Same disclaimer - LotR is not mine.
Before I present you with the next chapter I would like to say a few things. Actually I just want to ask you, my lovely readers, to do two things for me, in return for my modest little story. Ok here goes:
1) Suspend some belief and doubt. I don't know how some things in this story happen. It doesn't matter how they happen. If they didn't happen there would be no story so I put them in there and I don't try to explain them. To quote the brilliant Master Tolkien, "And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)." So I defer to his mastery and prefer to keep some things a mystery. (That was from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 144, dated 1954)
2) Keep reading. This may be a slightly controversial chapter. Keep reading. Things are not always as they seem. Keep reading.
That being said here is my little ditty of a chapter. Read. Enjoy. Review.
When Carrie woke up, she was lying face down on the bank of a river. She blinked a few times in the bright sunlight. She rolled over and sat up and immediately regretted it as pain came to her head. She rubbed her eyes and tried to remember how she got there. It was all fuzzy. She remembered walking to a tree and...
"Trevor!" she shouted "TREVOR! Are you THERE?" There was no answer. She took a deep breath. The air smelled weird. Clean. She crawled over to the water and splashed herself in the face, trying to wake herself all the way up and clear her head. She examined her body. She had a few cuts on her hands, her blouse and her stockings were ripped and her skirt was all muddy, but other than that, she appeared to be uninjured.
'Uninjured,' she thought, 'and lost.' Just then she heard a noise in the distance – a clomping noise. Was that horses? Where was she?
Sure enough, two horses came galloping over the hill. When their riders saw Carrie, they pulled the horses to a stop. Carrie looked up at the riders, a man and a woman. Both were beautiful. Both were wearing cloaks and had long flowing brown hair.
Both had pointed ears.
"Of course!" Carrie exclaimed. "I fell asleep when the movie went in! I'm dreaming!" She breathed a sigh of relief.
"I can assure you, milady, that you are not dreaming. And you are not safe here. What is your name? And how did you come to be out here all by yourself with no pack, no horse, and no escort?"
"Please sir, my name is Carrie Waters and I don't know how I got here." 'Since this is a dream, I might as well play along.', Carrie thought. 'It beats torturing myself, watching that movie.' "Would you be so kind as to take me with you to a nearby town where I may find food and shelter?" She giggled to herself.
The elves looked at her. Then the woman turned to the man and said something that Carrie did not understand. He answered back in the same language. Carrie stood there, dumbfounded. She had never had a dream before where people spoke in different languages. 'I must be hearing the elvish in the movie,' she realized. 'That must be it'.
The man turned and addressed her. "My lady Carrie. We are on our way to Rivendell. From what I understand, you are a friend to the elves, and Lord Elrond will wish to speak with you."
Carrie smiled. And then her heart dropped as she thought of something. What if Legolas appeared in her dream? She shut her eyes. No. She couldn't dream about him; that would be too painful. She knew the movie was a bad idea.
"Excuse me, sir." Carrie faltered. "Um. Will Master...I mean, what are the chances that... um...."
"What are you trying to say child?"
Carrie took a deep breath. "Is Legolas going to be at Rivendell?" she blurted out.
The two elves exchanged glances. 'What was that about?' Carrie wondered. The woman looked back at Carrie.
"My dear child, Legolas departed Rivendell last December. I am sorry." They misunderstood the intent of her question. "Come. You can ride in front of me to Rivendell."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carrie had never been so uncomfortable in her life. She had never ridden on a horse before, and since elves apparently rode without a saddle, she had absolutely no padding. 'I'm never going to be able to sit down again' she thought. Aside from the pain in her bottom, she did have to admit that the ride was amazing. The landscape was beautiful. Just as she thought how vivid this dream was she saw something that took her breath away. The woman behind her heard her gasp.
"Rivendell, milady. Our journey is over."
'Rivendell,' thought Carrie. 'This is too unreal.'
If Rivendell was a surprise to Carrie, Lord Elrond was even more so. She would have expected in her dream for him to look like the actor who played him, but he was so much more. 'He's so...magnificent' was the only word she could come up with. All of them, all of the elves around him were. They were so beautiful, and flawless, and remarkable and ... and ... she couldn't come up with words.
She stood there in awe for a minute before she said, "This can't be a dream. It's more beautiful than anything I could possibly dream of." But how could it not be a dream? How could it be anything else?
"I assure you, milady, this is no dream." Carrie looked at him.
"It's just so unreal." And then it hit her. How doubtful she was of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli when she met them. Would these elves be any more likely to believe her story? No. She was going to keep her cards close to the vest, so to speak. "I mean," she continued, "I never saw anything as beautiful as Rivendell before."
She had to get to, to talk to, one of the three men. But, she thought, if it was when she believed it to be, they would be otherwise occupied, and once they weren't, she would have no idea where to find them. Aragorn she believed would be in Gondor, and Legolas and Gimli...well, she couldn't remember what happened to them. But if she could find out when it was, she might be able to figure out where they were and get to them.
'Get to them how, exactly, Carrie?' she asked herself. 'You can't ride a horse. Your fighting skills are limited to the Karate you took for two years when you were six. Not to mention you have only the most limited knowledge of this place.' Well, she'd figure something out. "I appreciate your hospitality, Lord Elrond, but I must be going. I am on an errand. There are three people that I must find; a man, and elf and a dwarf. I would appreciate it if you could assist me in finding and getting to them."
Elrond stiffened. "You would be talking about Lord Aragorn, Master Legolas and Master Gimli?"
"Why yes, sir, I would. You wouldn't perhaps know their whereabouts."
"They are not in Rivendell."
"Yes, I know." Carrie sighed. Their quest was secret, wasn't it? Why would he tell her anything, unless.... "But would you know, have they passed through Moria yet?" Elrond's eyes grew wide. "Have they reached Lothlorien?"
"What is your name?" Elrond demanded.
"Carrie Waters." Elrond's eyes got even wider. He turned to the other elves in the room. "Please let us have a moment." They left, closing the door behind them. Elrond turned back to her.
"Carrie Waters," he began sternly, but then his expression softened. "I am not going to ask how you know what you know. I am only going to ask that you be discreet about who you share your knowledge with." He raised an eyebrow at her. Carrie slowly nodded. "Now, I assume that you have met these three of whom you speak." He waited for Carrie to answer.
"Yes. And I really must..."
"Patience, milady. Before we proceed further, allow me to tell you a story about Lord Aragorn, one that most people do not know."
'What has this got to do with anything?' Carrie thought, but she let him continue without interruption.
"About 30 years ago, when Aragorn was first told of his fate, of his destiny, he was quite unwilling to accept it, as you might imagine. So he left Rivendell and bore a child with a woman whom he had fallen in love with, who he knew he should not be with."
"Aragorn has a kid?" Whoa...that wasn't in the books. "Was he married?"
"Married? He was bound to this woman, yes. And yes, they had a child together, a girl. They named her Melanna." Carrie gasped. Elrond ignored her and continued. "But Aragorn's path was not to be with this woman. One day when he was out hunting, a party of wild men broke into their home and slaughtered her and took the child. He came back to Rivendell, saddened by his immense loss, and knowing that his destiny was to be his whether he chose it or not. We rode out, but never found the men or his child." Elrond took a breath.
"While Aragorn was here, before the fellowship set out, he had a dream. In his dream he saw a woman who could only be Melanna. He saw her now as a grown woman, and he saw a strange place where she was living. He saw her vividly in his dream, and described it in great detail to me. He said he dreamed of speaking to her in this strange place, and of seeing her walk through the gardens of Rivendell. He described everything about her, her hair," he looked at Carrie's hair, "her eyes," looked at her eyes, "and her garments." He eyed Carrie's ripped stockings, her short skirt and her soiled, ripped blouse.
Carrie eyed him warily, "What are you getting at?"
"You know what I'm 'getting at', milady."
They regarded each other for a moment. "Are you...saying...that I'm...I'm...?" Carrie stuttered.
"You are the daughter of kings."
"But how, but no, but..." Carrie's mind reeled. All she wanted was to wake up and go back home where things were normal. "Why are you telling me this. It's a lie."
Elrond smiled patiently at her. "The name Melanna was familiar to you when I said it. Why?"
"It's my..." Carrie wondered how to explain screen name. "...alias back home, used when I don't want someone to know my true identity." She took a breath. Now she knew this was a dream, and she wished it would end soon. "But that doesn't mean anything!"
Elrond raised an eyebrow at her denial. "It is your birth name. It is Elvish. It means 'love gift'."
Carrie stuck her chin up stubbornly and challenged him. "It's my grandmother's name. It is Italian. It means 'little apple'."
Elrond regarded her thoughtfully for a moment and ignored her last comment. "Milady, there are many words in the elvish language. It is not a coincidence that you use the one that was the name given to you at birth. And besides," he picked up her right hand were it was sitting on her lap, "there is the matter of this." He held her hand in his, looking down at it. She looked down at her hand, at the ring on her index finger."
"My mother's ring?" Elrond looked at her, startled. "My mother gave it to me when I turned 16. Said it had been in the family for years."
"It is your mother's ring. You wore it on a chain around your neck as a child. Aragorn knew that if he ever found his daughter alive, it would be by this ring that he could identify her."
Carrie stood up. "Seriously. What is with you people and rings?" She shook her head to try to make some sense of everything. "It's not like I was adopted!" Carrie was beginning to get angry. "If what you are saying is true, then my parents are not really my parents?"
"The people who raised you are still the people that loved you throughout your childhood, and are therefore still your parents." Elrond comforted her. "But you are Aragorn's daughter. You are Melanna."
"No!" Carrie couldn't take it. "No! I don't believe you. How do I know you're telling the truth."
Elrond calmly got up. "Follow me." He turned and walked out the door. Carrie followed him through a hallway and down some stairs. At the end of another hallway they entered a room that looked like a library. Elrond pulled a large book off of a shelf and started flipping through its pages. Carrie recognized the writing as being elvish, and there were pictures of swords and amulets and the sort. Elrond stopped turning pages. There on the page of this book in Rivendell, in Middle Earth, was a drawn picture of the ring that Carrie had been wearing since she was 16.
Thank you again to my wonderful reviewers. It really means a lot. I know that's said often, but it really really does.
alice: Patience, young padawan. Patience and you will be rewarded... Promise!
nap-003: The answers will all be revealed in time...
PsychoPixie: We likes cliffhangers, we does, precious. (Shoot, there it goes again!)
rain137: I'm glad you think my story was cool, but go easy on your brother. Just trust me on this one. My "little brother" is now 6'. Me? I'm pushing 5'6. Trust me. It will happen. And trust me. He will remember. Not telling you what to do, just warning!
Empress Guinevere Sparrow: Like we saids before, we likes the cliffies. We does!