First off, I want to thank those of you who have read this story, it means a lot to me. Second, thank the Valor I got this out before Halloween! I've been told that this story has a bit of the same plot that Dreamsprite does. Good to know, but for the most part, this one is going to be stretched to the limits, so don't go getting the wrong idea about this, it's not like the other MS's, at least not in my eyes. It may be different to you, it's all in how someone perceives something, like art. There's many views, much criticism, but the only person who has to like it is the artist. And anyways, isn't everyone doing a MS of everyone else's ideas? The way I see it, fanfics, like fashion, has trends...everyone is copying everyone else. So if anyone out there has any ORIGINAL stories or know of any that they would like to share, please tell me.
By the way, I don't get mad at constructive criticism, I will get mad at flames, but I take criticism with open arms.
So with that said, I present you with the next chapter.
A Moonlit Celebration
Previously...
"People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the Land of the Dead..."
I knew that quote. It came from The Crow. I distinctly remember because it was among one of the DVDs that I had stuffed away in my bag that I watched a lot.
Something made me continue to recite the quote with her.
"...but sometimes, just sometimes...the crow can bring that soul back, to put the wrong things right...I thought that Eric was the last...I never imagined there would be another..."
How did she know this?!
She stood there in front of me, her gaze never leaving mine, smiling like she would have the advantage if a fight broke out. I won't fall for this. She's trying to catch me off guard.
"Now I know that you are the one." She said at last.
"Pardon?"
"I told you earlier that I have had continuing dreams of a crow. I saw the destruction of a family, Sides were taken, hearts broken. I believe yours in particular."
"How did you know about that?"
"I foretold it in my mirror. I saw them attack you. I saw them kill you. Like Eric, you suffered a terrible fate, and have returned to put the wrong things right."
"Okay, you know that much, but do you know the whole story? Eric died because of the crow. The crow was his link from the Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead."
"Yes, but you were brought back under much different circumstances. Have you ever wondered about the insignia on your left wrist?"
"No. I went to several doctors, and they told me that results came up inconclusive, and reasoned that it was a birthmark that appeared."
"They were wrong. I know what it is you seek, Arlene. Now, about the marking. My dreams told me of a woman from another realm coming to us, bringing with her sadness and pain, but also a powerful gift."
"What is this gift?"
"You, my dear, are a sprite. And a rare one at that. A legend tells of your kind that lived millennia before the time if the Elves. But something happened that eradicated the line, cutting off the link for many years until the prophecy had been fulfilled. The prophecy of a sprite that would have the power to overcome the evil that destroyed their ancestors."
"So you're saying that I'm the one from the prophecy?"
"That is correct. Arlene, you are the last of your kind. You must find the evil and terminate it. You have the power to, I can see it in your eyes."
I'm the last...sot that means that if I'm killed, then the bloodline will be lost forever...well not if I can help it! "Powers? What kind of powers, do you know?"
"I'm sorry, I cannot say for I do not know."
"But, say I defeat this evil? What then? I don't even know if I can go back home!"
"My dear, you are home. As for your other question, I would say find your soul mate and begin a family," she said, the mischief dancing in her eyes.
How can I if I'm the last of my kind?!
"Elves are the next closest to sprites," she added.
I had a feeling at what she was hinting at, but I still had to ask. "What do you mean by that?"
She smiled more. "You'll learn soon enough."
It was really late at night before anyone considered turning in. I looked at my watch, it read 2:44. Okay, try really early in the morning.Legolas wouldn't leave me be until I gave in to his request to escort me back to my room.
He stopped me before I could enter the room. "Arlene, what was the Lady Galadriel talking about earlier?"
Oh boy, now what will I do? He's not gonna leave me alone until I give him an answer. "Well, it's like this," I started. "She thinks that I'm the Sprite in a prophecy that is supposed to vanquish the evil that eradicated the line a long time ago." I blurted out. "Sounds, crazy, right?"
"Actually no." he replied, "I recall Ada telling me of the story. When you piece it all together it makes sense. Now think, you wake up one morning and a black row appears on your wrist. These 'doctors' or healers claim that it is just a mere birthmark. Then one night you are attacked by creatures you know not of, are left for dead, then somehow you were brought to this time. You are a rare beauty that has not graced Middle-earth for ages. The Lady tells you the truth, now all that you have to do is accept it. I bid you goodnight, Arlene." He finished, lifting my hand up to kiss it before turning and retreating down the hallway.
I knew that the kiss was meant to be polite, but my body didn't read it as polite. Damn hormones...wait, did he just call me 'a rare beauty?!' Whatever. I turned on my heel and entered my room, discarding the dress and pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a thin strapped tank top before climbing into bed, practically begging for sleep to pull me under.
My dreams were filled with memories of friends from home, the small part of my family that actually cared, events that happened in the world, even the most trivial things like calling shotgun when there's three people riding in the car. It was in my dreams that I realized that nothing is trivial. You could be up on top one day, and then dead the next. No one knows when their time has come to take the final walk, or when the Day of Judgment has arrived, but things like that should make people live life to it's fullest and not take anything for granted.
A loud knock at my door broke the connection to the dream realm. Carpe Diem...one good thing about watching the Dead Poet's Society all those times... "Who is it?" I called, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
"It's us," came four chorused voices.
"Well 'it's us' doesn't tell me anything," I replied, opening the door to find four Hobbits staring at me. "What's up?"
"Up, the sky is up." Sam said.
"No, no, you misunderstood me. What's up is an expression, think of it as, how are you?"
"Oh, then we're fine Lady Arlene," Frodo said. "We just wanted to talk with you."
I opened the door wider to allow them in. "Then by all means come in. What is it that you would like to discuss with me Master Hobbits?"
"For starters, you don't have to address us formally, Lady Arlene," Merry said.
"Then you must not address me formally," I said.
"That's fine. Now, can you tell us more about what your people do on this 'Halloween?'"
"Sure! What would you like to know?"
"Everything."
"Elaborate."
"Festivals, costumes, things like that." Pippin added.
While they scrambled onto the bed to get comfortable, I grabbed a pair of jeans, and a vintage T-shirt and made my way to the bathroom to change clothes. "Alright, I'm gonna warn you, once you get me going about Halloween, it's hard for me to stop." I heard them mumble something that I heard them mumble something that sounded like an 'okay' as I pulled the T-shirt over my head.
"Okay, where to start," I said mostly to myself. "Festivals that are held on Halloween are really diverse. It depends greatly on the culture in the area. It's like a big gathering of people that dress up in costumes, eat food made especially for the holiday, and just hang out and have a good time. Um costumes...they're like strange clothes that little kids and sometimes adults dress up in. There's a magazine on the bed right there. Yeah, that's it. It is full of costumes, party decorations, things people go to the store and buy, or they can make some of them. I get that in the mail every year. Anyways, about the little kids, they do something that I've always loved doing: Trick or Treats."
"What are 'Trick or Treats?'" Sam asked.
"Oh, it's awesome! Kids go from door to door in their neighborhood and knock on the door. When someone answers, they say 'trick or treat!' and the person gives them a treat. Sometimes it's candy, sometimes it's fruit, and sometimes it's even money."
The Hobbits seemed really intrigued by what I had to say, and it made me feel good to know that there was someone that was interested in what I had to say. I can't say the same about my family. A visit with my grandmother to talk about things that had been going on turned into watching TV in silence. If I wanted to watch TV, then I would be at home, so I left. It's not like she would have noticed. Even when she had company over and I was there, she'd barely regard my existence like everyone else, so I left. When I ran out of things to say, Frodo, Sam, and Merry, and Pippin wanted to borrow the magazine. So I gave it to them and they took off. Where, I have no clue. I began to pull things out of my duffel and put them away, figuring that I'd be staying for a while...
Following the Hobbits...
Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin split up and raced through the halls of the palace, looking for anyone and everyone they find, herding them into the Great Hall once again.
The groups of people talked amongst themselves, asking each other why they had been called upon so suddenly. Four small shouts brought the room to silence, but heads turning in every direction to find the location of the sounds.
"It looks to me like this has been set up by none other that Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Frodo Baggins, and Samwise Gamgee," Gandalf said, peering down at the small Half-lings. "What is the reason for this?"
Pippin stood up on a table so everyone could see him. "We have been talking to Arlene this morning, and she has told us much about this holiday she calls Halloween. But she sounded homesick the way she talked, so we were talking, and thought that it would mean a lot to her if we could put together a Halloween festival, since she said that she wasn't going to be able to make it to her friends'."
Gandalf smiled at them, his eyes twinkling. "That is a splendid idea, Master Took, but where do we begin? We know nothing of this sort."
Merry jumped up on the table. "Arlene gave us a book to look at. It has a bunch of things in it that we can use. See, it's right here."
Arwen moved over and took it from the eager Merry and began to flip through it. "Ada, he's right. There are all sorts of clothes in here that the seamstresses can make, they look fairly simple. And the decorations! These things can be gathered from around the palace! What do you think, can we do this?"
"This is not my choice, Arwen, but your husband's. I don't live here." Elrond said, with a small smile at his daughter, thinking that she still resides under his home.
She looked embarrassed for a moment, then turned to Aragorn with pleading eyes. "Alright, but remember melamin, I have no experience with festival decorations..."
"Who's going to keep Arlene busy for the day?" Frodo asked. "This is to be held in the evening, so someone will have to keep her company so she won't know that something is going on."
"Mr. Frodo's right," Sam chimed in. "This is supposed to be a surprise for Ms. Arlene. If nothing else, I think that there should be a rotation: a different person will keep her company for a while, so that everyone is able to take part in helping at one time or another."
"That's a wonderful plan Sam." Arwen said. Sam blushed, not used to getting compliments. "So the question now is who will be the first? And keep in mind, no letting anything slip. We can't afford a mistake."
Just barely a whisper, everyone could hear Merry say, "Well that rules you out, Pip..."
Back to Arlene...
I was playing solitaire on my laptop when someone knocked on my door again. Needless to say, I was surprised to find Eowyn on the other side. We exchanged greetings and I let her in.
"So what brings you here?" I asked.
"Nothing really, I just thought that you might want some company."
"That's sweet of you." I said, sitting back down on the bed, motioning for her to follow suit.
"You know I couldn't help but notice how well you fit in at Arwen's wedding."
"Yeah, well I never felt more out of place, kind of like the clothes I'm wearing right now."
"It is quite odd for a woman to wear pants in this time. But, I'm just curious...are they...well, are they comfortable?"
I grinned. "I have some extras. Would you like to try some on?"
With a smile and a nod, I began tearing through my clothes, looking for something that would suit the White Lady of Rohan. My result was a Red button up blouse pulled over a tight sleeveless tee with hip hugger jeans. I pulled her hair back into a ponytail and secured it with a banana clip. After grabbing a can of Pringles, we made our way outside barefoot, where I introduced her to the joys of junkfood.
2 hours later...
Elladan and Elrohir came to tell Eowyn that her brother needed her assistance with something, so she had to leave, but the twins hung around for 'a little while,' they said. That 'little while' turned out to be another 2 hours, but they weren't wasted in vain. We got to talking and I found that some of the pranks they pulled were standard versions of what was pulled in my time, so I gave them more in-depth versions and they happily traded in some of their more precious pranking secrets. The topic of music came up as well, and I told them about the different kinds of music that I listened to. I'm not sure if they understood the differences, though. Well, Elladan asked me if Elrohir and him could borrow a few CDs so they could listen to them, so I led them back to my room, showed them how to play the CDs on the notebook, then plugged in the speakers and set them on their happy way.
I grabbed my sketchbook and went back outside where Eowyn and me sat at and sat back down, just sketching what I saw before me: homes, men working on heavy labor, women tending to the laundry and a few children playing with small toys. Still barefoot, mind you, I made my way down the steps and began to walk around the village that lay just below the capital.
As if it isn't more obvious that I was out of town, the people just can't help but stare...
A ball rolled down the street, followed not too closely by what looked like four children, two boys and two girls. I slung the small bag that I carried my drawing supplies in back up on my shoulder and managed to stop the ball just before it was lost for good. The children saw that the ball had been rescued, but when they saw me, they seemed a little afraid. Am I that intimidating?
"Here you go," I said, holding out the ball for them to take. One of the boys seemed hesitant, but he slowly made his way over to get it.
He mumbled what sounded like a 'thank you', but him or his friends didn't leave. They kept staring at me, or to be more precise, my sketchbook.
"What's that?" he asked.
"This? This is my sketchbook. I draw things in it. Would you like to see?"
But before they could reply, a couple of women older than me came running up, out of breath. I assumed they were the parents of the kids.
"You know better than to run off like that." One of them scolded.
"But ma-ma," the boy with the ball whined, "our ball rolled down the street. If it wasn't for this nice person here, then it might have been lost."
It was then that they set their eyes upon me. "Thank you for helping my son and his friends get their toy back. Now, come along, we must be going back home," she said to the boy.
"But ma-ma, she was about to show us some of her drawings in that book. Can we please stay and look at them?"
The tow women exchanged glances before they looked back at me. "If you would like to come back to our home, you could show them your drawings."
"Okay, that sounds great." I replied, and was pulled and pushed by the small children, meaning for me to walk faster. It wasn't that far of a walk, but they wanted me to get there all the faster.
I was ushered into a small, cozy looking home that the two women shared, whom later I found out were sisters. Their husbands had been enlisted with the Army of Gondor, and it wasn't until after the War of the Ring had ended that they found out that they had been killed. That story sounds a lot like what's going on back home... They were fixing lunch and insisted that I stay and eat with them.
After the table was cleared, those kids started begging to see what I had in my sketchbook like it was Christmas. So I showed them, but as they were looking at the last few pages, one of the sisters let Arwen in, donning the outfit I gave her: hip hugger jeans and a form fitting long sleeve black top that with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows.
"It's about time I found you," she said. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"
"Sorry, mother. I was walking down the street and these kids lost control of their ball so I rescued it for them and their mothers wanted me to come back and have lunch with them while I showed the kids my sketchbook." I replied in the same mocking manner.
"Well I just wanted you to know that we need to get back up to the palace. I want you to do some thing for me. Besides, it's starting to get late."
"Alright. It was good meeting you, and thank you for the food, it was delicious."
"No need to thank us, my child, we thought you might be hungry. It was a pleasure meeting you, you're a very good artist."
Back at the palace...
"Put that over there, filthy human." Elladan said, tossing the decorations over to Aragorn.
"Say it right, or I won't do it." came his reply.
"Sorry, please put that over there," Elladan started.
"King filthy human," Elrohir and Legolas finished, laughing.
"That's more like it..."
Up in Arlene's room...
"That looks great," Arwen said, admiring my Sailor Saturn costume.
"Okay, something's up," I said, watching her put on a black hooded cape and some of my red lipstick. "What's the deal?"
"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.
"You guys are hiding something. What is it?"
"You'll see, now come on!" She said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room.
When we made it to the Great Hall, Arwen made me shut my eyes, which frankly, made me a little nervous. Even with my eyes closed, as I came into the room, I could tell that there was minimal light. Arwen told me to open my eyes, and when I did, my vision was a little cloudy, but I knew right away what they had been up to all day when they shouted "Surprise!"
The Hall was decorated from top to bottom in cobwebs, black and orange fabric was twisted and streched across the area like streamers. Long tables were set out with large bowls and plates of food, goblets laid out in rows. Everything was big, dark, and creepy. They put together all this?! Then I noticed what they were wearing. Arwen was dressed as a vampire. Aragorn resembled something of Dracula. Gandalf was wearing torn white robes, or what used to be white, I assumed he was a zombie, as was Legolas and Gimli. But Legolas's zombie getup looked more like an elven zombie, and Gimli's looked like one of the seven dwarves and come back from the dead. The Hobbits were dressed as little pirates, and the twins, well, they dressed up like their sister and Aragorn. That's a little disturbing... Elrond was wearing something that looked like Van Hellsing, and Galadriel was dressed like Catwoman, claws and all. Eowyn and her brother, who was'nt in the greatest mood, were clowns. Faramir was dressed like a Greek God, don't know which, but does that matter? Everyone was dressed up.
"Why?" was all that I could ask.
"We wanted to do something for you. Pippin said that you were down, so we thought it would make you feel better if we threw a party for you, seeing that you couldn't go to your friends'." Aragorn said.
"Thanks, but...wait a minute. That's why you guys were all gone! That explains why the twins wanted to listen to my Cds, and why the Hobbits wanted to borrow that catalog!" I said, finally realzing their little scheme. "You guys didn't have to do this."
"We wanted to, and that's all that matters. Now come on and have fun!" Arwen said, "Plus we can make fun of my brothers' sad attempts to dress like me."
I think that night was the most fun that I have had since I fell into Middle Earth. Regardless of what was to come, I would live life to the fullest, and not worry about what the next day held. Carpe diem...
Hey guys! I wanted to make it longer, but I couldn't think of a good way to describe the party. I also wanted to get this done before Halloween, cause I'm not gonna be home. Anyways, read review, and have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :)