Disclaimer: Diss the claimer!
A/N: They're adding and subtracting and shifting our holidays, so I'm free for this week... More writing, then. Would like to say here and now that NONE of my characters know how to use weapons, and none will learn how to wield one with deadly precision anytime soon. This is entirely Mary Sue Free.
*
Diana sat in the midst of a perpetual ocean of books, reading, reading, reading and basically, well, reading. Books here, books there, books everywhere. There was, after all, nothing much left for her to do except sit around, drinking whatever came to her and hugging onto a silmaril the whole day. Why could they not just get on with the scouting and come back to them? Diana sighed, and flipped another page. Very interesting, but little of what she had not heard or known beforehand. Diana knew snitching Peoples of Middle-Earth off Ren would be a good idea. Just as Diana was about to continue reading, something fell on the pile of books before her.
Not another one!
'Si?!'
Arrival number 8. Ding! The last official member for the Feanorian-Human group was set.
*
Ren ran as fast as she could away from Legolas, Yvonne trailing inches behind her. She ducked around a stunned elf, served a corner and found that she was heading for the library. The library was a dead end, the only other way out being either the staircase leading to Elrond's personal quarters, which was nearly always locked for reasons of privacy, or jumping out of the window. Ren fancied neither. Thankfully, the library was set in a circular mode. In the worst of situations, she could always try to run Legolas down, even though she knew it would only serve to buy her time. Elves were, after all, elves. Slamming her shoulder into the door to hurl it open, Ren barely managed to skid to a stop before stopping suddenly short.
'Si? What on Earth are you doing-'
Ren had no time to even finish her sentence, because one certain Yvonne tugged her urgently away as Legolas charged in.
'Ren! I think we should run!'
Ren took off while Yvonne hurled a hardcover at Legolas to give them the advantage of a few precious seconds. Ren decided they had better call in backup. Hollering, she yelled at the top of her voice,
'Sara! Get yourselves over here! Glor!'
The three proceeded to run around in never ending circles, with Legolas hefting his bow about and Silei wondering what was going on. Diana quickly pulled her out of the way of the rampaging trio, explaining all the way. Silei's smile grew. Oh, fun!
*
Glorfindel stopped short, wondering where Sirithbrethil was when a yell drew him towards the library. Sara and gang were not far behind him, but the elf was faster. Panicking, he burst in through the door of the library, only to be pounced upon by a clearly rabid Prince Legolas, who was, in his blind rage, trying to behead the elda with an unstrung bow.
'Daro! Saes, Thranduillion, daro! Sirithbrethil, man na rhoeg an Legolas si lúm?' [Sindarin: Stop! Please, Son of Thranduil, stop! Sirithbrethil, what is wrong with Legolas this time?]
Ren was panting, trying to catch her breath as Yvonne collapsed down beside her.
'Im u-ista, Glorfindel, thio nin mellon rhistont Legolas tang.' [I do not know, Glorfindel, seemingly my friend cut Legolas' bowstring.]
Glorfindel was too busy to reply, as he grabbed Legolas' head to still him.
'Legolas! Lasto beth nin, DARO!'
Legolas stopped, the words of his mother tongue finally registering into his head. Ren was sitting in a corner, laughing at Silei's bewildered look, while Yvonne threw her penknife out of the window in order to rid herself of the evidence. Ren, noticing, discreetly followed suite. Glorfindel patted Legolas on the shoulder, and hauling the fellow elf up, sent him out of the door.
'Sirithbrethil? Tolo.' [Come.]
Ren gulped, then on second thought dragged Silei by the arm to Glorfindel. Glorfindel sighed.
'Who is it this time?'
The taller Silei sent Glorfindel a sceptical look. Ren sniggered, then ducked to avoid being whacked on the head by Silei.
'Watch it!'
Ren had to duck again, laughing. Glorfindel shook his head. Ren spoke up again.
'Elrond?'
Glorfindel sighed again.
'Nin-mellon bronia lhong lom.' [Sindarin fig: My friend is under great stress.]
Ren tossed the silmaril up and down, having conveniently wrapped and bound it to avoid any nasty incident and sighed as well. Glorfindel smiled softly, before continuing.
'Sirithbrethil, treneri le mellyn toli. Im boe anni hain hatheli.' [Sindarin fig: Tell your friends to come. I have to give them arms.]
Ren looked sceptically at Glorfindel.
'U-iuith hatheli men.' [Sindarin fig: We cannot use arms.]
'Le boe hain.' [Sindarin: You need them.]
Even though Ren could not use a weapon to save her life, she smiled. Sara looked up at her expectantly. Ren just said simply,
'Weapons!'
Sara grinned evilly. Even Diana looked gleeful. Inez looked worried. The rest shrugged and followed the elf.
*
'Glorfindel, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times. We. Cannot. Use. Arms!'
The blond elf did not listen, instead taking a lengthy elven dagger off a wall holder and unsheathing the white hafted blade, which was curved slightly in typical Elvish make. The experienced elf swung it back and forth, twirled it around a bit and generally went about testing its balance. Satisfied, he gingerly placed a thumb to the blade, then nodded to himself as the blade almost bit through the skin. Sara was hopping around behind her in delight, but Ren had told her to shut up and not touch anything if she wanted one. Sara had promptly quietened.
Ren leaned onto the wooden table usually used to polish blades in the guard barracks, drumming her fingers on the table. Glorfindel abruptly slammed the blade between her fingers. Ren winced, her fingers stilling. Glorfindel grinned predatorily, an alarmingly happy smile plastered on his face as he inspected the dent on the table. Ren drew her hand back slowly.
'Bad form of stress management, Glorfindel.'
Erestor walked in, smirking, and dumped a batch of newly fletched arrows into a basket.. The blond elda only smiled and sheathed the white dagger, passing it wordlessly to Ren. The human gaped at him. Glorfindel went back to the racks, beckoning Sara over. The shorter human gave a whoop of delight and scampered over. A few minutes later, she came back with a dagger, slightly shorter than Ren's and gilded around the hilts. In due course, Erestor and Glorfindel helped the humans acquire weapons. Daggers were the largest blades they could manage. Ren, though still doubtful about their being given weapons, had to admit a dagger would make her feel safer, especially if they were to go through Moria, in comparison to her flimsy penknife.
*
Elladan sat on the grass, laughing uproariously as he watched Glorfindel trying to tell a bunch of human kids how to attack with a blade without killing themselves first. Some could more or less manage past the first stage of Unsheathing, namely those who carried penknives around and used them commonly, for example Diana, Shu Wen, Sara and Ren, but others were less well off. They were more or less decent for their age, but that standard of skill was not going to get them through a quest. Ren sighed in exasperation, sheathing and unsheathing and sheathing again, as Glorfindel instructed.
'I don't see how this is going to help. As far as I can tell, we whack them, see if they die, then run if they are still alive. Repeat.'
Glorfindel sent her an icy glare.
'Sirithbrethil, the matter of life and death is very serious. Sinte ta.' [Quenya: Realise that.]
Glorfindel slipped back into his mother tongue of Quenya unconsciously, feeling rather frustrated. This was resembling the disaster of Gondolin slightly too much. An age of hurts was a bit much for him to take. Ren rolled her eyes anyway, falling into Quenya again as well. A couple of weeks in Rivendell had done her Elvish some justice.
'Ye, aira cano elda.' [Quenya: Yes, old commander elf.]
Glorfindel whirled around to meet her eyes. Ren swallowed, but met his gaze. A sword tip wormed its way up to her neck. Glorfindel lowered his tone and slipped fully into Quenya, disguising the words from Diana and Silei, who knew bits and pieces of Sindarin.
'Lasta nin, Sirithbrethil. Im uván termara tira nossenya lantana huinen. Mirya ne farea. Erin nin coi urya si. Navelan i uru, i nwalya, i qualin. Polinavelalye ta?' [Quenya: Listen to me, Sirithbrethil. I will not stand to see my people fall into darkness. Once was enough. The ruins of my life burn now. I can remember the burning, the fear, the death. Can you remember it?']
Ren quietened.
'Edaved-im. I was out of place.' [Sindarin: I apologize.]
Glorfindel just walked away. Silei turned to Ren, recognizing the Sindarin.
'What was that all about?'
'Old memories.'
*
The humans were shifty and nervous that night as they sat in the Hall of Fire. The next day, they would depart. Glorfindel, alongside the Twins, had managed to educate the use of a blade efficiently enough so as to ensure that the humans would not die immediately in the face of attack. Well, at least not immediately. None of them could call their skills all that passable yet, but then again, neither could many of the perian. Ren found herself taking comfort in that.
*
The Next Day... Dun dung dung dun!
*
Ren shifted anxiously from one foot to another as they waited to depart. Sam was muttering something to Bill the Pony, Frodo was fiddling with the Ring and Merry and Pippin were talking amongst themselves. Aragorn was in quiet conversation with his foster father, and Mithrandir spoke in low tones with Erestor, Galdor and Glorfindel. Boromir made what conversation he could with Legolas, and many of Ren's company merely lingered around uncertainly. They were, of course, a separate group from the Fellowship, but the two groups would be travelling the same route up until Lothlorien. By then, they would have met up with Gildor of the Wandering Company, added Haldir on and would split off in a South-westerly direction, to Greenwood to come in contact with Thranduil. Ren was unsure of the last bit. Thranduil, after all, was needed for the Flushing of Dol Guldur later in the book. She consoled herself with the fact that there were more than enough elves around in Mirkwood to fill Thranduil's place, and the matter would simply be solved when they came to it. The human shifted around again, the weapon at her waist feeling strangely foreign.
*
They were on the move. The company moved accordingly in this manner: Gandalf and Aragorn in the front, with Boromir behind them, then the hobbits and humans in the centre with Legolas and Galdor. Glorfindel and Erestor held the back. They had crossed the Ford, and were now moving off the Road. The way was uncomfortable and cold, the thorn bushes pricking them in their sleep and the heartless wind chasing them as they walked. After a further fortnight, they finally came to Hollin and the Rocks. It felt slightly odd, Ren considered, for they were following Movie-Verse for scenes shown, and yet they alternated back to Book-Verse from time to time. Yet still, everything was going according to plan, so the humans shut up. Finally, they arrived at the large rocks, where they stopped. Ren carefully chose a spot well hidden away from sight to collapse into. The other humans followed suit, and even though the remaining members of the company found it odd, they did not comment.
Sara sighed, tossing her dagger from one hand to another in boredom as she watched Boromir getting flattened by Merry and Pippin. Yvonne landed herself beside her. The two watched the three madmen fight amongst themselves. On the other side of a pile of rocks, Silei, Shu Wen, Diana and Ren conversed. Ren was swearing savagely, as was her wont.
'Crebain. They're due any moment.'
'Green-boy is on watch.'
'I can barely wait for the screeching to come.'
'We should have paid more attention to book verse.'
'Yes. "Always listen to a Ranger, especially if that Ranger is Aragorn." Too late now, I suppose.'
'We will be found out, one way or the other.'
'We cannot meddle. This is not our business. The plot must remain.'
Silent nods were passed around. As if on cue, there was a shout.
'Crebain from Dunland and Fangorn! Hide!'
The humans did not need to move. They had taken the time to conceal themselves well. Diana sighed as the screeching overhead roared around.
'And now for Caradhras.'
Shu Wen shook her head.
'And then for Moria.'
Ren shadowed her eyes and muttered darkly.
'And the the Balrog.'