An: Uh...yeah... I don't think I have anything important to say. Again, if it
takes me a while to update, just bear with me. I'm having computer issues.
But I promise I won't leave you hanging! So...enjoy!
Thanx a Bunch for Reading, Rusty
Ps-Oh, and the thing with the feather in this chappie doesn't have any factual bases, but since there is nothing to say it's not true then it could happen. You'll understand when you read it.
Chapter Fifteen: The Feather
They soon reached the tower and followed its marble steps to the door. Inside, Rina spotted the same man that had taken them to Gandalf last night. "Excuse me sir, but we're looking for Gandalf. We are supposed to meet him in a few minutes."
He appeared extremely angry, but as he looked around at us all and noticed Legolas, he became extremely embarrassed. "Oh, Prince Legolas! So good to see you here! Right this way, my Lord. I will take you to Gandalf the White."
Rina snorted. He probably wouldn't have listened to her is Legolas had not been there. Her foul mood was not at all lightened by sleep and certainly not by the ignorance of this man. She stomped off after her companions.
They followed the same way that Ben and Rina had the previous night. When they reached the doors they found them already open with Gandalf waiting patiently, seated at a small table. The man left them standing in a doorway.
"Come in, come in," Gandalf said welcomingly.
The party made their way into the room. Gandalf must have known that Aliana and Legolas would be here as well because instead of just two chairs there were four. Rina and Aliana took their seats. Ben began to count on his fingers, having noticed the four chairs and five people.
"Let me go get another chair," Gandalf suggested.
Legolas shook his head. "It's fine, Gandalf. I'll stand."
"Thank you Legolas. My, it's been such a long time since I've seen you. Not for a good many years I'll wager."
"It has been a while," the elf agreed.
"This is all nice and sweet, but I have things to do!" Rina interrupted rather rudely.
"Of course," Gandalf began. "Now, as I've said yesterday, I cannot help you get back to you're world, someone else can. Someone in this very room I might add."
Faces instantly began shifting from person to person. Rina hoped beyond all hope that it wasn't Aliana. Ben just hoped that Rina wouldn't start screaming in rage again at Gandalf's riddles. Maleena wasn't sure what to think of all this.
"Excuse me, but would someone please tell me what's going on? Ever since you four arrived in Lothlorien things have gotten so confusing. I don't know what's going on!"
Aliana, being the one who got stuck here in the first place, felt it her duty to recount the story of her arrival in Mirkwood, her journey with Legolas and Ivellios, her meeting up with Ben an Rina and how they were from her world, and bits and pieces about everything between she and Legolas.
When her tale was finished, Maleena nodded. "It all fits into place now. Why you and Rina seem to argue so much, why you all needed to get to Isengard, and a little bit of why you detested Legolas so much. The one thing I don't understand is this: How did you go from hating him so much to practically falling all over him at the festival in less than a day?"
At this Rina spoke up. "All I can say about that is it had something to do with the spark. The day they kissed there was a spark. You remember, don't you Ben?"
"Uh... I don't know..."
Gandalf smiled. "It's no wonder none of you understand. Middle Earth isn't like your home, Rina. There are things here that do not exist in your world. Things like magic."
"What do you mean?" Rina inquired.
"Legolas was given an eagle feather by Gwahir, the great lord of the eagles. That in itself is a rare, magical occurrence for Gwahir never bestowed this upon me. I who saved his life and become a good friend of his. He must have felt that Legolas and Aliana were in need of some...help. The feather has the ability to grant wishes, but not in the way you would think. It simply aids its keeper with various things, some being serious whereas some are minor. In this case it helped him gain Aliana's love and trust. The spark was merely a speck of the magic that had escaped its confines, if that makes any sense at all."
Maleena and Legolas seemed to understand more than the others. It was all becoming perfectly clear, at least to Legolas. "So that's why I was able to sense Aliana when she was in danger?"
"Exactly," Gandalf said.
"Wait, how did you know about all that?" Rina asked suddenly.
"Let's just say, I have friends in many places." (AN: If you don't know how he knows think really hard. It's pretty much irrelevant, but if you want to know and can't figure it out, e-mail me and I shall explain it to you. My only clue is a mirror cough cough and a ring cough cough Does that help?)
Knowing her very well by now, Legolas had figured that Aliana could not sit through this meeting without having some sudden outburst of anger and he was right. As this all became clear to her, her face began to fume with anger. Ben bit his lip and waited for the explosion. Rina rolled her eyes in frustration. But it would seem that Gandalf had not noticed for he sat in his chair perfectly calm with no recognition of her foul temper.
In an instant she exploded with rage. "So, you're telling me that everything I've felt wasn't even my own choice and will to feel at all?! It was the work of some evil black magic beyond my control?! What sort of place is this with things so powerful they stop you from feeling and expressing your own emotions!?"
Gandalf looked at her with emotionless eyes hidden under his baggy brow. "The feather cannot create these emotions for you. They must be there in the first place for it to even be able to make you feel them."
"But it is my choice whether or not I wish to feel them at all! If I chose not to love my whole life it would be wrong for this feather to take away my free will and not allow me to make my own decisions!"
"You have the ability to fight back your emotions, Aliana and you chose not to. The feather merely gave you a boost towards this emotion, but you had every option of not allowing yourself to be pulled it."
"But then it might have found some other way to 'boost' me! If its powers are as mighty as you say they are then how does one stop such a great thing?! I certainly do not have the power to defend myself from such evil magic as this!"
"It's not an evil thing, Aliana. The feather does not change things without a reason. Look how happy you've become now that you've let down the wall around your heart and given into these emotions that you felt from the start. How can you call that evil?"
For once in her life Aliana seemed unable to continue her argument. Her head hung down in sorrow and defeat. Ben wasn't sure what he was more shocked about. To hear Gandalf talk about love and emotions or to see Aliana back down from a dispute.
Gandalf looked away from Aliana and turned to Maleena. "Do you understand what's been going on now?"
She nodded. "So you are leaving?" she asked, looking towards Rina and Ben and then to Aliana. "You're going back to your world?"
"Yes," said Rina. "I am leaving."
Ben nodded his head but seemed somewhat unsure. Aliana did nothing nor did she make any notion of having heard Maleena.
"Back to our original topic," Gandalf began. "The only way for you to get back to your world is by use of this feather. There is a portal in the very bottom room of this tower. To activate it you need only to place the feather in its proper place and it will take you wherever you wish to go."
"Anywhere?!" Ben cried. "You mean there are other worlds out there?!"
"Of course!" Gandalf said, rather snippety. "You didn't think yours was the only world out there did you?!"
Ben seemed somewhat disheartened. Only the second day and already his favorite person in the Lord of the Rings seemed to hate him. And he was so looking forward to meeting him. But perhaps it wasn't that he disliked him. Maybe Ben was like his new Pippin!
That thought seemed to brighten his spirits a bit. "So I could go anywhere I wanted?!"
Gandalf shook his head. "Yes, but there will be no going back once you've gotten there. For some reason the portal only has the ability to take you one way. So once you go home to your world, there will be no coming back."
"Darn..." Ben muttered. "It would be so cool to travel to different worlds. Like Sora in Kingdom Hearts!"
"Ben, Sora's world was destroyed!" Rina pointed out rudely. "Is that what you want?!"
"No, I just think it would be cool to travel" Ben cried defensively. "That doesn't mean I want to destroy my world!"
"Rina, I think you need to chill," Aliana cut in. "Not everything everybody says is a threat to you! Nor is it meant in a mean way! Ben was just being adventurous! What's happened to you lately?! You've been all moody!"
Rina sighed. "I'm sorry you guys. I guess I'm just really homesick. I didn't mean to get on your case, Ben. And... I..." It was obvious that she really didn't want to say what she was about to say. "I... I'm sorry I've been so rude to you, Aliana."
(AN: I'm sorry if you don't know what Kingdom Hearts is, truly I am, but I just had to say that! It is merely one of the best games ever, ya know! Great music, gameplay, graphics, and a whole lotta fun! Not to mention Riku's pretty hot! It's nearly as good as FF-X!)
All deeds forgiven, Aliana jumped from her seat and flung her arms around Rina. The girl was taken by surprise and took a moment to catch her breath. She hugged her back and in seconds their friendship was rebuilt by a simple hug.
It's a Kodak moment, Ben snickered to himself. Legolas and Maleena smiled at each other, both very relived that the fighting had ceased. Gandalf again sat emotionless in his seat, seeming to stare into the very depths of time.
"Has everything been explained to your liking, Rina?" he asked Rina after many moments of silence.
"Yes, I have."
"Maleena, do you understand what has been troubling you so?"
The elf nodded.
"Then I believe you three"-he indicated to Rina, Ben, and Aliana- "have something important to ask the Prince."
The three of them sat in silence for a brief second. He had gotten them this far and now they were just going to ask him to leave-after all he'd done for them? Nobody amongst them wanted that responsibility.
Ben twiddled his thumbs while staring at the table. Rina looked over at Aliana, hoping she would say something yet knowing it was wrong to except her to say everything. Aliana watched her friends expectantly, waiting for them to say something.
"Oh for Heaven's sake!" she cried scornfully at Rina and Ben. "I'll do it if you two are so afraid!"
"You're going home too, so don't make it seem like we're the only ones who could ask!" Ben pointed out in his own defense.
Aliana said nothing. She briskly turned around and looked Legolas squarely in the eye. "Can we-er-them-I mean us use the feather of Gwahir to return to our world?"
Rina held her hands up, signaling for their conversation to stop. "Wait a second here. You are coming with us...aren't you?"
Aliana turned around to her friend. "What are you talking about? Why would I have come all this way just to stay here and not go back? I mean...how dumb could I be? I'd have to be really stupid or just..."
Rina smiled at her. "Or just deeply in love."
((AN: I know that was fairly short, but I thought you'd rather have something to read rather than waiting another couple of days for a little longer chapter. Hope you enjoyed and again, I promise I won't leave you hanging with the ending! I've just been so busy this summer with summer school(PE and NO I didn't flunk it!) and band(which I am no longer in)and my huge family. But I should have more of a chance to write now! Thanks so much for stayin' with me!))
Thanx a Bunch for Reading, Rusty
Ps-Oh, and the thing with the feather in this chappie doesn't have any factual bases, but since there is nothing to say it's not true then it could happen. You'll understand when you read it.
Chapter Fifteen: The Feather
They soon reached the tower and followed its marble steps to the door. Inside, Rina spotted the same man that had taken them to Gandalf last night. "Excuse me sir, but we're looking for Gandalf. We are supposed to meet him in a few minutes."
He appeared extremely angry, but as he looked around at us all and noticed Legolas, he became extremely embarrassed. "Oh, Prince Legolas! So good to see you here! Right this way, my Lord. I will take you to Gandalf the White."
Rina snorted. He probably wouldn't have listened to her is Legolas had not been there. Her foul mood was not at all lightened by sleep and certainly not by the ignorance of this man. She stomped off after her companions.
They followed the same way that Ben and Rina had the previous night. When they reached the doors they found them already open with Gandalf waiting patiently, seated at a small table. The man left them standing in a doorway.
"Come in, come in," Gandalf said welcomingly.
The party made their way into the room. Gandalf must have known that Aliana and Legolas would be here as well because instead of just two chairs there were four. Rina and Aliana took their seats. Ben began to count on his fingers, having noticed the four chairs and five people.
"Let me go get another chair," Gandalf suggested.
Legolas shook his head. "It's fine, Gandalf. I'll stand."
"Thank you Legolas. My, it's been such a long time since I've seen you. Not for a good many years I'll wager."
"It has been a while," the elf agreed.
"This is all nice and sweet, but I have things to do!" Rina interrupted rather rudely.
"Of course," Gandalf began. "Now, as I've said yesterday, I cannot help you get back to you're world, someone else can. Someone in this very room I might add."
Faces instantly began shifting from person to person. Rina hoped beyond all hope that it wasn't Aliana. Ben just hoped that Rina wouldn't start screaming in rage again at Gandalf's riddles. Maleena wasn't sure what to think of all this.
"Excuse me, but would someone please tell me what's going on? Ever since you four arrived in Lothlorien things have gotten so confusing. I don't know what's going on!"
Aliana, being the one who got stuck here in the first place, felt it her duty to recount the story of her arrival in Mirkwood, her journey with Legolas and Ivellios, her meeting up with Ben an Rina and how they were from her world, and bits and pieces about everything between she and Legolas.
When her tale was finished, Maleena nodded. "It all fits into place now. Why you and Rina seem to argue so much, why you all needed to get to Isengard, and a little bit of why you detested Legolas so much. The one thing I don't understand is this: How did you go from hating him so much to practically falling all over him at the festival in less than a day?"
At this Rina spoke up. "All I can say about that is it had something to do with the spark. The day they kissed there was a spark. You remember, don't you Ben?"
"Uh... I don't know..."
Gandalf smiled. "It's no wonder none of you understand. Middle Earth isn't like your home, Rina. There are things here that do not exist in your world. Things like magic."
"What do you mean?" Rina inquired.
"Legolas was given an eagle feather by Gwahir, the great lord of the eagles. That in itself is a rare, magical occurrence for Gwahir never bestowed this upon me. I who saved his life and become a good friend of his. He must have felt that Legolas and Aliana were in need of some...help. The feather has the ability to grant wishes, but not in the way you would think. It simply aids its keeper with various things, some being serious whereas some are minor. In this case it helped him gain Aliana's love and trust. The spark was merely a speck of the magic that had escaped its confines, if that makes any sense at all."
Maleena and Legolas seemed to understand more than the others. It was all becoming perfectly clear, at least to Legolas. "So that's why I was able to sense Aliana when she was in danger?"
"Exactly," Gandalf said.
"Wait, how did you know about all that?" Rina asked suddenly.
"Let's just say, I have friends in many places." (AN: If you don't know how he knows think really hard. It's pretty much irrelevant, but if you want to know and can't figure it out, e-mail me and I shall explain it to you. My only clue is a mirror cough cough and a ring cough cough Does that help?)
Knowing her very well by now, Legolas had figured that Aliana could not sit through this meeting without having some sudden outburst of anger and he was right. As this all became clear to her, her face began to fume with anger. Ben bit his lip and waited for the explosion. Rina rolled her eyes in frustration. But it would seem that Gandalf had not noticed for he sat in his chair perfectly calm with no recognition of her foul temper.
In an instant she exploded with rage. "So, you're telling me that everything I've felt wasn't even my own choice and will to feel at all?! It was the work of some evil black magic beyond my control?! What sort of place is this with things so powerful they stop you from feeling and expressing your own emotions!?"
Gandalf looked at her with emotionless eyes hidden under his baggy brow. "The feather cannot create these emotions for you. They must be there in the first place for it to even be able to make you feel them."
"But it is my choice whether or not I wish to feel them at all! If I chose not to love my whole life it would be wrong for this feather to take away my free will and not allow me to make my own decisions!"
"You have the ability to fight back your emotions, Aliana and you chose not to. The feather merely gave you a boost towards this emotion, but you had every option of not allowing yourself to be pulled it."
"But then it might have found some other way to 'boost' me! If its powers are as mighty as you say they are then how does one stop such a great thing?! I certainly do not have the power to defend myself from such evil magic as this!"
"It's not an evil thing, Aliana. The feather does not change things without a reason. Look how happy you've become now that you've let down the wall around your heart and given into these emotions that you felt from the start. How can you call that evil?"
For once in her life Aliana seemed unable to continue her argument. Her head hung down in sorrow and defeat. Ben wasn't sure what he was more shocked about. To hear Gandalf talk about love and emotions or to see Aliana back down from a dispute.
Gandalf looked away from Aliana and turned to Maleena. "Do you understand what's been going on now?"
She nodded. "So you are leaving?" she asked, looking towards Rina and Ben and then to Aliana. "You're going back to your world?"
"Yes," said Rina. "I am leaving."
Ben nodded his head but seemed somewhat unsure. Aliana did nothing nor did she make any notion of having heard Maleena.
"Back to our original topic," Gandalf began. "The only way for you to get back to your world is by use of this feather. There is a portal in the very bottom room of this tower. To activate it you need only to place the feather in its proper place and it will take you wherever you wish to go."
"Anywhere?!" Ben cried. "You mean there are other worlds out there?!"
"Of course!" Gandalf said, rather snippety. "You didn't think yours was the only world out there did you?!"
Ben seemed somewhat disheartened. Only the second day and already his favorite person in the Lord of the Rings seemed to hate him. And he was so looking forward to meeting him. But perhaps it wasn't that he disliked him. Maybe Ben was like his new Pippin!
That thought seemed to brighten his spirits a bit. "So I could go anywhere I wanted?!"
Gandalf shook his head. "Yes, but there will be no going back once you've gotten there. For some reason the portal only has the ability to take you one way. So once you go home to your world, there will be no coming back."
"Darn..." Ben muttered. "It would be so cool to travel to different worlds. Like Sora in Kingdom Hearts!"
"Ben, Sora's world was destroyed!" Rina pointed out rudely. "Is that what you want?!"
"No, I just think it would be cool to travel" Ben cried defensively. "That doesn't mean I want to destroy my world!"
"Rina, I think you need to chill," Aliana cut in. "Not everything everybody says is a threat to you! Nor is it meant in a mean way! Ben was just being adventurous! What's happened to you lately?! You've been all moody!"
Rina sighed. "I'm sorry you guys. I guess I'm just really homesick. I didn't mean to get on your case, Ben. And... I..." It was obvious that she really didn't want to say what she was about to say. "I... I'm sorry I've been so rude to you, Aliana."
(AN: I'm sorry if you don't know what Kingdom Hearts is, truly I am, but I just had to say that! It is merely one of the best games ever, ya know! Great music, gameplay, graphics, and a whole lotta fun! Not to mention Riku's pretty hot! It's nearly as good as FF-X!)
All deeds forgiven, Aliana jumped from her seat and flung her arms around Rina. The girl was taken by surprise and took a moment to catch her breath. She hugged her back and in seconds their friendship was rebuilt by a simple hug.
It's a Kodak moment, Ben snickered to himself. Legolas and Maleena smiled at each other, both very relived that the fighting had ceased. Gandalf again sat emotionless in his seat, seeming to stare into the very depths of time.
"Has everything been explained to your liking, Rina?" he asked Rina after many moments of silence.
"Yes, I have."
"Maleena, do you understand what has been troubling you so?"
The elf nodded.
"Then I believe you three"-he indicated to Rina, Ben, and Aliana- "have something important to ask the Prince."
The three of them sat in silence for a brief second. He had gotten them this far and now they were just going to ask him to leave-after all he'd done for them? Nobody amongst them wanted that responsibility.
Ben twiddled his thumbs while staring at the table. Rina looked over at Aliana, hoping she would say something yet knowing it was wrong to except her to say everything. Aliana watched her friends expectantly, waiting for them to say something.
"Oh for Heaven's sake!" she cried scornfully at Rina and Ben. "I'll do it if you two are so afraid!"
"You're going home too, so don't make it seem like we're the only ones who could ask!" Ben pointed out in his own defense.
Aliana said nothing. She briskly turned around and looked Legolas squarely in the eye. "Can we-er-them-I mean us use the feather of Gwahir to return to our world?"
Rina held her hands up, signaling for their conversation to stop. "Wait a second here. You are coming with us...aren't you?"
Aliana turned around to her friend. "What are you talking about? Why would I have come all this way just to stay here and not go back? I mean...how dumb could I be? I'd have to be really stupid or just..."
Rina smiled at her. "Or just deeply in love."
((AN: I know that was fairly short, but I thought you'd rather have something to read rather than waiting another couple of days for a little longer chapter. Hope you enjoyed and again, I promise I won't leave you hanging with the ending! I've just been so busy this summer with summer school(PE and NO I didn't flunk it!) and band(which I am no longer in)and my huge family. But I should have more of a chance to write now! Thanks so much for stayin' with me!))