A/N: Replies from Isis to all of our (4!) reviews:
Justice: Hey Tianli, what's with all the calling me a bitch? ;-)
Firnuialwen and christa: Thanks guys, I knew somebody round here loves us!
Leumio: Yeah, well, you're just gonna have to deal with the MS-ness of this fic -- we didn't realise until a month or two ago that it was a MS. Bear with us, ok? J
Chapter 4
The Ringwraith
The next morning, when Sasha came into her history class, the teacher greeted her:
"Good morning, Sasha. Take a seat, and I'll fill you all in on what we're studying today.
"Now, class, today we're going to begin work on the Declaration of Independence, which was signed in 1776,"
Sasha sighed and slumped down into her seat, but the minute the teacher mentioned 1776, she sat up straight and paid attention. She remembered what Isis had told her: "You have a ride at 1776" —That must mean,— she thought, that someone's going to come and take me to Middle-earth sometime soon! Hurray!—
Then she felt something come in. The minute it entered the classroom, she knew that something was wrong. She couldn't see it, and she didn't know what it was, but when it came in, the entire class suddenly shivered, and they felt like freezing rain had just fallen over their hearts. There was no earthly way that this could be happening... could it? Now, what was it that made you feel like this? Sasha squeezed her eyes shut and thought. Either it was a Dementor, like in Harry Potter, or it was... a Ringwraith, that was it! —Oh my God,— she thought wildly, —is this that weird guy's idea of a joke? To send me to Middle-earth with a Ringwraith?-
She opened her eyes, the minute she did so, she noticed that there was a veil of some sort of semitransparent material across the doorway. It seemed to dance and sparkle and shiver all at the same time. It hurt her eyes to look at it. In the corner of the room, which was usually empty, there now stood two horses, one black, wearing armor, and one grey, bare of a saddle. All it had were reins. And, directly in front of the teacher's desk, there were two figures fighting. One was tall and slender, dressed entirely in green, holding a flaming torch aloft. The other was robed in black, with a hood over its head. The robe was burning, and the Ringwraith tried to put it out, succeeded, and continued to attack with its shiny sword. Sasha had the strangest feeling that she was the only one who could see all this. She turned to Amanda, who was writing in her notebook.
"Hey, Amanda," she whispered.
"What?"
"Can you see Mr. Wheeler's desk?
Amanda looked at her quizzically. "Of course I can," she said suspiciously. "Can't you?"
Sasha opened her mouth to say "No," but she closed it and said, "Never mind."
The green figure, moving too quickly for Sasha to make out its features, attacked again with the torch. Sasha swiftly gathered up her books and put them in her backpack, then yelled, "Gotta go!" and jumped onto the grey horse.
Just in time, for at that moment the Ringwraith shrieked, rolled on the ground to put out the fire on its robe, climbed onto its horse and galloped through the barrier.
The green figure put out the torch and immediately mounted the grey horse. Sasha grabbed onto his shoulders, noticing as she did the long blond hair spilling over her hands. She didn't really care whether he knew that she was there or not, so long as he got her through the barrier and safely into Middle-Earth.
He spurred his horse through the barrier, and Sasha noticed a queer sensation, as though she were moving through honey. She reached up her hand to brush her hair out of her eyes, and found that she couldn't And then her hand was moving again. She tucked her hair behind her ears, grabbed onto Legolas's shoulders, and they started to move quickly, faster and faster as the countryside melted away into one continuous line of green. Sasha leaned back, enjoying the feel of the air around her body, not realizing as she did that she was still holding on to Legolas.
He felt a pull on his back as he rode, and turned around to see what it was. A girl was sitting behind him, a rather pretty girl, who looked about sixteen or seventeen man-years old, with reddish-blond hair blowing about her face. Her eyes were closed, and she had a smile on her face as she leaned back into the wind. He was so surprised to see her sitting behind him that he stopped Feäros short, so quickly that the girl tumbled over backward and onto the road.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "How did you get onto my horse?"
"Well," she retorted matter-of-factly, "if you're going to come chasing after Ringwraiths into my classroom, I think it's pretty easy to figure out who you are, where you come from, and when you're going back there. So I used that information, and to pretty good use, I think. Though I don't see how you can be called polite, Legolas of Mirkwood, if you aren't going to get down from that stupid horse and help me up."
"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, as he helped her get up. "But where did you come from, who are you and how did you get here? And how did you know my name?"
"Well," said Sasha pensively, crossing her arms, "this is Middle-earth, isn't it?"
"Yes," replied Legolas. "But I didn't come chasing after the Nazgûl into your classroom,
whatever that is. I was on the road toward Rivendell, coming from Mirkwood, and it came up and tried to stab me."
"Urgh!" exclaimed Sasha.
"So I gave chase. As to how we got in there, I do not know."
"Well, anyway," continued Sasha, "I was in my history class, and suddenly this chill spread over the whole class-"
"Most likely some minor form of the Black Breath," interrupted Legolas.
"Maybe so," Sasha said. "But it wasn't an earthly chill, you see, it was a chill that seemed to work from inside. It froze your heart." She shivered, remembering.
"Yes?" prompted Legolas.
"Anyway, I couldn't see anything, so I shut my eyes to try to remember what made you feel that way, because I knew that I had read about it in some book or another. And I realized that it must be a Ringwraith, so when I opened my eyes, I saw you and it battling right in front of me. So I jumped up and climbed on your horse, to wait until it was all over, because I knew that I had to go to Middle-earth, and so if you didn't notice us, then you wouldn't notice me until we were at least through the barrier and in Middle-earth."
"I see," said Legolas thoughtfully.
"What?"
"I believe that the Nazgûl have powers which Sauron gave to them, which enable them to cross over between Middle- and Lower-Earth. But they cannot be seen in Lower Earth except by those who are from Middle-earth. Strange." He looked at her speculatively. "And yet you do not seem to be of Middle-earth. Hmm?"
Sasha quailed slightly under the gaze of those intense, piercing blue* eyes. "I I don't know. You know, I only saw you after I had realized what it was that I had felt, or where it had come from. And besides, I'm of the race of Men, though I come from Lower-earth."
"I Well, in any case, I must go to Rivendell.
I have important news for Master Elrond from my father."
"Take me with you," Sasha begged.
"I can't oh, very well. Perhaps Elrond will know what to do with you. Come, up onto the horse." He helped her up, and it was only then that she realized that she was still dressed in jeans and a light, green shirt. She shivered.
Legolas sprang up onto the horse right behind her, wrapped his cloak around both of them, and nudged the horse into a trot, gradually easing into a full-tilt gallop. As they rode, they talked, and Sasha asked the question that was troubling her.
"How willI get back home?"
Legolas didn't answer, so she twisted her head to look up at him.
"I don't know," he said finally. "I think the reason you were able to go through the barrier was because you are needed here."
"Why?" she demanded.
"I don't know that, either. It may be that when your task here is done, that you will return to Lower-earth."
"I'd rather not," said Sasha, grinning. "If it's quite all right with you."
She leaned back against his comfortingly solid chest and felt it vibrate as he chuckled. "I don't know" he said musingly, but Sasha didn't hear the rest before she closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.
*A/N: I actually don't remember what color his eyes were in the movie. Anybody know? Email me: isisthecrisis@hotmail.com
