~ Sightseeing in Middle-Earth ~
~ Quote: ~
"I prey on prayer mats, fear my power." - Halnor (from the online RPG of Aetolia)
~ Disclaimer: ~
See previous chapters
~ Chapter XXI~
~ The Fall of Sauron and Galadriel ~
We waited before the gates for a long time, and the captains started to get restless. I got bored, but I knew better then to suggest turning back - besides the fact that everybody would look at me strangely, they suggested it themselves after awhile. And then a door in the middle of the Black Gate was opened, and out came the embassy of the Dark Tower. I stayed as far at the back of the group of captains that I could, intending to stay out of the way and not butt in.
Then the embassy began speaking. He said first that he was the Mouth of Sauron, and then paused before continuing. He said his insults, aimed at the captains in general, then at Aragorn in particular, then cringed when it looked like he might have to pay for them. Gandalf spoke up, and the interesting part began. I watched as the embassy brought out Frodo's mithril coat and Lothlorien cloak and Sam's sword from the Barrow-downs. The captains seemed to almost slump in their saddles, though none moved a muscle. The last bit of hope they had was slowly slipping away, and Pippin summed the mood up with his cry of grief as he sprang towards the embassy. The embassy, of course, had the nerve to laugh, and then made his speech about how useless is was for Gandalf to deny seeing the objects before. Gandalf replied that he hadn't intended to, anyways, and then the Mouth of Sauron went on to name the terms he wanted for the return of Frodo and Sam. Gandalf did seem to be wavering, and suddenly he glanced back at me. I arched an eyebrow and smiled in amusement, glancing at the embassy.
"You might want to capture the owner of those objects before you try and barter him off." I said dryly and loudly, and the embassy's head shot in my direction, as did everybody else's. The amused smile was still on my face, and it seemed to enrage the embassy. The rage on his face grew as Gandalf rejected Sauron's terms, saying that even if they had had the hobbit, the terms were too much to trade for just one spy. He then took the mithril coat, sword and cloak from the messenger, before telling the Mouth of Sauron, basically, to get lost. The embassy hesitated, and his eyes rested on me, where I stood, still smiling with amusement.
"Thou may think that because you have one with you who can see the future thou shalt succeed, but none can stand against the Dark Lord!" were the embassy's parting words, almost spit in Gandalf's face. Then the Mouth of Sauron turned, leapt onto his horse, and galloped back to Cirith Gorgor. On the way back, his men blew on their horns in an arranged signal, and the trap in which we'd so readily become bait was sprung.
The Black Gate opened, and the army of Mordor came swirling out. From the other three directions, other armies appeared, blocking all our escape routes. The captains and I mounted and rode back to the army quickly, and I stuck myself right next to Aragorn, Gandalf and Haldir - who were all on the same hill, conveniently enough. We stood on the hill outside the gate, watching, as we were surrounded by the armies of Mordor.
Then the hosts came on, and the battle began. For the most part, I was not involved in the battle. Haldir disappeared sometime to help his men, so I was left up on the hill with Aragorn and Gandalf as they directed the army, and was quite safe. But eventually the armies of Mordor broke through and soon the entire hill was covered in men and Orcs fighting. I myself fought, though it seemed almost by instinct that I countered the enemies swords, and I can't outright remember killing ANYTHING in that battle, though I'm sure I must have. On the whole, though, I remembered little more of that battle then I remembered of the battle in Moria - I remembered the stink, the death, the movement of my own body, exactly when I got each wound and how much it hurt, and that was about it.
Then the Nazgul came, and the battle got even more desperate. The armies of Mordor seemed to take courage from the Nazgul, while the Nazgul seemed to leech the courage and spirit out of those fighting against Mordor. At any moment, I could look and see someone cut down because they could no longer stand the Nazgul and had fallen down in a quivering heap to be hewn where they lay by Orcs.
And then Gandalf stirred, looking to the north, and cried out that the eagles were coming. I finished off the Orcs I was fighting with, and then dashed towards Gandalf, wanting to see the eagles. I had barely reached the wizards side, however, when a familiar throbbing struck up in my head, and I turned my head, instead of north, south, towards Barad-Ur. Blackness crept in on my vision, and Gandalf seemed to notice.
I heard the wizard cry "She is not yours, Sauron!", and the blackness stopped for a moment, the throbbing stayed at the level it was at, but then it started growing again. I heard Gandalf say some more things, and suddenly the blackness was gone, as was the throbbing in my head. But in it's place, blazing over the Black Gate, was Sauron's Eye. I stared at it, dumbfounded. This was NOT supposed to be happening. But it was. I vaguely noticed the battle halting around me - the men collapsed in fear, the armies of Mordor groveled before their master. Only the Elves and the members of the Fellowship still stood.
//Your fight is useless.// the voice rang out over the battlefield. //Whatever you hoped to accomplish in this foolish assault will fail. You cannot win.// Against the Eye of Sauron, every man on the field instantly became helpless, and all of the elves, as well. They were convinced we had failed. Only Aragorn, one of Elrond's twins sons - I couldn't tell which - and Gandalf still seemed to hold to the hope they would succeed. I myself had no fear of failing, since I knew that Frodo and Sam were in Mordor and would finish their quest at any moment - which gave me an idea.
"You try to scare us into submission, Sauron. But it's not going to work." I said, and suddenly I had the eyes full attention.
//So you have claimed leadership.// the voice rang throughout my head, and I fought a smile as I realized what Sauron meant.
"I do not have your precious Ring, Sauron. I have not claimed leadership. I claim nothing but knowledge of the future. And my knowledge tells me this - it is both your blessing and your doom that you have bound your life force to your Ring. Look homeward, Sauron. Look homeward and see your doom." I smirked as the eye instantly disappeared. The Nazgul suddenly gave a screech and wheeled off towards Mount Doom, and Gandalf half-turned towards me, and angry expression on his face. But at that moment, the ground began to quake. The Black Gate and it's guard towers swayed, tottered, and fell down into a collection of rubble; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise. Gandalf looked at me with no small amount of surprise, and I just smiled before he turned to look south.
"The realm of Sauron is ended!" he said. "The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest." And as we all looked south to Mordor, it seemed as if a huge shape of a shadow rose, black against the pall of cloud, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. It reared up above us, enormous and terrible, but impotent: for even as it leaned over as if to smite us, a wind came up, and it was blown away like a cloud of so much dust. Quiet fell.
Then, as one, the armies of Mordor turned and ran. Only those that had long been in Sauron's service, or were men and fiercely loyal to their non-deceased master, stayed. They were, however, no match for the armies of the Captains of the West. I watched as Aragorn, Eomer and the other captains organized their men to destroy the last bits of resistance, and then noticed out of the corner of my eye as Gwaihir landed and then took off with Gandalf and two other eagles towards Mordor.
From that point on, I mostly lost track of what was going on. I think the main reason the books had not really explained what happened directly after the fall of Sauron is because so much was happening all at once. It seemed like everybody had ten things that needed to be done five minutes ago, and they were all scurrying about.
I, of course, had absolutely nothing to do other then follow random members of the Fellowship around. So I followed Gimli for awhile, and was with him when he found Pippin under the carcass of the troll-chief. Did I mention how much trolls STINK? Getting Pippin out from underneath that corpse had been no pleasant job, let me tell you. But we got him out, and then got him healed. To keep the hobbit occupied, Gandalf asked me to stay with Pippin and talk to him while he healed, so that I did all the way to Ithilien. There the hobbit quickly recovered, and I went back to following random members of the Fellowship around. It was a habit all the Fellowship had picked up - following each other around - so it didn't look too odd when I did it.
A few days after we arrived in Ithilien, I was following Aragorn around when he and the captains met in one of their tents to discuss what supplies they needed to request from Minas Tirith, and who they would like to come with the supplies. And, not very surprisingly, Aragorn decided he was going to send for Faramir.
"Don't you dare." I piped up. I normally remained silent when following people around, so now all eyes turned to me, surprised, having forgotten I was there.
"The Lord Faramir knows these woods well, it would indeed be good to have him with us." Prince Imrahil said pointedly.
"Yeah, but Faramir's got some things to do in Minas Tirith." I said mildly, trying NOT to remember that I was arguing with royalty.
"As I have heard it, since he has healed, his days have been his own. He has much free time, and he could make good use of that time here in Ithilien." Prince Imrahil insisted. The Prince had, I'd noticed, slowly grown to distrust me. It was probably because everybody else so readily trusted me.
"Yes, Lord Faramir does have a lot of free time. Which he's spending in the Healing Hall with a certain Lady of Rohan." I said innocently, and Eomer's face turned from the slightly amused look of someone wondering if they should step in and stop an argument before it got nasty, to pure and utter shock. There was only one Lady of Rohan in Minas Tirith, so everybody knew exactly who I was talking about. Eomer opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, still looking very much in shock.
"Very well, we shall not send for Lord Faramir." Aragorn said, an amused smile playing on his lips. Annoyance flashed across Prince Imrahil's face, and he seemed about to say something when suddenly Gandalf appeared. That effectively distracted the conversation from me, and I managed to slip out before Imrahil could remember again.
When the meeting of the Captains of the West got out, I discovered that Eomer had decided to be very very nice to me, and it was quite amusing. Eomer was actually a very funny guy - he reminded me of Haldir when the elf was relaxed. Though I'm still slightly surprised that I managed to talk both him and Haldir into helping me give the soon-to-be-crowned-king-of-Gondor a bath in the river. I somehow think that they're both still kids at heart. And anyways, Aragorn needed to loosen up and find his sense of humour again. Which, after pulling Eomer into the river, as well, he did. Only Illuvatar knows what the guards that eventually came and found us thought. The King of Rohan, Heir to the throne of Gondor, Captain of the Lothlorien Guard, and me having a water fight - that's one to tell the grand children.
As much as I was enjoying my stay in Ithilien, I found that more and more I wanted to go back to Minas Tirith. I went for walks a lot, and quite frequently, I found myself standing up on a hill or some other high spot, staring off in the direction of the White City. It was during one of these times, just after sunset a few days after the water fight in the river, that Haldir found me. He said nothing when he found me, simply walked up beside me, purposely making some noise so I knew he was there.
"You miss him." though he spoke softly, Haldir's voice fell loudly in the surrounding silence.
"I suppose I do." I replied just as softly, knowing Haldir would here me at whatever volume I spoke. I hadn't really thought about why I'd stared off to Minas Tirith whenever I got the chance - I guess I hadn't wanted to think about it, since I'd left the city still angry with Boromir. And suddenly, now that I was thinking about it, I realized that I'd already forgiven Boromir for what he'd said, and just wanted to go back to the City and be with him. That in turn made me realize that my feelings for Boromir ran very deeply. Normally someone had to practically beg me to forgive them if they got me so mad at them I had to hold a grudge - but I had already forgiven Boromir without him having time to say so much as a word.
"There is nothing keeping you here. I'm sure Aragorn would grant you a guard if you wished to return to Minas Tirith ahead of us." Haldir spoke, breaking into my thoughts, and I turned my head slightly to look at him.
"I'm not sure there's anything for me to go back to." I said. In truth, for all I know, Boromir could have decided I wasn't worth the trouble and given up on me. I never met one of the messengers from Minas Tirith the day we left, so there was no way I could have gauged WHY Boromir had been asking to talk to me. He could have wanted to apologize - or he could have wanted to tell me off. Or other numerous things that instantly popped into my mind. I mentally made a note that reading lots of strange romantic fantasy novels was bad.
"What do you mean?" Haldir asked, concern in his voice, breaking into my thoughts once again.
"You REALLY should have told me that garden we went to to talk in was the private one of the house you were staying in, you know." I said dryly. "Just as you should know that the Steward of a City knows just about everything that goes on in his city, even if he can't go anywhere himself." Haldir looked at me strangely, not quite getting what I was hinting at. "Boromir found out I spent the entire afternoon *alone* with you in your *private* garden, and let's just say that he drew some incorrect conclusions. I got a little angry and stormed off. Haven't talked to him since." There was a silence as Haldir digested this and figured out what I meant.
"You had every right to be angry." I sensed a hint of anger in Haldir's voice, and turned to look at him fully. Sure enough, he did seem a little angry.
"Hm, yes, but now I have no clue whether or not I'll even be welcome back in Minas Tirith." I said, looking towards the City once again. Then suddenly Haldir was in front of me, looking at me very seriously.
"Do you love him?" The question caught me off guard, and I answered without thinking.
"Yes." I said, and Haldir nodded.
"Then go to him. If he does not love you, this shall be the time to discover it." the Elf said, and I blinked.
"Y'know, I have no clue how old you are, but I am so glad you picked up some wisdom in the however many hundreds of years you've lived." I remarked, and Haldir grinned.
"So am I." he said.
"My dear Haldir, you seem to have picked up my sense of humour." I said wryly, and the elf just grinned again. The conversation continued on a light tone for awhile, and then Haldir wandered off, saying he needed some rest. I remained on the hilltop for awhile, and after awhile, I sat and dozed. The next thing I knew, I was standing in Lothlorien, Galadriel a few feet away. I blinked sleepily, glancing around, and Galadriel gave me a few moments to wake my mind before speaking.
"My congratulations on the success of the quest." Galadriel said, and I blinked at her.
"I really didn't have anything to do with that once Frodo and Sam left the Fellowship." I pointed out.
"No indeed, but the rest of the quest has played out much as it was supposed to, despite two lives being spared." Galadriel replied.
"Yeah - go me." I said tiredly. "Though if all you want to say is congratulations, I'd very much like to go back to sleep now." Galadriel smiled slightly.
"Congratulations was only part of what I wished to say." the elf queen said, and her face suddenly turned serious before she continued. "It is time for you to go home, Erin Hean." That brought me instantly to attention.
"I don't want to." I snapped.
"What you want is not of importance here. Middle-Earth has tried it's best to remain on it's proper course, to keep events going as they should, despite your presence. But I can feel the strain on the world. If you stay much longer, Middle-Earth may tear itself apart. Do you WANT the blame for the death of a world on your shoulders?" Galadriel was in full terrifying-elven-queen mode now, and I cringed back. She'd looked freaky in the movie when she'd gone on to Frodo about what would happen if she took the Ring, but that was nothing compared to this. She positively RADIATED authority, and it was with great difficulty that I brought myself to argue with her.
"With the quest ending, what other things could I possibly change that would cause stress to Middle-Earth?" I retaliated, growing more sure of myself with every word, and suddenly, when I finished, Galadriel was normal once more.
"There are many changes that you may yet cause." Galadriel said quietly and menacingly, fixing me with an icy stare.
"Name some." I said, feeling very much like a child talking back to their mother.
"You may save yet more creatures of persons from death, and you may kill or cause the death of some creatures that were not meant to die. Most of all, there is the possibility that you may bring life into this world that was not meant to be." Galadriel's face and voice now were flat, without emotion, and I stared at her as her words sunk in. Bring life into the world that was not meant to be? There was the possibility that I could have KIDS?
I sat down on the ground heavily as thoughts whirled through my head. Galadriel's words suddenly brought home to me where I was, what was going on, and the fact that I was *16* years old. No, wait, I'd been here several months, and it had been just under two months till my birthday when I arrived here. OK, I was 17. But that still didn't change the fact that here I was in Middle-Earth, claiming I'd fallen in love with Boromir, and refusing to go back and risking the destruction of the entire world for him. AND I WAS ONLY 17.
I shook my head to clear it. Dwelling on my age was going to get no where, I could tell, so I decided to distract myself with something else.
"How sure are you that my continued presence will cause Middle-Earth to die?" I asked Galadriel shakily. The Elven queen leaned towards me, and her eyes seemed to almost bore into me as she looked into my eyes intensely.
"I have seen it in my mirror." she replied quietly. I gulped.
"OK then." I said, recalling the very prophetic magical properties of Galadriel's mirror. "How do I go home?"
"Drink this." Galadriel handed me a clear vial containing a bluish-silver liquid, and I looked at it curiously.
"What's in it?" I asked.
"Many things." was Galadriel's reply. "None of which you know of, and many of which are rare. This potion is one of a kind. No other can be made. And it will remain potent for only five days. If you do not use it within five days, it will become useless, and the only way to return to home would be to use great - and dangerous - magicks."
"Ah." I said, eyeing the vial, more curious then ever as to what was in it. "How does it work? Will it take me to where I disappeared from? Or will it take me to wherever I think of?" I hoped that it was the latter, since then I could think of someplace on the other side of the world from my family and maybe have a new life, instead of having to return to the hell that was my home.
"It will take you to the place from which you left your world." Galadriel replied, and my face fell.
"How much time will have passed?" I asked, and Galadriel hesitated.
"I do not know. You may return at the same instant, or to a time several months after you left." she said.
"Oh this will be interesting." I grumbled. Galadriel looked at me oddly, but I didn't feel up to explaining my home life to her. Instead, I sighed.
"So do I get to say goodbye to everyone?" I asked.
"No. You must tell them that you are returning to Minas Tirith, and refuse an escort. When you are a days ride away, drink the potion." Galadriel replied. I looked at her, surprised.
"So I get to let them believe that I've disappeared somewhere in-between Ithilien and Minas Tirith?" I asked, and Galadriel nodded. I shook my head, pursing my lips. I didn't like this disappearing without saying goodbye idea.
"Will you tell them I've gone home if they ask?" I asked. Galadriel hesitated.
"Of course." she said, and I nodded.
"OK then." I took a deep breath. "Now can I go get some normal sleep before I start trying to convince Aragorn to let me go back to Minas Tirith without an escort?" Galadriel smiled slightly, and I barely saw her nod before Lothlorien faded away, and I drifted into a restful and dreamless sleep.
~ Quote: ~
"I prey on prayer mats, fear my power." - Halnor (from the online RPG of Aetolia)
~ Disclaimer: ~
See previous chapters
~ Chapter XXI~
~ The Fall of Sauron and Galadriel ~
We waited before the gates for a long time, and the captains started to get restless. I got bored, but I knew better then to suggest turning back - besides the fact that everybody would look at me strangely, they suggested it themselves after awhile. And then a door in the middle of the Black Gate was opened, and out came the embassy of the Dark Tower. I stayed as far at the back of the group of captains that I could, intending to stay out of the way and not butt in.
Then the embassy began speaking. He said first that he was the Mouth of Sauron, and then paused before continuing. He said his insults, aimed at the captains in general, then at Aragorn in particular, then cringed when it looked like he might have to pay for them. Gandalf spoke up, and the interesting part began. I watched as the embassy brought out Frodo's mithril coat and Lothlorien cloak and Sam's sword from the Barrow-downs. The captains seemed to almost slump in their saddles, though none moved a muscle. The last bit of hope they had was slowly slipping away, and Pippin summed the mood up with his cry of grief as he sprang towards the embassy. The embassy, of course, had the nerve to laugh, and then made his speech about how useless is was for Gandalf to deny seeing the objects before. Gandalf replied that he hadn't intended to, anyways, and then the Mouth of Sauron went on to name the terms he wanted for the return of Frodo and Sam. Gandalf did seem to be wavering, and suddenly he glanced back at me. I arched an eyebrow and smiled in amusement, glancing at the embassy.
"You might want to capture the owner of those objects before you try and barter him off." I said dryly and loudly, and the embassy's head shot in my direction, as did everybody else's. The amused smile was still on my face, and it seemed to enrage the embassy. The rage on his face grew as Gandalf rejected Sauron's terms, saying that even if they had had the hobbit, the terms were too much to trade for just one spy. He then took the mithril coat, sword and cloak from the messenger, before telling the Mouth of Sauron, basically, to get lost. The embassy hesitated, and his eyes rested on me, where I stood, still smiling with amusement.
"Thou may think that because you have one with you who can see the future thou shalt succeed, but none can stand against the Dark Lord!" were the embassy's parting words, almost spit in Gandalf's face. Then the Mouth of Sauron turned, leapt onto his horse, and galloped back to Cirith Gorgor. On the way back, his men blew on their horns in an arranged signal, and the trap in which we'd so readily become bait was sprung.
The Black Gate opened, and the army of Mordor came swirling out. From the other three directions, other armies appeared, blocking all our escape routes. The captains and I mounted and rode back to the army quickly, and I stuck myself right next to Aragorn, Gandalf and Haldir - who were all on the same hill, conveniently enough. We stood on the hill outside the gate, watching, as we were surrounded by the armies of Mordor.
Then the hosts came on, and the battle began. For the most part, I was not involved in the battle. Haldir disappeared sometime to help his men, so I was left up on the hill with Aragorn and Gandalf as they directed the army, and was quite safe. But eventually the armies of Mordor broke through and soon the entire hill was covered in men and Orcs fighting. I myself fought, though it seemed almost by instinct that I countered the enemies swords, and I can't outright remember killing ANYTHING in that battle, though I'm sure I must have. On the whole, though, I remembered little more of that battle then I remembered of the battle in Moria - I remembered the stink, the death, the movement of my own body, exactly when I got each wound and how much it hurt, and that was about it.
Then the Nazgul came, and the battle got even more desperate. The armies of Mordor seemed to take courage from the Nazgul, while the Nazgul seemed to leech the courage and spirit out of those fighting against Mordor. At any moment, I could look and see someone cut down because they could no longer stand the Nazgul and had fallen down in a quivering heap to be hewn where they lay by Orcs.
And then Gandalf stirred, looking to the north, and cried out that the eagles were coming. I finished off the Orcs I was fighting with, and then dashed towards Gandalf, wanting to see the eagles. I had barely reached the wizards side, however, when a familiar throbbing struck up in my head, and I turned my head, instead of north, south, towards Barad-Ur. Blackness crept in on my vision, and Gandalf seemed to notice.
I heard the wizard cry "She is not yours, Sauron!", and the blackness stopped for a moment, the throbbing stayed at the level it was at, but then it started growing again. I heard Gandalf say some more things, and suddenly the blackness was gone, as was the throbbing in my head. But in it's place, blazing over the Black Gate, was Sauron's Eye. I stared at it, dumbfounded. This was NOT supposed to be happening. But it was. I vaguely noticed the battle halting around me - the men collapsed in fear, the armies of Mordor groveled before their master. Only the Elves and the members of the Fellowship still stood.
//Your fight is useless.// the voice rang out over the battlefield. //Whatever you hoped to accomplish in this foolish assault will fail. You cannot win.// Against the Eye of Sauron, every man on the field instantly became helpless, and all of the elves, as well. They were convinced we had failed. Only Aragorn, one of Elrond's twins sons - I couldn't tell which - and Gandalf still seemed to hold to the hope they would succeed. I myself had no fear of failing, since I knew that Frodo and Sam were in Mordor and would finish their quest at any moment - which gave me an idea.
"You try to scare us into submission, Sauron. But it's not going to work." I said, and suddenly I had the eyes full attention.
//So you have claimed leadership.// the voice rang throughout my head, and I fought a smile as I realized what Sauron meant.
"I do not have your precious Ring, Sauron. I have not claimed leadership. I claim nothing but knowledge of the future. And my knowledge tells me this - it is both your blessing and your doom that you have bound your life force to your Ring. Look homeward, Sauron. Look homeward and see your doom." I smirked as the eye instantly disappeared. The Nazgul suddenly gave a screech and wheeled off towards Mount Doom, and Gandalf half-turned towards me, and angry expression on his face. But at that moment, the ground began to quake. The Black Gate and it's guard towers swayed, tottered, and fell down into a collection of rubble; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise. Gandalf looked at me with no small amount of surprise, and I just smiled before he turned to look south.
"The realm of Sauron is ended!" he said. "The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest." And as we all looked south to Mordor, it seemed as if a huge shape of a shadow rose, black against the pall of cloud, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. It reared up above us, enormous and terrible, but impotent: for even as it leaned over as if to smite us, a wind came up, and it was blown away like a cloud of so much dust. Quiet fell.
Then, as one, the armies of Mordor turned and ran. Only those that had long been in Sauron's service, or were men and fiercely loyal to their non-deceased master, stayed. They were, however, no match for the armies of the Captains of the West. I watched as Aragorn, Eomer and the other captains organized their men to destroy the last bits of resistance, and then noticed out of the corner of my eye as Gwaihir landed and then took off with Gandalf and two other eagles towards Mordor.
From that point on, I mostly lost track of what was going on. I think the main reason the books had not really explained what happened directly after the fall of Sauron is because so much was happening all at once. It seemed like everybody had ten things that needed to be done five minutes ago, and they were all scurrying about.
I, of course, had absolutely nothing to do other then follow random members of the Fellowship around. So I followed Gimli for awhile, and was with him when he found Pippin under the carcass of the troll-chief. Did I mention how much trolls STINK? Getting Pippin out from underneath that corpse had been no pleasant job, let me tell you. But we got him out, and then got him healed. To keep the hobbit occupied, Gandalf asked me to stay with Pippin and talk to him while he healed, so that I did all the way to Ithilien. There the hobbit quickly recovered, and I went back to following random members of the Fellowship around. It was a habit all the Fellowship had picked up - following each other around - so it didn't look too odd when I did it.
A few days after we arrived in Ithilien, I was following Aragorn around when he and the captains met in one of their tents to discuss what supplies they needed to request from Minas Tirith, and who they would like to come with the supplies. And, not very surprisingly, Aragorn decided he was going to send for Faramir.
"Don't you dare." I piped up. I normally remained silent when following people around, so now all eyes turned to me, surprised, having forgotten I was there.
"The Lord Faramir knows these woods well, it would indeed be good to have him with us." Prince Imrahil said pointedly.
"Yeah, but Faramir's got some things to do in Minas Tirith." I said mildly, trying NOT to remember that I was arguing with royalty.
"As I have heard it, since he has healed, his days have been his own. He has much free time, and he could make good use of that time here in Ithilien." Prince Imrahil insisted. The Prince had, I'd noticed, slowly grown to distrust me. It was probably because everybody else so readily trusted me.
"Yes, Lord Faramir does have a lot of free time. Which he's spending in the Healing Hall with a certain Lady of Rohan." I said innocently, and Eomer's face turned from the slightly amused look of someone wondering if they should step in and stop an argument before it got nasty, to pure and utter shock. There was only one Lady of Rohan in Minas Tirith, so everybody knew exactly who I was talking about. Eomer opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, still looking very much in shock.
"Very well, we shall not send for Lord Faramir." Aragorn said, an amused smile playing on his lips. Annoyance flashed across Prince Imrahil's face, and he seemed about to say something when suddenly Gandalf appeared. That effectively distracted the conversation from me, and I managed to slip out before Imrahil could remember again.
When the meeting of the Captains of the West got out, I discovered that Eomer had decided to be very very nice to me, and it was quite amusing. Eomer was actually a very funny guy - he reminded me of Haldir when the elf was relaxed. Though I'm still slightly surprised that I managed to talk both him and Haldir into helping me give the soon-to-be-crowned-king-of-Gondor a bath in the river. I somehow think that they're both still kids at heart. And anyways, Aragorn needed to loosen up and find his sense of humour again. Which, after pulling Eomer into the river, as well, he did. Only Illuvatar knows what the guards that eventually came and found us thought. The King of Rohan, Heir to the throne of Gondor, Captain of the Lothlorien Guard, and me having a water fight - that's one to tell the grand children.
As much as I was enjoying my stay in Ithilien, I found that more and more I wanted to go back to Minas Tirith. I went for walks a lot, and quite frequently, I found myself standing up on a hill or some other high spot, staring off in the direction of the White City. It was during one of these times, just after sunset a few days after the water fight in the river, that Haldir found me. He said nothing when he found me, simply walked up beside me, purposely making some noise so I knew he was there.
"You miss him." though he spoke softly, Haldir's voice fell loudly in the surrounding silence.
"I suppose I do." I replied just as softly, knowing Haldir would here me at whatever volume I spoke. I hadn't really thought about why I'd stared off to Minas Tirith whenever I got the chance - I guess I hadn't wanted to think about it, since I'd left the city still angry with Boromir. And suddenly, now that I was thinking about it, I realized that I'd already forgiven Boromir for what he'd said, and just wanted to go back to the City and be with him. That in turn made me realize that my feelings for Boromir ran very deeply. Normally someone had to practically beg me to forgive them if they got me so mad at them I had to hold a grudge - but I had already forgiven Boromir without him having time to say so much as a word.
"There is nothing keeping you here. I'm sure Aragorn would grant you a guard if you wished to return to Minas Tirith ahead of us." Haldir spoke, breaking into my thoughts, and I turned my head slightly to look at him.
"I'm not sure there's anything for me to go back to." I said. In truth, for all I know, Boromir could have decided I wasn't worth the trouble and given up on me. I never met one of the messengers from Minas Tirith the day we left, so there was no way I could have gauged WHY Boromir had been asking to talk to me. He could have wanted to apologize - or he could have wanted to tell me off. Or other numerous things that instantly popped into my mind. I mentally made a note that reading lots of strange romantic fantasy novels was bad.
"What do you mean?" Haldir asked, concern in his voice, breaking into my thoughts once again.
"You REALLY should have told me that garden we went to to talk in was the private one of the house you were staying in, you know." I said dryly. "Just as you should know that the Steward of a City knows just about everything that goes on in his city, even if he can't go anywhere himself." Haldir looked at me strangely, not quite getting what I was hinting at. "Boromir found out I spent the entire afternoon *alone* with you in your *private* garden, and let's just say that he drew some incorrect conclusions. I got a little angry and stormed off. Haven't talked to him since." There was a silence as Haldir digested this and figured out what I meant.
"You had every right to be angry." I sensed a hint of anger in Haldir's voice, and turned to look at him fully. Sure enough, he did seem a little angry.
"Hm, yes, but now I have no clue whether or not I'll even be welcome back in Minas Tirith." I said, looking towards the City once again. Then suddenly Haldir was in front of me, looking at me very seriously.
"Do you love him?" The question caught me off guard, and I answered without thinking.
"Yes." I said, and Haldir nodded.
"Then go to him. If he does not love you, this shall be the time to discover it." the Elf said, and I blinked.
"Y'know, I have no clue how old you are, but I am so glad you picked up some wisdom in the however many hundreds of years you've lived." I remarked, and Haldir grinned.
"So am I." he said.
"My dear Haldir, you seem to have picked up my sense of humour." I said wryly, and the elf just grinned again. The conversation continued on a light tone for awhile, and then Haldir wandered off, saying he needed some rest. I remained on the hilltop for awhile, and after awhile, I sat and dozed. The next thing I knew, I was standing in Lothlorien, Galadriel a few feet away. I blinked sleepily, glancing around, and Galadriel gave me a few moments to wake my mind before speaking.
"My congratulations on the success of the quest." Galadriel said, and I blinked at her.
"I really didn't have anything to do with that once Frodo and Sam left the Fellowship." I pointed out.
"No indeed, but the rest of the quest has played out much as it was supposed to, despite two lives being spared." Galadriel replied.
"Yeah - go me." I said tiredly. "Though if all you want to say is congratulations, I'd very much like to go back to sleep now." Galadriel smiled slightly.
"Congratulations was only part of what I wished to say." the elf queen said, and her face suddenly turned serious before she continued. "It is time for you to go home, Erin Hean." That brought me instantly to attention.
"I don't want to." I snapped.
"What you want is not of importance here. Middle-Earth has tried it's best to remain on it's proper course, to keep events going as they should, despite your presence. But I can feel the strain on the world. If you stay much longer, Middle-Earth may tear itself apart. Do you WANT the blame for the death of a world on your shoulders?" Galadriel was in full terrifying-elven-queen mode now, and I cringed back. She'd looked freaky in the movie when she'd gone on to Frodo about what would happen if she took the Ring, but that was nothing compared to this. She positively RADIATED authority, and it was with great difficulty that I brought myself to argue with her.
"With the quest ending, what other things could I possibly change that would cause stress to Middle-Earth?" I retaliated, growing more sure of myself with every word, and suddenly, when I finished, Galadriel was normal once more.
"There are many changes that you may yet cause." Galadriel said quietly and menacingly, fixing me with an icy stare.
"Name some." I said, feeling very much like a child talking back to their mother.
"You may save yet more creatures of persons from death, and you may kill or cause the death of some creatures that were not meant to die. Most of all, there is the possibility that you may bring life into this world that was not meant to be." Galadriel's face and voice now were flat, without emotion, and I stared at her as her words sunk in. Bring life into the world that was not meant to be? There was the possibility that I could have KIDS?
I sat down on the ground heavily as thoughts whirled through my head. Galadriel's words suddenly brought home to me where I was, what was going on, and the fact that I was *16* years old. No, wait, I'd been here several months, and it had been just under two months till my birthday when I arrived here. OK, I was 17. But that still didn't change the fact that here I was in Middle-Earth, claiming I'd fallen in love with Boromir, and refusing to go back and risking the destruction of the entire world for him. AND I WAS ONLY 17.
I shook my head to clear it. Dwelling on my age was going to get no where, I could tell, so I decided to distract myself with something else.
"How sure are you that my continued presence will cause Middle-Earth to die?" I asked Galadriel shakily. The Elven queen leaned towards me, and her eyes seemed to almost bore into me as she looked into my eyes intensely.
"I have seen it in my mirror." she replied quietly. I gulped.
"OK then." I said, recalling the very prophetic magical properties of Galadriel's mirror. "How do I go home?"
"Drink this." Galadriel handed me a clear vial containing a bluish-silver liquid, and I looked at it curiously.
"What's in it?" I asked.
"Many things." was Galadriel's reply. "None of which you know of, and many of which are rare. This potion is one of a kind. No other can be made. And it will remain potent for only five days. If you do not use it within five days, it will become useless, and the only way to return to home would be to use great - and dangerous - magicks."
"Ah." I said, eyeing the vial, more curious then ever as to what was in it. "How does it work? Will it take me to where I disappeared from? Or will it take me to wherever I think of?" I hoped that it was the latter, since then I could think of someplace on the other side of the world from my family and maybe have a new life, instead of having to return to the hell that was my home.
"It will take you to the place from which you left your world." Galadriel replied, and my face fell.
"How much time will have passed?" I asked, and Galadriel hesitated.
"I do not know. You may return at the same instant, or to a time several months after you left." she said.
"Oh this will be interesting." I grumbled. Galadriel looked at me oddly, but I didn't feel up to explaining my home life to her. Instead, I sighed.
"So do I get to say goodbye to everyone?" I asked.
"No. You must tell them that you are returning to Minas Tirith, and refuse an escort. When you are a days ride away, drink the potion." Galadriel replied. I looked at her, surprised.
"So I get to let them believe that I've disappeared somewhere in-between Ithilien and Minas Tirith?" I asked, and Galadriel nodded. I shook my head, pursing my lips. I didn't like this disappearing without saying goodbye idea.
"Will you tell them I've gone home if they ask?" I asked. Galadriel hesitated.
"Of course." she said, and I nodded.
"OK then." I took a deep breath. "Now can I go get some normal sleep before I start trying to convince Aragorn to let me go back to Minas Tirith without an escort?" Galadriel smiled slightly, and I barely saw her nod before Lothlorien faded away, and I drifted into a restful and dreamless sleep.