Chapter 1: strange beginnings
I do not own Lord of the Rings or any of the characters talked about in the books. This is purely fictional. However, all other characters are mine. Enjoy! Chapter 2 coming when I get some reviews.
To be rejected from heaven is a hard thing to face and the regrets are much more painful but to be pulled from it?
I did not know how long I had been asleep nor how I got to be asleep. It had seemed centuries since I had last breathed the cool air. Like the first time a child tastes chocolate, it was sweet and welcomed.
My vision turned red as a yellow light poured across my sleeping form. That was daylight surely. That sound! Birds…
Dark green eyes flew open, barely giving my pupils time to adjust. What?
The bones of my brittle body creaked and groaned with every movement like un-oiled hinges. Stiff and sore were my muscles. I fell.
A sofa, a musty, red sofa with ragged blankets and moth eaten pillows. How could that be? The décor of the small house left much to be desired: mostly old wood panels, stools, piles of leather bound books, and odd cushions. The house smelled of pine trees and smoke. Pine trees! A child' teddy bear lay still at my feet. The look on his tiny face brought a smile to my face. That does feel strange. Smiling.
"Ah, good to see you awake."
Startled my head snapped up to see an elderly, bald man cloaked in red step in through the small door. Why can I not find the words to speak? "I'm sorry I disturbed you. Please, relax." The gentleman chuckled and quietly took a seat on a stool opening a bag of what looked like mushrooms. Crazy hippy.
Raising my trembling hands once again to my head, I felt my hair and brought it in front of my face Still auburn…I felt my eyebrows, my ears, down my nose, my lips, I could feel my teeth. I looked to have all limbs intact… but my clothes. Holy fishcakes, I'm naked!
Save for a gray blanket I had no clothes to speak of. Shifting my focus to the busied man once more I was slowly overcoming the shock.
"Pardon me Mr. Hippy M-"
"Belkin."
Slightly taken back, I gritted my teeth and continued.
"Mr. Belkin then, where do you suppose my clothes are?" Furrowing my brows I came up with a better question, "While we're at it where do you suppose I am?"
The man did not even look up from where he was now crushing the mushrooms into fragments, perhaps for some kind of powder.
"You didn't have any to begin with and you're in my house."
Well I should hope this is your house, psycho yo- no clothes?!
"That's absurd! I was not born yesterday, sir, and I can assure you I do not run around naked… most of the time…I think…" Do I?
He placed the now thoroughly beaten mushrooms on a counter top and turned to face me fully. I watched him warily. I'd seen 20/20 enough times to know not to trust bald men with mushrooms.
"I'm really not quite sure how to tell you," He petered off and seemed to be mumbling to himself like he had misplaced his spectacles, "The book had no advice for what to do once it worked…"
"Once what worked?" Well that was a stupid question.
"What do you remember my child?" Once again he focused in on me, deep brown eyes appearing almost black, maybe bloodshot.
What did I remember? White, lots of white, and there were days, many days, floating, peaceful not moving forward nor back through time and space until…
Realization broke like a new dawn over the horizon. I died.
"You…you…you did something you had to!" Stumbling to my feet, I was unsure of what to do, falling back down I realized I could not yet walk. Glaring at my feet in frustration I willed them to move.
"I can assure you I did not kill you if that's what you're thinking."
My attention turned sharply back to him. He continued in a calm manner, almost patronizing. "I merely cast a spell for the right character and the Heavens believe that person is you, Hope."
"Hope who? What?" I guess I wasn't wrong about the smoke. Spell?
"That is your name." He smiled slightly, kind of looked like a cross between a lizard and Joan Rivers.
"No," I laughed a little uneasily "No, one thing I do know is my name and that is…that is…Josie, that's my name." Hey I remembered!
"You're not the same person. You have some attributes of Josie but you are not completely her anymore."
Narrowing my eyes, I looked around the room trying to think of something that made sense. The thoughts raced through my head and contradicted one another. I died, I'm dead, or was dead. I'm not me I'm something else, I think. I breathe but yet I do not feel. How can one be alive without feeling? How did I die? Where did I come from? He brought me here, as "the right character" for what some kind of drug growing plantation or some ghastly experiment? Am I supposed to know him? What is that feeling, hunger…I'm hungry. Ha ha! I'm hungry, wow.
A cold hand clasped down on my shoulder and I awoke from my reverie to find that I was now nose to nose with Belkin.
"I wish I had the time to explain fully but I do not and as it is a large explanation it could take many years, you will discover the rest in time," I moved to talk but he silenced me with a cold look and stood once more, leaving me on the floor and walked to the fireplace. "I brought you here to complete a task."
I only saw his red-clothed back, and the way his body contracted and expanded with every breath, most certainly a sign that he is not dead. Hopefully this task is like delivering pizza or something.
When he turned back he held a long dark coloured object, a sheathed sword. It was truly beautiful. I did not realize that it was in my hand until I felt the cool metal as I gripped the jewel encrusted handle. Words, there were words engraved into the metal. "Arcanum"
"It will serve you well."
Attention now ripped from the shiny weapon I gazed at him, eyes wide with surprise.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa let's stop this wagon before it goes any further buddy." Confusion graced Belkin's well-worn features. "What I mean is, what exactly do you expect me to do with this thing? You can't possibly expect me to use it, I mean maybe use it to decorate a mantle piece or-"
"Silence! I do not have time for your questions." I watched intently as he regrouped before continuing his tale of insanity. "You will take the child to safety in the mountains."
Child, what child?
As if on queue a little girl bounded in through the open door. Golden curls flowing steadily down her back, only she was donning a most unusual outfit for someone no more than 6. Leather, a leather riding outfit? A tunic? Is that what they call it?
Turning the small child smiled at me but made no sound.
"Arcana, this is Hope." Waving shyly she moved towards the teddy and picked it up, placing it in a tiny rucksack on her back. She had the bluest eyes. "Arcana is a mute." Addressing me, Belkin smiled kindly at the child and touched her head.
This was getting more ridiculous by the minute.
"You resurrected me, or someone like me who has my body, which is lunacy by the way, to become the naked warrior from the babysitter club?" I sensed my incredulous look perturbed him. Calmly I sat and stared long and hard at the little girl who was now happily playing with a ring on her left hand.
As if to answer my question, he tossed a pair of knee high leather boots, black pants, and an earthy coloured corset type tunic at me as well as a heavy rucksack. Gathering up my things, I pulled the blanket tighter and finally regained some composure.
"Go now, both of you." Before I had a chance to protest I was out in the woods with little Miss Shirley Temple.
"Ok what did he say? Mountains, something about mountains right, mountains are good." Surveying the area I realized that the woods were too dark and the trees were high enough to block any view.
Almost as an after thought I yelled back at the closed door:
"Which way did you say?!"
Just like delivering pizza