Disclaimer: You know the drill. Tolkien with LOTR. Me with everything
else.
I STAND ALONE
"Red eyes equals..." pondered Naurglahad aloud as she and the whole lot of dwarves and two elves dashed away from their campsite, still leaving the fire to burn.
"A monster that probably wants to eat us!" cried Elenwe. They leapt over a black boulder and shortly slid down a little hill.
"But what kind of monster?" She snatched a sharp stone that was laying on the ground as she ran, and rubbed the sharp edge with her thumb. "What lives in the Misty Mountains?"
"No one really knows," said Legolas, getting the idea and also snagging another rock, "But we can hope that it's eyes are a weak point!"
He and Naurglahad spun around simultaneously and thrust their stones at two enormous red orbs that were bobbing swiftly behind them. The stones hit both eyes as the beast shrieked in agony and withdrew into the darkness. The dwarves stopped running and turned around. Naurglahad was grinning as Legolas wiped his brow.
"Well," Naurglahad sighed, lifting herself up on another boulder, "That was easy." Legolas smiled and nodded as he turned back to face the dark. He paled. Naurglahad turned.
Thousands of red eyes, the same size as the previous began popping out of nowhere. They each blinked at different times and adjusted their lids. Each red eye was fixed on every individual as well as it's surroundings. There was a blank spot where the two other eyes used to be. All was completely silent in fear.
Someone screamed. Another dwarf screamed. The elves screamed. Naurglahad screamed. Everyone screamed. The beast roared so loudly that bits of debris fell from the wall. The roar was so powerful, that it had conjured a short blast of wind. Everyone was silenced by it. The eyes blinked. No one moved. No one breathed. The water from the cave ceiling stopped dripping. You couldn't hear anything.
Then, a minute, insignificant pebble crumbled from a very distant cave wall some two miles away from them. Everyone could clearly hear it collide with the surface with a ear breaking screech, smash onto another boulder, crash on a next, roll a thunderstorm down its side, explode in two with a massive explosive sound on the floor, flip through a crack that was barely a centimeter wide, and zooming down like a rocket launching to Pluto. The half pebble, which was probably only visible to see through a microscope, flung down the vertical passage, and landed with a soft butterfly plink on the cave roof.
The roof cracked.
An intricate design of breaks and dents formed a line around the eyes and the area around it. Dust started pouring from the cracks.
CRACK! There was a whistle. THUD!
A large rock had fallen directly on the beast. A single, spider like, hairy leg stuck out at them, aimed to strike them. It twitched uncomfortably for a few minutes before slowly dying away. It stopped moving. It was dead. Everyone stood in the exact same positions that they were ten minutes ago, standing straight up with heads turned into the darkness.
Some random dwarf's jaw dropped and said, "Wooooooooowwww..."
All was silent again for three seconds. Then, "A...Aha...heh heh...HA! HA! HA! HEEHAHAHAHA!" Naurglahad burst out laughing hysterically. She clutched her stomach and staggered, bending over. Eventually, she fell over on the ground, kicking and screaming with laughter. Everyone stared down at her. She was turning red from it all, now rolling over, back and forth. "HA! Heh heh...HAHA! Oohh, ha!...Oh my god." She fainted.
"Well," sighed Legolas, picking Naurglahad up and turning to the crowd, "That was exciting.... Let's move on."
~*~
"What is that in the distance?" asked Malin, pointing out in between the trees of the Golden Wood. Elenwe and Legolas with their hawk like eyes peered through the light of the mallorn trees. Naurglahad, who had recovered five seconds after Legolas had carried her away, nearly kicking his face in the process, leapt off the grass covered hill they were standing on and clung onto the nearest tree. She too gazed into the light with squinted eyes.
"They are singing merrily," said a dwarf, putting his ear forward.
"They look a bit short," said Elenwe, withdrawing his neck. Legolas nodded in agreement.
"And they smell a bit like..." said Naurglahad slowly, sniffing the air. "Mushrooms." Her eyes widened happily, "These'll be Hobbits!"
"All the way out here in the Wood?" gasped Gimli, watching Legolas send a little finch Naurglahad had found to greet their fellows, "I'll bet those are all Tooks, with their taste for adventure!*"
Naurglahad nodded and attempted to leap off the tree, but something sharp had grabbed her neck.
"Dammit!" she started coughing and hacking a bit. A couple people turned. Naurglahad looked as if she were choking. "Frickin' thing..." she cursed inwardly, adjusting the invisible chain around her neck. It must have caught onto one of the sprouting tree branches. When the choking stopped, she carefully leapt from her position on the tree. Everyone was staring at her. "Heh heh...got...prodded by a tree branch...yeah..."
To reinforce Narcisuss never coming into memory, Onikunshu had invented an invisible chain that divided Naurglahad's genetic appearance. When she wore the chain, she looked like her mother's daughter, and could pass through a commoners town without immediately being recognized as a Ryunarasu. When the chain was off, she was her father's daughter with the identical characteristics of every Ryunarasu. She could only become a dragon as a Ryunarasu.
Legolas and Elenwe raised an eyebrow. As wood elves, they knew that you couldn't choke from being poked by a branch, but they figured that it must be another weakness that mortals have.
"We'll keep moving!" commanded Gimli, "Celeborn should be waiting for us ahead!"
~*~
"Greetings! Greetings!" announced Celeborn after the dwarves, hobbits, elves, and mortal had come deep enough in the Wood, "Thank you all for coming! I suppose that all of you must be wondering why I have summoned you." Several heads in the wide crowd nodded, "Our Lady Galadriel will be departing for the Havens very soon, and requests that she could see you all before she left. Galadriel herself would have traveled around Arda to come to you, but she has an extreme desire to not part with her Mirror. I am confident that you will enjoy your stay, and will make my Lady pleased."
Then, he clapped his hands twice. A troop of elves popped out of the trees, and guided the crowds in groups through the forest and to the guest trees and grounds**. Celeborn made his way through the crowd toward Legolas, Elenwe, and Naurglahad as their dwarf companions were lead away. They bowed before him as he returned it.
"I suppose these are your two followers?" he inquired, eyeing Naurglahad and Elenwe. Legolas nodded.
"They are accompanying me on a quest." Legolas replied, "If we are unsuccessful in this fair elven city, we shall head south west to the sea elves."
There was a concerned glint in Celeborn's eyes for a moment, but it faded instantly. "I have not informed any of our maidens of the true purpose of your expedition. I figured it would settle them down a bit, hearing from Lord Elrond in Imladris..." Naurglahad grinned and crossed her arms, "And it will lower the pressure rate on your shoulders."
"Thank you, sir."
Then, they were also lead away by an elf servant. Naurglahad turned to Elenwe and Legolas.
"Does this mean I get to crash another party?" she asked excitedly.
~~~~~
*In The Hobbit, Tooks were supposed to be the adventurous people, so I put that there.
**The Lorien Elves don't live on the ground. They live in trees, but hobbits and dwarves can't really climb trees, so...yeah...they can sleep on the ground....yip.
I STAND ALONE
"Red eyes equals..." pondered Naurglahad aloud as she and the whole lot of dwarves and two elves dashed away from their campsite, still leaving the fire to burn.
"A monster that probably wants to eat us!" cried Elenwe. They leapt over a black boulder and shortly slid down a little hill.
"But what kind of monster?" She snatched a sharp stone that was laying on the ground as she ran, and rubbed the sharp edge with her thumb. "What lives in the Misty Mountains?"
"No one really knows," said Legolas, getting the idea and also snagging another rock, "But we can hope that it's eyes are a weak point!"
He and Naurglahad spun around simultaneously and thrust their stones at two enormous red orbs that were bobbing swiftly behind them. The stones hit both eyes as the beast shrieked in agony and withdrew into the darkness. The dwarves stopped running and turned around. Naurglahad was grinning as Legolas wiped his brow.
"Well," Naurglahad sighed, lifting herself up on another boulder, "That was easy." Legolas smiled and nodded as he turned back to face the dark. He paled. Naurglahad turned.
Thousands of red eyes, the same size as the previous began popping out of nowhere. They each blinked at different times and adjusted their lids. Each red eye was fixed on every individual as well as it's surroundings. There was a blank spot where the two other eyes used to be. All was completely silent in fear.
Someone screamed. Another dwarf screamed. The elves screamed. Naurglahad screamed. Everyone screamed. The beast roared so loudly that bits of debris fell from the wall. The roar was so powerful, that it had conjured a short blast of wind. Everyone was silenced by it. The eyes blinked. No one moved. No one breathed. The water from the cave ceiling stopped dripping. You couldn't hear anything.
Then, a minute, insignificant pebble crumbled from a very distant cave wall some two miles away from them. Everyone could clearly hear it collide with the surface with a ear breaking screech, smash onto another boulder, crash on a next, roll a thunderstorm down its side, explode in two with a massive explosive sound on the floor, flip through a crack that was barely a centimeter wide, and zooming down like a rocket launching to Pluto. The half pebble, which was probably only visible to see through a microscope, flung down the vertical passage, and landed with a soft butterfly plink on the cave roof.
The roof cracked.
An intricate design of breaks and dents formed a line around the eyes and the area around it. Dust started pouring from the cracks.
CRACK! There was a whistle. THUD!
A large rock had fallen directly on the beast. A single, spider like, hairy leg stuck out at them, aimed to strike them. It twitched uncomfortably for a few minutes before slowly dying away. It stopped moving. It was dead. Everyone stood in the exact same positions that they were ten minutes ago, standing straight up with heads turned into the darkness.
Some random dwarf's jaw dropped and said, "Wooooooooowwww..."
All was silent again for three seconds. Then, "A...Aha...heh heh...HA! HA! HA! HEEHAHAHAHA!" Naurglahad burst out laughing hysterically. She clutched her stomach and staggered, bending over. Eventually, she fell over on the ground, kicking and screaming with laughter. Everyone stared down at her. She was turning red from it all, now rolling over, back and forth. "HA! Heh heh...HAHA! Oohh, ha!...Oh my god." She fainted.
"Well," sighed Legolas, picking Naurglahad up and turning to the crowd, "That was exciting.... Let's move on."
~*~
"What is that in the distance?" asked Malin, pointing out in between the trees of the Golden Wood. Elenwe and Legolas with their hawk like eyes peered through the light of the mallorn trees. Naurglahad, who had recovered five seconds after Legolas had carried her away, nearly kicking his face in the process, leapt off the grass covered hill they were standing on and clung onto the nearest tree. She too gazed into the light with squinted eyes.
"They are singing merrily," said a dwarf, putting his ear forward.
"They look a bit short," said Elenwe, withdrawing his neck. Legolas nodded in agreement.
"And they smell a bit like..." said Naurglahad slowly, sniffing the air. "Mushrooms." Her eyes widened happily, "These'll be Hobbits!"
"All the way out here in the Wood?" gasped Gimli, watching Legolas send a little finch Naurglahad had found to greet their fellows, "I'll bet those are all Tooks, with their taste for adventure!*"
Naurglahad nodded and attempted to leap off the tree, but something sharp had grabbed her neck.
"Dammit!" she started coughing and hacking a bit. A couple people turned. Naurglahad looked as if she were choking. "Frickin' thing..." she cursed inwardly, adjusting the invisible chain around her neck. It must have caught onto one of the sprouting tree branches. When the choking stopped, she carefully leapt from her position on the tree. Everyone was staring at her. "Heh heh...got...prodded by a tree branch...yeah..."
To reinforce Narcisuss never coming into memory, Onikunshu had invented an invisible chain that divided Naurglahad's genetic appearance. When she wore the chain, she looked like her mother's daughter, and could pass through a commoners town without immediately being recognized as a Ryunarasu. When the chain was off, she was her father's daughter with the identical characteristics of every Ryunarasu. She could only become a dragon as a Ryunarasu.
Legolas and Elenwe raised an eyebrow. As wood elves, they knew that you couldn't choke from being poked by a branch, but they figured that it must be another weakness that mortals have.
"We'll keep moving!" commanded Gimli, "Celeborn should be waiting for us ahead!"
~*~
"Greetings! Greetings!" announced Celeborn after the dwarves, hobbits, elves, and mortal had come deep enough in the Wood, "Thank you all for coming! I suppose that all of you must be wondering why I have summoned you." Several heads in the wide crowd nodded, "Our Lady Galadriel will be departing for the Havens very soon, and requests that she could see you all before she left. Galadriel herself would have traveled around Arda to come to you, but she has an extreme desire to not part with her Mirror. I am confident that you will enjoy your stay, and will make my Lady pleased."
Then, he clapped his hands twice. A troop of elves popped out of the trees, and guided the crowds in groups through the forest and to the guest trees and grounds**. Celeborn made his way through the crowd toward Legolas, Elenwe, and Naurglahad as their dwarf companions were lead away. They bowed before him as he returned it.
"I suppose these are your two followers?" he inquired, eyeing Naurglahad and Elenwe. Legolas nodded.
"They are accompanying me on a quest." Legolas replied, "If we are unsuccessful in this fair elven city, we shall head south west to the sea elves."
There was a concerned glint in Celeborn's eyes for a moment, but it faded instantly. "I have not informed any of our maidens of the true purpose of your expedition. I figured it would settle them down a bit, hearing from Lord Elrond in Imladris..." Naurglahad grinned and crossed her arms, "And it will lower the pressure rate on your shoulders."
"Thank you, sir."
Then, they were also lead away by an elf servant. Naurglahad turned to Elenwe and Legolas.
"Does this mean I get to crash another party?" she asked excitedly.
~~~~~
*In The Hobbit, Tooks were supposed to be the adventurous people, so I put that there.
**The Lorien Elves don't live on the ground. They live in trees, but hobbits and dwarves can't really climb trees, so...yeah...they can sleep on the ground....yip.