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—unless they appear with permission (reason for this will come in a later chapter.)
Summary: The planned journey back to Lothlorien is interrupted by a dream and the Nazgul are visited.
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.
Additional Notes: we borrowed a line from the movie The Untouchables and welcome the running 'Smeagol' gag
gaile – thank you very much for all of the commentary and reviews…hope you like this chapter too!
Chapter Nine
Answered Questions
~*~*~*~
When night came, the two girls hadn't gotten extremely far in their journey back to Lothlorien—partly because they were being cautious about traveling down the banks of the river and partly because they were holding a small discussion (argument) about why exactly they were going back. By the time they realized they had to stop, they had figured that Lothlorien was close, so it was easier to go there than to Minas Tirith or the White City, or Orthanc—Mia hit Rowan for that particular suggestion.
Mia lost the argument to have a huge fire and consequently got first watch, while Rowan with her big sword got to sleep. Amazingly, Rowan didn't seem so concerned that Orcs might come after them and just grunted when Mia pressed the issue—annoying the heck out of the slightly taller girl. Mia spent the first part of her watch staring around in the dark, panicking at the least little sound, and then vowing revenge on someone when her panic subsided. Preferably Randy—hurting an evil Nazgul just might have her feeling a bit better.
Just hope that I get to that smeghead before Rowan does, Mia thought absently as she poked at the small fire with a stick. She'll kill him…I'll just maim him or make it impossible to have children. She blinked. Oh, dear, that would be mean of me, wouldn't it? And would I actually do that?
She pondered the likelihood of that happening for a good few minutes. And then she fell asleep. Headed straight for the dream that Rowan was already in.
It was a room, quite like a college lecture hall or a rather large and badly decorated classroom at a high school. Mia and Rowan sat in two fairly uncomfortable chairs, looking up at Gandalf. He appeared to be in the middle of some kind of lecture, given that he was talking animatedly, waving his pointy hat around (that didn't make too much sense), and standing near a white podium.
"There were three Rings crafted for the Elven people," Gandalf was saying as both girls blinked, as if they'd just woken up. He seemed not to notice. "Nenya, Vilya, and Narya. When the Dark Lord began his rule, they were hidden away and at times passed around—if you know your history, you know to whom. During the War of the ring, they still are. In one of the futures where the Ring has been destroyed, much of the power has changed, much as the Elves have."
Rowan raised a hand. "Question—didn't the elves leave?"
"Not wholly. Some remained in Middle-Earth, though not a lot know that," the wizard told her, and she nodded. Mia looked as if she were still focusing on the 'one of the futures' comment. "Mia, pay attention!"
She jerked. "Yessir!"
"Thank you. Back to the discussion…not all of the elves left. And thousands of years passed—you might say the elves 'de-evolved' throughout the years, blending in with the growing population of man."
"Um, Gandalf?" Mia raised a hand. He looked her. "How can elves 'de-evolve'? I thought…"
Gandalf thought a moment. "As said, they blended into the population and most of the 'old age' elves began keeping to themselves, while the new generations embraced the idea of human life." That satisfied the girls, and he went back to the subject. "And over those years where the world changed, two of the rings of the elves were handed down through families, though they were not recognized as rings as time went on." Gandalf waved a hand and two things appeared in front of him. "This is what they are in your time."
The girls' jaws dropped at the same time.
"Hey, that's my rock!"
"Good grief, that's the necklace my mom made me keep—death otherwise."
Rowan looked at her. "Death otherwise?"
"Mother can be touchy," Mia said calmly.
"Yet you do not handle them often. This is a good thing." Gandalf paused and recounted the story of the Nine Rings for Mortal Men—men that were now the Nazgul, thanks to their desire for power and Sauron's subsequent enslavement of them. "After the Ring was destroyed, the Nazgul finally died and the Rings were collected. However, one was stolen and passed down through a family that never failed to wear it, in hopes that they might gain more power or that the Dark Lord might return. And a Nazgul wears it again."
The wizard looked at them. "I do believe that you know of whom I speak."
"Randy!" both girls exclaimed.
"Yes. You—and I mean the three of you—know of how the Ring was destroyed. Now Randy is one of the Nazgul and knows what to do to prevent the destruction of the Ring. You two must stop him—as you know where to go."
"Problem!" Rowan interrupted. "Randy can fly—we only walk. And not at a very fast pace, either!
Gandalf grinned. "You think so?"
The girls exchanged glances and Rowan said, "Er…yeah."
"I think not. Here endeth the lesson."
The girls woke up at the exact same time, finding that it was morning already and that there were two fully saddled horses staring at them. "Guess that wasn't a dream," said Rowan, after glaring at Mia for not keeping watch.
"Oh, I knew that when there were no penguins at school," Mia said dismissively. That got a stare. She frowned defensively. "What! I have weird dreams!"
"Whatever. Where are we going?"
"To find Randy?"
Rowan frowned. "Doesn't that involve finding Gollum?"
"SMEAGOL!"
"Yeah, yeah, him too," said Rowan impatiently. "So, are we going to find the Sneaker and our stinky Nazgul friend?"
Mia nodded. "Yeah, but we have to be careful. God knows how much of a Nazgul Randy is and…well, if we find Mr. Smeagol, we find the hobbits and that…"
"Might create issues, yeah, I know. Well!" Rowan leapt to her feet with an energy that she hadn't displayed in the morning before. Mia gaped at her, remembering that her friend had needed a can of soda before she could literally 'jumpstart'. "Don't look at me like that! Let's get a move on and find Gollum."
"Smeagol."
"Stop that."
~*~*~*~
The suspicions of Rowan and Mia were somewhat accurate—Randy had not yet become a full Ringwraith yet, though he was slipping a little more into the shadow world each day. What made things all the worse was that Randy wanted to be a part of the Nazgul. Or he supposed he did.
Rings of Power could do many things to the minds of mortal men. Formerly good could be twisted to evil, the innocent corrupted, and all go the route they do thinking it is their own choice. When, truly, Evil is enslaving them. Technically, Randy knew that—he'd read Lord of the Rings and had run into countless other references in life—but he couldn't really be bothered to care.
He could almost say that he was enjoying himself…if not for the little voice in his head that kept yelling at him that it was wrong to be siding with the evil guys, it was wrong to be going after his friends and his old heroes as if they were in the wrong, and most of all, it was wrong to be hanging around a large number of Nazgul.
Randy clearly remembered there only being nine Nazgul, yet there was another one—one from the future, the evil whispery voice (Sauron, yammered the last good part of Randy's mind) told him sometimes—that seemed more dangerous than the rest of them. And for the life of him, Randy couldn't figure out if that was because the future-Nazgul rode a sort of flying motorcycle or because that Nazgul could speak without really screeching.
Well, the latter was a relief on the ears…
Some time after the chase of the Ringbearer had started—a long time after, Randy later recalled—the future Nazgul called him up. "You know of where the Ringbearer and his friends go," it said hissingly.
Randy nodded. "Yes, I do," he said, wondering what this had to do with the price of rice in China (or weed in Hobbiton, to get with the countries).
"You will follow them. Prevent the Ringbearer from destroying the Ring before the battle that the Lord Sauron commands."
"I will," said Randy, not quite forming a question and not quite making an affirmative statement.
"Yes. You are our best chance for…victory."
The future-Nazgul made a strange sound that Randy realized was a laugh—a triumphant, evil laugh at that. Most of him wanted to join in the dark, evil fun.
The rest of him wanted to defect to the light side.
He ignored that impulse.
To Be Continued in Chapter Ten, in which there is fighting, mean horses, and a visit with another character. Please leave all commentary and questions in the review box—will make us post sooner!