A/N: Well, finally, we're back! Apologies from Pet – she's been really busy lately, and hasn't been able to write much. Now, before we begin, a few VERY important announcements: First, thanks go out to Hilary, who lent us said visitor. Next, we've decided to expand, so upon the release of the next chapter, ESGAME will be found in the Lord of the Rings category. Hopefully, you'll all be able to find it again. Now, enjoy and review! Oh, and don't sue. We don't own anything, we promise.
Chapter 4 - The Visitor
... and the Elves from Middle Earth backed to the wall in terror...
They had instantly realized the nature of the newcomer. Through the door swept a dark, shadowy being. The creature was wrapped in a robe of pure darkness that hung loosely around its ghostly form like black smoke ascending from a pyre. A dark hood covered glowing eyes of infinite depth...
"A Nazgûl..."
The sound drifted from Elrohir's trembling lips and hung in the air like a promise of eternal terror and pain. For once, neither twin had a wisecrack or a grin. Both seemed as terrified as their elders.
"What is a Nazgûl?" Skywise asked. His silver wolf stood protectively in front of the little elf and growled in low tones. Meanwhile the elves from Middle Earth had paled considerably. Drizzt had instantly drawn his scimitars but watched the scene carefully. His fighter senses were alerted by the dark presence but he wondered why his fellow elves had obviously panicked. The creature was a definitely a wraith. A dangerous enemy but none that couldn't be banished by enchanted weapons and powerful spells.
Dalamar watched the shadowy visitor fascinated. He wondered if another mage had summoned the ghost and sent it to the elves. Maybe his Shalafi? Why? Was he displeased? Dalamar grimaced at the implications stemming from that thought. Unnoticed by the others Zelgadis had also jumped from his chair and taken fighting stance. But like the others he preferred to wait.
Mr. Spock was the only person sitting so far. He watched the strange spirit from the end of the table and raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating." he said and gave the new guest a scrutinizing look.
Eventually Galadriel was the first to make a move: "Beware, foul spirit!" she cried out. "You, who bring destruction and chaos. The forces of Light will bind you."
The Nazgûl moved its head a little as if attempting to reply when suddenly Drizzt remembered something.
"Lady Galadriel", the Drow addressed Lothlorien's leader, "I take from your words that you know this wraith and that it is evil."
It was Elrond who answered the question. "Yes." the Lord of Rivendell said. "It is one of our arch enemy's most devoted servants. Its an undead creature, a slave to dark power, the eternal reminder of human's decadence and fallibility."
"So I guess it's chaotic/evil." Drizzt repeated with a sigh.
"Yes, I think so." Elrond answered slightly irritated.
Drizzt nodded and rolled his eyes. "In that case, I naturally have to fight it," the Drow said in a bored tone. "As my own alignment is lawful/good, I'm practically obliged to throw myself into battle against the forces of evil." The Drow didn't look very comfortable with this option.
"And I thought that at least in my spare time I would have some rest from the whole battle-issue. Slaying things constantly for the sake of the people is so incredibly boring all the time."
Dalamar nodded in sympathy. "I know what you mean. I'm lucky that my alignment is chaotic evil. Being a bad guy, I can choose freely when to fight and whom."
Drizzt sighed. "I hate my alignment. I wish I were chaotic evil, too. That would make my whole life much less predictable. And I wouldn't have to be so damn nice to every adventuring moron that comes my way."
The other elves followed the discussion astonished. What were the two, oh so different, dark elves talking about? And what did this talk about alignments mean?
"Waiiiiiiiit...." the Nazgûl hissed at that moment. "Iiiiiii just wanted to... isn't thisssss..."
At the same time Drizzt stepped forward, a very annoyed expression on his handsome face.
"Ok, I don't know why you are here, wraith, but you choose a very bad moment to show up. Look, we're all in our spare time and we don't want to be troubled with the demands of heroic strife. But if we must... Let's get this epic battle stuff over withquickly. Let's end this whole discussion about good and evil and the tragedy of the world in general and just get into the fight. This will shorten the break you're presence caused us."
Having no physical face anymore nobody could see the Nazgûl's troubled expression.
"Buttt Iiii just wanted to visit a self-help-group." the creature tried again to explain itself.
But a very annoyed dark elf did not grant it the time to give further explanations. Drizzt leaped onto his insubstantial opponent and attacked with one of his scimitars. The blade left a blue sparkle where it passed the air. The Nazgûl glided backwards quickly.
"Wait! This is a misunderstanding. I'm not evil!"
"Of course he is evil", Dalamar said from behind with a sly grin. "I checked his aura. Its darker than mine."
"You see." Drizzt said. "You're evil. I'm good. We have to fight. This is a common law in all fantasy universes. So don't be a coward. By the way, do you have any immunities?"
"Why me?" the Nazgûl suddenly cried, very un-evil like, but that was generally ignored and the fight went on. Spock looked as though he wished to interrupt, and allow the creature a fair trial. However, looking upon the bloodthirsty looks of the elves of Middle Earth, and the looks of intense concentration on the faces of both Dalamar and Drizzt, he decided that silence would be the most logical course ofaction. Besides, herationalized, the Prime Directive forbid interfering in the affairs of other species, as this obviously was.
Dalamar couldn't help but enjoy watching this lethal argument. He had longed to see what Drizzt could do with those scimitars of his since the very first meeting. And if the wraith, or whatever that creature was, talked himself out of the battle, were would be the fun of it? Next Dalamar prepared a fireball, just in case...
The fight went on. Both opponents moved very quickly. Drizzt attacked with the elegance of a panther and the Nazgûl fought with his robe fluttering around in a mysterious fashion.
The other elves all prepared to attack or to intervene by the use of magic in case that Drizzt failed, but the Drow was a very skilled fighter. His techniques were precise and deadly. For those who enjoyed a good fight watching the duel was a pleasure.
The fight was relatively equal. So far, the damage done to the furniture was only minimal. Two chairs had fallen over. While Dirzzt and the Nazgûl attacked and parried in rapid succession, they moved unconsciously nearer to the door. It was in the moment that they had nearly crossed the room when the door opened and a barmaid rushed in, in order to ask the Elven guests if they needed more wine. Unfortunately the girl arrived just in that moment when the Nazgûl struck at Drizzt and performed a heavy blow of a shadow blade that had appeared in his withered fingers.
Before either of the combatants could react to the utterly perplexed girl who stood between them, the Nazgûl's dark blade began to come down on her. Knowing, he was probably the only one who could to stop it in time, Dalamar let the fireball go. The burning globe dashed towards the wraith. To his surprise, he was not the only one who had reacted to the danger. He heard Zelagdis say "Elmekian Lance" and a lightening of pure white energy left the Chimera's hands, aiming at the Nazgûl. Dalamar and Zegaldis were accompanied by Mr. Spock, who had jumped from his chair, drawing a strange object from his belt. The thing made humming sound and produced a yellow streak of light.
Before the Nazgûl had finished his move, the three different attacks reached their target, who in turn was hurled against the wall by the impact. The wraith slid down from the wall, weak and defeated. They could only hear a soft "Why me?" escaping from his hollow throat.
After the danger was obviously over, the barmaid looked at the fallen Nazgûl, then at Drizzt and at the Dorw's scimitars, which he still held in a defensive position. The girl chose that moment to do what many girls, and some men, would have done in a situation like that. She turned pale white and whispered something unintelligible before she fell unconscious and straight into a shocked Drizzt's arms.
Dalamar and the rest of the group approached Drizzt and the girl instantly. Drizzt used the first opportunity available to shove the girl in somebody else arms. She ended up in the care of Galadriel. The drow had first tried to hand her over to Legolas, but the young elf had panicked, refusing to even touch the girl as if she had a contagious kind of disease.
"No human girls." he muttered. "No human girls anymore."
So it was finally Galadriel who murmured softy and soothingly at the girl to wake her up and reassure her. Meanwhile the men studied the Nazgûl. Apparently the "thing" was not dead. Since it was an apparently a wraith, an undead creature, and therefore, quite naturally dead, they agreed that the creature had been shocked, but it had not expired.
"What shall we do with him?" Skywise asked. The silver wolf had sniffed at the wraith and then showed her disapproval of their new guest by turning around and sitting next to Galadriel, growling a bit. Skywise, in contrast, was highly curious. He ignored the wolf and even tried to touch the Nazgûl. He was stopped by Drizzt who told him to be careful with creatures that sucked life force out of their fellows. In the meantime Dalamar watched the scene. His fireball had probably been a bit too much. It had left traces of burnings on the wall. And even the barmaid's clothing had suffered a bit. And Zelgadis' Elmekian Lance had also affected the furniture, and destroyed two chairs. Hopefully the Copper Kettle wouldn't ban them from entering the building again after that.
The fight had been quite exciting but they needed to keep things down, or things would slip out of control again. Dalamar sighed. The evening was already ruined. Now they could only try to cut the losses. When the dark creature moved again, Dalamar had already instructed the other elves not to resort to violence again. Maybe things could be cleared up in a more civilized way.
"Who are you?" Dalamar interviewed the creature when he was sure it would listen.
"Me?" the wraith asked in a very subdued tone. "I'm Nazgûl Six. From Hilary's Lord of Dragonlance."
"And what is you aim?"
"My, my aim?" the Nazgûl asked and watched them all, fearful and confused. "Oh... my aim... Well I needed a break from her fic. It drives me insane. I tell you, everybody else in that story already went insane. I decided it was time for therapy. I heard that this was a place for fanfic victims who suffered from abuse."
Dalamar had to admit that he felt a tinge of pride. So they already had a reputation! Unfortunately it seemed to attract quite the wrong characters. "Well, that is correct. But we have to inform you that this group is for Elves only and exclusively. You are apparently not an Elf. So we're sorry, but we can't help you."
"Oh." The Nazgûl looked absolutely pathetic after those words. "But we're so abused. I- I need to talk to somebody..."
Dalamar sighed. He pitied the Nazgûl, but if they allowed the thing to stay, the group would probably become a refuge for thousands of other abused fanfiction characters. And then it was only a question of time until even original characters applied for membership. No he couldn't let this happen. But before he could make up his mind about what to decide, the Nazgûl produced a sniffing sound.
"I have another problem." Number Six said.
"Which is?" Dalamar's voice was becoming exasperated. What would this creature want now?
"I can't go like this," a shadowy hand pointed at the large cuts and shreds in the Nazgûl's robe. "That black- or dark- or whatever-elf over there destroyed my cloak," the Nazgûl muttered, stricken. "Our cloaks are intrinsic. Without something to veil around our ghostly bodies, we Nazgûl will dissolve. If I dissolve I can't go back to Hilary's story. And if I don't go back for the next chapter she will probably come and hunt me down." Even though the creature could only whisper, they all felt the terror in his voice. "And if Hilary comes, terrible, terrible things will happen."
"In that case." Mr Spock fell in. "It seems only logical that we find new clothing for this... guest... and send him back to where he belongs."
Dalamar nodded, thankful that finally somebody else was here who had a sense of logic. "That sounds acceptable," he answered. What about you, Nazgûl 6? Do you agree?"
"I don't think I have a choice," the Nazgûl muttered darkly. "Well does anybody have clothes to spare?" Dalamar asked.
That question earned him a dirty look from Skywise. "Yeah, How about us all getting some clothing off and-"
"NO! Definitively, NO!" Elrond cried out. Finally one of the Middle Earth Elves had said something. Apparently, even the threat of one of the undead menaces of Mordor was not enough to allow the proper Elrond to let such a vulgar comment go, unreprimanded.
"Your robe would be nice." The Nazgûl said, looking expectantly at Dalamar.
"No." the elf said flatly, discouraging any argument.
"Wow, why are you all so shy?" Skywise asked ignoring the frowns on everybody's faces. "I wouldn't mind a bit, but I don't think my trousers and waistcoat would fit you, Six."
"I need a robe, or at least something like that," demanded Number Six.
"I need my robe." Dalamar stated.
Finally Galadriel sighed. "As usual, I'll be the only one who has a solution. I have a dress to spare in my luggage. Knowing my dear little grandsons Elladan and Elrohir, and their tendency to spill wine at official occasions, I decided I would probably need another dress in the course of the evening. So, Grandsons, get my robe and give it to the Nazgûl." The twins made faces of repugnance, but didn't dare refuse their formidable Grandmother.
While the poor Nazgûl changed his clothes, the Middle Earth Elves turned away from the sight in disgust.
"I'm sorry." Dizzt said to Number Six, putting away his scimitars after carefully wiping off the blades. "I thought you were evil."
"Actually I am evil," the Nazgûl said absent-mindedly.
"Well, then it was the right thing to do." Drizzt was slightly puzzled by this moral dilemma.
"I guess it was." Both sighed.
In the meantime the barmaid had gained consciousness again. She opened the door to slip out and into safety when a tiny glowing globe of light floated in. At first sight it looked like a glowworm. The elves stared at the light-globe until it halted right in front of Dalamar. When it stopped moving, Dalamar saw that the globe was not a globe at all, but in fact, a cute little girl with pointed ears and delicate little wings between her shoulders.
"Hello." the little maid chirped. "Are you Mr. Dalamar Nightson, leader of ESGAME? I am Tinkerbell."
Skywise broke into a fit of laughter and grinned at Dalamar. "Let me guess, that's your 'Timberdell'? I'd say that you were quite mistaken. And then YOU mistrust MY abilities to find new guys for the group." He winked flirtatiously at the tiny woman.
Dalamar's cheeks burned at the humiliation. "Tinkerbell," he began, as composed as possible. "Please introduce yourself to the rest of us. You said you suffer from Slash abuse. But somehow I doubt that this is the case. You are obviously a female. There are almost no female slash pairings. What is the problem?"
"Ask her if she is an Elf! She looks more like a fairy!" Number six demanded, offended. "Because if you allow her to stay, I don't see why I can't stay!"
Tinkerbell waved her wings a little and flew higher so she could be seen by everybody in the room. "I am Tinkerbell, actually I am a fairy. But you see, so many people tend to think that elves and fairies are the same, so I'd say the difference doesn't matter so much. And besides, I'm used to people being much taller then me. And I do suffer from Slash. You see, I am the companion of a cute boy, whose name is Peter Pan. Together we live in a realm called Neverland. And this boy is the love of my life. At least he was until he fell for a human girl called Wendy. Well, that is another story. I finally got used to Wendy being around and we had some kind of agreement about Peter. But you see, there are the fanfictions. And finally, finally, I could find fulfillment of my dreams being paired up with Peter but what do those cursed authors do? They pair him up with Hook! Hook is a pirate and Peter's greatest enemy. You see, even in those cursed fanfictions, I'm only the unimportant sidekick. Yes I can stand loosing against Wendy. But loosing against Hook, too... This is so cruel..."
The little fairy maid broke into a crying fit. Obviously she was under great psychological stress. The first one to react was, to everybody's surprise, Nazgûl Six. "The world is so full of wrongs!" Number Six wailed depressed, and both newcomers broke into loud lamenting until Galadriel meddled, trying to calm them.
Dalamar let himself fall into a chair that had survived the fight and helped himself to another glass of wine. The other Elves watched him, full of pity. Even Mr. Spock raised a merciful eyebrow. And again, another evening ended in chaos...
A/N: Well, hope you enjoyed that. For those of you who didn't understand the deal with 6, he comes from Hilary (lazy.kender19)'s Lord of Dragonlance. In short, the Ringwraiths are all given personalities, and 6 is rather psychotic and afraid of everything. After a mention of the group by me (Dally), Hilary wrote about him having gone to our group and coming back in a dress (chapter 14), so we HAD to write about what actually happened. Remember, next chapter will be in the LOTR subcategory! Okay, so now, to our lovely reviewers:
JunoMagic: Sorry for the cliffie! To good (and long) to resist! Hope you found this chapter a bit less nerve-wracking. Once more, apologies from Pet for not having written much lately.
Guan: Glad you enjoyed this so much. And our cliffhanger… Fond look and evil cackles Hope you liked Spock's logic in this chapter as much as in the last.
SorcerousOne: Um, no, sorry. I've written cliffies before you did! And no, Spock's not an elf, but he's close enough, and is a damn good speaker! BTW, I haven't seen any updates from you lately, sir! Update yours soon, or my Wolf-mauling skills are going to come to light again!
Sinvogel: Yeah, we loved writing Spock too. And agreed on Elrond. He's likely going to develop some medical problems, or at least shudders gray hairs because of those boys… Apologies again from Pet!
Insanetedyz: Hehe, sorry for the cliffie! Thanks so much for your lovely, complimentary review! About your donations: diaries will be given out in two chapters (5 already has too much in it). The picture of the M.S. will come in later, but it will come, especially since you're so kind to us!
Lazy.kender19: Hope you enjoyed, and that 6 found his way back! We had a bit of trouble getting rid of him. And, since you always ask, (and donated 6 for a chapter) I'll let you in on a secret: chapter 5 will be up within a week!
