I still own nothing of the Lotr trilogy. Additions to the list of owned character: Grandle and Nessaruvar. I do apologize for all the breaks in this chapter and for taking so long to post.
At last, there stood Cánodôr at the end of his peregrination before the rubble that was once the great tower of Barad-Dûr. Looking right the elv could see the remains of the once threatening mount doom, now diminished into sleeping dormancy by both the destruction of the ring and the sands of time.
"So it begins." He said as he pulled a thick black book from his robes. He flipped the pages gently for unlike him, time had aged them for over a thousand years. The book was written in elvish script and language and having found the information he needed he proclaimed in a voice that shook the very ground he stood upon: "Coiva! Oranfumé ar quat i cemen as lya moinaya! Ortanë sí, ar palu-ormë acca i ambar-metta! Ortanë!" Awake! Sleeping mountain and fill the earth with your once renowned fire! Arise now, and spread your wrath to the ends of the Earth! Arise! As each syllable sprang from his lips the mountain stirred. Until at last the mountain rekindled its inner fire and sent walls of liquid flame into the air. "Endórë ná nin!" "Middle Earth is mine!"
* * * * *
The wind played its whistling melodies with the forest as leaves fluttered and ferns danced to the tune. Hilei rode among the trees and while under cover of darkness dismounted and decided to make camp where she stood. "Fumé Lintálwi." "Rest your eyes Lintálwi" She produced a mat that was tied to her horse's saddle and placed it upon the ground. Descending to her knees, she then laid upon it, attempting to rest before she searched the forest one last time for Isilmë. The trees lulled Hilei to sleep despite her troubled mind, just beyond the borders of Bree.
* * * * *
Wind rushed in the door of the Prancing Pony, assaulting Violets eyes and chilling both she and Milo to the bone. "Who's there?" she cried. The figured said nothing and bowed his head as he stepped inside. His lofty walking stick (at least that's what the hobbits presumed it to be) stood by his side in his left hand. Violet stepped back and plastered herself to the check-in counter. Milo, mouth still full of food, lowered himself off his chair and approached the towering figure.
"On't toech her, Ew ting!" as he said this little bits of his meal came shooting from his lips like a dinner themed firework show.
"I knew hobbits could be rather silly, but to this extent I knew not." The stranger said with an aged voice from under his hood. "I do hope that you don't treat all your customers with this kind of courtesy."
"You just startled us a bit, it being so late and all. We were just having a bite to eat before we go to bed." Said Violet from the front of the counter.
Milo swallowed. "Who are you anyway?"
"So you don't have a speech impediment." Joked the stranger while he pulled his hood away. "Well if you must know I am Nessaruvar, but do call me Saruvar it flows much better, and I'm in need of some temporary living quarters, that is of course if you have any vacancies." Nessaruvar had the face of someone in their late fifties and a grey beard that came down to his sternum.
Violet made her way around the desk to check if they had any rooms available. "We have one. It's on the next floor up though, is that ok?"
"Stairs and heights frighten me not. But I have seen lesser things startle others." Said Saruvar as he retrieved from his pocket a small sac of what the hobbits knew to be coins. Saruvar then asked her of the cost, Violet gave him a certain monetary amount, and he then passed her a few gold coins and signed a piece of parchment that sealed the deal.
"Ok, here's the key for room twelve." Violet said as she passed him the notched metal twig. "Would you like anything to eat?" she asked politely, for she was rather tired at that very moment.
"No I'm quite alright, thank you." He said as he made his way towards the stairs. Milo and Violet breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Just another odd customer, I suppose." Milo said after the man had passed out of sight.
"Never a dull moment." Violet agreed.
Later, the next morning.
"Wake up, Milo." Violets voice seemed distant. Milo stirred in his bed and threw the sheets over his head. He could feel her hand prod him around the shoulders. "Its morning, you need to get up." An air of impatience now accompanied her words. "Get up!" as she shoved him again.
"Does it have to be morning?" he questioned from underneath the sheets. Pulling the sheets down from over his head and revealing only his nose upwards. She gave him a strange look that alleged that she thought him insane; however the look subsided and she discounted his lunacy for a still sleeping mind.
"We have to go restock some things. Grandle specified poultry, pork, cabbage, lettuce, and mushrooms. So you need to get ready." She said helping him out from under the covers. Milo sat upright in his cot, scratched behind his ears and thought of the delicious mushrooms of the night before.
"Thanks for the meal last night." Milo said with certain amount of longing for he loved mushrooms nearly as much as he loved Violet.
"You're most certainly welcome." She replied then laughed thinking to herself.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"You could sleep threw an invasion of orcs. I purposefully made as much noise as possible, trying to rouse you, and you didn't even stir." She said beginning to act out the things that she had done, stomping loudly and beating her pillows on her bed at the other side of the room. "I even yelled 'Breakfast Time' and you still did nothing."
She now had Milo's full attention. "I didn't miss it… did I?" his face full of fret.
"No, at the time I was just trying to wake you." She confessed. "Besides, we don't have anything decent to eat."
Milo understood the severity of the situation as his stomach gave a tremendous lurch. "We'll, we must be off then."
Later that day.
"I'd like three pounds of your pork cutlets and four chickens." Violet relayed to the shopkeeper. In the past the ordering of meats was Milo's job, which he took great joy in doing for he would often get carried away with the order, consequently they would bring back far to much for Grandle to afford. Milo had been called on this several times and each time Violet would defend her friend, verbally fencing with their employer so Milo could stay. He was off getting spoons for the kitchen, hopefully.
The man returned with her order and having paid Violet made her way down the road to where Milo was supposed to meet her. I do hope he got wooden-handled ones instead of those all metal things that always end up burning my hands. The cages were half her size so Violet looked rather absurd as she toted the chicken cages at her sides, balancing the pork on her right. After much wobbling she came to the town square where she was to find Milo. Where is he? She thought as she skimmed the crowd with her gaze.
Just at that very moment, Milo was rapping the deal he had just made with the silverware salesman. Three wooden handled spoons for just under their set budget. Milo thanked the gentlemen and began looking for Violet. Where could she be? He swayed from side to side, peering around people so that he may see his beloved. Lo! Across the way standing next to elm was the hobbit he had been searching for. Violet's vibrant crimson locks fluttered with the passing wind as her light freckles shone like butterscotch constellations painted across her features in the illuminated menagerie that was Bree at Mid-day. She seemed taller to Milo and almost human at this distance and in the current lighting conditions. Milo strode over to Violet with the brightest of smiles upon his face.
The crowd parted just as Milo came into Violets view. He wore a searching look upon his face and he turned this way and that, his eyes going in many a direction to seek what was just across the cobblestone square. Then his twin orbs fell upon Violet and she felt his encompassing stare that was fraught with earnest admiration. A smile crept to the borders of his cheeks and into the valley-like laugh lines built in his face. Milo walked over to where Violet stood.
Milo's hands were wrapped around a rather oddly shaped package which he passed to Violet as soon as stood in her presence and his eyes filled with glee. She took the parcel and unfolded the edges, revealing the three spoons positioned one next to the other. "These are just the one's I wanted! Thanks Milo!" she exclaimed.
"I hoped you'd like them. That salesman was rather hard to find." Milo said as he examined the chicken cages and the wrapped pork cutlets. He took two of the cages and the pork and spoke these words unto her: "Shall we go back now?"
Her lips tightened and went to one side in thought. After a moment of this she answered. "Just to drop off the chickens, the pork, and the spoons. Oh, did you get the mushrooms, lettuce, and cabbage?" Milo pointed to a large lump in his coat.
"Don't worry they're wrapped."
"Then I guess we're off then." She said as they made their way towards the Prancing Pony.
After they had delivered their grocery items to Grandle at the Prancing Pony; he gave them permission to spend what was left of the day as they pleased.
Two hobbits could be seen roaming the forest surrounding Bree and as they made they're way to the river were they normally swam they sang a jovial song of the ways of the trees and the air of the forest in springtime. Milo stopped his chorus and asked the red headed lass accompanying him for a dance. Violet acquiesced to his request and they continued waltzing among the wood. The forest was filled with their laughter and he paused again. "Thank you for that wonderful dance." He said bursting with laughter, it had been such a fine day for Milo was with Violet in their favorite place in the world and all was right with the hobbits uneventful lives. Until Milo took a step back and tumbled down a hill he had not noticed.
Once he had finished his rolling he picked himself up, dusted the leaves from his jacket, and called for Violet to descend the miniature crag. He had fallen onto the path they normally took to the river. Violet gracefully slid down the small cliff, hanging onto trees as she went down. Her hands graced the bark of a nearby fur and she stopped suddenly in front of Milo. Frozen to the spot, she stared past him to a tree that stood just behind him. "What?" Milo asked her for he did not see what she saw. She pointed in answer to his question and Milo followed the direction of her index digit.
An arrow of the dirtiest nature lay embedded in the pine's trunk. Closer observation revealed that the arrow was covered in blood. The hobbits moved their eyes down the trunk until they came upon the obvious corpse of an orc. Violet gasped and Milo stood rooted to the spot. Where one orc was there were bound to be many others.
"We should go back and tell Grandle about this, he'll know what to do." Violet whispered. The echoing silence soon broke into horse whinnying and orc screams. They took one look at each other and they both ran up the path back towards Bree. Cutting through the woods so they could get out of the forest quickly they happened to run around a tree and ran into something that made them both fall off their feet. Their eyes looked up horrified for the something was actually a someone, and this tall figure bore a pair of jet black eyes that pierced the hobbits soles, terrifying them to the core.