Chapter 10: Evil Returns

The next day pasted rather quickly for the company of elves, hobbits, dwarf, and humans. The hobbits and Zayn were finishing up their practice with the daggers, while Aragorn watched from the shade of the near by trees. The two young hobbits had been teaching her from dawn to slightly after noon. "Step to the side when they charge you. Then they'll loose momentum and keep going forward." cried the ranger. Following his example Pippen charged Zayn, after turning to the side the hobbit kept going and nearly hit the ground. "Nice." Zayn had progressed very well with the sword and dagger, so much so the ranger would not have to worry about her in a time of battle.

In another clearing the two elves were practicing archery. Legolas appraised her stance, making sure she was standing correctly for a perfect shot. The two had become good friend during the time they were practicing, once Vywien had finished asking questions she became focused on their task at hand. He then turned in the same position Vywien was in, "I want you to shoot your arrow through mine." The elf then shot one of his arrows a good twenty feet away into a large tree. Vywien blinked and focused on her target, after she felt the arrows were lined up she released. The arrow flew amazingly fast and imbedded itself in the tree, splitting the other arrow in half.

Legolas turned and smiled at Vywien, "That was excellent. I have not seen the likes of which in a long time." Vywien turned a deep shade of red at the compliment and looked away. "I think we are finished with the training. Should we go see how the others are doing?' questioned Legolas. The other elf turned and smiled at him, "Sure." The two then walk together over to the sheltered clearing, just in time to see the others come walking back.

Aragorn looks at Legolas, "Did you finish the training?' with a nod from the elf he continues, 'I think we are ready for the quest."

Vywien walks beside Zayn, "Can you use your sword an dagger now?" "Yes, I learned a lot especially with the sword. Merry and Pippin taught me how to use the dagger really well. What about you?"

"I have learned a great deal about using the sword and bow." replied Vywien with a smile. "Do you think we'll start the quest soon? Wonder what the other plane is going to be like." Zayn spoke her inner thoughts aloud. "If we need our weapons, it can't be a peaceful place." replied Aragorn with a grim face.

That night the two elves had caught supper for everyone, as usual the two hobbits were the cooks. Everyone sat around the fire watching as the hobbits seasoned the large bird. Vywien and Zayn looked slightly depressed because their training was over, meaning they didn't need to spend so much time with Legolas and Aragorn. Aragorn was sharpening his weapons to the right of Zayn, thinking about the quest ahead. Legolas and Gimli were talking animatedly beside Vywien. After finishing their meal, all of them went to sleep, knowing the following day was when Gandalf would be back.

* * *

Back on regular earth Joyce, who had bought the beautiful necklace for her eighteen year old daughter, was preparing her daughters birthday party. She had enlisted/ordered the help of her other daughters, who were occupied putting streamers and baloons through out her house. Rachel came back from work at seven, because she had an early shift. Her group of friends were to arrive at six. They had bought six cases of soda, eight bags of chips, five cases of pretzels, and ten boxes of pizza.

All of her friend were known to eat a lot when brought together in large groups. Several decks of cards were stacked up on the table, along with four board games and two large spoons. Rachel's group of friends could party well into the morning, and probably would do so. Never lacking enthusiasm, they were wont to cause a scene from someone's home to the mall.

By the time that six o'clock rolled around, two of Rachel's friends arrived right away to help out, Kevin and Amber. Immediately Joyce put them to work to have all of the prepartions ready for when her eldest daughter arrived. Joyce had given Rachel her birthday present that very morning, and Rachel had been wearing it all day. With a jewel as powerfully corruptive as this one was, Rachel was already starting to show remarkable 'cranky' changes, acting in ways that she never would have dreamed of acting before. She was developing a serious attitude problem towards any and everyone that she met, and she would literally freak out for just an instant if she didn't feel her ruby around her neck.

As the old clock struck seven, Rachel shut off her engine and walked up the steps. She opened it slowly, and was greeted with. "SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Rachel literally threw her keys at the person directly in front of her by accident, smaking Amber hard in the shoulder. "Whats this?" Rachel asked, looking around the small room, literally crammed with people.

"We've decided to throw you a birthday party!" Joyce said, coming up and smiling at her daughter warmly. "To honor your turning twenty!"

Rachel glanced around the room again, and she felt this odd form of anger, and unsatisfcation with everyone there. She had wanted to watch a couple of movies, not entertain people for hours on end. She tried her best to tamp down the anger, not knowing where it was coming from, and smiled weakly at her mother. "Great." But if anyone would have looked closey at Rachel, her eyes were a dead give away. Her usually docile, gentle eyes were filled with a strange form of anger and malice. Noone seemed to notice, and everyone jumped into partying head first.

* * *

"Great." Rachel rolled her eyes at a gift that her friend Amber had given to her. "A Lord of the Rings book. Like I have time to read anymore. Next time, save your money." Amber gaped at Rachel open-mouthed...what had just happened? Next Rachel moved on to a gift from Amber's boyfriend, Kevin. She quickly ripped the wrapping off, and turned the gift over. She was staring at a brand new Newsboys album in her hands. Rachel glared at the picture of the members on the CD. "Kevin, haven't you heard? Newsboys suck!" Now it was Kevin's turn to stare open-mouthed at her friend. Something was seriously wrong with Rachel, what was happening to her? In the short time that he had known her, she had never-ever acted this way.

Rachel couldn't believe her own ears, why was she saying such terrible things? This presents were great! She had asked for all of them, and now she was shunning them and dissing her friends in the process? It was almost as if Rachel didn't have any control over her actions or thoughts. Like she was living in a shell in her brain, and someone else was acting upon this mean impulses. Still, no matter how hard Rachel tried, she couldn't bring herself to apologize...she just couldn't. She didn't know how, and she didn't know why. She knew her friends and family were very disappointed in her, and she couldn't blame them, yet she still couldn't apologize. She looked around as people tried to hide the gifts that they brought for her behind their backs in vain.

Two girls, Kim and Alicia were hiding under the kitchen table. Alicia, commonly known as Al, was throwing random food particles at Rachel hoping to appease her. While Kim was looking at Rachel in fear, wondering what was wrong. She sighed and clutched the ruby that hung around her neck with her left hand...it was going to be a long night.

Several hours after the party, Joyce Miller thought to herself. What a disaster, what's wrong with my daughter.It was like she had a major case of PMS, and she would lash out at anyone who so much had gotten near her. Joyce lay on her bed, staring up at the dark ceiling in thought. More then once she had seen her daughter reach for the red ruby around her neck, hold it, and run her fingers across it. It was the weirdest gesture, almost as if she'd thought it was no longer there. Dismissing it from her mind, Joyce concluded that her daughter had just had a bad day. Flipping over she fell fast asleep.

* * *

Rachel clutched the ruby necklace to her chest, unwilling to even let it go for the night, for fear of losing it. It was the best present that she had ever recieved, and noone, anywhere was ever going to take it away from her. Rachel would fight to the death to keep this ruby. Clutching it tighter in her hands, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

"It must be destroyed!" A tall man clothed in white shouted loudly. "How do we do such a task?" A tall, graceful blonde female...elf, asked a bit shyly. "You must go from whence it came, steal it from whoever is carrying it, and burn it in the fires for evermore!" The old man replied. "But who has it?" A dark stranger with an heir of royalty asked. "She does." The old man whispered, and one by one everyone looked at her.

Rachel sat up with a gasp. Weird dream. She took a deep breath, and frantically felt around for her ruby, it was gone! She searched everywhere, her heart pounding in her ears to try and find it. When she could not find the ruby anywhere, she started crying loudly, feeling such pain of lost and discontent that she had ever known. She laid her her back down on her pillow, and felt a lump beneath her head. With tears still streaming down her face for her lost, she stuck her hand under her pillow, and she caught the ruby there. The chain had broken sometime during the night, and with her tossing and turning, trying to escape from strange dreams where people are coming after her, constantly trying to find her ruby. She clutched the ruby to her chest tightly, determined to never let it out of her sight again. Now she cried for joy at the finding of her strange jewel. Dismissing the dreams from her mind, Rachel got up to face another day.