Chapter fourteen
A gentle breeze fluttered through the lilac and apple trees, sending a shower of soft-petaled blossoms falling to the ground. Lis sat quietly on a small stone bench, her notebook open in her lap. A soft slant of sunlight cut through a nearby tree, perfectly illuminating her textbook so that she could do her homework. After a sleep filled day following the council, Lis was ushered to her first official day of school. She had to admit it was much easier knowing that the Fellowship were going to be her classmates, but talk of Mr. Grey, Gandalf as the kids called him, intrigued her. She was pleasantly suprized to find that Mr. Grey was a displaced hippie. With longish, slightly silvering hair, and laid back beachwear (complete with flip-flops) he seemed to be the perfect teacher, and Lis was being to look forward to three more years of advanced calculus, among other things, with something near excitement.
However, Gandalf had saddled them with a poetry assignment the first day of class. And even though Lis had always loved an excuse to write out-of- doors, she hated turning in poems as assignments. In front of her lay a copy of Shakespeare's "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," Lis's favorite sonnet. She mused over it for a while as one of Rivendell's infamous breezes blew up out of no where, gently rustling her textbook's pages. Lis slapped her textbook close and let her notebook lay on top of it, hoping to discourage any sudden flights of notebook paper.
Lis stood up and stretched, reaching her arms behind her, letting her back arch like a cat's into the clear blue beyond. She breathed. The air outside was almost intoxicating. It was days like these that made Lis realize why Drili never liked being indoors.
After Gandalf had let class out for the afternoon, telling them to, "Create. Stretch your limits. I challenge you to go to the dark places," they all dispersed, even Lee and Frodo, leaving Lis to her own devices. So, Lis wandered about for a while, making sure to stray from the paths whenever she could. She no longer worried about being lost. Someone would be sure to find her if she was needed, of that she was sure.
Her feet had strayed particularly far from the path before she noticed the smallish garden, filled with cherry and apple tree's both in deliciously full springtime bloom. Lilac trees and a dozen rose bushes dotted the clearing as well, and the vibrant green of the grass added to the floral tapestry of colors. Lis was pleased, to say the least.
But the beauty of her surroundings wasn't helping her write at all. After an hour of musing all she had managed to come up with was a page full of scribbles and doodles, mostly of elf ears and arrows, though she wasn't at all sure as to why.
She strolled about the little garden cheerfully, her legs thankful for a stretch. The cherry blossoms, sensitive to the slightest of movements, fell in delicate showers about her shoulders as she passed under a precariously low branch. She laughed, light and carefree, as she twirled girlishly under the fall, her arms spread wide and her eyes closed. The petals felt like a thousand tiny fingers feathering gently against her skin, like a pair of lips brushing gently against her shoulder blades, like Lee…
The thought filled her senses. Everything reminded her of him, the slightest sound, the softest touch, everything. His face flitted through her thoughts as she slept, his long, impeccably graceful body moved silently through her dreams. And with him moved the light. She never saw shadows when he was near, she never felt fear. Home was where he was. For the first time, she felt safe.
Too safe.
As a child, she'd often mused at the calm before the storm, and had even taken the trouble of noting them in her own life. The familial peace she and Ridley had before their parents died, the bliss she had with Sauron before he'd awoken, and right now. She felt at peace, almost too must so, and the slightest hint of a worry began to cloud her thoughts in the waning sunlight of the cherry garden.
"Hello Lis." A nearby voice drawled.
She knew that voice.
Saruman.
She opened her eyes slowly. A tall, gaunt, and sickly thin young man stood before her, long, greasy hair fell about his scrawny shoulders. His face, long and pale, contorted eerily with a twisted smile. He hadn't changed at all.
"Manny, what are you doing here?" she managed, her throat dry, her voice barely a whisper. Her eyes frantically took him in. his clothes hung from his scarecrow like body, tattered and dirty looking, even through the expensive labels. Saruman was the forewarning of shadows yet to come. He always had been, she realized that now. Only now she worried even more. In a serene place like Rivendell, what sort of harm could he do, this waif from Mordor?
"I might ask you the same thing."
"I go here now, I left Mordor…"
"Oh, I knew that. I'm just wondering how it is that I get you alone, without your little friends."
Lis just looked at him her mind racing behind her shocked-calm exterior. Her friends? He knew about them? He must've seen them together, but when? She hadn't been with them all day except during class.
"What are you talking about?
"The others, the Fellowship, I think they're called. Damn. It's near impossible to get you away from them. God bless that fool Gandalf for giving you all an assignment today, else we might not have gotten a chance to talk," He moved from the trunk, his movements slow and studied, that sickening smile never leaving his face. Lis backed up slowly, until the bench hit the back of her knees and she collapsed onto it, shaking. Of course. He had been following her, just like he did a Mordor. Sauron's loyal henchman to the end.
"What do you want?"
"It's not about me, Lissy, it's about Sauron. He misses you. Bad. Man you should hear him go on and on about you. Starting to get a bit annoying, actually. So, I'm here to bring you back. Make the big guy happy, you know."
Lis's heart froze. Going back Mordor was not an option. She couldn't go back. Not now, not ever.
"I'm not going, Manny. I'm staying here."
"Oh, now, I thought you might say that. You always were noble and self-righteous, weren't you? But, the truth of the matter is, Sauron wants you, and if he wants you, he's gonna get you. You might as well just give in and go now."
"You're crazy if you think I'm going back to him."
"And I think you'd be crazy not too."
"Are you threatening me?"
"No. I'm threatening Ridley, technically."
"Ridley…" Of course. She had never thought about Ridley's safety being in danger from any of this. A foolish oversight, to say the least.
"Yea. Perhaps it's a bit underhanded of me,"
"Don't flatter yourself." She bit out.
"Come on, we need to get going. Sauron wants you back tonight."
"I'm not going."
"Either I take you back, or I take back Ridley and Sauron finishes him off. Either way I get paid. But you don't want something like that to happen to your brother, do you?"
"You're disgusting."
"And you're unoriginal." He droned boredly. "Now come on." He lurched foreword and before Lis had a chance to even think, he had her. His spindly, bony fingers clamped around her arm like a vice and he yanked her up off the bench. For such a thin, gangly creature, he was surpassingly strong, and try as she might, she couldn't get away. His other hand he clamped around her mouth as she dragged her through the garden, her heels excitedly kicking up grass and mulch as she all but clawed her way back towards he path. He had both of her arms now in his control, and the dim, nasally sound of his laugh tickled her ear as his hot breath spread down her neck. She shivered, and began o whimper, her muffled cries biting through his sallow skin.
The laughter was suddenly replaced by a biting wail, and Lis was violently let go, leaving her to stumble to the ground in front of her. She looked up, wide-eyed and confused, to see Saruman holding his hand, whimpering. Blood trickled through his fingers, and Lis could now plainly see a blade, sharp and silvery, sticking straight through his hand. She looked around to see where it might have come from, and to no great suprize on her part, saw Lee standing quietly underneath a tree. He was bathe in shadow, but his eyes shone brilliantly with violent anger. Lis had once feared that look from him, now she thanked the heavens for it.
Saruman looked over at him, his face contorted in pain, and made as if to move again, when another knife, drawn and glistening even in the shadows gave him cause to stop.
"You bastard," he bit out, his jaw clenched.
"What do mean," Lee spit out, low and venomously, "I missed."
Saruman's eyes grew wide as he realized he was no longer safe here. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and ran, still holding his bleeding hand to his chest. Lee watched as the figure disappeared behind a building before he let the knife drop from his fingers. Lis saw it lying in the grass, silver and clean, like a sliver of the moon in the ocean.
"Lee, I..." she started, but he held up a hand that shocked her into silence.
"Not now. We have things to discuss."
"Alright," she said uncertainly.
"I'll go call the council..."
"The council? What do you need to call them for?"
"Things just got a bit more complicated, don'tcha think?" Lee all but spat out at her.
"What, you mean Manny?"
"Yes, Manny. Now we all need to talk. I suggest you come along."
Lee stalked off slowly, his shoulders moving gracefully like waves, with each step. He looked like a Neanderthal, he frightened her. She'd never seen him act like this before. And she found she was too tired to go after him. She sat in the grass, dumbstruck, as night fell over Rivendell.
And as midnight struck, ten pairs of feet once again plodded to the Willow Grove.
A gentle breeze fluttered through the lilac and apple trees, sending a shower of soft-petaled blossoms falling to the ground. Lis sat quietly on a small stone bench, her notebook open in her lap. A soft slant of sunlight cut through a nearby tree, perfectly illuminating her textbook so that she could do her homework. After a sleep filled day following the council, Lis was ushered to her first official day of school. She had to admit it was much easier knowing that the Fellowship were going to be her classmates, but talk of Mr. Grey, Gandalf as the kids called him, intrigued her. She was pleasantly suprized to find that Mr. Grey was a displaced hippie. With longish, slightly silvering hair, and laid back beachwear (complete with flip-flops) he seemed to be the perfect teacher, and Lis was being to look forward to three more years of advanced calculus, among other things, with something near excitement.
However, Gandalf had saddled them with a poetry assignment the first day of class. And even though Lis had always loved an excuse to write out-of- doors, she hated turning in poems as assignments. In front of her lay a copy of Shakespeare's "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," Lis's favorite sonnet. She mused over it for a while as one of Rivendell's infamous breezes blew up out of no where, gently rustling her textbook's pages. Lis slapped her textbook close and let her notebook lay on top of it, hoping to discourage any sudden flights of notebook paper.
Lis stood up and stretched, reaching her arms behind her, letting her back arch like a cat's into the clear blue beyond. She breathed. The air outside was almost intoxicating. It was days like these that made Lis realize why Drili never liked being indoors.
After Gandalf had let class out for the afternoon, telling them to, "Create. Stretch your limits. I challenge you to go to the dark places," they all dispersed, even Lee and Frodo, leaving Lis to her own devices. So, Lis wandered about for a while, making sure to stray from the paths whenever she could. She no longer worried about being lost. Someone would be sure to find her if she was needed, of that she was sure.
Her feet had strayed particularly far from the path before she noticed the smallish garden, filled with cherry and apple tree's both in deliciously full springtime bloom. Lilac trees and a dozen rose bushes dotted the clearing as well, and the vibrant green of the grass added to the floral tapestry of colors. Lis was pleased, to say the least.
But the beauty of her surroundings wasn't helping her write at all. After an hour of musing all she had managed to come up with was a page full of scribbles and doodles, mostly of elf ears and arrows, though she wasn't at all sure as to why.
She strolled about the little garden cheerfully, her legs thankful for a stretch. The cherry blossoms, sensitive to the slightest of movements, fell in delicate showers about her shoulders as she passed under a precariously low branch. She laughed, light and carefree, as she twirled girlishly under the fall, her arms spread wide and her eyes closed. The petals felt like a thousand tiny fingers feathering gently against her skin, like a pair of lips brushing gently against her shoulder blades, like Lee…
The thought filled her senses. Everything reminded her of him, the slightest sound, the softest touch, everything. His face flitted through her thoughts as she slept, his long, impeccably graceful body moved silently through her dreams. And with him moved the light. She never saw shadows when he was near, she never felt fear. Home was where he was. For the first time, she felt safe.
Too safe.
As a child, she'd often mused at the calm before the storm, and had even taken the trouble of noting them in her own life. The familial peace she and Ridley had before their parents died, the bliss she had with Sauron before he'd awoken, and right now. She felt at peace, almost too must so, and the slightest hint of a worry began to cloud her thoughts in the waning sunlight of the cherry garden.
"Hello Lis." A nearby voice drawled.
She knew that voice.
Saruman.
She opened her eyes slowly. A tall, gaunt, and sickly thin young man stood before her, long, greasy hair fell about his scrawny shoulders. His face, long and pale, contorted eerily with a twisted smile. He hadn't changed at all.
"Manny, what are you doing here?" she managed, her throat dry, her voice barely a whisper. Her eyes frantically took him in. his clothes hung from his scarecrow like body, tattered and dirty looking, even through the expensive labels. Saruman was the forewarning of shadows yet to come. He always had been, she realized that now. Only now she worried even more. In a serene place like Rivendell, what sort of harm could he do, this waif from Mordor?
"I might ask you the same thing."
"I go here now, I left Mordor…"
"Oh, I knew that. I'm just wondering how it is that I get you alone, without your little friends."
Lis just looked at him her mind racing behind her shocked-calm exterior. Her friends? He knew about them? He must've seen them together, but when? She hadn't been with them all day except during class.
"What are you talking about?
"The others, the Fellowship, I think they're called. Damn. It's near impossible to get you away from them. God bless that fool Gandalf for giving you all an assignment today, else we might not have gotten a chance to talk," He moved from the trunk, his movements slow and studied, that sickening smile never leaving his face. Lis backed up slowly, until the bench hit the back of her knees and she collapsed onto it, shaking. Of course. He had been following her, just like he did a Mordor. Sauron's loyal henchman to the end.
"What do you want?"
"It's not about me, Lissy, it's about Sauron. He misses you. Bad. Man you should hear him go on and on about you. Starting to get a bit annoying, actually. So, I'm here to bring you back. Make the big guy happy, you know."
Lis's heart froze. Going back Mordor was not an option. She couldn't go back. Not now, not ever.
"I'm not going, Manny. I'm staying here."
"Oh, now, I thought you might say that. You always were noble and self-righteous, weren't you? But, the truth of the matter is, Sauron wants you, and if he wants you, he's gonna get you. You might as well just give in and go now."
"You're crazy if you think I'm going back to him."
"And I think you'd be crazy not too."
"Are you threatening me?"
"No. I'm threatening Ridley, technically."
"Ridley…" Of course. She had never thought about Ridley's safety being in danger from any of this. A foolish oversight, to say the least.
"Yea. Perhaps it's a bit underhanded of me,"
"Don't flatter yourself." She bit out.
"Come on, we need to get going. Sauron wants you back tonight."
"I'm not going."
"Either I take you back, or I take back Ridley and Sauron finishes him off. Either way I get paid. But you don't want something like that to happen to your brother, do you?"
"You're disgusting."
"And you're unoriginal." He droned boredly. "Now come on." He lurched foreword and before Lis had a chance to even think, he had her. His spindly, bony fingers clamped around her arm like a vice and he yanked her up off the bench. For such a thin, gangly creature, he was surpassingly strong, and try as she might, she couldn't get away. His other hand he clamped around her mouth as she dragged her through the garden, her heels excitedly kicking up grass and mulch as she all but clawed her way back towards he path. He had both of her arms now in his control, and the dim, nasally sound of his laugh tickled her ear as his hot breath spread down her neck. She shivered, and began o whimper, her muffled cries biting through his sallow skin.
The laughter was suddenly replaced by a biting wail, and Lis was violently let go, leaving her to stumble to the ground in front of her. She looked up, wide-eyed and confused, to see Saruman holding his hand, whimpering. Blood trickled through his fingers, and Lis could now plainly see a blade, sharp and silvery, sticking straight through his hand. She looked around to see where it might have come from, and to no great suprize on her part, saw Lee standing quietly underneath a tree. He was bathe in shadow, but his eyes shone brilliantly with violent anger. Lis had once feared that look from him, now she thanked the heavens for it.
Saruman looked over at him, his face contorted in pain, and made as if to move again, when another knife, drawn and glistening even in the shadows gave him cause to stop.
"You bastard," he bit out, his jaw clenched.
"What do mean," Lee spit out, low and venomously, "I missed."
Saruman's eyes grew wide as he realized he was no longer safe here. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and ran, still holding his bleeding hand to his chest. Lee watched as the figure disappeared behind a building before he let the knife drop from his fingers. Lis saw it lying in the grass, silver and clean, like a sliver of the moon in the ocean.
"Lee, I..." she started, but he held up a hand that shocked her into silence.
"Not now. We have things to discuss."
"Alright," she said uncertainly.
"I'll go call the council..."
"The council? What do you need to call them for?"
"Things just got a bit more complicated, don'tcha think?" Lee all but spat out at her.
"What, you mean Manny?"
"Yes, Manny. Now we all need to talk. I suggest you come along."
Lee stalked off slowly, his shoulders moving gracefully like waves, with each step. He looked like a Neanderthal, he frightened her. She'd never seen him act like this before. And she found she was too tired to go after him. She sat in the grass, dumbstruck, as night fell over Rivendell.
And as midnight struck, ten pairs of feet once again plodded to the Willow Grove.