Questions went through Elizabeth's mind as they walked back to their house and into their rooms. They all went to sleep, except Elizabeth, she couldn't sleep, this day was too confusing for her and she couldn't help wondering about that box that Will had. It was plain but gorgeous at the same time, and she couldn't keep her eyes off of it, even though it was dark the gold letters on it shined in the moonlight. She looked over at Will who seemed to be sleeping, as much as she could tell in the dark, she reached over to his neck and slowly pulled out the thin silver chain around his neck, Will's hand shot up and grabbed her hand, she gasped in shock but he didn't move anymore, he let go of her hand. Elves are very light sleepers, and he was wide awake but he wanted to see what she would do.
Since he did seem asleep, Liz continued to remove the chain from his neck. She walked over to the box, she knew that she shouldn't be opening it, but she felt something pulling her to the box, something that she wanted to see. She carefully put the key in the keyhole and unlocked it, and she tried to open it but it was still locked. "Won't open, will it?" said a voice.
"Will! You startled me," she said knowing that she's been caught.
"What is it that interests you in this box, it is just swords and a bow." He said getting up from the bed and walking up to Liz.
"Nimrodel," he whispered and he opened the box, "You can never be to careful. So, what is that you wanted to see…" he asked her.
"I… don't know… These drawing and weapons are very beautiful. Did you make them?" she asked Will.
"The drawings are just pictures of people and things from my past, and I made the bow and arrows a long time ago, but the sword that is curved (Arwen's), belonged to a friend of mine that died a long time ago, and the other sword (Aragorn's) belonged to another friend of mine, a great King, he is also dead but I am to give this sword to his heir when it is time." He said.
"A King! You knew a King?" Liz replied shocked.
"Yes, a long time ago, we became best friends, and his girlfriend and my sister were best friends, so we were all pretty much best friends." He replied.
"You have a sister? Didn't you live in England? Was he the King of England? I thought-" she started asking question after question.
Will just smiled at this and stopped her with a kiss, "There's a lot of things that you don't know about me, but soon it will be all understood. I'm sorry, but I will explain everything in time." He brought her back to the bed and wrapped an arm around her and started answering some of her questions, "I have a sister and three brothers, I didn't grow up in England, I didn't even grow up in the same continent. It is much different then here, nothing is the same, it's like a totally different world. He was a friend of mine, he grew up in a village nearby mine and we became friends and we did many things together, we went on a lot of our journeys together, all around Middle Earth" he started thinking about the times they had.
"Middle… Earth…??" Liz mumbled half asleep.
"Yes, Middle Earth, that's what my land is called. Go to sleep now, it's passed midnight," he said knowing that she probably already was asleep.
The next morning Will and Liz were up first, they were downstairs eating breakfast, "Where's Ari and Jack?" asked Will.
"Um, I let them have the room next to ours, could you wake them up, Aricia can come down but we'll have to take some food to Jack later." Liz said and Will walked back upstairs and started knocking on the doors to see which one they were in.
He finally knocked on the right one, when he knocked he could hear Ari awake telling Jack to get up and hide, "It's ok, it's just me," he said through the door.
She got up and the opened the door, "Thanks for telling me, I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to get him up,"
Will smiled at his little sister, "Come on, let's get you some breakfast, we'll get Jack some food later," he closed the door behind them and started to walk down to the dining room.
"Good morning Liz," Ari said when she walked in the room.
"Good morning," Liz replied.
"So, Liz, have you and Will decided if you will attend our wedding?" she asked trying to get a conversation started.
"Well, we haven't talked about it yet, but… I don't know, what do you think Will? We could probably go if it is not far away," she said.
"Um… well, it's in Middle Earth…" she said, at this Will looked up from his breakfast. Uh oh, I hope she didn't remember my mention of Middle Earth last night, well, if she does I'll just have to explain everything. Liz did recall the name but she didn't know where, "Middle Earth? I've heard of that somewhere… but I can't remember where,"
Ari looked over at Will, "You must have heard it from a story or something," she said knowing that Will must have mentioned it.
"Well, is it far?" Liz asked.
"Um… no, not if you know the right paths," she said winking at Will when Liz wasn't looking.
"I say we should go, it's been a long time since we've been on adventure, honey," Will said wanting to go back to his home.
"Well, we'll still have to discuss it, in our last adventure, you almost got killed," Liz said a little reluctant, "is it really dangerous there? Can't you just get married somewhere closer…" she asked hoping that she won't have to get her children in danger like Will was in last time.
"Well, I would like to get married in my town and it could be dangerous… if you go in dangerous places… but there is not many dangers near my town." She said trying to get Liz on her side.
"Well, then how did your King die?" she asked. Tears started to appear in Ari's eyes, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you upset," she said now regretting that comment.
"No, that's ok. Um, they got a distress call from a place that we call Helm's Deep, they were being attacked and they took about 400 good, um… men, and went to Helm's Deep. They only expected orcs there, but there were three Wraiths there. They were both stabbed, it was said that they fought side by side and died together. The Wraiths fled when the orcs were mostly killed, but many of my people and the people of Helm's Deep were slaughtered that day, and now my town is lacking a King," she told her tale with sorrow.
"I'm sorry… were you close to the King?" Liz asked stunned at the sorrowful story.
"Yes, they were like family to me, but there will always be war in the world, there will always be evil. There is no place without war, without violence, there is no race in any world that does not have someone that goes astray. You can't escape violence," she would have continued but Will stopped her.
"Um, Ari, you're not helping," he said seeing that Liz wasn't liking the sound of Middle Earth.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I am just still haven't gotten over it." She said.
"Well, I better go to work, tell Jack to come to my shop if he wants to get out of here, I'll even have some rum for him," he said and left.
"How do you do it?" it was only Liz and Ari in the room now, and Liz had to ask her.
"How do I do what?" she asked, not knowing what she was talking about.
"Someone close to you just died and you still look so happy with Jack, how do you do that? When my mother died, it took years for me to get over it," she said remembering the pain she went through.
"Liz, people die, it's the way life is, but just because they left you doesn't mean there not still there in spirit. They are with others, in a place that is peaceful. You can miss them, but know that you will join them in time and be with them forever," she smiled at the remembrance of Gandalf's description of the world after death.
"How do you know that? How do you know there is a world beyond? What if your just dead when you die, nothing happens to you?" she asked.
"Because… I know someone that's been there…" with that Aricia left the room before Liz could ask any questions.