A.N.: Hey, thanks to Moonlight Sonata and for reviewing, I'm glad
you like it so far. When I wrote this on WordPad I actually did make it
so you could tell when Gandalf and Bonnie were speaking mind to mind--I had
it in bold, but when I downloaded the story here, that all went bye-bye for
some reason, along with most of my paragraph spaces. (That was a bit
disappointing, normally I don't remember to make proper paragraphs, but I
did this time--I was so proud of myself--and the mean old whatchamacallit
went and whatchama-did something! Hmph!) Anyway, then I decided I kind of
liked it, that when they first spoke it was subtle, simple, and harder to
locate, so I figured I'd just pretend that happened on purpose.^_^ As to
the response from Doctoroc, your response really made me laugh. I do not
intend this to be a romance between Bonnie and Gandalf! He's one of the
Maiar, for goodness sakes; he's the one who finds her, that's it! In fact
as far as Gandalf's relationship with Bonnie goes is that she loves him
like a father, and he loves her as a friend and daughter.
I may be demented enough to write myself into a story (who hasn't
wanted to, right?), I'm not totally nuts! ^_^ No, when Bonnie does meet
Mr. Right, it'll be likely predictable, but not icky.
I'm glad you wrote though, I'll be sure to clear that up!
That first reviewer with my same name would be my sister, who read it right
after I posted the thing and stumbled to bed. (And, hey! I actually woke
up for biology the next morn! I wonder what Dr. Martin will think of my,
ahem, experiment?) She wants Haldir. I want Haldir, but she also said I
could have Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir, Faramir, Elrond, Gil-Galad, Celeborn,
Frodo, and Merry; so maybe I should --urgh, sniffle--give up my claim on
the arrogant little darling, what do you think?
Oh, also, the song from the last chapter was part of a Bryan Adams
song from the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. I have the
soundtrack, and I may pull other stuff from it for this story, but I'll try
to remember to say who it's from, until I'm clever enough to come up with
one of my own. Without further ado, more of our story.
Who are you, child? he asked. She smiled. Bonnie. Who're you? Her thought/speech wasn't as clear as that of an Elf's, but part of what she sent him was sensory input, and to lesser degree emotion, along with actual word-ideas, and as they communicated her skill improved. I am called Gandalf the Grey. I apologize if I frightened you, Lady Bonnie. You startled me... Bonnie made a derisive sound, not quite a snort or a laugh, it reminded Gandalf of a horse, then coughed a little. She gave him a half smile and a self-deprecating bow of the head. Not "lady," please, sir. I'm no one of great importance. She tilted her head to the side and frowned slightly. What do you mean you're called Gandalf the Grey? Is it your name or isn't it? Why "the Grey?" Wait, first, what's with the Icy One? An icy wind picked up then, flinging her hair round her face. She clutched at her bare arms and went to stand behind a stone spike to block the wind, though it availed her little. Gandalf decided to address the first question last. Icy One? he asked, frowning. An image of a disdainful face formed in her mind. He looks like you, but he's different. His voice... Bonnie shuddered and coughed. He's all ice inside, I don't like him. He wants to hurt me. She looked round herself. He's trying to turn me into an icicle, at the very least, she added drily. Saruman, he muttered.
That's his name?
It is. Saruman the White, or so was he, upon a time. His heart has indeed become like unto ice. Though what design he would have for you is unknown to me.... He said this mainly to himself.
Bonnie coughed again. She slid to the floor and pulled her legs to her chest in a now-familiar position. Gandalf began to recognize it as a position she chose when feeling vulnerable. I guess I'm still a bit chilled from that rain last night, she explained. I don't have any idea what --Saruman?--wants from me either. Maybe he just isn't used to people popping up in his backyard. I know I sure wasn't expecting it.
Can you tell me what you mean, Lady Bonnie? You "popped" from somewhere?
She ignored the "L" word, she was too busy freezing. She smiled lopsidedly again. No actual popping was involved. I mean that I was one place, and then suddenly, I was another. Don't ask me to explain it.
Show me, he ordered.
**************************************************************************** ********************************************
Bonnie and her older sister Sarah were in the woods around the nature center, the latter carrying an odd little black box hanging from a strap round her neck, the former with a walking stick, carrying a slight grudge. Sarah had a project due for her art class and she was in need of a scenic view. Her little sister, having not as many classes as she, had more leisure time which was usually spent at the nature center or the surrounding woods, therefore, Sarah had. well she cajoled, threatened, and bossed. she called it asking for help. The girls were arguing good-naturedly, walking through the tall grass. Bonnie had just said something snide in the way of telling her sister she thought her very silly, and why did she needed help finding a scenic view, for Pete's sake, pick a direction, snap a picture, boom! there's your scenic view, now leave me to my sketchpad and picnic blanket in peace. (You know, sister stuff.) "Oh, since when do you mind going on a nature walk? That's the reason your always out here."
"Hmph. I mind since certain people started frog-marching me out to my private sanctuary."
Sarah laughed. "Sanctuary? What, now you're Quasimodo? You're just grumpy 'cause you're getting a cold."
Bonnie stuck her tongue out at her, to which Sarah responded in like, also crossing her eyes, looking quite honestly psychotic. Bonnie grimaced and laughed. "You win, that's disgusting." Now, in television and movies, when someone gets "relocated" to some unfamiliar setting, there's usually a boom, a storm, a gust of wind, or something otherwise disturbing. At least a psychedelic, spinning portal. It happens in different ways with different people (though believe me, there's only a half-dozen at best that this has happened to [one or two of which you've probably read about in the history books]), but what most people don't realize is that it's actually a lot more subtle than that.
For Bonnie it was the feel of a warm, grey mist which swallowed her up in an instant, and just as quickly vanished. It was as though her vision blurred and when her eyes refocused, she surrounded by trees unlike the ones she'd just left.
Tall, O so much taller than her own, and ancient. They way she described it was that while her own trees were alive before she was her parents' births, these seemed to whisper of the birth of the human race. She liked them at once. They reminded her of something she couldn't remember. [A.N.: Wow, that was sort of redundant. *shrugging*.] They filled her with a sense of peace. All in all, she reflected later, a very quieting place. Now, where was her sister?
"Sarah? Saaaaar--raaaaaaah!" Nothing but her own echo. "Hello?" Pretty nice place for an echo, though. Bonnie walked along, noticing the grass was clipped short, like at a big park. This lawn must belong to someone.whoa.
The Orcs had been gorging themselves on flesh and ale, when the strange bellowing began. They didn't know what was said, but from the sound it was some despicable mortal female, obviously a very stupid one to wander so far from the main village of Isengard into the Orc's camp. The old wizard, Sharkey, had given them this area to do with as they would. (They had to lie low until the arrival of the other wizard, the Grey Pilgrim, or whatever the scum called himself now.) How dare some despicable little waif of a human trespass here? Still and all, it was her own fault for coming; maybe they could eat her or something. They rose to their feet excited at the thought of tearing into fresh man-flesh.
Before her was an enormous, gothic-looking black castle-tower thingy, adorned with stone spikes, intense and forbidding. Someone with a warped sense of home-security, or ah. something. The tower was taller, more ancient than any building she could have seen back home, as the trees here were also. You couldn't really say that they looked like they belonged together, but something about that tower just seemed. off-kilter.
Bonnie couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. While she stood trying to decide whether it would be a bad idea to see if whoever lived there could figure out how she got here (and/or how to get back--she was sure Sarah would kill her for disappearing on her... oh, right, my point), she heard suddenly the sound of a horrible din behind her in the forest. Alarmed, she backed tentatively in the direction of the tower. "That's not Bambi," she breathed.
Then out of the trees they burst, bulky, black skinned creatures running at her. Her first thought was that they'd all been burned terribly, for their skin was not black as in reference to ethnicity, a color she'd always thought of as kind of pretty, but that of fire or rot. "Holy cow!" she gasped. Bonnie then noticed the cruel-looking weapons they held, and realized what they were about. "Holy--freakin'--cow!" she yelped.
Now Bonnie, as a rule, had never been a track and field kind of girl. She liked horse-back riding, swimming, canoeing, archery, but not especially track and field, unlike her sister. Also unlike her sister, Bonnie did not scream when startled. Now, however, with a mob of deranged, burned, mental hospital escapee monsters barreling in her direction, she sprinted off at speeds that would have done proud any Olympian, and she was yammering at the top of her lungs. (The thought flitted briefly through her mind that if she hadn't been completely freaked out at the moment, it would've looked darn funny.)
Bonnie didn't look back, but she could tell that she actually was getting some distance between herself and the monsters. She remembered when she was ten and she forgot that she was supposed to wait for her dad to pick her up for piano lessons. She'd taken the bus, and then remembered too late what she was supposed to do. Her father was a kind, loving dad, but he did not like to be inconvenienced, and sometimes had a rather loud way of expressing himself. She hoped he'd be waiting at the babysitter's when the bus dropped her off, and if he was, she'd run and hug him and tell him how sorry she was before he could have a chance to yell. When she got off that bus, she'd shot off like a rocket, according to her friends, who had never seen her run so fast. "Well, hello, my old friend, Adrenalin," she thought tersely. [A.N.: Of course, it also helped that the Orcs' bellies were stuffed with meat and they were somewhat inebriated.^_^]
Her screams attracted the attention of another, who came grumpily to the steps of his great tower to see what all the excitement was about. The old wizard saw a human woman in strange clothing and loose, flowing hair tearing across the lawn in his general direction, running as if a band of Uruk-hai were after.Ah.
Bonnie saw a tall, white figure on the steps of the great tower. He could help her. For crying out loud, he'd better help her! Her leg muscles burned with effort as she bolted up the steep, long flight of stairs. She stopped in front of the old man, breathing heavily. (She'd have thought him bizarre if she could see him; she was too busy staring at her tennis shoes, she was bent in half with exertion.)
"Please." she rasped between breaths, "help..me."
She turned to look at the monsters, who had stopped respectfully at the bottom of the stairs. (If the word "respectfully" can even be used regarding Orcs.) She went up another step, repulsed, as she now got a better look at them. Monsters, she'd called them before.she'd been right. Or demons. Goblins, she decided. Bonnie believed the phrase "beauty is as beauty does." But there was no doubt in her mind that that phrase did not apply here. Discernment told her they were evil. Her thoughts went wild: what had she done? She'd led Goblins right to a helpless, old man! She could have kicked herself.
Bonnie turned to the old man. "We have to get inside, they'll kill us!"
Saruman looked at the startlingly tall girl with cold curiosity. What language could she possibly be speaking?? Obviously she was in a state of panic, and babbling stupidly as a result. He probably would have left her to his pet Orcs at the bottom of the stairs, except that everything about her was so curious, so completely foreign. She wasn't an Elf. Was she Numenorean? Certainly she was tall enough, but none of the clans of men dressed their women so ridiculously. Strange.
Bonnie turned back to look at the monsters, then realized that they had come after neither her, nor the old man. She looked back to the old man. He didn't even look afraid. A chill went down her spine, and she didn't like what she was thinking. He called down to the monsters in and deep, strong voice, though in what language, she had no idea. "Just where and what have I gotten myself beamed into?" she wondered to herself.
A harsh, hateful voice answered the man, pointing to Bonnie. The other Goblins grunted and nodded their ugly heads, seemingly to verify what their leader said. The man spoke again, and the goblins ran off back in the direction of the trees. Then he turned to her and began to speak in that deep voice. Saruman knew he would soon have whatever answers he wished. This girl may be strange, but she was only human, he was certain of that. She'd come under the spell of his voice, it was only a matter of time. He would find out all he wanted, and then maybe he would let the Orcs eat her. It would keep him in their good favor.
Though Bonnie didn't know the words he spoke, it had a calming affect on her, in actuality, not well for the wizard. When Bonnie was in her early teens, she was prescribed pills to help overcome insomnia. She took half a pill, and it completely put her down. She'd hated the feeling, and refused to take anymore of them. That experience saved her now, for as that familiar, drugged sensation swept over her, she realized, and her anger began to burn.
"Oh, no you don't," she interrupted, not caring whether he understood. "You're not slipping me a Mickey!"
The sorcerer-- for that's what he must be, she thought --looked the slightest bit startled at her interruption. Then he smiled gently and started again. Bonnie put her hands over her ears.
"Uh-uh. Cut it out, now!"
An expression of hurt crossed the sorcerer's face. He tried to start again, only to be cut off with a firm "No!" Bonnie frowned at him, knowing that he would at least understand. She backed away from him, slowly, shaking her head.
Saruman was at first only annoyed at her interruptions, and now that it seemed she understood what he was trying to do, he was faintly alarmed. No matter. That little worm, Grima, son of Gamlod, had understood and resisted, and in breaking him, had become so much the weaker. This little pest would be no different. Saruman focused his energy on the girl, stopping her in her tracks, forcing her to remove her hands from her ears, and began again.
She gritted her teeth; he unclenched them. She tried to drown him out with noise of her own; Saruman silenced her. His voice, dripping sweet poison, slowly began bleeding into her. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I can't keep him out on my own!" Bonnie thought in despair. She called on the Father, "God! O Jesus, help. you gave me my mind. You gave it to me, not to. Don't let him take it.help. Please, Lord, don't let him... Help." And then her eyes went dark.
Saruman realized in amazement that she was no longer paying him any notice: her mind was elsewhere. He looked down at her in disgust, and called for his servants; two appeared at his elbow. "Take her to the very top of Orthanc." They bowed low, then picked up the girl's prone body and carried her away.
How? How had a mortal woman withstood his Voice? He looked out at the world furiously and thorough confounded. His face changed as he saw a Grey shape come riding up. Well. Perhaps this day could still go his way. He'd think about the brat in his tower once he convinced Gandalf joined with him.
**************************************************************************** ********************************************
Bonnie coughed. Looking at Gandalf through eyes that watered, she said, When I woke up, I was here, and it was getting cold and windy and dark. Not a lot later, you arrived. Gandalf had now a thousand questions more he wanted to ask, but at that moment Lady Bonnie looked ill. He said instead, I dislike the sound of that cough. Are you not.... well?
As he said this, Bonnie leaned her head over the edge and heaved. Gandalf was now truly concerned. He went to kneel beside her and put his hands on her head. She was burning.
A.N.: Whew. This is why more people don't time travel! In case anyone is wondering, there's a reason I made it so Bonnie and people from Middle-Earth can't understand one another. My theory is this: even though one assumes that the Common tongue is English--and sure, why not?--it's important to remember that this also is a time period many thousands of years ago, so even if it is English and they're both speaking it, they wouldn't be able to understand a darn thing the other was saying. Ooh, Andromeda's on now, gotta go. Keith Hamilton Cobb, folks. Talk about your eye-candy. ^_^
P.S.: Don't forget to push the magic review button!
Who are you, child? he asked. She smiled. Bonnie. Who're you? Her thought/speech wasn't as clear as that of an Elf's, but part of what she sent him was sensory input, and to lesser degree emotion, along with actual word-ideas, and as they communicated her skill improved. I am called Gandalf the Grey. I apologize if I frightened you, Lady Bonnie. You startled me... Bonnie made a derisive sound, not quite a snort or a laugh, it reminded Gandalf of a horse, then coughed a little. She gave him a half smile and a self-deprecating bow of the head. Not "lady," please, sir. I'm no one of great importance. She tilted her head to the side and frowned slightly. What do you mean you're called Gandalf the Grey? Is it your name or isn't it? Why "the Grey?" Wait, first, what's with the Icy One? An icy wind picked up then, flinging her hair round her face. She clutched at her bare arms and went to stand behind a stone spike to block the wind, though it availed her little. Gandalf decided to address the first question last. Icy One? he asked, frowning. An image of a disdainful face formed in her mind. He looks like you, but he's different. His voice... Bonnie shuddered and coughed. He's all ice inside, I don't like him. He wants to hurt me. She looked round herself. He's trying to turn me into an icicle, at the very least, she added drily. Saruman, he muttered.
That's his name?
It is. Saruman the White, or so was he, upon a time. His heart has indeed become like unto ice. Though what design he would have for you is unknown to me.... He said this mainly to himself.
Bonnie coughed again. She slid to the floor and pulled her legs to her chest in a now-familiar position. Gandalf began to recognize it as a position she chose when feeling vulnerable. I guess I'm still a bit chilled from that rain last night, she explained. I don't have any idea what --Saruman?--wants from me either. Maybe he just isn't used to people popping up in his backyard. I know I sure wasn't expecting it.
Can you tell me what you mean, Lady Bonnie? You "popped" from somewhere?
She ignored the "L" word, she was too busy freezing. She smiled lopsidedly again. No actual popping was involved. I mean that I was one place, and then suddenly, I was another. Don't ask me to explain it.
Show me, he ordered.
**************************************************************************** ********************************************
Bonnie and her older sister Sarah were in the woods around the nature center, the latter carrying an odd little black box hanging from a strap round her neck, the former with a walking stick, carrying a slight grudge. Sarah had a project due for her art class and she was in need of a scenic view. Her little sister, having not as many classes as she, had more leisure time which was usually spent at the nature center or the surrounding woods, therefore, Sarah had. well she cajoled, threatened, and bossed. she called it asking for help. The girls were arguing good-naturedly, walking through the tall grass. Bonnie had just said something snide in the way of telling her sister she thought her very silly, and why did she needed help finding a scenic view, for Pete's sake, pick a direction, snap a picture, boom! there's your scenic view, now leave me to my sketchpad and picnic blanket in peace. (You know, sister stuff.) "Oh, since when do you mind going on a nature walk? That's the reason your always out here."
"Hmph. I mind since certain people started frog-marching me out to my private sanctuary."
Sarah laughed. "Sanctuary? What, now you're Quasimodo? You're just grumpy 'cause you're getting a cold."
Bonnie stuck her tongue out at her, to which Sarah responded in like, also crossing her eyes, looking quite honestly psychotic. Bonnie grimaced and laughed. "You win, that's disgusting." Now, in television and movies, when someone gets "relocated" to some unfamiliar setting, there's usually a boom, a storm, a gust of wind, or something otherwise disturbing. At least a psychedelic, spinning portal. It happens in different ways with different people (though believe me, there's only a half-dozen at best that this has happened to [one or two of which you've probably read about in the history books]), but what most people don't realize is that it's actually a lot more subtle than that.
For Bonnie it was the feel of a warm, grey mist which swallowed her up in an instant, and just as quickly vanished. It was as though her vision blurred and when her eyes refocused, she surrounded by trees unlike the ones she'd just left.
Tall, O so much taller than her own, and ancient. They way she described it was that while her own trees were alive before she was her parents' births, these seemed to whisper of the birth of the human race. She liked them at once. They reminded her of something she couldn't remember. [A.N.: Wow, that was sort of redundant. *shrugging*.] They filled her with a sense of peace. All in all, she reflected later, a very quieting place. Now, where was her sister?
"Sarah? Saaaaar--raaaaaaah!" Nothing but her own echo. "Hello?" Pretty nice place for an echo, though. Bonnie walked along, noticing the grass was clipped short, like at a big park. This lawn must belong to someone.whoa.
The Orcs had been gorging themselves on flesh and ale, when the strange bellowing began. They didn't know what was said, but from the sound it was some despicable mortal female, obviously a very stupid one to wander so far from the main village of Isengard into the Orc's camp. The old wizard, Sharkey, had given them this area to do with as they would. (They had to lie low until the arrival of the other wizard, the Grey Pilgrim, or whatever the scum called himself now.) How dare some despicable little waif of a human trespass here? Still and all, it was her own fault for coming; maybe they could eat her or something. They rose to their feet excited at the thought of tearing into fresh man-flesh.
Before her was an enormous, gothic-looking black castle-tower thingy, adorned with stone spikes, intense and forbidding. Someone with a warped sense of home-security, or ah. something. The tower was taller, more ancient than any building she could have seen back home, as the trees here were also. You couldn't really say that they looked like they belonged together, but something about that tower just seemed. off-kilter.
Bonnie couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. While she stood trying to decide whether it would be a bad idea to see if whoever lived there could figure out how she got here (and/or how to get back--she was sure Sarah would kill her for disappearing on her... oh, right, my point), she heard suddenly the sound of a horrible din behind her in the forest. Alarmed, she backed tentatively in the direction of the tower. "That's not Bambi," she breathed.
Then out of the trees they burst, bulky, black skinned creatures running at her. Her first thought was that they'd all been burned terribly, for their skin was not black as in reference to ethnicity, a color she'd always thought of as kind of pretty, but that of fire or rot. "Holy cow!" she gasped. Bonnie then noticed the cruel-looking weapons they held, and realized what they were about. "Holy--freakin'--cow!" she yelped.
Now Bonnie, as a rule, had never been a track and field kind of girl. She liked horse-back riding, swimming, canoeing, archery, but not especially track and field, unlike her sister. Also unlike her sister, Bonnie did not scream when startled. Now, however, with a mob of deranged, burned, mental hospital escapee monsters barreling in her direction, she sprinted off at speeds that would have done proud any Olympian, and she was yammering at the top of her lungs. (The thought flitted briefly through her mind that if she hadn't been completely freaked out at the moment, it would've looked darn funny.)
Bonnie didn't look back, but she could tell that she actually was getting some distance between herself and the monsters. She remembered when she was ten and she forgot that she was supposed to wait for her dad to pick her up for piano lessons. She'd taken the bus, and then remembered too late what she was supposed to do. Her father was a kind, loving dad, but he did not like to be inconvenienced, and sometimes had a rather loud way of expressing himself. She hoped he'd be waiting at the babysitter's when the bus dropped her off, and if he was, she'd run and hug him and tell him how sorry she was before he could have a chance to yell. When she got off that bus, she'd shot off like a rocket, according to her friends, who had never seen her run so fast. "Well, hello, my old friend, Adrenalin," she thought tersely. [A.N.: Of course, it also helped that the Orcs' bellies were stuffed with meat and they were somewhat inebriated.^_^]
Her screams attracted the attention of another, who came grumpily to the steps of his great tower to see what all the excitement was about. The old wizard saw a human woman in strange clothing and loose, flowing hair tearing across the lawn in his general direction, running as if a band of Uruk-hai were after.Ah.
Bonnie saw a tall, white figure on the steps of the great tower. He could help her. For crying out loud, he'd better help her! Her leg muscles burned with effort as she bolted up the steep, long flight of stairs. She stopped in front of the old man, breathing heavily. (She'd have thought him bizarre if she could see him; she was too busy staring at her tennis shoes, she was bent in half with exertion.)
"Please." she rasped between breaths, "help..me."
She turned to look at the monsters, who had stopped respectfully at the bottom of the stairs. (If the word "respectfully" can even be used regarding Orcs.) She went up another step, repulsed, as she now got a better look at them. Monsters, she'd called them before.she'd been right. Or demons. Goblins, she decided. Bonnie believed the phrase "beauty is as beauty does." But there was no doubt in her mind that that phrase did not apply here. Discernment told her they were evil. Her thoughts went wild: what had she done? She'd led Goblins right to a helpless, old man! She could have kicked herself.
Bonnie turned to the old man. "We have to get inside, they'll kill us!"
Saruman looked at the startlingly tall girl with cold curiosity. What language could she possibly be speaking?? Obviously she was in a state of panic, and babbling stupidly as a result. He probably would have left her to his pet Orcs at the bottom of the stairs, except that everything about her was so curious, so completely foreign. She wasn't an Elf. Was she Numenorean? Certainly she was tall enough, but none of the clans of men dressed their women so ridiculously. Strange.
Bonnie turned back to look at the monsters, then realized that they had come after neither her, nor the old man. She looked back to the old man. He didn't even look afraid. A chill went down her spine, and she didn't like what she was thinking. He called down to the monsters in and deep, strong voice, though in what language, she had no idea. "Just where and what have I gotten myself beamed into?" she wondered to herself.
A harsh, hateful voice answered the man, pointing to Bonnie. The other Goblins grunted and nodded their ugly heads, seemingly to verify what their leader said. The man spoke again, and the goblins ran off back in the direction of the trees. Then he turned to her and began to speak in that deep voice. Saruman knew he would soon have whatever answers he wished. This girl may be strange, but she was only human, he was certain of that. She'd come under the spell of his voice, it was only a matter of time. He would find out all he wanted, and then maybe he would let the Orcs eat her. It would keep him in their good favor.
Though Bonnie didn't know the words he spoke, it had a calming affect on her, in actuality, not well for the wizard. When Bonnie was in her early teens, she was prescribed pills to help overcome insomnia. She took half a pill, and it completely put her down. She'd hated the feeling, and refused to take anymore of them. That experience saved her now, for as that familiar, drugged sensation swept over her, she realized, and her anger began to burn.
"Oh, no you don't," she interrupted, not caring whether he understood. "You're not slipping me a Mickey!"
The sorcerer-- for that's what he must be, she thought --looked the slightest bit startled at her interruption. Then he smiled gently and started again. Bonnie put her hands over her ears.
"Uh-uh. Cut it out, now!"
An expression of hurt crossed the sorcerer's face. He tried to start again, only to be cut off with a firm "No!" Bonnie frowned at him, knowing that he would at least understand. She backed away from him, slowly, shaking her head.
Saruman was at first only annoyed at her interruptions, and now that it seemed she understood what he was trying to do, he was faintly alarmed. No matter. That little worm, Grima, son of Gamlod, had understood and resisted, and in breaking him, had become so much the weaker. This little pest would be no different. Saruman focused his energy on the girl, stopping her in her tracks, forcing her to remove her hands from her ears, and began again.
She gritted her teeth; he unclenched them. She tried to drown him out with noise of her own; Saruman silenced her. His voice, dripping sweet poison, slowly began bleeding into her. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I can't keep him out on my own!" Bonnie thought in despair. She called on the Father, "God! O Jesus, help. you gave me my mind. You gave it to me, not to. Don't let him take it.help. Please, Lord, don't let him... Help." And then her eyes went dark.
Saruman realized in amazement that she was no longer paying him any notice: her mind was elsewhere. He looked down at her in disgust, and called for his servants; two appeared at his elbow. "Take her to the very top of Orthanc." They bowed low, then picked up the girl's prone body and carried her away.
How? How had a mortal woman withstood his Voice? He looked out at the world furiously and thorough confounded. His face changed as he saw a Grey shape come riding up. Well. Perhaps this day could still go his way. He'd think about the brat in his tower once he convinced Gandalf joined with him.
**************************************************************************** ********************************************
Bonnie coughed. Looking at Gandalf through eyes that watered, she said, When I woke up, I was here, and it was getting cold and windy and dark. Not a lot later, you arrived. Gandalf had now a thousand questions more he wanted to ask, but at that moment Lady Bonnie looked ill. He said instead, I dislike the sound of that cough. Are you not.... well?
As he said this, Bonnie leaned her head over the edge and heaved. Gandalf was now truly concerned. He went to kneel beside her and put his hands on her head. She was burning.
A.N.: Whew. This is why more people don't time travel! In case anyone is wondering, there's a reason I made it so Bonnie and people from Middle-Earth can't understand one another. My theory is this: even though one assumes that the Common tongue is English--and sure, why not?--it's important to remember that this also is a time period many thousands of years ago, so even if it is English and they're both speaking it, they wouldn't be able to understand a darn thing the other was saying. Ooh, Andromeda's on now, gotta go. Keith Hamilton Cobb, folks. Talk about your eye-candy. ^_^
P.S.: Don't forget to push the magic review button!