When the Worlds Cross
By Heather and Jane
Disclaimer: Middle-Earth and its peoples belong to the great J.R.R. Tolkien. Mia, Rowan, and Randy belong to us. Any and all similarities to real life events/people are pure coincidence.
Summary: It is time for the Council of Elrond to take place and for Gandalf to answer a few questions—and for Mia to get frustrated.
Authors' Notes: co-written between Jane and Heather, two Lord of the Rings fans that are trying to keep true to the story. First part more movieverse than bookverse, but will soon go to bookverse. Credit to Heather's father and our friend Wesley as story consultants.
All Elvish phrases used in this chapter (and rest of story) came from a wonderful website found at http://www.grey-company.org/Circle/language/intro.htm. Unlike certain created characters, we are not exactly fluent in Elvish and had to seek translations.
Thank you to all who reviewed. Enjoy.
Chapter Four
The Council and Encounters
~*~*~*~
Time passed—all of two days—and at a somewhat slow pace to boot. Rowan kept busy by practicing archery and Mia tried to translate a few books she'd found in Elrond's library. (Rowan suspected someone had pointed her to them.) A curious Sam asked Mia if she could read Elvish—the reply was, "I'm trying, but I failed Spanish!" (Wrong—she cleared with a D-.) The girls spoke once of the confusing circumstances, such as how Gandalf got them instead of warriors, Randy's conversion darkness in order to join a group of half-dead kings bound to Sauron, and then they got into a yell-fest about the 'talking to feet and consequent event' issue.
And then, much to the surprise of the girls, they were summoned to the council of Elrond—on orders of Gandalf. Mia reacted to this with panic; Rowan was a lot calmer.
"It's not like they're going to yell at us," said Rowan as they walked to where the Council was to take place. "Except about the Randy thing." Mia's response was to mutter in what sounded like Elvish. "Mia, how are you doing that? I know you failed Spanish."
"I'm probably screwing it up and mixing up the languages," Mia agreed miserably as they met up with Frodo and Bilbo. She smiled at the hobbits. "But on the plus side, I know the difference between Quenya and Sindarin words."
"Have you been studying long?" Bilbo inquired.
"Two months, I think," said Mia offhandedly. Rowan burst out laughing, finally realizing how Mia had failed Spanish, and had to take a moment to compose herself. It didn't help that she was getting images of Mia accidentally greeting an elf in a mix of Quenya and Spanish. Mia seemed to realize what Rowan was laughing about and glared angrily. "Oh, stop, I've been practicing!"
"Really?"
"Yes! Lle auta yeste'." Mia looked at the hobbits worriedly. "Did I say that correctly?"
"If you meant to say 'you go first,' then yes you did," Frodo said with a smile.
"Yes!" Mia said, sighing with relief. As an afterthought, "Diola lle." (Thank you.)
"Lle creso." (You're welcome.)
"Hmm, very impressive. Not bad for two months work, Vaca Chica," Rowan mocked, drawing on her Spanish knowledge. Which wasn't much—she'd taken French for the required language course of their school.
Mia sighed again. "You just called me Cow Girl. And improperly."
"Whoops," Rowan said, grinning. "Anyway, we should be going to the council now. Would you kindly guide us, Mr. Baggins?"
"It would be my pleasure," Bilbo said happily.
~*~*~*~
Up until a certain point, the presumptions the girls had about the Council of Elrond had been followed. Things had proceeded in an orderly fashion: Boromir told of his reasons for arriving at Rivendell, Bilbo recited his poem, and then Elrond revealed the return of the One Ring. And then things went to pieces, with him saying that the Ring needed to be destroyed.
Everyone was in agreement about this fact. However, they were not in agreement over who should destroy the Ring.
Before the girls could blink, the entire council erupted into chaos, arguing about who should take the ring to be destroyed at Mount Doom. Those not a part of the chaos were getting huge headaches, and becoming just a little exasperated with the proceedings.
Looking livid, Gandalf stood up. "That is quite enough!" he shouted and the noise subsided a little. "That is quite enough foolish yelling," he repeated and went on in a calmer manner. "Now listen to me, all of you. There is something you should know. There are two possible futures for us to follow. One in which the ring is destroyed and one in which it is not." The council had fallen completely silent. "Both myself and the dark forces of Mordor know this. After all, it is only logical that the clearest paths are one of two ways."
"Yes," said Elrond. "But how is this relevant?"
Rowan looked at him, suspecting that he already had an idea about what Gandalf was about to say.
"I am coming to that," Gandalf responded. "Of late, it has come to my attention that a few weeks ago that the forces of Mordor had summoned a great evil out of the future that they envision for themselves. To provide a counterattack to this occurrence, I myself summoned people from the future in which the ring had not been destroyed. This help came in the forms of Mia and Rowan," Gandalf nodded at the girls, who looked a bit surprised. "So no matter who goes, the girls will go with them." Gandalf began to sit down again when Aragorn stood up.
"What of their male companion, Randy, that was lost at the Prancing Pony?" the Ranger asked. Gandalf looked as if he had been caught off guard at the moment and the girls glanced at each other. Aragorn spoke again. "I did not see how he could have been any help at all. The ladies did not even seem to want his company."
Mia had the grace to look sheepish at this statement, while Rowan merely tried not to smile.
"And," Aragorn went on, a bit reluctantly, "at our last sighting of him, he was among the Ringwraiths—who have somehow risen in number. He was no prisoner and I am led to believe that he went to them willingly."
The council murmured amongst themselves upon hearing that statement. The girls were about as flabbergasted (if not more) than the council—why would someone want to go to the Nazgul? And it was not as if Randy hadn't known what the Nazgul were.
"It is a possibility," said Gandalf after a moment, "that this boy could have been summoned by Mordor and was attempting to stop Mia and Rowan from ever reaching us. Had luck not been with them, that possibility may have been reality." The girls looked like they wanted to say something, but before they could, the wizard spoke again. Rowan was starting to get annoyed. "We will deal with this problem later but now we must decided who takes the ring to Mount Doom."
Once again, the chaos of earlier ensued. The dwarves did not believe the elves should have it, the elves did not believe the dwarves should carry it, Bilbo offered, the humans were arguing, and Elrond actually looked like he was getting a headache. And all the chaos did was worsen.
That was, until Frodo stood up. "I will take the ring!" he shouted above all the others. He had to shout this once more before all present heard him. "I have already carried it this far—I shall continue with it."
Boromir and the dwarf, Gimli son of Gloin, gave Frodo a look that said, "So the little halfling has some guts, does he?" On the other hand, Mia looked like she wanted to applaud.
"Well, then…" But before Gandalf could really start, Sam, Merry, and Pippin all popped out of hiding places at demanded to go with Frodo. (Rowan and Mia glanced at each other, and proceeded to fight an attack of hysterical laughter.)
"Look," said Sam, "I'm going to stick by Mr. Frodo no matter what." Merry and Pippin nodded in agreement.
"Well, then," Gandalf said again, smiling at the hobbits' boldness, "that makes six."
"We should have eleven to match the Black Riders of Mordor."
Rowan looked at Mia in time to see the other girl mouth 'eleven?!' while looking highly scandalized. Uh-oh, Rowan thought and gave her friend a stern look. They shrugged after a moment; both of them guessed that the help Mordor had summoned was a wraith from the future. By the time they began to pay attention to the council again, the rest of the fellowship had already been chosen. Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf.
The Fellowship of eleven—the members of chosen ahead of schedule.
Mia did not look happy with this.
~*~*~*~
The next two days were spent getting ready for the journey. And Rowan took some time out to yell at Mia for being so stubborn about things already changed. While the calmer girl actually had a good point going for her, Mia's frustration with the lack of staying true to the book clouded her common sense.
"I don't care if it still matches up!" Mia yelled. "There were nine rings made for mortal men, which was insanely stupid since men always desire power, and now there are eleven? It's getting insanely screwed up, I'm losing track of the sacred story line, and to top all of that off, you're all tra-la-la!"
Rowan glared. "I am not all tra-la-la," she retorted, wishing she could cross her arms. Trouble was, she had a bow with her, as it was practice time. "I'm as worried as you but you can't keep having hysterical reactions every time something different occurs."
"I know," Mia said, still looking frustrated but not overly so. She was calming down a little—very good sign. "But honestly. The not…usual parts of the story are starting to add up and I just don't like the result."
"You don't like math period." Rowan snickered at Mia's offended look. "Go find a hobbit to talk to. And don't have a hysterical reaction unless you really need to."
Mia rolled her eyes as she walked off. "Rowan, I was not having a hysterical reaction. I was merely a bit upset."
"That's like saying Randy was a bit rude!"
"Whatever!" Mia called over her shoulder before she was finally out of shouting range.
At least she didn't go hysterical, Rowan thought with a grin as she headed towards one of the archery fields at Rivendell. (Supposedly, there was more than one but it wasn't as if she'd had time to go looking for all of them.) If they were going to go on the journey to Mordor—staying true to 'sacred storyline' or otherwise—she ought to get some more practice hours in.
Upon arrival at the archery field, Rowan decided against the 'advanced' targets and went to the 'novice' area (as she and Mia had jokingly called them.) "Nock, aim, fire!" Rowan muttered to herself as she followed through the instructions that the archery teacher'd drilled into the students daily. The arrow flew and hit a little off center. She shrugged to herself, drawing another arrow. "Okay, if at first you don't succeed…"
"Rowan?"
"Yah!" The next arrow went flying over the target and hit a tree. That was smart! Rowan thought, turning to see the Prince of Mirkwood standing not five feet away. Ack! Look at his face, look at his face…or at least, not your feet. "Oh. Um." She was off to a brilliant start. "Hello, Prince Legolas."
Legolas smiled. "Hello, Lady Aran."
"Whoa, whoa, don't call me that!" said Rowan, almost dropping her next arrow. She'd suspected that someone would probably use a rather formal name sooner or later (hopefully much later) but did not want anyone to get into the habit. "Not a noble from…anywhere here, in Middle-Earth." That sounded about accurate.
"Ah. Then I request that you drop the formal title with my name," said Legolas, moving to stand beside her on the field. Rowan told herself this was pure coincidence—he had his bow and arrows, he probably wanted to do some practicing himself (as if he'd need it), and there was no other reason for it. Right? Right, Rowan assured herself. "You appear to have good control over your weapon."
Rowan glanced at the bow in her hands. "This? Oh, well, I like archery and I…wanted to do well in the class."
"Class?"
I don't think I want to explain this… "It's a long story," Rowan hedged and stifled a sigh of relief when Legolas dropped the subject. "And I try to practice…for fun…" She fired another arrow and grinned when it hit the center of the target.
"Very nice," said Legolas, whipping an arrow out of his quiver and firing at another target. That one hit dead center and even set the target to rattling.
Rowan's jaw dropped. Reading about skills was one thing and seeing them was another. "Whoa! That was…whoa." Great, now she was being inarticulate. This wasn't a good development. "I mean, that was fantastic, Legolas. I can't even aim that quickly!"
"It grows easier with time," said Legolas, a bit sheepishly as he fired another arrow. "And practice. Which I suggest you get to."
"Right," smiled Rowan, doing just that. She was definitely going to enjoy herself on this journey—provided that certain people didn't have hysteria attacks, certain wraiths stayed away, and certain elves continued to talk to her. Oh, yes, those are low standards, thought Rowan just as she hit dead center. "Whoa!"
"You see."
"Oh, yeah."
~*~*~*~
Once her brush with hysteria was definitely gone, Mia spent some of her time transferring her belongings from her backpack to a more appropriate traveling bag (explaining the logo had already taken enough time) and decided to spend the rest of the time wandering around Rivendell. But to where? Mia wondered and knew instantly not to go looking for Rowan. She snickered. Rowan and Leggy sitting in…wait, that's no fun if no one's around to hear. Mia shrugged to herself and went to visit Frodo. Just because she was wondering how he was. Not because she liked him or anything.
"Frodo?" Mia knocked on his door.
"Who's there?" he said.
"It's just me, Mia."
"Oh, well, come in if you like."
Mia entered his room to see Frodo packing his bag. She wondered if Bilbo had already given his traveling things and spotted Sting. Yep, Bilbo had been there. All right, now we need an opener to a conversation… "So…Frodo…looks like you're almost ready to go."
"I suppose so…" Frodo paused, mulling over something. He turned to face her. "Mia, where are you and your friend Rowan from?"
That caught Mia a bit off guard. "Well…at first we told you that we came from across the sea, didn't we?" she asked and smiled ruefully when Frodo nodded. "We did that because it was more believable than 'we just appeared here from the future.' I don't think you or anyone else would have believed us, if not for Gandalf."
Frodo nodded. "I suppose you're right." He paused again. "So, what's it like in your future, where the Ring has been destroyed?"
"Uhh…it's a lot more different. Many things have changed…I don't know how exactly to explain it," Mia said with a wry smile. "You have to remember that Rowan and I are from way off in the future (evidently) and I don't think you'd understand half of what I'm talking about. Heck, sometimes people from our time don't even understand what we're talking about!"
"I'll try to remember that." Frodo looked amused. "Do people of your time still remember what happened her with the ring?"
ACK! "Not everybody." Did anyone else know that it was not just a book? Maybe someone did. Mia decided to go with that theory and said, "Some people do, though."
"Oh…that's good, I suppose." Frodo looked a bit melancholy as he said that.
Mia wondered how she would tell him that there were no hobbits (that anyone knew of) in the future. She hoped he wouldn't ask, since she didn't think she would be able to lie.
"Will I live through this?" he suddenly asked.
Eeeeeep… Mia's mind short-circuited for a nanosecond. "Er. Normally I would be able to give you an answer but now with the newly summoned wraith and the whole Randy issue…with things changing…" She shrugged. "I just don't know."
"Oh…" Frodo nodded. "At least you would answer me if you could." Somehow, he managed to phrase that as a simple statement, not the question that it was.
"I would and will do all I can to help you, Frodo…" Mia blushed at her boldness. Jeez, getting confident here, aren't we, Mia? "Well, I should leave the, um, area, now, really."
"It was nice talking with you, Mia," said Frodo, smiling at her.
Mia's mind short-circuited again, but she managed to say, quite pleasantly, "Same with you," and with that, she was gone.
~*~*~*~
The eve before the Fellowship was to depart, Elrond and Gandalf walked down the halls of Rivendell, discussing the path to Mordor. At one point, Elrond paused and asked, "Gandalf, why did you insist that those girls go along?"
"Do you doubt their knowledge and skills?" returned Gandalf.
"No…but their knowledge of the future may cause problems." Elrond shook his head. "To meddle with time is a dangerous act, Gandalf. You know that." The wizard merely nodded. "What would happen if they were to reveal something by accident or abstain from saying anything in a time of need? What then?"
Gandalf merely smiled and said, "You say 'the' future. There are many possible paths the future of any world can take…they are from one direction. What Sauron's forces have summoned are from another."
"Then how did that boy arrive with them? Surely it is no coincidence?"
"Coincidences do not exist, Lord Elrond. They are all here for a reason."
Elrond nodded and then voiced a question he had been wondering about for a few days now. "You originally meant to summon great warriors to aid in the Quest to destroy the One Ring. I mean no offense to Rowan or Mia, but they do not seem like great warriors."
"Sometimes," said Gandalf, "other forces besides that of our world are at work."
And that was all he would say on the matter.
To Be Continued in Chapter Five: wherein the journey begins. Question for the readers: what do you think Gandalf is not telling Elrond (or anyone else?) Responses and commentary of any kind are welcome—just click on the little review button below, please!