Finding A Place for Herself
Disclaimer: I most certainly DO NOT own LOTR. The only character I own is Laura. The rest belong to Tolkien. And so does most of the plot. Enjoy!
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"Okay, now let me get this straight. There are different kinds of Elvish?" Laura asked Legolas as they rode through Fangorn Forest.
He nodded. "Would you like me to debrief you on the history of it all?" he said, half smiling.
"No thank you. And here I though Trig was hard. What about these names? Is there an Elf named Fred or Bob, or how about Hector?"
He looked at her funny. "I'm afraid not."
"I see." Ever since their little heart to heart after Helm's Deep, Legolas and Laura seemed to be on a much greater understanding than before. Of course, it hadn't really been that rocky between them in the first place. He cared very deeply for the girl as an effect of their meeting in Rivendell. The only thing that could ease his apprehension for the upcoming events was talking to her. She was surprisingly a bit more intelligent than some of his own kind he had talked to, though he didn't readily admit to it.
Laura on the other hand, was not head over heels for Legolas anymore. She definitely felt something for him, but whether it was a crush or not she would have to put on hold until they got this Ring stuff figured out. She and Epona followed Gandalf and King Theoden. Holding up the rear were Aragorn and Eomer. She glanced behind at Eomer and winked. He nodded. "My lady." He was Eowyn's brother, and another real hottie.
As the forest allowed more sunlight to filter through it, Laura heard some familiar voices up ahead. Still behind Gandalf, they exited the forest suddenly to come upon what looked like a pile of rubble that had been flooded. On a small black wall in front of her were two Hobbits, smoking their pipes and looking like they were very much enjoying themselves.
Merry stood up, his eyes shining brightly. "Welcome my lords!" he said enthusiastically.
"No way," she exclaimed. "Merry and Pippin!"
The two Hobbits looked at her and began laughing. "It's Laura! Laura's back!" Pippin cried.
Gandalf shook his head. "Hobbits," he mumbled.
Pippin jumped off the wall and into Laura's outstretched arms. She hugged him tightly. As Merry rode with Eomer and she with Pippin through the flooded Isengard, she felt her strength return fully.
"I am so glad to see that you two are okay. You missed out on a whole bunch of stuff. Dude, Legolas, Aragorn and I fought with King Theoden at Helm's Deep, and it was so cool. There was this one Uruk Hai, okay? And he was climbing up a ladder, slashing his sword at me…" she continued to tell her story as they rode their horses through what was left of Isengard. There was water everywhere, flooding the place.
They came to a very tall, black tower. But that wasn't what caught Laura's attention. It was the giant talking tree that loomed over them. She gasped.
"Oh, don't be afraid of him, that's only Treebeard. We fought with him and the Ents to overthrow Isengard," Pippin piped up.
"Really? Well, that sounds like fun."
The creature named Treebeard had a low, rolling, soothing voice. "We have a wizard to manage here, locked in his tower," he informed them.
Gandalf seemed extremely paranoid for their situation. "Be careful," he warned them. He kept saying something about how Saruman was dangerous even in defeat.
"He's still around? But look at this place. He can't still be in a position of power," Laura insisted. "Can he?" She wondered why Legolas didn't just pull out his bow and arrows and shoot at the windows or something.
As if he'd read her mind, Gandalf turned around. "We need him alive for him to be any use to us," he muttered. He seemed no more pleased about it than she did.
She looked around at the place curiously. It had obviously been crawling with machinery at one time, before it was flooded. And it was right outside Fangorn Forest. Did that mean that Saruman had done his own landscaping? Well, that answered the reason the Ents had become so angry.
She heard something above her and looked up. There was a man on top of the really tall black tower. It was a guy that looked like Gandalf, except sinister. Saruman? So, that was what he looked like.
"You have fought many wars and slain many men, Theoden King; and made peace afterwards," he leaned on his staff, his voice resonating down the length of that tower. "Can we not take counsel together as we once did, my old friend," he added rather quietly. "Can we not have peace, old ally?"
Laura bit her lip. Theoden had just seen tons of his people die in false hopes that they were now safe from the Uruk Hai. They'd just recently gone through days without sleep and allying with Elves to fight 10,000 of those guy's creations. The king was a bundle of nerves just waiting to flip out on somebody. Saruman is slimy little thing, she thought.
"We shall have peace," Theoden spoke slowly. He looked up at Saruman. "We shall have peace, when you answer for the burning of the Westfold…and the children that lie dead there. We shall have peace when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead against the gates of the Hornburg are avenged. When you hang for the sport of your own crows we shall have peace," he finished.
Saruman seemed unaffected by this threat, and continued. "What do you want, Gandalf Greyhame? Let me guess: the key of Orthanc? Of perhaps the keys of Barad-dur themselves? Along with the crowns of the seven kings and the rod of the five wizards?"
"Your treachery has already cost many lives," Gandalf argued. "Thousands more are now at risk. But you can save them Saruman," he tried to convince him. "You are deep in the enemy's counsel."
Saruman lifted an eyebrow. "So you have come for information? I have some for you." He held up a black orb, and all of them seemed to look upon it with fear. As Laura watched, reddish clouds seemed to swirl about in the orb as Saruman held it up and seemed transfixed with it. His eyes opened with a sort of greedy madness. He was definitely beyond the point of turning around to the good side. "Something festers in the heart of Middle-earth. Something that you have failed to see. The Great Eye has seen it. Even now, he presses his advantage. His attack will come soon. You are all going to die. But you know this, don't you Gandalf? You cannot think that this…ranger will ever sit upon the throne of Gondor. This exile crept from the shadows will never be crowned king."
Uh oh, Laura thought. He dissed Aragorn, he's dead.
"Gandalf does not hesitate to sacrifice those closest to him. Those he professes to love," Saruman continued.
Laura rolled her eyes. What was this guy trying to do? Like any one of them were really gonna jump up and go "Hey, you know, I think Saruman has a point"?
"Tell me," the evil wizard said in a dangerous tone, "What words of comfort did you give the Halfling before you sent him to his doom? The path that you have sent him on can only lead to death," he said triumphantly. And Gandalf actually looked like he was guilty.
"Why haven't we killed him yet?" Laura asked calmly.
In reply, Legolas began reaching back to grab an arrow.
"No," Gandalf said. "Come down Saruman, and your life will be spared," Gandalf promised.
"Save your pity and your mercy, I have no use for it!" Saruman yelled, sending flames down from his staff. The flames engulfed Shadowfax and Gandalf, and Laura jumped in surprise from seeing a giant ball of flame in front of them. She felt Pippin stiffen a little, and put her hands on his shoulders to comfort him. They both breathed sigh of relief when they saw that both of them were unharmed. Even Saruman looked taken aback.
Gandalf just looked up. "Saruman," he said. "Your staff is broken." With that, Saruman's little staff shattered to bits, leaving the angry wizard looking like merely an angry old man. And then that greasy guy Wormtongue appeared behind him.
"Grima," Theoden called out. "You need not follow him. You were not always as you are now. You were once a man of Rohan."
Grima looked defeated and confused. He looked like he was just going to run away like he had from Edoras, until Saruman continued to speak.
"A man of Rohan," he sneered. "What is the house of Rohan, but a thatched barn…" he continued that way, and by that it was obvious he wasn't going to live much longer.
Theoden asked Grima once more to come down, and when Grima spoke Saruman turned around and bitchslapped him. She was torn between amusement and pity.
"Saruman!" Gandalf yelled, not giving up. "You are deep in the enemy's counsel, tell us what you know."
Saruman looked down at them. "You withdraw your guard, and I will tell you where you doom will be decided. I will not be held prisoner here."
What? Laura didn't believe for a second that he would actually tell them anything. But maybe without that staff of his he was useless. He was a much weaker, more insincere wizard than Gandalf was. He could easily be manipulated.
