Camille looked up at the eaves of Fangorn forest. Looks pretty creepy…but then again, kind of familiar. She had been having "fuzzy feelings" about Fangorn that grew stronger and stronger the closer they got to the place, but she couldn't really understand WHY she would be having them. Is there something I'm missing here? If so, then I really don't get it. And now that they were IN it, well…the "fuzzy feelings" had faded away somewhat, and were now replaced by a feeling of familiarity and, oddly enough, welcome. Why does it feel like I shouldn't be scared of this place at all?
"My very bones are chilled," Gimli muttered, flapping his arms and stamping his feet.
Camille didn't bother herself with looking at him. "You shouldn't be, you know. Afraid, I mean."
The Dwarf snorted as he approached her then. "It is easy for you to speak such words; you are like the Elf: you prefer woods and open spaces more than the so-called 'dreariness' of Moria. You do not see the sheer magnificence of it, lass!"
"Oh, but I do," Camille said with a smile. "Only problem is, it would've had a better effect on me if it weren't so dark and if there were no Balrogs and Orcs breathing down my neck." She stopped when she felt the tension in the air slowly growing thicker and thicker. She coughed a little. "Is it just me, or is it getting stuffier the further in we go?"
"Indeed," nodded Gimli. "This wood is lighter than Mirkwood, but it is musty and shabby."
"It is old, very old," said Legolas. "So old that I almost feel young again, as I have not felt since I journeyed with you children. It is old and full of memory. I could have been happy here, if I had come in days of peace."
Camille sighed, leaving the two to their discussion. She approached a tall tree, thick tendrils of Spanish moss hanging from its branches, and placed her hand against the trunk.
Almost instantly, a soft, ancient and weary voice spoke in her head, 'At last, you have returned, My Lady.'
Camille started. What the heck was that?! She looked all around her, trying to find the source of the speaker's voice, but finding none, she realized, to her utter disbelief, that it was coming from the tree. Hesitantly, she asked, 'Who are you?'
'I am Greencrown, an oak tree of Fangorn Forest, and one of the few trees that witnessed the creation of this wood. I know who you are, My Lady. I sense the Power within you.'
'What do you mean, you know me? I don't think I know YOU,' Camille replied.
The leaves of the tree rustled above her, and Camille thought that the tree was actually laughing. 'No, I do not think you know me. You are much younger than our Creator. But I know that you are one of the Summoners, and that you hold the power of the Earth and the Flame within you. We saw the entry of the other Summoner, she who wields the power of Wind and Water, and we knew that she who wields the powers of Earth and Flame would be close by. All the trees of Fangorn rejoice in your arrival! At last, here walks beneath our branches one of those who shall become the Salvation of Middle-Earth!'
Camille shook her head. 'Thank you, but if you saw the other Summoner could you tell me where-'
"Camille!" Aragorn called from several meters ahead of her.
"Uh, I'm coming Aragorn!" Inwardly, though, Camille was ready to tackle the Ranger to the ground and knock him around a bit for interrupting at a crucial moment. Damn it Aragorn, you're SO going to get it from me when this is all over! She turned back to Greencrown, and sighed. 'Sorry, but I have to go now.'
The branches bent forward towards her just a bit, like a bow. 'Very well then, My Lady. There are more urgent matters that require your attention. I have but one request: do tell the Dwarf to watch where he lays his axe!'
Camille giggled. 'Yeah, yeah, I will. Thanks for the information, Greencrown. Bye.' With that she let her hand slide off the rough bark, and she jogged back towards Aragorn, a smile on her face. She no longer felt the oppressive feeling she had a while ago, when she first walked through Fangorn. "Well then, are we going to get moving or what?"
Aragorn was looking at her strangely. "What were you doing there, Camille? Are you ill?"
Camille smiled, and shook her head. "Nah, I'm okay. Just thought I saw something along the banks of the stream." Her grin broadened, and she looked at Gimli. "Oh, and Gimli, could you do me a MAJOR favor and keep that axe of yours away from any trees while we're here?"
Gimli was surprised by this request. "Why would you ask such a thing of me today, when you have not spoken about it before?"
"It's a request from a friend," Camille said, and forced herself not to laugh outright when she saw Gimli's puzzled expression. With that, she walked up to the front with Aragorn, singing random songs to herself, feeling quite at home and safe in Fangorn.
* * *
Legolas watched as Camille jumped lightly over the bend of a tree root that was sticking out of the ground, looking quite like a natural hurdle. She is acting quite oddly today. When they had first entered Fangorn, she had been just as apprehensive as any of them, but now, she was actually smiling and prone to laugh at her own thoughts as they occurred to her. And all the while, she sang a song…
Under a lover's sky
Gonna be with you,
And no one's gonna be around
If you think that you won't fall,
Well just wait until, till the sun goes down
Underneath the starlight, starlight
There's a magical feeling so right
It will steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark
You'll surrender your heart
Don't you know, don't you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
No, you can't fight it
It's gonna get to your heart
There's no escape from love
Once the gentle breeze weaves its spell upon your heart
No matter what you think
It won't be too long till you're in my arms
Underneath the starlight, starlight
We'll be lost in a rhythm so right
Feel it steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark
You'll surrender your heart
Don't you know, don't you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
No, you can't fight it
No matter what you do
The night is gonna get to you
Can't fight it, don't try it
You're never gonna win
'Coz underneath the starlight, starlight
There's a magical feeling so right
It will steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark
You'll surrender your heart
Don't you know, don't you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
No, you can't fight it…
She stopped her singing when their group finally burst through the forest and into a glade. There, in the middle, stood a high rock wall, the sun shining warmly onto it.
Legolas smiled as the stuffy air of Fangorn dissipated from his surroundings. It feels good to see sunlight once more, he thought. Calling to his companions, he said, "Let us go up and look about us! I still feel my breath short. I would like to taste a freer air for a while."
The four of them climbed upwards in a line, with Legolas in front, Camille behind him, Gimli following her, and Aragorn at the rear. The Ranger was moving slowly: he was scanning the steps and ledges closely.
"I am almost sure that the Hobbits have been here," he said. "There are larger footprints as well; I believe them to be Eli's."
Camille turned to him, and there was a smile upon her face. "Really? Good! That means she caught up with them somehow."
Aragorn nodded. "Indeed, and that is a very comforting thought. But there are other marks, very strange marks, which I do not understand. I wonder if we can see anything from this ledge which will help us to guess which way they went next?"
Camille sighed as she slumped onto the flat tree stump that grew on the rock shelf they were now standing on. "You know, I think we just took the roundabout route to get here. If my memory of the maps is correct, if we left the Anduin around two or three days after we left Lothlorien and gone west, we could've gotten here, all safe and sound."
Legolas sighed, for he knew that Camille was right. "Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come at its end."
"But we did not wish to come to Fangorn," Gimli said.
"Nope, we didn't. But here we are, and very deep in it, I might add," Camille said with a resigned sigh. Suddenly, she jerked up, and jumped off her seat on the tree stump, standing beside Aragorn close to the ledge of the shelf. She peered into the trees. "Is it just me, or did I just see someone walking between the trees?"
What? Legolas focused his keen eyes into the forest that lay eastward, and after a while of looking, noticed something that appeared to be an old man dressed in tattered gray rags, leaning on a rough staff. His head was bowed, and he did not look at them.
Gimli gazed with wide eyes for a while, as step by step the figure drew nearer. Then suddenly, unable to contain himself any longer, he burst out: "Your bows, Legolas, Camille! Bend them! Get ready! It is Saruman. Do not let him speak, or put a spell upon us! Shoot him!"
Camille shook her head at Gimli. "No, wait, don't do that." She peered at the old man more closely, eyes narrowing. "I don't know, but the old man's aura…it doesn't feel like Saruman's would. It feels more like…like…"
"Like whose?" Legolas asked as he turned to Camille. Their eyes met, and in an instant, he knew immediately just whom she had in mind. Gandalf?! He shook his head. No, that is impossible. Gandalf fell into Shadow in Moria…no one, not even an Elf, could survive that…
By now the old man had drawn closer to the hill, and was looking up at them. All four were still and silent.
At last, the old man broke the silence. "Well met indeed, my friends," he said softly. "I wish to speak to you. Will you come down, or shall I come up?" Without another word, he began to climb.
"Now!" cried Gimli. "Stop him, Camille, Legolas! Camille, the earth is at your bidding, is it not?! Use that power now!"
"Did I not say that I wished to speak to you?" said the old man. "Be at ease, Master Elf!"
Legolas relaxed then, almost unwillingly, and his arms hung loose at his sides.
"And you, Master Dwarf, pray take your hand from your axe-haft, till I am up! You will not need such arguments."
Legolas felt his eyes narrow involuntarily, watching as the old man sprang up the stone steps as nimbly as a goat. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Camille's body was tensed slightly, but not too much. Her posture was one of wariness, but not one of complete suspicion.
"Well met I say again," said the old man, coming towards them. When he was a few feet away, he stood, stooping over his staff, with his head thrust forward, peering at them from under his hood. "And what may you be doing in these parts? An Elf, a Man, a Dwarf, and a maiden who looks like an Elf, all clad in Elvish fashion. No doubt there is a tale worth hearing behind it all. Such things are not often seen here."
"You speak as one that knows Fangorn well," said Aragorn. "Is that so?"
"Not well," replied the old man: "that would be the study of many lives. But I come here now and again."
"Might we know your name, and then hear what it is you have to say to us?" said Aragorn. "The morning passes, and we have an errand that will not wait."
"As for what I have wished to say, I have said it: What may you be doing, and what tale can you tell of yourselves? As for my name!" He broke off, laughing long and softly. When he did so Legolas felt a chill go through him, not out of fear, but strangely enough, out of familiarity.
"My name!" said the old man again. "Have you not guessed it already? You have heard it before, I think. Yes, you HAVE heard it before. But come now, what of your tale?"
The four companions stood silent and made no answer.
"There are some who would begin to doubt whether your errand is fit to tell," said the old man. "Happily I know something about it. You are tracking the footsteps of a young maiden, and of two young Hobbits. Yes, Hobbits. Don't stare as if you had never heard the strange name before. You have, and so have I. Well, they climbed up here the day before yesterday; and they met someone that they did not expect. Does that comfort you? And now you would like to know where they were taken? Well, well, maybe I can give you some news about that. But why are we standing? Your errand, you see, is no longer as urgent as you thought. Let us sit down and be more at ease."
The old man turned away and went towards a heap of fallen stones and rock at the foot of the cliff behind. Immediately, as if a spell had been broken, three of the four companions stirred. Gimli's hand went at once to his axe-haft. Aragorn drew his sword. Legolas picked up his bow. Only Camille didn't seem to stir at all. She continued to stare at the old man, and though she seemed frozen, her eyes betrayed her emotions. They were wide with disbelief, and yet, behind that glowed a bright flicker of hope.
The old man took no notice, but stooped and sat himself on a low flat stone. Then his gray cloak drew apart, and they saw, beyond doubt, that he was clothed beneath all in white.
"Saruman!" cried Gimli, springing towards him with axe in hand. "Speak! Tell us where you have hidden our friends! What have you done with them? Speak, or I will make a dint in your hat that even a wizard will find it hard to deal with!"
Suddenly, Camille screamed, "GIMLI!!! DON'T!!!" Immediately she sprang from her frozen position of moments ago, and stood between the old man and Gimli's axe blade. "Gimli!! Don't touch him!! Jeez, can't you see?!?! CAN'T YOU SEE WHO THIS PERSON REALLY IS?!?!?!"
Legolas stared at Camille, wide-eyed. "Camille, why are you doing this?!"
"I know what I'm doing!" she answered. She looked at them pleadingly. "Don't you recognize him?! Aragorn? Legolas?! IT'S GANDALF!!! This old man is actually GANDALF!!"
* * *
Camille stared at her companions, at their skeptical and
suspicious looks. They think that I've fallen under some sort of spell. She
shook her head. "Come ON you guys! Look at him more closely!!! And didn't you
hear the tone of his voice? This is Gandalf we're talking to here!"
There was melodious laughter from the bottom of the hill, and all of them looked down. There, they saw Eli grinning up at them, her hazel eyes twinkling merrily in the morning light that streamed down from the gap in the forest canopy. "About time you figured it out!" she exclaimed as she started to climb up the steps towards them. "I was all for going up here and smacking each and every one of you upside on the heads to wake you up!! Good thing Camille figured everything out in the end."
You've just GOT to be kidding me! "Eli!" Camille ran to greet her friend, and climbed back up with her, their arms looped together in true friendship. "Why didn't you come up here with Gandalf?!"
Eli shrugged in that characteristic nonchalant manner that was her trademark. "He told me to wait in the trees until at least one of you figured out who he was, or he revealed himself to you. Said he wanted to surprise you."
"Gandalf!!!" Camille cried as she launched herself at the old wizard, who was now watching them all, eyes gleaming with good cheer and joy. "Why did you have to TORTURE us like that?! If I hadn't managed to figure everything out sooner then maybe Gimli would have hacked you to itty-bitty pieces!!"
Gandalf laughed then, and hugged her with paternal affection, pulling her up against his snow-white robes. "I have missed you sorely, my dear Camille," he told her in the genuine Gandalf manner. "Wandering is so very boring without your laughter and banter to lighten up the mood! Especially when you and Eli bicker."
Camille giggled happily, and swiped out the tears of happiness that had come into her eyes. She looked at Gandalf, smiling. "I'm so happy that you're alive, Gandalf."
"Well now, that is perhaps the best greeting I can get!" Gandalf exclaimed as he tweaked her on the tip of her nose as though she was a little girl. After he did so, he turned, and walked over to Gimli, who was on his knees and had his eyes lowered. "Get up, Gimli! No blame to you, and no harm done to me. Indeed my friends, none of you have a weapon that could hurt me, save for the magic of the Summoners, but I dare say they will not use it against me. Be merry! We meet again. At the turn of the tide. The great storm is coming, but the tide has turned."
He laid his hand on Gimli's head, and the Dwarf looked up and laughed suddenly. "Gandalf!" he said. "But you are all in white!"
"Yes, I am white now," said Gandalf. "Indeed, I AM Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been. But come now, tell me of yourselves! I have heard Eli's tale already, so I would like to hear yours. I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much of that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see. Tell me of yourselves!"
"What do you wish to know?" said Aragorn. "All that has happened since we parted on the bridge would be a long tale. Will you not first give us news of the Hobbits? Did you find them, and are they safe?"
"No, I did not find them," said Gandalf. "There was a darkness over the valleys of Emyn Muil, and I did not know of their captivity, until the eagle told me."
Camille was puzzled. Eagle? After a moment of thought, she remembered that during their hunt, Legolas had spotted an eagle flying high above them, too high for her eyes to see. Maybe he meant that?
"Yes," said Gandalf, responding to Legolas' question as to the identity of the eagle they saw. "That was Gwaihir the Windlord, who rescued me from Orthanc. I sent him before me to watch the River and gather tidings. His sight is keen, but he cannot see all that passes under hill and tree. Some things he has seen, and some I have seen myself. The Ring now has passed beyond my help, or the help of any of the Company that set out from Rivendell. Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it escaped. I had some part in that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower, and the Shadow passed. Though I was weary, very weary, and I walked long in dark thought."
"Then you know about Frodo!" said Gimli. "How do things go with him?"
"I cannot say. He was saved from a great peril, but many lie before him still. He resolved to go alone to Mordor, and he set out: that is all that I can say."
"Not alone," said Legolas. "We think that Sam went with him."
"Did he!" said Gandalf, and there was a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face. "Did he indeed? It is news to me, yet it does not surprise me. Good! Very good! You lighten my heart. You must tell me more. Now sit by me and tell me the tale of your journey."
The companions and Eli sat on the ground at his feet, and Aragorn took up the tale, but leaving out – at least for the meantime – what Boromir said about Camille. When he was through, it was Eli's turn, telling them all of what had transpired while she went chasing after Merry and Pippin. She told them that they were very much alive, thankfully, and were being cared for by an old Ent named Treebeard. Apparently this was good, as Treebeard was an old friend of Gandalf's. Then Gandalf told them about what happened to him after he fell, how he and the Balrog strove for mastery, and how he had discovered the Endless Stairs of Moria that led from the lowest dungeon all the way up to the highest peaks of the mountains.
As he drew near to the end of his tale, Gandalf suddenly looked up. "Ah yes, I remember something now. The Lady Galadriel has requested that I send messages to you. To Aragorn I was bidden to say this:
"Where now are the Dunedain, Elessar, Elessar?
Why do thy kinsfolk wander afar?
Near is the hour when the Lost should come forth,
And the Gray Company ride from the North.
But dark is the path appointed for thee:
The Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.
"To Legolas she sent this word:
"Legolas Greenleaf long under tree
In joy thou hast lived. Beware of the Sea!
If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore,
Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more.
Gandalf fell silent and shut his eyes.
"Then she sent me no message?" said Gimli, and bent his head.
"Dark are her words," said Legolas, "and little do they mean to those who receive them."
Eli shrugged. "No news is good news, like we say back home."
Gimli glared at the two of them. "That is no comfort."
Camille grinned teasingly at the Dwarf. "So what do you want her to tell you: that you're going to die the minute you receive the message?"
"What is that?" said Gandalf, opening his eyes. "Yes, I think I can guess what her words mean. Your pardon Gimli, I was pondering the messages once again. But indeed she sent words to you, and neither dark nor sad: 'To Gimli son of Gloin,' she said, 'give his Lady's greeting. Lockbearer, wherever thou goest my thought goes with thee. But have a care to lay thine axe to the right tree!'."
"In happy hour you have returned to us, Gandalf!" cried the Dwarf, capering as he sang loudly in the strange dwarf-tongue. "Come, come!" he shouted, swinging his axe. "Since Gandalf's head is now sacred, let us find one that is right to cleave!"
"That will not be far to seek," said Gandalf, rising from his seat. "Come! We have spent all that is allowed to a meeting of parted friends. Now there is need of haste."
Camille smirked. "How are we going to 'go in haste', as you often like to say it, if we don't have horses? And I as sure as hell don't know how we're going to get ANYWHERE quick without them."
Eli snickered. "You ain't got to worry your pretty little head about them." She whistled thrice, and almost immediately, Camille could hear the galloping of horses over the plains. In minutes, not one, but FIVE horses came up towards them. One of them, Camille realized, was Blackwing.
She turned to Eli. How the heck did she find Blackwing?! She remembered that during one night, before they entered Fangorn, a strange figure that they suspected to be Saruman took away their horses. As she petted Blackwing's nose, she said, "Eli, how?"
Her best friend shrugged as they mounted their horses. "Gandalf said he found them wandering around with Shadowfax." She cocked an eyebrow upwards. "Aragorn mentioned something about Saruman spooking your horses. I guess they found Shadowfax at one point, and since he's their leader and all, decided to follow him everywhere he went, even when Gandalf called him."
Camille sighed. Gandalf leaned down to Shadowfax's ear, and they set off at a good pace. The other horses didn't need any signal or encouragement to follow; they started out willingly the moment Shadowfax started off.
"He is steering a straight course now for the halls of Theoden under the slopes of the White Mountain," said Gandalf. "It will be quicker so. The ground is firmer in the Eastemnet, where the chief northward track lies, across the river, but Shadowfax knows the way through every fen and hollow."
Thus they rode through the meads and river-lands. The ground was littered with many treacherous holes and bogs, but Shadowfax seemed to know the location of each, and led all of them through. In some places the grass was so high that it brushed the riders' knees, and the horses seemed to be swimming through an ocean of green. Slowly the sun fell from the sky down into the West. Looking out over the great plain, far away the riders saw it for a moment like a red fire sinking into the grass. Low upon the edge of sight shoulders of the mountains glinted red upon either side. A smoke seemed to rise up and darken the sun's disc to the hue of blood, as if it had kindled the grass as it passed down to the rim of the earth.
"There lies the Gap of Rohan," said Gandalf. "It is now almost due west of us. That way lies Isengard."
"I see a great smoke," said Legolas. "What may that be?"
"Battle and war!" said Gandalf. "Ride on!"
Camille felt a deep uneasiness settle on her when Gandalf said the words "battle and war". Why is it that when he says that, I feel like I'm not going to come out of it alive?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Phew, done with this chapter at last. This was pretty hard to do, honestly it was. But hey, I like the way this story's been going thus far, and the promise that the ending has is good enough to drive me and to push me forwards. But as to WHAT kind of ending, and HOW it will go, I will leave to you readers to discover. Oh yeah, and the song up there is entitled "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by LeAnn Rimes, which I lifted off the "Coyote Ugly" soundtrack. Anyway, next up, the riders reach Edoras and Meduseld, the Hall of Theoden King of Rohan. The name of the Summoners shall be revealed to Grima Wormtongue, spy of Saruman, and he shall know their wrath. In other words, watch in awe and amazement as Camille and Eli show Wormtongue what an ANGRY Summoner can do! You thought their blowing up at Rivendell was good? Hah! This one's even better; especially if you consider the fact that they're close to the height of their powers. Ciao!!