Author's note: Hmm. Six pages. After TWO MONTHS! *cringe* I'm sorry. I'm a
horrible authoress. I'll do better - my plot is clearing up.
A lot of the private jokes in this one should go over your head - but a few of my readers should recognize Sexy Manbeast lol *big smile*
Geez. Two months of NOO inspiration and I wrote this whole chapter last night.
Let's see how well you review, shall we?
Oh yeah, and thank you all patient readers! I appreciate support ^.^
*
Chapter Ten: A Council Of Elves
Artemis hesitantly poured himself a glass of wine as Glorfindel and Celeborn watched him from across the table. He took a tiny sip and felt his head beginning to clear. "Was that display necessary?" he demanded of the two elves icily.
Their faces remained impassive. "We've been through this, young human. The only thing we saw was the former Ringbearer passing through a circular opening in the air. What were we supposed to do? Continue on our journey to the Havens without taking notice?"
"That's all very well and good," snapped Root from Artemis's right, "but did you really have to shoot at one of our number?"
"She was strangling me," said Frodo plaintively, casting a look to the right.
Meeting his gaze, Tessa sniffled from where she sat in the corner, nursing an arrow wound in the muscle of her left arm. Jennie and Alison were next to her, rinsing the injury with cold water. "I'm sorry, Frodo," the younger teen whimpered. "I was just happy to see you."
"I bet," grinned Jennie, exchanging a knowing look with her sister.
Root was still mad. "Nevertheless! That is not courtesy!"
Celeborn spared him an emotionless glance. "Who are you to decide what is courtesy and what is common sense among elf kin?"
"I am an elfin commander, you tall excuse for a swear toad dropping!"
"As soon as we realized some of your number were elves we ceased fire!" Celeborn retorted. "If you had the good grace to be more like us than dwarves your companion would not have been wounded!"
"How are we supposed to do that? Breed with Mud Men?" Root snapped, out of patience with the constant change of subject. "We come short! That's all there is to it!"
"Then if your height does not correspond to your age, start acting like it," interrupted Glorfindel smoothly. "We have apologized, fed and watered you and tended your wounded. You might start displaying the courtesy that you continuously rave about."
Root purpled and fell silent.
As the reader might have gathered, the Elves aboard the ship traveling to the Grey Havens had become alarmed when Frodo vanished through the portal. Firing at the girl who was apparently smothering him, they had followed through and continued to give battle until they realized that Holly and Root were elves, albeit short ones.
Upon this discovery, they had formed a kind of wary alliance, and taken them all back to the ship for discussion until Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond had the time to see them.
Celeborn sat a little straighter and gazed at Root with strong curiosity. "While we are waiting for the Lady of the Golden Wood and Mithrandir... explain to us how it came about, that our kin are now so lacking in stature."
Root shrugged, bad-tempered. "I think it had something to do with crossbreeding," he mused. "I'm not entirely sure. I believe that Greenleaf, or Legolas in the gnomish tongue, began an elf/dwarf era when he befriended Gim... Gimlet? Gimly? Something like that. And Frond was one of their descendants. But that was long after the line of Numenor was forgotten."
Foaly, silent until that moment, opened his mouth to say something, but then fell quiet abruptly as Artemis turned to look at him.
((A/N: oooo. Lol))
Celeborn smiled grimly. "And why are you here now?"
"We need help," said a soft voice from Artemis's left. Holly was recovering and pushed herself upright in her chair to reach for a piece of goat's cheese.
Both elves across the table raised an eyebrow questioningly.
The mastermind was preparing to explain when Jennie, coming over from where she had been sitting with her cousin, shushed him. "As soon as Gandalf comes, he can explain everything," she said firmly.
"You will explain now," said a vioce behind her, equally firm.
Gandalf stood in the doorway. Everyone whirled to look at him, only then noticing his presence and that of the two elves behind him - Elrond and Galadriel.
Gandalf ignored the cousins and spoke directly to the two Elves across the table. "How dare you treat these guests without the most courtesy you can offer. Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins both owe them their lives. Yes, Celeborn," he added as the Lord of the Wood began to speak, "Some of these are the ones spoken of."
Glorfindel half-rose. "My liege and most honored of the Istari," he started.
The white wizard raised a hand to still him, and a star shot through with red flashed on his finger. There was a sudden quiet, and Holly and Root both drew an amazed breath.
"Varya?" whispered the captain in tones of unbounded awe. Things were moving too quickly for her. "No, it cannot be - the Three perished before the breaking of the Fifth Age- how is this possible?"
"This is the Fourth Age, daughter of the forest," said Gandalf gravely. "And if you tell your tale from the beginning, then things will become clear."
Holly hesitated. "All of it?"
Mithrandir nodded.
"But it's so late - there isn't time!" she protested feebly.
Celeborn's lips twitched. "Here it is not even midday. Begin."
She paused a moment longer before, with a deep breath, she found the nerve to begin to unfold the epic to Celeborn and Glorfindel.
To Alison the words of her tale were wholly new; she listened rapt as Holly spoke of the division between Elves and Men, and the labyrinth of tunnels miles below the surface, and of the Ritual, and the Book written by Eru and his favored, Frond himself, or so it was said.
Then the female Recon officer glanced across the table at the mastermind, remembering, making sure she had everything right and asking him silently to help her tell the story that was as much his as her own.
They began together, talking of the abduction, as she had gone to restore her power; and the time-stop and the fight for the gold.
A year later came the goblin uprising, and the trouble with Cudgeon and Kaboi. Artemis had saved them all in return for the life of his father; and then, how fairy technology had been lost, and the final battle ending in the final price - a mind wipe.
Only Artemis saw the single glittering drop fall from the edge of the Captain's eye as she began to speak alone, as she told how his memory had been restored, and he had become a friend of the People once more.
The room was silent and much dimmer than it had been. The tale had taken much time, but it was not over yet.
Artemis spoke up briefly again to tell of how he had yearned to flee the confinement of his family, and left for a new country, accompanied by Holly to make sure he stayed out of trouble. Then Jennie began to explain how they had met, and become friends instead of dire enemies, and how they had landed themselves in Middle Earth, and the close race to get home.
Tessa finished by speaking of their trip to Ireland, and the encounter of the Elves once again, and how Kaboi had used the knowledge of their mishap to summon herself an Uruk Hai army, and how they needed help to fight the huge force.
As she finished, Celeborn was already shaking his head.
"A marvelous tale, one I at least shall remember for ages hence, but-"
Glorfindel cut in as his lord paused, trying to figure out how to word their refusal.
"Humans... we sail this way to find peace. We do not want to battle anymore. You will have to find help elsewhere."
"We are your -future-," said Tessa, her eyes brimming. "You have to join with us! We're in trouble!"
"That seems to be your own fault," said Glorfindel calmly. Foaly grimaced.
But Jennie was looking at Gandalf, and past Gandalf to where the Lady of the Golden Wood and the Lord of the Last Homely House were gazing at each other, clearly troubled. They stepped nearer one another and spoke in low voices, conferring and gazing down at their slim fingers, where a blue and a white star shone faintly.
Ignoring their conferral, the White Wizard began to speak.
"Here I think I can add a little to your tale, child of the Eldest," he said, addressing Holly. "You said the Three perished before the breaking of the Fifth Age. Perished... or vanished?"
She said nothing.
"The Three's power faded after the bearers no longer needed it," the wizard continued. "But they will always pass on to those who are in trouble. This is a legend to your people, I believe?" he added, slipping Varya from his finger. "Help you need, and help you shall have."
He held out the ring. Unbelieving, the captain's fingers closed around it, and the stone in it flashed a brilliant ruby that left them all blinking.
"Now, see here," protested Root, "she surely isn't the most adept to be a Bearer- We know the legends- our Council-"
"The Rings," said Frodo suddenly, "always want to get back to their true Masters, despite ownership by way of other people." He winced and one hand went to his breast.
Tessa's lip trembled and Jennie, looking at her with a smirk, could tell she yearned to glomp him and kiss his nose and tell him everything was ok.
"You are such a demento," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
Tessa, forgetting her true love momentarily, gave a squeal of laughter and rolled about on the floor, snorting and chuckling alternately.
Artemis concluded it was probably some kind of private joke.
((A/N: Oh God... if only he knew... *sniggers* *aside to readers: when we were very very little ;) we wanted to have a Lego War, but we'd taken all the whole lego men and nobody wanted to give up their warriors for the attackers, so we used the top halves in the Bits and Pieces pile - all of whom had scrawled on marker smiles that were quite disturbing. It was a very bizarre war and remembering it years later still makes us crack up because it was so stupid. The top-half evil army was named the Dementos (*))
"Well you're a - a sexy manbeast," she sputtered through her giggles. "And you smell like cat piss. So nyah."
The other cracked up.
"At least I don't have a sa-"
"Jennie!" squealed Tessa. "FRODO is in this room! Shuttup!" She slide- tackled her cousin despite her injury and clamped down both hands on Jennie's mouth as she shook with mirth.
Frodo blinked. The elves disregarded this exchange and continued to argue.
"We have always helped our own in time of need-"
"Remember the Last Alliance-"
"But we have suffered so much, and the reign of Sauron has only recently ended, at none too low a price!"
"You can't mean to say that we are giving up peace at long last to fight again," protested Celeborn, looking at his wed.
In answer Galadriel held out Nenya. It glimmered dully in the half-light, but as Root stood up to see it better (being hardly taller than a hobbit), it blazed with white fire. His hand reached out to touch it, and Foaly whinnied with laughter at the awing look on his face.
"Yes," said Galadriel calmly. "We are going to fight again."
"Where are we going to get that kind of help?" Celeborn demanded.
"We do have a shipload of fine fighters, from Imladris and Lothelorien and even the Shire," Gandalf informed him, overly patient.
Root and Holly were utterly silent as Galadriel gestured to them. "And we have two new Bearers of the Three Rings for the Elven Kings-"
"-Under the sky," finished Elrond, a touch wistful as he gazed at his own Ring. It had not yet passed on to a new owner, and was hard to let go of. "Are we decided then? We are going to give aid?"
"What of the last of the Three?" Tessa and Jennie asked eagerly, in perfect unison as they watched Elrond.
He glared and pocketed it. "We will worry about that later, when we find one of Elf kin whom it is destined for. At the dinner tonight I shall begin to call our forces to arms," he went on, turning to Galadriel.
Under cover of the conversation that followed, Foaly looked again at Artemis, and his face closed as though a door had shut behind it.
*
Ooooo. Big secret about Artemis? Dun dun dun dun. I am getting way good at these cliffhangers. :-D
And also - the Rings have passed to new owners? All but one...
Artemis: *rolls eyes* Every reader probably knows where this is going... *crawls under couch*
Me: shhh! You are such a spoilsport! SHHH!
A lot of the private jokes in this one should go over your head - but a few of my readers should recognize Sexy Manbeast lol *big smile*
Geez. Two months of NOO inspiration and I wrote this whole chapter last night.
Let's see how well you review, shall we?
Oh yeah, and thank you all patient readers! I appreciate support ^.^
*
Chapter Ten: A Council Of Elves
Artemis hesitantly poured himself a glass of wine as Glorfindel and Celeborn watched him from across the table. He took a tiny sip and felt his head beginning to clear. "Was that display necessary?" he demanded of the two elves icily.
Their faces remained impassive. "We've been through this, young human. The only thing we saw was the former Ringbearer passing through a circular opening in the air. What were we supposed to do? Continue on our journey to the Havens without taking notice?"
"That's all very well and good," snapped Root from Artemis's right, "but did you really have to shoot at one of our number?"
"She was strangling me," said Frodo plaintively, casting a look to the right.
Meeting his gaze, Tessa sniffled from where she sat in the corner, nursing an arrow wound in the muscle of her left arm. Jennie and Alison were next to her, rinsing the injury with cold water. "I'm sorry, Frodo," the younger teen whimpered. "I was just happy to see you."
"I bet," grinned Jennie, exchanging a knowing look with her sister.
Root was still mad. "Nevertheless! That is not courtesy!"
Celeborn spared him an emotionless glance. "Who are you to decide what is courtesy and what is common sense among elf kin?"
"I am an elfin commander, you tall excuse for a swear toad dropping!"
"As soon as we realized some of your number were elves we ceased fire!" Celeborn retorted. "If you had the good grace to be more like us than dwarves your companion would not have been wounded!"
"How are we supposed to do that? Breed with Mud Men?" Root snapped, out of patience with the constant change of subject. "We come short! That's all there is to it!"
"Then if your height does not correspond to your age, start acting like it," interrupted Glorfindel smoothly. "We have apologized, fed and watered you and tended your wounded. You might start displaying the courtesy that you continuously rave about."
Root purpled and fell silent.
As the reader might have gathered, the Elves aboard the ship traveling to the Grey Havens had become alarmed when Frodo vanished through the portal. Firing at the girl who was apparently smothering him, they had followed through and continued to give battle until they realized that Holly and Root were elves, albeit short ones.
Upon this discovery, they had formed a kind of wary alliance, and taken them all back to the ship for discussion until Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond had the time to see them.
Celeborn sat a little straighter and gazed at Root with strong curiosity. "While we are waiting for the Lady of the Golden Wood and Mithrandir... explain to us how it came about, that our kin are now so lacking in stature."
Root shrugged, bad-tempered. "I think it had something to do with crossbreeding," he mused. "I'm not entirely sure. I believe that Greenleaf, or Legolas in the gnomish tongue, began an elf/dwarf era when he befriended Gim... Gimlet? Gimly? Something like that. And Frond was one of their descendants. But that was long after the line of Numenor was forgotten."
Foaly, silent until that moment, opened his mouth to say something, but then fell quiet abruptly as Artemis turned to look at him.
((A/N: oooo. Lol))
Celeborn smiled grimly. "And why are you here now?"
"We need help," said a soft voice from Artemis's left. Holly was recovering and pushed herself upright in her chair to reach for a piece of goat's cheese.
Both elves across the table raised an eyebrow questioningly.
The mastermind was preparing to explain when Jennie, coming over from where she had been sitting with her cousin, shushed him. "As soon as Gandalf comes, he can explain everything," she said firmly.
"You will explain now," said a vioce behind her, equally firm.
Gandalf stood in the doorway. Everyone whirled to look at him, only then noticing his presence and that of the two elves behind him - Elrond and Galadriel.
Gandalf ignored the cousins and spoke directly to the two Elves across the table. "How dare you treat these guests without the most courtesy you can offer. Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins both owe them their lives. Yes, Celeborn," he added as the Lord of the Wood began to speak, "Some of these are the ones spoken of."
Glorfindel half-rose. "My liege and most honored of the Istari," he started.
The white wizard raised a hand to still him, and a star shot through with red flashed on his finger. There was a sudden quiet, and Holly and Root both drew an amazed breath.
"Varya?" whispered the captain in tones of unbounded awe. Things were moving too quickly for her. "No, it cannot be - the Three perished before the breaking of the Fifth Age- how is this possible?"
"This is the Fourth Age, daughter of the forest," said Gandalf gravely. "And if you tell your tale from the beginning, then things will become clear."
Holly hesitated. "All of it?"
Mithrandir nodded.
"But it's so late - there isn't time!" she protested feebly.
Celeborn's lips twitched. "Here it is not even midday. Begin."
She paused a moment longer before, with a deep breath, she found the nerve to begin to unfold the epic to Celeborn and Glorfindel.
To Alison the words of her tale were wholly new; she listened rapt as Holly spoke of the division between Elves and Men, and the labyrinth of tunnels miles below the surface, and of the Ritual, and the Book written by Eru and his favored, Frond himself, or so it was said.
Then the female Recon officer glanced across the table at the mastermind, remembering, making sure she had everything right and asking him silently to help her tell the story that was as much his as her own.
They began together, talking of the abduction, as she had gone to restore her power; and the time-stop and the fight for the gold.
A year later came the goblin uprising, and the trouble with Cudgeon and Kaboi. Artemis had saved them all in return for the life of his father; and then, how fairy technology had been lost, and the final battle ending in the final price - a mind wipe.
Only Artemis saw the single glittering drop fall from the edge of the Captain's eye as she began to speak alone, as she told how his memory had been restored, and he had become a friend of the People once more.
The room was silent and much dimmer than it had been. The tale had taken much time, but it was not over yet.
Artemis spoke up briefly again to tell of how he had yearned to flee the confinement of his family, and left for a new country, accompanied by Holly to make sure he stayed out of trouble. Then Jennie began to explain how they had met, and become friends instead of dire enemies, and how they had landed themselves in Middle Earth, and the close race to get home.
Tessa finished by speaking of their trip to Ireland, and the encounter of the Elves once again, and how Kaboi had used the knowledge of their mishap to summon herself an Uruk Hai army, and how they needed help to fight the huge force.
As she finished, Celeborn was already shaking his head.
"A marvelous tale, one I at least shall remember for ages hence, but-"
Glorfindel cut in as his lord paused, trying to figure out how to word their refusal.
"Humans... we sail this way to find peace. We do not want to battle anymore. You will have to find help elsewhere."
"We are your -future-," said Tessa, her eyes brimming. "You have to join with us! We're in trouble!"
"That seems to be your own fault," said Glorfindel calmly. Foaly grimaced.
But Jennie was looking at Gandalf, and past Gandalf to where the Lady of the Golden Wood and the Lord of the Last Homely House were gazing at each other, clearly troubled. They stepped nearer one another and spoke in low voices, conferring and gazing down at their slim fingers, where a blue and a white star shone faintly.
Ignoring their conferral, the White Wizard began to speak.
"Here I think I can add a little to your tale, child of the Eldest," he said, addressing Holly. "You said the Three perished before the breaking of the Fifth Age. Perished... or vanished?"
She said nothing.
"The Three's power faded after the bearers no longer needed it," the wizard continued. "But they will always pass on to those who are in trouble. This is a legend to your people, I believe?" he added, slipping Varya from his finger. "Help you need, and help you shall have."
He held out the ring. Unbelieving, the captain's fingers closed around it, and the stone in it flashed a brilliant ruby that left them all blinking.
"Now, see here," protested Root, "she surely isn't the most adept to be a Bearer- We know the legends- our Council-"
"The Rings," said Frodo suddenly, "always want to get back to their true Masters, despite ownership by way of other people." He winced and one hand went to his breast.
Tessa's lip trembled and Jennie, looking at her with a smirk, could tell she yearned to glomp him and kiss his nose and tell him everything was ok.
"You are such a demento," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
Tessa, forgetting her true love momentarily, gave a squeal of laughter and rolled about on the floor, snorting and chuckling alternately.
Artemis concluded it was probably some kind of private joke.
((A/N: Oh God... if only he knew... *sniggers* *aside to readers: when we were very very little ;) we wanted to have a Lego War, but we'd taken all the whole lego men and nobody wanted to give up their warriors for the attackers, so we used the top halves in the Bits and Pieces pile - all of whom had scrawled on marker smiles that were quite disturbing. It was a very bizarre war and remembering it years later still makes us crack up because it was so stupid. The top-half evil army was named the Dementos (*))
"Well you're a - a sexy manbeast," she sputtered through her giggles. "And you smell like cat piss. So nyah."
The other cracked up.
"At least I don't have a sa-"
"Jennie!" squealed Tessa. "FRODO is in this room! Shuttup!" She slide- tackled her cousin despite her injury and clamped down both hands on Jennie's mouth as she shook with mirth.
Frodo blinked. The elves disregarded this exchange and continued to argue.
"We have always helped our own in time of need-"
"Remember the Last Alliance-"
"But we have suffered so much, and the reign of Sauron has only recently ended, at none too low a price!"
"You can't mean to say that we are giving up peace at long last to fight again," protested Celeborn, looking at his wed.
In answer Galadriel held out Nenya. It glimmered dully in the half-light, but as Root stood up to see it better (being hardly taller than a hobbit), it blazed with white fire. His hand reached out to touch it, and Foaly whinnied with laughter at the awing look on his face.
"Yes," said Galadriel calmly. "We are going to fight again."
"Where are we going to get that kind of help?" Celeborn demanded.
"We do have a shipload of fine fighters, from Imladris and Lothelorien and even the Shire," Gandalf informed him, overly patient.
Root and Holly were utterly silent as Galadriel gestured to them. "And we have two new Bearers of the Three Rings for the Elven Kings-"
"-Under the sky," finished Elrond, a touch wistful as he gazed at his own Ring. It had not yet passed on to a new owner, and was hard to let go of. "Are we decided then? We are going to give aid?"
"What of the last of the Three?" Tessa and Jennie asked eagerly, in perfect unison as they watched Elrond.
He glared and pocketed it. "We will worry about that later, when we find one of Elf kin whom it is destined for. At the dinner tonight I shall begin to call our forces to arms," he went on, turning to Galadriel.
Under cover of the conversation that followed, Foaly looked again at Artemis, and his face closed as though a door had shut behind it.
*
Ooooo. Big secret about Artemis? Dun dun dun dun. I am getting way good at these cliffhangers. :-D
And also - the Rings have passed to new owners? All but one...
Artemis: *rolls eyes* Every reader probably knows where this is going... *crawls under couch*
Me: shhh! You are such a spoilsport! SHHH!