Disclaimer: I am not Tolkien. I own only Elli and Caitlin.
A/N: 'Ello Poppet! Sorry, my mom's hooked on the ol' pirate movie, been watchin' far too much of it. Anyway. . . how many of you think Caitlin's going to make your lives easier? Ooo, Caitlin's gonna be a big fat biotch about this love affair, and you all damn well know it! Sure, it's got Mary Sue qualities. But I ain't puttin' the two of 'em in the sack just 'cuz I said they like each other! Bring in the amusement! Best be hoping you're all hanging around a while! You're gonna like this!
Onward we go!
But wait! Indeed, you all seem so fond of my heroines, but which is your favorite of the two? I'd like to know, considering I had someone review and tell me that Elli is her favorite character out of everything she's ever read (thanks to HobbitGirl11 for that one! ;)) Anyway, please vote, it's just a nonsense thing to amuse me. Thankies!
NOW, we ride onward!
CAITLIN'S POV
"Where'd you guys get the horses?" Elli asked.
"Remember Éomer? He leant us three of his horses. And I got myself a pretty sandy colored one."
"Who am I riding with? What horsie do I have?" she asked.
"You ride with me, my lucky hobbit girl," answered Gandalf. "You get to ride on Shadowfax. Caitlin will be sharing her horse with Boromir. Legolas and Gimli will ride as one, and Aragorn has his own horse."
'Oh goody,' I though. We were still preparing ourselves to leave for Edoras on the skirts of Fangorn Forest. We hadn't left yet, but it hadn't seemed like a long amount of time had passed. Gandalf's beautiful white steed had come barreling over the plains. Aragorn had mounted his own dark brown horse, and Legolas and Gimli had mounted theirs as well. Boromir wasn't on our horse yet though. Soon we'd be off. But while we had the chance, Elli and I were chatting away, until the men loaded us onto the horses as well.
"So?" she began. "What kind of adventures have you been doing while trying to rescue my little behind back to safety?"
"Running across open and somewhat rocky terrain isn't my everyday idea of fun, ya know?" Elli gave a laugh at my sarcasm. "And what about you? The usual kidnapped-by-orcs-and-escape-into-Fangorn?"
"I was brutal to them. And they returned it whole heartedly."
"What the heck could you have done to those huge uruks?"
"I bit one," she remarked nonchalantly.
"Damn. You were brutal! What did they do to you?"
"They tied me up, beat me a few times, let me starve, and threw me around. They're such brutes, those big teddy bears."
"Cut the sarcasm, they hurt you and you're makin' them sound harmless!"
"I'm just bitter about it still." Her words came out mumbled, but well understood. I let the conversation on their kidnapping drop for right now. Instead, I was becoming curious on the matter of Merry having a liking to her.
"So, Merry seems to be fond of you, is that what you said?" I began.
"Yes, but I'm afraid he'll fall too hard for me. He's got his own hobbit lass in the Shire that he's meant to marry someday. I don't want to alter the fate of Middle-earth that badly!"
"Is that why you sent them on their way all by themselves?" I asked.
"No, not really. I missed you and the protective men. Couldn't miss all the excitement here, what with you and Legolas attempting romance and all."
"I'm gonna beat you worse than those uruk-hai did if you don't drop the subject right now." I grumbled.
"The worse you could do is knock me off the horse while we're running across the plains," she laughed. "And besides, I knew something of this sort would happen while I was gone. I just wasn't expecting Legolas to pull a you and hide his feelings so expertly. It humors me a bit that he does like you, but I haven't a clue as to how strong his emotions are."
"Stop talking, please Elli. Nothing is going to happen between the two of us. And besides, when we find a way home that'll just be disappointing to boot. So no sense in starting something if it's only going to end in a lot of sadness."
"You like him enough to consider a long term romance?!" Elli whispered excitedly, trying to keep her voice low so no one would get suspicious.
"I. . .Uuhh. . . no! I. . . damn. NO!"
ELLI'S POV
The wind blowing my hair, smoothing over my face; the chill didn't bother me. Here I was riding the most famous horse in literature across the huge Plains of Rohan and both Caitlin and I had small romance stories that we seemingly wanted nothing to do with. I thought Merry was a sweet and brave little hobbit, but it wasn't meant to be that way. No amount of love that either of us had was going to change my mind on the matter.
But Caitlin and Legolas. . . Mary Sue indeed, but I was dying to see how the two of them went about this. Part of me truly believed that Legolas liked her. I knew Caitlin was crazy for the elfin prince; that was obvious to me for most of the trip. But as much as I wanted to see the two of them together, I figured it would end in disaster. But that was my opinion. Who knew? Maybe things could work out for the two of them. But only if they both confessed. And I didn't see that happening, let alone going smoothly for either of them.
It seemed that so much had happened to each of us during that really short amount of time. It had really been only a couple of days, no more. But still. . . each of us had been through enough that we'd stay up half a night talking about it.
My mind wandered to other things for a while, and I stopped thinking about Middle-earth. Sort of. I wanted to know how Caitlin and I had gotten here. We had just, fallen in. That was the best way to describe it. A flash with the camera and we landed ourselves in a marsh. I guessed we'd never know for sure. But why Caitlin and me? We had never gotten along too well back home in our world. She'd been prissy, stuck-up, self absorbed and glamorous. I'd been a bookwork, teacher's pet, an outcast from others in the school. Caitlin and I talked, sure we did; but we were from different worlds it seemed. We'd known each other before the rift had formed and long before we'd entered the 'bigger world' of high school where it mattered who you talked to. We'd held on, especially when we found out we'd landed a lot of the same classes that her other friends thought were 'dorky', like the photography class. She loved being in front of the camera, while I loved being behind it.
How had the two of us survived this far? Their had definitely been times where I wanted to ring her damn neck, but I knew I needed her. We were in this together. 'Til the end.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Wake up," Gandalf whispered. "You fell asleep on the ride over young one. You are lucky I was holding onto you or you would have gone down and hurt yourself. We stopped for now, though, so here, have a sip of this."
He handed me a water bag, and I sipped a bit of it before I sat up and looked around. "Why have we stopped?" I asked.
"Gimli fell off the horse."
I let out a soft snicker. Gandalf saved my butt, but Legolas couldn't have saved the dwarf's? I turned and looked around, and sure enough, there sat Gimli in a small heap on the ground. Poor fellow.
Aragorn put a hand out to help the dwarf up as Legolas stood on the side with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked slightly upset with himself, but then he took a quick look over at Caitlin and his face seemed to be filled with a secret sadness. I turned away confused.
"Hey Gandalf," I asked. "How far is Edoras from here?"
"We should be there by dawn," he answered. Oh goody, I thought. An all night traveling spree.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Actually, we decided to rest the horses and put them in a walk instead of an all night run. So I ran over and walked next to Caitlin and we talked half the night. We were a bit ahead of the men, who were a tiny cluster close behind us. So we kept our voices at a whisper, yet we knew Legolas could hear most of our conversation with those damn elven ears.
"I can't wait to get home," I remarked. "As much as I love it here, I'd love to sleep in my own bed all over again. And to see my mom, as much as she hates me. And my dog, Todo. . . I miss that fella'."
Caitlin was silent. I looked up at her. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"Do you really think that there's a way home for us?" she asked, seemingly unhopeful about the ordeal, yet horribly sad that there was a good chance we were stuck here.
I thought about her question a moment. "I don't know. I'd like to think there is, but I really do not know."
"Galadriel had said there might not be a way home. And as much as I've enjoyed my stay here and all, that's extremely disappointing."
I sighed. "I understand. It's nice to think that one day we'll get home, though."
"But what if there isn't?" she asked, urging me to answer truthfully.
"If there isn't then-" I paused. I didn't know. And much as I'd like to give her an honest answer, I didn't know one. We might be stuck here until we die. We might completely alter the fate of Middle-earth just because we couldn't get home. We might alter the War of the Ring with horrible circumstances.
But I did answer Caitlin's question. "Then we live out lives out here. We make the best of it. It's not so bad here, we have learned to deal rather well here. We have men who protect us, cities that consider us famous and physic just because we know this tale in a book. If we don't ever get home, then so be it."
"But doesn't it make you sad?" she asked. "Doesn't it irk you to think that you'll be stuck here forever, and you'll never get home, and you'll completely change the book and maybe change it for the worse? Do you wish to stay here and leave your family forever?"
"No," I told her calmly. "But it does make me sad. But there's nothing we can do about that. We don't even know how we got here."
"Neither does the person writing this tale."
"So what do you want me to do about this? We don't know. We'll most likely never know. So drop it."
And she did. We were silent for a few more minutes, taking in the fresh night air and catching sight of the twinkling stars above and around us. Stars didn't look like that back home, that was for sure. I had never realized that there were so many. And I could clearly make out itty bitty ones that I never knew existed.
"So, Elli. . ." Caitlin started.
"Yes, O Elfin One?"
"Stop that."
"Sorry," I apologized. "Anyway, what did you want to say?"
"Yeah, umm. . . what do you think of my situation?" she asked in a whisper.
"You mean. . .?" I asked, nodding my head in the direction of the men.
"Yeah. About that. We're you lying when you said that the feelings might be, umm, reciprocated?"
"Well, I'm not sure. He might, yet he might just be a very overly caring individual. I've never met an elf before, and I don't know if it's just their nature to care and comfort others. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But if you'd like to trust your heart, be my guest. Or, you can trust me like you have been doing. Your choice."
"Can't we just invent a device that allows us to get inside his head?"
"That's why god invented fanfic, sweetie. But no, there really is no definite way for us to figure out his true feelings. Sorry."
~*~*~*~*~*~
When dawn came we were back on the horses, trotting along the open plains. The early red sunrise gave us the beautiful view of Edoras far off in the distance. I gaped, my mouth a small "o" in wonder. What a sight it was to behold something that spectacular. It certainty didn't look that amazing on film, no matter how hard they tried. This was the real thing.
The Golden Hall of Meduseld shone gold in the dawn, it's name given true meaning as you saw it glowing before you. Atop it's glorious and famous hill it stood, shining in full splendor. The mountain ranges popped up on both sides, their tops silver and white with the red and pink sky.
"Well?" asked Gandalf. "What do you think of your first sight of the Golden Hall and Edoras?"
I stopped gaping a moment to answer him. "It's beautiful."
(A/N: Sorry to cut it short, we'll be visiting Edoras next chapter folks. AND. . . a special treat is in store next chapter, so stay tuned, you'll love me for this! I promise!)
A/N: 'Ello Poppet! Sorry, my mom's hooked on the ol' pirate movie, been watchin' far too much of it. Anyway. . . how many of you think Caitlin's going to make your lives easier? Ooo, Caitlin's gonna be a big fat biotch about this love affair, and you all damn well know it! Sure, it's got Mary Sue qualities. But I ain't puttin' the two of 'em in the sack just 'cuz I said they like each other! Bring in the amusement! Best be hoping you're all hanging around a while! You're gonna like this!
Onward we go!
But wait! Indeed, you all seem so fond of my heroines, but which is your favorite of the two? I'd like to know, considering I had someone review and tell me that Elli is her favorite character out of everything she's ever read (thanks to HobbitGirl11 for that one! ;)) Anyway, please vote, it's just a nonsense thing to amuse me. Thankies!
NOW, we ride onward!
CAITLIN'S POV
"Where'd you guys get the horses?" Elli asked.
"Remember Éomer? He leant us three of his horses. And I got myself a pretty sandy colored one."
"Who am I riding with? What horsie do I have?" she asked.
"You ride with me, my lucky hobbit girl," answered Gandalf. "You get to ride on Shadowfax. Caitlin will be sharing her horse with Boromir. Legolas and Gimli will ride as one, and Aragorn has his own horse."
'Oh goody,' I though. We were still preparing ourselves to leave for Edoras on the skirts of Fangorn Forest. We hadn't left yet, but it hadn't seemed like a long amount of time had passed. Gandalf's beautiful white steed had come barreling over the plains. Aragorn had mounted his own dark brown horse, and Legolas and Gimli had mounted theirs as well. Boromir wasn't on our horse yet though. Soon we'd be off. But while we had the chance, Elli and I were chatting away, until the men loaded us onto the horses as well.
"So?" she began. "What kind of adventures have you been doing while trying to rescue my little behind back to safety?"
"Running across open and somewhat rocky terrain isn't my everyday idea of fun, ya know?" Elli gave a laugh at my sarcasm. "And what about you? The usual kidnapped-by-orcs-and-escape-into-Fangorn?"
"I was brutal to them. And they returned it whole heartedly."
"What the heck could you have done to those huge uruks?"
"I bit one," she remarked nonchalantly.
"Damn. You were brutal! What did they do to you?"
"They tied me up, beat me a few times, let me starve, and threw me around. They're such brutes, those big teddy bears."
"Cut the sarcasm, they hurt you and you're makin' them sound harmless!"
"I'm just bitter about it still." Her words came out mumbled, but well understood. I let the conversation on their kidnapping drop for right now. Instead, I was becoming curious on the matter of Merry having a liking to her.
"So, Merry seems to be fond of you, is that what you said?" I began.
"Yes, but I'm afraid he'll fall too hard for me. He's got his own hobbit lass in the Shire that he's meant to marry someday. I don't want to alter the fate of Middle-earth that badly!"
"Is that why you sent them on their way all by themselves?" I asked.
"No, not really. I missed you and the protective men. Couldn't miss all the excitement here, what with you and Legolas attempting romance and all."
"I'm gonna beat you worse than those uruk-hai did if you don't drop the subject right now." I grumbled.
"The worse you could do is knock me off the horse while we're running across the plains," she laughed. "And besides, I knew something of this sort would happen while I was gone. I just wasn't expecting Legolas to pull a you and hide his feelings so expertly. It humors me a bit that he does like you, but I haven't a clue as to how strong his emotions are."
"Stop talking, please Elli. Nothing is going to happen between the two of us. And besides, when we find a way home that'll just be disappointing to boot. So no sense in starting something if it's only going to end in a lot of sadness."
"You like him enough to consider a long term romance?!" Elli whispered excitedly, trying to keep her voice low so no one would get suspicious.
"I. . .Uuhh. . . no! I. . . damn. NO!"
ELLI'S POV
The wind blowing my hair, smoothing over my face; the chill didn't bother me. Here I was riding the most famous horse in literature across the huge Plains of Rohan and both Caitlin and I had small romance stories that we seemingly wanted nothing to do with. I thought Merry was a sweet and brave little hobbit, but it wasn't meant to be that way. No amount of love that either of us had was going to change my mind on the matter.
But Caitlin and Legolas. . . Mary Sue indeed, but I was dying to see how the two of them went about this. Part of me truly believed that Legolas liked her. I knew Caitlin was crazy for the elfin prince; that was obvious to me for most of the trip. But as much as I wanted to see the two of them together, I figured it would end in disaster. But that was my opinion. Who knew? Maybe things could work out for the two of them. But only if they both confessed. And I didn't see that happening, let alone going smoothly for either of them.
It seemed that so much had happened to each of us during that really short amount of time. It had really been only a couple of days, no more. But still. . . each of us had been through enough that we'd stay up half a night talking about it.
My mind wandered to other things for a while, and I stopped thinking about Middle-earth. Sort of. I wanted to know how Caitlin and I had gotten here. We had just, fallen in. That was the best way to describe it. A flash with the camera and we landed ourselves in a marsh. I guessed we'd never know for sure. But why Caitlin and me? We had never gotten along too well back home in our world. She'd been prissy, stuck-up, self absorbed and glamorous. I'd been a bookwork, teacher's pet, an outcast from others in the school. Caitlin and I talked, sure we did; but we were from different worlds it seemed. We'd known each other before the rift had formed and long before we'd entered the 'bigger world' of high school where it mattered who you talked to. We'd held on, especially when we found out we'd landed a lot of the same classes that her other friends thought were 'dorky', like the photography class. She loved being in front of the camera, while I loved being behind it.
How had the two of us survived this far? Their had definitely been times where I wanted to ring her damn neck, but I knew I needed her. We were in this together. 'Til the end.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Wake up," Gandalf whispered. "You fell asleep on the ride over young one. You are lucky I was holding onto you or you would have gone down and hurt yourself. We stopped for now, though, so here, have a sip of this."
He handed me a water bag, and I sipped a bit of it before I sat up and looked around. "Why have we stopped?" I asked.
"Gimli fell off the horse."
I let out a soft snicker. Gandalf saved my butt, but Legolas couldn't have saved the dwarf's? I turned and looked around, and sure enough, there sat Gimli in a small heap on the ground. Poor fellow.
Aragorn put a hand out to help the dwarf up as Legolas stood on the side with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked slightly upset with himself, but then he took a quick look over at Caitlin and his face seemed to be filled with a secret sadness. I turned away confused.
"Hey Gandalf," I asked. "How far is Edoras from here?"
"We should be there by dawn," he answered. Oh goody, I thought. An all night traveling spree.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Actually, we decided to rest the horses and put them in a walk instead of an all night run. So I ran over and walked next to Caitlin and we talked half the night. We were a bit ahead of the men, who were a tiny cluster close behind us. So we kept our voices at a whisper, yet we knew Legolas could hear most of our conversation with those damn elven ears.
"I can't wait to get home," I remarked. "As much as I love it here, I'd love to sleep in my own bed all over again. And to see my mom, as much as she hates me. And my dog, Todo. . . I miss that fella'."
Caitlin was silent. I looked up at her. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"Do you really think that there's a way home for us?" she asked, seemingly unhopeful about the ordeal, yet horribly sad that there was a good chance we were stuck here.
I thought about her question a moment. "I don't know. I'd like to think there is, but I really do not know."
"Galadriel had said there might not be a way home. And as much as I've enjoyed my stay here and all, that's extremely disappointing."
I sighed. "I understand. It's nice to think that one day we'll get home, though."
"But what if there isn't?" she asked, urging me to answer truthfully.
"If there isn't then-" I paused. I didn't know. And much as I'd like to give her an honest answer, I didn't know one. We might be stuck here until we die. We might completely alter the fate of Middle-earth just because we couldn't get home. We might alter the War of the Ring with horrible circumstances.
But I did answer Caitlin's question. "Then we live out lives out here. We make the best of it. It's not so bad here, we have learned to deal rather well here. We have men who protect us, cities that consider us famous and physic just because we know this tale in a book. If we don't ever get home, then so be it."
"But doesn't it make you sad?" she asked. "Doesn't it irk you to think that you'll be stuck here forever, and you'll never get home, and you'll completely change the book and maybe change it for the worse? Do you wish to stay here and leave your family forever?"
"No," I told her calmly. "But it does make me sad. But there's nothing we can do about that. We don't even know how we got here."
"Neither does the person writing this tale."
"So what do you want me to do about this? We don't know. We'll most likely never know. So drop it."
And she did. We were silent for a few more minutes, taking in the fresh night air and catching sight of the twinkling stars above and around us. Stars didn't look like that back home, that was for sure. I had never realized that there were so many. And I could clearly make out itty bitty ones that I never knew existed.
"So, Elli. . ." Caitlin started.
"Yes, O Elfin One?"
"Stop that."
"Sorry," I apologized. "Anyway, what did you want to say?"
"Yeah, umm. . . what do you think of my situation?" she asked in a whisper.
"You mean. . .?" I asked, nodding my head in the direction of the men.
"Yeah. About that. We're you lying when you said that the feelings might be, umm, reciprocated?"
"Well, I'm not sure. He might, yet he might just be a very overly caring individual. I've never met an elf before, and I don't know if it's just their nature to care and comfort others. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But if you'd like to trust your heart, be my guest. Or, you can trust me like you have been doing. Your choice."
"Can't we just invent a device that allows us to get inside his head?"
"That's why god invented fanfic, sweetie. But no, there really is no definite way for us to figure out his true feelings. Sorry."
~*~*~*~*~*~
When dawn came we were back on the horses, trotting along the open plains. The early red sunrise gave us the beautiful view of Edoras far off in the distance. I gaped, my mouth a small "o" in wonder. What a sight it was to behold something that spectacular. It certainty didn't look that amazing on film, no matter how hard they tried. This was the real thing.
The Golden Hall of Meduseld shone gold in the dawn, it's name given true meaning as you saw it glowing before you. Atop it's glorious and famous hill it stood, shining in full splendor. The mountain ranges popped up on both sides, their tops silver and white with the red and pink sky.
"Well?" asked Gandalf. "What do you think of your first sight of the Golden Hall and Edoras?"
I stopped gaping a moment to answer him. "It's beautiful."
(A/N: Sorry to cut it short, we'll be visiting Edoras next chapter folks. AND. . . a special treat is in store next chapter, so stay tuned, you'll love me for this! I promise!)