For some reason the formatting really bites, and screws up mostly
everything on fan fiction. Sorrryyy if anything isn't the way it should
be. Stupid formatting! :(
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Gandalf the White
Buffy held closely to Aragorn's stomach as the horse padded roughly against the ground. The Rohan riders were far behind, and as Buffy looked back for one last time she could barely make out their dark figures riding out into the horizon. This was very strange from her world, and no matter how hard she tried she didn't think she'd get use to their custom anytime soon.
After riding hard for what felt likes ages, Aragorn dismounted Hasufel and studied the ground. A cold wind blew pass and Buffy shuddered, wrapping Gimli's cloak closer to her chest.
While Aragorn murmured to himself, and Legolas spoke softly to Arod Buffy felt another breeze crawl underneath her skin and seep deep into her veins. Something about the way wind blew made her uncomfortable, so naturally she was curious and dismounted Hasufel, carefully looking out into the motley colored sky.
The wind blew again and a voice carried through it.
"Can you read my mind, Slayer?" asked the low, daunting voice of a man.
"I don't think I want to," Buffy answered slowly.
The wind whistled, and the voice laughed.
"Are you not curious to know what a dark mind wonders?" he asked.
"Oh, I have a pretty good idea. Slaughter this, consult evil dark squirrels that. It's all the same thing." Buffy said.
The wind blew, but Buffy didn't know whether the voice sighed or coughed.
"Will you not answer my questions?" he said. "Do you not want to meet this. . . evil, you seek?"
"I seek no evil." Buffy quipped. "And I don't go to evil. Evil comes to me."
"Buffy." Aragorn said suddenly.
Buffy sighed and turned away. "I'm here, I think."
X - X - X - X - X
"There are no foot marks on the trail." Legolas said. "Do you see any, Aragorn?"
"None." said Aragorn gravely. "The Orcs must have known they were being followed, and their traveling had been clever."
"There is some smoke over there." Buffy said, pointing the some rising smoke in the distance.
"What will we see?" Gimli asked.
"Let us find out!" Aragorn shouted, riding away at once.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Buffy said.
"The smoke is thick," Legolas said worriedly. "What do you think has happened?"
"The Rohan riders said that they had burnt bodies of Orcs." Aragorn reminded them, and a horrible gleam came to his eyes. "The Orcs carrying Merry and Pippin. . . ."
"That's horrible." Buffy choked.
They dismounted from the horses and half walked, half ran towards the rising gray smoke. As they drew closer, Buffy halted to cover her mouth from the awful stench rising from the hundreds of piles of black decapitated bodies.
The Hobbits were in there!?
The thought made Buffy's stomach churn, and she laid a hand on Legolas' arm.
"They. They were." Legolas stopped himself and lowered his head.
"We can do no more." said Gimli sadly. "We have been given many riddles on our way across Middle earth, and this is yet that most troubling. I would guess that the Hobbit's bodies are mingled with the Orcs."
"But, why were they traveling by themselves?" asked Buffy winsomely.
Aragorn sighed and cast his gaze sideways, "It is a long tale, Buffy. One that even you would not understand. But the Halfling among our company had something that the dark lord Sauron wanted, and still wants. Merry and Pippin were only helping, and. . ." his voice cracked and he fell silent.
"Elrond doubted them." Legolas said.
"Elrond?" asked Buffy.
"An Elf." Gimli answered.
"Oh, how helpful." Buffy said wryly. "But why did he doubt the Hobbits? Anyone can do anything, y'know."
"Gandalf did not," Gimli reminded Legolas. "If you remember."
Buffy sighed and shook her head to the burning pile of corpses,
"That's horrible."
Soon after they had made camp a little ways away from the burnt out bodies, and Gimli had began making a fire since they each had a blanket a piece. Buffy sat watching Legolas walk around lightly on the ground, and frowned at Gimli whose feet stomped heavily on the fallen leaves.
"How come your feet hardly make a sound, when Gimli sounds like an elephant?" she asked.
"Don't you mean, Oliphaunt?" Legolas asked.
Buffy frowned. "Uh. . . ."
"Look!" Legolas cried, his finger pointed to the trees.
"It looks like they. . ." Buffy began.
". . . enjoy the fire." Aragorn finished.
"Celeborn had warned us not to go into the Forest, and I wonder why?" Legolas whispered.
"The forest is old." commented Aragorn. "Far older than that of the Barrow Downs, and is far greater, but I do not know what to say to that."
"Then what do we do?" asked Buffy.
"The horses! The horses!" cried Legolas, twisting around and knocking Buffy off the log.
"You forgot to mention why Elves were so rude." Buffy grumbled, rubbing her bottom.
"The food!" Gimli grumbled.
"They are gone!" Aragorn shouted. "Where did they go?"
"Wherever they went, they took our bags." said Buffy climbing to her feet.
"But why the food!" Gimli shouted, his voice echoing into the forest.
Meanwhile. . .
"The poor girl has no one left." a woman mumbled.
"What's going to happen to the poor thing? An orphanage maybe?" asked another.
"I heard the mother committed suicide," the first woman said. "and the sister couldn't handle the mortgage, and wound up shooting herself in the head. No wonder why the family is so screwed up, did you see the history on that girl?"
"Hey!" cried Dawn, jumping from her seat. "I'll have you know that- that my sister did NOT kill herself, and t- that my mother was murdered by some evil woman. Literally."
"Oooh, the poor dear is still delusional." cooed the woman.
"I am NOT delusional, and don't manhandle me you moth infested grannies!" Dawn shouted, whirling around on her heels and running out from the main office.
"Everyone seems to comment in times like these," Giles said softly.
"Why do people hate?" asked Willow. "Is it like a, uh Hell mouth thing?"
"Maybe some people are just, rude." Giles said loudly, as the old women walked away with a girl around Dawn's age.
Willow sighed, absently shifting through papers placed neatly in yellow cards.
"Sanchez, Sanders, Smith, Smith, Smith, Summers. . ." Willow stopped herself as the bold letters showing SUMMERS clicked on a light bulb in her head. She quickly opened the envelope and scanned through it.
"I do not think you are allowed to go through those." Giles said
"It's, It's Buffy's school records from her old school." Willow said in a hushed tone. "Oh my god. . . Giles. . ."
"Yeah, Will?"
"W- what do you know about Buffy's history, BEFORE high school?" asked Willow.
"Nothing more than what you know, why?" Giles asked worriedly.
Willow took a deep breath and looked up, "I think Sunnydale High knew a lot more than we thought. . ."
X - X - X - X - X
"Staring at the trees isn't going to get us anywhere." said Buffy.
"We wait?" asked Gimli.
"Wait for what? That wizard guy to come back again?" Buffy asked. "Sorry, But I would rather go after the square head."
"They are gone, but we still have our feet." said Aragorn.
"We can still walk on those, but what will we do for food?" Gimli huffed. "Our toenails?"
"Mmm, toenails. A nutritious start to our day." said Buffy.
"That man looked an awful lot like our friend Saruman." stated Legolas angrily. "I say that was him, taking our horses and leaving us to continue on foot where his next attack will be easier."
"Ooh, I really wanna shove his wand somewhere where the sun don't shine." Buffy said, clenching her fists.
"We go inside the forest." Aragorn said after a considerable moment. "And let us hope we do not catch that old man empty handed."
"Let's hope the old man doesn't catch me empty handed." said Buffy in an bitter tone.
As they walked into the crowded forest, where trees ranged from huge to exceedingly huge, Buffy found herself walking at a hefty pace.
That old man should be around here somewhere. She thought. And I'll be the first to find him and give him a piece of my--
"Ooof!" Buffy groaned. She had walloped straight into something.
"Sometimes I wonder if you mean to knock into me." said Legolas, laughing.
"Sometimes," Buffy began as she stood. "I wonder why you follow me. Am I that interesting?"
"Interesting." agreed Legolas. "And tempting."
Buffy stopped short. "Tempting? Ha ha. . . right." she started off again, but Legolas lightly grabbed her arm.
"You coming here is like a walking dream. It's a mystery to me why I think you are so interesting." he whispered.
"And tempting." Buffy reminded. "Oh, I can be so very temptsacious when I want, but see, right now it's kinda the opposite of all that. . . . the temptingness is way out of line. I mean, we are looking for those Hobbit people and. . ."
Legolas placed a finger against her lips and smiled softly, leaning in so he was closer to her.
"I will hold you to your promise." said Legolas, and he walked away.
"Promise!?" Buffy shouted. "I didn't promise anything!"
Legolas continued walking and Buffy groaned, kicking her shoe at the dirt. What was wrong with people in Middle earth? Is it because the most population is mostly males? Buffy sighed, slumping down onto the forest floor. She really did need some female companionship right now, and as she thought hard on it a wave of homesickness took flight and she doubled over in tears. Where was she exactly? Was she really dreaming?
"I feel like I am." she sniffled.
A footstep crunching on a leaf caused her to sit up.
"Legolas?" she asked, but remembered his silent stepping. "Gimli?" she called out. "Aragorn?"
"I know these people." a voice answered. It was slow and clear.
More footsteps crunching on leaves, and a heavy patting against the ground.
"Uh, right." Buffy stood quickly and readied herself to attack. "Listen, you don't want to get on my bad side, because that side, it's most likely going to be bad on your half, good on mine. Wait, what? Let me rephrase that. . ."
"Are you always this talkative, Buffy?" interrupted the voice.
"Hey! Am not!" said Buffy and then something dawned on her. "You're the voice from before!"
There was a moment of silence and Buffy was able to see a bright light forming some ways ahead of her.
"Am not." the voice answered.
"Then who are you?" Buffy asked softly.
There was a pause, and then something grabbed onto her entire body and pulled her back, roughly.
"Do not speak to the voice of Saruman!" hissed Aragorn, his strong arms wrapping around her.
"Saruman?" Buffy repeated, confused. "But that isn't Saruman. That's not the voice that talked to me before."
"She is not talking right. She is under his spell!" Legolas shouted.
"Ready your weapons." Aragorn ordered. "And do not let him speak, he will put you in a stance!"
"What are you talking about? I am fine-- ack." Buffy was interrupted as she was thrown back behind the tree blockheads.
"Shoot him Legolas, what are you waiting for!" cried Gimli.
"I - I cannot move." Legolas answered. His bent bow was not moving, remaining in the air.
"Legolas, put down your bow!" Buffy shouted, sensing the anger from the blinding white light.
"I. Okay." Legolas lowered his bow, and his arms fell limp to his side.
"And you Master Dwarf!" cried the voice, no longer soft but loud and angry. "Put down your ax!"
Gimli's arms fell limp as well, and his ax fell to the ground. Gimli was outraged, but remained still.
"Saruman, what is it that you seek?" asked Aragorn sternly.
"Saruman?" the blinding light repeated. "Ha, Saruman!" the light gave a thunderous laugh and inside things began to crawl around in Buffy's body.
Suddenly Gimli sprang forwards, no longer in his trance, and aimed his ax at the light.
"Speak Saruman, you quick tempered fool, unless you want the blade of my ax cutting across your neck!"
The shape of the old man leapt out quickly and towering over them all, the blinding white light dimming as a tall white staff appeared above them.
Then the old man's face appeared and he had a soft smile on his face.
"Mithrandir! Mithrandir!" cried Legolas, kneeling quickly.
"A wizard." Buffy said in a hushed tone.
"Gandalf?" asked Aragorn. "Gandalf! You came to us in our need! What shade was over my eyes that made who you really were blind to my sight? Gandalf!"
"Gandalf. I am sorry." apologized Gimli, sinking to his knees and shading his face.
"Gandalf?" repeated the wizard. "Yes, that is who I once was. Gandalf the Gray."
"But you are white now." whispered Buffy.
"Gandalf the White." said Aragorn.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Gandalf the White
Buffy held closely to Aragorn's stomach as the horse padded roughly against the ground. The Rohan riders were far behind, and as Buffy looked back for one last time she could barely make out their dark figures riding out into the horizon. This was very strange from her world, and no matter how hard she tried she didn't think she'd get use to their custom anytime soon.
After riding hard for what felt likes ages, Aragorn dismounted Hasufel and studied the ground. A cold wind blew pass and Buffy shuddered, wrapping Gimli's cloak closer to her chest.
While Aragorn murmured to himself, and Legolas spoke softly to Arod Buffy felt another breeze crawl underneath her skin and seep deep into her veins. Something about the way wind blew made her uncomfortable, so naturally she was curious and dismounted Hasufel, carefully looking out into the motley colored sky.
The wind blew again and a voice carried through it.
"Can you read my mind, Slayer?" asked the low, daunting voice of a man.
"I don't think I want to," Buffy answered slowly.
The wind whistled, and the voice laughed.
"Are you not curious to know what a dark mind wonders?" he asked.
"Oh, I have a pretty good idea. Slaughter this, consult evil dark squirrels that. It's all the same thing." Buffy said.
The wind blew, but Buffy didn't know whether the voice sighed or coughed.
"Will you not answer my questions?" he said. "Do you not want to meet this. . . evil, you seek?"
"I seek no evil." Buffy quipped. "And I don't go to evil. Evil comes to me."
"Buffy." Aragorn said suddenly.
Buffy sighed and turned away. "I'm here, I think."
X - X - X - X - X
"There are no foot marks on the trail." Legolas said. "Do you see any, Aragorn?"
"None." said Aragorn gravely. "The Orcs must have known they were being followed, and their traveling had been clever."
"There is some smoke over there." Buffy said, pointing the some rising smoke in the distance.
"What will we see?" Gimli asked.
"Let us find out!" Aragorn shouted, riding away at once.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Buffy said.
"The smoke is thick," Legolas said worriedly. "What do you think has happened?"
"The Rohan riders said that they had burnt bodies of Orcs." Aragorn reminded them, and a horrible gleam came to his eyes. "The Orcs carrying Merry and Pippin. . . ."
"That's horrible." Buffy choked.
They dismounted from the horses and half walked, half ran towards the rising gray smoke. As they drew closer, Buffy halted to cover her mouth from the awful stench rising from the hundreds of piles of black decapitated bodies.
The Hobbits were in there!?
The thought made Buffy's stomach churn, and she laid a hand on Legolas' arm.
"They. They were." Legolas stopped himself and lowered his head.
"We can do no more." said Gimli sadly. "We have been given many riddles on our way across Middle earth, and this is yet that most troubling. I would guess that the Hobbit's bodies are mingled with the Orcs."
"But, why were they traveling by themselves?" asked Buffy winsomely.
Aragorn sighed and cast his gaze sideways, "It is a long tale, Buffy. One that even you would not understand. But the Halfling among our company had something that the dark lord Sauron wanted, and still wants. Merry and Pippin were only helping, and. . ." his voice cracked and he fell silent.
"Elrond doubted them." Legolas said.
"Elrond?" asked Buffy.
"An Elf." Gimli answered.
"Oh, how helpful." Buffy said wryly. "But why did he doubt the Hobbits? Anyone can do anything, y'know."
"Gandalf did not," Gimli reminded Legolas. "If you remember."
Buffy sighed and shook her head to the burning pile of corpses,
"That's horrible."
Soon after they had made camp a little ways away from the burnt out bodies, and Gimli had began making a fire since they each had a blanket a piece. Buffy sat watching Legolas walk around lightly on the ground, and frowned at Gimli whose feet stomped heavily on the fallen leaves.
"How come your feet hardly make a sound, when Gimli sounds like an elephant?" she asked.
"Don't you mean, Oliphaunt?" Legolas asked.
Buffy frowned. "Uh. . . ."
"Look!" Legolas cried, his finger pointed to the trees.
"It looks like they. . ." Buffy began.
". . . enjoy the fire." Aragorn finished.
"Celeborn had warned us not to go into the Forest, and I wonder why?" Legolas whispered.
"The forest is old." commented Aragorn. "Far older than that of the Barrow Downs, and is far greater, but I do not know what to say to that."
"Then what do we do?" asked Buffy.
"The horses! The horses!" cried Legolas, twisting around and knocking Buffy off the log.
"You forgot to mention why Elves were so rude." Buffy grumbled, rubbing her bottom.
"The food!" Gimli grumbled.
"They are gone!" Aragorn shouted. "Where did they go?"
"Wherever they went, they took our bags." said Buffy climbing to her feet.
"But why the food!" Gimli shouted, his voice echoing into the forest.
Meanwhile. . .
"The poor girl has no one left." a woman mumbled.
"What's going to happen to the poor thing? An orphanage maybe?" asked another.
"I heard the mother committed suicide," the first woman said. "and the sister couldn't handle the mortgage, and wound up shooting herself in the head. No wonder why the family is so screwed up, did you see the history on that girl?"
"Hey!" cried Dawn, jumping from her seat. "I'll have you know that- that my sister did NOT kill herself, and t- that my mother was murdered by some evil woman. Literally."
"Oooh, the poor dear is still delusional." cooed the woman.
"I am NOT delusional, and don't manhandle me you moth infested grannies!" Dawn shouted, whirling around on her heels and running out from the main office.
"Everyone seems to comment in times like these," Giles said softly.
"Why do people hate?" asked Willow. "Is it like a, uh Hell mouth thing?"
"Maybe some people are just, rude." Giles said loudly, as the old women walked away with a girl around Dawn's age.
Willow sighed, absently shifting through papers placed neatly in yellow cards.
"Sanchez, Sanders, Smith, Smith, Smith, Summers. . ." Willow stopped herself as the bold letters showing SUMMERS clicked on a light bulb in her head. She quickly opened the envelope and scanned through it.
"I do not think you are allowed to go through those." Giles said
"It's, It's Buffy's school records from her old school." Willow said in a hushed tone. "Oh my god. . . Giles. . ."
"Yeah, Will?"
"W- what do you know about Buffy's history, BEFORE high school?" asked Willow.
"Nothing more than what you know, why?" Giles asked worriedly.
Willow took a deep breath and looked up, "I think Sunnydale High knew a lot more than we thought. . ."
X - X - X - X - X
"Staring at the trees isn't going to get us anywhere." said Buffy.
"We wait?" asked Gimli.
"Wait for what? That wizard guy to come back again?" Buffy asked. "Sorry, But I would rather go after the square head."
"They are gone, but we still have our feet." said Aragorn.
"We can still walk on those, but what will we do for food?" Gimli huffed. "Our toenails?"
"Mmm, toenails. A nutritious start to our day." said Buffy.
"That man looked an awful lot like our friend Saruman." stated Legolas angrily. "I say that was him, taking our horses and leaving us to continue on foot where his next attack will be easier."
"Ooh, I really wanna shove his wand somewhere where the sun don't shine." Buffy said, clenching her fists.
"We go inside the forest." Aragorn said after a considerable moment. "And let us hope we do not catch that old man empty handed."
"Let's hope the old man doesn't catch me empty handed." said Buffy in an bitter tone.
As they walked into the crowded forest, where trees ranged from huge to exceedingly huge, Buffy found herself walking at a hefty pace.
That old man should be around here somewhere. She thought. And I'll be the first to find him and give him a piece of my--
"Ooof!" Buffy groaned. She had walloped straight into something.
"Sometimes I wonder if you mean to knock into me." said Legolas, laughing.
"Sometimes," Buffy began as she stood. "I wonder why you follow me. Am I that interesting?"
"Interesting." agreed Legolas. "And tempting."
Buffy stopped short. "Tempting? Ha ha. . . right." she started off again, but Legolas lightly grabbed her arm.
"You coming here is like a walking dream. It's a mystery to me why I think you are so interesting." he whispered.
"And tempting." Buffy reminded. "Oh, I can be so very temptsacious when I want, but see, right now it's kinda the opposite of all that. . . . the temptingness is way out of line. I mean, we are looking for those Hobbit people and. . ."
Legolas placed a finger against her lips and smiled softly, leaning in so he was closer to her.
"I will hold you to your promise." said Legolas, and he walked away.
"Promise!?" Buffy shouted. "I didn't promise anything!"
Legolas continued walking and Buffy groaned, kicking her shoe at the dirt. What was wrong with people in Middle earth? Is it because the most population is mostly males? Buffy sighed, slumping down onto the forest floor. She really did need some female companionship right now, and as she thought hard on it a wave of homesickness took flight and she doubled over in tears. Where was she exactly? Was she really dreaming?
"I feel like I am." she sniffled.
A footstep crunching on a leaf caused her to sit up.
"Legolas?" she asked, but remembered his silent stepping. "Gimli?" she called out. "Aragorn?"
"I know these people." a voice answered. It was slow and clear.
More footsteps crunching on leaves, and a heavy patting against the ground.
"Uh, right." Buffy stood quickly and readied herself to attack. "Listen, you don't want to get on my bad side, because that side, it's most likely going to be bad on your half, good on mine. Wait, what? Let me rephrase that. . ."
"Are you always this talkative, Buffy?" interrupted the voice.
"Hey! Am not!" said Buffy and then something dawned on her. "You're the voice from before!"
There was a moment of silence and Buffy was able to see a bright light forming some ways ahead of her.
"Am not." the voice answered.
"Then who are you?" Buffy asked softly.
There was a pause, and then something grabbed onto her entire body and pulled her back, roughly.
"Do not speak to the voice of Saruman!" hissed Aragorn, his strong arms wrapping around her.
"Saruman?" Buffy repeated, confused. "But that isn't Saruman. That's not the voice that talked to me before."
"She is not talking right. She is under his spell!" Legolas shouted.
"Ready your weapons." Aragorn ordered. "And do not let him speak, he will put you in a stance!"
"What are you talking about? I am fine-- ack." Buffy was interrupted as she was thrown back behind the tree blockheads.
"Shoot him Legolas, what are you waiting for!" cried Gimli.
"I - I cannot move." Legolas answered. His bent bow was not moving, remaining in the air.
"Legolas, put down your bow!" Buffy shouted, sensing the anger from the blinding white light.
"I. Okay." Legolas lowered his bow, and his arms fell limp to his side.
"And you Master Dwarf!" cried the voice, no longer soft but loud and angry. "Put down your ax!"
Gimli's arms fell limp as well, and his ax fell to the ground. Gimli was outraged, but remained still.
"Saruman, what is it that you seek?" asked Aragorn sternly.
"Saruman?" the blinding light repeated. "Ha, Saruman!" the light gave a thunderous laugh and inside things began to crawl around in Buffy's body.
Suddenly Gimli sprang forwards, no longer in his trance, and aimed his ax at the light.
"Speak Saruman, you quick tempered fool, unless you want the blade of my ax cutting across your neck!"
The shape of the old man leapt out quickly and towering over them all, the blinding white light dimming as a tall white staff appeared above them.
Then the old man's face appeared and he had a soft smile on his face.
"Mithrandir! Mithrandir!" cried Legolas, kneeling quickly.
"A wizard." Buffy said in a hushed tone.
"Gandalf?" asked Aragorn. "Gandalf! You came to us in our need! What shade was over my eyes that made who you really were blind to my sight? Gandalf!"
"Gandalf. I am sorry." apologized Gimli, sinking to his knees and shading his face.
"Gandalf?" repeated the wizard. "Yes, that is who I once was. Gandalf the Gray."
"But you are white now." whispered Buffy.
"Gandalf the White." said Aragorn.
