Chapter II: Gondor
By EclipseKlutz
Classification: "Lord of the Rings": Action/Adventure/Drama
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: I have a few ideas now but they'll have to wait before I have them finalized by the vict-er-friend I make read these… so pairings should be decided in a few days.
Disclaimer: Do you think I could ever own this? Gees, I'm flattered… except Lord of the Rings was published in the early-mid 1900s. How old do you think I am? Anyways, I own a few characters (hopefully you'll know who they are), and the plot… JRR Tolkien owns the rest. Fallsville doesn't exist by the way.
Spoilers: Takes place a few years after the movies
Summary: After given a science project that's worth half their grade, school nerd Amy Gidget and the punk-rocker Tess Fields are pretty much forced to work together. But when the project goes awry, they're pulled into Middle Earth; a place Amy only has little knowledge of and to which Tess is completely illiterate. Now they have to return to their own time… but another war has started.
A/N: Most of the fic from here on out will take place in Middle Earth unless noted otherwise, so I hope I don't have to put the headline things up again. Replies to the reviews are at the end- thank you so much ^-^, lots and lots of inspiration! Nice to know Tess's humor is appreciated… heh, there's more here *sighs* insulting Faramir but…
Also, I'd like to say it's mostly just talking through the beginning of the chapter, but once that's over and done with I will try to get some action in here. So just bare with me, ok?
And while I'm on the topic of baring with me, Tess will most likely be herself throughout the entire story unless you want otherwise, and Amy will have to undergo a bit of character development to free her from whatever bonds of nerdiness and no-life-iness she's chained in.
~~*~~
"King Aragorn," Faramir greeted as he stepped into the large, yet empty stone hall.
"Yes, Faramir," Aragorn acknowledged as he looked up from the dwarf he'd been talking with about various topics as they awaited Legolas's arrival.
Faramir took a hesitant breath before explaining, "We came across two human girls in our travels- too far away from any village. We brought them back for interrogation, shall I have them sent in now or would you rather it wait?"
"Now is a better time then never," Aragorn said tiredly, and beside him Gimli nodded- unsure of what else to do.
The buff horseman entered the room a few moments later, dragging an angry Tess behind him as Amy walked casually on his left side as though this happened every day… which it didn't. How many times in a lifetime were you pulled into a place from a book?
'One in a very large number,' she thought, hiding her panicked emotions from her expression. Thanks to Tess and her own earlier outbreak, they all believed her to be crazy so there was no hope of getting the truth across. 'But I want to go home!'
"This one's delusional," Faramir stated, motioning towards Amy, before glancing at Tess, "And that one is too."
"I'm not delusional! What is wrong with you people? I just want to get home!" Amy shouted, finally losing her patience with the Gondor horse master even though Tess didn't seem to mind being called crazy. "How do you know you're not the ones who are insane, huh? HUH?"
"Sit," Aragorn commanded, his voice strangely calm despite her outbreak.
Crossing her arms across her chest Amy huffed stubbornly, "I'd rather stand."
The buff rider pushed Tess into a chair and exited, deciding he no longer wanted to be in the room. After a moment of reluctant mental conflict, Faramir followed him out the door.
Now that he and Gimli were the only ones left in the room, Aragorn inquired of Amy, "May I ask where your village is?"
"Fallsville, Oregon in the U.S. of A., on Earth," Amy responded, "And I'm not crazy…"
"How'd they come to believe you were, then?" Aragorn replied.
Amy sent a dark glare Tess's way and stated, "She told them I was delusional so they would let us go… please, you've got to believe me. I don't want to be in this forsaken place…"
"I would believe you if I heard more of your story," Legolas said as he walked into the room. "Aragorn, Gimli, nice to see you."
Tess looked defeated as she mumbled so that she thought only Amy would hear, "Amy, you could just lie and they could let us go and we could find a way home ourselves."
"You know, elves have excellent hearing," Legolas informed Tess, before turning his gaze upon the girl, "So your name is Amy then?"
Amy nodded. "Can we go now?"
"I'm afraid that if what you say is true, it might not be wise to leave so soon," Aragorn said. "Though we have no proof it is… other then your cloths."
"What is it with you guys and our, dare I say modern, cloths? We're not hookers, gees- I've never even had a date in my life," Tess commented dryly.
Gimli snickered slightly at her comment, though his expression made it clear that he didn't buy a word of what they were trying to tell them. He shut up at the glance Aragorn tossed him, "Give us proof then that you both are not delusional and that both of you don't belong in one of our psychiatry wards."
"You established those?" Amy inquired, looking half proud with achievement, "And I thought that would never work…"
Tess, who had been picking at the ropes binding her wrists since they first put them on, had finally managed to take them out of the binding and fold them across her chest, "My proof is that even back home I'm more sane then her."
"We're getting no where with this interrogation-thing," Amy huffed, finally stating the obvious, "Can't you just believe us already and get it over with?"
"They do have the accent from someone not from here," Legolas commented, glancing over at Aragorn and Gimli.
"I don't have an accent!" Tess protested.
Kicking her in the shins, Amy mumbled, "Tess… shut up."
"Why?"
"Because you're not helping."
"How about," Aragorn suggested, "We set you up with rooms for the night and discuss this matter in the morning? It's getting late."
Gimli glanced over at Amy's scrawny frame and said pointedly, "Feed them first, Aragorn- that one looks like she hasn't eaten half her life."
Any comeback Amy had for that one sounded severely strange, and would probably only enhance their belief that she was insane, so she stayed strangely silent, trying to ignore the giggles Tess was unable to suppress.
----*----
Amy yawned; staring at the ceiling of the chamber Aragorn had appointed her, which was gradually becoming blurrier as sleepiness set in. Mentally cursing her insomnia, and desperation to finish the last book she'd started ('Rowan Hood'), Amy rolled over once again now on her side staring out the window and the dimly lit stone streets of Gondor.
'I never thought I'd regret not reading the books,' she thought, frowning. Had she known maybe a few years earlier she would've skipped that day- one absence couldn't dent her academic achievement that much, right?
Someone knocked the thick wooden medieval-fashioned door to her room, causing her to jump. Taking a quick –yet deep- breath to re-achieve her earlier forced calmness, she crawled off the bed and walked over to the door, pressing down the iron handle the door swung open to reveal the blonde elf in the doorway.
"Hi, what's going on?" Amy inquired suspiciously- Middle Earth seemed much less threatening in the movies, and she wasn't sure she trusted Tolkien's characters as much as she used to… of course, back then there had been a television screen and God-knows-what-else separating them from her.
"I thought maybe I could understand this better if Aragorn and Gimli aren't around making their own inquiries, and if your friend wasn't being sarcastic- and as you put it, 'not helping'," Legolas responded.
Nodding, Amy stepped aside so he could enter and stood timidly by the door- not sure what she was supposed to say or do. Thankfully he picked up on that and told her, "Have a seat- I only have a few simple questions."
"Okay," she said slowly, but walked over to the bed and sat down on it nonetheless.
"All right, first off, are you delusional? A straight answer would get a lot of this settled," Legolas stated after a few moments of awkward –on her part- silence.
"No," Amy protested instantly as she leaned back against the wall, "I can't believe you're still stuck on that… I'm just, well, smart for my age."
"Which is?"
"Fifteen."
"What's this place… Earth, like?"
"Depends on the season, but it's full of snobby preps and idiots, and druggies, and chaos, and people whose minds have been destroyed by the television."
"Sounds negative."
"Only parts of it."
"What's the good parts, then?"
Amy thought for a moment, only just realizing that she had spent a good deal of her life focusing on the negative, " Well… I'd say books. Or maybe education… And writing… I don't know." 'That's it? Gees… I really do need a life.'
"And that sounds strangely dull," Legolas informed her, shaking his head, "If that's it, then why do you want to leave Middle Earth?"
"My family- mom would practically die if I don't come back, after dad died I'm all she's got really," she told him as she picked a pillow off the floor and hugged it gently. "And… it's, well, it's home."
"That I can understand," he said. "Even Gandalf agreed that home always draws you back-"
"So you believe me?" Amy interrupted.
Legolas hesitated for a moment as though contemplating his answer, "A little… Honestly I don't understand why Aragorn believes you to be lying."
"Because of the complete unrealism of Earth existing," Amy answered for him, "It's simple really, on Earth this place is just a figment of another writer's imagination like
Harry Potter or… hm, wonder if that exists… anyways, it just doesn't seem corporeal enough to grasp the truth, like the possibility of alternate planes. To be completely honest myself, I still don't think this place – Middle Earth is real."
Legolas nodded, her reply did seem to put some very obvious things in perspective. Climbing to his feet he told her, "You'll have to prove this tomorrow, but even if it is true we may not be able to help get you back for a while…"
"Why?" Amy demanded, as far as she was concerned she wanted to be home now.
"Some shape shifter after power, it doesn't seem as bad as the ring but you never know," the elf explained, before frowning and inquiring, "You do know what I'm talking about, correct?"
"Yeah, that's what the Token-person wrote about," she informed him. 'What was that guy's name, anyway?'
"Good. You'd better carry out Aragorn's orders and get some rest, it seems as though you're going to have a rather hard day tomorrow," with that Legolas left the small room, shutting the door behind him.
Amy sighed and climbed beneath the brown blankets covering the bed after blowing out the candle that had offered light earlier. Once again facing the window she closed her eyes and tried desperately to achieve her goal of sleep…
'Wait a minute… since when were there shape shifters in Middle Earth?'
----*----
The morning's questioning had gone smoothly, and with Legolas's help they managed to convince the human and dwarf of the truth… well, make them not be so skeptical about.
To say the least, Faramir wasn't exactly pleased with the outcome as he stormed into the hall where the questioning had taken place.
"I told you that one was delusional!" he argued, still strongly rooted to his earlier belief that the girls were both insane liars.
The one he was talking about though had left a while ago in a quiet retirement to the room Aragorn had supplied- or as an escape from Gimli's constant comments about the fact that he was convinced she was starving herself and needed to eat something like a loaf of lambous bread.
So Tess, who was leaning casually against the stone wall and seemingly enjoying herself was the one to answer his protests, "Horse-guy, get a brain already… I just wanted you to go away."
"That may have been so but you lied straight out to me about her name, and you attacked one of my horsemen," He responded, his anger matching her amusement at the whole thing.
Aragorn cocked an eyebrow, deciding that now would be a good time to intrude in their conversation, "You attacked one of the horsemen?"
"I hit him," she corrected, "But it can be simply classified as self defense, he was invading my personal space and was grabbing my arm. What was I supposed to do?"
"Try to act innocent, maybe?" Faramir suggested dryly.
"Yeah, but that's boring and I prefer to be blunt," she responded quickly.
"Your acting like mindless children," Gimli huffed, causing Legolas to laugh silently at the comment. Like Gimli hadn't acted like that when they'd been counting up how many orcs each of them had taken down?
Tess grinned at the dwarf as she flicked a few stray strands of hair away from her eyes, "That's the point and welcome to my world, short dude."
Thankfully Gimli chose to ignore her comment, but Faramir didn't. "They show no respect for their elders and superiors and should be made to consider this for a week at least!" He insisted.
"You have to admit though, it is entertaining," one of the guards piped up from the sidelines. He covered his comment quickly though with a: "Though its not my place to make that judgment."
"You're not," Tess offered in response before any of the others could reply, "But I agree with you one hundred percent."
Faramir grunted, "I still don't think they can be trusted."
"Maybe not, but we have to take their word for it," Aragorn cut in sharply. "Meanwhile, we have more things to worry about…"
"And that's the way the cookie crumbles," Tess mumbled under her breath so none of them could hear her- it wasn't like they were familiar with modern day movies anyway ('Do they even know what a movie is?' she thought).
Faramir glared at her but said nothing; she hadn't had the last word yet. "Yes, the shape shifter currently resides somewhere near Rohan, should I send some of my men?"
"A few, but only to investigate and alert Eowyn, we should not step in to Rohan's affairs," Aragorn ordered.
"Eowyn?" Tess repeated, "Isn't that the sadistic blonde chick from the movies? So she owns the place now, cool… Can I go?"
"I would hardly call Eowyn sadistic," Aragorn responded shortly, turning to Gimli, "Please escort Tess from the room. We do not need interruptions and misunderstandings right now."
Tess shrugged, "I don't need anyone to escort me anywhere, thank you… Gees, it's not like it's the prom or anything. And haven't you ever heard of conjunctions? Conjunction function… ah, crap! I've got that stuck in my head again…"
With that she walked out, humming the Conjunction Function theme song, heading towards Amy's room.
Legolas watched her go and stated after a minute, "I can tell you that Amy seems fine, but that one… that one's just strange."
----*----
"Hey," Tess greeted expressionlessly as she shoved open the door to Amy's room, the Conjunction Function theme song still playing over and over again in her mind.
Silence greeted her.
Frowning, Tess pushed the door open all the way and stepped into the room, which was slightly smaller then her own down the hall. Other then the various objects called furniture in the modern day world the room was empty.
She crossed the room, her boots made odd squeaking sounds as they hit the wooden floorboards but she ignored it deciding that the whole place seemed as though it could cave in any minute anyway. From the window, she saw the familiar petite brunette walking hesitantly through the streets, and if Tess wasn't very much mistaken, Amy was receiving some weird stares as she did so.
'Probably because of the clothes,' Tess mused, rolling her eyes, 'Wouldn't be the first time.'
Her need of someone to talk to that wouldn't ignore her though was increasing and leaving less time for any sarcastic comments, mentally or verbally, so once again she crossed the floor and slammed the door shut behind her, heading outside.
----*----
Amy sighed as she walked through the winding streets of Gondor, becoming more confused as every alley and crack in the road appeared. It was like some twisted labyrinth. 'How do these people ever find their way?'
She needed to think though, to clear her head and act like the calm sensible one yet again. But she could hardly make sense of the streets, so how could she possibly understand Middle Earth as it stood now?
"Yeah, well, so much for being calm and collected," she mumbled to no one in particular, judging by some of the looks she was getting they already thought she was crazy, so how could it hurt to enhance their belief a little? And what exactly was prostitute-ish about a knee-length skirt and t-shirt?
Not getting the way these overdressed people thought, she turned yet another corner and found herself somewhere in the outskirts of Gondor, a place she was fairly sure wasn't in the movies.
But here, what did the movies matter?
"Excuse me, dear," a creaky voice came from behind her. Amy turned to see an elderly man standing there bundled up in worn rags, and covered in specks of dirt. The man gave her a forced smile revealing a mouth of yellow and few teeth, "Could you supply some water?"
Amy frowned, "I'm sorry, I-I don't live here. But I think I saw a well a little ways that way."
The man continued to smile, though his frail form appeared as though it would collapse any minute. He handed her a wooden pail and inquired, "Dear, would you be as kind as to get me some? It's ever so painful to walk that far."
"Sure," she responded, taking the pail and walking in the direction where she fairly sure she'd seen a well.
Easier said then done. Gondor seemed to get bigger every second as she crossed through it.
Suddenly someone shoved her hard into the stonewall of one of the buildings, and throbbing pain shot through her arm. She turned to shout at whoever had done that, but a hand covered her mouth and she found herself looking into the cold black eyes of the tall, rather square man that had pushed her.
As she was so small, it was simple for him to herd her into an empty alley, and despite her muffled screeches and kicking no one seemed to notice as he pulled out a knife. Its color was dulled by age, but that didn't make the steepness of the sides and sharpness of the tip any less threatening.
The man tossed her unceremoniously into the back wall of the dark alley, where she shrunk to the floor not daring to move her gaze from the weapon's blade.
"What's wrong, Arcadia?" he hissed at her, obviously taking pleasure in her fear and the way she squirmed uncomfortably as he said the name that only a few people had heard, and the way she knew he shouldn't have been one of them.
"Wh-what do you want?" she demanded hoarsely, now backed up in a corner and with full knowledge that probably hadn't been the wisest move.
The man smirked, running the blade across his index finger lightly, and even from the gentle touch of the edge a small bead of blood snaked down his finger. "Only to carry out my orders."
"Which are?" she made herself ask, figuring the more time she spent talking the more time she bought for anyone who might've noticed her being dragged into a vacant alley against her will. 'Of course, wouldn't they have acknowledged it then?'
"Simple," he told her, still smirking sadistically, "Kill you, make the master happy."
"Why me?" That question came out before she could ponder it, but as she was new here the only person who didn't like her so far was… was Faramir. And he wouldn't have someone assassinate her… would he?
The man didn't answer and merely knelt down in front of her, holding the knife tightly in one hand, "Tell me, Arcadia, that time you thought the world wasn't worth living and would be so much easier to end, did you actually intend to commit suicide?"
Amy's eyes widened to nearly twice their usual size, "Th-that was back on Earth, how could you possibly know?"
"So it is true," the man whispered, looking slightly surprised himself. "My Master has taken quite an interest in you… the servants rumor that he fancies you. Do you know who he his?"
'Interest in me? Okay, that rules out Faramir.' Amy shuddered, though forced herself to look the man in the eyes, "Not a clue."
"Thought so," the man smirked, twirling his knife around once more in an almost show-off-y manner, "Of course, you can imagine that he dislikes this fact and wants to get rid of you, correct?"
"Vaguely," Amy responded truthfully, watching the knife carefully, "Honestly, I'm still stuck on anyone liking me."
"Yes, that is hard to believe," the man agreed. "Oh well, enough chit-chat, I'm getting bored. Just thought it'd be nice to let you know why I'm killing you."
With that he pulled his hand with the weapon back, as though to stab her when something hit him hard across the back of his head. He went cross-eyed for a moment, which was all Amy needed to crawl out of the corner, climb to her feet, and see whoever had decided to help her out.
"Oh, gosh, thank you, Tess," she said breathlessly, leaning against the wall as Tess picked up the hefty rock she'd hit the guy with earlier and dumped it over his head yet again. This time there was the sound of something cracking and the guy crumpled to the floor.
Tess watched him in disgust and kicked his form, "He's not dead… yet, anyway. Yeah, sure, Amy. Can't have my only advocate get murdered this early on, right?"
"Wow, Tess, you used a big word," Amy responded dryly, waiting for her heart rate to return to normal.
"I know more, it's amazing, huh?" Tess replied with a half-grin, glancing around. "Hey, what's with the bucket?"
"AH!" Amy shouted as she remembered why she was retracing her path through Gondor in the first place. "There's an old man back there who needed water… I've still got to get him some."
Tess rolled her eyes in response, "Whoa, slow down there, Rocket Girl. One thing at a time… which, I think, is that you were going for a walk, found some dude who needed water, became Miss Goody-Two-Shoes and went back to get him some, then got attacked by a crazy guy, got saved by some punk rocker from Earth, and now are still set on getting the dude his water?"
"That about sums it up… Except for the Goody-Two-shoes part," Amy replied, grabbing the bucket. "The well's somewhere near, right?"
Tess nodded, "Right down the lane."
----*----
"Here you go," Amy offered as she handed the elderly man his pail.
He smiled at her in thanks and took a big gulp of the water. Using his sleeve to wipe the remaining drips from his gray beard he stated, "May the gods bless you, dear."
From behind her, Amy vaguely heard Tess mutter under her breath: "Yeah, well they haven't so far."
----*----
A/N: Sorry this took me so long to get up, been grounded (still am), and chapters this length don't come easily for me. Thanks for reading, though.
Anaire Eruthiadeth: Thanks! This is probably the most supportive review I've ever gotten! Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! ^-^.
WeasleyTwinsLover1112: Nice to know you liked the last chapter, hope you liked this one too! (Enough of Tess's humor for you, then?)
Regeane: Thanks! Yeah, that's what I figured too with the cloths thing…
PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! *begging*