ways away. She needed to find a way around this. The vision with Toven had been pretty nonspecific—forests, orcs, arrows. But the last vision disturbed her. She'd never been in Mordor, but she was pretty sure that was what it would look like. And the figure in black…had that been Sauron?
"You cannot stay on this course."
Quinn glanced at Belekur. "Yeah. Now that I know what's going to happen, I have to find a way to change it. I just don't know how."
"You have still left one factor unaccounted for." Belekur walked around the root to face her and fixed her with a piercing stare. "Saruman."
She sighed and ran her hands over her face. "I know. We've talked about this before."
"The wizard knows of this Fellowship, knows what the halfling carries. You may have escaped him for now, but his power has not diminished. Once he realizes the Ring has made it through Moria, he will continue to hunt you."
Quinn looked down, fiddling with the lace of her boot. "Even if I do kill him…what if it's too late?"
"You have wasted enough time already." Belekur stepped closer, and she finally looked them in the eye. "If you do not act soon, then you will lose your friends, and this will all have been for nothing."
I ended up diving a little more into Quinn's old life in this chapter, though I wasn't exactly planning on it. It's gonna come up later, though, so this seems like as good a time as any to explore it a little more.
It was fun doing some foreshadowing with the Mirror of Galadriel. I'm interested to see what your interpretations of what Quinn saw. ;)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I just started up school again, so I'll try to keep regular updates, but I may end up skipping a week.