Lacrosse and Pine Cones
"Are your questions now answered?" Legolas asked Allison as they went down the river. She didn't turn to him when she responded,
"No."
"So what will quell you curiosity?"
"Answers."
"The destruction of our story?" Allison shook her head, but looked emotionless.
"You don't understand." And with that, the conversation fell from their lips and both looked ponderous, as if they stopped talking because it interrupted thoughts.
Allison rode with Gimli and Legolas in one boat, Eric was with Aragorn and Frodo and the remainder of the hobbits were with Boromir. Allison was rather restless; she was in anticipation to finally discover what made the world tick. Eric noticed this and called to her from the adjacent boat,
"What if we gain nothing from any of this?" Allison shook her head,
"We won't. We can't." Allison looked across to her friend, and he looked worried and sad.
"I'm afraid of you screwing up the world. But I'm more afraid of never getting home again." He paused as if saying his fears aloud would somehow make them come true, "I'm afraid of being stuck here for the rest of my life and never doing anything I dreamed of. Of never seeing my friends and family again…" Allison smiled sadly and said,
"Even if we never get home, and the world is destroyed I'll always be with you." The sentimentality was lost though when Pippin butted in and said,
"Oh that's so sweet!" Allison and Eric shot him a look, annoyed that he interrupted their moment. Pippin looked confused,
"What?" He asked and Allison merely shook her and said,
"Sometimes, Pippin, you aren't suppose to talk." This confused the little hobbit even more but before he could protest, Merry put a restraining hand on his shoulder to stop him. Allison rolled her eyes and continued, by yelling to Eric,
"Aside from that, you don't have to worry. I'm 99% sure that we are going to be able to go home."
"And the remaining 1%?" Legolas asked, Allison waved a hand, brushing the question aside.
"A mere technicality." The sentence felt empty when it was said, and no one said anything for a long time after that. Allison pulled her legs up to her and lay her chin on her knees. She thought for a long times about when to tell Boromir to be careful, and to not get killed. It seemed a little inappropriate to just blurt out 'hey your going to die' but she could think of no other way. She thought perhaps to wait until they actually get to Parth Galen, and that seemed to be the best option.
After a long time, something dawned on Eric, and he was surprised that it did because he hadn't thought of anything but getting home for the past four days. Allison was humming Ricky Martin's "She's all I've Ever Had" and Eric hollered across,
"If we can get home, doesn't that mean we can come back again?" Allison looked at him as if he had said something random like 'look there's a blue elephant' or something to that effect. Eric, repeated himself, not sure whether she had heard him or not.
"I heard you the first time. I was just thinking about it."
"No you were looking at me like I'm crazy." Allison rolled her eyes,
"In anycase, I do believe you are right." Again a long silence fell on the group.
"Does that mean you could take one of us back with you?" Merry asked across the river. Allison shrugged,
"I don't know." She paused and then said, "Dammit! That means there's another questions that needs to be answered." Eric thought for awhile about this and finally said,
"Well, you took your bag with you the last time." Allison nodded.
"Yes, well, I suppose I could." And then Allison laughed, and it felt good to do so, because no one could remember the last time anyone laughed, "I could take Sam to go see a movie." Sam looked excited at this proposition, but knew that he could not leave his master in such a state.
Much later, they reached Parth Galen. At camp of the first night, Allison found Boromir alone, looking rather crazed. Eric walked over to Allison, who was just getting up to go talk to Boromir and whispered,
"I think that guy's going a little postal on us." Allison nodded, but said nothing and continued to walk over to him. She sat next to him, and he looked at her suddenly as if her presence was disrupting some thought of consuming value.
"There is something I need to tell you." He said nothing so she continued, "I know what you are thinking. I know what you desire, and what you long for. Though I will not speak it out loud, you know what I am talking about don't you?" He shook his head,
"I do not." Allison continued knowing he was lying.
"You are going to be attacked by orcs, and you are going to be killed." Boromir did not react, and Allison was confused by this, "Did you hear me? You are going to die within the next week. Don't you care?" Boromir shrugged,
"We all must go eventually."
"Yes, but most of us 'go' later in life, and you are going to 'go' very very soon." He said nothing, and Allison, looking frustrated stormed away. She decided that she could do nothing with him in his crazed state. She walked over to Aragorn.
"Aragorn, there is something that I need to tell you." He turned to her,
"Yes, lady?"
"Boromir…is going to die. I didn't want to tell you before because I didn't know what would happen, but now I know…or at least I want to know and that's why I'm telling you and…" Allison noticed the looked of sheer and utter confusion on Aragorn's face. "I'm going to stop talking now…" Aragorn then tried to pull out the important information out of that rambling statement.
"Boromir is going to die?"
"Yes, he's going to be killed by orcs. I don't know what time, but it's by those status over there." Allison motioned to the broken status that some distance off.
"Are you trying to save him, Lady?"
"Yes."
"For what reason?"
"Does there have to be a reason to save a life?"
"Because I think you have motive of another manner then to just save a life." Allison huffed a little, and said,
"Ok, I want to see if I can intervene in the story." Aragorn nodded,
"Just as I suspected."
"So are you going to do anything about it?" She asked cautiously, he nodded,
"Yes, for I do not want Boromir to depart either." Allison was satisfied and she went to go sit with Eric, who was inspecting a long broken branch.
"What in God's name are you doing?" She asked
"This could make a decent lacrosse stick." He responded without looking up, and Allison sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh good Lord." Eric then jumped up and went racing over to Sam,
"Merry, I need your rope." Sam looked confused,
"Merry's over their, Eric sir…" Sam pointed to where Merry and Pippin sat a bit away. Eric threw up his hands,
"Pippin, Frodo, Sam whatever your name is! Can I have your rope?" Sam looked a little frightened, reached into his bag and gave Eric is rope. Allison sat back and watched him amused as he began to make 3 lacrosse sticks out of some branches and rope.
"You are mighty resourceful when it comes to sports, Eric my friend." She said grinning.
About 20 minutes later, Eric had created his sticks, and grabbed a pinecone for the ball. He handed one stick to Allison.
"Here." Allison stared at it as if she had never seen anything like it before.
"This…" She said turning the stick around and around, "is a very ingenious concoction." She stood up promptly, and readied her stick. "I have to tell you, I suck at lacrosse." Eric shrugged,
"It's ok." He threw her the cone and Allison struggled to catch it, but it ended up smacking Gimli in the head. Eric muttered,
"Awe Dammit!" Gimli drew his axe,
"Who dare throw a pinecone at me?" Allison was trying to hold in laughter at Eric looked indignant and frustrated.
It took another hour to resolve the pine cone/Gimli incident, but after that Eric had begun to teach Legolas and Aragorn how to play the sport. Allison had gladly given up her stick because she didn't want to be caught up in anyone getting injured by missed catches or bad throws.
When night had fallen completely, all the others slept, but Allison and Eric did not. They sat up, taking the first watching, talking quietly among themselves about a dance Eric once went to and his date
"With her shoes off she's taller than I am."
"Meaning with her shoes on that she's shorter than you are?"
"Yeah…" Allison gave him a strange look, "What?"
"With her shoes on she's shorter than you?" This time Eric gave her the strange look, but brushed it off.
"Oh never mind." Allison sighed.
"Do you think that if we were to fall asleep right now, we'd walk up at home?"
"I hope so." Allison didn't answer, but sat thinking, a slight frown on her face. Eric looked at her, "Don't tell me you want to stay here." Allison shook her head.
"But it is going to be hard to leave…" Eric nodded half agreeing
"I suppose." They were silent for a few seconds,
"It's like, you get to know and love someone and then you have to leave them…"
"Well, that's life for you, in a nutshell."
"I guess. Do you think we can leave without saying good bye?"
"I think we'll have to."
"If I screw up everything at home, and everything here, promise you won't hate me." Eric didn't hesitate when he said,
"Naw, I could never hate you. Even if you do screw up the whole world…"
"It will just be another one of my blunders, I suppose."
"Yeah." Eric looked around him slowly. The sleeping creatures and stillness that lay over them like a blanket. He looked around; knowing it was the last time he would see this place. If he wasn't confident before, he was now. The feeling of going home was almost tangible to him now that he was so close, and though he was happy he, like Allison, was sad as well. He put an arm around her.
"I am going to miss everyone."
"Yeah, we're leaving before you could even learn any of their names." Eric smirked and rolled his eyes,
"And before you could put the moves on that elf."
"What a shame, he's really hot too." Eric laughed
"Don't worry…I think we will see them again." Allison smiled and looked up at him,
"Do you really?" He just nodded and they sat there, just like that, for the next few
hours. When their time was up, Aragorn came to relieve them of their duty.
"I suppose this will be the last time that I will see you…" Allison said to Aragorn, who nodded and said,
"Yes, this should be our last meeting, at least for a time." Allison smiled at him,
"Then this is my good bye."
"And mine as well, Lady Allison. Farewell and may all your questions be answered."
"And may your task be completed." With that, Allison and Eric walked off to their blankets and such and feel asleep.
