A Middle Earth Quest
Chapter 4
Disclaimer- Don't own LOTR, or the idea behind the park. Human characters are mine. Don't sue...
Suuki-Aldrea- thanks for the idea. I hadn't thought of music before. And thank you for reviewing. You too, saria1992.
A/N- okay, I had a lot of trouble with getting this chapter to work out the way I wanted it to, which is part of the reason it took so long to get it posted. So bear with me, and tell what you think of it. Thanks!
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Leaning back in his seat, Owen scrubbed at his face with his hands. Mel's spiel had rocked his vision of his park to the foundations. He had worked too damn hard and spent too much money for it all to fall apart now, especially when the problem was such that could easily be handled and eliminated with a little creativity.
Now the hard part was figuring out what would be the best thing to occupy the elves time. Thinking about them, Owen realized that he knew next to nothing about his created races, except for what he knew about their story counterparts. He had been so caught up in getting the park up and running and open to the public that he had left those details to his underlings. He had been down to the nursery a grand total of six times in the past six years, and had visited each species in their respective domains only once. But that was mostly because the hobbits and dwarves grew shy and intrusive and uncomfortable around him, and the elves permitted no one but Mel in their demesnes.
Suddenly, in a fit of frustration, Owen stood up and began pacing about his office. Thinking back to the books, he tried to think of what the elves were fond of. But he quickly concluded that Tolkien could give him no solution to this particular problem. In his park there was nothing for them to lord over, save themselves. But then, they already did that, and they were bored to tears doing it.
Forcing himself to concentrate, he tried to think of things an elf might enjoy doing. Something that would keep them occupied for a long time. Unlike the hobbits, they had no real talent or will for growing things, so agriculture was out. The elves were also too delicate and militaristic for mining and other forms of hard labor. They were also not given to philosophy and religion; they were too practical for that. Nor did they seem the sort to really get into sports. Elves seemed to be very picky people.
Abruptly, Owen left and began walking quickly up the main road. He was headed toward the main building which housed the labs, control rooms, and nursery. Not to mention some other stuff. He needed to speak with his head geneticist, Freddy. He needed his opinion and input. Freddy had a talent for making things clearer and easier to deal with.
Friedrich von Zwiebelsdorf, or Freddy for short, was from Germany, and of not so modest descent. He had graduated top of his class from Heidelberg University, but had since been lost to some obscure American Genetics company. Owen had run into his profile on the internet and found him to be the best match for his park. He was smart, extremely smart, but not famous, which meant that no one would question it when he disappeared for a few years. Freddy also was a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and wanted to keep the species as close to the books as was genetically possible. Now Freddy was as invaluable to his teem as Mel was.
About half way there he was passed by one of the contractors driving out to the latest build site; the aviary still needed some work done. As he passed in his jeep, Owen caught a few measures of classical music, Beethoven is he was correct. Then it dawned on him; music was a past time that required many hours of practice over long periods of time to master and perfect. That would be perfect, if the elves were interested, of course. Stepping up his pace, he sent a mental thank you the contractor that had just past by him.
By the time he had reached the front door, five minutes later, he had thought up about five or six more things that would serve as good occupations of their time. But three in particular stuck out in his mind; music, art, and weapons training. All three took concentration, patience, and hard work to become proficient in.
Reaching the door to the control room marked "authorized employees only", he swiped his ID card and went in. Immediately he found the large form of Freddy sitting at a computer console in the middle of the room. Freddy was, apparently, studying the vital statistics on one of the species. Owen shook his head; Freddy was still trying to make his creations perfect. Owen walked up silently behind him.
"Hey Freddy! Whatcha doing?" he asked rather loudly. Freddy jumped in his seat, and Owen laughed.
"Oh," Freddy said, spinning around in his chair to face his superior. "Just checking the vitals on the dwarves, then I was going to get back to verk on the cave troll DNA. That one is a lot harder then the other three vere. All I had to do vis the other species vas to mutate human DNA till I had vhat I vanted." Freddy had been in the US only a couple of years, so his accent was still very thick. But he had mastered the "th" sound very well, now he only had problems with a "w", they always came out as a "v" sound.
Owen smiled. "Don't worry about it Freddy. You've done a marvelous job already. And thank you for working so hard for me. But could you take a break right now, I need your help on something."
The geneticist raised an eyebrow in confusion, but stood up to follow the other man anyway. Standing up, Freddy was about six feet one inch tall, and had dark brown hair and eyes. He easily made Owen look short.
Owen led Freddy to a private conference room down the hall. He gestured for the German to take a seat, then shut and locked the door behind them. He turned around and fixed Freddy with an ambitious smile.
"So vhat did you need?" Freddy asked, not sure whether he liked that odd smile or not.
Owen sat down opposite him at the table. "Mel came to me this morning and informed me of a problem. I hoped you would be able to give me your input. I also need you to tell me a bit about each race," Owen said.
The geneticist nodded his head. "Sure, I'll help. Vhat is the problem?"
Owen quickly outlined for him the mornings encounter with Mel, and the problems she had brought to his attention. And he told him about finding possible solutions from the contractors.
"That does pose a threat now, doesn't it?" Freddy whistled. "Vhat solutions did you come up vis?"
"Well, the first one I came up with, and I think it is potentially is the best, is to teach them to play music. Classical or instrumental music. They could hold concerts for the guests. And music is something that takes a lot of time and effort to master." Freddy nodded, it sounded like a good idea to him.
"Any other idea's?" He asked.
"Yeah, I have two more. Art, that one is right up the same alley with music. And it gives them something similar to music to do. They could become the artisans of the park. And we could sell the art and make more money. The last one I thought was good were weapons training. We could teach them to make, use, and maintain their own weapons. They are already kind of militaristic. And in the books they were superb archers. That would fit in well with what guests would know of them," Owen had gotten really excited and was now leaned over the table and talking real fast.
Freddy thought about it for a few minutes. It sounded like a good idea. It gave them long term hobbies, and would keep them out of trouble. And it would be fairly easy to teach them, they were fast learners anyway. Freddy knew that, he had engineered them that way. And it did seem to be typical of elves, artsy and good with weapons. The only problem he could foresee was that they wouldn't like music or art or weapons. So he voiced that opinion.
"You might vant to give them all three as options, Oven," he said slowly. "They might all not take to one specific hobby. And besides, if they vere all doing the same thing at the same time, they vould get bored again. You should offer all three ideas to them and let them pick vhich one they vant to do. That vay there is diversity."
Owen nodded his assent, then stood up. "That sounds great. Thanks for your help, and if you think of anything else along those lines, that would be great! I have to go now, I need to find Mel and run this past her. Then I need to get in touch with the people I was going to bring in a couple of months. I need to reschedule." He went and unlocked the door and made to leave, then turned around.
"Hey, if you have time tonight, stop on over and we'll have dinner, Mel should be there too, and the three of us can discuss this in more detail." Freddy nodded, and Owen took his leave, making his way back to his office to call the actors people and that company, the one he could never remember the name of. Owen walked briskly, with almost feverish energy, back to his house. He smiled broadly, today had been most productive indeed.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
A/N- I'm sorry it took me so long to get this updated, but now it's up. And I finally made one that's more than a thousand words! Yea! Oh, and next chapter will jump a head another year. The elves need some time to become masters at their chosen occupations. And soon I will introduce the actor and the company representative. Hopefully things will get more interesting soon. Thanks, and tell me what you think. Please review! The button is just down here on the left!
Chapter 4
Disclaimer- Don't own LOTR, or the idea behind the park. Human characters are mine. Don't sue...
Suuki-Aldrea- thanks for the idea. I hadn't thought of music before. And thank you for reviewing. You too, saria1992.
A/N- okay, I had a lot of trouble with getting this chapter to work out the way I wanted it to, which is part of the reason it took so long to get it posted. So bear with me, and tell what you think of it. Thanks!
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Leaning back in his seat, Owen scrubbed at his face with his hands. Mel's spiel had rocked his vision of his park to the foundations. He had worked too damn hard and spent too much money for it all to fall apart now, especially when the problem was such that could easily be handled and eliminated with a little creativity.
Now the hard part was figuring out what would be the best thing to occupy the elves time. Thinking about them, Owen realized that he knew next to nothing about his created races, except for what he knew about their story counterparts. He had been so caught up in getting the park up and running and open to the public that he had left those details to his underlings. He had been down to the nursery a grand total of six times in the past six years, and had visited each species in their respective domains only once. But that was mostly because the hobbits and dwarves grew shy and intrusive and uncomfortable around him, and the elves permitted no one but Mel in their demesnes.
Suddenly, in a fit of frustration, Owen stood up and began pacing about his office. Thinking back to the books, he tried to think of what the elves were fond of. But he quickly concluded that Tolkien could give him no solution to this particular problem. In his park there was nothing for them to lord over, save themselves. But then, they already did that, and they were bored to tears doing it.
Forcing himself to concentrate, he tried to think of things an elf might enjoy doing. Something that would keep them occupied for a long time. Unlike the hobbits, they had no real talent or will for growing things, so agriculture was out. The elves were also too delicate and militaristic for mining and other forms of hard labor. They were also not given to philosophy and religion; they were too practical for that. Nor did they seem the sort to really get into sports. Elves seemed to be very picky people.
Abruptly, Owen left and began walking quickly up the main road. He was headed toward the main building which housed the labs, control rooms, and nursery. Not to mention some other stuff. He needed to speak with his head geneticist, Freddy. He needed his opinion and input. Freddy had a talent for making things clearer and easier to deal with.
Friedrich von Zwiebelsdorf, or Freddy for short, was from Germany, and of not so modest descent. He had graduated top of his class from Heidelberg University, but had since been lost to some obscure American Genetics company. Owen had run into his profile on the internet and found him to be the best match for his park. He was smart, extremely smart, but not famous, which meant that no one would question it when he disappeared for a few years. Freddy also was a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and wanted to keep the species as close to the books as was genetically possible. Now Freddy was as invaluable to his teem as Mel was.
About half way there he was passed by one of the contractors driving out to the latest build site; the aviary still needed some work done. As he passed in his jeep, Owen caught a few measures of classical music, Beethoven is he was correct. Then it dawned on him; music was a past time that required many hours of practice over long periods of time to master and perfect. That would be perfect, if the elves were interested, of course. Stepping up his pace, he sent a mental thank you the contractor that had just past by him.
By the time he had reached the front door, five minutes later, he had thought up about five or six more things that would serve as good occupations of their time. But three in particular stuck out in his mind; music, art, and weapons training. All three took concentration, patience, and hard work to become proficient in.
Reaching the door to the control room marked "authorized employees only", he swiped his ID card and went in. Immediately he found the large form of Freddy sitting at a computer console in the middle of the room. Freddy was, apparently, studying the vital statistics on one of the species. Owen shook his head; Freddy was still trying to make his creations perfect. Owen walked up silently behind him.
"Hey Freddy! Whatcha doing?" he asked rather loudly. Freddy jumped in his seat, and Owen laughed.
"Oh," Freddy said, spinning around in his chair to face his superior. "Just checking the vitals on the dwarves, then I was going to get back to verk on the cave troll DNA. That one is a lot harder then the other three vere. All I had to do vis the other species vas to mutate human DNA till I had vhat I vanted." Freddy had been in the US only a couple of years, so his accent was still very thick. But he had mastered the "th" sound very well, now he only had problems with a "w", they always came out as a "v" sound.
Owen smiled. "Don't worry about it Freddy. You've done a marvelous job already. And thank you for working so hard for me. But could you take a break right now, I need your help on something."
The geneticist raised an eyebrow in confusion, but stood up to follow the other man anyway. Standing up, Freddy was about six feet one inch tall, and had dark brown hair and eyes. He easily made Owen look short.
Owen led Freddy to a private conference room down the hall. He gestured for the German to take a seat, then shut and locked the door behind them. He turned around and fixed Freddy with an ambitious smile.
"So vhat did you need?" Freddy asked, not sure whether he liked that odd smile or not.
Owen sat down opposite him at the table. "Mel came to me this morning and informed me of a problem. I hoped you would be able to give me your input. I also need you to tell me a bit about each race," Owen said.
The geneticist nodded his head. "Sure, I'll help. Vhat is the problem?"
Owen quickly outlined for him the mornings encounter with Mel, and the problems she had brought to his attention. And he told him about finding possible solutions from the contractors.
"That does pose a threat now, doesn't it?" Freddy whistled. "Vhat solutions did you come up vis?"
"Well, the first one I came up with, and I think it is potentially is the best, is to teach them to play music. Classical or instrumental music. They could hold concerts for the guests. And music is something that takes a lot of time and effort to master." Freddy nodded, it sounded like a good idea to him.
"Any other idea's?" He asked.
"Yeah, I have two more. Art, that one is right up the same alley with music. And it gives them something similar to music to do. They could become the artisans of the park. And we could sell the art and make more money. The last one I thought was good were weapons training. We could teach them to make, use, and maintain their own weapons. They are already kind of militaristic. And in the books they were superb archers. That would fit in well with what guests would know of them," Owen had gotten really excited and was now leaned over the table and talking real fast.
Freddy thought about it for a few minutes. It sounded like a good idea. It gave them long term hobbies, and would keep them out of trouble. And it would be fairly easy to teach them, they were fast learners anyway. Freddy knew that, he had engineered them that way. And it did seem to be typical of elves, artsy and good with weapons. The only problem he could foresee was that they wouldn't like music or art or weapons. So he voiced that opinion.
"You might vant to give them all three as options, Oven," he said slowly. "They might all not take to one specific hobby. And besides, if they vere all doing the same thing at the same time, they vould get bored again. You should offer all three ideas to them and let them pick vhich one they vant to do. That vay there is diversity."
Owen nodded his assent, then stood up. "That sounds great. Thanks for your help, and if you think of anything else along those lines, that would be great! I have to go now, I need to find Mel and run this past her. Then I need to get in touch with the people I was going to bring in a couple of months. I need to reschedule." He went and unlocked the door and made to leave, then turned around.
"Hey, if you have time tonight, stop on over and we'll have dinner, Mel should be there too, and the three of us can discuss this in more detail." Freddy nodded, and Owen took his leave, making his way back to his office to call the actors people and that company, the one he could never remember the name of. Owen walked briskly, with almost feverish energy, back to his house. He smiled broadly, today had been most productive indeed.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
A/N- I'm sorry it took me so long to get this updated, but now it's up. And I finally made one that's more than a thousand words! Yea! Oh, and next chapter will jump a head another year. The elves need some time to become masters at their chosen occupations. And soon I will introduce the actor and the company representative. Hopefully things will get more interesting soon. Thanks, and tell me what you think. Please review! The button is just down here on the left!