A Middle Earth Quest

Chapter 11

Disclaimer- Perhaps, in the time between this post and the last post, if I had become wildly rich, I could have bought the rights to Tolkien and Crichton's work. But, sadly, there was no such luck for me. So, to you really confused people out there, I am not an old dead genius, or a really cool Chicago writer, and I do not own their stuff.

Suuki- I'm glad you think so! It makes me feel so good. And thank you for trying to think of ideas; I'll admit I'm having trouble with those at the moment too. But I still think that the only thing I'll need help with is figuring out how to hook up Mel and Cale. Any way, as usual, thanks again for your lovely review.

A. Troll- Thank you very much for your awesome review! And you made a good point. Kaza Dum would not be a boring place to visit at all; I would find it rather fascinating. But I couldn't come up with a good way to work that into the story, or the dwarves themselves really. They just don't play that big a part, and I needed a way to move the plot along while still having the people tour that area. Perhaps, if I can think of a plausible way to do it, I could do something with them later, or after the story is over. I've already had people give me great ways to parody my own story, and I think it's great. Maybe I can add that to my list.

A/N- well, here's the next installment. Terribly sorry it took so long, but Nanowrimo tends to suck up the entire month of November. Anyway, here goes!

Owen, Freddy, and Liam were already there and waiting for them when Mel and Cale reached the hotel parking lot. She parked sloppily in the spot next to them and got out of the car. Slamming the door shut she rounded on Owen.

"You!" she snarled. "Why couldn't you listen to me? I told you they weren't going to go for the idea in the first place. But you made me push! Why won't anyone listen to me?! You blew it! There's no point in even opening the park now. They will not cooperate." She quite yelling long enough to take a breath, before starting in on the actor.

"And you, you couldn't listen to the guide long enough to hear that they wished to be left alone? Are you so horny that you can't leave the first female you see alone? You were lucky she didn't kill you. What use are you here anyway?" Mel was so angry she couldn't get a grasp on the words she needed. She whirled around and pointed a finger at Freddy, who flinched, and found there was nothing to say to him. Everyone was quiet in the wake of her wrath. Mel stood there, in the center of the group of men, trying to get a grasp over herself.

After a moment Cale spoke up. "Um, if I may? What is going on here?" he asked slowly. Owen opened his mouth to answer, but Mel cut him off with a glare.

"This trip never should have happened. You two shouldn't be here. When he scheduled this little escapade, he asked me to inform the hobbits, dwarves, and the elves that we were going to have "visitors" and that Owen would take it as a personal favor if they would open their homes to you. The dwarves and the hobbits said it was fine, but the elves refused. As their numbers grew, they grew more and more secretive. It got to the point where they could only stand my company for a few hours at a time.

"I told Owen to cancel the tour, because they wouldn't cooperate, and he told me it was too late. I had to negotiate with the elves for weeks before they reluctantly "agreed" to let you all come in. And there were the conditions, the biggest one that Mr. Brilliant Actor over there couldn't abide by. And thanks to those two's stupid decisions, this park it a multi-billion dollar waste," Mel finished her explanation and leaned on the bumper of her SUV. She crossed her arms over her chest, practically daring Owen, or anyone else, to say otherwise.

Owen took that dare. "Now wait here!" he spluttered, turning red faced. "This is not a waste. You can patch things up with the elves. And isn't it your fault for not spending enough time with them that they became that secretive? Don't you go blaming all this on me!"

Mel nearly exploded again. For a minute she looked like she was going to start another tirade, but then she began to laugh.

"My fault? My fault," she laughed harder. "How, in god's name, is this my fault?"

Owen searched for an answer.

"That's what I thought. And how could I have spent more time with them with the amount of work you shoved off on me? And how am I supposed to fix the hardwiring problems our genius Freddy over here put into them. I do not have control over their minds. And it's not my fault that the rest of the personnel decided that they weren't worth the time to visit.

"And there is no way to fix the problem this time. After his little stunt," she waved her hand at Liam, "there is no way to get them to forgive us. They won't even listen to me now. They think I betrayed them. " She chuckled again and shook her head. "All that time, money, and hard work, and in one fell swoop you've destroyed the legacy of your father's condiment empire."

Owen found his tongue this time. "I have not spent all this money and time to let you tell me that it's over from one mistake! We'll just delay the opening, get rid of the elves here now, and start over. Freddy can re-engineer them and fix that need to be secretive and spiteful. It'll only take about three more years, and that'll give us time to tweak things here and finish the aviary."

Mel's eyes flashed. There really was no arguing with the fool, but she felt it only fair to warn him. "Even if there was a way for you to kill them all, I wouldn't let you. But as it is, I won't bother."

Owens expression soured and he glared at her. "And why is that?" he asked sarcastically.

"Because, o brilliant one, it was your idea to give them weapons. You armed them, taught them to use those weapons, and taught them how to make them. If you want to know how good they are, ask Randall. He can tell you," and with that she turned and got back into the car. Owen turned red again.

"Where are you going?"

"Home," she called out the window, backing up out of her spot. "I suggest you send Randall to see what their reaction is, now that they've had time to think it over. They don't hate him."

Owen watched her go, seething. Certainly things couldn't be as bad as she thought it was. They just had to figure out what it was the elves wanted, and placate them that way. That was one thing Owen had learned a long time ago; everyone could be bribed.

As mad as he was at her, her advice was sound. He would Send Randall over to inquire as to what their price was. But now he had to figure out what to do with his guests. He couldn't take them with him, and they probably wouldn't want to be left here by themselves. Liam and Cale didn't get along that well anyway. He put his polite and friendly mask back on and turned to them.

Cale was standing off to his right, a troubled look occupying his face. Liam was behind Freddy, face ashen. He looked to be in some kind of shock. Owen dismissed it, it was only him thinking about what Mel had said. He was overreacting to being told he was lucky to be alive.

"Terribly sorry you had to see that," he began. "Mel and I butt heads rather often really. Now, I'm sorry, but after all that back there, I have a lot of work to do. You gentlemen are more than welcome to come along. I'm sure Freddy will be able to answer any questions you may—" Cale cut him off.

"That's very kind of you, but if you'll excuse me, Mr. Bridges, I just want to go back to my room for a while. I need to wind down some." Cale made an apologetic gesture and walked toward to hotel entrance. Liam, who had recovered a bit, nodded his head at Owen and followed the other man.

Owen watched them go, pleased. Now he could put his plans into motion without having them in his hair. He motioned to Freddy and got in the driver's seat of the remaining SUV.

As he pulled out onto the road, he picked up the car phone and called Randall. The man answered, sounding tired.

"Hello?"

"Randall, it's Owen. We've had some problems with the elves. I need you to go down there and see what's going on," Owen said. There was a pause on the other end.

"Okay. What kind of problems? Is this like yesterday when they wouldn't let me through?" He asked.

"Sort of. Our genius of an actor hit on one of the females, and now they've shut the gates. I want you to go down there and see what they want. I won't have my park ruined because of one actor and an insult to the elves. There's got to be something they want that would fix this little problem," he explained.

"Gotcha. I'll go down there now. Where will you be?"

Owen thought a second. "I'll be at Mordor." There came a grunt from the other end then the line clicked off. Owen put the phone down and turned down the road to the command center. He had some work to do.

Forty-five minutes later, while Owen was seated at a computer, poring over the park's security systems, Randall bust through the doors. Owen looked up and saw the arms master walk, pale-faced, into the room.

"Randall?" Owen asked, worried that the elves had dome something to him. The man walked quickly up to the desk and knelt down.

"What'd you find?" he asked quietly. "Are you okay?"

The man spoke quietly, so no one around could hear but Owen. "They've delivered us an ultimatum," he whispered. Owen's eyed went wide. He leaned in closer.

"What do they want?"

The arms master hesitated a minute, not looking at Owen. "They want us out by five today…or they start attacking."

Owen first registered shock, then anger. Then he remembered something, something critical.

"Wait! The choppers won't be back for another two days! The boat's gone, getting supplies. There's no way off the island!" he exclaimed.

Randall looked him square in the eye, fear showing plainly there. "I know. They know that too."

A/N- So, that was a good deal shorter than I had anticipated. And I hope it wasn't too corny at the end. I didn't get a chance to have someone look at it beforehand. And as always, please tell me what you think. I really want to know, good or bad. Anyway, thanks!!!