Alatril Carnesr- thanks for the review! Most stories where someone goes to middle earth, they just stay there so I tried something different.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Not now, not ever!…….Well except for Taelyn and the plot of course. Oh, and the cat.
Chapter Three
A light shake on the shoulders woke Taelyn from her slumber, though when awake, she wished she were still unconscious. Painfully opening her eyes, she focused on the person above her…Aragorn. Suddenly, everything from the previous night came back to her. Frantically, she started trying to get up to see frodo.
Aragorn held her down by the shoulders to get her attention.
"Are you hurt?"
Mentally going through all the places of her body, Taelyn realised that only her head hurt.
"Just my head, Where's Frodo? Is he okay?"
"He'll be fine as long as we can reach Rivendell soon to see Lord Elrond."
A confused look passed across her face. "You mean I'm coming with you?"
"Even though we don't know you, we can't just leave you here defenseless" This comment came from Pippin who was seated to her right.
"I'm not defenseless!" she objected. "Just inexperienced with wielding a huge stick against nine huge things with sharp swords!"
"Ring Wraiths" commented Aragorn
"Huh?
"They were ring wraiths."
"Which are?"
"Don't worry. We need to make haste to Rivendell."
Aragorn stood and walked away out of her line of vision. Pippin also stood and held out a hand to her. He helped her up, although it was difficult, him being shorter than she was.
Taelyn looked around at her surroundings and realised that they were still upon the large tower, though sunlight now shone down upon them. Although she didn't know many things about the company, she knew that they had somewhere to go…. Quickly.
Aragorn was leaning over a very pale Frodo in the little shade there was. Pippin stood beside her and the others sat fidgeting and once in a while glancing at frodo.
"Okay everyone, lets get going to Riverbell!"
"Rivendell"
"Whatever"
She dragged Merry and Sam to their feet as Aragorn easily shouldered Frodo. In single file, they all walked down the narrow path to the ground. They traveled along the east-west road until they crossed the last bridge as the sun began to set. The trees gradually grew larger as they continued onwards until they could no longer clearly see the path ahead of them. That was when Aragorn called for a stop.
Taelyn sat looking over the clammy frodo while Sam and Aragorn melted off into the trees. Merry and pippin sat a little way away, discussing something or other in hushed voices. Putting a hand to his forehead, she felt that frodo had a severe fever. Using a nearby water bottle, she ripped off the end of her sleeve and laid it on his crown. It was then that she noticed what she was wearing. Back in her world, as she was sure she wasn't there anymore; she had been wearing her pizza hut work clothes. Now, she wore tight olive green pants and weird looking, (though comfortable) brown boots. Along with that, she wore an unusual green type of Jacket and underneath in was a khaki Singlet.
"What is this, the army?" she thought to herself.
Once again looking to frodo, she dabbed the damp cloth over the rest of his face. A few minutes later, Aragorn and Sam returned, Sam to sit with the others and Aragorn to kneel next to Taelyn and frodo. Lifting an unusual looking plant to his mouth, he sucked on it for a second before putting it to frodo's wound.
"What's that?" Taelyn asked, curious.
"Athelas"
"I wish you people would explain things better because I have no idea what a ring wraith or Athelas is."
Ring wraiths are evil and Athelas is a plant."
Standing, she walked off muttering, "I figured that."
Taelyn was pacing backwards and forwards, scuffing her feet when a bright presence seemed to appear before her. Looking up, she saw a white horse, and a beautiful maiden upon it. Confused, she glanced to the rest of the company who were all looking at her. Aragorn walked over to her and they had a conversation in some language that she didn't understand.
"She's and elf" Sam stated, enlightening Taelyn.
After they finished talking, Aragorn lifted Frodo up onto the mare and the lady sat behind him. They then turned around to head away.
"What are you doing? Those riders are still out there!"
Aragorn just turned away from the departing rider to talk to the remaining company.
"We will rest here for the night. Tomorrow morning we shall head for Rivendell."
With that, everyone tried to get comfortable enough to go to sleep, laying in silence for hours until the light snores of the hobbits were heard throughout the area. Sleep was far away for Taelyn so she stood and made her way to the nearest, largest tree. From there she climbed up into its upmost branches and gazed at the stars, (those that were not covered by leaves) deep in thought.
For hours she sat there gazing into nothing as the sky gradually got lighter. Startling her out of her reverie, aragorn's voice below made her jump slightly and her balance wobbled on the flimsy branch.
"What?"
"I said, have you had any sleep?"
"No!"
"…. Can you come down here please?"
"Sure" she replied, slowly climbing down.
Once on flat ground, Taelyn gave Aragorn a look saying "Now what?"
"Go wake the others while I pack the bags"
"Oki Dokalie"
"What?"
"Don't worry"
She then wandered over to Sam, who was closest and leant down next to him. Reaching out, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder. No response. Poking him harder, she was surprised when he rolled over onto her hand. Trying not to hurt herself, Taelyn tugged on her arm. When he rolled off of her hand, she went flying backwards into the dirt.
"Great" she muttered.
Leaning next to his ear, she said "Wake up!"
When he still didn't move, she repeated, louder, "Wake up!"
Sam remained asleep, though her shout had successfully woken up the other two hobbits. Merry came over with a bottle of water and trickled some lightly down Sam's face. The next instant, all five companions were awake and eager to get to rivendell and frodo.
Aragorn handed out a bag to each of them, and Taelyn was pleased to note that hers seemed the same weight as the others. She didn't want to become more of a burden than she already was. For most of the morning, Aragorn pushed them at a swift pace, aware that there were still wraiths out there. Pleased with herself, Taelyn was glad she was reasonably fit so that she could keep up. Every now and then, one of the guys would glance behind them to check up on her and make sure she hadn't disappeared. Eventually, Taelyn became sick of it.
"Look guys, I may be female, but I am not incompetent and I can keep up with you!"
Aragorn stopped and turned to answer,
"It's not that we find you unable to keep up, it's that we barely know you and we don't know what you are capable of. For all we know, you may be a witch, or an assassin sent to kill us. It doesn't help that you disappeared once I had tended to your wound."
Taelyn stood there speechless for a minute before replying.
"Sorry for disappearing, but I think I am a cosmic stuff up at the moment. Also, I am more capable of flying to mars than killing any of you."
"What's Mars?" asked Pippin.
"At night, when you look up at the stars, one of the little dots might be slightly redder than the rest. That's mars."
"Why would you want to fly to a dot?"
"Pippin, leave Taelyn alone" Aragorn said and walked off. The rest of the company followed behind.
Hours later, they arrived at rivendell. Taelyn, having been rather quiet all afternoon, stared at her feet constantly, and so missed seeing rivendell at a glance. She only started paying attention when Aragorn said her name. Looking up, she realised that she stood in a large foyer like room with four tall dark haired beings looking down at her. The elf on the left, (for she saw that they all had pointy ears) seemed noble and the eldest of the four.
"This is lord Elrond" Aragorn said. The elf in question nodded his head gravely.
"Next to him are his two sons, Elladan and Elrohir."
They must be twins she thought, as they looked exactly alike.
"Indeed" the man on the left of the two said. Taelyn gave him a puzzled look before turning to the last person. She recognised the lady from the woods and rushed towards her. As the lady started to speak, Taelyn came to a standstill.
"I am arwen, and frodo is resting down the hall, though he can't be disturbed yet."
Taelyn let out a breath she hadn't realised that she had been holding. The two women looked at the others in the room. Merry, Pippin and Sam were huddled in a corner talking about, it looked, Frodo. Aragorn and Elrond were talking together and Elladan and Elrohir were looking at her suspiciously. Feeling nervous under their scrutiny, Taelyn turned back to arwen. As if sensing her displeasure, Arwen led her down the hall in the direction of what she said was frodo's room.
"This is frodo's room" she said pointing to a door on the left, then kept walking. Taelyn desperately wanted to open that door and enter the room, but arwen was leaving and she decided that she would rather stay with the maiden who knew these halls than wander off on her own, so she lengthened her own stride to catch up with Arwen. They stopped infront of a door and Arwen led her inside.
"This shall be your room. I hope you find it to your liking."
Taelyn gazed around adoringly at the large, spacious room that she was in.
"Very much so. Thankyou." She said turning back to the she-elf.
"I suggest that you get some rest." Then she left, closing the door behind her. Tired, Taelyn collapsed on the bed and was asleep in minutes.