Tory's Chapter 19: The End of The Adventure
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Every bone in my body was jolted out of its socket and I was probably going to have bruises in places I didn't even want to think about. Being carried on the back of a person was worse than riding a horse on a wooden saddle. I would LOVE to ride a horse right now. I was slung across the back of a man who seemed to hate me. He seemed to jostle me more than it was actually necessary. I love my life.
"Men, stop here." I heard a voice call out. I got put down, thank holy Iluvitar. I wiggled my legs a bit and kick flesh. I heard a yelp and curses. Whoops, not.
"Un-gag and take off her blindfold her, but hold her down." I heard the voice say again. Hands circled my head and took the blindfold and gag off. The first thing I saw was Sam and Frodo lying in a heap on the ground. We seemed to be in a clearing of some sort. The tall man with the longish hair was looking at me.
"Who are you?!" I yelled. "Why did you do this to us?! We didn't do anything to you!!"
"The captive should not ask questions of the captor." He said, "We will ask the questions. Who are you?"
"My name is Tory. I could talk better if your men would let go of me!" I told him.
"Let go," he said to his men. "Now you can talk. Are you a spy?"
"Who would I be a spy for?" I asked him, "Whose side are you on?"
"Answer my questions, girl. Do not ask your own." He unsheathed his sword and put it to my throat. (Little did he know it was probably not the smartest thing to do). "Answer the question."
"I'm not a spy for anyone!! Why won't you let us go???!!! We didn't do ANYTHING!!!"
"Girl, if you will not answer my questions I will cut your throat. Why were you there?" He looked angry.
"I was with the two hobbits. We were taking a rest from our journey."
"What journey would this be?" I glared at him. "Answer me, girl." I kept glaring at him. "All right then." He ran the sword along my neck, cutting open one of my scabs from Aragorn (good memories!). He sheathed the sword without cleaning my blood off it. "You will talk. I will make sure of that personally." He turned to his men. "Blindfold her and gag her. We move on." Whoop de doodle doo.
~*~*~
I had no idea what time it was or whether it was day or night. All I knew was that I hurt so much, more than I had ever hurt before. Some one could poke me and I would probably fall apart. The only thing that kept me from going insane was the songs I sung to myself. I had probably sung more songs than an I-Pod has stored in it. All that time I kept wondering wonderfully depressing things like: What were they going to do to us? Where was Ali and was she okay? Where were Sam and Frodo?
Oh help. I felt like we were going uphill now. Gravity pushed me closer to my attacker's mouth and man did he have bad breath. Yuck. He needed a tic-tac. Not a tic, not a tac, but the whole damn pack. I laughed as I remembered hearing that for the first time. It seemed to have been a very long time ago. I think Ali and I had been in Middle-Earth for about two weeks, but I couldn't be sure. Oh please, I prayed to all the gods I knew, let us stop, please. I'll be nicer to everyone and not argue when I have to do things and not talk in class and do my ALL homework and not get detention, just PLEASE let us stop.
"Men, put them down." I was imagining that voice. I was dreaming too much and now I had finally lost it. Then I fell on my head. Talk about reality check. Hands took off my blindfold and gag. I wasn't dreaming! We really stopped!! At that thought, bright light invaded my vision.
I think I must have passed out. It looked like a few minutes had passed. I regained my sight and I saw where we were. We seemed to be in a cave, except there was a waterfall that came down in front of the opening. I stood up to take a closer look and fell flat on my face. Whoops, forgot I was tied up. I heard laughter. I whirled around as much as my bound legs and hands would let me. It was the tall man with the reddish hair. When would he go away?! I glared at him.
"I will untie you and give you food if you answer my questions. If not, I will cut the throats of you and your companions. Speak quickly."
"Um......I was going to......Gondor. I, uh, met the hobbits and, uh, adopted them as traveling companions. I do not know where they are going. That's the truth." I said, lying through my teeth. I smiled at him. "Please untie me now."
"I will untie you and give you food. But if I find out your story is not true, I will find the truth and then I will kill you." He said, untying me. "Food is through that door. I have taken your hobbit friends to another room. Do not look for them. Other prisoners may come into the room but you must stay with the food until I come and get you. That is an order. Do you understand?"
"Yes." I said. He turned to walk away. Somehow, I knew him. His name was on the tip of my tongue. It was..... "Farimir!" He turned around. I blushed. "That's your name." I said stupidly.
"Yes it is." He then became suspicious. "How do you know my name? Who told you?"
"I must have overheard it from one of your men. "I lied. He nodded and started out the door, then stopped.
"What is your name?" Farimir asked. I was surprised. He actually wanted to carry on a civil conversation.
"Tory. My name is Tory." He nodded again.
"I have never heard that name before, but I think it suites you." Farimir said. I was even more surprised. He wanted to be nice now?
"Oh.......Thank you." There was a silence as we both tried to say something. Farimir finally broke the silence with
"Eat as much as you want, but do not leave the room for any reason. I will come and get you if I need you. Do NOT leave the room." With that parting word, he swept off and left me alone. I walked over to the other cave room with the food and peeked in.
Wow! What a lot of food! There were platters of meat, cups of something that looked a bit like soup, and bowls of fruits and veggies piled high in the center of the table. I decided not to eat the meat because it was Middle-Earth and you never knew if you were eating something normal, like chicken, or something like orc. Yuck. I decided to opt for fruit, veggies and bread. You can't screw up bread, right? On second thought, you probably could. I was going to stick to eating apples.
I was on my fourth apple when there was a commotion outside the door. Uh-oh. I remembered what Farimir said about the "other prisoners". I was imagining big, buff, wild men or even worse, Uruk-Hai. The footsteps were coming closer. Oh dear. The footsteps got even closer. Figures came around the door. I pulled my hood over my face to look more masculine. Maybe they wouldn't attack me if they thought I was male. The figures stepped into the doorway. They didn't look too tough. One was leaning on the other and they were less than four feet tall. It was weird actually. It was.....
"Sam and Frodo!" I yelled. I ran over to them, lifted them up and spun them around. "Are you guys all right? I was so worried! Do you know where Ali is?" Sam coughed. I realized I was holding them too tightly and put them down.
"I am fine. Frodo doesn't seem to be doing so well." Sam spoke for both of them. "It's taking him," he whispered. I looked at Frodo. He looked a bit sick.
"Come and eat," I told them. "Maybe you will feel better after some food." They sat down in silence. Both of them looked so tired. They really didn't need this. They were just hobbits! I felt so sorry for them.
We sat and ate in silence. About ten minutes later, when I was on my 7th apple (good therapy food), a voice startled us out of our thoughts.
"You will come with us now." It was (GUESS WHO?) Farimir. He spoke to his men and two came for each of us, one grabbing either arm. I had Farimir on my left and Needs-Tic-Tac (his Native-American name) on my right. We were escorted in that manner outside the Food Room and into a larger one. There were some men on the other side of the room. I thought I saw a familiar looking head.
"AAAAAAALLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" I yelled. She spun around.
"TOOOOOORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!" She yelled back. I tried to go to her but was held back by my guards. I kicked at Needs-Tic-Tac and he let go. Farimir didn't let go. I saw Ali try to break free from her guards and she finally pulled away. Farimir just wouldn't let go. Ali was running toward me, dodging the other men that ran at her. I was thrashing around, still trying to break free. Finally I did and started to run across to Ali when a horribly sharp pain lanced across my back.
I screamed. It hurt so much. So much pain.
"TORY!!!" Ali shouted. So much pain, won't go away, NO!!!! AHHH!!!!!! I blacked out.
~*~*~*~
I opened my eyes. I was looking at a wooden surface. I realized I was lying on my stomach on a table of some sort. I rolled over, and then almost shrieked. Ow, ow, pain.
"Tory?" I turned my head. It was Ali. "Are you all right?"
"ALI!!!" I yelled, and then winced. "What happened? Who did this to me?"
"I don't know. Farimir wouldn't tell me," Ali said frowning. "It must have been one of the men trying to stop you from getting to me. They must have thought we were dangerous." She grinned.
"We are!" I said grinning. "So what is actually wrong with me?"
"We think you passed out from the pain. You have been out for about twelve hours, because we gave you sleeping pills. You have a large cut from the top of your left shoulder to your lower back on the right side. You're lucky you didn't cut your spinal cord. We put a weed salve thingy on it, so it will heal. It still will hurt, but at least it won't get infected." Ali said.
"Since when did you become a doctor?" I asked.
"Oh, Farimir taught me some stuff." She replied.
"Oh?" I asked innocently. She stared at me weirdly.
"No I am not having a secret relationship with Farimir! Your mind is SO bad! I love mah man, Legolas!" She yelled.
"I never said anything like that. It's all in your head." I grinned.
"Yea, right." Ali said. "Anyway, they wouldn't let me come and visit you until about an hour ago. They kept questioning us. They got Gollum and figured out about the ring. Now that they know the truth, they decided that I could see you. Unfortunately, you missed the Gollum song."
"No! Damn, I really wanted to see that." I said.
"Yea, well, it wasn't that great, so you didn't miss much." Ali said nicely, tho I knew she was just saying that. I smiled at her when suddenly Farimir burst through the door. He looked at me.
"Good. You are awake." He looked at me again. At once, I realized I was under the threadbare blanket with no shirt on. Great, just my life. Good thing I was face down on the table.
"Ali, please go get me a shirt RIGHT NOW!" I said, turning redder by the minute. Ali smirked at me. She thought this was funny!
"Just go get her a shirt now!" Farimir barked.
"All right, all right, no need to go ballistic," She muttered and left the room glaring. Farimir watched her go and turned to me. He held up a bottle.
"I have to put more of this on your wound so it does not go bad." He said. I nodded. I definitely did NOT want that to happen. He came over and began to rub the salve stuff into my back. I couldn't see what he was doing but it felt really good. He could be a professional massage person with that touch. He kept on doing that for about ten minutes when Ali burst in. She looked at us.
"So sorry to ruin your romantic moment. I'll leave now," she said. I guess she didn't like having people yell at her.
"No, Ali, please give me the shirt," I said reaching for it. Ali had to help me put it on. It was a tunic thing, but when it touched my back, I yelped. It hurt!
"Ali, do you think we could cut out the back? It really stings." I said.
"Farimir, sword, now." Ali demanded. Farimir handed it over. Ali began to cut out scraps of cloth. I heard the rip of fabric and hoped she had steady hands. I like swords, but that doesn't stop them from being scary.
The end result of my shirt was something like a halter top. Unfortunately I would have to wear something else when I went out side because it was so cold. Fortunately, I was not outside now.
"Thanks Ali!" I said admiring my reflection in the sword. I started to get off the table, but Farimir held me down.
"You can't go anywhere until you have healed." He said, pushing me back down.
"I'm not a total invalid!" I protested.
"Yes you are," he said.
"Let me get out of bed."
"No."
"I promise I won't kill myself."
"No."
"Screw you."
"Excuse me??" The look on his face was priceless. I swung myself off the table stood up and grabbed onto his shoulder so I wouldn't fall back down.
"I told you," Farimir said.
"I'll support myself on you and Ali." I said. He sighed. "Ali, please come over here." She came over. I put and arm around her and Farimir and hold myself up.
"See, it works." I said. Ali rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Tory; let's get your lazy butt going!" She said starting to walk fast out the door. I felt a little dizzy as I got up, but I was fine. I closed my eyes and suddenly.....
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I was in the main room of the cave, sitting on the floor with Ali and Farimir. My mouth dropped open. How the heck did that happen?!? One second I was leaning on Ali and Farimir, the next minute I'm here. Ali was also looking shocked.
"Tory, what the hell just happened?"
"You felt it too?"
"Yea. One minute we were holding you up, the next minute we're here. Am I insane?"
"Yes, but what I think happened was what's called a time loop."
"A what?" Ali said confusedly.
"A time loop. I think it's where time skips from one place to another instead of flowing smoothly from one event to another. Our bodies continue along with the flow of time, but our minds skip randomly." I explained.
"Wow," said Ali. "So you mean our minds skipped over time? That's freaky." She thought a minute. "But what did our bodies do without our minds?"
I paled at the thought.
"Farimir? How long has it been since I persuaded you to let me out of bed?" I asked casually.
"About four hours." He said.
"And what exactly did we do over those four hours?" Ali asked.
"Well, Tory sang the hobbits drinking song while you danced with Sam and Frodo. Then-" he was cut off.
"I WHAT?!?" Ali shrieked. Farimir looked confused.
"You were there, don't you remember?" he questioned.
"We're having a temporary loss of memory." I told him.
"AHHHH!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DANCED WITH HOBBITS!!!!" Ali yelled. She brushed at her arms as if getting rid of bugs (or germs).
"What else did we do?" I asked, not really wanting to know.
"Well, ah, er, you were, er, very, er......." he stopped, looking embarrassed.
"What!?!" I demanded. He squirmed.
"You were uh, very provocative," Farimir said with as straight a face as he could.
"Provocative toward whom? And what kind of provocative" I asked.
"Sexually provocative towards me," he said and smirked. I turned bright red. Ali started laughing hysterically. She was rolling around on the floor, holding her belly. I glared at her.
"Well, uh, it wasn't, uh, exactly me in my, uh, body at that time. Ali and I are having some out of body experiences, to put it simply." I said. He looked confused, so I explained about the mind jumps.
"And so since we're from another world, the Immortal Beings have decided it's time for us to go back to our world." I finished. "So if we suddenly disappear, don't be worried."
"All right." Farimir said, looking a bit weirded out. I could understand though. I mean, if two weird people just suddenly dropped on my world, I would be weirded out. I would probably be weirded out so much I would run around in circles screaming bloody murder. But that's just me being me.
~*~*~*~
"Cellophane, Mr. Cellophane, Should I bend my name, Mr. Cellophane--" I sang.
"Tory, shut up." Ali said. She was standing next to me. I was sitting on a ledgy type thing because of my back. It seemed to be getting better. Farimir put some more of that smelly lotion stuff on it and it was healing nicely. Or so he said. I am utterly inflexible and can't see my back. After all, it was only a flesh wound and cut no muscle or bone. Anyway, Ali and I were next to the waterfall in the cave. (A/N: Arg, I'm so dumb, I totally forgot what it was as I'm reading "The Silmarillion" and it's confusing me! Is it Ithilien? I think so.)
"You are distracting me. I'm trying to think." She said.
"You can think?" I asked, laughing. She put her hand out to catch some water, then flicked it at me. "Hey!" I flicked water at her. Ali glared at me, and then went back to her "thinking face".
"What are you thinking about?" I asked her. She sighed.
"The mind jumps or whatever the hell they are got me thinking. We're leaving! I don't want to leave. I've complained about this a ton, but I really will miss this place when we get sucked back to our own world. I've made a bunch of great friends and Legolas is more than a friend and I have no idea when I'll see them again or if I will ever. It's extremely depressing to think about it." Ali said all in one breath.
"Yea, I know what you mean." I said. "I kinda feel that way too. We probably won't ever see them again, but we can remember. We have a once in a lifetime chance here and it's crazy. We should be at my house, eating popcorn and drooling over the actors in the movie. It's CRAZY!"
"You've already said that."
"My head hurts from thinking about it, but fortunately my back doesn't hurt." I said. Ali laughed. She opened her mouth to say something else when
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I was laying on the floor in a blanket somewhere. It seemed to be dark. It must be night, I thought. My head hurt from the time loop, but my back didn't hurt at all. I was really making progress here. I was as proud of myself now as I was when I made only ONE gay joke when watching Return of the King. (And it wasn't a gay hobbit joke!! It was actually a Legolas/Aragorn joke, when he was being crowned king, my friend was poking me that there was a makeout scene coming up and Aragorn put his hand on Legolas's shoulder and yea..... please don't hurt me Legolas fangirls!)
I got up slowly as not to like, break something, and walked to a ledge. I could see everything from here. It was so beautiful. And so untainted by pollution or evil. Amazing.
"What are you thinking about?" I whirled around. Farimir was up. "Oh, it's you."
"I saw you were up. You look sad." He said.
"Yes. Ali and I will be leaving soon. It's hard for me to leave this all behind. I have only known you for a while; it's hard to leave people behind. I never know when I will see you or anyone here ever again. It's depressing to think about. Ali and I were talking about this earlier." I said.
"I understand." Farimir said.
"My world is so much easier than yours though. I think it is much nicer in mine, but I look at myself and I look at you and your men. You fight every day just to survive. Your country is almost over run by evil and yet you still fight. It is amazing." I said, emotion cracking my voice. I'm such a sap.
"Your world must be very different." Farimir said.
"Yes. It is. Sadly, even though yours has more daily killing, I think our world is more tainted by evil. But that is another story." I said, and then yawned.
"Oh, I am sorry to keep you up. You must go back to bed. We will be very busy tomorrow." Farimir said, gently picking me up and depositing me in my blanket.
"Thanks." I smiled at him.
"Goodnight." He turned to walk away.
"Wait, Farimir," I called. Farimir looked back at me. "This might seem a little weird, but I have to tell you this. Your father loves you, no matter what. Remember that and don't do anything stupid." I smiled. He looked at me for a moment, then turned away hiding his face.
I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of being chased by a fiery being on stilts. It chased me into a bathroom, where a bird came out of the toilet and flew around me saying "You can't budge a truck with a feather! You can't budge a truck with a feather! You can't budge a truck with a feather!"
And my mother wonders why I never sleep well.
~*~*~*~
"Wakey, wakey, egs and bakey (A/N: bacon!)" A voice sang to me as I was being prodded into waking.
"Erg... stop poking me." I said slowly to the malicious poker, still in my caveman stage (the stage between sleep and waking where you feel like a caveman because your legs feel like rubber and so does your brain).
"Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey." The voice said again.
"Really? Bacon?" I said hopefully, opening my eyes. I was thoroughly doused with freezing cold water. "AHHH!!!" I was completely awake now. Ali was standing above me with an empty dripping bucket in her hand, grinning like the evil fiend she is.
"Nope no bacon, I was just trying to wake you up." Ali said.
"That's MEAN!" I yelled. She grinned.
"I have been poking you and yelling at you for about ten minutes when Farimir told me to wake you up immediately. This was the only way I could think of."
"Thanks...." I grumbled. "Is there really bacon for breakfast?"
"Nope." She tossed me an apple. "Here's your breakfast."
"Is this all?" I asked. I was STARVING!
"Yep. Come on, we're moving soon. Get up and get dressed. We leave in ten minutes." Ali strode away. I made a face at her back. Since when was she a drill sergeant? I stood up slowly. Suddenly there was a shooting pain to my head and-
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Ali and I were standing outside somewhere. By the placement of the sun, it looked to be about noon. Farimir and a lot of his men were walking around us. Frodo and Sam were also walking near. I recognized Osgiliath about a mile away. Ali looked a little dizzy.
"Did you have another jump?" I asked. She nodded.
"You?"
"Yeah." I said, holding my head. Wow, those things really made me feel like someone slammed a hammer into my head. Ow.
Farimir was leading the bound Frodo and Sam toward the city. He wasn't paying any attention to us. I grabbed Ali's arm.
"Come on." I said, dragging her away from the group.
"Where are we going?" She said, resisting.
"We have to go. The jumps keep happening and soon we're going to be pulled into our own world. It would look a little weird if we just disappeared."
"But you told Farimir not to be freaked if we did." She protested
"But we didn't tell his men. They are superstitious and could think we're evil which could make them turn against Farimir, which would make them turn against Frodo and Sam, which would make them unable to complete the quest, which would mean that Legolas would die." I looked at her.
"Okay, I get your point, let's go." Ali said. We walked away from the group using our newly acquired cloaks (which we must have gotten during the jump, I have never seen them before) to hide in the undergrowth. We ran for about three hundred yards to a patch of trees.
Ali plopped down into the grass in between the trees. "Now what?" she demanded.
"We wait," I said.
"What!? We could be here for days!" She yelled.
"Not by my calculations." I said. I was right.
We hung around in the leaves, just talking for about an hour when time jumped again. There was a noise that sounded a bit like a donkey. Ali and looked at each other for a second. Suddenly I felt like someone was going through my head with a screwdriver and someone else had punched me in the guts. My vision went grey.
~*~
I opened my eyes. I was looking at all white, with a tiny green spot in the corner. I must be in.... middle space or something. Like where Gandalf went when he "died". I groaned and turned my head. I was in my basement, looking at the ceiling. Oops, I guess I wasn't in middle-space. The green was a mold spot. I made a mental note to clean the ceiling and pulled myself up. Ali was also sprawled on my floor, looking dead. I made sure she was still breathing, then waited for her to wake up. Five minutes later she twitched, then moaned.
"My head feels like it's been in a blender."
"Same." I said. Ali slowly got up.
"Home, sweet home. Well, your home sweet home. I'll be in mine soon enough." She said. I looked at the clock.
"Wow, it's only an hour since we left." I said flabbergasted. (A/N: FUN WORD!!)
"Cool!" Ali said. "Let's do it again!" I rolled my eyes.
"I have no idea how," I said dryly. She was about to say something when we heard my mom's voice calling.
"Girls, are you up yet? It's time for breakfast!"
"Yeah, we're coming!" I called back. I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. I screamed in shock.
"What is it?" Ali asked, worried.
"I'M CLEAN!!!!" I yelled. "CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!!! YES! NO MORE DIRT!!!!" I danced around in a victory dance. I was free!!!
"Come on, Tory! Let's go eat. I'm starving." Ali said smiling at my childish antics.
"Race you to the stairs!" I yelled over my shoulder. I was energized. I just needed a few hours of sleep and then I would be ready to go on any other adventure that my crazy life chucked at me!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, this is the end!! I seriously cannot believe we finished. Amazing. It was almost a year ago when we started this. I was newish to fanfics and Ali had never heard of them. We both like Lord of the Rings, but when I told her my idea she was like "What that HELL are you talking about?" It was quite funny, really. See how much we've grown as writers. *Sniff* It's very tearful subject, not. I'm sounding like my mother (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I'm just kidding, I love you mom.
I was thinking last night that I really had to get working on this. I thought, "Oh, I'll be done by the new year." Then when I woke up I realized, Oh right, tomorrow is January 1st. I wrote more than half of this today in a mad panic. I set weird limits for myself.
This is the first multi-chapter fic I have EVER finished. WHOOO HOOO!!! PROPS FOR ME!!
Thank you to all the reviewers: she-boz, silvervail, Lady Lanet, saddlestar17, Lalalala Blah blah blah blah, amanda, lila, Catherine, tuxiedog2, ellimere, C.J, annie, Nina, Alex Tufano, Fiona, Christine, Evvie, Crimson Starlight, Jessica, Freakygurl12, asyr, salina, Tengwar, Siren, Googlepuss, and Nicole. I swear, you guys ROCK! You all deserve cookies. Lots of cookies. LOTS AND LOTS OF COOKIES!!! Erk, I'm making myself hungry.
If you want to be emailed when and if Ali and I do a sequel, please tell me. We are pretty sure we WILL do a sequel, but school is taking too damn much of our time and it could not happen. I don't know. If anyone has anything to say on that, you can email me (birdie2889@aol.com) or REVIEW!!! (my personal choice heh heh heh).
Last of all, I would like to say that Ali, my partner in crime (or in the Dead Marshes, partner in SLIME! Yuck) rocks. She's a greatly hilarious person and a great person to write with. She wrote all the even numbered chapters. She is sick right now, but we all hope she gets better soon.
I have nothing more to say, so this is then end!!! AH! I'm gonna cry. But some eternal wisdom from my hero, Doctor Seuss: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Even if you didn't like the story, remember that! I LOVE YOU ALL!! Goodnight!
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Every bone in my body was jolted out of its socket and I was probably going to have bruises in places I didn't even want to think about. Being carried on the back of a person was worse than riding a horse on a wooden saddle. I would LOVE to ride a horse right now. I was slung across the back of a man who seemed to hate me. He seemed to jostle me more than it was actually necessary. I love my life.
"Men, stop here." I heard a voice call out. I got put down, thank holy Iluvitar. I wiggled my legs a bit and kick flesh. I heard a yelp and curses. Whoops, not.
"Un-gag and take off her blindfold her, but hold her down." I heard the voice say again. Hands circled my head and took the blindfold and gag off. The first thing I saw was Sam and Frodo lying in a heap on the ground. We seemed to be in a clearing of some sort. The tall man with the longish hair was looking at me.
"Who are you?!" I yelled. "Why did you do this to us?! We didn't do anything to you!!"
"The captive should not ask questions of the captor." He said, "We will ask the questions. Who are you?"
"My name is Tory. I could talk better if your men would let go of me!" I told him.
"Let go," he said to his men. "Now you can talk. Are you a spy?"
"Who would I be a spy for?" I asked him, "Whose side are you on?"
"Answer my questions, girl. Do not ask your own." He unsheathed his sword and put it to my throat. (Little did he know it was probably not the smartest thing to do). "Answer the question."
"I'm not a spy for anyone!! Why won't you let us go???!!! We didn't do ANYTHING!!!"
"Girl, if you will not answer my questions I will cut your throat. Why were you there?" He looked angry.
"I was with the two hobbits. We were taking a rest from our journey."
"What journey would this be?" I glared at him. "Answer me, girl." I kept glaring at him. "All right then." He ran the sword along my neck, cutting open one of my scabs from Aragorn (good memories!). He sheathed the sword without cleaning my blood off it. "You will talk. I will make sure of that personally." He turned to his men. "Blindfold her and gag her. We move on." Whoop de doodle doo.
~*~*~
I had no idea what time it was or whether it was day or night. All I knew was that I hurt so much, more than I had ever hurt before. Some one could poke me and I would probably fall apart. The only thing that kept me from going insane was the songs I sung to myself. I had probably sung more songs than an I-Pod has stored in it. All that time I kept wondering wonderfully depressing things like: What were they going to do to us? Where was Ali and was she okay? Where were Sam and Frodo?
Oh help. I felt like we were going uphill now. Gravity pushed me closer to my attacker's mouth and man did he have bad breath. Yuck. He needed a tic-tac. Not a tic, not a tac, but the whole damn pack. I laughed as I remembered hearing that for the first time. It seemed to have been a very long time ago. I think Ali and I had been in Middle-Earth for about two weeks, but I couldn't be sure. Oh please, I prayed to all the gods I knew, let us stop, please. I'll be nicer to everyone and not argue when I have to do things and not talk in class and do my ALL homework and not get detention, just PLEASE let us stop.
"Men, put them down." I was imagining that voice. I was dreaming too much and now I had finally lost it. Then I fell on my head. Talk about reality check. Hands took off my blindfold and gag. I wasn't dreaming! We really stopped!! At that thought, bright light invaded my vision.
I think I must have passed out. It looked like a few minutes had passed. I regained my sight and I saw where we were. We seemed to be in a cave, except there was a waterfall that came down in front of the opening. I stood up to take a closer look and fell flat on my face. Whoops, forgot I was tied up. I heard laughter. I whirled around as much as my bound legs and hands would let me. It was the tall man with the reddish hair. When would he go away?! I glared at him.
"I will untie you and give you food if you answer my questions. If not, I will cut the throats of you and your companions. Speak quickly."
"Um......I was going to......Gondor. I, uh, met the hobbits and, uh, adopted them as traveling companions. I do not know where they are going. That's the truth." I said, lying through my teeth. I smiled at him. "Please untie me now."
"I will untie you and give you food. But if I find out your story is not true, I will find the truth and then I will kill you." He said, untying me. "Food is through that door. I have taken your hobbit friends to another room. Do not look for them. Other prisoners may come into the room but you must stay with the food until I come and get you. That is an order. Do you understand?"
"Yes." I said. He turned to walk away. Somehow, I knew him. His name was on the tip of my tongue. It was..... "Farimir!" He turned around. I blushed. "That's your name." I said stupidly.
"Yes it is." He then became suspicious. "How do you know my name? Who told you?"
"I must have overheard it from one of your men. "I lied. He nodded and started out the door, then stopped.
"What is your name?" Farimir asked. I was surprised. He actually wanted to carry on a civil conversation.
"Tory. My name is Tory." He nodded again.
"I have never heard that name before, but I think it suites you." Farimir said. I was even more surprised. He wanted to be nice now?
"Oh.......Thank you." There was a silence as we both tried to say something. Farimir finally broke the silence with
"Eat as much as you want, but do not leave the room for any reason. I will come and get you if I need you. Do NOT leave the room." With that parting word, he swept off and left me alone. I walked over to the other cave room with the food and peeked in.
Wow! What a lot of food! There were platters of meat, cups of something that looked a bit like soup, and bowls of fruits and veggies piled high in the center of the table. I decided not to eat the meat because it was Middle-Earth and you never knew if you were eating something normal, like chicken, or something like orc. Yuck. I decided to opt for fruit, veggies and bread. You can't screw up bread, right? On second thought, you probably could. I was going to stick to eating apples.
I was on my fourth apple when there was a commotion outside the door. Uh-oh. I remembered what Farimir said about the "other prisoners". I was imagining big, buff, wild men or even worse, Uruk-Hai. The footsteps were coming closer. Oh dear. The footsteps got even closer. Figures came around the door. I pulled my hood over my face to look more masculine. Maybe they wouldn't attack me if they thought I was male. The figures stepped into the doorway. They didn't look too tough. One was leaning on the other and they were less than four feet tall. It was weird actually. It was.....
"Sam and Frodo!" I yelled. I ran over to them, lifted them up and spun them around. "Are you guys all right? I was so worried! Do you know where Ali is?" Sam coughed. I realized I was holding them too tightly and put them down.
"I am fine. Frodo doesn't seem to be doing so well." Sam spoke for both of them. "It's taking him," he whispered. I looked at Frodo. He looked a bit sick.
"Come and eat," I told them. "Maybe you will feel better after some food." They sat down in silence. Both of them looked so tired. They really didn't need this. They were just hobbits! I felt so sorry for them.
We sat and ate in silence. About ten minutes later, when I was on my 7th apple (good therapy food), a voice startled us out of our thoughts.
"You will come with us now." It was (GUESS WHO?) Farimir. He spoke to his men and two came for each of us, one grabbing either arm. I had Farimir on my left and Needs-Tic-Tac (his Native-American name) on my right. We were escorted in that manner outside the Food Room and into a larger one. There were some men on the other side of the room. I thought I saw a familiar looking head.
"AAAAAAALLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" I yelled. She spun around.
"TOOOOOORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!" She yelled back. I tried to go to her but was held back by my guards. I kicked at Needs-Tic-Tac and he let go. Farimir didn't let go. I saw Ali try to break free from her guards and she finally pulled away. Farimir just wouldn't let go. Ali was running toward me, dodging the other men that ran at her. I was thrashing around, still trying to break free. Finally I did and started to run across to Ali when a horribly sharp pain lanced across my back.
I screamed. It hurt so much. So much pain.
"TORY!!!" Ali shouted. So much pain, won't go away, NO!!!! AHHH!!!!!! I blacked out.
~*~*~*~
I opened my eyes. I was looking at a wooden surface. I realized I was lying on my stomach on a table of some sort. I rolled over, and then almost shrieked. Ow, ow, pain.
"Tory?" I turned my head. It was Ali. "Are you all right?"
"ALI!!!" I yelled, and then winced. "What happened? Who did this to me?"
"I don't know. Farimir wouldn't tell me," Ali said frowning. "It must have been one of the men trying to stop you from getting to me. They must have thought we were dangerous." She grinned.
"We are!" I said grinning. "So what is actually wrong with me?"
"We think you passed out from the pain. You have been out for about twelve hours, because we gave you sleeping pills. You have a large cut from the top of your left shoulder to your lower back on the right side. You're lucky you didn't cut your spinal cord. We put a weed salve thingy on it, so it will heal. It still will hurt, but at least it won't get infected." Ali said.
"Since when did you become a doctor?" I asked.
"Oh, Farimir taught me some stuff." She replied.
"Oh?" I asked innocently. She stared at me weirdly.
"No I am not having a secret relationship with Farimir! Your mind is SO bad! I love mah man, Legolas!" She yelled.
"I never said anything like that. It's all in your head." I grinned.
"Yea, right." Ali said. "Anyway, they wouldn't let me come and visit you until about an hour ago. They kept questioning us. They got Gollum and figured out about the ring. Now that they know the truth, they decided that I could see you. Unfortunately, you missed the Gollum song."
"No! Damn, I really wanted to see that." I said.
"Yea, well, it wasn't that great, so you didn't miss much." Ali said nicely, tho I knew she was just saying that. I smiled at her when suddenly Farimir burst through the door. He looked at me.
"Good. You are awake." He looked at me again. At once, I realized I was under the threadbare blanket with no shirt on. Great, just my life. Good thing I was face down on the table.
"Ali, please go get me a shirt RIGHT NOW!" I said, turning redder by the minute. Ali smirked at me. She thought this was funny!
"Just go get her a shirt now!" Farimir barked.
"All right, all right, no need to go ballistic," She muttered and left the room glaring. Farimir watched her go and turned to me. He held up a bottle.
"I have to put more of this on your wound so it does not go bad." He said. I nodded. I definitely did NOT want that to happen. He came over and began to rub the salve stuff into my back. I couldn't see what he was doing but it felt really good. He could be a professional massage person with that touch. He kept on doing that for about ten minutes when Ali burst in. She looked at us.
"So sorry to ruin your romantic moment. I'll leave now," she said. I guess she didn't like having people yell at her.
"No, Ali, please give me the shirt," I said reaching for it. Ali had to help me put it on. It was a tunic thing, but when it touched my back, I yelped. It hurt!
"Ali, do you think we could cut out the back? It really stings." I said.
"Farimir, sword, now." Ali demanded. Farimir handed it over. Ali began to cut out scraps of cloth. I heard the rip of fabric and hoped she had steady hands. I like swords, but that doesn't stop them from being scary.
The end result of my shirt was something like a halter top. Unfortunately I would have to wear something else when I went out side because it was so cold. Fortunately, I was not outside now.
"Thanks Ali!" I said admiring my reflection in the sword. I started to get off the table, but Farimir held me down.
"You can't go anywhere until you have healed." He said, pushing me back down.
"I'm not a total invalid!" I protested.
"Yes you are," he said.
"Let me get out of bed."
"No."
"I promise I won't kill myself."
"No."
"Screw you."
"Excuse me??" The look on his face was priceless. I swung myself off the table stood up and grabbed onto his shoulder so I wouldn't fall back down.
"I told you," Farimir said.
"I'll support myself on you and Ali." I said. He sighed. "Ali, please come over here." She came over. I put and arm around her and Farimir and hold myself up.
"See, it works." I said. Ali rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Tory; let's get your lazy butt going!" She said starting to walk fast out the door. I felt a little dizzy as I got up, but I was fine. I closed my eyes and suddenly.....
-------------
I was in the main room of the cave, sitting on the floor with Ali and Farimir. My mouth dropped open. How the heck did that happen?!? One second I was leaning on Ali and Farimir, the next minute I'm here. Ali was also looking shocked.
"Tory, what the hell just happened?"
"You felt it too?"
"Yea. One minute we were holding you up, the next minute we're here. Am I insane?"
"Yes, but what I think happened was what's called a time loop."
"A what?" Ali said confusedly.
"A time loop. I think it's where time skips from one place to another instead of flowing smoothly from one event to another. Our bodies continue along with the flow of time, but our minds skip randomly." I explained.
"Wow," said Ali. "So you mean our minds skipped over time? That's freaky." She thought a minute. "But what did our bodies do without our minds?"
I paled at the thought.
"Farimir? How long has it been since I persuaded you to let me out of bed?" I asked casually.
"About four hours." He said.
"And what exactly did we do over those four hours?" Ali asked.
"Well, Tory sang the hobbits drinking song while you danced with Sam and Frodo. Then-" he was cut off.
"I WHAT?!?" Ali shrieked. Farimir looked confused.
"You were there, don't you remember?" he questioned.
"We're having a temporary loss of memory." I told him.
"AHHHH!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DANCED WITH HOBBITS!!!!" Ali yelled. She brushed at her arms as if getting rid of bugs (or germs).
"What else did we do?" I asked, not really wanting to know.
"Well, ah, er, you were, er, very, er......." he stopped, looking embarrassed.
"What!?!" I demanded. He squirmed.
"You were uh, very provocative," Farimir said with as straight a face as he could.
"Provocative toward whom? And what kind of provocative" I asked.
"Sexually provocative towards me," he said and smirked. I turned bright red. Ali started laughing hysterically. She was rolling around on the floor, holding her belly. I glared at her.
"Well, uh, it wasn't, uh, exactly me in my, uh, body at that time. Ali and I are having some out of body experiences, to put it simply." I said. He looked confused, so I explained about the mind jumps.
"And so since we're from another world, the Immortal Beings have decided it's time for us to go back to our world." I finished. "So if we suddenly disappear, don't be worried."
"All right." Farimir said, looking a bit weirded out. I could understand though. I mean, if two weird people just suddenly dropped on my world, I would be weirded out. I would probably be weirded out so much I would run around in circles screaming bloody murder. But that's just me being me.
~*~*~*~
"Cellophane, Mr. Cellophane, Should I bend my name, Mr. Cellophane--" I sang.
"Tory, shut up." Ali said. She was standing next to me. I was sitting on a ledgy type thing because of my back. It seemed to be getting better. Farimir put some more of that smelly lotion stuff on it and it was healing nicely. Or so he said. I am utterly inflexible and can't see my back. After all, it was only a flesh wound and cut no muscle or bone. Anyway, Ali and I were next to the waterfall in the cave. (A/N: Arg, I'm so dumb, I totally forgot what it was as I'm reading "The Silmarillion" and it's confusing me! Is it Ithilien? I think so.)
"You are distracting me. I'm trying to think." She said.
"You can think?" I asked, laughing. She put her hand out to catch some water, then flicked it at me. "Hey!" I flicked water at her. Ali glared at me, and then went back to her "thinking face".
"What are you thinking about?" I asked her. She sighed.
"The mind jumps or whatever the hell they are got me thinking. We're leaving! I don't want to leave. I've complained about this a ton, but I really will miss this place when we get sucked back to our own world. I've made a bunch of great friends and Legolas is more than a friend and I have no idea when I'll see them again or if I will ever. It's extremely depressing to think about it." Ali said all in one breath.
"Yea, I know what you mean." I said. "I kinda feel that way too. We probably won't ever see them again, but we can remember. We have a once in a lifetime chance here and it's crazy. We should be at my house, eating popcorn and drooling over the actors in the movie. It's CRAZY!"
"You've already said that."
"My head hurts from thinking about it, but fortunately my back doesn't hurt." I said. Ali laughed. She opened her mouth to say something else when
-----------
I was laying on the floor in a blanket somewhere. It seemed to be dark. It must be night, I thought. My head hurt from the time loop, but my back didn't hurt at all. I was really making progress here. I was as proud of myself now as I was when I made only ONE gay joke when watching Return of the King. (And it wasn't a gay hobbit joke!! It was actually a Legolas/Aragorn joke, when he was being crowned king, my friend was poking me that there was a makeout scene coming up and Aragorn put his hand on Legolas's shoulder and yea..... please don't hurt me Legolas fangirls!)
I got up slowly as not to like, break something, and walked to a ledge. I could see everything from here. It was so beautiful. And so untainted by pollution or evil. Amazing.
"What are you thinking about?" I whirled around. Farimir was up. "Oh, it's you."
"I saw you were up. You look sad." He said.
"Yes. Ali and I will be leaving soon. It's hard for me to leave this all behind. I have only known you for a while; it's hard to leave people behind. I never know when I will see you or anyone here ever again. It's depressing to think about. Ali and I were talking about this earlier." I said.
"I understand." Farimir said.
"My world is so much easier than yours though. I think it is much nicer in mine, but I look at myself and I look at you and your men. You fight every day just to survive. Your country is almost over run by evil and yet you still fight. It is amazing." I said, emotion cracking my voice. I'm such a sap.
"Your world must be very different." Farimir said.
"Yes. It is. Sadly, even though yours has more daily killing, I think our world is more tainted by evil. But that is another story." I said, and then yawned.
"Oh, I am sorry to keep you up. You must go back to bed. We will be very busy tomorrow." Farimir said, gently picking me up and depositing me in my blanket.
"Thanks." I smiled at him.
"Goodnight." He turned to walk away.
"Wait, Farimir," I called. Farimir looked back at me. "This might seem a little weird, but I have to tell you this. Your father loves you, no matter what. Remember that and don't do anything stupid." I smiled. He looked at me for a moment, then turned away hiding his face.
I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of being chased by a fiery being on stilts. It chased me into a bathroom, where a bird came out of the toilet and flew around me saying "You can't budge a truck with a feather! You can't budge a truck with a feather! You can't budge a truck with a feather!"
And my mother wonders why I never sleep well.
~*~*~*~
"Wakey, wakey, egs and bakey (A/N: bacon!)" A voice sang to me as I was being prodded into waking.
"Erg... stop poking me." I said slowly to the malicious poker, still in my caveman stage (the stage between sleep and waking where you feel like a caveman because your legs feel like rubber and so does your brain).
"Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey." The voice said again.
"Really? Bacon?" I said hopefully, opening my eyes. I was thoroughly doused with freezing cold water. "AHHH!!!" I was completely awake now. Ali was standing above me with an empty dripping bucket in her hand, grinning like the evil fiend she is.
"Nope no bacon, I was just trying to wake you up." Ali said.
"That's MEAN!" I yelled. She grinned.
"I have been poking you and yelling at you for about ten minutes when Farimir told me to wake you up immediately. This was the only way I could think of."
"Thanks...." I grumbled. "Is there really bacon for breakfast?"
"Nope." She tossed me an apple. "Here's your breakfast."
"Is this all?" I asked. I was STARVING!
"Yep. Come on, we're moving soon. Get up and get dressed. We leave in ten minutes." Ali strode away. I made a face at her back. Since when was she a drill sergeant? I stood up slowly. Suddenly there was a shooting pain to my head and-
------------
Ali and I were standing outside somewhere. By the placement of the sun, it looked to be about noon. Farimir and a lot of his men were walking around us. Frodo and Sam were also walking near. I recognized Osgiliath about a mile away. Ali looked a little dizzy.
"Did you have another jump?" I asked. She nodded.
"You?"
"Yeah." I said, holding my head. Wow, those things really made me feel like someone slammed a hammer into my head. Ow.
Farimir was leading the bound Frodo and Sam toward the city. He wasn't paying any attention to us. I grabbed Ali's arm.
"Come on." I said, dragging her away from the group.
"Where are we going?" She said, resisting.
"We have to go. The jumps keep happening and soon we're going to be pulled into our own world. It would look a little weird if we just disappeared."
"But you told Farimir not to be freaked if we did." She protested
"But we didn't tell his men. They are superstitious and could think we're evil which could make them turn against Farimir, which would make them turn against Frodo and Sam, which would make them unable to complete the quest, which would mean that Legolas would die." I looked at her.
"Okay, I get your point, let's go." Ali said. We walked away from the group using our newly acquired cloaks (which we must have gotten during the jump, I have never seen them before) to hide in the undergrowth. We ran for about three hundred yards to a patch of trees.
Ali plopped down into the grass in between the trees. "Now what?" she demanded.
"We wait," I said.
"What!? We could be here for days!" She yelled.
"Not by my calculations." I said. I was right.
We hung around in the leaves, just talking for about an hour when time jumped again. There was a noise that sounded a bit like a donkey. Ali and looked at each other for a second. Suddenly I felt like someone was going through my head with a screwdriver and someone else had punched me in the guts. My vision went grey.
~*~
I opened my eyes. I was looking at all white, with a tiny green spot in the corner. I must be in.... middle space or something. Like where Gandalf went when he "died". I groaned and turned my head. I was in my basement, looking at the ceiling. Oops, I guess I wasn't in middle-space. The green was a mold spot. I made a mental note to clean the ceiling and pulled myself up. Ali was also sprawled on my floor, looking dead. I made sure she was still breathing, then waited for her to wake up. Five minutes later she twitched, then moaned.
"My head feels like it's been in a blender."
"Same." I said. Ali slowly got up.
"Home, sweet home. Well, your home sweet home. I'll be in mine soon enough." She said. I looked at the clock.
"Wow, it's only an hour since we left." I said flabbergasted. (A/N: FUN WORD!!)
"Cool!" Ali said. "Let's do it again!" I rolled my eyes.
"I have no idea how," I said dryly. She was about to say something when we heard my mom's voice calling.
"Girls, are you up yet? It's time for breakfast!"
"Yeah, we're coming!" I called back. I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. I screamed in shock.
"What is it?" Ali asked, worried.
"I'M CLEAN!!!!" I yelled. "CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!!! YES! NO MORE DIRT!!!!" I danced around in a victory dance. I was free!!!
"Come on, Tory! Let's go eat. I'm starving." Ali said smiling at my childish antics.
"Race you to the stairs!" I yelled over my shoulder. I was energized. I just needed a few hours of sleep and then I would be ready to go on any other adventure that my crazy life chucked at me!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, this is the end!! I seriously cannot believe we finished. Amazing. It was almost a year ago when we started this. I was newish to fanfics and Ali had never heard of them. We both like Lord of the Rings, but when I told her my idea she was like "What that HELL are you talking about?" It was quite funny, really. See how much we've grown as writers. *Sniff* It's very tearful subject, not. I'm sounding like my mother (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I'm just kidding, I love you mom.
I was thinking last night that I really had to get working on this. I thought, "Oh, I'll be done by the new year." Then when I woke up I realized, Oh right, tomorrow is January 1st. I wrote more than half of this today in a mad panic. I set weird limits for myself.
This is the first multi-chapter fic I have EVER finished. WHOOO HOOO!!! PROPS FOR ME!!
Thank you to all the reviewers: she-boz, silvervail, Lady Lanet, saddlestar17, Lalalala Blah blah blah blah, amanda, lila, Catherine, tuxiedog2, ellimere, C.J, annie, Nina, Alex Tufano, Fiona, Christine, Evvie, Crimson Starlight, Jessica, Freakygurl12, asyr, salina, Tengwar, Siren, Googlepuss, and Nicole. I swear, you guys ROCK! You all deserve cookies. Lots of cookies. LOTS AND LOTS OF COOKIES!!! Erk, I'm making myself hungry.
If you want to be emailed when and if Ali and I do a sequel, please tell me. We are pretty sure we WILL do a sequel, but school is taking too damn much of our time and it could not happen. I don't know. If anyone has anything to say on that, you can email me (birdie2889@aol.com) or REVIEW!!! (my personal choice heh heh heh).
Last of all, I would like to say that Ali, my partner in crime (or in the Dead Marshes, partner in SLIME! Yuck) rocks. She's a greatly hilarious person and a great person to write with. She wrote all the even numbered chapters. She is sick right now, but we all hope she gets better soon.
I have nothing more to say, so this is then end!!! AH! I'm gonna cry. But some eternal wisdom from my hero, Doctor Seuss: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Even if you didn't like the story, remember that! I LOVE YOU ALL!! Goodnight!