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 appearing in this chapter…).

Summary: The girls see their English teacher, climb a mountain, and Sam shows up.

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.

This chapter is dedicated to our senior English teacher, Mr. Little.  Happy belated birthday! *waves*

References and quotes include a revisit to a Buffy quote, a Star Trek joke, and a reference to An American Tail.  If we missed any, let us know.

Reader thanks following chapter.

Chapter 11

Dreaming, Climbing, and Worrying

~*~*~*~

Dawn broke over Middle-Earth as the girls slowed their horses to a stop, looking a little more harried than the equines did.  "Well," said Rowan after a long moment.  "That was fun.  Did we lose him?"  Mia gave her a dark look.  "I'm serious—did he get on the mighty flying thing and get ahead?"

The other girl shook her head.  "Doubtful," she said, hanging on as her horse decided to kick.  She looked too exhausted to deal with the issues of a rebellious horse.  "I scared that thing off, remember?  It'll be a while before Randy gets it through his thick skull to coax it down without yowling."  She looked ahead of them.  "And it's a good thing we got the extra time."

"For what?" Rowan wondered, urging her horse into a walk and smiling slightly as Mia's horse decided to take the incentive and move into a trot.

Mia rolled her eyes.  "Oh, for the love of St. Catherine!  Ro, what's the next leg of the journey to Mordor that required help?"

"The Dead Marshes."

"Right.  And I don't know about you, but I really don't feel like waiting around for Smeagol, Frodo, and Sam to show up.  That'd just be inviting Randy…and we'd be altering more of the story, which we just can't—"

Rowan frowned at her.  "Mia, shut up, you sound like you're on caffeine.  Again."  Her friend shut up, and she was free to go on with the original point.  "So if Gollum—don't say a word—is the only one in a good mile radius that knows the way through (unless you have the added bonus of a flying horse)…we're pretty much screwed."

"Fantastic," muttered Mia, and glanced ahead.  "If we walk very slowly, we'll reach the nearby areas by nightfall, and will have time to plan."

"Right.  So, do you think we could treat it like they're the Swamps of Sadness and Gollum is that wolf thing or something?"

Mia gave her a dirty look.  "Okay, one thing—I'm the one who's acting like she's on caffeine?  And another—can't do that because we don't have a Luck Dragon and Smeagol is most certainly not a evil werewolf thingamajigger…don't look at me like that, it's been a long time since I read the book."

"You have plenty of time to remember; we're two days ahead of the hobbit and Gollum crew."

"Smeagol."

"Shut up."

Mia gave her an irritated look, and then she remarked, "Let's hope we don't run into Faramir or anyone from that area."

"Why?"

"'Cause we'd get a bit delayed and neither of us have come up with a cover story," Mia replied.

Rowan winced.  "Oh, right."  There was that.  "Well, if we see them, we avoid them."

"On—yaah!—these horses?" Mia squawked, trying to keep her horse from breaking into a canter.

"Yes.  I'd suggest learning how to deal with them," Rowan replied, grinning broadly.

Mia gave her friend a death glare, and the two of them lapsed into silence for the rest of the long day of riding.

~*~*~*~

Much to Rowan's chagrin, they came close to the Marshes during the early evening and the horses refused to go any farther.  The other girl muttered about brilliant ideas involving temperamental equines failing at the worst possible times, and Rowan refrained from shoving her into the nearest tree.  "Well," she said, while Mia struggled to tie her mare's reins to a makeshift 'post', "what do we do now?"

"Rest—ow!"  Mia rubbed her nipped shoulder, glaring at the culprit.  The mare gave her an innocent look.  "Oh, please—yah!  Um, let the horses rest, watch for bad former friends, and try to have a brilliant idea between now and tomorrow?"

Rowan shook her head as she knelt to start a small fire.  "Unless we have an epiphany, we might have to rely on your memory."

"What?!"

"You're the one with all of the books on Middle-Earth, and can probably remember individual scenes better than I can," Rowan reminded her.

Mia shook her head.  "I'm a kid, not a computer!  And by the way, Jim, he's dead!" she remarked to no one in particular, making her friend laugh.  There was a joke that always waited to happen, no matter what the situation.  "And anyway, it's not like I remember that Smeagol went that way, stepped on this—we might have to just try walking through it on our own.  Don't look at me like that, you have a sword."

"And you have a good screaming voice, so we ought to do…badly!"

Mia muttered something in Elvish and Rowan decided against asking for a translation, intrigued as she was.  Again, the two girls lapsed into silence as the evening shadows grew longer and they tried to think of some way of getting through the Dead Marshes—there was the option of speeding up and going through Rohan, but neither of them mentioned that.  Rowan suspected that maybe Randy thought they'd take the easy and long way out of the journey.  Fat chance, she thought.  We're stickin' to the original hobbit and evil stinky creature route and it's his too bad if he doesn't think we're up to it.

Whereas it was their too bad if Randy realized they were up to a difficult journey of walking through a marsh filled with dead people!

"Who's got first watch?" Mia asked, closing one of her books.  It was the Complete Guide to Middle-Earth, and she looked frustrated.

Must not have had the answers she wanted then…  "I'll take it.  Don't really feel like sleeping, anyway."

"Are we going to get up and get moving early?"

"Yeah, before dawn," replied Rowan.

Mia's eyes widened.  "Oh!  Good night!"  She flopped onto her back comically, and Rowan rolled her eyes.  Amusement was all well and good, but they didn't exactly have time to be cracking jokes.  Or acting out jokes, thought Rowan, glancing at her friend, as the case may be.

The girls had been very careful to always have the other awake during the night, ever since they moved away from the Great River—especially since the freaky Gandalf lecture dream.  While the information and advice had been most welcome, Mia had theorized that it might be dangerous to let that sort of thing happen when they were in Mordor, or close to the dreaded country.  Rowan had agreed.

Therefore, while Mia was probably dreaming about penguins doing the cha-cha (or whatever she dreamt about these days), Rowan kept herself wide-awake as best she could.

However, the girls ought to have assumed that if certain people wanted to talk with them during dreams, said people would make sure both girls were asleep.

Rowan dropped off into a doze a good hour after Mia did.

This time, the girls knew they were actually sharing a dream and that they were probably going to get some sort of lecture (again).  Except Mia was far more laid back about it (she was the one who was supposed to be asleep, after all) and Rowan looked around agitatedly.  And then realized something.  "Okay, that's familiar, Mia's sitting on a desk, and look, pictures of cats," Rowan muttered, looking around the room they were in.  It was a bit fuzzy in appearance—typical of dreams—but definitely familiar.  "Mia?"

"Um-hmm?"

"Oh, get off the desk!" said Rowan, rolling her eyes.

Mia looked around, yelped, and leapt off the desk.  "Sheesh, first I was running away from a bunch of horses—now I'm in school?!"

"Looks like," Rowan replied dryly.  "English classroom, modern times as per us…unless I'm missing something."

"I…I think we are in…the classroom," said Mia, worried.  "But, uh, why…?"

"Well, of course you're here," said a light male voice.  "And you can probably guess why."

The girls whirled around to see a man standing behind them, looking greatly amused.

"Mr. Little?" both said in unison.

"You were expecting Brad Pitt?" Mr. Kevin Little, the girls' senior English teacher, joked.

Neither girl knew what to say.

"My, my, you both seem so lost.  Well, seeing as this is a dream, then I must be out of your minds," he said with a smile that said so much more.  Rowan wondered.  "So that means I know what's going on.  I'll give you a bet of advice.  When you walk through the marshes, watch my steps."

"What?" Mia said before she disappeared.

"What the!" Rowan said.

Mr. Little said, "It is her turn.  Time to go."

With that, the dream ended (for Rowan) and she opened her eyes to see the slightly lightened sky.  Mia was already up, looking extremely freaked out.  Guess she doesn't dream about school that much…  "Good morning," Rowan said cheerily.

Mia goggled at her, and then shook off any complaints she had about early risers that were cheerful about it.  "Whatever.  I take it you had the same dream?"

"English classroom and Mr. Little playing cryptic guy?  Yep," said Rowan.

"That's good…more or less."  Mia shook her head, stood, and stretched.  And then dodged her horse.  "That mare drives me bonkers," she muttered, and turned back to her friend.  "What did it mean, Rowan?"

"I have no idea, Mia," Rowan replied, getting to her feet.  "Mr. Little doesn't always make sense in the real world—why would it be any different in dreams?"

"He makes sense," Mia objected.  Rowan gave her a look.  "Okay, okay, at times he can be cryptic, I suppose.  But we both dreamed the cryptic thing—again, and also when you were supposed to be watching—"

Rowan said, "Hey, it's the English teacher's fault!"

"Don't blame him!  Even if…never mind," muttered Mia, looking a big frustrated by the whole situation.  Or maybe just because her horse was trying to take a bite out of her, again.  "The dream can't have meant nothing…right?"

Food for thought.  It definitely meant something, since that sort of dream hadn't happened since the Gandalf lecture dream and Middle-Earth was the sort of land where one had to take dreams at face value.  Lucky us, thought Rowan, shaking her head.  "You're right," she said.  "You tell me what it means."

Mia snorted.  "Since when am I a dream translator?  Okay, it was important, but it was cryptic, and I say it means that we should get a move on and tread carefully."

"Tread carefully?" Rowan repeated.

"Do not mock my phrasing!" said Mia sternly, and only managed to hold her straight face before snickering a little.

Rowan snickered too.  "If you say so," she said, thinking that there was definitely more to the dream than they knew.  Then again, we just woke up, our minds are probably not functioning at full power…and we've got all of a half-hour walk to the Dead Marshes to figure out what to do and think about the dream…

Not the most exciting of processes, but it would have to work.

The two girls broke camp and after a heated discussion about the merits of taking the horses into the swamp (Rowan was for it, Mia was against), decided that they ought to let the horses go.  They were far enough ahead to avoid being spotted by the hobbits and Randy was probably still having problems.  "After all," said Rowan as she and Mia stowed the necessary supplies into their packs.  "I did give him a good kick."

"Yeah, in the cojones."

"I thought you failed Spanish!"

"Some words you don't forget," said Mia, giving her an evil glare.  "And I didn't fail the vocabulary part, you know."  She lunged to the side suddenly and Rowan reached for the bow on automatic before realizing that Mia was just dodging the bite-happy mares again.

Honestly, how did she get so unlucky with horses? Rowan wondered, setting down the bow.  "Easy girl, and don't make any sudden movements."  That received a muttered response that sounded like 'you better not be talking to the horse.'

Once they were done packing, Rowan took the liberty of sending the two mares off.  Naturally, the equines took their sweet time getting the message and once they did, 'Mia's' mare pranced about a bit.  Mia made a strangled noise as Rowan muttered reluctantly, "Now that that's all taken care of…let's get a move on—what are you on about now?!"

"Is it just me or is my horse practically dancing?" Mia demanded, pointing at the offending mare.

Rowan glanced back at the horses and stifled a laugh.  "It's not just you," she told her friend as she started walking.

"Smeg," Mia muttered, following Rowan towards the Dead Marshes.  "Smegging evil horse…"

"Don't insult the horses."

"I'm well aware that they can hurt me!"

Once they reached the edge of the Marshes, the girls glanced at each other, each one asking if the other wanted to lead.  They settled the matter with rock-paper-scissors, and Mia lost.  Grumbling about unfairness and percentages (she would talk about math at a time like this), the taller girl stomped off into the 'dreaded swampy areas', while Rowan prepared her bow.

One meter in and Mia stopped, a bit lost.  She looked around, wincing a bit at the sights of the 'dead' around her, and glanced down.  She blinked.  "Rowan?"

"What, Mia?" asked Rowan, shooting her friend's back an exasperated look.  It was completely wasted, of course.  "Come on, if we want to—"

"What did Mr. Little say at the very end of our dream?" Mia interrupted.

"Ummmm," said Rowan, a bit confused and very twitchy about the swamps around them, "something about 'watch your steps', I think.  You're the one with the good memory—"

Mia turned slightly to glare at her.  "Not exactly.  And no, he said 'watch my steps.'"

"Okay, soooo?"

Groaning a little, Mia stepped to the side and pointed at the marshy ground.  Light footprints, sort of glowing in the gloom, trailed off into the swamp.  The footprints were of sneakers, looking a bit familiar.  "See?" said the taller girl.

Rowan blinked twice and shook her head, just in case she was hallucinating and Mia was leading her on.  Nope, the footprints were still there when she opened her eyes and now she knew why they looked familiar.  "Wow," she said, "isn't that the kind of sneaker print Mr. Little's shoes make?"

"Yeah, it is," Mia replied, nodding.  "And if you'll notice, they're glowing…"

Okay, Mia, do not sound like you're an announcer for the Twilight Zone.  Rowan considered saying that aloud and decided against it.  "That doesn't make sense!" she exclaimed instead, and looked around hastily, hoping not to meet with any nasties of the Marshes.  Luckily, they were too close to the edge.  "Why Mr. Little?  Hell, why Mr. Little's shoes?"

"Why not?" Mia joked and sighed when Rowan scowled at her.  "I have no idea.  Maybe Gandalf did this to make sure we paid attention.  Maybe Mr. Little's psychic.  I don't know—but at least we know what the dream was."

"Doesn't make this any less eerie," Rowan pointed out.  "I mean, hello!  Twenty-first century regular—"

"Rowan, this place is magic.  Can you go back to suspending your disbelief?"

That was rich coming from the girl that whined about the sacred storyline.  Rowan just shrugged.  "Whatever.  Let's just follow them.  Weaponless girls first."

"I do have a dagger!"

"But do you know how to use it?"

Mia began muttering again as she followed Mr. Little's shoeprints and Rowan followed, bow drawn and snickering.

~*~*~*~

All of that day, Rowan and Mia traveled across the southern part of the Dead Marshes, carefully keeping their eyes on the glowing footprints that preceded them.  On occasion, Rowan looked around to make sure they weren't being hunted, but always returned to watching where the footprints led and where Mia was going.  Safer that way.

There were two reasons for their doing this.  For one, without a guide, they could easily get lost and perish in the marshes, which would more or less screw their mission over.  The other reason was because they were both well aware of what they would see if they looked anywhere else.

There is a reason they are called the Dead Marshes.  If a traveler looks too closely at any part of them, they will see the dead rise and that is not a pretty sight.  At least, that was what the girls had read and what Mia remembered very clearly, much to her imagination's horror.  The girls both figured that, since everything else they had seen was either more beautiful or more gruesome than they had imagined, the Dead Marshes were going to seem pretty sickening to them.  They were not going to look around any more than they had to.

By nightfall, they thankfully left the Marshes behind them.

Except now, Rowan and Mia faced one of the longest and steepest flights of stairs they'd ever seen.  Normally, they would have stopped to make camp, since it was evening and they were tired of walking, but the girls both knew that Frodo, Sam, and Gollum were not stopping at all that night.

The girls had to keep moving.

~*~*~*~

"Umm, Mia?" Rowan said, as she looked up the mountainside.  It was a lot bigger than the books had said—but then again, an entire chapter had been devoted to Sam and Frodo's climb up the mountain.  Maybe she'd misjudged the actual height of the mountain.

"What," said Mia, looking behind at the Marshes.  Actually, she glared balefully at that horrid place, knowing that she would have some pretty nasty nightmares in the near future.  "We really should be moving, unless you want someone to find us."

"Who would…" Rowan stopped, shaking her head.  "Never mind, I just think we should…umm…make our loads a little lighter."

"Oh."  Mia could have kicked herself for not thinking of that herself.  Boy, was she being an idiot.  "Good idea."  She set her pack down and began sorting through what she was carrying.

Rowan did the same, kneeling on the dusty ground.  "So what do we take?" she muttered, more to herself than Mia.  "Well, my bow, arrows, and sword of course…"

"Always the fighter."

"And don't you forget it, book girl!"

"Ow, you wound me…don't look at me like that, that was a good joke."  Rowan frowned and Mia hastily went back to looking at her pack.  They had put most of the essential supplies into hers, except for the flint for making fires.  (Which was good, since Mia kept burning her fingers.)  "Let's make sure to keep my Guide to Middle Earth, 'cause Lord knows we're gonna need it, the book Galadriel gave me," said Mia, taking those two objects out, "and all of the lembas we have left."

"What about your dagger?" Rowan inquired, grabbing one of the packs and putting the supplies into them.  Mia pointed at her belt and the more-action oriented girl nodded approvingly.  "Good for you.  I'll carry all the weapons, you carry the pack."

"Why do I think I'm going to feel like a mule?" Mia said dryly.

"Don't know," said Rowan cheerfully, finishing loading up the remaining pack.  She shot the supplies they were leaving behind a wary look, but figured that they were innocuous enough.  Hobbits and Gollum probably won't even notice…  "But you might need a lot of therapy."

Mia snorted.  "Yeah, watch my eyes twitch later."  She picked up the pack and thankfully didn't fall over.  "Let's hit them stairs!" she said enthusiastically.

"You are weird."

"There's a newsflash."

And so they began their ascent, towards the only entrance to Mordor they dared take.

~*~*~*~

The girls spent most of the night climbing the mountain, while on the lookout for Orcs or the stray Uruk-Hai.  Even though they seriously wanted to spend nighttime sleeping, they had to keep climbing, to stay ahead of…well…everyone.

There had been no sign of Randy since before the Marshes.  Both girls mentioned this only once, getting a sinking feeling as they did so.  The wannabe-Nazgul was either planning something or a bit more delicate than they thought.  Probably not the latter.

Speaking of delicate, Mia discovered that her mild hiking experience had not prepared her for climbing up a mountain that Tolkien had dedicated an entire chapter to.  I am going to die, she thought more than once when she stopped to take breathers.  I am so going to die and it isn't going to be pretty…

Rowan always yanked her to her feet at that point of thought, and Mia kept climbing resolutely.  She felt glad that she'd kept her sneakers, which were serving remarkably well—not quite as comfortable as hiking boots would be, but definitely all right for the time being.

Some few hours until dawn, Mia stopped and bent over slightly, her hands on her knees.  The pace had increased at last a half-hour ago, and she was having some trouble breathing.  Probably the altitude, she thought, feeling somewhat analytical.  "Rowan," she said, half-wheezing the name.  "Please…tell me…that we are almost to the top."

Rowan paused, also breathing a bit heavily, and squinted up the mountain.  She had of course taken the lead early on.  "I think we are," she said finally, sounding triumphant.

"Oh."  Mia collapsed onto the stairs, finally giving in to her aching feet.  "Good grief, I've never climbed like this before!"

"Fun, isn't it," said Rowan with a smirk.

Mia glared.  "Ha-ha, Rowan."

"Get up, we have to keep walking."

"Who are you, Papa Mouse-kiwitz?!"

But Mia got up and kept walking, finding the energy to snicker over referencing one of her favorite movies.  Rowan just gave her a look that said she was mental.  What else was new?

~*~*~*~

Samwise Gamgee did not like traveling with the sneaking Gollum, but refrained from making as many complaints as he wished.  The creature had gotten them out of the horrid Dead Marshes, gotten them to the mountain, and Mr. Frodo trusted Gollum for the time being.  That was enough to keep Sam quiet…for the time being.

At the foot of the mountain, Frodo and Gollum conversed (a relative term, given Gollum's dialect), and the loyal gardener wandered ahead to the mountain.

"Mr. Frodo, Mr. Frodo!" Sam yelled from just a few feet away from the mountain, feeling very surprised.

"What is it, Sam?" Frodo asked, walking over with the muttering Gollum at his heels.

"Look."  Sam pointed to a bag with a bit of traveler's food and some Man-sized clothing in it.  "Unusual, wouldn't you say, to find these thigns here?  In this place?"

"Sam, maybe a traveler left it here," said Frodo logically.  "We cannot be the first people to go come here."

"But, Mr. Frodo, who would travel so close to Mordor and…Oh!  Look, Mr. Frodo, quickly!" Sam said as he pointed to the top of the flight of stairs they would soon be climbing.  He could see figures up there, indistinguishable

Frodo looked up.  "What?  Sam, I know it is a long climb but it's not going anywhere."

"But…but I saw someone, just now, go over to the top," said Sam, puzzled.

"Doubtful," said Frodo, looking a bit uneasy.  Sam thought that was perhaps because of the Ring.  It had been weighing his master down a bit of late.  The Ringbearer shook his head quickly and smiled at his friend.  "Sam, would you please relax, just a little?"

"All right, Mr. Frodo, if you feel it wise" Sam said, still giving the mountain an odd look.

To be Continued in Chapter Twelve, in which Rowan meets a big spider, Mia talks to Gollum, and there are Orcs.  Ooh, things could get troublesome…  Please leave any sort of review by clicking on the little box below.

Yavanna – thanks for the comment, and we do try to get the chapters up as soon as possible.  But RL is something of a bitch…thanks for checking up on the story.  We'll try to get them out a bit faster.

gaile – we're glad we made your day. *grin* and also glad that you like the Randy-bashing.  Hope this chapter was all right.