Part 4
From a fairytale point of view, Ginny was not unattractive.
She was quite pretty in average terms. She had large brown eyes, and in her opinion not enough eyelashes, and naturally red lips. She had shoulder length thick black hair. Too thick. Her skin was a sandy oriental colour, and combination, which meant dry skin and greasy skin co-existed in disharmony. But she had a nice face, and she was only a dress size 8.
Okay, so there was the matter of her shortsightedness, the spots on her forehead and the puppy fat in the thighs. Not to mention the stubby thumbs, the hairy arms, the scabby knees and the slight poundage on the buttock caused by lack of exercise and a cyberspace social life. She bit her nails. She had fillings in her teeth. Her bra could do with a bit more padding too.
Overall, she was on average a sort of possibly good-looking, absolutely nothing compared to the Evenstar, but with a promise of becoming good- looking in the distant future. All she needed were some platform shoes, but still, . . . and yet . . .
There was no way she could pass off for an Elf. Ginny sighed and turned the vanity mirror over.
Susie might, but she wouldn't. She wasn't tall enough, for one thing. She'd seen the height of Elrond and Gandalf. She felt like a hobbit.
Ginny suddenly began to feel like she wasn't good enough for Middle Earth. She couldn't fight, or perform magic. She wasn't even beautiful. So what if she knew the fate of Middle Earth? She couldn't tell them about it, because that would change the future and disturb reality blah blah blah. She had always thought of this place as a fantasy realm, and it was. She had always thought of it as better than the real world, and in a way it was. She was just uninvited. And now she couldn't get back to her own home. She would never see her friends or family again.
Yes she would, some part of her mind retorted. This was a story, and in every story, the heroine would live happily ever after, even in fan fiction. She was the heroine. And Dorothy always found her way home. But at least *she* had Toto.
Ah! Said the other part, but this wasn't a story. This was History. Lord of the Rings was a book, but Middle Earth is real. And you're *not* the heroine, you just got dumped here by accident.
Thanks a lot, the opposition replied, you're doing wonders for my self- esteem.
So that meant either one of two things: One, Middle Earth was a parallel universe where magic was a sort of force that naturally inhabited it, and Ginny had travelled to it by some wormhole, or that: Two, Middle Earth and Earth were one and the same and Elves were pre-prehistoric, before Dinosaurs arrived and Ginny had time travelled. Through a wormhole. Hmm. Both theories seemed dumb, but if the latter were correct, then she would be taking part in history. Uh-oh.
Yes, maybe she *did* wrongly pre-warn Boromir of his death, but that was out of pity; she had always cried at his death in the film. It occurred to her that now she was really going to see him die, in person. She shuddered. That is, though, if they let her into the fellowship.
Well, even if they didn't, she was going to get some answers from these people. Tolkien had left many unanswered questions when he died, and she was going to get to the bottom of them.
She wandered to the oaken writing table, and found to her joy, paper had been laid out on the surface. It was yellow and thick, but it was smooth and good for writing. It was probably parchment, like the stuff they used in Harry Potter. There was also an inkwell with a brush pen and a sort of fountain-quill. She grimaced, and took out her biro.
She wrote:
-Is Glorfindel the same Glorfindel as the Glorfindel from Gondolin?
-*What* is Tom Bombadil?
-Which is older, Elves or Ents, or Tom Bombadil?
-WHO was Legolas' mother?
-Where are the Blue Wizards?
-Why are the Valar so cruel?
-Who was Gil-Galad's mother?
-*Where* did Maglor go?
She had puzzled over the last question when she'd read the Silmarillion. Second and last living son of Feanor chucks Silmaril into sea and wanders off into the east, singing. It sounded like something out of Disney. Surely the guy had to be somewhere. She might as well find out. Elrond should know. The guy had practically raised him, while his own father was sailing in the heavens as the star Venus. Hmm.
All this time Vireth had come and gone, and had brought her a lovely dress in substitute for her rain soaked school clothes. She had been particularly interested in Ginny's polyester trousers, and also her shoes, claiming that she had never seen anything like it. Well of course; Ginny had looked and looked, but there was no nylon anywhere, and the sheets were linen and cotton, and the pillows stuffed with real down. Everything here was 100% authentic.
The dress was absolutely beautiful, and must have taken decades to make, but Vireth assured her that it was merely a day-dress and that better clothes were on their way. It was green velvet, with a crinoline under- dress of pale silk. The sleeves were mid-length, and the neckline was sequined, and a bit too tight for comfort. It was rather cramped, and she found herself sweating while trying to tug it on.
"I feel hot." She said, once again surprised at the words coming out of her mouth. It wasn't English to her ears, but she found she could understand it without really having to listen carefully. She was speaking Westron, but she was speaking 21st century English at the same time.
"Well of course. Apparel has to be thick. It's been very chilly until recently."
Vireth had tidied her thick hair like a mother would, commenting occasionally at the shortness of it, and when she felt that she was presentable enough, Ginny put her glasses back on and followed the maid downstairs for lunch in the great hall.
Then she rushed up and grabbed the sheet with all the questions written down on it. Then she went down.
*
It was a simple lunch, which Vireth assured her would be nothing compared to supper, which was also in the great hall.
To her disappointment, she was the only one in the dining hall. Vireth told her that most people had already eaten. Ginny was puzzled, wasn't it only morning when she had come here? Did she really spend that long in that room?
Vireth left and another maid came in at regular intervals, bringing (on silver plates) bread, cheese, boiled eggs, potatoes and carrots, and two small slices of bacon. There was a small bowl of what smelled like chicken soup to go with it all. The maid told her that too much meat was not customary at any formal meal except supper, but she was a guest, and it was her first. Wow. Middle Earth had customs.
The food was bland, but nourishing, and eventually, Ginny finished (she was a very slow eater). She wasn't sure what to do, but another girl came out of what must be the kitchen and took away her leftovers, wiping the tablecloth as she went.
Lucky Elrond! He doesn't even need to do washing up - he has servants to do everything for him! I wonder where they sleep? Do they get paid? How much?
She scribbled it down onto the scrap of paper and went to find Vireth.
The great hall had many entrances, including one that only Elrond knew about (it led to his private study), but one led out onto a sunny patio, where currently, Vireth was weeding a small rock statue. Everything in Imladris was overgrown, and it was a tough job getting rid of unwanted vegetation, but the servants took it in turns. As she tore out the roots of a rather miffed flowering bush, she turned to see Ginny walking over to her.
"Vireth?"
"Yes, Ma'am?" the girl plucked out some dandelion leaves.
Ginny opened her mouth and then stopped. She turned to the girl.
"Not 'Milady'?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Mi-lay-dy??"
"Yeah, why not that?"
"That's for those of high status. And we say my Ladyship when not directly addressing."
"But I'm not old enough to be a 'maam'."
"What would you like to be called then, ma'am?" The girl asked unconcernedly, hefting out some unwanted poppies and breaking the seed heads open. The black grains went into a pouch around her waist. Ginny thought for a moment.
" 'Miss'. " she decided, "but how old are you, Vireth?" Vireth paused and counted in her head.
"I span nineteen winters, but I was born in winter, mind you."
"But that's not right. You're not that far away from my age. You can't call me 'miss' and curtsey and all that."
"Oh I don't mind, it's what I do, it's a living, is'all. I don't even know your name yet. No one's told me. I just work for whoever tells me." She said casually.
"Oh. Well." Ginny had yet to come up with a suitable Elven name. She changed the subject, "Vireth, can you show me around this afternoon? Just, take me around Rivendell, so I can get used to it. I want to explore. It seems like I'll be here for a while"
"Oh, I'm very sorry, um, miss, but I'm busy today. It's laundry day, and I'm the only one who can do the bedding." She brushed away the dirt on the statue of a nude elf, "Tell you what. I will send my brother. He knows all the good views, and he's been absolutely everywhere. He is called Barandor."
*
Barandor turned out to be a rather chirpy twelve-year-old that acted like he was seven. He was rowdy and had an attention span of a goldfish, but was very friendly at the same time. They got on immediately. He gave her a long and interesting anecdote on how he looked after the chickens on their family's farm, which made Ginny feel rather depressed because she was away from her family. But he managed to cheer her up in the end.
First, he took Ginny to a cobbled alleyway near the house where his gang met, a large group of boys ranged from 6 to 177 years old (there were immortals as well). They called Barandor 'Brand', and one of the older boys had given Ginny suggestive looks; which just goes to show that even with time (or dimension), some things never changed.
After watching the boys play 'hitting ball with stick' and 'hitting each other repeatedly in a playful fashion', she told Brand' she was bored. He let her join in their hitting game, and she had to admit, she was very good at it, but then she tried to teach them something a little less violent.
And she made a great and terrible mistake when she said:
"OK, how about I teach you football?"
~
[Eventually, everyone went home, many bruised and some crying for their mommies. The football, which had been made of spare rags tied together, had been abandoned because no one wanted to assume responsibility for the game (or the huge fight that took place afterwards. The 'referee' had been worst hit because he confused the red and yellow cards, and the sidelines kept getting smudged on purpose. No one listened to the rules, and everyone got hit). But they would be back, Ginny knew, they would. Who'd have thought that football would have such an effect on adolescents?]
* The rest of the afternoon passed nicely. Barandor saw that she wanted to see some other places, so he took her somewhere scenic.
"Is that the Bruinen there, Brand'? This place is beautiful!" Ginny cried, as she stepped onto the rocks by the flowing river. Brand' found a dry bit of grass nearby and sat down, taking off his leather shoes. Ginny took off her trainers and waded in the water.
"Yep, these are the Silver Woods, all around here. And there's the river that goes down to the Brandywine, I think. The Elves call it Celebrethil. It's lovely and peaceful at night, and sometimes you see couples coming here by themselves. Always a man and a woman, coming on their own. They're always giggling. In the morning you find a lot of garments on the ground. Me mam says it's shameful, what with them not being arranged, and all. Do you have to arrange garments?"
Ginny looked at him carefully.
"Is that the reason why you brought me here?" she said slowly.
He shrugged, playing with an insect on a twig.
"Dunno, just thought you might like to see it. All the ladies love to come here, but I dunno what they do. It's pretty boring. I suppose that's why they always bring a man. So they can be guarded and have someone to talk to while they darn their clothes, but I dunno why they just don't do it in the daytime. You can't see at night." He said resolutely.
Ginny winced and bit her lip. She wondered whether she should laugh. The boy was so innocent.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha." She managed, weakly.
"What's so funny? Everyone needs to do some sewing sometime. Might as well be here."
***
The tour went around the Rivendell central. Ginny soon learned that Imladris was more than just a pretty house for wearyworn guests. It was an entire community of Elves *and* Men. You could almost call it a town centre. There was even a cemetery for mortal Rivendellians.
He showed her the stables, and the special ones where Elrond's private horses were kept. Ginny saw a fine animal, which she swore was Asfaloth. Then it was a round circuit of the barns, the granary, the hives, and the vineyard and distillery. Barandor, who knew absolutely everybody, managed to bribe some wine off the young overseer, and he and Ginny had had a jug of the finest Elven red wine between them. They made their way back to the House, getting increasingly drunk and swaying uncontrollably.
In a tipsy state, he told her the story of how one day, this cockerel was on the rampage, and he single-handedly subdued it and held it by the neck when no one else would go near it, and he swiped it's head off in one clear sweep. In return, Ginny gave him the story of how she had got here, and how the wormhole had actually sucked up the wrong girl; he listened without hearing, but became interested when she told him about her own world, 'back there'.
"Oh yeah, we have everything back there, not like your backward little fantasy land " she said laughing between sips, "We have things with wings that fly really high and go all over the world."
"Yeah, they're called birds!"
"No, they're like machines. Planes . . . thassit, Planes. And we have televisions: boxes with moving pictures!"
"Seriously!?" he said, and took another swig.
"Yeah, and hairdryers: a thing which blows hot air to dry your hair, and we have cars, like carts that don't need horses, radios, paperclips, calculators, phones-"
"-by Eru-"
"Yeah, but if there's one thing that's the greatestest, it's this nifty lil' thing called the intern-"
She stopped suddenly and squinted at her nose. Then she threw up.
*~*~*
From a fairytale point of view, Ginny was not unattractive.
She was quite pretty in average terms. She had large brown eyes, and in her opinion not enough eyelashes, and naturally red lips. She had shoulder length thick black hair. Too thick. Her skin was a sandy oriental colour, and combination, which meant dry skin and greasy skin co-existed in disharmony. But she had a nice face, and she was only a dress size 8.
Okay, so there was the matter of her shortsightedness, the spots on her forehead and the puppy fat in the thighs. Not to mention the stubby thumbs, the hairy arms, the scabby knees and the slight poundage on the buttock caused by lack of exercise and a cyberspace social life. She bit her nails. She had fillings in her teeth. Her bra could do with a bit more padding too.
Overall, she was on average a sort of possibly good-looking, absolutely nothing compared to the Evenstar, but with a promise of becoming good- looking in the distant future. All she needed were some platform shoes, but still, . . . and yet . . .
There was no way she could pass off for an Elf. Ginny sighed and turned the vanity mirror over.
Susie might, but she wouldn't. She wasn't tall enough, for one thing. She'd seen the height of Elrond and Gandalf. She felt like a hobbit.
Ginny suddenly began to feel like she wasn't good enough for Middle Earth. She couldn't fight, or perform magic. She wasn't even beautiful. So what if she knew the fate of Middle Earth? She couldn't tell them about it, because that would change the future and disturb reality blah blah blah. She had always thought of this place as a fantasy realm, and it was. She had always thought of it as better than the real world, and in a way it was. She was just uninvited. And now she couldn't get back to her own home. She would never see her friends or family again.
Yes she would, some part of her mind retorted. This was a story, and in every story, the heroine would live happily ever after, even in fan fiction. She was the heroine. And Dorothy always found her way home. But at least *she* had Toto.
Ah! Said the other part, but this wasn't a story. This was History. Lord of the Rings was a book, but Middle Earth is real. And you're *not* the heroine, you just got dumped here by accident.
Thanks a lot, the opposition replied, you're doing wonders for my self- esteem.
So that meant either one of two things: One, Middle Earth was a parallel universe where magic was a sort of force that naturally inhabited it, and Ginny had travelled to it by some wormhole, or that: Two, Middle Earth and Earth were one and the same and Elves were pre-prehistoric, before Dinosaurs arrived and Ginny had time travelled. Through a wormhole. Hmm. Both theories seemed dumb, but if the latter were correct, then she would be taking part in history. Uh-oh.
Yes, maybe she *did* wrongly pre-warn Boromir of his death, but that was out of pity; she had always cried at his death in the film. It occurred to her that now she was really going to see him die, in person. She shuddered. That is, though, if they let her into the fellowship.
Well, even if they didn't, she was going to get some answers from these people. Tolkien had left many unanswered questions when he died, and she was going to get to the bottom of them.
She wandered to the oaken writing table, and found to her joy, paper had been laid out on the surface. It was yellow and thick, but it was smooth and good for writing. It was probably parchment, like the stuff they used in Harry Potter. There was also an inkwell with a brush pen and a sort of fountain-quill. She grimaced, and took out her biro.
She wrote:
-Is Glorfindel the same Glorfindel as the Glorfindel from Gondolin?
-*What* is Tom Bombadil?
-Which is older, Elves or Ents, or Tom Bombadil?
-WHO was Legolas' mother?
-Where are the Blue Wizards?
-Why are the Valar so cruel?
-Who was Gil-Galad's mother?
-*Where* did Maglor go?
She had puzzled over the last question when she'd read the Silmarillion. Second and last living son of Feanor chucks Silmaril into sea and wanders off into the east, singing. It sounded like something out of Disney. Surely the guy had to be somewhere. She might as well find out. Elrond should know. The guy had practically raised him, while his own father was sailing in the heavens as the star Venus. Hmm.
All this time Vireth had come and gone, and had brought her a lovely dress in substitute for her rain soaked school clothes. She had been particularly interested in Ginny's polyester trousers, and also her shoes, claiming that she had never seen anything like it. Well of course; Ginny had looked and looked, but there was no nylon anywhere, and the sheets were linen and cotton, and the pillows stuffed with real down. Everything here was 100% authentic.
The dress was absolutely beautiful, and must have taken decades to make, but Vireth assured her that it was merely a day-dress and that better clothes were on their way. It was green velvet, with a crinoline under- dress of pale silk. The sleeves were mid-length, and the neckline was sequined, and a bit too tight for comfort. It was rather cramped, and she found herself sweating while trying to tug it on.
"I feel hot." She said, once again surprised at the words coming out of her mouth. It wasn't English to her ears, but she found she could understand it without really having to listen carefully. She was speaking Westron, but she was speaking 21st century English at the same time.
"Well of course. Apparel has to be thick. It's been very chilly until recently."
Vireth had tidied her thick hair like a mother would, commenting occasionally at the shortness of it, and when she felt that she was presentable enough, Ginny put her glasses back on and followed the maid downstairs for lunch in the great hall.
Then she rushed up and grabbed the sheet with all the questions written down on it. Then she went down.
*
It was a simple lunch, which Vireth assured her would be nothing compared to supper, which was also in the great hall.
To her disappointment, she was the only one in the dining hall. Vireth told her that most people had already eaten. Ginny was puzzled, wasn't it only morning when she had come here? Did she really spend that long in that room?
Vireth left and another maid came in at regular intervals, bringing (on silver plates) bread, cheese, boiled eggs, potatoes and carrots, and two small slices of bacon. There was a small bowl of what smelled like chicken soup to go with it all. The maid told her that too much meat was not customary at any formal meal except supper, but she was a guest, and it was her first. Wow. Middle Earth had customs.
The food was bland, but nourishing, and eventually, Ginny finished (she was a very slow eater). She wasn't sure what to do, but another girl came out of what must be the kitchen and took away her leftovers, wiping the tablecloth as she went.
Lucky Elrond! He doesn't even need to do washing up - he has servants to do everything for him! I wonder where they sleep? Do they get paid? How much?
She scribbled it down onto the scrap of paper and went to find Vireth.
The great hall had many entrances, including one that only Elrond knew about (it led to his private study), but one led out onto a sunny patio, where currently, Vireth was weeding a small rock statue. Everything in Imladris was overgrown, and it was a tough job getting rid of unwanted vegetation, but the servants took it in turns. As she tore out the roots of a rather miffed flowering bush, she turned to see Ginny walking over to her.
"Vireth?"
"Yes, Ma'am?" the girl plucked out some dandelion leaves.
Ginny opened her mouth and then stopped. She turned to the girl.
"Not 'Milady'?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Mi-lay-dy??"
"Yeah, why not that?"
"That's for those of high status. And we say my Ladyship when not directly addressing."
"But I'm not old enough to be a 'maam'."
"What would you like to be called then, ma'am?" The girl asked unconcernedly, hefting out some unwanted poppies and breaking the seed heads open. The black grains went into a pouch around her waist. Ginny thought for a moment.
" 'Miss'. " she decided, "but how old are you, Vireth?" Vireth paused and counted in her head.
"I span nineteen winters, but I was born in winter, mind you."
"But that's not right. You're not that far away from my age. You can't call me 'miss' and curtsey and all that."
"Oh I don't mind, it's what I do, it's a living, is'all. I don't even know your name yet. No one's told me. I just work for whoever tells me." She said casually.
"Oh. Well." Ginny had yet to come up with a suitable Elven name. She changed the subject, "Vireth, can you show me around this afternoon? Just, take me around Rivendell, so I can get used to it. I want to explore. It seems like I'll be here for a while"
"Oh, I'm very sorry, um, miss, but I'm busy today. It's laundry day, and I'm the only one who can do the bedding." She brushed away the dirt on the statue of a nude elf, "Tell you what. I will send my brother. He knows all the good views, and he's been absolutely everywhere. He is called Barandor."
*
Barandor turned out to be a rather chirpy twelve-year-old that acted like he was seven. He was rowdy and had an attention span of a goldfish, but was very friendly at the same time. They got on immediately. He gave her a long and interesting anecdote on how he looked after the chickens on their family's farm, which made Ginny feel rather depressed because she was away from her family. But he managed to cheer her up in the end.
First, he took Ginny to a cobbled alleyway near the house where his gang met, a large group of boys ranged from 6 to 177 years old (there were immortals as well). They called Barandor 'Brand', and one of the older boys had given Ginny suggestive looks; which just goes to show that even with time (or dimension), some things never changed.
After watching the boys play 'hitting ball with stick' and 'hitting each other repeatedly in a playful fashion', she told Brand' she was bored. He let her join in their hitting game, and she had to admit, she was very good at it, but then she tried to teach them something a little less violent.
And she made a great and terrible mistake when she said:
"OK, how about I teach you football?"
~
[Eventually, everyone went home, many bruised and some crying for their mommies. The football, which had been made of spare rags tied together, had been abandoned because no one wanted to assume responsibility for the game (or the huge fight that took place afterwards. The 'referee' had been worst hit because he confused the red and yellow cards, and the sidelines kept getting smudged on purpose. No one listened to the rules, and everyone got hit). But they would be back, Ginny knew, they would. Who'd have thought that football would have such an effect on adolescents?]
* The rest of the afternoon passed nicely. Barandor saw that she wanted to see some other places, so he took her somewhere scenic.
"Is that the Bruinen there, Brand'? This place is beautiful!" Ginny cried, as she stepped onto the rocks by the flowing river. Brand' found a dry bit of grass nearby and sat down, taking off his leather shoes. Ginny took off her trainers and waded in the water.
"Yep, these are the Silver Woods, all around here. And there's the river that goes down to the Brandywine, I think. The Elves call it Celebrethil. It's lovely and peaceful at night, and sometimes you see couples coming here by themselves. Always a man and a woman, coming on their own. They're always giggling. In the morning you find a lot of garments on the ground. Me mam says it's shameful, what with them not being arranged, and all. Do you have to arrange garments?"
Ginny looked at him carefully.
"Is that the reason why you brought me here?" she said slowly.
He shrugged, playing with an insect on a twig.
"Dunno, just thought you might like to see it. All the ladies love to come here, but I dunno what they do. It's pretty boring. I suppose that's why they always bring a man. So they can be guarded and have someone to talk to while they darn their clothes, but I dunno why they just don't do it in the daytime. You can't see at night." He said resolutely.
Ginny winced and bit her lip. She wondered whether she should laugh. The boy was so innocent.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha." She managed, weakly.
"What's so funny? Everyone needs to do some sewing sometime. Might as well be here."
***
The tour went around the Rivendell central. Ginny soon learned that Imladris was more than just a pretty house for wearyworn guests. It was an entire community of Elves *and* Men. You could almost call it a town centre. There was even a cemetery for mortal Rivendellians.
He showed her the stables, and the special ones where Elrond's private horses were kept. Ginny saw a fine animal, which she swore was Asfaloth. Then it was a round circuit of the barns, the granary, the hives, and the vineyard and distillery. Barandor, who knew absolutely everybody, managed to bribe some wine off the young overseer, and he and Ginny had had a jug of the finest Elven red wine between them. They made their way back to the House, getting increasingly drunk and swaying uncontrollably.
In a tipsy state, he told her the story of how one day, this cockerel was on the rampage, and he single-handedly subdued it and held it by the neck when no one else would go near it, and he swiped it's head off in one clear sweep. In return, Ginny gave him the story of how she had got here, and how the wormhole had actually sucked up the wrong girl; he listened without hearing, but became interested when she told him about her own world, 'back there'.
"Oh yeah, we have everything back there, not like your backward little fantasy land " she said laughing between sips, "We have things with wings that fly really high and go all over the world."
"Yeah, they're called birds!"
"No, they're like machines. Planes . . . thassit, Planes. And we have televisions: boxes with moving pictures!"
"Seriously!?" he said, and took another swig.
"Yeah, and hairdryers: a thing which blows hot air to dry your hair, and we have cars, like carts that don't need horses, radios, paperclips, calculators, phones-"
"-by Eru-"
"Yeah, but if there's one thing that's the greatestest, it's this nifty lil' thing called the intern-"
She stopped suddenly and squinted at her nose. Then she threw up.
*~*~*
