Disclaimer: Ya know what? I'm infringing on a copyright no matter what disclaimer I put here so why not just say that I own it all?
AN: I need a beta-reader and an over-all motivator. I need someone who can spot some general grammatical errors and harass me into posting in a more timely manner.
UNPLUGGED
Chapter Five: Inner Recesses
By SilentBanshee
"Aragorn?" Beverly whispered into the night as she crept forth at a speed that an iceberg could outrun. The dehydrated earth beneath her booted feet cracked and shifted, announcing her presence to Aragorn even before she spoke. "I need to talk."
Aragorn had been expecting this, had been waiting for this. She had been with them for four days slowing them down and he was becoming anxious to be rid of her. "Then talk."
Beverly sighed, her eyelids closing, and then moved to sit across from Aragorn who had shifted to sit straighter against the base of the rock.
"I just want to thank you," she inhaled and looked down, studying the way the leggings sagged around her legs. The leggings had belonged to the Elf and only now did she realize just how thing she had become over the past few years and she could feel her stomach acids burning their way up her throat in disgust. She looked up again, making eye contact with the ranger. "I'm not very fast. Or strong. If I weren't here, you probably would have caught up to your hobbits friends; I'm sorry."
Aragorn sat silent for a moment. His dealings with human women had been limited but even he recognized that she was dangerously close to crying and he did not want to deal with a hysterical woman. "At Amon Hen, you said that a person can be both good and evil."
Beverly furrowed her brow, drew her lips together, and nodded.
"You cannot help being who you are, though I will admit you have shown that you have limitations, but perhaps, in a different circumstance, you will overcome them."
She sat quiet, only having understood half of what he said though she had absorbed his meaning in full. He would not judge. "What do you plan to do with me?"
"Rohan is not just inhabited by rocks. You will be deposited in the first village we cross."
Beverly nodded, having suspected this, though she now wondered if she liked the prospect of living amongst the peasants of Rohan. She had washed clothes with a washing machine before, but she doubted very much that a Rohiric village would have sinks and running water…or liquid soap. "Aragorn?" I'm scared. "I think, when morning comes, the three of you should leave without me."
Aragorn visibly flinched and he had to remind himself that she was foreign and not likely to realize that she had just insulted him. "No, my lady, that would not be possible."
"Why not?"
Aragorn shifted against the rock once more and squinted to see Beverly through the dark blue veil that the night had deposited between them. Shadows hid the right half of her face, making the left look even more skeletal. "You may believe that there is good to be found in orcs, but you cannot deny the evil in the uruk-hai."
The muscles in her heart contracted and she suddenly was very aware of her breasts. "Why not? They cannot be mindless, I refuse to accept that. There must be something to motivate them. There must be humanity to appeal to."
Aragorn let a humorless laugh escape him, his stale breath escaping from his dust-coated throat. "Have you always been such an optimist?"
Her laugh matched his and her mouth smiled without her heart's consent. "Most people have called me the opposite."
"Have they not talked to you?"
"Not like this." She sighed and her heart squeezed itself tighter a second time and she felt her salty tears itch at the corners of her eyes. "I'm a little strange. I don't like what my society has become."
Aragorn thought he heard a disturbance in the soil nearby and was now becoming eager to finish this conversation. "Which would be?"
She laughed again and, this time, her eye's gritty water escaped and was captured by her lashes. "Mass-produced. That sword on your hip…someone spent hours making that. Your clothing, too, was hand-made, wasn't it?"
"What other way is there?"
She narrowed her eyes until the lashes nearest the corners got tangled in each other. "Machines."
Aragorn stared at her, watching a second set of tears leave her ducts only to die on her cheekbones. She was pale, was the gray sort of pale that he associated with very old age and malnourishment. Her lips twitched and her cheeks' salty sheen sparkled in a moonbeam. Her face smoothed out in an instant and she opened her mouth, brittle words leaping off of her tongue in a song that wasn't as well-sung or melodic as yesterday's tune, but still was able to wrap its syllables around the smooth-muscled organ in Aragorn's chest and squeeze.
There is a rapture that my soul desires
There is a something that I cannot name.
I know n ot after what my soul aspires
Nor guess from when the restless longing came
But ever since my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
It is the melody in all sweet music
In all fair forms it is the hidden grace.
In all I love, a something that escapes me,
Flies by pursuit and ever visits face.
I see it in the woodlands, silver beauty
I feel it in the very breathing of the air.
I stretch my hand to grasp for I can't touch it
When I do, well I know it is not there.
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la la la la
But ever since my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
There is a rapture.
"You sound like an elf."
She scoffed and stood. "Ironic then, isn't it, that the only elf here dislikes me more than the Dwarf?"
"That's not true."
She nodded with her eyes downcast and returned to the bedroll that Aragorn had lent her. "Yes, it is."
Aragorn relaxed his posture, the rock pressing into his back intimately, spooning the ranger in its indestructible embrace. Aragorn picked up his pipe, removed some weed from a pouch and began suckling the wooden apparatus. "You can come out of hiding now, Legolas."
"I thought you might have heard me." Legolas leaned against a rock opposite of Aragorn's. "Forgive me, my friend; I did not want to intrude."
Aragorn nodded, letting the smoke invade every inner recess of his lungs.
----------------------------------
White-Witch-Sakura: Thanks for the review and I agree...there should be more reviews!
Kyandoru: Glad I made you happy...hopefully, you're just as pleased with this chappie.
FantasyQueen21: Hey, Manda-bear...I'm expecting to explain how she got there in the upcoming chapters.
AN: I need a beta-reader and an over-all motivator. I need someone who can spot some general grammatical errors and harass me into posting in a more timely manner.
UNPLUGGED
Chapter Five: Inner Recesses
By SilentBanshee
"Aragorn?" Beverly whispered into the night as she crept forth at a speed that an iceberg could outrun. The dehydrated earth beneath her booted feet cracked and shifted, announcing her presence to Aragorn even before she spoke. "I need to talk."
Aragorn had been expecting this, had been waiting for this. She had been with them for four days slowing them down and he was becoming anxious to be rid of her. "Then talk."
Beverly sighed, her eyelids closing, and then moved to sit across from Aragorn who had shifted to sit straighter against the base of the rock.
"I just want to thank you," she inhaled and looked down, studying the way the leggings sagged around her legs. The leggings had belonged to the Elf and only now did she realize just how thing she had become over the past few years and she could feel her stomach acids burning their way up her throat in disgust. She looked up again, making eye contact with the ranger. "I'm not very fast. Or strong. If I weren't here, you probably would have caught up to your hobbits friends; I'm sorry."
Aragorn sat silent for a moment. His dealings with human women had been limited but even he recognized that she was dangerously close to crying and he did not want to deal with a hysterical woman. "At Amon Hen, you said that a person can be both good and evil."
Beverly furrowed her brow, drew her lips together, and nodded.
"You cannot help being who you are, though I will admit you have shown that you have limitations, but perhaps, in a different circumstance, you will overcome them."
She sat quiet, only having understood half of what he said though she had absorbed his meaning in full. He would not judge. "What do you plan to do with me?"
"Rohan is not just inhabited by rocks. You will be deposited in the first village we cross."
Beverly nodded, having suspected this, though she now wondered if she liked the prospect of living amongst the peasants of Rohan. She had washed clothes with a washing machine before, but she doubted very much that a Rohiric village would have sinks and running water…or liquid soap. "Aragorn?" I'm scared. "I think, when morning comes, the three of you should leave without me."
Aragorn visibly flinched and he had to remind himself that she was foreign and not likely to realize that she had just insulted him. "No, my lady, that would not be possible."
"Why not?"
Aragorn shifted against the rock once more and squinted to see Beverly through the dark blue veil that the night had deposited between them. Shadows hid the right half of her face, making the left look even more skeletal. "You may believe that there is good to be found in orcs, but you cannot deny the evil in the uruk-hai."
The muscles in her heart contracted and she suddenly was very aware of her breasts. "Why not? They cannot be mindless, I refuse to accept that. There must be something to motivate them. There must be humanity to appeal to."
Aragorn let a humorless laugh escape him, his stale breath escaping from his dust-coated throat. "Have you always been such an optimist?"
Her laugh matched his and her mouth smiled without her heart's consent. "Most people have called me the opposite."
"Have they not talked to you?"
"Not like this." She sighed and her heart squeezed itself tighter a second time and she felt her salty tears itch at the corners of her eyes. "I'm a little strange. I don't like what my society has become."
Aragorn thought he heard a disturbance in the soil nearby and was now becoming eager to finish this conversation. "Which would be?"
She laughed again and, this time, her eye's gritty water escaped and was captured by her lashes. "Mass-produced. That sword on your hip…someone spent hours making that. Your clothing, too, was hand-made, wasn't it?"
"What other way is there?"
She narrowed her eyes until the lashes nearest the corners got tangled in each other. "Machines."
Aragorn stared at her, watching a second set of tears leave her ducts only to die on her cheekbones. She was pale, was the gray sort of pale that he associated with very old age and malnourishment. Her lips twitched and her cheeks' salty sheen sparkled in a moonbeam. Her face smoothed out in an instant and she opened her mouth, brittle words leaping off of her tongue in a song that wasn't as well-sung or melodic as yesterday's tune, but still was able to wrap its syllables around the smooth-muscled organ in Aragorn's chest and squeeze.
There is a rapture that my soul desires
There is a something that I cannot name.
I know n ot after what my soul aspires
Nor guess from when the restless longing came
But ever since my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
It is the melody in all sweet music
In all fair forms it is the hidden grace.
In all I love, a something that escapes me,
Flies by pursuit and ever visits face.
I see it in the woodlands, silver beauty
I feel it in the very breathing of the air.
I stretch my hand to grasp for I can't touch it
When I do, well I know it is not there.
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la la la la
But ever since my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
There is a rapture.
"You sound like an elf."
She scoffed and stood. "Ironic then, isn't it, that the only elf here dislikes me more than the Dwarf?"
"That's not true."
She nodded with her eyes downcast and returned to the bedroll that Aragorn had lent her. "Yes, it is."
Aragorn relaxed his posture, the rock pressing into his back intimately, spooning the ranger in its indestructible embrace. Aragorn picked up his pipe, removed some weed from a pouch and began suckling the wooden apparatus. "You can come out of hiding now, Legolas."
"I thought you might have heard me." Legolas leaned against a rock opposite of Aragorn's. "Forgive me, my friend; I did not want to intrude."
Aragorn nodded, letting the smoke invade every inner recess of his lungs.
----------------------------------
White-Witch-Sakura: Thanks for the review and I agree...there should be more reviews!
Kyandoru: Glad I made you happy...hopefully, you're just as pleased with this chappie.
FantasyQueen21: Hey, Manda-bear...I'm expecting to explain how she got there in the upcoming chapters.