This is as wacked an idea as I have EVER had...and I have had a few recently! I cannot say how it came to me...In a dream, after too many cream sodas? I am not sure. It has been floating around in my head since this summer when I did a brief outline. But I decided, what the heck I'll go for it.
This story is very very AU....way way...AU.....oh you'll see!
"My lord, the Ringwraiths are at the Ford! Glorfindel is confronting them as we speak!"
Elrond, Lord of Imladris, looked up from the herbs he was grinding in a mortar. "Thanks for this news Erestor. Please make sure the room is prepared for the Ringbearer. I shall go assist Glorfindel."
Erestor bowed slightly and left to do his lord's bidding.
Lord Elrond stood and went out of his stillroom. Going purposefully through his study to the large terrace outside his suite of rooms in the Last Homely House, he stood on the balcony and closed his eyes.
Holding his hands before him as if in prayer, he began speaking in a language unknown in Middle Earth and slowly pulled his hands apart as if in benediction. Concentrating, his brow furrowing slightly, he sent out a Command in an unknown tongue and bright blue light began to make the edges of his figure glow, and then, Elrond spoke a sharp word and clapped his hands together. Slowly the light faded and the elf lord slumped slightly with a sigh.
Behind him, the wizard Mithrandir spoke up. "I augmented what you sent, dear friend, with a little display for the Ringbearer, if he remembers it!"
"Oh I "saw" it Mithrandir." The elf lord turned, smiling slightly, one eyebrow arched in humor. "Quite impressive. I am sure the Ringwraiths will not forget your plunging horses either. Though I am afraid we have not seen the last of those pernicious figures. Sauron has always had such a talent for lingering, undying evil. Even before he followed us here.""
Mithrandir came over to Elrond and put a hand on his shoulder, his wise wrinkled face settling into more thoughtful lines. "His deeds are legendary and neither I nor you have forgotten his long path of destruction. But now you must see to the Ringbearer. I am afraid his injury is grave."
"Indeed. I rely on you old friend to keep the curious away if more extreme measures are needed."
"Of course. This Quest must succeed, for all of Middle Earth."
"And by this little one rushing to us for aid. Why is it always the smallest who do the biggest deeds?" The elf lord sighed. "It will, however, be the culminating event of a very exciting string of events."
"And will be our culminating affair as well."
Elrond looked out over the autumn landscape of his home, the trees tossing in a cool breeze off the Misty Mountains and flinging forth the last of their gold and red leaves.
"Ahh, our stay here has been fraught with dangers, war and deep loves. I would not have changed a thing, except, except Celebrian's leaving sooner than we had any reason to expect."
"Even we can not see all ends Elrond. You and Celebrian will be together when you depart. Time will prove the healer you have hoped for."
The elf lord nodded slowly, his ageless deep gray eyes staring sightlessly at the flagstones beneath his boots.
A few minutes of silence more and then the two ancient ones went back into Elrond's study. Pausing to bring the herbs and a small bottle of tincture he judged he might need, Elrond followed his companion out into the corridor and down a short way to a special room Elrond reserved for the very ill or injured. It had not been used in quite sometime.
But once the two stepped in, he smiled slightly to see all was in readiness for the injured hobbit.
A large bed lay against the west wall of the room, the blankets turned down, the candelabra on either side lit and throwing bright warmth across the inviting white expanse of sheets and quilt.
Mithrandir followed the elf lord over to a long table on the north wall where a great many of Elrond's elvish medical supplies were laid out in readiness.
The healer took a moment to pour the herbs he had ground earlier into a small bowl and poured the tincture he carried over it. He turned to the wizard. "If you would be so kind Mithrandir? My energy is a little depleted." He indicated the small earthenware dish and watched as the aged wizard held a hand that glowed slightly with a red radiance over the herbal mixture. His energy would help bolster the healing properties of the cordial. Elrond picked up the small dish and carefully poured the contents into a glass and put it aside.
Assessing the other contents on the table, Elrond was satisfied with their appearance. They actually might prove useful. But based on the perimeter guard's report, the Ringbearer Frodo Baggins was in a very bad way. Elrond went about the room lighting candles.
As he crossed the door to the passage room he looked at the power level and was glad to see it was full-charged. Good, he would probably need it shortly.
Soon, he heard the sound of many voices outside the sick room, and Mithrandir went and opened the door.
Elrond's Second, Glorfindel, held the wounded hobbit in his arms, his body still radiant from the energy he had poured forth at the Ford. His presence lit up the room as much as the candles.
"He has been carrying a Morgul blade shard for almost two weeks my lord, " the blond-haired elf said, his beautiful features creased in worry, his long hair throwing off sparks of radiance on the unconscious hobbits face. "Estel has done what he can, but the wound has sealed up, leaving the shard to wend its way to his heart."
Elrond took the grievously injured hobbit and then stepped around his Second and said in a clear warm voice. "The House of Elrond welcomes you Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took and Samwise Gamgee. Be not afraid, I will do all I can for your friend and kinsman. Erestor my House seneschal will see to your needs. Estel, attend me."
In moments, Erestor had come into the room to usher the tired travelers out.
The three hobbits just stared, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten as they watched Strider and the elves talk, the one called Elrond laying their friend Frodo carefully on the bed.
Merry and Pippin looked at each other as they finally allowed themselves to be led away by the smiling seneschal and his aides. "I have never seen anything like that in my life." Pippin said in a low voice. "That glowing elf and then, this Elrond! He's a bit scary! Did you see his eyes?" Merry nodded and added, "But Strider says he's the best healer in Middle Earth. Frodo's just got to get better!"
Pippin nodded and smiled uncertainly at the two elves who walked on either side of them down the beautiful corridor, softly lit by torches and covered with a thick carpet.
"What do you think Sam---"
Merry looked around and then smiled ruefully. Sam had hung back. And knowing they would not change his mind (and not really wanting to. Someone had to tell them just what was happening in that room) they said nothing further to their guides.
Sam stood next to a tall vase filled with wonderful flowers. Flowers he could not get to bloom in autumn! He took in a deep breath of their scent and then watched the two elves lead Merry and Pippin around a corner. He knew he would have no trouble finding them later.
He was not going to leave his master in the hands of strangers. Even ones as formidable as these elves.
They might be mighty elves, but they had his Mister Frodo and he was not going to let him out of his sight. He made a promise to himself and he was sticking to it.
Wiping his now dirty blond curls from his face, he went back down the corridor whose beauty and symmetry were lost on the tired hobbit.
He slipped in the door to Frodo's room and paused just inside. None of the room's occupants paid him any mind. He needed to stay there until he could figure out just what it was that they were going to do.
Frodo now lay undressed. The tall elf named Elrond was clinically eyeing the knife site and ran a hand gently over the half-healed wound. It was cold and unnatural feeling and the elven healer frowned. Sam did not like the elf's worried look.
"Estel, what can you tell me of this?"
"Father, he took the wound two weeks ago. I applied athelas as often as I could find it. I gave him strengthening teas, a lot of it willowbark for pain. I had some of your ointment, which was most useful in keeping the wound from infection. There were no complications other than the Morgul blade shard was not removed."
"Except..."
Aragorn looked into his father's dark eyes, hopelessness crossing his features. He brushed a tangle of dark hair out of his face. "Except he has eaten little and slept less. And I have done all I can to ease his pain! But to no avail! His skin is so cold and his dreams are especially bad."
Elrond's face softened and he put a hand on his foster son's shoulder. "You did very well under such trying circumstances, Estel. We had no idea Sauron would move so swiftly. I am afraid a millennium of complacency is to blame here. Go, rest. I shall be with Frodo. We will talk in the morning."
Aragorn nodded tiredly, his shoulders slumping. Seeing the hobbit Sam by the door frowning, he paused.
"Sam, cheer up! My foster father is an exceptionally fine healer. Frodo is in the best hands possible now. You need to wash up, get some decent food in you and rest. Like Father says, in the morning, I am sure much will have improved."
Elrond looked over at Aragorn and briefly left the comatose Ringbearer for a moment and knelt down in front of the disgruntled gardener.
"Frodo is very dear to your heart, is he not?"
Sam nodded a bit sullenly.
Elrond tipped up the hobbit's head with a long finger and looked deep into his eyes easing the anxiety. "Your loyalty is admirable Samwise Gamgee. Go now, I promise all will be well."
Blinking, Sam stood up taller. He did feel a bit better. Not so achey and worried.
"All right my lord. But, if you need anything or any help at all, you just call on ol' Sam. I'll come help you in a shot."
"You have my word."
Sam turned and left with Aragorn, planning on returning when he'd had a bit of a wash-up and some decent tucker.
Elrond looked at Mithrandir and nodded slightly.
"Is it as grave as Aragorn says it is my lord?"
"Indeed," Elrond ran his hands over the unconscious hobbit, unhappy with his state. He placed a hand on the pale clammy brow of the hobbit and immediately began to wince as he felt the turmoil in his small patient's thoughts and the evil threatening to swallow him whole.
"It is exactly as Estel has said. The wound has healed up but there is a dark thread of evil still coiling and releasing poison into the hobbit's body and spirit. It will require rather delicate surgery, I am afraid." The tall elf turned to look at his supplies. They would not provide the help Frodo Baggins needed now. Smiling tiredly, he looked at the wizard.
"We need to get to Elbereth. I am glad we have been tracking her position these last few days because what I have here will not suffice."
Mithrandir nodded and went over to the passage room. Moving aside an ornate wall sconce, he deftly punched in a code and the door to the passage room slid open with a quiet 'snick.' A small screen dropped and the wizard briefly read the information scrolling down on it. "She is position my lord." He touched the screen and it went back into the wall.
"Excellent."
Pulling a blanket out of the linen chest at the end of the bed, Elrond carefully wrapped Frodo in it and picked him up gently. Holding him close he waited until the wizard had entered the passage room. He waited until a subsonic tone signaled Mithrandir's leave-taking.
Adjusting the hobbit in his arms, the tall elven healer stepped into the now empty passage room, punched a code and soon disappeared.
The door to the room closed silently, the wall sconce moved back into place and locks firmly latched the bedroom door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~to be continued~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~