A/N: HI-EEE!!! Well, here we are. Another week and another new chapter.
Hope you enjoy it and please feel free to review.
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Chapter Nine
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When they next awoke, the Fellowship was sitting near a source of water. Sinn and Shenaux blinked a few times and realised that they had just been laid down on the ground and Legolas and Boromir were walking away.
"Where are we?" Merry asked.
"Here is Nimrodel!" Legolas said. "Of this stream the Silvan Elves made many songs long ago, and still we sing them in the North, remembering the rainbow on its falls, and the golden flowers that floated in its foam. All is dark now and the Bridge of Nimrodel is broken down. I will bathe my feet, for it is said that the water is healing to the weary." He went forwards and climbed down the deep-cloven bank and stepped into the stream.
"Follow me!" He cried. "The water is not deep. Let us wade across! On the further bank we can rest, and the sound of the falling water may bring us sleep and forgetfulness of grief." (Quoted I, pg. 444)
"But what about Sinn and Shenaux?" Pippin asked as he looked to where the two women were lying, but instead he found them struggling to their feet.
"You're awake!" He exclaimed. "How are you felling?"
"." Sinn said. Her mouth worked, yet her voice has yet to come back to her. She was getting rather frustrated actually. She sighed and gave him a look that told him she was all right. Shenaux followed suit.
"What happened to your voices? Why can't you talk? When did this happen? Who did this? Where did this actually start?" Sam questioned quickly.
All he's missing is 'how'? Shenaux sent the message to her friend.
Sinn grinned at her friend and then smiled down at the Hobbit and shrugged unsure how to explain or even if she knew the answers to all his questions.
"We can talk to Lady Galadriel." Aragorn announced. "Maybe she will know how to give you back the ability to speak."
"But until then, we can all marvel in the silence." Gimli smiled at the two women and his smile grew wider when he caught their glares.
"Can you cross the water Ladies?" Legolas called over to them from his spot on the other bank.
They threw him a look that told him that they were unable to speak, not unable to wade water. He just chuckled and watched as the Company made their way down the bank one by one and then into the water.
Sinn and Shenaux closed their eyes and sighed happily when the water soothed their sore, aching feet and all the tiredness and grief and weariness from all the days of their journey seemed to lift off their shoulders. When they reached the far bank, they looked up and noticed that Legolas was watching them curiously, as if he was waiting for them to do something spectacular. They gave him odd looks before sitting down under a near by tree.
After everyone had crossed, they all sat and rested a little as they ate some food. As they rested and ate, Legolas told them tales of Lothlórien that his kindred still kept telling their young and each other. Shortly after, silence fell, and they all listened to the comforting sounds of the waterfall. Soon each fell into a relaxed state. If they fancied, they could almost hear a voice singing mixed with the sound of the water.
"Do you hear the voice of Nimrodel?" Legolas asked. (Quoted I, pg. 444)
"Who was Nimrodel?" Sam asked quietly.
Legolas was about to tell him and then most likely sing him the song of the fair Elf-maiden Nimrodel, but two voices beat him to it. Everyone looked over to where Sinn and Shenaux were and stared in amazement as the two sang with their eyes closed. It seemed that their voices returned.
"An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.
A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lórien the fair.
Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden-tree.
Beside the falls of Nimrodel,
By water clear and cool,
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool.
Where now she wanders none can tell,
In sunlight or in shade;
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed.
The Elven-ship in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea.
A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from Elven-strands
Across the streaming tide.
When dawn came dim the land was lost,
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of binding spray.
Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell,
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel.
Of old he was and Elven-king,
A lord of tree and glen,
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlórien.
From helm to sea they saw him leap,
As arrow from the string,
And dive into the water deep,
As mew upon the wing.
The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.
But from the West has come to word,
And on the Hither Shore
No tidings Elven-folk have heard
Of Amroth evermore."
Their voices faltered and they opened their eyes and looked questioningly upon their travelling companions.
"H.how did you know that song?" Legolas questioned.
Sinn blinked at him in confusion. Shenaux and herself were only singing in their heads, weren't they? Frowning, she tried to speak. "It just came to us. We memorised it when we read it on our world." She told him softly and then blinked in surprise and then happiness. "My voice! It is back!" She laughed happily and then stood up.
Shenaux tried to say something and then she laughed happily. "Our voices! They are back!" The two girls then proceeded to dance around in each other's arms happily.
"The song sounds unfinished." Merry noted, catching everyone's attention.
The two women looked at him. "It is. We cannot sing anymore, that is just a part of the lovely song, sung in the Western tongue as some in Rivendell now sing it." Shenaux told him, repeating what Legolas said in the book.
"It is long and sad, for it tells how sorrow came upon Lothlórien, Lórien of the Blossom, when the Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains." Legolas told them.
"But the Dwarves did not make the evil," Gimli said.
"I said not so; yet evil came." Answered Legolas sadly. "Then many of the Elves of Nimrodel's kindred left their dwellings and departed, and she was lost far in the South, in the passes of the White Mountains; and she came not to the ship where Amroth her lover waited for her. But in the spring when the wind is in the new leaves the echo of her voice may still be heard by the falls that bear her name. And when the wind is in the South the voice of Amroth comes up from the sea; for Nimrodel flows into Silverlode that Elves call Celebrant, and Celebrant into Anduin the Great, and Anduin flows into the Bay of Belfalas whence the Elves of Lórien set sail. But neither Nimrodel nor Amroth ever came back.
"It is told that she had a house built in the branches of a tree that grew near the falls; for that was the custom of the Elves of Lórien, to dwell in the trees, and maybe it is so still. Therefore they were called the Galadhrim, the Tree-people. Deep in their forest the trees are very great. The people of the woods did not delve in the ground like Dwarves, nor build strong places of stone before the Shadow came." (Quoted I, pg. 446-7)
They stayed in that area for the night and slept up in the trees just in case the Orcs or other nasty creatures were following them.
The next morning, they were travelling deeper into the woods of Lothlórien and Sinn and Shenaux knew what was to come, so they stayed rather close to Aragorn and Legolas so that if anything, the two men would be seen before the two women. Sinn and Shenaux began to snicker when they heard Gimli talking with the Hobbits.
"Stay close young Hobbits!" Gimli whispered loudly to them. "They say a great sorceress lives in these woods. An Elf-witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell." The Hobbits began to look around rather nervously because of Gimli. "And are never seen again." He finished.
"Gimli!" Shenaux reprimanded the poor Dwarf. "It is not kind of you to tell tales like that. The Lady of the Light is of such beauty that it cannot be described. Yes, she is powerful, but what do you expect of one of her prestige."
Welcome Istari's of another world. A musical voice entered the two women's minds. You have the power to do great things. If they be for evil or for good, that all depends on the decisions you make. You are coming to me and I will receive you. Tell me, where are you familiars? The last part was said with great amusement that Shenaux and Sinn began to worry about their robbing friends.
"Uh, guys," Sinn questioned Aragorn and Legolas, "have any of you seen our thieving friends?"
"Not since we entered Moria." Legolas told her. "I thought they were to meet you here in Lothlórien?"
"They were, it's just that they are not here."
"They'll turn up, I'm sure." Aragorn told the two and they began to journey again.
Sinn and Shenaux heard Gimli and they began to snicker again. "Well, here's one Dwarf that she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox." The Dwarf says seconds before and arrow is pointed at his head. The Galadhrim have arrived and the Fellowship was now being held at arrow point.
Legolas had drawn his bow and strung and arrow in it, but it was useless.
"Let's see who will win shall we?" Sinn said to Shenaux. "One wood land Elf against how many Lórien Elves? I don't think the odds are with our Elf."
Shenaux giggled and Legolas threw Sinn a glare, which she promptly smiled at him with an award winning innocent smile.
Aragorn thought it a good idea to hold his hands up in surrender. What a smart boy.
Just then a blond Elf, (surprise, surprise) walked up to Aragorn. "The Dwarf breaths so loudly we could have shot him in the dark." He said arrogantly and Gimli growled at the Elf.
Shenaux stiffened at Sinn's side, and Sinn looked over at her friend in worry. Shenaux had gone deathly pale and her eyes were rather large and she was shaking like a leaf. Sinn looked in the direction Shenaux seems to be staring at in fright and noticed that her line of sight was upon the new Elf. Sinn frowned in confusion for a few minutes and then it hit her. He looked exactly like Shenaux' ex-boyfriend. The abusive bastard. All you had to do was cut the Elf's hair and give him rounded ears and it would be the dick Darren. (I apologise to any Darren's out there, or friends of Darren's but I needed a name and that's the only one I could think of. So I am sorry if I insulted anyone.)
Sinn grabbed her friend's hand and squeezed it gently. "Hey, calm down. It's not Darren." She whispered. "Darren's on earth, we're on Middle Earth."
"I.I know, but look at him." She whispered back, tearing her eyes from the Elf. "Those eyes. They haunt my dreams." A tear trickled down her cheek and Sinn wiped it away from her face.
"I know. I know. Now if you weren't two inches taller than me I would put her head on my shoulder, but you know." She smiled gently at her friend and hugged her close and then watched Aragorn greet the new Elf.
"Haldir o' Lórien." He bowed slightly to the Elf and spoke in Elvish. "We need your protection." He looked back towards the others. He frowned slightly at the shaking Shenaux in Sinn's arms and Sinn just shook her head at him. He looked back at Haldir.
"Aragorn, these woods are perilous. We should go back!" Gimli called to the soon to be King. Gimli didn't take his eyes off of the arrowhead.
Haldir looked at the Dwarf and glared. "You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Wood. You cannot go back." He looked to the other Elves. "It's getting dark, come." He then led all of the Fellowship to talans for the night.
The Fellowship and the Lórien Elves were all standing on one talon and Haldir began speaking to Legolas in his native tongue.
"Welcome Legolas, son of Thranduil." Haldir said in greeting.
"Our Fellowship stands in your dept, Haldir of Lórien." Legolas told him and nodded his head to him.
"Aragorn of the Dunedain, you are known to us." Haldir said to the King.
"So much for the legendary courtesy of the Elves!" Gimli said. "Speak words we can all understand!"
"We have not had dealings with the Dwarves since the Dark Days." The Elf leader sneered at the Dwarf.
"And you know what this Dwarf says to that?" Gimli asked and then began to speak something in the Dwarven tongue.
Aragorn closed his eyes, trying to keep his patience but it flew out the window and he hit the Dwarf. "That was not so courteous." He scolded as Haldir looked on questioningly.
Finally the Elf looked at Frodo. "You bring great evil with you." Then he looked at Aragorn. "You can go no further." And he walked off.
As Aragorn and Haldir argued in elvish about what they were supposed to do, the others just sat and were quiet.
Frodo was sitting off by himself with Gimli, Boromir, Sinn and Shenaux sitting close by. Sam, Merry, Pippin and Legolas stood or sat a little bit away from them.
Frodo looked at all of his companions and they met his eyes, all looked weary and grief stricken. Frodo was taken from his thoughts when Boromir spoke to him.
"Gandalf's death was not in vain." The Man from Gondor said. "Nor would he have you give up hope. You carry a heavy burden, Frodo. Don't carry the weight of the dead."
It seemed that Aragorn finally won the argument with Haldir, for said Elf walked over to Frodo and said, "You will follow me." And He led the Fellowship to more talans so that they could rest for the night.
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* * *
Chapter Nine
* * *
When they next awoke, the Fellowship was sitting near a source of water. Sinn and Shenaux blinked a few times and realised that they had just been laid down on the ground and Legolas and Boromir were walking away.
"Where are we?" Merry asked.
"Here is Nimrodel!" Legolas said. "Of this stream the Silvan Elves made many songs long ago, and still we sing them in the North, remembering the rainbow on its falls, and the golden flowers that floated in its foam. All is dark now and the Bridge of Nimrodel is broken down. I will bathe my feet, for it is said that the water is healing to the weary." He went forwards and climbed down the deep-cloven bank and stepped into the stream.
"Follow me!" He cried. "The water is not deep. Let us wade across! On the further bank we can rest, and the sound of the falling water may bring us sleep and forgetfulness of grief." (Quoted I, pg. 444)
"But what about Sinn and Shenaux?" Pippin asked as he looked to where the two women were lying, but instead he found them struggling to their feet.
"You're awake!" He exclaimed. "How are you felling?"
"." Sinn said. Her mouth worked, yet her voice has yet to come back to her. She was getting rather frustrated actually. She sighed and gave him a look that told him she was all right. Shenaux followed suit.
"What happened to your voices? Why can't you talk? When did this happen? Who did this? Where did this actually start?" Sam questioned quickly.
All he's missing is 'how'? Shenaux sent the message to her friend.
Sinn grinned at her friend and then smiled down at the Hobbit and shrugged unsure how to explain or even if she knew the answers to all his questions.
"We can talk to Lady Galadriel." Aragorn announced. "Maybe she will know how to give you back the ability to speak."
"But until then, we can all marvel in the silence." Gimli smiled at the two women and his smile grew wider when he caught their glares.
"Can you cross the water Ladies?" Legolas called over to them from his spot on the other bank.
They threw him a look that told him that they were unable to speak, not unable to wade water. He just chuckled and watched as the Company made their way down the bank one by one and then into the water.
Sinn and Shenaux closed their eyes and sighed happily when the water soothed their sore, aching feet and all the tiredness and grief and weariness from all the days of their journey seemed to lift off their shoulders. When they reached the far bank, they looked up and noticed that Legolas was watching them curiously, as if he was waiting for them to do something spectacular. They gave him odd looks before sitting down under a near by tree.
After everyone had crossed, they all sat and rested a little as they ate some food. As they rested and ate, Legolas told them tales of Lothlórien that his kindred still kept telling their young and each other. Shortly after, silence fell, and they all listened to the comforting sounds of the waterfall. Soon each fell into a relaxed state. If they fancied, they could almost hear a voice singing mixed with the sound of the water.
"Do you hear the voice of Nimrodel?" Legolas asked. (Quoted I, pg. 444)
"Who was Nimrodel?" Sam asked quietly.
Legolas was about to tell him and then most likely sing him the song of the fair Elf-maiden Nimrodel, but two voices beat him to it. Everyone looked over to where Sinn and Shenaux were and stared in amazement as the two sang with their eyes closed. It seemed that their voices returned.
"An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.
A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lórien the fair.
Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden-tree.
Beside the falls of Nimrodel,
By water clear and cool,
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool.
Where now she wanders none can tell,
In sunlight or in shade;
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed.
The Elven-ship in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea.
A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from Elven-strands
Across the streaming tide.
When dawn came dim the land was lost,
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of binding spray.
Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell,
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel.
Of old he was and Elven-king,
A lord of tree and glen,
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlórien.
From helm to sea they saw him leap,
As arrow from the string,
And dive into the water deep,
As mew upon the wing.
The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.
But from the West has come to word,
And on the Hither Shore
No tidings Elven-folk have heard
Of Amroth evermore."
Their voices faltered and they opened their eyes and looked questioningly upon their travelling companions.
"H.how did you know that song?" Legolas questioned.
Sinn blinked at him in confusion. Shenaux and herself were only singing in their heads, weren't they? Frowning, she tried to speak. "It just came to us. We memorised it when we read it on our world." She told him softly and then blinked in surprise and then happiness. "My voice! It is back!" She laughed happily and then stood up.
Shenaux tried to say something and then she laughed happily. "Our voices! They are back!" The two girls then proceeded to dance around in each other's arms happily.
"The song sounds unfinished." Merry noted, catching everyone's attention.
The two women looked at him. "It is. We cannot sing anymore, that is just a part of the lovely song, sung in the Western tongue as some in Rivendell now sing it." Shenaux told him, repeating what Legolas said in the book.
"It is long and sad, for it tells how sorrow came upon Lothlórien, Lórien of the Blossom, when the Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains." Legolas told them.
"But the Dwarves did not make the evil," Gimli said.
"I said not so; yet evil came." Answered Legolas sadly. "Then many of the Elves of Nimrodel's kindred left their dwellings and departed, and she was lost far in the South, in the passes of the White Mountains; and she came not to the ship where Amroth her lover waited for her. But in the spring when the wind is in the new leaves the echo of her voice may still be heard by the falls that bear her name. And when the wind is in the South the voice of Amroth comes up from the sea; for Nimrodel flows into Silverlode that Elves call Celebrant, and Celebrant into Anduin the Great, and Anduin flows into the Bay of Belfalas whence the Elves of Lórien set sail. But neither Nimrodel nor Amroth ever came back.
"It is told that she had a house built in the branches of a tree that grew near the falls; for that was the custom of the Elves of Lórien, to dwell in the trees, and maybe it is so still. Therefore they were called the Galadhrim, the Tree-people. Deep in their forest the trees are very great. The people of the woods did not delve in the ground like Dwarves, nor build strong places of stone before the Shadow came." (Quoted I, pg. 446-7)
They stayed in that area for the night and slept up in the trees just in case the Orcs or other nasty creatures were following them.
The next morning, they were travelling deeper into the woods of Lothlórien and Sinn and Shenaux knew what was to come, so they stayed rather close to Aragorn and Legolas so that if anything, the two men would be seen before the two women. Sinn and Shenaux began to snicker when they heard Gimli talking with the Hobbits.
"Stay close young Hobbits!" Gimli whispered loudly to them. "They say a great sorceress lives in these woods. An Elf-witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell." The Hobbits began to look around rather nervously because of Gimli. "And are never seen again." He finished.
"Gimli!" Shenaux reprimanded the poor Dwarf. "It is not kind of you to tell tales like that. The Lady of the Light is of such beauty that it cannot be described. Yes, she is powerful, but what do you expect of one of her prestige."
Welcome Istari's of another world. A musical voice entered the two women's minds. You have the power to do great things. If they be for evil or for good, that all depends on the decisions you make. You are coming to me and I will receive you. Tell me, where are you familiars? The last part was said with great amusement that Shenaux and Sinn began to worry about their robbing friends.
"Uh, guys," Sinn questioned Aragorn and Legolas, "have any of you seen our thieving friends?"
"Not since we entered Moria." Legolas told her. "I thought they were to meet you here in Lothlórien?"
"They were, it's just that they are not here."
"They'll turn up, I'm sure." Aragorn told the two and they began to journey again.
Sinn and Shenaux heard Gimli and they began to snicker again. "Well, here's one Dwarf that she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox." The Dwarf says seconds before and arrow is pointed at his head. The Galadhrim have arrived and the Fellowship was now being held at arrow point.
Legolas had drawn his bow and strung and arrow in it, but it was useless.
"Let's see who will win shall we?" Sinn said to Shenaux. "One wood land Elf against how many Lórien Elves? I don't think the odds are with our Elf."
Shenaux giggled and Legolas threw Sinn a glare, which she promptly smiled at him with an award winning innocent smile.
Aragorn thought it a good idea to hold his hands up in surrender. What a smart boy.
Just then a blond Elf, (surprise, surprise) walked up to Aragorn. "The Dwarf breaths so loudly we could have shot him in the dark." He said arrogantly and Gimli growled at the Elf.
Shenaux stiffened at Sinn's side, and Sinn looked over at her friend in worry. Shenaux had gone deathly pale and her eyes were rather large and she was shaking like a leaf. Sinn looked in the direction Shenaux seems to be staring at in fright and noticed that her line of sight was upon the new Elf. Sinn frowned in confusion for a few minutes and then it hit her. He looked exactly like Shenaux' ex-boyfriend. The abusive bastard. All you had to do was cut the Elf's hair and give him rounded ears and it would be the dick Darren. (I apologise to any Darren's out there, or friends of Darren's but I needed a name and that's the only one I could think of. So I am sorry if I insulted anyone.)
Sinn grabbed her friend's hand and squeezed it gently. "Hey, calm down. It's not Darren." She whispered. "Darren's on earth, we're on Middle Earth."
"I.I know, but look at him." She whispered back, tearing her eyes from the Elf. "Those eyes. They haunt my dreams." A tear trickled down her cheek and Sinn wiped it away from her face.
"I know. I know. Now if you weren't two inches taller than me I would put her head on my shoulder, but you know." She smiled gently at her friend and hugged her close and then watched Aragorn greet the new Elf.
"Haldir o' Lórien." He bowed slightly to the Elf and spoke in Elvish. "We need your protection." He looked back towards the others. He frowned slightly at the shaking Shenaux in Sinn's arms and Sinn just shook her head at him. He looked back at Haldir.
"Aragorn, these woods are perilous. We should go back!" Gimli called to the soon to be King. Gimli didn't take his eyes off of the arrowhead.
Haldir looked at the Dwarf and glared. "You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Wood. You cannot go back." He looked to the other Elves. "It's getting dark, come." He then led all of the Fellowship to talans for the night.
The Fellowship and the Lórien Elves were all standing on one talon and Haldir began speaking to Legolas in his native tongue.
"Welcome Legolas, son of Thranduil." Haldir said in greeting.
"Our Fellowship stands in your dept, Haldir of Lórien." Legolas told him and nodded his head to him.
"Aragorn of the Dunedain, you are known to us." Haldir said to the King.
"So much for the legendary courtesy of the Elves!" Gimli said. "Speak words we can all understand!"
"We have not had dealings with the Dwarves since the Dark Days." The Elf leader sneered at the Dwarf.
"And you know what this Dwarf says to that?" Gimli asked and then began to speak something in the Dwarven tongue.
Aragorn closed his eyes, trying to keep his patience but it flew out the window and he hit the Dwarf. "That was not so courteous." He scolded as Haldir looked on questioningly.
Finally the Elf looked at Frodo. "You bring great evil with you." Then he looked at Aragorn. "You can go no further." And he walked off.
As Aragorn and Haldir argued in elvish about what they were supposed to do, the others just sat and were quiet.
Frodo was sitting off by himself with Gimli, Boromir, Sinn and Shenaux sitting close by. Sam, Merry, Pippin and Legolas stood or sat a little bit away from them.
Frodo looked at all of his companions and they met his eyes, all looked weary and grief stricken. Frodo was taken from his thoughts when Boromir spoke to him.
"Gandalf's death was not in vain." The Man from Gondor said. "Nor would he have you give up hope. You carry a heavy burden, Frodo. Don't carry the weight of the dead."
It seemed that Aragorn finally won the argument with Haldir, for said Elf walked over to Frodo and said, "You will follow me." And He led the Fellowship to more talans so that they could rest for the night.
* * *