-THE GAMES OF THE GODS-
-Disclaimer:-
Glorfindel: Crimson Starlight is currently running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get ready for her mothers birthday, so she's left the disclaimer to me and Rachel.
Rachel: I really don't know why. I mean, she wrote the chapter, how can she not have the extra minute or so to write a disclaimer?
Glorfindel: Maybe she used up all her spare time writing the chapter?
Rachel: Hm, good point...
Glorfindel: Of course it's a good point. I always have good points. It's why I'm an Elf-lord.
Rachel: Really?
CS: *poking her head in* Nah, it's because he's sexy. *disappears again*
Rachel: Can I disagree with that?
Glorfindel: Shut up you. *bops Rachel*
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Rachel: Why are you all still here?
Glorfindel: Yeah, shoo!
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Rachel: Oooo, we forgot the disclaimer, didn't we?
Glorfindel: Crimson Starlight owns absolutely nothing, least of all me.
Rachel: She does own me, though. And Kari. And, come to think of it, most of the original characters in this chapter...
Glorfindel: None of the setting, though.
Rachel: Nope, none of that.
Glorfindel: Now we're done the disclaimer, so shoo. You are all making me nervous staring and drooling like that.
Rachel: *snigger*
-14: Bree-
I felt bad about leaving Rivendell the way I had, making everyone think I was dead. But to tell the truth, I had a feeling that it was the only way I would be able to get away from what I'd dubbed the 'Mary-Sue Factor'. I needed to sever all connections with the Elves and Kari, and start a life of my own choosing. I'd always said that if I could ever go to Middle-Earth, more than anything I'd just want to wander around and look at all the various cultures. Now I had the opportunity to do so, and more than that, I was an immortal elf, so I could literally spend hundreds of years studying various cultures. I wouldn't be able to go near the Elvish lands, of course - too much risk of running into someone from Rivendell who recognized me. That risk was lessened to just Glorfindel or Kari, however, after my first day out of Rivendell.
I road hard throughout the night, and stopped only at noon the next day. I hadn't eaten since I'd left, but even though I was hungry, I ate my rations sparingly. I only had a little knowledge of edible wild plants in Middle-Earth - gleaned from the book on survival I'd been reading, which had, thank goodness, started with edible wild plants - and I couldn't have hunted even if I'd had a weapon with me, so my provisions needed to last as long as possible.
After eating and having a small drink from a nearby stream, I decided to take a short nap before continuing - I felt strangely tired, and it would be best to keep up my strength. There was no worry of pursuit, anyways, if I'd done my job right and if the Mary-Sue Factor was working in my favour. Those were two very big 'if's, I knew, considering I hadn't done anything like faking my own death before, and nobody can predict the Mary-Sue Factor. I was tired, though, and so it made sense to me.
Not surprisingly, when I woke next, the sun was setting - I remember thinking what typical Mary-Sue I was, sleeping longer than intended so I could get in trouble and be rescued by the big, handsome hero. Fortunately, however, only the part about oversleeping was correct. Standing up, I surveyed the land near to me and found Liltalen, who had apparently decided that I was going to stay here awhile, flopped down on his side, sleeping. I shook my head at him, smiling slightly, and then made for the stream again to get a drink before rousing the stallion and continuing on my way.
It wasn't until I had roused Liltalen and tried to mount him that I realized anything was different. It became glaringly obvious to me, however, when I found that I had apparently shrunk several inches - and Liltalen was almost unmountable by me at this height. Curious, I went back to the stream and looked down at my reflection in it. What I saw made my BLUE eyes light up - my appearance had returned to normal! I was black haired, blue eyed, tan skinned and short. Ok, so that last one wasn't really all that good, but still, I looked like myself again.
Lifting up my makeshift head scarf I discovered, however, that my ears were still pointed. I was still an Elf. I frowned, but shrugged, too happy over my change of appearance to be very concerned about that. Who would complain about being an Elf, anyways? Happily, I skipped back to Liltalen, where I had to lead him to a rock before I could mount him. Then I found the road again and followed it west.
My happiness at my appearance returning to normal, however, soon faded, and I started wondering WHY my appearance had returned to normal. I had a theory that maybe it was because I was away from the Elves, and the Mary-Sue Factor was weakening, thus letting me revert to my normal, non-perfect looks. This got me wondering about the Mary-Sue Factor's origins, and why Kari and I had been brought to Middle-Earth, and soon my mind was spinning wild tales involving Valar and other Gods, magic, wizards, Istari and Maia, and just about every other incredible thing you could think of, up to, and including, warp travel gone wrong. (Don't ask)
Anyways. I probably, sometime during the course of my speculation, chanced across at least part of the actual answers to why I was in Middle-Earth and why Kari and I had been made Mary-Sues. All I know is that for the next few weeks as I traveled along the deserted road from Rivendell to Bree, I had a creative hay day. If I'd had anything to write down even half the ideas I came up with on that trip, I'm sure I could have made a fortune selling them to other authors back home.
Surprisingly to me, it actually took me less time than Aragorn, Frodo and company to get between Rivendell and Bree. I realized when I camped at Weathertop, of course, that the reason I was going faster was that I was riding a horse, instead of traveling on foot. That probably meant that I could get to Bree within a day or two, I decided as I sat in the ruins of the watch tower of Amon Sûl.
That also meant that I should start figuring out what I was going to do when I got to Bree. It was all very fine and dandy to talk about running off and surviving by myself, but I had very few survival skills to speak of, which meant I'd have to buy things to feed myself. In other words, I needed some currency. Which lead the logical conclusion of deciding to look for a job once I got to Bree. I wasn't entirely unskilled in making things from scratch, and I could cook fairly well when given a recipe. This all hinged, of course, on whether or not the Mary-Sue Factor would enable me to understand and speak Common. That was about the only good thing about the Mary-Sue Factor, in fact - I could now speak other languages.
I reached Bree in the afternoon of the second day after camping on Weathertop, and I'm pretty sure I had to have been the worst looking Elf to have ever be seen in that town, though my ears were covered so nobody could tell I was an Elf. Liltalen had grown shaggy and dirty over the journey, as well, so you could tell that he was a very BIG black horse, but that was it. Still, I noted with amusement as I looked around at the other inhabitants of Bree, Liltalen and I were, sadly, probably the cleanest creatures I saw. Both physical and in thoughts. By the time I'd reached what looked like a more savory part of town, I'd been leered at multiple times, and ignored several lewd suggestions from passing men.
Don't get me wrong, Bree wasn't a horrible place or anything, it was just terribly primitive and dirty compared to the Elves, let alone what I was used to in the modern world. I suppose it actually wasn't that bad for a medieval-technology-level town, especially once you got up into the more mixed part of the buildings, where both hobbits and men frequented.
The hobbits that I saw, of course, were quite something else. I hadn't thought they'd be that short - every single one that I saw could have literally walked right under Liltalen's stomach. One did, in fact, when it got a little crowded and the place he wanted to go was on the other side. Liltalen looked a little startled at that, but the hobbit just patted the stallion on the shoulder and gave me a smile before continuing on his way.
It was getting dark by the time I decided that I needed to stop gaping and start looking for a place to stay for the night, and, since I had no money to pay for even one night's board, that also meant a place to work. That made things infinitely harder. I went from shop to shop, coming in and chatting up the owner for awhile to make sure they were nice people who I might want to work for before I asked them if they needed any help. Out of an entire dozen shops, though, only half of them I would care to work at, and none of them needed help.
Several of them, however, being the friendly people that they were, had mentioned other shops that they'd heard were looking for help, but it was getting late, and the majority of the shops were closed now. One thing all the shop keepers had agreed on, though, was that many of the Inns needed help and would be glad to take me on and house and feed me until I found my footing. After all, why not? It was like having a customer that did everything themselves, and more besides.
I wasn't too sure about the working in an Inn idea, but since it was late and I didn't want to go back out of the city to sleep in the wilderness, and the smells of good food were driving me nuts, I sighed and headed for the nearest Inn. And, as chance - or the Mary-Sue Factor - would have it, the nearest Inn was the Prancing Pony. I smiled ruefully as I noticed the sign, then shook my head and stepped inside. The owner - an ancestor of Barliman's, probably - appeared almost instantly when I stepped in, asking me what he could do for me.
"Actually, I was wondering if you could use some help for an evening or two, good sir." I said in response. "I've just recently arrived in town, and I have no money to my name." The Innkeeper looked at me appraisingly for a few moments, and then nodded.
"We are a little short on servers." he said. "If ya help out tonight and tomorrow, I'll feed ya and give ya a place to sleep, and some coins beside if you work hard."
"Thank you." I said with a smile, and then frowned lightly as I remembered Liltalen. "I do have a horse. Will it be any trouble to house him, as well?" The Innkeeper looked at me in surprise, probably wondering why I didn't just sell my horse to get some money - like Liltalen would let me sell him even if I wanted to - but in the end, he shrugged.
"It will cut down on the coin I'll be givin' you at the end, but no, it's not a problem." he said.
"I wasn't even expecting to get any money, so it's fine by me." I said ruefully. The Innkeeper smiled.
"Very well then, we have an agreement, Mister...?"
"Miss Rachel." I supplied and corrected with a grin as I realized that the Innkeeper thought I was a boy. I supposed my headscarf could be mistaken for a bandana, and if you're not expecting to see and woman in men's clothing, then if would be easy to overlook. The Innkeeper looked slightly surprised, then peered at me and nodded.
"Very good, Miss Rachel. I'm Bartholomew Marsanon." The Innkeeper said. "Come to the kitchens with me and I'll introduce ya to my wife Halena, and she can tell you what to do and set you to work." I nodded and followed Bartholomew as he set off for the kitchens. The temperature, as well at the smell, rose exponentially when we entered the kitchen, and my mouth started watering quickly. The heat I brushed off, used to worse on the Australian outback, and instead I eyed some freshly cooked meat hungrily. Bartholomew noticed my glance, and after a moments pause, went and found a slice of meat and put it on a piece of bread before handing it to me.
"Here, that'll last while Halena tells you what to do." he said. "Ya can have more when then evenin's done." I nodded my thanks, my mouth already full of the meat and bread. Right then, that was the best food I'd ever tasted. Bartholomew smiled with amusement, and then called out to one of the main cooks in the kitchen. She scurried over, and Bartholomew introduced me to her, revealing that this woman was Halena. Bartholomew then disappeared out of the kitchen with a reassurance that he would get my horse taken care of, and I was left alone with Halena, who was looking at me appraisingly.
"Serving, eh?" she said after awhile. "Well, we can't have you serving in men's clothing." I smiled sheepishly, having finished my bread and meat. "I suppose you don't have a dress you could change into?"
"No ma'am." I said politely, and Halena gave an exaggerated sigh.
"Jeanai!" she called, and instantly a younger cook scurried over. Judging from her close resemblance to Halena, I figured she had to be related to the woman somehow.
"Yes Ma?" Jeanai asked. Am I good or am I good? Mother and daughter.
"This here's Rachel, she's gonna be here for a few nights servin'. I need you to take her and go find her a dress." Halena said. Jeanai nodded, and Halena instantly turned her attention back to what she'd been doing before Bartholomew had brought me in. Jeanai looked at me for a moment, then wordlessly motioned for me to follow her and led me out of the kitchen and down a hallway until we came to a set of doors. Pausing, Jeanai pulled a key out of somewhere and unlocked the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside. Following her, I realized that this must be where the Marsanon family lived - it certainly looked like a more permanent living space than I would imagine any Inn room looking like.
"See which one of these fits." Jeanai said softly, speaking for the first time as she held out some dresses that she'd gathered.
"Where can I change?" I asked, taking the dresses from her carefully. Jeanai nodded to a screen in the room, and I disappeared behind it with the dresses. I tried on all the dresses, but only two fit, and one was far too low cut for my comfort. The other dress that fit was plain, a dark green colour with very little decoration, and still showed a good deal more cleavage than I would have liked. All the dresses seemed to have been cut that low or lower, however, so I just accepted it. Fortunately, I had taken every opportunity - aka, stream - I had come across to wash myself on the journey to Bree, so I didn't look too incredibly dirty in the dress. Jeanai seemed not to notice, however.
"Ai, you looked wonderful!" Jeanai exclaimed happily when I emerged wearing the dress.
"I do?" I asked dubiously, looking down at myself. Jeanai nodded happily, smiling, as she took the dresses that didn't fit from me.
"You look even better in it than Elena did, and it was custom tailored for her!" Jeanai said, then turned back to me and eyed the dirty trousers and tunic I was holding. Noticing her glance, I held the dirty clothes a little closer.
"Could these be washed so I can keep them? They're...rather special to me." I said, suddenly realizing that I wanted to hang onto at least something of Rivendell - besides Liltalen. Jeanai looked at me strangely, and then nodded.
"Of course. Come, we shall put them in with the rest of the laundry to be done tomorrow, and then return to the kitchen." Jeanai said. I nodded, then followed her once again as we left the Marsanon family's rooms. Jeanai led me through some more halls, and down a flight of stairs, then turned and took my dirty clothes from me and dumped them unceremoniously into a basket full of other dirty laundry.
"I am not too sure how clean they shall be gotten, but we shall try our best." Jeanai said with a reassuring smile. I smiled back, secretly trusting in Elvish handiwork to surprise even the cleaners. Then Jeanai was leading me back through the halls to the kitchen, and Halena appeared again, sending Jeanai on her way and giving me another appraising look.
"It looks good on you. But the scarf should go." she said, and reached for my headscarf that I had left on.
"Scarf stays." I said, clapping a hand down on top of my head and thinking fast. "Otherwise you get to see the results of what happens when you try and cut your own hair with a dull knife." Halena blinked, and then chuckled.
"Very well. We shall get you a matching one for tomorrow night, however." she said. I nodded, happy to be allowed to keep the scarf. With that decided, Halena got down to business, showing me quickly and efficiently how to carrying trays and dishes out into the main room, then explaining how they figured out what order went to what table. It was surprisingly like a modern day restaurant - each of the tables had been given names, and each server was assigned a certain set of tables to serve. If needed, they could always tell anther server the table name for an order, and that server could take it there without trouble. It was terribly organized for such a small place.
But then, I realized as I set to work, it was also terribly busy. It seemed every time I left the kitchen, someone had left and someone new had arrived - the clientele was constantly changing. Thankfully, however, the clientele remained fairly respectable, and I only had three men come on to me, and a dozen or so lewd remarks. I did, however, lose track of the number of times my rump was pinched. It was apparently a common occurrence, my only other fellow server, a young woman named Marli, told me. About halfway through the evening I realized she was right, and stopped shooting annoyed looks at the offending patrons.
It was close to midnight by the time the last person left the Inn or found their way up to their room, and then Halena gathered all the kitchen help - a solid five in number - and the servers - all two of us - together. She handed out some coins to four of the kitchen helpers, and to Marli, then made shooing motions with her hands, telling them to get themselves home. They did, and that left Jeanai and I.
"Now then. Bartholomew told me ya were rather hungry when you came in t'night, Rachel." Halena said, turning to me. "Help yourself to whatever's left in the kitchen, and then Jeanai will show you to where you can sleep." I smiled thankfully, feeling entirely too tired to speak. At that point, Bartholomew himself appeared in the kitchen and came over.
"Wonderful job tonight, Miss Rachel." he said cheerfully. "But if you don't mind, before you do anything else, could you go convince your horse to follow Gartan to the stables? He's been trying to coax the poor beast in there all evenin', with little luck." I groaned.
"Sorry, I should have remembered how stubborn Liltalen is." I said, heading for the front door. I paused, however, when I felt three pairs of eyes on my back. I turned back to the Marsanon family and looked at them curiously.
"Yer horse has an Elvish name?" Bartholomew asked, almost nervously. I nodded, and then started inwardly smacking myself as the three family members shared looks of fear and worry - they probably thought I'd stolen him. I had, in a way, but they didn't need to know that.
"He's actually called Star Dancer, though." I said quickly, pulling the lie off the top of my head. "Liltalen is just the Elvish translation that I learned from someone I met on my journey here." The three seemed to relax after that, and Bartholomew and Halena bid us goodnight before disappearing off along the hallway Jeanai had taken me along earlier. With a glance at Jeanai, I slipped out of the Inn and found Liltalen stubbornly standing where I'd left him, ignoring the apple that a boy - presumably Gartan - was holding out to him enticingly.
"Liltalen!" I called sharply, and instantly the stallion's head shot towards me. "Obey him." I said sternly, and Liltalen snorted once before meandering over to Gartan and snatching the apple from his hand. "If he gives you any trouble, tell me and I'll deal with him." I said to the surprised boy. Gartan nodded, and I went back inside the Inn as my stomach growled. Jeanai was waiting for me, and bolted the Inn door behind me. Then we returned to the kitchen, where I started digging in to the food. Jeanai, probably more out of politeness than anything else, nibbled a bit on an apple, watching me curiously. Finally, when I'd slowed down, she spoke.
"Who did you meet on the road that could speak Elvish?" she asked.
"An Elf." I replied promptly, and Jeanai's eyes went wide.
"You met an Elf?" she asked, her voice hushed and excited. "A real, live Elf?" I smiled and nodded. "What did they look like?"
"Like you or I, only much taller and graceful. And they glow." I said.
"They glow?" Jeanai asked dumbly. I nodded.
"Apparently they tend to do so when the starlight shines on them." I said.
"Wow." Jeanai said. I smiled again.
"My thoughts exactly." I said.
"So where did you travel from, that you met an Elf on the road?" Jeanai asked.
"A town in the east, over the Misty Mountains." I replied vaguely, hoping to avoid having to tell any specifics.
"Really?! You came over the mountains?" Jeanai asked, excited once again. I nodded.
"Aye, I did." I said. A yawn suddenly escaped me, and Jeanai blushed abruptly.
"I'm sorry, you must be tired." she said.
"Oh, I don't mind the questions. I do need some sleep, however." I said.
"Come, then. You get to sleep in one of our spare rooms." Jeanai said, motioning for me to follow her as she stood up from the stool she'd sat on while I ate. I stood and followed her as she led me up to the part of the Inn holding rooms for rent, stopping in front of one of the first doors we came across. Jeanai opened the door, revealing a small, simple room, and handed me a key and said goodnight before disappearing back down the stairs.
With her gone, I went into the room and closed and locked the door behind me. After pondering what to do about sleeping attire for a moment, I decided that I'd sleep in the shift that I'd had to put on underneath the dress. I quickly took off the borrowed dress, then, and hung it in the small closet I had been supplied with before sinking onto the bed - still wearing my headscarf - and drifting off into the peaceful oblivion of sleep.
----To be continued...with 67% more funny-talking natives!----
(And the required Tod!) (Uh, ok, I should probably explain that...my friend and I have an unintentional habit of naming extras 'Tod' or 'Ted' in our FanFictions.)
-Authors Note:-
A little note on where this story is going - for the next few chapters, recognizable characters other than Rachel will be making only brief appearances. I will be getting back to Rivendell eventually, but...well...she's going to be returning with Boromir. So that's 800 or so years, and I'm going to be trying to cover it all and get her back to Rivendell, when the fun can begin, in 5 chapters. We'll see how this works out. I've never had to cover this much time in a story before. Heck, never really gave myself the chance, considering that I was dealing with mortals in 'Sightseeing in Middle-Earth', and taking too long to reveal the plot in 'No Eyes Needed' would give away the plot without really giving it away. If that makes any sense. I just hope I do OK with the little time-passing chapters, especially since I've edited them numerous times.
Lastly, to end this Author's Note, thank you to ALL my reviewers, and to my readers, though I would especially like it if I had only reviewers to thank because all my readers have reviewed. *hint hint* Now off to buy my mothers birthday present...so I can give it to her tonight. Do I procrastinate? Hell yes.
~Crimson Starlight
-Disclaimer:-
Glorfindel: Crimson Starlight is currently running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get ready for her mothers birthday, so she's left the disclaimer to me and Rachel.
Rachel: I really don't know why. I mean, she wrote the chapter, how can she not have the extra minute or so to write a disclaimer?
Glorfindel: Maybe she used up all her spare time writing the chapter?
Rachel: Hm, good point...
Glorfindel: Of course it's a good point. I always have good points. It's why I'm an Elf-lord.
Rachel: Really?
CS: *poking her head in* Nah, it's because he's sexy. *disappears again*
Rachel: Can I disagree with that?
Glorfindel: Shut up you. *bops Rachel*
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Rachel: Why are you all still here?
Glorfindel: Yeah, shoo!
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Rachel: Oooo, we forgot the disclaimer, didn't we?
Glorfindel: Crimson Starlight owns absolutely nothing, least of all me.
Rachel: She does own me, though. And Kari. And, come to think of it, most of the original characters in this chapter...
Glorfindel: None of the setting, though.
Rachel: Nope, none of that.
Glorfindel: Now we're done the disclaimer, so shoo. You are all making me nervous staring and drooling like that.
Rachel: *snigger*
-14: Bree-
I felt bad about leaving Rivendell the way I had, making everyone think I was dead. But to tell the truth, I had a feeling that it was the only way I would be able to get away from what I'd dubbed the 'Mary-Sue Factor'. I needed to sever all connections with the Elves and Kari, and start a life of my own choosing. I'd always said that if I could ever go to Middle-Earth, more than anything I'd just want to wander around and look at all the various cultures. Now I had the opportunity to do so, and more than that, I was an immortal elf, so I could literally spend hundreds of years studying various cultures. I wouldn't be able to go near the Elvish lands, of course - too much risk of running into someone from Rivendell who recognized me. That risk was lessened to just Glorfindel or Kari, however, after my first day out of Rivendell.
I road hard throughout the night, and stopped only at noon the next day. I hadn't eaten since I'd left, but even though I was hungry, I ate my rations sparingly. I only had a little knowledge of edible wild plants in Middle-Earth - gleaned from the book on survival I'd been reading, which had, thank goodness, started with edible wild plants - and I couldn't have hunted even if I'd had a weapon with me, so my provisions needed to last as long as possible.
After eating and having a small drink from a nearby stream, I decided to take a short nap before continuing - I felt strangely tired, and it would be best to keep up my strength. There was no worry of pursuit, anyways, if I'd done my job right and if the Mary-Sue Factor was working in my favour. Those were two very big 'if's, I knew, considering I hadn't done anything like faking my own death before, and nobody can predict the Mary-Sue Factor. I was tired, though, and so it made sense to me.
Not surprisingly, when I woke next, the sun was setting - I remember thinking what typical Mary-Sue I was, sleeping longer than intended so I could get in trouble and be rescued by the big, handsome hero. Fortunately, however, only the part about oversleeping was correct. Standing up, I surveyed the land near to me and found Liltalen, who had apparently decided that I was going to stay here awhile, flopped down on his side, sleeping. I shook my head at him, smiling slightly, and then made for the stream again to get a drink before rousing the stallion and continuing on my way.
It wasn't until I had roused Liltalen and tried to mount him that I realized anything was different. It became glaringly obvious to me, however, when I found that I had apparently shrunk several inches - and Liltalen was almost unmountable by me at this height. Curious, I went back to the stream and looked down at my reflection in it. What I saw made my BLUE eyes light up - my appearance had returned to normal! I was black haired, blue eyed, tan skinned and short. Ok, so that last one wasn't really all that good, but still, I looked like myself again.
Lifting up my makeshift head scarf I discovered, however, that my ears were still pointed. I was still an Elf. I frowned, but shrugged, too happy over my change of appearance to be very concerned about that. Who would complain about being an Elf, anyways? Happily, I skipped back to Liltalen, where I had to lead him to a rock before I could mount him. Then I found the road again and followed it west.
My happiness at my appearance returning to normal, however, soon faded, and I started wondering WHY my appearance had returned to normal. I had a theory that maybe it was because I was away from the Elves, and the Mary-Sue Factor was weakening, thus letting me revert to my normal, non-perfect looks. This got me wondering about the Mary-Sue Factor's origins, and why Kari and I had been brought to Middle-Earth, and soon my mind was spinning wild tales involving Valar and other Gods, magic, wizards, Istari and Maia, and just about every other incredible thing you could think of, up to, and including, warp travel gone wrong. (Don't ask)
Anyways. I probably, sometime during the course of my speculation, chanced across at least part of the actual answers to why I was in Middle-Earth and why Kari and I had been made Mary-Sues. All I know is that for the next few weeks as I traveled along the deserted road from Rivendell to Bree, I had a creative hay day. If I'd had anything to write down even half the ideas I came up with on that trip, I'm sure I could have made a fortune selling them to other authors back home.
Surprisingly to me, it actually took me less time than Aragorn, Frodo and company to get between Rivendell and Bree. I realized when I camped at Weathertop, of course, that the reason I was going faster was that I was riding a horse, instead of traveling on foot. That probably meant that I could get to Bree within a day or two, I decided as I sat in the ruins of the watch tower of Amon Sûl.
That also meant that I should start figuring out what I was going to do when I got to Bree. It was all very fine and dandy to talk about running off and surviving by myself, but I had very few survival skills to speak of, which meant I'd have to buy things to feed myself. In other words, I needed some currency. Which lead the logical conclusion of deciding to look for a job once I got to Bree. I wasn't entirely unskilled in making things from scratch, and I could cook fairly well when given a recipe. This all hinged, of course, on whether or not the Mary-Sue Factor would enable me to understand and speak Common. That was about the only good thing about the Mary-Sue Factor, in fact - I could now speak other languages.
I reached Bree in the afternoon of the second day after camping on Weathertop, and I'm pretty sure I had to have been the worst looking Elf to have ever be seen in that town, though my ears were covered so nobody could tell I was an Elf. Liltalen had grown shaggy and dirty over the journey, as well, so you could tell that he was a very BIG black horse, but that was it. Still, I noted with amusement as I looked around at the other inhabitants of Bree, Liltalen and I were, sadly, probably the cleanest creatures I saw. Both physical and in thoughts. By the time I'd reached what looked like a more savory part of town, I'd been leered at multiple times, and ignored several lewd suggestions from passing men.
Don't get me wrong, Bree wasn't a horrible place or anything, it was just terribly primitive and dirty compared to the Elves, let alone what I was used to in the modern world. I suppose it actually wasn't that bad for a medieval-technology-level town, especially once you got up into the more mixed part of the buildings, where both hobbits and men frequented.
The hobbits that I saw, of course, were quite something else. I hadn't thought they'd be that short - every single one that I saw could have literally walked right under Liltalen's stomach. One did, in fact, when it got a little crowded and the place he wanted to go was on the other side. Liltalen looked a little startled at that, but the hobbit just patted the stallion on the shoulder and gave me a smile before continuing on his way.
It was getting dark by the time I decided that I needed to stop gaping and start looking for a place to stay for the night, and, since I had no money to pay for even one night's board, that also meant a place to work. That made things infinitely harder. I went from shop to shop, coming in and chatting up the owner for awhile to make sure they were nice people who I might want to work for before I asked them if they needed any help. Out of an entire dozen shops, though, only half of them I would care to work at, and none of them needed help.
Several of them, however, being the friendly people that they were, had mentioned other shops that they'd heard were looking for help, but it was getting late, and the majority of the shops were closed now. One thing all the shop keepers had agreed on, though, was that many of the Inns needed help and would be glad to take me on and house and feed me until I found my footing. After all, why not? It was like having a customer that did everything themselves, and more besides.
I wasn't too sure about the working in an Inn idea, but since it was late and I didn't want to go back out of the city to sleep in the wilderness, and the smells of good food were driving me nuts, I sighed and headed for the nearest Inn. And, as chance - or the Mary-Sue Factor - would have it, the nearest Inn was the Prancing Pony. I smiled ruefully as I noticed the sign, then shook my head and stepped inside. The owner - an ancestor of Barliman's, probably - appeared almost instantly when I stepped in, asking me what he could do for me.
"Actually, I was wondering if you could use some help for an evening or two, good sir." I said in response. "I've just recently arrived in town, and I have no money to my name." The Innkeeper looked at me appraisingly for a few moments, and then nodded.
"We are a little short on servers." he said. "If ya help out tonight and tomorrow, I'll feed ya and give ya a place to sleep, and some coins beside if you work hard."
"Thank you." I said with a smile, and then frowned lightly as I remembered Liltalen. "I do have a horse. Will it be any trouble to house him, as well?" The Innkeeper looked at me in surprise, probably wondering why I didn't just sell my horse to get some money - like Liltalen would let me sell him even if I wanted to - but in the end, he shrugged.
"It will cut down on the coin I'll be givin' you at the end, but no, it's not a problem." he said.
"I wasn't even expecting to get any money, so it's fine by me." I said ruefully. The Innkeeper smiled.
"Very well then, we have an agreement, Mister...?"
"Miss Rachel." I supplied and corrected with a grin as I realized that the Innkeeper thought I was a boy. I supposed my headscarf could be mistaken for a bandana, and if you're not expecting to see and woman in men's clothing, then if would be easy to overlook. The Innkeeper looked slightly surprised, then peered at me and nodded.
"Very good, Miss Rachel. I'm Bartholomew Marsanon." The Innkeeper said. "Come to the kitchens with me and I'll introduce ya to my wife Halena, and she can tell you what to do and set you to work." I nodded and followed Bartholomew as he set off for the kitchens. The temperature, as well at the smell, rose exponentially when we entered the kitchen, and my mouth started watering quickly. The heat I brushed off, used to worse on the Australian outback, and instead I eyed some freshly cooked meat hungrily. Bartholomew noticed my glance, and after a moments pause, went and found a slice of meat and put it on a piece of bread before handing it to me.
"Here, that'll last while Halena tells you what to do." he said. "Ya can have more when then evenin's done." I nodded my thanks, my mouth already full of the meat and bread. Right then, that was the best food I'd ever tasted. Bartholomew smiled with amusement, and then called out to one of the main cooks in the kitchen. She scurried over, and Bartholomew introduced me to her, revealing that this woman was Halena. Bartholomew then disappeared out of the kitchen with a reassurance that he would get my horse taken care of, and I was left alone with Halena, who was looking at me appraisingly.
"Serving, eh?" she said after awhile. "Well, we can't have you serving in men's clothing." I smiled sheepishly, having finished my bread and meat. "I suppose you don't have a dress you could change into?"
"No ma'am." I said politely, and Halena gave an exaggerated sigh.
"Jeanai!" she called, and instantly a younger cook scurried over. Judging from her close resemblance to Halena, I figured she had to be related to the woman somehow.
"Yes Ma?" Jeanai asked. Am I good or am I good? Mother and daughter.
"This here's Rachel, she's gonna be here for a few nights servin'. I need you to take her and go find her a dress." Halena said. Jeanai nodded, and Halena instantly turned her attention back to what she'd been doing before Bartholomew had brought me in. Jeanai looked at me for a moment, then wordlessly motioned for me to follow her and led me out of the kitchen and down a hallway until we came to a set of doors. Pausing, Jeanai pulled a key out of somewhere and unlocked the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside. Following her, I realized that this must be where the Marsanon family lived - it certainly looked like a more permanent living space than I would imagine any Inn room looking like.
"See which one of these fits." Jeanai said softly, speaking for the first time as she held out some dresses that she'd gathered.
"Where can I change?" I asked, taking the dresses from her carefully. Jeanai nodded to a screen in the room, and I disappeared behind it with the dresses. I tried on all the dresses, but only two fit, and one was far too low cut for my comfort. The other dress that fit was plain, a dark green colour with very little decoration, and still showed a good deal more cleavage than I would have liked. All the dresses seemed to have been cut that low or lower, however, so I just accepted it. Fortunately, I had taken every opportunity - aka, stream - I had come across to wash myself on the journey to Bree, so I didn't look too incredibly dirty in the dress. Jeanai seemed not to notice, however.
"Ai, you looked wonderful!" Jeanai exclaimed happily when I emerged wearing the dress.
"I do?" I asked dubiously, looking down at myself. Jeanai nodded happily, smiling, as she took the dresses that didn't fit from me.
"You look even better in it than Elena did, and it was custom tailored for her!" Jeanai said, then turned back to me and eyed the dirty trousers and tunic I was holding. Noticing her glance, I held the dirty clothes a little closer.
"Could these be washed so I can keep them? They're...rather special to me." I said, suddenly realizing that I wanted to hang onto at least something of Rivendell - besides Liltalen. Jeanai looked at me strangely, and then nodded.
"Of course. Come, we shall put them in with the rest of the laundry to be done tomorrow, and then return to the kitchen." Jeanai said. I nodded, then followed her once again as we left the Marsanon family's rooms. Jeanai led me through some more halls, and down a flight of stairs, then turned and took my dirty clothes from me and dumped them unceremoniously into a basket full of other dirty laundry.
"I am not too sure how clean they shall be gotten, but we shall try our best." Jeanai said with a reassuring smile. I smiled back, secretly trusting in Elvish handiwork to surprise even the cleaners. Then Jeanai was leading me back through the halls to the kitchen, and Halena appeared again, sending Jeanai on her way and giving me another appraising look.
"It looks good on you. But the scarf should go." she said, and reached for my headscarf that I had left on.
"Scarf stays." I said, clapping a hand down on top of my head and thinking fast. "Otherwise you get to see the results of what happens when you try and cut your own hair with a dull knife." Halena blinked, and then chuckled.
"Very well. We shall get you a matching one for tomorrow night, however." she said. I nodded, happy to be allowed to keep the scarf. With that decided, Halena got down to business, showing me quickly and efficiently how to carrying trays and dishes out into the main room, then explaining how they figured out what order went to what table. It was surprisingly like a modern day restaurant - each of the tables had been given names, and each server was assigned a certain set of tables to serve. If needed, they could always tell anther server the table name for an order, and that server could take it there without trouble. It was terribly organized for such a small place.
But then, I realized as I set to work, it was also terribly busy. It seemed every time I left the kitchen, someone had left and someone new had arrived - the clientele was constantly changing. Thankfully, however, the clientele remained fairly respectable, and I only had three men come on to me, and a dozen or so lewd remarks. I did, however, lose track of the number of times my rump was pinched. It was apparently a common occurrence, my only other fellow server, a young woman named Marli, told me. About halfway through the evening I realized she was right, and stopped shooting annoyed looks at the offending patrons.
It was close to midnight by the time the last person left the Inn or found their way up to their room, and then Halena gathered all the kitchen help - a solid five in number - and the servers - all two of us - together. She handed out some coins to four of the kitchen helpers, and to Marli, then made shooing motions with her hands, telling them to get themselves home. They did, and that left Jeanai and I.
"Now then. Bartholomew told me ya were rather hungry when you came in t'night, Rachel." Halena said, turning to me. "Help yourself to whatever's left in the kitchen, and then Jeanai will show you to where you can sleep." I smiled thankfully, feeling entirely too tired to speak. At that point, Bartholomew himself appeared in the kitchen and came over.
"Wonderful job tonight, Miss Rachel." he said cheerfully. "But if you don't mind, before you do anything else, could you go convince your horse to follow Gartan to the stables? He's been trying to coax the poor beast in there all evenin', with little luck." I groaned.
"Sorry, I should have remembered how stubborn Liltalen is." I said, heading for the front door. I paused, however, when I felt three pairs of eyes on my back. I turned back to the Marsanon family and looked at them curiously.
"Yer horse has an Elvish name?" Bartholomew asked, almost nervously. I nodded, and then started inwardly smacking myself as the three family members shared looks of fear and worry - they probably thought I'd stolen him. I had, in a way, but they didn't need to know that.
"He's actually called Star Dancer, though." I said quickly, pulling the lie off the top of my head. "Liltalen is just the Elvish translation that I learned from someone I met on my journey here." The three seemed to relax after that, and Bartholomew and Halena bid us goodnight before disappearing off along the hallway Jeanai had taken me along earlier. With a glance at Jeanai, I slipped out of the Inn and found Liltalen stubbornly standing where I'd left him, ignoring the apple that a boy - presumably Gartan - was holding out to him enticingly.
"Liltalen!" I called sharply, and instantly the stallion's head shot towards me. "Obey him." I said sternly, and Liltalen snorted once before meandering over to Gartan and snatching the apple from his hand. "If he gives you any trouble, tell me and I'll deal with him." I said to the surprised boy. Gartan nodded, and I went back inside the Inn as my stomach growled. Jeanai was waiting for me, and bolted the Inn door behind me. Then we returned to the kitchen, where I started digging in to the food. Jeanai, probably more out of politeness than anything else, nibbled a bit on an apple, watching me curiously. Finally, when I'd slowed down, she spoke.
"Who did you meet on the road that could speak Elvish?" she asked.
"An Elf." I replied promptly, and Jeanai's eyes went wide.
"You met an Elf?" she asked, her voice hushed and excited. "A real, live Elf?" I smiled and nodded. "What did they look like?"
"Like you or I, only much taller and graceful. And they glow." I said.
"They glow?" Jeanai asked dumbly. I nodded.
"Apparently they tend to do so when the starlight shines on them." I said.
"Wow." Jeanai said. I smiled again.
"My thoughts exactly." I said.
"So where did you travel from, that you met an Elf on the road?" Jeanai asked.
"A town in the east, over the Misty Mountains." I replied vaguely, hoping to avoid having to tell any specifics.
"Really?! You came over the mountains?" Jeanai asked, excited once again. I nodded.
"Aye, I did." I said. A yawn suddenly escaped me, and Jeanai blushed abruptly.
"I'm sorry, you must be tired." she said.
"Oh, I don't mind the questions. I do need some sleep, however." I said.
"Come, then. You get to sleep in one of our spare rooms." Jeanai said, motioning for me to follow her as she stood up from the stool she'd sat on while I ate. I stood and followed her as she led me up to the part of the Inn holding rooms for rent, stopping in front of one of the first doors we came across. Jeanai opened the door, revealing a small, simple room, and handed me a key and said goodnight before disappearing back down the stairs.
With her gone, I went into the room and closed and locked the door behind me. After pondering what to do about sleeping attire for a moment, I decided that I'd sleep in the shift that I'd had to put on underneath the dress. I quickly took off the borrowed dress, then, and hung it in the small closet I had been supplied with before sinking onto the bed - still wearing my headscarf - and drifting off into the peaceful oblivion of sleep.
----To be continued...with 67% more funny-talking natives!----
(And the required Tod!) (Uh, ok, I should probably explain that...my friend and I have an unintentional habit of naming extras 'Tod' or 'Ted' in our FanFictions.)
-Authors Note:-
A little note on where this story is going - for the next few chapters, recognizable characters other than Rachel will be making only brief appearances. I will be getting back to Rivendell eventually, but...well...she's going to be returning with Boromir. So that's 800 or so years, and I'm going to be trying to cover it all and get her back to Rivendell, when the fun can begin, in 5 chapters. We'll see how this works out. I've never had to cover this much time in a story before. Heck, never really gave myself the chance, considering that I was dealing with mortals in 'Sightseeing in Middle-Earth', and taking too long to reveal the plot in 'No Eyes Needed' would give away the plot without really giving it away. If that makes any sense. I just hope I do OK with the little time-passing chapters, especially since I've edited them numerous times.
Lastly, to end this Author's Note, thank you to ALL my reviewers, and to my readers, though I would especially like it if I had only reviewers to thank because all my readers have reviewed. *hint hint* Now off to buy my mothers birthday present...so I can give it to her tonight. Do I procrastinate? Hell yes.
~Crimson Starlight