A/N: Any canon nazis reading this (I hope there are some) will recognize that Im using Grey Havens Elvish. I will just take this time to reemphasize that THAT IS THE POINT. Read on!
Chapter 13-Catching the Fellowship
"Yrch," I whispered, instinctively reverting to Sindarin, the language I used when I panicked. It drew funny looks from the people in my class, when I flunked a test, or something and started shouting. Ainaelda jumped up and smothered the pitiful embers that were left with a double handful of dirt. It was like using a boulder to squash an ant. We hastily packed what little we had out and looked around. Then, we looked up and jumped for the nearest tree branch. We were in the middle breanches and making enough noise for five people when the people we heard coming came. Muttered voices…
"Amin sinta en fea sinoma…" Elvish. Not orcs. But they had seen our fire.
"You can't be sure it was HERE, can you?"
"Somewhere close to here. Aiya, sinoma, fire remains. Still warm! They knew we were coming, and they can't have gone far. We should have been more careful."
"I thought it was orcs, or else I would have been more careful. Come on, we probably scared them away." I looked up at Ainaelda, who was trying not to breathe. They were leaving. This was good. The mysterious duo had almost gotten out of the sight we had claimed as our own when we both relaxed. When we did so, we both slipped. I grabbed on to the branch above me, wincing as the branches we snapped fell noisily to the ground.
"Ai! Someone IS here! I was right!" They ran back, and we acted simultaneously. Without any conference beforehand, we both jumped, taking them by surprise from above.
"Yaaaaaahh!" Our somewhat disjointed battlecry resounded in the night woods as I got my attacker in a headlock and slammed his face into the ground. Suddenly, the tiny clearing flooded with light, almost blindingly so. Then, when the nice little sparkles in front of my vision cleared, I saw exactly where I was and a sight that might have been laughable, had there been different parties involved as onlookers.
Gandalf held up his staff with a small chunk of lighted crystal. I was stunned; he was the last person I expected to see, or so I thought. Then I looked down to see who Ainaelda and I had in a headlock and found I was wrong.
Legolas Greenleaf, for once seperated from his bow, which was lying about six feet to our left, was face down in the ground with me on top of him. Aragorn was in a similar position with Ainaelda, who seemed thouroughly shocked and pleased at the same time. The happiness that I was just starting to feel, however, was short-lived when Legolas suddenly stood up, as did Aragorn, trying to throw us off. Hey, I might be about half as tall as Mr. Handsome-as-all-get-out-Elf, but I hadn't been riding horses since I was five for nothing. I held on with my knees and hands until he was half way stood up in this weird piggy back position. Then, as he evidently didn't expect me to hang on, he overbalanced and fell backwards, with me under him. Hadn't we been in this position once before, with about the exact same amount of romance involved? Ainaelda snorted with laughter from her position, sprawled on the ground where Aragorn had dumped her. She wasn't the one who had ridden horses.
"Well, this is a touch redundant, don't you think?" I let go quickly, and he got up just as quickly. As this episode was going on, the rest of the Fellowship had come up. The first person I saw was Boromir. From the look on his face, we had not exactly made his day. Then Gimli, who looked like he hated me even more, if that was possible. Then the four hobbits, grinning insanely, except Frodo and Merry, who looked like they didn't care if it was Sauron himself; they wanted to be back in bed. Gandalf looked torn between unbridled amusement and grave sobreity.
"We meet again, young maids." Ainaelda gave me a hand up and I stood, brushing dirt and leaves off myself. I shrugged and answered while I was doing so.
"I guess so." Boromir strode in front, not quite as civil as Gandalf had been.
"What are you doing here? We thought you were orcs! We could have accidentally shot you, or ambushed you, and no one would have known the difference until daylight! This is one of the most foolish things you have done in a list of foolish things since your arrival here two months ago! I sincerely suggest you tone things down a bit or you may find yourself a pincushion before you can blink. We DO have two expert archers, you realize." The hobbits crowded around, and Ainaelda had seemed to become one of Sam's favorites.
"What were you doing all the way out here?" Gandalf walked up and seperated us from the hobbit's eager questioning.
"That, I think, is a question we would all like the answer to. An explanation would be appreciated." We looked at each other, shrugged, faced him again, and answered, all in unison.
"We want to come with you." I don't think they expected us to be in perfect unison like that, because they all looked sort of surprised. Pippin's surprise, however, was quickly forgotten.
"What, did you plan that while you were tracking us?"
"Out of the question," said Boromir adamantly, "completely out of the question. Do you realize how serious this is? This isn't some game you can play, then quit or try again when you lose. I will NOT have you accompany us and risk the safety of all Middle Earth." Touching speech. Like I care.
"Look, uh, I think we know that. We probably know more about the One Ring than you do! We can help you, okay? We know things you don't." Gandalf tried not to look too interested.
"Indeed? Give me an example, if you are so knowledgeable." Ainaelda, apparently, had decided that it was her turn to speak up, so she cut me off before I had a chance to say anything about crebain, or the wolves that were stalking and/or going to stalk them.
"All right. For example, did you realize at this very minute we're being watched by spies from Saruman?" Wow. Talk about great minds thinking alike. Immediately, everyone looked around, as if they could see black birds at night, Legolas nocking an arrow to his bow, and Aragorn and Boromir both half-drawing their swords.
"Psh. You can't SEE them. If you could, what kind of spies are they? But they're there, don't fret too much." What great words of encouragement I can offer when I want to, eh? Gimli quit his instinctive search, looking embarrassed that he was actually taking us seriously.
"That does not convince me in any way that you should come along. We can deal with spies and such as they come, and I doubt two teen-aged girls, Elven or no, could tip the balance of our luck any better than it already is" Ainaelda rolled her eyes.
"Please. You need all the help you can get, and I'm not being sarcastic, either. Think about it: how many Nazgul are there?" That caused a bout of raised eyebrows. Well, duh. We knew about the One Ring, why shouldn't we know about the Nazgul? It sort of comes with the territory, you know?
"Nine," answered Frodo. He'd know all too well, wouldn't he?
"Now, how many of you are there in the Fellowship?"
"Nine," answered Frodo again, somewhat hesitantly.
"Good. Now, hypothetically supposing we join you, how many would be in the Fellowship then?"
"Eleven." I knew they could do it!
"Now, we can fight. Would we be outnumbering the Nazgul if we joined you?" Gimli looked annoyed, because we were right, and Boromir looked like someone just told him that his favorite dog just died. Gandalf and the hobbits, however, looked slightly interested.
"Yes."
"And don't you think this might give you a distinct advantage over any, I don't know, goblins you might encounter?"
"I suppose it might, if you are as able as you claim. However—" There was a shink of steel as Ainaelda whipped out her little rapier thing, and I pulled my strings and staff down from the tree I had been hiding in previously. Taking fastidious care, I strung it and nicked one of Legolas's arrows from his quiver.
"Care to try us?" They all looked slightly taken aback. Apparently they weren't used to girls randomly pulling out weapons and at least looking like they knew how to use them. Well, I mean, Middle Earth women were warriors too, look at Arwen and Eowyn, but honestly? We're probably the least likely-looking fighters in this world and others.
"But," said Boromir, "Elrond specifically said there should be nine companions." Nobody paid .attention to him, probably because he just muttered it.
"Lady Vinyaduriel, you first." I shrugged at Aragorn, who had spoken.
"Pick your mark." He cast around for a suitable target, and I hoped to all get out that he wouldn't pick something insanely hard. Finally, he walked out and fixed a scrap of cloth, maybe a handkercheif, to a tree about ten yards away. Good. A decent shot, not too easy, but this was about the length that they put the targets back in gym. Only complication: the cloth was a bit smaller than the bulls-eye. I smiled anyway. I could do it. I planted my feet and drew the arrow, taking a deep breath to center myself. Then, as I released the breath, I shot. As it always did before, the manuever worked. The arrow thunked into the cloth. Not dead center, but it was definetely cloth, and I hadn't accidentally killed some innocent squirrel, either. Legolas looked at me, not very impressed, but that's his problem if he thinks a sixteen-year old girl should be able to shoot on his level. At least I was still a somewhat decent shot.
Then, everyone looked at Ainaelda, who still had her sword drawn, as Pippin ran to pull my arrow out of the tree. Boromir stepped up to her and drew his sword, a forbidingly large and heavy sword. Next to his, hers looked laughably tiny. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't hurt her. They both went into the guard position, and then the sword fight that our futures most likely hinged on began.
I saw one major flaw with Ainaelda's idea: Boromir didn't fence. I have to give her credit, though, she held up admirably well. After all, maybe I'm just saying this from ignorance, but sword play and fencing seemed to have a lot in common. Even as an outsider, though, I could tell that Ainaelda's skill was nowhere near that of Boromir's. She seemed to be defending herself more than attacking him, and I knew that was bad. Occaisionally, she'd drive him back, but he'd always recover. The rest of the Fellowship and I were like spectators at a tennis match; our eyes went back and forth, back and forth, to whoever held the advantage at that moment. Then, I saw a flaw with Boromir: he was used to hard, pitched skirmishes that didn't last longer than twenty minutes or so; Ainaelda's youthful vitality and permanent caffeine high kept her energy up, and her Elven abilities kept her light on her feet, even as he was exhausting most of his.
Didn't seem to help her case much, though; even with all her skill and lightness, he eventually disarmed her and had her backed up against a tree. I started to applaud, then stopped when nobody else seemed to be. They had to let us in, they just had to! Ainaelda was good; she lasted almost ten minutes against Boromir, and he's no joke with that sword. I picked up hers where it had fallen and cleaned it, handing it back to her.
The Fellowship went into a huddle, but made no attempt to muffle the decision making process. Finally, they faced us, arms crossed and legs akimbo. Gandalf was the elected spokesperson, it seemed. He lighted his staff a little more and planted it in the ground like a Middle Earth-ish tiki torch.
"We have a reached our decision, young maids." I stood up. For the love of all that is good, why won't they just remember that we have names? Are Vinya and Ainaelda really that hard to remember? Oh yes, our futures being decided. Moving on, then Frodo piped in.
"I had a bit of say in it all, being the Ring Bearer. We feel that the decision we have made is the right one." Why do they have to take an ocean cruise to step around a frikin' rock on the frikin' beach? Then Legolas stood up. I am still in awe of him, because now I can say that he is definetely the hottest guy I know.
"It might require a bit of sacrifice, but that is what this Fellowship is about, is it not?" I nodded dreamily, blushing when he caught me gazing at him. Boromir and Gimli looked sulky, if dwarves that short and men that noble-looking could be said to look sulky. That settled it. I knew we were in. Gandalf seconded my opinions shortly thereafter.
"We have decided to let you join the Fellowship of the Ring."
Chapter 13-Catching the Fellowship
"Yrch," I whispered, instinctively reverting to Sindarin, the language I used when I panicked. It drew funny looks from the people in my class, when I flunked a test, or something and started shouting. Ainaelda jumped up and smothered the pitiful embers that were left with a double handful of dirt. It was like using a boulder to squash an ant. We hastily packed what little we had out and looked around. Then, we looked up and jumped for the nearest tree branch. We were in the middle breanches and making enough noise for five people when the people we heard coming came. Muttered voices…
"Amin sinta en fea sinoma…" Elvish. Not orcs. But they had seen our fire.
"You can't be sure it was HERE, can you?"
"Somewhere close to here. Aiya, sinoma, fire remains. Still warm! They knew we were coming, and they can't have gone far. We should have been more careful."
"I thought it was orcs, or else I would have been more careful. Come on, we probably scared them away." I looked up at Ainaelda, who was trying not to breathe. They were leaving. This was good. The mysterious duo had almost gotten out of the sight we had claimed as our own when we both relaxed. When we did so, we both slipped. I grabbed on to the branch above me, wincing as the branches we snapped fell noisily to the ground.
"Ai! Someone IS here! I was right!" They ran back, and we acted simultaneously. Without any conference beforehand, we both jumped, taking them by surprise from above.
"Yaaaaaahh!" Our somewhat disjointed battlecry resounded in the night woods as I got my attacker in a headlock and slammed his face into the ground. Suddenly, the tiny clearing flooded with light, almost blindingly so. Then, when the nice little sparkles in front of my vision cleared, I saw exactly where I was and a sight that might have been laughable, had there been different parties involved as onlookers.
Gandalf held up his staff with a small chunk of lighted crystal. I was stunned; he was the last person I expected to see, or so I thought. Then I looked down to see who Ainaelda and I had in a headlock and found I was wrong.
Legolas Greenleaf, for once seperated from his bow, which was lying about six feet to our left, was face down in the ground with me on top of him. Aragorn was in a similar position with Ainaelda, who seemed thouroughly shocked and pleased at the same time. The happiness that I was just starting to feel, however, was short-lived when Legolas suddenly stood up, as did Aragorn, trying to throw us off. Hey, I might be about half as tall as Mr. Handsome-as-all-get-out-Elf, but I hadn't been riding horses since I was five for nothing. I held on with my knees and hands until he was half way stood up in this weird piggy back position. Then, as he evidently didn't expect me to hang on, he overbalanced and fell backwards, with me under him. Hadn't we been in this position once before, with about the exact same amount of romance involved? Ainaelda snorted with laughter from her position, sprawled on the ground where Aragorn had dumped her. She wasn't the one who had ridden horses.
"Well, this is a touch redundant, don't you think?" I let go quickly, and he got up just as quickly. As this episode was going on, the rest of the Fellowship had come up. The first person I saw was Boromir. From the look on his face, we had not exactly made his day. Then Gimli, who looked like he hated me even more, if that was possible. Then the four hobbits, grinning insanely, except Frodo and Merry, who looked like they didn't care if it was Sauron himself; they wanted to be back in bed. Gandalf looked torn between unbridled amusement and grave sobreity.
"We meet again, young maids." Ainaelda gave me a hand up and I stood, brushing dirt and leaves off myself. I shrugged and answered while I was doing so.
"I guess so." Boromir strode in front, not quite as civil as Gandalf had been.
"What are you doing here? We thought you were orcs! We could have accidentally shot you, or ambushed you, and no one would have known the difference until daylight! This is one of the most foolish things you have done in a list of foolish things since your arrival here two months ago! I sincerely suggest you tone things down a bit or you may find yourself a pincushion before you can blink. We DO have two expert archers, you realize." The hobbits crowded around, and Ainaelda had seemed to become one of Sam's favorites.
"What were you doing all the way out here?" Gandalf walked up and seperated us from the hobbit's eager questioning.
"That, I think, is a question we would all like the answer to. An explanation would be appreciated." We looked at each other, shrugged, faced him again, and answered, all in unison.
"We want to come with you." I don't think they expected us to be in perfect unison like that, because they all looked sort of surprised. Pippin's surprise, however, was quickly forgotten.
"What, did you plan that while you were tracking us?"
"Out of the question," said Boromir adamantly, "completely out of the question. Do you realize how serious this is? This isn't some game you can play, then quit or try again when you lose. I will NOT have you accompany us and risk the safety of all Middle Earth." Touching speech. Like I care.
"Look, uh, I think we know that. We probably know more about the One Ring than you do! We can help you, okay? We know things you don't." Gandalf tried not to look too interested.
"Indeed? Give me an example, if you are so knowledgeable." Ainaelda, apparently, had decided that it was her turn to speak up, so she cut me off before I had a chance to say anything about crebain, or the wolves that were stalking and/or going to stalk them.
"All right. For example, did you realize at this very minute we're being watched by spies from Saruman?" Wow. Talk about great minds thinking alike. Immediately, everyone looked around, as if they could see black birds at night, Legolas nocking an arrow to his bow, and Aragorn and Boromir both half-drawing their swords.
"Psh. You can't SEE them. If you could, what kind of spies are they? But they're there, don't fret too much." What great words of encouragement I can offer when I want to, eh? Gimli quit his instinctive search, looking embarrassed that he was actually taking us seriously.
"That does not convince me in any way that you should come along. We can deal with spies and such as they come, and I doubt two teen-aged girls, Elven or no, could tip the balance of our luck any better than it already is" Ainaelda rolled her eyes.
"Please. You need all the help you can get, and I'm not being sarcastic, either. Think about it: how many Nazgul are there?" That caused a bout of raised eyebrows. Well, duh. We knew about the One Ring, why shouldn't we know about the Nazgul? It sort of comes with the territory, you know?
"Nine," answered Frodo. He'd know all too well, wouldn't he?
"Now, how many of you are there in the Fellowship?"
"Nine," answered Frodo again, somewhat hesitantly.
"Good. Now, hypothetically supposing we join you, how many would be in the Fellowship then?"
"Eleven." I knew they could do it!
"Now, we can fight. Would we be outnumbering the Nazgul if we joined you?" Gimli looked annoyed, because we were right, and Boromir looked like someone just told him that his favorite dog just died. Gandalf and the hobbits, however, looked slightly interested.
"Yes."
"And don't you think this might give you a distinct advantage over any, I don't know, goblins you might encounter?"
"I suppose it might, if you are as able as you claim. However—" There was a shink of steel as Ainaelda whipped out her little rapier thing, and I pulled my strings and staff down from the tree I had been hiding in previously. Taking fastidious care, I strung it and nicked one of Legolas's arrows from his quiver.
"Care to try us?" They all looked slightly taken aback. Apparently they weren't used to girls randomly pulling out weapons and at least looking like they knew how to use them. Well, I mean, Middle Earth women were warriors too, look at Arwen and Eowyn, but honestly? We're probably the least likely-looking fighters in this world and others.
"But," said Boromir, "Elrond specifically said there should be nine companions." Nobody paid .attention to him, probably because he just muttered it.
"Lady Vinyaduriel, you first." I shrugged at Aragorn, who had spoken.
"Pick your mark." He cast around for a suitable target, and I hoped to all get out that he wouldn't pick something insanely hard. Finally, he walked out and fixed a scrap of cloth, maybe a handkercheif, to a tree about ten yards away. Good. A decent shot, not too easy, but this was about the length that they put the targets back in gym. Only complication: the cloth was a bit smaller than the bulls-eye. I smiled anyway. I could do it. I planted my feet and drew the arrow, taking a deep breath to center myself. Then, as I released the breath, I shot. As it always did before, the manuever worked. The arrow thunked into the cloth. Not dead center, but it was definetely cloth, and I hadn't accidentally killed some innocent squirrel, either. Legolas looked at me, not very impressed, but that's his problem if he thinks a sixteen-year old girl should be able to shoot on his level. At least I was still a somewhat decent shot.
Then, everyone looked at Ainaelda, who still had her sword drawn, as Pippin ran to pull my arrow out of the tree. Boromir stepped up to her and drew his sword, a forbidingly large and heavy sword. Next to his, hers looked laughably tiny. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't hurt her. They both went into the guard position, and then the sword fight that our futures most likely hinged on began.
I saw one major flaw with Ainaelda's idea: Boromir didn't fence. I have to give her credit, though, she held up admirably well. After all, maybe I'm just saying this from ignorance, but sword play and fencing seemed to have a lot in common. Even as an outsider, though, I could tell that Ainaelda's skill was nowhere near that of Boromir's. She seemed to be defending herself more than attacking him, and I knew that was bad. Occaisionally, she'd drive him back, but he'd always recover. The rest of the Fellowship and I were like spectators at a tennis match; our eyes went back and forth, back and forth, to whoever held the advantage at that moment. Then, I saw a flaw with Boromir: he was used to hard, pitched skirmishes that didn't last longer than twenty minutes or so; Ainaelda's youthful vitality and permanent caffeine high kept her energy up, and her Elven abilities kept her light on her feet, even as he was exhausting most of his.
Didn't seem to help her case much, though; even with all her skill and lightness, he eventually disarmed her and had her backed up against a tree. I started to applaud, then stopped when nobody else seemed to be. They had to let us in, they just had to! Ainaelda was good; she lasted almost ten minutes against Boromir, and he's no joke with that sword. I picked up hers where it had fallen and cleaned it, handing it back to her.
The Fellowship went into a huddle, but made no attempt to muffle the decision making process. Finally, they faced us, arms crossed and legs akimbo. Gandalf was the elected spokesperson, it seemed. He lighted his staff a little more and planted it in the ground like a Middle Earth-ish tiki torch.
"We have a reached our decision, young maids." I stood up. For the love of all that is good, why won't they just remember that we have names? Are Vinya and Ainaelda really that hard to remember? Oh yes, our futures being decided. Moving on, then Frodo piped in.
"I had a bit of say in it all, being the Ring Bearer. We feel that the decision we have made is the right one." Why do they have to take an ocean cruise to step around a frikin' rock on the frikin' beach? Then Legolas stood up. I am still in awe of him, because now I can say that he is definetely the hottest guy I know.
"It might require a bit of sacrifice, but that is what this Fellowship is about, is it not?" I nodded dreamily, blushing when he caught me gazing at him. Boromir and Gimli looked sulky, if dwarves that short and men that noble-looking could be said to look sulky. That settled it. I knew we were in. Gandalf seconded my opinions shortly thereafter.
"We have decided to let you join the Fellowship of the Ring."