A/N: Thank you to all that reviewed!!! I started to write again after some major writers block and I'll soon have my other stories uploaded to, thanks again for reading!! And reviewing!! Can't forget that!!!! By the way, the council is going by the movie because in the book it takes really, really long, whereas in the movie, it is short. Thank you again!!! R/R please!!! Terribly sorry if the lines are not right!! If you know the true lines, please send them in a review and I will immediately change them and give you credit!! Thank you for reading!!!
2nd
A/N: Hey, it's 10/29/04. Which means that it's this chapter's
turn to be rewritten. Fair warning, I'm listening to a bunch of
love songs from Zana, Don't! and it might show in this because most
of them are insanely happy. Bear with me, please. So thanx for
reading, and kindly find it in your heart to review. By the way,
Melis, I hadn't updated the second OR third chapter yet, until
now...so there...P Thanx, ya'll.
Humbug Rabbit (N' Isil):
Thank you so much for being my first reviewer!!!! I appreciate it so
much!!! Thank you!!!! (10/29/04: Thanks for thinking of it as an
original. I actually got the idea from several conversations with my
friends, and the plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone...)
Hope:
I might just take your advice; I just have to see where it is going,
thank you so much for reviewing!!!!!! (10/29/04: I see what you mean,
but I'm stuck on a "they all must fall in love/they all must fall
in love/they all must fall in love/they all must fall in love"
kinda set of mind, but I might not exactly make them get married. I
don't know, maybe just a fling. Thanx for the advice,
though!)
Amancirith Carangarien: OMG!! Thank you so much for
your review!!!! I was so surprised that someone like you reviewed my
story...thank you! I might have her end up with Boromir...maybe!
(10/29/04: Once again, I still can't believe that someone like you
reviewed. Thanx! So, about the Boromir thing...I dunno...my friend
has threatened me death if I do it, but it just seems so cool!
Boromir rocks, so maybe. But it's definitely between him and
Aragorn.)
...: Frodo? I'll take that into consideration...) Thanks for reviewing!!!! I don't mind Yaoi/Slash at all. (10/29/04: Yoai? Where? looks around franticly, stops in disappointment Unfortunately, while I love to read it, /writing/ it is something entirely different. I also was thinking more of a little brother-big sister thing between Legolas and the hobbits.)
ArtemisPrime: She is in-fact just like a female Legolas, only more open and not stoic as much. Her father wanted to send her instead of the boys because he new he could trust her. He had to have someone he could trust with anything because he has been hearing certain rumors about things, so he needed to have someone he could trust and wouldn't take away a man. Thanks for pointing that out. Being a girl myself, I wanted to put this in here. Thank you for reviewing!!! I agree! Pippin is underappreciated!!! I will in-fact build him up! Thank you!! (10/29/04: Hah! I rewrote the first chapter and thanks to you I included something about that! Yay! Thanks, though, for bringing it to my attention. Also, with the third movie out now, anyone who still thinks Pippin is silly should be stabbed with many, many pointy objects. Preferably sticks.)
Falcyn Nathronoelei (Frosted Failure): Thank you for the great review. I don't think that I will have her in a long lasting romance with any hobbits...maybe a mother-son relationship, though...thanks for reviewing!!!! Thank you!!!! (10/29/04: Hobbits and Legolas shall be part of a strictly brother-sister relationship. I don't think I could mentally handle anything else. Boromir vs. Aragorn is how it's got to be!)
Amy: Thank you for correcting that lil' mistake in the first chapter, I'll fix it as soon as I can find the file...thank you for reviewing!!! You know, I might just not make into a romance, and just have mother-son and sister- brother relationships...thanks for the idea!!! Thank you!!! (10/29/04: Sorry, but I've got to. I just /have/ to make it into a romance. The plot bunny is screaming ROMANCE at me, and I've just /got/ to listen. By the by, I fixed the chapter, and now it's 100 in 3rd person....I hope.)
Ysabel: AHHH!!! I hope that it doesn't become a Mary-Sue!! If it even hints in that direction...please tell me!!! The thing about him being a different sex is that I wanted to open up all the different plot-entrances that couldn't be there if he was male. Like PMS..., Thanks for the consideration!!!! Thank you!!!! (10/29/04: Yea, the Mary-Sue-ish thing. I think I might be screwed in that area. As well as staying with Legolas's character. I'm gonna try, mark my words, but I think being a girl would have /drastic/ impact on his personality. But I'm gonna work with it. The only other problem is he's an elf, and there's not much I can have him NOT excel at, though I hope to find something, like having Aragorn/Boromir save him or something. But I will have my friends check over it so as to eliminate anything that might stray to far into the territory of OOC and Mary-Sues.)
MeShelly: tell you the truth, when I read this over again, my internal instinct kept saying that to...thanks for reviewing!!! I felt so proud that someone like you reviewed!! Thank you!!! (10/29/04: Okay, let me just tell you that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! Your stories are so awesome! Marry me? Please?....Right. cough Between when I had first written this fic and now, I seemed to have developed a strange likening to Gimli, so, don't worry, he will still be included.)
ElvenOnes: Thank you so much for your review!!! I really appreciate it that you left it!! Thank you!!!!! (10/29/04: You and me both babe, I'm writing this as it comes, so bear with me.)
Council of Elrond
"Strangers from distant lands, friends of old... You've been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor." Lord Elrond said as the silver circlet that was settled on top his crown of neatly styled brown hair glinted in the shadowed sunlight. With a swish of purple robes, the color betraying his status, the elf-lord turned his brown gaze onto the farthest left seat. Frodo Baggins, now under the scrutiny of the elf-lord's gaze, sunk into his chair as Lord Elrond continued, "Middle-earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this one fate, this one doom....bring forth the Ring, Frodo." Frodo's nervousness increased as all attention was focused solely on him. With a small nudge from Gandalf on his left, so small that no one but Frodo saw or felt it, Frodo leapt to his overly large feet and walked over to a stone dais that stood in the middle of the stone slab that the half-circle council was seated on and hesitatingly placed the small band of gold down. With a rush of curly black hair, bright blue eyes, and fading brown traveling clothes, Frodo rushed back to his seat, relieved that the only eyes that stared at him instead of the small gold ring that he had placed on the dais were the friendly ones of the grey old wizard on his left. Within seconds, hushed whispers spread about the council amid a flurry of gasps and startled exclamations.
"So it is true...the doom of men...it is a gift, a gift to the foes of Mordor!" said a man sitting in one of the seats of the half-circle, his raggedly cut brown hair reaching the shoulders of his long, blue leather tunic, "Why not use this ring?" The man stood and began to pace in front of the council, determined to make them listen. His brown leather boots made a clinking noise as they hit the rough stone below him, them, the sound of the stretching leather of his pants as he walked, and his voice being the only things that dared to make a sound as he spoke, "Long has my father, the Steward of Gondor, kept the forces of Mordor at bay. By the blood of our people are your lands kept safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him!" The man, Boromir exclaimed this while looking around at the surrounding council members, looking for hesitation in any of their eyes. He needn't have looked, for he found it in the eyes of the Ranger that sat on the far right of the half-circle.
"You
cannot wield it, none of us can! The One Ring answers to Sauron
alone. It has no other master!" The man with shoulder-length dark
brown, almost black, hair said, his coal velvet shirt stretching over
his torso as he leaned against his hand that in turn rested on one of
the armrests of his brown wooden chair. His eyes, so dark a brown
that at first glance they seemed almost black, bored holes into
Boromir. Yet Boromir would not be discouraged so easily. After all,
he was a steward while this man seemed no more than a lowly
Ranger.
"And what would a....Ranger....know of this
matter?" he asked, drawing the word "Ranger"
out with a sneer that clearly stated what Boromir thought of him and
all his lot.
"Aragorn? This is Isildur's heir?" Boromir laughed, pointing a gloved finger at the still sitting Ranger.
"And heir to the throne of Gondor!" Legolas said, her eyes flashing. Boromir sneered, taking a step towards Legolas in a threatening manor.
"Havo dad, Legolas." Aragorn said to Legolas in elfish, telling her to sit down. She reluctantly did as she was told. Boromir stopped advancing and blinked, taking in what the Ranger said. Or, rather, what he didn't say. He was stuck silent, this man did not deny what the she-elf had said! Could it be true? No...no, but perhaps...
Confused and more than a little taken aback, Boromir muttered to himself, trying to reassure himself that Gondor was still HIS kingdom, "Gondor has no king, Gondor needs no king."
"Aragorn is right. We cannot use it." Gandalf said glancing at both Aragorn and Boromir, with a nervous straightening of his hat. Gandalf chewed his lip and held on tighter to his trusty brown staff made of a tree root as he thought of the implications Boromir's and Aragorn's fight might have for the future.
The silence lasted a few minutes. Everybody looked around at the other members of the council, trying to find out what side everyone else was on to determine what they should do. The dwarfs present would naturally disagree with anything that the elves agreed to, and Boromir and Aragorn were doing their best to pretend that the other wasn't there, despite their close proximity of being only two chairs away from each other.
"You have only one choice: the Ring must be destroyed!" Lord Elrond's words echoed throughout the council, bringing everyone's attention back onto him and the problem that was sitting not five feet away from them all.
Then
something peculiar happened. A dwarf in full amour, still holding his
axe and still wearing his helmet despite being in a sanctuary for
all, stood up with a roar.
"Then what are we waiting for?!"
a gruff voice yelled as Gimli the dwarf brought his axe forward and,
without time for anyone to stop him, he slammed it down on the ring.
There was a loud bang as Gimli was thrown back, his shattered axe
breaking into pieces that flew at the few people unlucky enough to be
to close, forcing them to duck or face harm.
"The
Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli son of Gloin, by any craft that we
here possess," the elf-lord said, rubbing his
head with a bejeweled hand in exasperation. Dwarfs! "The
Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be
unmade." Elrond stopped as gasps spread once
more through the council. Raising his head and dropping his hand, he
continued, "It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back
into the fiery chasm from whence it came....one of you must do this."
With this last statement, he looked out over the council. The only
response he gained was silence, affirming his misgivings and doubts.
"One
does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded
by more than just orcs," Boromir, Steward of
Gondor, had managed to muster up enough courage to speak once again,
pretending to lounge comfortably in his chair as he said, "There
is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is
ever-watchful," as he said "great eye,"
he made a hand gesture of all is fingers against his thumb, creating
a symbolic eye, "It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire
and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous
fume," Boromir looked around at the council, noting that he had
everyone's attention. With a snort that almost turned into a laugh
and throwing his hands down while sitting up straighter, he said,
"Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is
folly."
"Have you heard nothing Lord
Elrond has said? The ring must be destroyed!" The she-elf was now
enraged. How dare this mere human /think/ to question Lord Elrond's
words, better yet say so! All eyes turned once again to the only
female present, but Legolas refused to stand down, even when Boromir
shot her a look of male superiority.
Boromir,
the look of superiority still on his face, stood up and said, "And
what if we fail, what then? What happens when Sauron takes back
what is his?" Legolas shook her head in denial trying not to think
of that and just continued to stare into
Boromir's brown eyes with her blue ones. Boromir drew back, and a
flicker of doubt crossed his eyes as he thought that maybe this
she-elf wasn't so bad after all, she did stand up for what she
believed in, despite the consequences, a trait that Boromir was used
to only finding in the male soldiers under his jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, just as Boromir started to rethink his first
impression about the she-elf, someone interrupted him and Boromir
shoved all thoughts of reform out of his brain, throwing his heated
gaze towards the interrupter.
"And I suppose you think
you're the one to do it?! I will be dead before I see the ring in
the hands of an elf!" Gimli shouted, his affronted statement acting
as the cue for everyone else to start in on an argument. Elves rose
against dwarves, Aragorn and Boromir rose and shouted as well,
joining the melee. Gandalf the Grey, succumbing to his human mind for
once, joined the shouting match as well. Elrond rubbed at his eyes,
shaking his head in dismay and shooting looks of disapproval at his
two sons, Elrohir and Elladan, whose chairs flanked his, as they
attempted to rise and take part of the argument before them, but, at
their father's sharp glare, they planted themselves firmly in their
chairs. They did continue to glare, though, with hate at the dwarfs
and twitch with the adrenalin born of their wanting to join the
dispute. All of these people—men, elves, dwarfs, wizards,
alike—were all seemingly unaware of one Halflings
misery.
Suddenly, a lone voice tried it's hardest to brake
though the battle of words, however unsuccessful it was, "I will
take it," said a small voice, and then again, louder "I will take
it!" Everyone stopped quarrelling and turned to face the one who
spoke, "/I/ will take the Ring to Mordor....though, I do not
know the way." the young Frodo looked around
in fear, hoping to every deity that he knew that he hadn't just
made the biggest mistake of his life. But he wanted adventure, and
what better adventure than this? With one last desperate glance,
Frodo scanned the jumble of council members before him, hopping and
praying that someone would step up and help him.
"I
will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours
to bear." said Gandalf with a smile. At
Frodo's relieved look, Gandalf's smile grew, his long grey hair
picking up in his sudden movement as he strode to stand behind Frodo.
Placing a hand on Frodo's shoulder, he squeezed slightly in
reassurance.
"If, by my life or death, I can protect
you, I will," Aragorn, struck by the
Halflings bravery, made the mental decision to protect this small
person. Walking over to stand in front of Frodo and Gandalf, Aragorn
got to one knee, placed the closed fist of his right hand over his
heart and said, "You have my sword." A moment of silence passed
before he stood and took his place beside Gandalf and behind
Frodo.
Waiting only a second, Legolas, also awed by the small
Halfling, said "And you have my bow," and strode over to stand by
Aragorn, and, looking down at the Halfling's piercing blue eyes
that were trained onto her, she smiled, relieved when the smile was
returned. She gave his shoulder a squeeze as well, shooting a glance
out of her eye at Aragorn, who had not turned his head when she moved
to stand by him. With a frown at him not noticing her, Legolas shook
off the disappointment she didn't understand and found that her
gaze had landed on the man of Gondor. It was true that he seemed a
little stubborn and bigoted, but he was certainly handsome, and
Legolas was sure that if they got to know each other, he would turn
out to be as nice as every other man.
Legolas's mental
musings were stopped as she heard the dwarf (Gimli as Lord Elrond had
called him) say, "And my axe," while grabbing his neighbors axe
that had been leaning up against a chair next to him, and raising it
towards Frodo before joining the growing number of people, purposely
picking a spot next to the she-elf so that he could shoot her a look
of smug satisfaction. With a responding sneer at the dwarf, Legolas
turned her attention back to Boromir as the man once again
spoke.
"You carry the fate of us all, little one. If this is
indeed the will of the Council....then Gondor will see it done."
with that, Boromir also took his place among the group, next to
Gimli. Legolas couldn't help the blush that came to her face as he
caught her following him with her eyes. Arching an eyebrow, Boromir
couldn't understand what the she-elf was looking at. Sure, he was
okay looking for a human, but he wouldn't even presume that he
would catch the eye of such a beautiful and fiery she-elf. With a
shrug, Boromir dismissed the behavior as something of elves, and
resolved to try and understand this female—elf or otherwise—that
dared to challenge him, a male, so many times in one council.
"No, indeed. It is hardly possible to separate you, even when he is summoned to a secret council, and you are not." Lord Elrond stated, raising an eyebrow at Sam who blushed under the inquiry of all of the council's eyes.
"Aye, we're coming too!" A voice yelled. Spinning around in astonishment, Elrond turned a shockingly confused look onto the two brown shapes that hurled themselves from the doorway of the outside parapet, forming into two small bodies of hobbits as they slowed down enough to stop and stand by Sam and Frodo.
Smoothing down his clothes, one hobbit, Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry for short), said "You'll have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us," and emphasized his point by making the motions with his hands.
The last hobbit, known to most as Pippin, and known to others as Peregrin Took, felt left out, and tried to add something, too. Unfortunately, he was tired still from the traveling beforehand and all he could come up with was, "Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission...quest...thing."
"Well that rules you out Pip." Merry said, poking poor Pippin in the side. Pippin glared at his cousin out of the corner of his eye, folding his hands on his chest.
Elrond stifled laughter at the two small one's antics and looked at all the assembled before him, "Nine companions... So be it. You shall be known as The Fellowship of the Ring!" and with that last statement, the newly proclaimed fellowship looked at each other, some sharing looks of newly blossoming friendship.
And
as the council looked on in awe at the nine figures, the smallest,
Pippin said, "Right...where are we going?"
A/N:
I know that nothing really happened in this chapter, but I needed to
get the council over with. The next chapter will start right after
they start out. I will get more indebt to the characters then. Thank
you all for reading! Remember, if you know/think I did any lines
wrong, please tell me so that I can change it!! Thank you again to my
reviewers!! I'll post some more chapters on the other stories
soon!!! Thank you!!!
A special thank you to MeShelly, again,
who was kind enough to 'beta-read' it for me in her review. Thank
you for doing that!!!!!!
A very, very big special thank you to Saranguile Greenleaf who also corrected some of the mistakes that I made when I typed this out. Thank you!!! Thank you also for reading this and correcting my mistakes!! Thank you!!!!
2nd A/N: Okay then. That was a whole lot more description based then it used to be. I hope It's still easy to follow, and all, but hey, I got interrupted like fifty times by phone calls and lost my train of thought every single time it happened. Review please! Thanx. Halloween dress up at school today. Two of my friends dressed up as elves, one as (male) Legolas and the other as Arwen. I dressed up with my friends and we did Harry Potter (numerous shouts of "Traitor!" are heard as author runs for cover) and I dressed up as Sirius Black (shouts turn into silence as everyone realizes that Sirius rules) and I'm going Trick or Treating with three of my friends. That's right, I'm 15 years old and I'm going to prance about in a costume and go door to door begging for scraps of candy with three of my also 15 year old friends. I mean, hey, you're never to old to have fun. Right? Right.