yupp, here ya all go. and right before finals too. Im proud of myself. oooppps.i was supposed to send this to Nahekaa to beta read, huh?oh, well. im sure all who read will *review* and tell me all my wonderful mistakes. everything will hopefully be reformatted/fixed by saturday, rya.
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Nearly silent mutterings penetrated my dream-filled sleep. I kept my eyes closed in case the other pain-in-the-hindquarters person in the room did not know they had been talking loud enough to wake the dead, and me. So that had my blood boiling. That, annndd the teeny matter of falling off a roof, breaking my leg in at least three places, and then being healed by Elrond, again. Occasionally he had to heal me from mishaps I encounter when in any form besides my natural and human form. Sometimes I get a little too in touch which my wild side; an angry cobra slithering around Rivendell tends to get inanimate objects thrown at it. Well, anyways, the point was that I presently possessed a very, very short fuse to a temper tantrum. And if Mr. Muttering-in-English...
"Bloody HELLS!!!!" was the only thought running through my mind as my eyes snapped open quicker than lightning flashes. Which must have been what it looked like when Sleeping Beauty finally decided to quit the chatter about which scroll he was on and turn around to pick up another to add to his armful. I was laying there glaring at him from my position on the bed, in a very unfamiliar room. From the boots in one corner and the collection of yellowing parchments on a desk, I could pretty much assume I was in his room.
However, that still gave him no right whatsoever to intrude on my precious sleep, no matter how poorly I had actually slept. Instead of being grateful, I hotly demanded of him, "Okay. I get the flying off the roof, I got the Elrond healing my very broken leg, but one thing I do not UNDERSTAND IS WHY THE HELLS AM I IN YOUR EFFIN' BEDROOM!!" I took a deep breathe to try and keep my voice from raising above the present deafening decibel level and interrupted the twittering fool trying to explain himself. I spoke in a sickening sweet singsong voice," But I most certainly do understand that you have all of the count of ten to get your scrawny bum out of this room I'm in."
Sleeping Beauty sputtered and turned a wonderfully interesting shade of plum while I intoned exactly how many seconds he had left to live in a mock-bored voice. At 'six' at I began wondering if he would ever shut up. At 'three' I was making sure I was still dressed as he continued rambling about 'Lord Elrond' asking something. At 'one' I was fiddling with my arrow ring. On a cheerful 'zero' I flipped back the covers and skipped over to where Man With No Brain stood gaping at my healed leg. I merrily shoved him into a wall, took a knife from my boot and placed the blade next to his throat. Even though I was shorter than him by about seven inches, I glared up into his very frightened face. Perhaps he finally took the hint that I was not going to stand for his cow manure.
I spat out the words," Now, do I need to escort you to the door, imbecile, or do you think you remembered where it is?" I gripped his arm and levered him over to the door, pressed the handle down with my knife, kicked open the door, stuck out my foot and simultaneously shoved him out the door. He 'accidentally' tripped on his way out and fell flat on his face. When he turned around to give me a bewildered look with a tint of fear I soluted him with my knife, bowed, and walked back into his room.
Without a backward glance I kicked the door slamming shut with a loud thud from the other side. Grinning, I waited a minute or two until there was a muffled. "OOoooocccchh." After a few more minutes footsteps walked away from the door.
I looked around and spotted the crutches and letter. Smiling like a maniac, I picked up the crutches and walked out onto the deck. Then, making sure no one was going to inadvertently walk into the landing zone, I launched the crutches into the air. They came down into a satisfying clatter of splintering.
Still smiling like a mental patient, I walked back inside and tore open the note. It went on saying stuff like, " Pleeaase don't try to give all of Rivendell a collective heart attack. I understand you have issues, but if you won't talk about them, at least don't try to escape them as a dragon, the falcon does less damage, besides messing up people's hair. Blah, blah, blah, I had a fun time healing your leg, it was broken in three places, try the crutches... What am I saying, you're not gonna listen to me. Try to be nice to Nicolas, he is from your world, after all." So that must be Sleeping Beauty's name, Nicolas. I shrugged. I still liked Sleeping Beauty better, or at the very least Man With No Brain. Shaking my head with an evil smile I continued on. Basically, after one decoded the rest of the fancy-shmancy Elvish phrasing, it said to come to the dinner in the North Hall for banquet at sundown, or else.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Unhappily, I sighed and looked in the mirror. I saw a woman with hair the color of midnight pinned up in a coronet, my preferred hairstyle. Green eyes peered from under long, annoying lashes. A strong chin, high cheek bones, defined jaw, all of it strong yet femeninely beautiful. I groaned. Even in a conservative black dress that showed almost nothing, the woman in the glass would still have droves of unfamiliar male Elves swarming all over her. Grimacing, I added an exquisite black leather belt to my waist. The intricate design of onyx colored beads of some strange stone added a beauty to the belt, making it the only pretty thing I owned with pride. That was because of the matching sheath on the side of the belt. A plain hilt of a knife peered out of the sheath, my favorite weapon. The figure in the mirror also had a new addition to her waist, because the woman was me.
Elrond had made up a set of etiquette rules specially for me. there is a total of fifteen, and they are:
1- I will be polite for at least the first five minute
2- I will wear a gown, that is approved by him
3- If I was gonna knife any annoyances, I was to give them ten seconds to get out of my face before attacking
4- I would be clean
5- A maid would inspect me before I left my rooms to insure I was respectable in that I hadn't torn my gown, mussed my hair, or anything else
6- I was only allowed to carry one weapon, no bows, and the weapon must be prominently displayed
7- I was not to play pranks on any one, regardless of race or rank.
8- I must use proper table manners, and proper utensils
9- I would dance once with at least one person who asked me (I generally blackmail Yurin into asking me, as he had some how managed to become one of the people I did not automatically attack on sight. He says he's my friend, I say he's a pain I tolerate for companionship, which is close enough to calling him a friend).
10- I would not mention the fact I was not from Middle Earth, unless speaking to Gandalf, another of my few friends.
11- I would not change forms, I would stay in my purely human body the entire time unless an emergency, such as there is an Orc raid or something.
12- I was not allowed to have more than five glasses of wine, because at that point my abilities became uncontrollable even though I high an extremely high alcohol tolerance level. It takes about twenty lasses of wine to get me even near drunk.
13- If someone attempts conversation with me, I was to smile, nod, and if possible make a vague reply before walking off to prevent the person becoming a new addition to the wall decorations. (Blood stains are very hard to get off walls when they are fifteen feet up the wall).
14- I would walk at least a mile away from the banquet before I began screaming at mindless idiots who were brave enough to actually get as far as # 13.
15- I was not allowed to throw any temper tantrums, and I as to listen and obey Elrond if he told me to do anything.
Unfortunately, Elrond made these rules up as I attended each banquet, so these rules were necessary for the protection of other party guests. Any one with any idea whatsoever has to who the figure in black was generally avoided me, so I was happy. I was repeatedly telling Yurin I was not antisocial, just don't like to be around morons.
So, five minutes before sundown, after I had undergone all necessary inspections and subsequent alterations, I entered into the crowded North Hall. Dressed as only a Lord Elf would dress, Elrond noticed and motioned me over to the seat next to his. I managed to behave properly through out the entire course of dinner, switching between wine and water to avoid any unpleasantness. And still Elrond did not tell me his Earth shattering news that had him ordering me to a banquet instead of from.
Concentrating so hard on breaking none of the rules, I did not notice the musicians as they began to play. I did not accept any invitations to dance with the guests. Instead I began searching the hall for friends. Yurin had, for some reason, failed to greet me as he customarily did. Elrond's sons were surrounded by simpering female Elves, as both were of marriageable age, so they would not be of any help tonight. Nor were any friends visiting Elrond tonight, though Gandalf had thought to be coming through Rivendell in the near future.
To pass the time until at least one familiar guy came up with the grits to ask me to dance, I began fidgeting with my ring as I stared down onto my lap, my thoughts elsewhere; in fact, they were on the ring I wore around my neck. I had never told any soul of how I had gotten here, to Middle-Earth, nor did I wish to. The reason was because even I did not know how. I should be dead, I thought, that bullet should have killed me. But, no, I had to be wisked off to some fairy tale where I was surrounded by Elves and Men, all of them treating me like some animal in a zoo. I hated it, the strangers peering at me as they whirled by on a partner's arm.
I felt the old, helpless anger welling up inside of me once again. All I could do was to pray to the higher powers that I be not tortured by my past being played out for all to see. It was bad enough when I had to face it alone, but to have these people who knew nothing of me beyond my name and my thieving capabilities, that would send me spiraling down deeper into the well of despair claiming my soul. I shook my head, trying to shake the thoughts from my mind, and downed a glass of sweet wine.
A shadow blocked the light for a minute and I looked up into Nicolas's face. My eyes narrowed and Lord Elrond stepped between us. The look in Elrond's eyes were all I needed to see to snap out of my melancholy, as they were begging for the better half of me to present itself to my fellow visitor to Middle Earth.
I think the wine must have been spiked with something, maybe some sort of potion to lessen the edge of my trenchant tongue, for no smart aleck remark came out of my mouth. Instead, I listened calmly to what Elrond had to tell me. "Lady Dri, I urge you to listen to my counsel. You and Sir Nicolas have much in common. You both are not from this world, and from my time with both I think you are from the same planet, a place you both refer to as Earth."
"What do you want me to do about? Kiss his feet and lead him around, comparing stories? I've read his. Nice, but nothing like mine. He lost nothin' while I lost everything. There is nothing in common, between Nicolas and myself." I took a gulp of my refilled wine glass, swirling it around while waiting for Elrond's reaction.
"Will you expand upon your statement? what did you lose? Dri, it is time you tell me what brought you here. I must know, to protect all I can from a spreading evil. I feel the presence of a dark mind pressing upon my senses. Evil is spreading through our lands. I think you can help stop it."
I snorted into my drink as I heard him. The Lord thought I, a woman of twenty or twenty one (I lost count of the days in Rivendell) was going to stop the evil in his world. "Okay, Elrond, what are you smoking?!" Nicolas's eyebrows shot up, I plowed on, "Because I'm not sure my hearing's what it used to be, 'cuz I swear you just said I'd clear Middle Earth of a big, bad, evil thing. A thing I have no connection with. A thing you don't even know what it is. And your heroine, yours truly, has her own little demons running amock inside her head. Get Sleeping Beauty there to do it. Don't think he has visions of the dead when he goes flying." I tipped back my head and drained my sixth glass.
Elrond gave me an odd look, and then I could almost see him putting my words together. It was like a light bulb visibly turned on his mind.
"YYeeeaaahh. That's what happened last night. The dead paid me a little mid-flight. And they weren't even the ones I killed. Nope, they were the ones who I saw killed. And one of them was an Elf, Elrond, an Elf who has been to Rivendell. Yup, she decided to show up after dieing in my world over three years ago." I tossed back yet another glass of the wine, not caring that I was breaking the rule. I had an odd sensation of my hair growing longer, of a tickling feeling on my back. I was slowly changing, but I paid it no heed.
"Oh, Eru, no!" Elrond whispered. I guess he noticed, as did Nicolas who was backing away from me in horror. Elrond scooped me up, wine glass and all, and carried me from the North Hall unnoticed. Nicolas apparently followed, even though he had not yet spoken.
I could feel my powers changing, my body rippling as my emotions rode like a tidal wave through my body. We entered into an empty room the size of he hall we had just exited. Here I was set down on my feet, which were rapidly changing inside my silk slipper shoes. The chain around my neck was warm against my skin, so I pulled out the ring and rolled it between two fingers as Elrond spoke with Nicolas. I ignored them and began pacing the floor, my slippers shredded with each step I took. The elegantly made wine glass shattered on the floor when I could not longer grip it.
When Elrond turned back to address me, there was no Human there, but a coal black mare. I had transformed into an animal in another's presence, something I had not dared to do. Eyeing the walls as I would a detestable insect, I whinnied and snorted at the battle raging within my mind and heart. It felt like a cage, an enormous cage, true, but a cage nonetheless. Rearing up in defiance of the wall-makers, I let out an ear piercing whiny, coming back down on all four only to gallop around the room.
I could hear a voice yelling, yelling at some one named Dri, but the call went unheeded. My spirit screamed to get out of this prison as I charged a tall figure, who dodged out of my way. I saw a set of clear doors, yet retained enough of my humanity to know not to charge through them. Instead, I ran over to the man with a weaving brow-band and nudged him urgently over to the gates to my freedom. The Elf shook his head, I let out a desperate scream trying to let the Elf before me know that if I was not out I would go mad. I was not a creature to be trapped. Again, the Elf shook his head, and started calling to me softly in Elvish. I understood it, it was a song of sorts to calm me down. He was telling me about the great halls of the Elven kind and I stopped pacing to listen, but when he started on the open meadows of Rohan I started to rear repeatedly.
Then a Man came up and spoke. He said to open the doors, and I frantically shook my head. This one was smart, and Elrond, upon seeing my reaction to the words spoke this, "Dri, you need to escape? I snorted disagreement, then reared again. Once on all four legs I went over to the glass doors and butted my head against them lightly, so as not to break them.
Nicolas spoke again, this time directly to me "You want out of here, don't you?" I nodded agreement, and the Man asked me, "If I let you out, will you take me with you, so you don't hurt yourself?"
I thought about it a minute, then sidled up next to the Man an d sniffed hard. The smell was a nice one, clean yet spicy. I nodded once and the Man mounted me bareback. Elrond told the Man on my back to be careful. And then the door was open and all I cared about was the open air before me. I skirted fountains and late evening walkers in the gardens, leaping over benches while trying not to spill my passenger.
Eventually I was free of the confines of the city of Rivendell and instead swerved to avoid trees. Nicolas was still miraculously on my back, holding on for his life. I ran for the sheer joy, leaving all pain and my idiotic babbling behind. I could feel the heat from the chain still around my neck, the ring hidden in my silky mane. But I cared not, for I was free, for I had escaped the darkness and fear of my past again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I was riding the mare through the darkening woods when I first felt the twinges of fear ripple through my body. Odd enough, I was not frightened at my position atop the mare with the wind literally whistling in my ears. Instead, this icy consternation seemed removed from my true body, like it was a ghost walking through my body. Whispers seemed to fill the air. I looked around and saw no one, then noticed it was myself speaking, casting a spell.
Startled, I listened to my lips who were speaking strange words without my mind's consent. It was my voice, strange language. I was beginning to feel a cold chill creep up my spine as I listened to myself speaking in spells.
The mare between my legs slowed, her ears pricked back to listen to my speaking, snorted and slowly began to walk over to a large boulder.
At the boulder I slipped off the horse and onto the oversized pebble, glad to be on a solid, stationary object. My own trepidation coupled with the ghostly fear and I began to shiver uncontrollably. Another voice joined my own in speaking and I looked up into the human face of the strange girl called Dri. Her eyes were full of sorrow, like she knew exactly what I was going through as she talked to me.
My eyes began to see fuzzy shadows, shadows of a dark place I had never been. Three little children spoke around a fire place. I smelled something like bacon, and the vision grew clearer like I had woken up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Then ghostly panic seized my body and I saw they were not children but Hobbits. The vision progressed as I got taller, like I had stood up and started yelling at the other Hobbits. Then it dawned on me: I was seeing the world through the eyes of a Hobbit. Not just any Hobbit, either, but the Hobbit who carried the one thing that ruled the fates of all who dwelled in Middle Earth. I was looking at Peregrine Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Samwise Gamgee through the eyes of a certain Frodo Baggins. All on their own atop some hill that was no way in hells any where near the Shire, which is where they ought to be.
And then the whole image disappeared and I slammed into reality. Or at least Dri's fist. Her eyes were no longer understanding, but cruelly blank of any emotion besides fury. The feelings that must have been Ford's were now sentenced to attacking me like little ghosts as I stared into unbelievably green, angry eyes. Then my fear took over as I realized what had happened.
"What the BLOODY HELLS were you doing???? Are you NUTS??? If you had finished your incantation you would have BLOWN your damn mind to BLOODY BITS! ALONG WITH ANYTHING IN A FIFTY MILE RADIUS!!!! I am suuurrreee Elrond would greatly appreciate having a great, big, hole where Rivendell used to be." the pint sized girl spat at me with her loathing of me evident in her tone.
"What day is it today?" I asked in a whisper, my mind racing towards uncomfortable conclusions.
"What day? You nearly explode all of RIVENDELL, and ME. and all you can do is sit there and ask me WHAT DAY?!?! Well, I'll tell you what day it is, it's your DEATH DAY, YOU MINDLESS MORON!!!!" she ended up yelling at my face.
Before she could kill me, I interrupted, "NO! This is very important! If its what say I think it is, we're all going to need to stay alive! I know what is going to happen! I must tell Elrond! Now, would you kindly tell me what date it is today."
"October 6, in the year 3018, according to the Shire." Dri intoned in a bored voice with her arms crossed over the front of her dress. "Now do I getta kill ya?"
"Not until you use proper grammar. In the meantime, you can take me back to Elrond."
"And exactly why would I ever want to do such a thing? I betcha, Sleeping Beauty, that you didn't even think about where I was headed. For all you know, I was goin' to Mordor."
"Sarcasm is not becoming."
" Nor is stupidity. 'Side, I'm darn proud of being butt-ugly."
I could not help but laugh at Dri's comment. Standing there in her dinner dress, she was rather beautiful, if a little tom-boyish at her modest dressing.
"Well, if we're going on how ugly people are, I think I deserve a first place-"
"In Ugliest man alive." Dri finished for me.
When I looked at her, her left eyebrow was cocked. So, in answer, I cocked one of my own. Or attempted to, but it didn't work. I must have spent five minutes trying to raise only one eyebrow while shivers of fright tiptoed up and down my back. So, finally in defeat. I used my index finger and pushed my eyebrow up and looked back at Dri. By now she was wearing a completely puzzled yet bemused expression.
I dropped my hands to my thigh and assiduously studied the stone beneath me to hide a faint blush as I inwardly berated myself for acting the fool. Then my blush disappeared as the now-familiar fear escalated until I saw the world through Frodo's eyes.
My back stiffened as 'I' waved a sword around, hoping to fend off the menacing Wraiths that were twice as tall as me. Stumbling backwards, I tripped and dropped my sword. Scrambling to get away, I noticed from the corner of my eyes that the other Hobbits were carelessly thrown aside in the efforts of the Wraiths to get at myself. Defenseless and on my back, my hand groped for the chain upon which was hung the ring. Fighting the impulse for half a minute, I slipped it on and vanished from the sight of all on Weathertop. The world seemed to blur before my eyes, like it was departing from the spot I lay upon at the speed of a thousand miles an hour and somehow the scenes had been slowed down so that could hear better than I ever had. The ring was cold, even icy, against my grimy skin. Cowering within the body of Frodo, I mentally screamed at him to take it off, take off the ring. Yet he did not hear and instead we both focused on a great, flaming eye. It was the Eye of Sauron, the lidless eye surrounded by flame that never ceased to search for the one thing that stood between its master and the domination of all Middle Earth.
A malicious laugh sounded in the world seen only when wearing the ring and pain tore through my shoulder. I had been stabbed by a poisonous blade of Mordor. I heard not the yells of Aragorn, known as Strider, as he came charging to the rescue waving sword and burning limb like a madman. A very, very skilled madman. It was then I heard a new female voice, yelling in English for myself to come back. I jerked off the ring and succumbed to the blackness that welcomed me with open arms.
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Nearly silent mutterings penetrated my dream-filled sleep. I kept my eyes closed in case the other pain-in-the-hindquarters person in the room did not know they had been talking loud enough to wake the dead, and me. So that had my blood boiling. That, annndd the teeny matter of falling off a roof, breaking my leg in at least three places, and then being healed by Elrond, again. Occasionally he had to heal me from mishaps I encounter when in any form besides my natural and human form. Sometimes I get a little too in touch which my wild side; an angry cobra slithering around Rivendell tends to get inanimate objects thrown at it. Well, anyways, the point was that I presently possessed a very, very short fuse to a temper tantrum. And if Mr. Muttering-in-English...
"Bloody HELLS!!!!" was the only thought running through my mind as my eyes snapped open quicker than lightning flashes. Which must have been what it looked like when Sleeping Beauty finally decided to quit the chatter about which scroll he was on and turn around to pick up another to add to his armful. I was laying there glaring at him from my position on the bed, in a very unfamiliar room. From the boots in one corner and the collection of yellowing parchments on a desk, I could pretty much assume I was in his room.
However, that still gave him no right whatsoever to intrude on my precious sleep, no matter how poorly I had actually slept. Instead of being grateful, I hotly demanded of him, "Okay. I get the flying off the roof, I got the Elrond healing my very broken leg, but one thing I do not UNDERSTAND IS WHY THE HELLS AM I IN YOUR EFFIN' BEDROOM!!" I took a deep breathe to try and keep my voice from raising above the present deafening decibel level and interrupted the twittering fool trying to explain himself. I spoke in a sickening sweet singsong voice," But I most certainly do understand that you have all of the count of ten to get your scrawny bum out of this room I'm in."
Sleeping Beauty sputtered and turned a wonderfully interesting shade of plum while I intoned exactly how many seconds he had left to live in a mock-bored voice. At 'six' at I began wondering if he would ever shut up. At 'three' I was making sure I was still dressed as he continued rambling about 'Lord Elrond' asking something. At 'one' I was fiddling with my arrow ring. On a cheerful 'zero' I flipped back the covers and skipped over to where Man With No Brain stood gaping at my healed leg. I merrily shoved him into a wall, took a knife from my boot and placed the blade next to his throat. Even though I was shorter than him by about seven inches, I glared up into his very frightened face. Perhaps he finally took the hint that I was not going to stand for his cow manure.
I spat out the words," Now, do I need to escort you to the door, imbecile, or do you think you remembered where it is?" I gripped his arm and levered him over to the door, pressed the handle down with my knife, kicked open the door, stuck out my foot and simultaneously shoved him out the door. He 'accidentally' tripped on his way out and fell flat on his face. When he turned around to give me a bewildered look with a tint of fear I soluted him with my knife, bowed, and walked back into his room.
Without a backward glance I kicked the door slamming shut with a loud thud from the other side. Grinning, I waited a minute or two until there was a muffled. "OOoooocccchh." After a few more minutes footsteps walked away from the door.
I looked around and spotted the crutches and letter. Smiling like a maniac, I picked up the crutches and walked out onto the deck. Then, making sure no one was going to inadvertently walk into the landing zone, I launched the crutches into the air. They came down into a satisfying clatter of splintering.
Still smiling like a mental patient, I walked back inside and tore open the note. It went on saying stuff like, " Pleeaase don't try to give all of Rivendell a collective heart attack. I understand you have issues, but if you won't talk about them, at least don't try to escape them as a dragon, the falcon does less damage, besides messing up people's hair. Blah, blah, blah, I had a fun time healing your leg, it was broken in three places, try the crutches... What am I saying, you're not gonna listen to me. Try to be nice to Nicolas, he is from your world, after all." So that must be Sleeping Beauty's name, Nicolas. I shrugged. I still liked Sleeping Beauty better, or at the very least Man With No Brain. Shaking my head with an evil smile I continued on. Basically, after one decoded the rest of the fancy-shmancy Elvish phrasing, it said to come to the dinner in the North Hall for banquet at sundown, or else.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Unhappily, I sighed and looked in the mirror. I saw a woman with hair the color of midnight pinned up in a coronet, my preferred hairstyle. Green eyes peered from under long, annoying lashes. A strong chin, high cheek bones, defined jaw, all of it strong yet femeninely beautiful. I groaned. Even in a conservative black dress that showed almost nothing, the woman in the glass would still have droves of unfamiliar male Elves swarming all over her. Grimacing, I added an exquisite black leather belt to my waist. The intricate design of onyx colored beads of some strange stone added a beauty to the belt, making it the only pretty thing I owned with pride. That was because of the matching sheath on the side of the belt. A plain hilt of a knife peered out of the sheath, my favorite weapon. The figure in the mirror also had a new addition to her waist, because the woman was me.
Elrond had made up a set of etiquette rules specially for me. there is a total of fifteen, and they are:
1- I will be polite for at least the first five minute
2- I will wear a gown, that is approved by him
3- If I was gonna knife any annoyances, I was to give them ten seconds to get out of my face before attacking
4- I would be clean
5- A maid would inspect me before I left my rooms to insure I was respectable in that I hadn't torn my gown, mussed my hair, or anything else
6- I was only allowed to carry one weapon, no bows, and the weapon must be prominently displayed
7- I was not to play pranks on any one, regardless of race or rank.
8- I must use proper table manners, and proper utensils
9- I would dance once with at least one person who asked me (I generally blackmail Yurin into asking me, as he had some how managed to become one of the people I did not automatically attack on sight. He says he's my friend, I say he's a pain I tolerate for companionship, which is close enough to calling him a friend).
10- I would not mention the fact I was not from Middle Earth, unless speaking to Gandalf, another of my few friends.
11- I would not change forms, I would stay in my purely human body the entire time unless an emergency, such as there is an Orc raid or something.
12- I was not allowed to have more than five glasses of wine, because at that point my abilities became uncontrollable even though I high an extremely high alcohol tolerance level. It takes about twenty lasses of wine to get me even near drunk.
13- If someone attempts conversation with me, I was to smile, nod, and if possible make a vague reply before walking off to prevent the person becoming a new addition to the wall decorations. (Blood stains are very hard to get off walls when they are fifteen feet up the wall).
14- I would walk at least a mile away from the banquet before I began screaming at mindless idiots who were brave enough to actually get as far as # 13.
15- I was not allowed to throw any temper tantrums, and I as to listen and obey Elrond if he told me to do anything.
Unfortunately, Elrond made these rules up as I attended each banquet, so these rules were necessary for the protection of other party guests. Any one with any idea whatsoever has to who the figure in black was generally avoided me, so I was happy. I was repeatedly telling Yurin I was not antisocial, just don't like to be around morons.
So, five minutes before sundown, after I had undergone all necessary inspections and subsequent alterations, I entered into the crowded North Hall. Dressed as only a Lord Elf would dress, Elrond noticed and motioned me over to the seat next to his. I managed to behave properly through out the entire course of dinner, switching between wine and water to avoid any unpleasantness. And still Elrond did not tell me his Earth shattering news that had him ordering me to a banquet instead of from.
Concentrating so hard on breaking none of the rules, I did not notice the musicians as they began to play. I did not accept any invitations to dance with the guests. Instead I began searching the hall for friends. Yurin had, for some reason, failed to greet me as he customarily did. Elrond's sons were surrounded by simpering female Elves, as both were of marriageable age, so they would not be of any help tonight. Nor were any friends visiting Elrond tonight, though Gandalf had thought to be coming through Rivendell in the near future.
To pass the time until at least one familiar guy came up with the grits to ask me to dance, I began fidgeting with my ring as I stared down onto my lap, my thoughts elsewhere; in fact, they were on the ring I wore around my neck. I had never told any soul of how I had gotten here, to Middle-Earth, nor did I wish to. The reason was because even I did not know how. I should be dead, I thought, that bullet should have killed me. But, no, I had to be wisked off to some fairy tale where I was surrounded by Elves and Men, all of them treating me like some animal in a zoo. I hated it, the strangers peering at me as they whirled by on a partner's arm.
I felt the old, helpless anger welling up inside of me once again. All I could do was to pray to the higher powers that I be not tortured by my past being played out for all to see. It was bad enough when I had to face it alone, but to have these people who knew nothing of me beyond my name and my thieving capabilities, that would send me spiraling down deeper into the well of despair claiming my soul. I shook my head, trying to shake the thoughts from my mind, and downed a glass of sweet wine.
A shadow blocked the light for a minute and I looked up into Nicolas's face. My eyes narrowed and Lord Elrond stepped between us. The look in Elrond's eyes were all I needed to see to snap out of my melancholy, as they were begging for the better half of me to present itself to my fellow visitor to Middle Earth.
I think the wine must have been spiked with something, maybe some sort of potion to lessen the edge of my trenchant tongue, for no smart aleck remark came out of my mouth. Instead, I listened calmly to what Elrond had to tell me. "Lady Dri, I urge you to listen to my counsel. You and Sir Nicolas have much in common. You both are not from this world, and from my time with both I think you are from the same planet, a place you both refer to as Earth."
"What do you want me to do about? Kiss his feet and lead him around, comparing stories? I've read his. Nice, but nothing like mine. He lost nothin' while I lost everything. There is nothing in common, between Nicolas and myself." I took a gulp of my refilled wine glass, swirling it around while waiting for Elrond's reaction.
"Will you expand upon your statement? what did you lose? Dri, it is time you tell me what brought you here. I must know, to protect all I can from a spreading evil. I feel the presence of a dark mind pressing upon my senses. Evil is spreading through our lands. I think you can help stop it."
I snorted into my drink as I heard him. The Lord thought I, a woman of twenty or twenty one (I lost count of the days in Rivendell) was going to stop the evil in his world. "Okay, Elrond, what are you smoking?!" Nicolas's eyebrows shot up, I plowed on, "Because I'm not sure my hearing's what it used to be, 'cuz I swear you just said I'd clear Middle Earth of a big, bad, evil thing. A thing I have no connection with. A thing you don't even know what it is. And your heroine, yours truly, has her own little demons running amock inside her head. Get Sleeping Beauty there to do it. Don't think he has visions of the dead when he goes flying." I tipped back my head and drained my sixth glass.
Elrond gave me an odd look, and then I could almost see him putting my words together. It was like a light bulb visibly turned on his mind.
"YYeeeaaahh. That's what happened last night. The dead paid me a little mid-flight. And they weren't even the ones I killed. Nope, they were the ones who I saw killed. And one of them was an Elf, Elrond, an Elf who has been to Rivendell. Yup, she decided to show up after dieing in my world over three years ago." I tossed back yet another glass of the wine, not caring that I was breaking the rule. I had an odd sensation of my hair growing longer, of a tickling feeling on my back. I was slowly changing, but I paid it no heed.
"Oh, Eru, no!" Elrond whispered. I guess he noticed, as did Nicolas who was backing away from me in horror. Elrond scooped me up, wine glass and all, and carried me from the North Hall unnoticed. Nicolas apparently followed, even though he had not yet spoken.
I could feel my powers changing, my body rippling as my emotions rode like a tidal wave through my body. We entered into an empty room the size of he hall we had just exited. Here I was set down on my feet, which were rapidly changing inside my silk slipper shoes. The chain around my neck was warm against my skin, so I pulled out the ring and rolled it between two fingers as Elrond spoke with Nicolas. I ignored them and began pacing the floor, my slippers shredded with each step I took. The elegantly made wine glass shattered on the floor when I could not longer grip it.
When Elrond turned back to address me, there was no Human there, but a coal black mare. I had transformed into an animal in another's presence, something I had not dared to do. Eyeing the walls as I would a detestable insect, I whinnied and snorted at the battle raging within my mind and heart. It felt like a cage, an enormous cage, true, but a cage nonetheless. Rearing up in defiance of the wall-makers, I let out an ear piercing whiny, coming back down on all four only to gallop around the room.
I could hear a voice yelling, yelling at some one named Dri, but the call went unheeded. My spirit screamed to get out of this prison as I charged a tall figure, who dodged out of my way. I saw a set of clear doors, yet retained enough of my humanity to know not to charge through them. Instead, I ran over to the man with a weaving brow-band and nudged him urgently over to the gates to my freedom. The Elf shook his head, I let out a desperate scream trying to let the Elf before me know that if I was not out I would go mad. I was not a creature to be trapped. Again, the Elf shook his head, and started calling to me softly in Elvish. I understood it, it was a song of sorts to calm me down. He was telling me about the great halls of the Elven kind and I stopped pacing to listen, but when he started on the open meadows of Rohan I started to rear repeatedly.
Then a Man came up and spoke. He said to open the doors, and I frantically shook my head. This one was smart, and Elrond, upon seeing my reaction to the words spoke this, "Dri, you need to escape? I snorted disagreement, then reared again. Once on all four legs I went over to the glass doors and butted my head against them lightly, so as not to break them.
Nicolas spoke again, this time directly to me "You want out of here, don't you?" I nodded agreement, and the Man asked me, "If I let you out, will you take me with you, so you don't hurt yourself?"
I thought about it a minute, then sidled up next to the Man an d sniffed hard. The smell was a nice one, clean yet spicy. I nodded once and the Man mounted me bareback. Elrond told the Man on my back to be careful. And then the door was open and all I cared about was the open air before me. I skirted fountains and late evening walkers in the gardens, leaping over benches while trying not to spill my passenger.
Eventually I was free of the confines of the city of Rivendell and instead swerved to avoid trees. Nicolas was still miraculously on my back, holding on for his life. I ran for the sheer joy, leaving all pain and my idiotic babbling behind. I could feel the heat from the chain still around my neck, the ring hidden in my silky mane. But I cared not, for I was free, for I had escaped the darkness and fear of my past again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I was riding the mare through the darkening woods when I first felt the twinges of fear ripple through my body. Odd enough, I was not frightened at my position atop the mare with the wind literally whistling in my ears. Instead, this icy consternation seemed removed from my true body, like it was a ghost walking through my body. Whispers seemed to fill the air. I looked around and saw no one, then noticed it was myself speaking, casting a spell.
Startled, I listened to my lips who were speaking strange words without my mind's consent. It was my voice, strange language. I was beginning to feel a cold chill creep up my spine as I listened to myself speaking in spells.
The mare between my legs slowed, her ears pricked back to listen to my speaking, snorted and slowly began to walk over to a large boulder.
At the boulder I slipped off the horse and onto the oversized pebble, glad to be on a solid, stationary object. My own trepidation coupled with the ghostly fear and I began to shiver uncontrollably. Another voice joined my own in speaking and I looked up into the human face of the strange girl called Dri. Her eyes were full of sorrow, like she knew exactly what I was going through as she talked to me.
My eyes began to see fuzzy shadows, shadows of a dark place I had never been. Three little children spoke around a fire place. I smelled something like bacon, and the vision grew clearer like I had woken up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Then ghostly panic seized my body and I saw they were not children but Hobbits. The vision progressed as I got taller, like I had stood up and started yelling at the other Hobbits. Then it dawned on me: I was seeing the world through the eyes of a Hobbit. Not just any Hobbit, either, but the Hobbit who carried the one thing that ruled the fates of all who dwelled in Middle Earth. I was looking at Peregrine Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Samwise Gamgee through the eyes of a certain Frodo Baggins. All on their own atop some hill that was no way in hells any where near the Shire, which is where they ought to be.
And then the whole image disappeared and I slammed into reality. Or at least Dri's fist. Her eyes were no longer understanding, but cruelly blank of any emotion besides fury. The feelings that must have been Ford's were now sentenced to attacking me like little ghosts as I stared into unbelievably green, angry eyes. Then my fear took over as I realized what had happened.
"What the BLOODY HELLS were you doing???? Are you NUTS??? If you had finished your incantation you would have BLOWN your damn mind to BLOODY BITS! ALONG WITH ANYTHING IN A FIFTY MILE RADIUS!!!! I am suuurrreee Elrond would greatly appreciate having a great, big, hole where Rivendell used to be." the pint sized girl spat at me with her loathing of me evident in her tone.
"What day is it today?" I asked in a whisper, my mind racing towards uncomfortable conclusions.
"What day? You nearly explode all of RIVENDELL, and ME. and all you can do is sit there and ask me WHAT DAY?!?! Well, I'll tell you what day it is, it's your DEATH DAY, YOU MINDLESS MORON!!!!" she ended up yelling at my face.
Before she could kill me, I interrupted, "NO! This is very important! If its what say I think it is, we're all going to need to stay alive! I know what is going to happen! I must tell Elrond! Now, would you kindly tell me what date it is today."
"October 6, in the year 3018, according to the Shire." Dri intoned in a bored voice with her arms crossed over the front of her dress. "Now do I getta kill ya?"
"Not until you use proper grammar. In the meantime, you can take me back to Elrond."
"And exactly why would I ever want to do such a thing? I betcha, Sleeping Beauty, that you didn't even think about where I was headed. For all you know, I was goin' to Mordor."
"Sarcasm is not becoming."
" Nor is stupidity. 'Side, I'm darn proud of being butt-ugly."
I could not help but laugh at Dri's comment. Standing there in her dinner dress, she was rather beautiful, if a little tom-boyish at her modest dressing.
"Well, if we're going on how ugly people are, I think I deserve a first place-"
"In Ugliest man alive." Dri finished for me.
When I looked at her, her left eyebrow was cocked. So, in answer, I cocked one of my own. Or attempted to, but it didn't work. I must have spent five minutes trying to raise only one eyebrow while shivers of fright tiptoed up and down my back. So, finally in defeat. I used my index finger and pushed my eyebrow up and looked back at Dri. By now she was wearing a completely puzzled yet bemused expression.
I dropped my hands to my thigh and assiduously studied the stone beneath me to hide a faint blush as I inwardly berated myself for acting the fool. Then my blush disappeared as the now-familiar fear escalated until I saw the world through Frodo's eyes.
My back stiffened as 'I' waved a sword around, hoping to fend off the menacing Wraiths that were twice as tall as me. Stumbling backwards, I tripped and dropped my sword. Scrambling to get away, I noticed from the corner of my eyes that the other Hobbits were carelessly thrown aside in the efforts of the Wraiths to get at myself. Defenseless and on my back, my hand groped for the chain upon which was hung the ring. Fighting the impulse for half a minute, I slipped it on and vanished from the sight of all on Weathertop. The world seemed to blur before my eyes, like it was departing from the spot I lay upon at the speed of a thousand miles an hour and somehow the scenes had been slowed down so that could hear better than I ever had. The ring was cold, even icy, against my grimy skin. Cowering within the body of Frodo, I mentally screamed at him to take it off, take off the ring. Yet he did not hear and instead we both focused on a great, flaming eye. It was the Eye of Sauron, the lidless eye surrounded by flame that never ceased to search for the one thing that stood between its master and the domination of all Middle Earth.
A malicious laugh sounded in the world seen only when wearing the ring and pain tore through my shoulder. I had been stabbed by a poisonous blade of Mordor. I heard not the yells of Aragorn, known as Strider, as he came charging to the rescue waving sword and burning limb like a madman. A very, very skilled madman. It was then I heard a new female voice, yelling in English for myself to come back. I jerked off the ring and succumbed to the blackness that welcomed me with open arms.