They stopped around midnight. Buffy almost fell from the saddle in relief,
and tiredness. Aragorn helped her down, and settled her near where Legolas
and Gimli were already sitting. She wouldn't admit it, but her wound was
bothering her. It was almost healed, true, but with everything going on;
the fight with Faith, and all the bouncing from the riding, she was afraid
it had opened.
"Brr." She shivered. She didn't understand why she was so cold, but the closer they drew to their destination, the dread and fear grew, as well as her chills. She tried not to show her shivers, but Aragorn noticed.
He took off his elven cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. He then sat closer to her, as Legolas, on her other side, did the same.
"Y-y-you re-really do-n't h-have to" she said, her teeth chattering.
"I'm not cold." He answered.
"Here, Lassie." Gimli gave her his cloak as well. "Dwarves are tough, and can stand a bit of cold." He said, even though it was a balmy night, and no one was cold but her.
"It-s n-not th-the ni-night. It's. . . . . I c-can't describe it."
"Try." Legolas encouraged her.
"I've lived in an evil place for seven years, now. But this. . . . this feeling . . . The evil I sense . . . I've never felt this way before. And it. . . . It scares me." They had no response for that. "You guys seriously don't feel it?" She asked, confused. She had never been the one to feel the evil. That was always Angel, or Spike, after he got his soul, or Willow. Never her. Unless this was a new extension of her powers.
"No." the three companions answered.
~ * ~
They made ready to leave at dawn.
Gandalf rode to the great pillar of the hand and passed it, and as he did so, the Riders saw to their wonder that the hand was no longer white. It had been stained with blood, and the nails were also red.
All about them, as if a sudden flood had come and covered the parched land, wide pools lay to either side of the road.
At last Gandalf stopped. He beckoned to them, and they saw that the mists had cleared and a pale sun shone.
It was past noon, and Buffy found herself starved. A large pair of doors stood in their was. The Doors of Isengaurd.
The groups sat silently, peering around at the destruction of Isengaurd. Yet still the tower of Orthanc stood, with water lapping gently at its feet.
Buffy stared in awe. This place was huge. It must have been beautiful, once upon a time, but the land was scared, and things seemed to have fallen into a time of disrepair. She turned and looked at the rubble that had once been gates. Her sharp eyes picked up two small figures lying, almost comfortably, in the rubble. They were gray clad, it looked to her as if they were wearing cloaks similar to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, and she was surprised, for two reasons. The first being that she had picked them out at all, and the second being that she hadn't done it sooner.
There were bottles and bowls and platters beside them, and it looked to her as if they had just eaten, and were now resting. One seemed asleep, while the other, he had his legs crossed and arms behind his head, and he was leaning back against a broken rock and he was smoking!
Presently, the others saw them as well. Before the king could speak, though, the smoking one became aware of them, and he sprang to his feet.
He was short, maybe even shorter than herself, she thought, somewhat amused by this thought. He was just a kid, or so it seemed. He looked to be an adult, but a young one, at that, but he was so short! He had brown curly hair and he was in fact wearing the same type of cloak as Legolas and the other two. This confused Buffy, and she set her mind upon this bit of information.
He bowed long and low, with his hand upon his chest. Then, as if he didn't see the wizard and his friends, he turned to Eomer and the king.
"Welcome, my lords, to Isengaurd!" He said. "We are the door-wardens. Meriadoc, son of Saradoc is my name; my companion who, alas! is overcome with weariness," here he gave the other a dig with his foot. "is Peregrin, son of Paladin, of the house of Took. Far in the north is our home. The Lord Sauruman is within; but at the moment he is closeted with one Wormtongue, or doubtless would be here to welcome such honorable guests."
"Doubtless he would!" Laughed Gandalf. "And was it Saruman that ordered you to guard his damaged doors, and watch for the arrival of guests, when your attention could be spared from plate and bottle?"
"o, good sir, the matter escaped him" Answered Merry gravely. "He has been much occupied. Our orders came from Treebeard, who has taken over the management of Isengaurd. He commanded me to welcome to Lord of Rohan with fitting words. I have done my best." Buffy had to hold in a laugh. Such words, funny to be heard from someone of her time, were even funnier coming from someone so short.
"And what about your companions? What about Legolas and me?" cried Gimli, unable to contain himself longer. "You rascals, you wooly footed and wool patted truants! A fine hunt you have led us! Two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! And here we find you feasting and idling-and smoking! Where did you come by the weed, you villains? Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it would be a marvel!" Buffy covered her mouth with her hand, to stifle the giggles. How she could laugh in such a place, with all the evil, she didn't know, but the referral of cocaine just broke her, and she could not stop the laughter.
"You speak for me, Gimli," laughed Legolas. "Though I would sooner learn how they came by the wine."
"One thing you have not found in your hunting, and that's brighter wits." Said Pippin, opening one eye. "Here you find us sitting on a field of victory, amid plunder of armies, and you wonder how we came by a few well earned comforts!"
"Well earned?" Asked Gimli, "I cannot believe this!" Buffy had a hard time accepting this as well. Sure, the people of this world were strange, and she knew not to doubt people, she was a good example of things not being as they appeared, but they were so small, and fragile looking!
"It cannot be doubted that we witness the meeting of dear friends. So these are the lost ones of your company, Gandalf? The days are fated to be filled with marvels. Already I have seen many since I left my house; and now here before my eyes stand yet another of the folk of legend. Are not these the Halflings, that some among us call the Holbytlan?" Theoden asked.
"Hobbits, if you please, lord." Replied Pippin.
"Hobbits? Halflings? Holby-whatchamacallits?" Buffy muttered, confused.
"Hobbits?" Theoden seemed to echo her, "your tongue is strangely changed; but the names sounds not unfitting so. Hobbits! No report that I have heard does justice to the truth."
Buffy blocked everything out, while she thought about what a strange world they had ended up in! Wizards, elves, dwarves, men, and now these Hobbit thingys.
"You do not know your danger, Theoden," Gandalf interrupted the conversation, and her thoughts. "These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers and great grand fathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience. Some other time would be more fitting for the history of smoking. Where is Treebeard, Merry?"
"Away on the north side, I believe. He went to get a drink- of clean water. Most of the other Ents are with him, still busy as their work-over there." Merry waved his hand towards the steaming lake; and as they looked, they heard a distant rumbling and rattling, as if an avalanche was falling from the mountain side.
"And is Orthanc left unguarded?" Asked Gandalf. Once again, Buffy blocked out the conversation. It did not bother her at all. She really didn't know why she had come, but she hadn't been needed back at the fort, with Faith, and Willow, and all the other girls. And there probably weren't any vampires or demons around to slay, anyway.
Presently, the King, Gandalf, and the rest of the King's company rode away, leaving her, Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn with the two hobbit things.
Everyone dismounted, letting the horses graze, and went to sit by the hobbits. Buffy, a bit unsure of herself, for like the first time in her life, stayed as inconspicuous as possible.
"Well, well! The hunt is over, and we meet again at last, where none of us ever thought to come." Said Aragorn.
"And now that the great ones have gone to discuss high maters, the hunters can perhaps learn the answers to their own small riddles. We tracked you as far as the forest, but there are still many things that I should like to know the truth of." Legolas said.
Buffy got up, not drawing any attention to herself, and went to the horses. This conversation did not involve her, and as much as she was wanting to know about it all, she knew it was none of her business, and tried to stay out of it. Besides, she had other things to think about. Like the consequences of the spell.
" . . . . it would go better after a meal. I have a sore head; and it is past mid-day. Your truants might make amends by finding us some of the plunder that you spoke of." The mention of food broke through her thoughts. "Food and drink would pay off some of my score against you." Gimli said, and Buffy couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"Will you have it here, or in more comfort in what's left of Saruman's guard house? We had to picnic out here, so as to keep an eye on the road." Pippin told him.
"Less than an eye! But I would not go into any orc-house, nor touch orc's meat or anything that they have mauled."
"We wouldn't ask you to. We have had enough of orcs ourselves to last a lifetime. But there were many other folk in Isengaurd. Saruman kept enough wisdom not to trust his orcs. He had men to guard his gates. They were favored and got good provisions."
"And pipe-weed?" Asked Gimli.
"No, I don't think so." Merry laughed. "But that is another story, which can wait until after lunch."
"Well, let us go have lunch then!" cried the dwarf. They all turned to go towards the guard house, when Aragorn saw Buffy was not with them. He turned, and found her by the horses.
"Buffy? Will you join us?" He called. She nodded, and hurried forward. He held out a hand to help her with the treacherous ground.
"I can walk on my own, thank you very much." She said, as if to push him away. But then she tripped, and he caught her. "Thanks." She mumbled, flustered. They quickly stepped away, to lengthen the distance between their bodies, and a hand went to their respective necks, one fingering an Evenstar pendant, and the other a cross.
Legolas noticed the awkwardness between the two, but said nothing.
"Who's this, now?" Merry asked. There couldn't be a woman with the King's Company, it was unthinkable, to take a woman where danger might be.
"Buffy Summers." He introduced herself.
"Where did she come from?" Pippin asked, looking her over. This, of course, was directed towards Aragorn.
"She . . . . .showed up at helm's Deep. She's a warrior, very experienced and-"
"And she's standing right here." She huffed, hands on hips. People who knew her better would have known she was in a foul mood.
"Sorry." The hobbits were intimidated. "So, who are you? Where'd you come from?"
"Well. . . . " She heard Gimli sigh, and her stomach rumble. "Food first, and then I'll answer questions." She smiled.
They were led to a door, which led to stairs, and they went up them, because that's what you did. A door at the top led directly to a large chamber, with smaller doors leading off. There was also a hearth and a chimney to one side.
"I lit a bit of fore." Pippin said. "It cheered us up in the fog. There were a few faggots about, and most of the wood we could find was wet." Buffy had to hide her laughter. She knew that in this world, Fagggot might mean something totally different from what she took it to mean, but it was still the principal of the matter. Pippin looked at her strangely, but then continued. "But there is a great draught in the chimney; it seems wind away up through the rock, and fortunately it has not been blocked. A fire is handy. I will make you some toast. The bread is three or four days old, I'm afraid."
They all sat down at one end of the long table. Buffy hid a grimace. Three or four day old bread? Ick! Besides store bought bread, bread got hard after it aged a day or two, if it was home made, and she guessed that was what this was. She hadn't seen and Shaw's or Hanniford's around. The hobbits disappeared through one door.
"What was so funny?" Aragorn asked. He had just so happened to sit next to her.
"Well. . . . .I'll tell you later." She didn't know how exactly to explain in polite company.
Soon the two little men came back carrying dishes, bowls, cups, knives, and foods of various sorts.
"And you need not turn up your nose at the provender, Master Gimli. This is not orc-stuff, but man-food, as Treebeard calls it. Will you have wine or beer? There's a barrel inside there- very passable. And this is first rate salted pork. Or I can cut you some rashers of bacon and broil them, if you like."
"Oo! Bacon!" Buffy said, as her stomach gurgled.
The four were soon busy with their meal, and the two hobbits, unabashed, set to a second meal. "We must make our guests company." They said, much to Buffy's merriment. She liked these two creatures, these hobbits.
"You are full of courtesy this morning." Laughed Legolas. "But maybe, if we had not arrived, you would have already have been keeping one another company again."
"Maybe, and why not? We had foul fare with the orcs, and little enough for days before that. It seems a long while since we could eat to heart's content."
"It does not seem to have done you any harm." Said Aragorn. "Indeed, you look in the bloom of life."
Once more, and maybe she would kick herself for it later, Buffy lost herself in her thoughts. Most weren't pleasant ones, at that. If when both Kendra and Faith had shown up was any indicator, how would she react to being upstaged? When she got home, if they found a way to get there, she knew that her world would have been changed. But was it for the better? Yeah, tons of slayers, but who would train them all? And if some weren't trained, and they died, on whose conscious would their death lie on?
"What's wrong?" Aragorn asked, once he noticed she was picking at her food.
"Nothing." He looked at her, as if he knew her. ". . . . . I'll tell you later." He still looked at her. "I promise! Ok?" He nodded, and went back to the conversation.
They laughed and chatted, and the hobbits told their story, while they finished eating. Then, one or the other, Buffy had yet to be able to tell them apart, produced some tobacco, or something to that effect. After telling where they had found it, and one producing another pipe, they all went outside into the fresh air, but Buffy decided to stay inside, and clean up. She knew it would be easier to think by herself.
Outside, they talked about this and that, and the noise of voices came back to her every once in awhile, as the wind changed. She was still cold, but had seemed to grow accustomed to it.
Just as she was finishing cleaning up the best she could, just to give her hands something to do, as her mind thought, Aragorn came into the guard house.
"What's on your mind? One as young as yourself shouldn't be plagued with such heavy thoughts to ruin your meal." He said quietly.
"Rubbish! It's doesn't matter how old you are! Do you think destiny cares how old you are?" She said with more venom then she meant to. He sat at the table, and she went and sat across from him. She put her head down and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"Aragorn, I'm sorry. I'm just so confused right now. When I thought up the spell, to change the rules, to make the potentials slayers, I thought I was doing a good thing. But. . . . I was fifteen when this slayer thing chose me. Who knows how old some of the potentials are? Twelve? Eleven? Ten even? Was it really fair to them to do that? To change their lives, their destinies, on a whim like that? Nobody deserves to have to be a slayer, to be a chosen one." She spat the name.
"Just when I was getting my life back on track. . . . . Dying, then being brought back doesn't bode well for your social life. And with mom gone. . . . . I didn't know how to run a household! Bills, and debt! I just didn't know what to do! And then Spike . . . . " She put her head in her hands.
"Was that. . . ."
"Yes. The blond guy."
"Were you. . . . .involved?"
"Yeah, for awhile, till I realized I was using him. Aragorn," she looked up at him, and he saw something strange in her eyes, fear? "Don't judge me, ok? I know that things I did in my world, which were, well, strange, but morally ok, aren't in this world, by this world's standards. Don't judge me. Just be a friend, ok?" He nodded.
"I went to Spike, because he made me feel something. Anything, it didn't matter, I just wanted to feel some sort of emotion. Even if it was disgust!
"I was sleeping with a vampire! I don't know what was going through my mind. It wasn't like he was like Angel, with a soul and all. He was just Spike. He was there, and he was convenient." She seemed mad at herself.
"But he said he loved me. But I never loved him. Sure I said it, but I didn't mean it. And then. . . . I stopped seeing him, and I got a job, and I had an income, and things were going ok.
"But then, this past year, things have been piling up. First the school being rebuilt. And then the potentials showing up on my doorstep. And the First.
"This Big Bad, evil. But oh no, it wasn't like the evil I'd faced before. No. It had to be the reason they existed. Sure, I've faced a hell god, vampires, demons, you name it. I've faced it, I fought it. Sure, sometimes I would quake in my boots a moment, but then I did what I had to do, and that was the end, until the next one came.
"But the First, with no way of fighting it, no way of killing it, I was terrified. It was the first time that my fear had stopped me dead in my tracks! Here's this evil, that's going to destroy the world, and I have no way of fighting it!
"So, when I thought up this spell, I jumped at the chance. It was a way to finish it. I no longer fear dying. But what I fear most. . . . . being forgotten.
"I've been the only one, for a long time now. Seven years. It's a long time to devote to a destiny, yeah. And, ok, so I died the first year, and Kendra was called. And so she died, and Faith was called, but after they helped, they went away, one way or another. And I was back to being The One. But now. . . . . . . There are maybe hundreds of girls, with the same destiny as me." She looked up at him, the fear still in her eyes.
"Am I being selfish? I tend to do that sometimes."
"No, I don't think so." He chose his words carefully. She was strong, and he didn't want to anger her. He wanted to put her at ease. "It's human nature to wonder about oneself."
"Yeah." She muttered, hanging her head.
~ * ~
A/N: sorta a cliffie! Hehehehe!
"Brr." She shivered. She didn't understand why she was so cold, but the closer they drew to their destination, the dread and fear grew, as well as her chills. She tried not to show her shivers, but Aragorn noticed.
He took off his elven cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. He then sat closer to her, as Legolas, on her other side, did the same.
"Y-y-you re-really do-n't h-have to" she said, her teeth chattering.
"I'm not cold." He answered.
"Here, Lassie." Gimli gave her his cloak as well. "Dwarves are tough, and can stand a bit of cold." He said, even though it was a balmy night, and no one was cold but her.
"It-s n-not th-the ni-night. It's. . . . . I c-can't describe it."
"Try." Legolas encouraged her.
"I've lived in an evil place for seven years, now. But this. . . . this feeling . . . The evil I sense . . . I've never felt this way before. And it. . . . It scares me." They had no response for that. "You guys seriously don't feel it?" She asked, confused. She had never been the one to feel the evil. That was always Angel, or Spike, after he got his soul, or Willow. Never her. Unless this was a new extension of her powers.
"No." the three companions answered.
~ * ~
They made ready to leave at dawn.
Gandalf rode to the great pillar of the hand and passed it, and as he did so, the Riders saw to their wonder that the hand was no longer white. It had been stained with blood, and the nails were also red.
All about them, as if a sudden flood had come and covered the parched land, wide pools lay to either side of the road.
At last Gandalf stopped. He beckoned to them, and they saw that the mists had cleared and a pale sun shone.
It was past noon, and Buffy found herself starved. A large pair of doors stood in their was. The Doors of Isengaurd.
The groups sat silently, peering around at the destruction of Isengaurd. Yet still the tower of Orthanc stood, with water lapping gently at its feet.
Buffy stared in awe. This place was huge. It must have been beautiful, once upon a time, but the land was scared, and things seemed to have fallen into a time of disrepair. She turned and looked at the rubble that had once been gates. Her sharp eyes picked up two small figures lying, almost comfortably, in the rubble. They were gray clad, it looked to her as if they were wearing cloaks similar to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, and she was surprised, for two reasons. The first being that she had picked them out at all, and the second being that she hadn't done it sooner.
There were bottles and bowls and platters beside them, and it looked to her as if they had just eaten, and were now resting. One seemed asleep, while the other, he had his legs crossed and arms behind his head, and he was leaning back against a broken rock and he was smoking!
Presently, the others saw them as well. Before the king could speak, though, the smoking one became aware of them, and he sprang to his feet.
He was short, maybe even shorter than herself, she thought, somewhat amused by this thought. He was just a kid, or so it seemed. He looked to be an adult, but a young one, at that, but he was so short! He had brown curly hair and he was in fact wearing the same type of cloak as Legolas and the other two. This confused Buffy, and she set her mind upon this bit of information.
He bowed long and low, with his hand upon his chest. Then, as if he didn't see the wizard and his friends, he turned to Eomer and the king.
"Welcome, my lords, to Isengaurd!" He said. "We are the door-wardens. Meriadoc, son of Saradoc is my name; my companion who, alas! is overcome with weariness," here he gave the other a dig with his foot. "is Peregrin, son of Paladin, of the house of Took. Far in the north is our home. The Lord Sauruman is within; but at the moment he is closeted with one Wormtongue, or doubtless would be here to welcome such honorable guests."
"Doubtless he would!" Laughed Gandalf. "And was it Saruman that ordered you to guard his damaged doors, and watch for the arrival of guests, when your attention could be spared from plate and bottle?"
"o, good sir, the matter escaped him" Answered Merry gravely. "He has been much occupied. Our orders came from Treebeard, who has taken over the management of Isengaurd. He commanded me to welcome to Lord of Rohan with fitting words. I have done my best." Buffy had to hold in a laugh. Such words, funny to be heard from someone of her time, were even funnier coming from someone so short.
"And what about your companions? What about Legolas and me?" cried Gimli, unable to contain himself longer. "You rascals, you wooly footed and wool patted truants! A fine hunt you have led us! Two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! And here we find you feasting and idling-and smoking! Where did you come by the weed, you villains? Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it would be a marvel!" Buffy covered her mouth with her hand, to stifle the giggles. How she could laugh in such a place, with all the evil, she didn't know, but the referral of cocaine just broke her, and she could not stop the laughter.
"You speak for me, Gimli," laughed Legolas. "Though I would sooner learn how they came by the wine."
"One thing you have not found in your hunting, and that's brighter wits." Said Pippin, opening one eye. "Here you find us sitting on a field of victory, amid plunder of armies, and you wonder how we came by a few well earned comforts!"
"Well earned?" Asked Gimli, "I cannot believe this!" Buffy had a hard time accepting this as well. Sure, the people of this world were strange, and she knew not to doubt people, she was a good example of things not being as they appeared, but they were so small, and fragile looking!
"It cannot be doubted that we witness the meeting of dear friends. So these are the lost ones of your company, Gandalf? The days are fated to be filled with marvels. Already I have seen many since I left my house; and now here before my eyes stand yet another of the folk of legend. Are not these the Halflings, that some among us call the Holbytlan?" Theoden asked.
"Hobbits, if you please, lord." Replied Pippin.
"Hobbits? Halflings? Holby-whatchamacallits?" Buffy muttered, confused.
"Hobbits?" Theoden seemed to echo her, "your tongue is strangely changed; but the names sounds not unfitting so. Hobbits! No report that I have heard does justice to the truth."
Buffy blocked everything out, while she thought about what a strange world they had ended up in! Wizards, elves, dwarves, men, and now these Hobbit thingys.
"You do not know your danger, Theoden," Gandalf interrupted the conversation, and her thoughts. "These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers and great grand fathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience. Some other time would be more fitting for the history of smoking. Where is Treebeard, Merry?"
"Away on the north side, I believe. He went to get a drink- of clean water. Most of the other Ents are with him, still busy as their work-over there." Merry waved his hand towards the steaming lake; and as they looked, they heard a distant rumbling and rattling, as if an avalanche was falling from the mountain side.
"And is Orthanc left unguarded?" Asked Gandalf. Once again, Buffy blocked out the conversation. It did not bother her at all. She really didn't know why she had come, but she hadn't been needed back at the fort, with Faith, and Willow, and all the other girls. And there probably weren't any vampires or demons around to slay, anyway.
Presently, the King, Gandalf, and the rest of the King's company rode away, leaving her, Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn with the two hobbit things.
Everyone dismounted, letting the horses graze, and went to sit by the hobbits. Buffy, a bit unsure of herself, for like the first time in her life, stayed as inconspicuous as possible.
"Well, well! The hunt is over, and we meet again at last, where none of us ever thought to come." Said Aragorn.
"And now that the great ones have gone to discuss high maters, the hunters can perhaps learn the answers to their own small riddles. We tracked you as far as the forest, but there are still many things that I should like to know the truth of." Legolas said.
Buffy got up, not drawing any attention to herself, and went to the horses. This conversation did not involve her, and as much as she was wanting to know about it all, she knew it was none of her business, and tried to stay out of it. Besides, she had other things to think about. Like the consequences of the spell.
" . . . . it would go better after a meal. I have a sore head; and it is past mid-day. Your truants might make amends by finding us some of the plunder that you spoke of." The mention of food broke through her thoughts. "Food and drink would pay off some of my score against you." Gimli said, and Buffy couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"Will you have it here, or in more comfort in what's left of Saruman's guard house? We had to picnic out here, so as to keep an eye on the road." Pippin told him.
"Less than an eye! But I would not go into any orc-house, nor touch orc's meat or anything that they have mauled."
"We wouldn't ask you to. We have had enough of orcs ourselves to last a lifetime. But there were many other folk in Isengaurd. Saruman kept enough wisdom not to trust his orcs. He had men to guard his gates. They were favored and got good provisions."
"And pipe-weed?" Asked Gimli.
"No, I don't think so." Merry laughed. "But that is another story, which can wait until after lunch."
"Well, let us go have lunch then!" cried the dwarf. They all turned to go towards the guard house, when Aragorn saw Buffy was not with them. He turned, and found her by the horses.
"Buffy? Will you join us?" He called. She nodded, and hurried forward. He held out a hand to help her with the treacherous ground.
"I can walk on my own, thank you very much." She said, as if to push him away. But then she tripped, and he caught her. "Thanks." She mumbled, flustered. They quickly stepped away, to lengthen the distance between their bodies, and a hand went to their respective necks, one fingering an Evenstar pendant, and the other a cross.
Legolas noticed the awkwardness between the two, but said nothing.
"Who's this, now?" Merry asked. There couldn't be a woman with the King's Company, it was unthinkable, to take a woman where danger might be.
"Buffy Summers." He introduced herself.
"Where did she come from?" Pippin asked, looking her over. This, of course, was directed towards Aragorn.
"She . . . . .showed up at helm's Deep. She's a warrior, very experienced and-"
"And she's standing right here." She huffed, hands on hips. People who knew her better would have known she was in a foul mood.
"Sorry." The hobbits were intimidated. "So, who are you? Where'd you come from?"
"Well. . . . " She heard Gimli sigh, and her stomach rumble. "Food first, and then I'll answer questions." She smiled.
They were led to a door, which led to stairs, and they went up them, because that's what you did. A door at the top led directly to a large chamber, with smaller doors leading off. There was also a hearth and a chimney to one side.
"I lit a bit of fore." Pippin said. "It cheered us up in the fog. There were a few faggots about, and most of the wood we could find was wet." Buffy had to hide her laughter. She knew that in this world, Fagggot might mean something totally different from what she took it to mean, but it was still the principal of the matter. Pippin looked at her strangely, but then continued. "But there is a great draught in the chimney; it seems wind away up through the rock, and fortunately it has not been blocked. A fire is handy. I will make you some toast. The bread is three or four days old, I'm afraid."
They all sat down at one end of the long table. Buffy hid a grimace. Three or four day old bread? Ick! Besides store bought bread, bread got hard after it aged a day or two, if it was home made, and she guessed that was what this was. She hadn't seen and Shaw's or Hanniford's around. The hobbits disappeared through one door.
"What was so funny?" Aragorn asked. He had just so happened to sit next to her.
"Well. . . . .I'll tell you later." She didn't know how exactly to explain in polite company.
Soon the two little men came back carrying dishes, bowls, cups, knives, and foods of various sorts.
"And you need not turn up your nose at the provender, Master Gimli. This is not orc-stuff, but man-food, as Treebeard calls it. Will you have wine or beer? There's a barrel inside there- very passable. And this is first rate salted pork. Or I can cut you some rashers of bacon and broil them, if you like."
"Oo! Bacon!" Buffy said, as her stomach gurgled.
The four were soon busy with their meal, and the two hobbits, unabashed, set to a second meal. "We must make our guests company." They said, much to Buffy's merriment. She liked these two creatures, these hobbits.
"You are full of courtesy this morning." Laughed Legolas. "But maybe, if we had not arrived, you would have already have been keeping one another company again."
"Maybe, and why not? We had foul fare with the orcs, and little enough for days before that. It seems a long while since we could eat to heart's content."
"It does not seem to have done you any harm." Said Aragorn. "Indeed, you look in the bloom of life."
Once more, and maybe she would kick herself for it later, Buffy lost herself in her thoughts. Most weren't pleasant ones, at that. If when both Kendra and Faith had shown up was any indicator, how would she react to being upstaged? When she got home, if they found a way to get there, she knew that her world would have been changed. But was it for the better? Yeah, tons of slayers, but who would train them all? And if some weren't trained, and they died, on whose conscious would their death lie on?
"What's wrong?" Aragorn asked, once he noticed she was picking at her food.
"Nothing." He looked at her, as if he knew her. ". . . . . I'll tell you later." He still looked at her. "I promise! Ok?" He nodded, and went back to the conversation.
They laughed and chatted, and the hobbits told their story, while they finished eating. Then, one or the other, Buffy had yet to be able to tell them apart, produced some tobacco, or something to that effect. After telling where they had found it, and one producing another pipe, they all went outside into the fresh air, but Buffy decided to stay inside, and clean up. She knew it would be easier to think by herself.
Outside, they talked about this and that, and the noise of voices came back to her every once in awhile, as the wind changed. She was still cold, but had seemed to grow accustomed to it.
Just as she was finishing cleaning up the best she could, just to give her hands something to do, as her mind thought, Aragorn came into the guard house.
"What's on your mind? One as young as yourself shouldn't be plagued with such heavy thoughts to ruin your meal." He said quietly.
"Rubbish! It's doesn't matter how old you are! Do you think destiny cares how old you are?" She said with more venom then she meant to. He sat at the table, and she went and sat across from him. She put her head down and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"Aragorn, I'm sorry. I'm just so confused right now. When I thought up the spell, to change the rules, to make the potentials slayers, I thought I was doing a good thing. But. . . . I was fifteen when this slayer thing chose me. Who knows how old some of the potentials are? Twelve? Eleven? Ten even? Was it really fair to them to do that? To change their lives, their destinies, on a whim like that? Nobody deserves to have to be a slayer, to be a chosen one." She spat the name.
"Just when I was getting my life back on track. . . . . Dying, then being brought back doesn't bode well for your social life. And with mom gone. . . . . I didn't know how to run a household! Bills, and debt! I just didn't know what to do! And then Spike . . . . " She put her head in her hands.
"Was that. . . ."
"Yes. The blond guy."
"Were you. . . . .involved?"
"Yeah, for awhile, till I realized I was using him. Aragorn," she looked up at him, and he saw something strange in her eyes, fear? "Don't judge me, ok? I know that things I did in my world, which were, well, strange, but morally ok, aren't in this world, by this world's standards. Don't judge me. Just be a friend, ok?" He nodded.
"I went to Spike, because he made me feel something. Anything, it didn't matter, I just wanted to feel some sort of emotion. Even if it was disgust!
"I was sleeping with a vampire! I don't know what was going through my mind. It wasn't like he was like Angel, with a soul and all. He was just Spike. He was there, and he was convenient." She seemed mad at herself.
"But he said he loved me. But I never loved him. Sure I said it, but I didn't mean it. And then. . . . I stopped seeing him, and I got a job, and I had an income, and things were going ok.
"But then, this past year, things have been piling up. First the school being rebuilt. And then the potentials showing up on my doorstep. And the First.
"This Big Bad, evil. But oh no, it wasn't like the evil I'd faced before. No. It had to be the reason they existed. Sure, I've faced a hell god, vampires, demons, you name it. I've faced it, I fought it. Sure, sometimes I would quake in my boots a moment, but then I did what I had to do, and that was the end, until the next one came.
"But the First, with no way of fighting it, no way of killing it, I was terrified. It was the first time that my fear had stopped me dead in my tracks! Here's this evil, that's going to destroy the world, and I have no way of fighting it!
"So, when I thought up this spell, I jumped at the chance. It was a way to finish it. I no longer fear dying. But what I fear most. . . . . being forgotten.
"I've been the only one, for a long time now. Seven years. It's a long time to devote to a destiny, yeah. And, ok, so I died the first year, and Kendra was called. And so she died, and Faith was called, but after they helped, they went away, one way or another. And I was back to being The One. But now. . . . . . . There are maybe hundreds of girls, with the same destiny as me." She looked up at him, the fear still in her eyes.
"Am I being selfish? I tend to do that sometimes."
"No, I don't think so." He chose his words carefully. She was strong, and he didn't want to anger her. He wanted to put her at ease. "It's human nature to wonder about oneself."
"Yeah." She muttered, hanging her head.
~ * ~
A/N: sorta a cliffie! Hehehehe!