What Happened When the Fellowship Sloshed Galadrial's Mirror
A Time-Travel
Part 1
It was a fairly warm afternoon in Lothlorien a couple weeks after Celeborn and Galadrial welcomed the Fellowship. They were bored. Legolas had given up trying to teach Gimli decent archery in despair, while Aragorn had pumped the Elves dry of anecdotes of Arwen. Merry finally accepted the dismal fact that carrots were unheard of in the forest, and Boromir refused to lose yet another game of chess to random "peasant" Elves. The other three hobbits had been solemnly evicted from the ladies'-in-waiting weaving flets. Despondently, the eight fellows tossed ideas around.
"I know, we can make up our own Lament for Gandalf," Gimli said. Boromir looked at him wryly.
"Do you know how many I've heard in the last two weeks? Forty-four. Galadrial had to tell them to stop! A morose folk these tree-dwelling people are, to be sure." he finished. Legolas growled a retort nobody heard. Merry brightened.
"How about building our own flet?" Sam turned green at the thought.
"No good. Wood is being rationed this season." Gimli informed him.
"Then I've got a better idea: let's dig a hole!" Pippin seemed certain everyone would agree, but Aragorn, Boromir Legolas and Gimli stared at him incredulously.
"What kind of fun is that?" Aragorn demanded.
"We'd be the laughing-stock of the forest!" added Legolas. "Imagine the names they would call us! "Dwarf and hole-dweller" and..."he stopped at catching sight of Gimli's dangerous glower. Pippin retreated to Merry's side, crushed. The hobbits sat glumly. Boromir sighed and plucked blades of grass and pretended two were warriors engaged in a lethal battle. Legolas said,
"I hear there's a choir we could join..." Aragorn cut him off.
"You know Gimli can't carry a tune!" Gimli was about to avenge his honor when Frodo jumped up.
"Let's go look in Galadrial's Mirror." The others wondered if they had heard right.
"I suppose it might be an adventure to get up to her dressing-room-"began Boromir.
"No, not that kind of mirror," said Frodo vigorously. "It's a basin of water she showed Sam and I yesterday." Sam looked vaguely worried, and the others vaguely interested.
"Um, Mr. Frodo, I don't think we should-"
"Nonsense, Sam. It'll be quite interesting. Anyway, it can show practically anything. Why, last night Sam saw Hobbiton, and I saw the Sea in a great storm and a little ship sailing out of it with a flag of the White Tree..." Aragorn got to his feet.
"Alright, Galadrial's Mirror it is."
"Mr. Frodo, I really don't think-not without invitation-"but the Fellowship was already following Frodo's lead to the secret hollow. Sam tagged along disconsolately.
"Here we are!" Frodo pointed at the silver basin." Look, she hasn't emptied it."
A little over-awed now that they were actually there, Aragorn and Boromir cautiously inspected the water.
"I don't see anything," reported Boromir uncertainly. The Hobbits and Gimli edged nearer. Legolas hung back trying to keep a shred of Elven decency about himself, but rationalized that no one could expect him to be on his best behavior after being with these mortals for so long, and curiosity overcame him. They all crowded round.
"I think I see something!" proclaimed Pippin finally." It looks like....like...like a frog!" eagerly he reached in. Too eagerly, for he sloshed most of the water out and all over the excited Companions.
For a moment they all felt a slight vertigo, but it quickly cleared. What was really more perturbing was the roaring noise that assailed their ears, and the unbearably heavy, noisome air. Legolas coughed.
"Air! Give me air! I'm being poisoned!" he choked dramatically, only he wasn't joking. Pretty soon the others were coughing too. Aragorn, the Ranger, surveyed the alarming environment between chokes. He saw monstrous structures that seemed to scrape the muggy sky. A silvery object with wings it did not flap sailed through the muck. On a more earthly level, they were standing on a strip of dirty grayish-white stone. Only a few feet away shiny, wheeled objects of many shapes and sizes crawled past without the aid of brute force. There seemed to be a million. The others had more or less stopped coughing and were also inspecting the surroundings.
"This is NOT Middle-Earth." declared Boromir emphatically and unnecessarily. Merry pointed at the tall buildings. Sam groaned.
"And I was complaining about a flet!" he muttered. Legolas, still wheezing, spotted a sickly-looking sapling in a planter some distance away. He nearly wept.
"This is Mordor," said Frodo in awe, contradicting Boromir shamelessly.
"It is?" Pippin said faintly. "Then all we have to do is find Mt. Doom and throw the Ring in." Frodo gasped, feeling about his neck frantically for the chain.
"The Ring! It's gone!" Instantly the Fellowship started talking worriedly and all at once.
Where is it?" "Did it stay in Lorien?" "Are you sure it's gone?" "Maybe it fell, look on the ground." Frodo rummaged in his pockets. He whistled in relief.
"Here it is, I forgot I put it in my pocket last night when...oh never mind."
"Don't ever do that again, Frodo!" cried Aragorn. There was a collective sigh.
"Well, we wanted to do something," remarked Gimli. Sam groaned again.
"What's the matter, Sam?" asked Frodo.
"I forgot to bring my pack with the cooking supplies."