Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings. It belongs
to JRR Tolkien. The short song in the chapter is called 'Basketcase' by Greenday.
Author's Note:
Sorry it took so long to update. I was mostly working on 'The File Cabinet' and my sites. It's mostly talking in this chapter, so it may not be as long as it looks. -___-
SET IT OFF!
"You're what?"
"We are leaving you here, child. It is for your own good."
"That's not fair!"
"Why is it not?"
"B-because! I..."
Naurglahad thought hard to extract a lie to tell Aragorn. But really, the only reason she had to go was to steal the Ring from Frodo. Of course, there would be no way that Aragorn would let her go if she told him that. In fact, he might actually kill her. Naruglahad crossed her arms and folded into herself, pouting as she glared up at the Ranger.
"Why should I have to listen to you?" she countered acidly. "You are no guardian of mine."
"But I am wiser than you in these lands," replied Aragorn. "It is my firm command that you stay put."
"No!"
"As the leader of this Fellowship, I--"
"I am not part of your Fellowship," the assassin spat in interruption. "I am a follower. I will follow you where ever any of you fools go. You may even be my ticket to get home!"
"I am sorry, Naurglahad." His tone was final and secure. "You cannot go." He turned and headed off into the forest, towards the docks, where the broken Fellowship prepared to set off into the southeast.
But of course, it was sure that no one ever denied an adventure to Naurglahad Ryunarasu.
~*~
Anduin, as Naurglahad soon learned, was the great river that separated the West of Middle-earth, to the East of Middle-earth. It was the great river that divided the east side of the continent, the west side being across the sea in Valinor. At the moment, the young assassin wished that she could boot the elf prince off to the other side of the world. She's have her side on the east, and his precious elf-home on the other. Then, when she ruled all of Middle-earth, and if she played the right cards, she could ultimately destroy him forever.
"Lovely plan," muttered Boromir, continuing to row along the River. "I still cannot believe you snuck in the cargo boat and took off with us. You are such a devious young lady."
"Well I still cannot believe that the other three went on the undersides of the boats before climbing up," replied Naurglahad in the same tone. "Genius little angel, aren't you?" C-chan grinned sheepishly at her friend through a sopping wet mop of dark brown hair.
"Both of you are evil twits in the end," sighed the Steward.
"Shut up."
Naurglahad splashed a bit of water in his face, and she laughed as he nearly toppled over into the river.
~*~
"I want a marshmallow," grumbled C-chan in utter annoyance. "I've got to have my sugar."
"C," said Megan, preparing to disrespect the stubborn campfire by spitting in it. "You are a marshmallow."
"Then I'll just have to be a cannibal and eat myself."
Jackie was squatting on the shores, attempting to pulverize a smooth river rock into powder with a twig she found lying in C-chan's hair. The tip of the twig was beginning to blister open in failure, but Jackie's expression was as tired and as bored as it could ever get. The purpose of smashing a rock with a stick; none.
"Must... wreak... havoc..." mouthed Naurglahad. Her forehead leant against a tree, her eyes now slits on the verge of falling asleep.
"Naurglahad ran our of ideas to create chaos," sighed Merry. "Well, that's something new."
Naurglahad inched her head to face the Brandybuck hobbit, her left eye twitching in annoyance of boredom. Suddenly, she jumped at him started... singing.
"Do you have the time," she sang angrily in an alto tone, "To listen to me whine?
About nothing and everything all at once," Merry raised an appalled eyebrow as Pippin's face curved into shock.
"I am one of those,
Melodramatic fools,
Neurotic to the bone,
No doubt about it."
Samwise shook his head as C-chan joined into the song. "Sometimes I give myself the creeps,
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me"
"It all keeps adding up," sang Megan, looking hopelessly towards the sky.
"I think I'm cracking up!" exclaimed Jackie.
"Am I just paranoid?" asked Naurglahad.
"I think we're stoned," finished all three without a note of music.
"I am caught between the decision of applauding and fainting," commented Legolas, sweeping a lock of gold hair out of his keen eyes.
"I am going to chop that hair off, one day," muttered Naurglahad with a mischievous grin. "I swear I will."
"Be quiet, child."
"You will shut up."
Legolas opened his mouth to shout at her, but he caught Gimli's doubting stare and paused. The dwarf nodded his head slightly and leaned back in his seat on a log. There was something mysterious brewing in those dark, beady eyes. Naurglahad did not have the mind to trust it.
"Okay," she sighed loudly. "You folk bore me. I'm off to go terrorize small woodland animals."
Before Aragorn could warn her of orcs, she had taken up her spear and darted off into the woods. He shook his head and put a hand to his mouth.
"Megan, Jackie."
"Eh?" grunted Jackie, finally tossing her broken stick aside. Megan leaned to the left as the stick came flying at her head. Jackie grinned.
"Would you go after Naurglahad?" asked Aragorn. "Make sure you give her cover in case she is ambushed."
"Okee-dokey!"
"Okee-dokey?"
"It's a phrase, Meg. Get over it."
"That's my line."
"Says who?"
"Me."
"Please," repeated Aragorn. "Go, now."
~*~
"Hey, Boromir! Wait up!"
Boromir sighed heavily as he turned on his heel to face an eager Naurglahad running up the hill, coated in Autumn leaves. They scattered into the air as she climbed up towards him.
"What are you doing?" she asked brightly once she had reached him.
She did not trust the momentary silence that followed. The Steward was thinking; thinking up dishonesty. "Just going for a walk."
"You are not," she countered with a sly grin on her face. "You lie."
"Why would I lie to you, Naruglahad?"
"Because you are trying to hide something."
"I am not."
"Yes you are!" She gave him a playful push. "Don't tell an assassin whether you are lying or not!"
"Assassin?" Boromir's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"I am an assassin!" repeated Naurglahad. "Duh! Didn't I tell you that?"
"No!" cried Boromir. He backed up slightly away from her. "You never told anyone!"
"I didn't?"
"Nay!"
Naurglahad put her hands on her hips and pondered to herself. Did she tell anyone about her employment? Suddenly, she could not recall doing so. Her shoulders drooped. She remembered that she wasn't supposed to tell anyone that she was an assassin.
Before she could apologize and explain to the Steward, he had run off higher into the hills. She stood there for a few moments, listening to his footsteps crunch on the leaves. Assassins were good at tracking, were they not? Might as well track after him.
~*~
"Give it to me!"
"Never!"
"Give it to me now!"
"You are mad!"
Frodo jumped down the hill and dodged through trees. But before he could get too far, Boromir had jumped on him and had gotten a hold on his ankles. The Man tried to pull the Hobbit closer to him, hand flailing in attempt to snatch the Ring. But to no avail, Frodo slipped the golden band on, and disappeared from Boromir's sight.
"I see your mind!" he snarled.
Thud!
In a blink, Boromir watched someone jump from out of nowhere and land on an invisible shape on the ground. Naurglahad wrestled fiercely with the invisible Frodo, grabbing and pulling with all her might. "I got him!" she cried, laughing hysterically as she yanked something into the air. Frodo was revealed into sight again, struggling frantically in Naurglahad's iron grasp.
She thrust him aside and clutched the Ring to her chest, grinning evilly at both the Hobbit and the Steward. "It's mine now," she cackled. "I am the all-powerful one now!" She darted off into the trees, and Boromir nor Frodo ever heard from her again in Amon Hen.
~*~
Naurglahad was definitely going insane by the time she crept to the shores, only to find the Fellowship and her friends missing. Perfect. Ducking into one of the boats, she slipped the Ring into a small pouch of Lembas. She tucked the pouch in the far corner of the boat. No one would find it there, would they?
Like a treacherous snake, she slithered swiftly into hiding as someone came whistling down to the campsite. It was Sam, twirling a stick through his pudgy fingers, humming a tune without a care. She crouched on all fours and prepared to launch herself on him for the sudden-death kill, until---
"Orcs!" shrieked Sam. He unsheathed his sword and charged back into the woods. "I'm comin fer ye' Mister Frodo!"
"Orcs?" thought Naurglahad. "Killing practice. Goody... goody."
~*~
Legolas swore he thought he saw tears forming at Naurglahad's eyes, but in an instant, she wiped them away on her sleeve. He said nothing though, listening to Aragorn sing the final verse to Boromir's lament.
"To Rauros," sang Aragorn, "golden Rauros-falls, until the end of days."
"That's it!" huffed Gimli. "The Fellowship is broken! We've lost Gandalf, and the Steward..."
"You lost my friends too," muttered Naurglahad acidly. "What happened? Jackie and Megan get abducted by some stupid Uruk-hai, and C-chan falls in a boat with Frodo and Sam." She kicked the ground. "I hate you all."
Legolas turned to rebuttal, but Aragorn shook his head. "Let her be bitter for the moment."
"Well," Legolas darted toward the other boats, "we can still follow after Frodo and Sam... and their stowaway companion."
Aragorn did not reply. Legolas' determined gaze softened.
"We'll go after the other four," explained Naurglahad before Aragorn could speak. "Frodo, Sam, and C-chan are on their own now. Can't stop that. Let's go Rohan."
"Wise choice, Naruglahad," sighed Aragorn. "I was just about to say that."
"Well," Naurglahad grinned through a stream of tears that came down her face. "I can say it better."
"We travel light," announced the Ranger in a final tone. He slipped a knife into his scabbard. "Let's hunt some Orc!"
"Yeah!" cheered Gimli. Legolas smiled. Naurglahad laughed heartily.
Author's Note:
Sorry it took so long to update. I was mostly working on 'The File Cabinet' and my sites. It's mostly talking in this chapter, so it may not be as long as it looks. -___-
SET IT OFF!
"You're what?"
"We are leaving you here, child. It is for your own good."
"That's not fair!"
"Why is it not?"
"B-because! I..."
Naurglahad thought hard to extract a lie to tell Aragorn. But really, the only reason she had to go was to steal the Ring from Frodo. Of course, there would be no way that Aragorn would let her go if she told him that. In fact, he might actually kill her. Naruglahad crossed her arms and folded into herself, pouting as she glared up at the Ranger.
"Why should I have to listen to you?" she countered acidly. "You are no guardian of mine."
"But I am wiser than you in these lands," replied Aragorn. "It is my firm command that you stay put."
"No!"
"As the leader of this Fellowship, I--"
"I am not part of your Fellowship," the assassin spat in interruption. "I am a follower. I will follow you where ever any of you fools go. You may even be my ticket to get home!"
"I am sorry, Naurglahad." His tone was final and secure. "You cannot go." He turned and headed off into the forest, towards the docks, where the broken Fellowship prepared to set off into the southeast.
But of course, it was sure that no one ever denied an adventure to Naurglahad Ryunarasu.
~*~
Anduin, as Naurglahad soon learned, was the great river that separated the West of Middle-earth, to the East of Middle-earth. It was the great river that divided the east side of the continent, the west side being across the sea in Valinor. At the moment, the young assassin wished that she could boot the elf prince off to the other side of the world. She's have her side on the east, and his precious elf-home on the other. Then, when she ruled all of Middle-earth, and if she played the right cards, she could ultimately destroy him forever.
"Lovely plan," muttered Boromir, continuing to row along the River. "I still cannot believe you snuck in the cargo boat and took off with us. You are such a devious young lady."
"Well I still cannot believe that the other three went on the undersides of the boats before climbing up," replied Naurglahad in the same tone. "Genius little angel, aren't you?" C-chan grinned sheepishly at her friend through a sopping wet mop of dark brown hair.
"Both of you are evil twits in the end," sighed the Steward.
"Shut up."
Naurglahad splashed a bit of water in his face, and she laughed as he nearly toppled over into the river.
~*~
"I want a marshmallow," grumbled C-chan in utter annoyance. "I've got to have my sugar."
"C," said Megan, preparing to disrespect the stubborn campfire by spitting in it. "You are a marshmallow."
"Then I'll just have to be a cannibal and eat myself."
Jackie was squatting on the shores, attempting to pulverize a smooth river rock into powder with a twig she found lying in C-chan's hair. The tip of the twig was beginning to blister open in failure, but Jackie's expression was as tired and as bored as it could ever get. The purpose of smashing a rock with a stick; none.
"Must... wreak... havoc..." mouthed Naurglahad. Her forehead leant against a tree, her eyes now slits on the verge of falling asleep.
"Naurglahad ran our of ideas to create chaos," sighed Merry. "Well, that's something new."
Naurglahad inched her head to face the Brandybuck hobbit, her left eye twitching in annoyance of boredom. Suddenly, she jumped at him started... singing.
"Do you have the time," she sang angrily in an alto tone, "To listen to me whine?
About nothing and everything all at once," Merry raised an appalled eyebrow as Pippin's face curved into shock.
"I am one of those,
Melodramatic fools,
Neurotic to the bone,
No doubt about it."
Samwise shook his head as C-chan joined into the song. "Sometimes I give myself the creeps,
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me"
"It all keeps adding up," sang Megan, looking hopelessly towards the sky.
"I think I'm cracking up!" exclaimed Jackie.
"Am I just paranoid?" asked Naurglahad.
"I think we're stoned," finished all three without a note of music.
"I am caught between the decision of applauding and fainting," commented Legolas, sweeping a lock of gold hair out of his keen eyes.
"I am going to chop that hair off, one day," muttered Naurglahad with a mischievous grin. "I swear I will."
"Be quiet, child."
"You will shut up."
Legolas opened his mouth to shout at her, but he caught Gimli's doubting stare and paused. The dwarf nodded his head slightly and leaned back in his seat on a log. There was something mysterious brewing in those dark, beady eyes. Naurglahad did not have the mind to trust it.
"Okay," she sighed loudly. "You folk bore me. I'm off to go terrorize small woodland animals."
Before Aragorn could warn her of orcs, she had taken up her spear and darted off into the woods. He shook his head and put a hand to his mouth.
"Megan, Jackie."
"Eh?" grunted Jackie, finally tossing her broken stick aside. Megan leaned to the left as the stick came flying at her head. Jackie grinned.
"Would you go after Naurglahad?" asked Aragorn. "Make sure you give her cover in case she is ambushed."
"Okee-dokey!"
"Okee-dokey?"
"It's a phrase, Meg. Get over it."
"That's my line."
"Says who?"
"Me."
"Please," repeated Aragorn. "Go, now."
~*~
"Hey, Boromir! Wait up!"
Boromir sighed heavily as he turned on his heel to face an eager Naurglahad running up the hill, coated in Autumn leaves. They scattered into the air as she climbed up towards him.
"What are you doing?" she asked brightly once she had reached him.
She did not trust the momentary silence that followed. The Steward was thinking; thinking up dishonesty. "Just going for a walk."
"You are not," she countered with a sly grin on her face. "You lie."
"Why would I lie to you, Naruglahad?"
"Because you are trying to hide something."
"I am not."
"Yes you are!" She gave him a playful push. "Don't tell an assassin whether you are lying or not!"
"Assassin?" Boromir's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"I am an assassin!" repeated Naurglahad. "Duh! Didn't I tell you that?"
"No!" cried Boromir. He backed up slightly away from her. "You never told anyone!"
"I didn't?"
"Nay!"
Naurglahad put her hands on her hips and pondered to herself. Did she tell anyone about her employment? Suddenly, she could not recall doing so. Her shoulders drooped. She remembered that she wasn't supposed to tell anyone that she was an assassin.
Before she could apologize and explain to the Steward, he had run off higher into the hills. She stood there for a few moments, listening to his footsteps crunch on the leaves. Assassins were good at tracking, were they not? Might as well track after him.
~*~
"Give it to me!"
"Never!"
"Give it to me now!"
"You are mad!"
Frodo jumped down the hill and dodged through trees. But before he could get too far, Boromir had jumped on him and had gotten a hold on his ankles. The Man tried to pull the Hobbit closer to him, hand flailing in attempt to snatch the Ring. But to no avail, Frodo slipped the golden band on, and disappeared from Boromir's sight.
"I see your mind!" he snarled.
Thud!
In a blink, Boromir watched someone jump from out of nowhere and land on an invisible shape on the ground. Naurglahad wrestled fiercely with the invisible Frodo, grabbing and pulling with all her might. "I got him!" she cried, laughing hysterically as she yanked something into the air. Frodo was revealed into sight again, struggling frantically in Naurglahad's iron grasp.
She thrust him aside and clutched the Ring to her chest, grinning evilly at both the Hobbit and the Steward. "It's mine now," she cackled. "I am the all-powerful one now!" She darted off into the trees, and Boromir nor Frodo ever heard from her again in Amon Hen.
~*~
Naurglahad was definitely going insane by the time she crept to the shores, only to find the Fellowship and her friends missing. Perfect. Ducking into one of the boats, she slipped the Ring into a small pouch of Lembas. She tucked the pouch in the far corner of the boat. No one would find it there, would they?
Like a treacherous snake, she slithered swiftly into hiding as someone came whistling down to the campsite. It was Sam, twirling a stick through his pudgy fingers, humming a tune without a care. She crouched on all fours and prepared to launch herself on him for the sudden-death kill, until---
"Orcs!" shrieked Sam. He unsheathed his sword and charged back into the woods. "I'm comin fer ye' Mister Frodo!"
"Orcs?" thought Naurglahad. "Killing practice. Goody... goody."
~*~
Legolas swore he thought he saw tears forming at Naurglahad's eyes, but in an instant, she wiped them away on her sleeve. He said nothing though, listening to Aragorn sing the final verse to Boromir's lament.
"To Rauros," sang Aragorn, "golden Rauros-falls, until the end of days."
"That's it!" huffed Gimli. "The Fellowship is broken! We've lost Gandalf, and the Steward..."
"You lost my friends too," muttered Naurglahad acidly. "What happened? Jackie and Megan get abducted by some stupid Uruk-hai, and C-chan falls in a boat with Frodo and Sam." She kicked the ground. "I hate you all."
Legolas turned to rebuttal, but Aragorn shook his head. "Let her be bitter for the moment."
"Well," Legolas darted toward the other boats, "we can still follow after Frodo and Sam... and their stowaway companion."
Aragorn did not reply. Legolas' determined gaze softened.
"We'll go after the other four," explained Naurglahad before Aragorn could speak. "Frodo, Sam, and C-chan are on their own now. Can't stop that. Let's go Rohan."
"Wise choice, Naruglahad," sighed Aragorn. "I was just about to say that."
"Well," Naurglahad grinned through a stream of tears that came down her face. "I can say it better."
"We travel light," announced the Ranger in a final tone. He slipped a knife into his scabbard. "Let's hunt some Orc!"
"Yeah!" cheered Gimli. Legolas smiled. Naurglahad laughed heartily.