"We will talk later Aragorn," Elrond said threateningly, "but for now I name you the fellowship of the Ring!"
Beaming, Kirsten and Christine skipped off into the building to find some cool elvish clothes.
Chapter 2:
One week after the council in which everything had been decided at the Council of Elrond, after everything had been made ready to leave (Kirsten and Christine having driven everyone mad), the fellowship stood at the gates of Rivendell waiting to depart. As Elrond gave his farewell and good luck speech, the two girls stood side by side in the background admiring their new elvish clothes. As Frodo turned to start on the quest, they edged up behind him, close enough to hear Frodo as he muttered to Gandalf.
"Left or right?"
"Le-" Gandalf was cut off as Christine butted in.
"Right, go right!" Gandalf turned to glare at her, while glanced away and attempted to whistle.
"As I was saying, go left." Warily eyeing Christine, Frodo turned left and headed down the road, the rest of the Fellowship following behind.
"So," Kirsten sided up beside Aragorn, smiling prettily and furiously batting her eyelashes. "Off to Mordor, eh? I've heard it's quite nice this time of year."
He looked down at her, one eyebrow raised, but a smile pulling at the corners of his lips. "Aye, supposed to be nice and warm."
"Maybe a little dark, a little overpopulated with ugly, slimy evil things, a little toxic. But other than that, just peachy with a side of keen."
Once again looking at her with amusement twinkling in his blue eyes, he smiled. "You know what, you might not be so bad…crazy, mind, but not as bad as, say, a troll."
"Gee, thanks a bunch!" Kirsten said, her voice angry but face flushed a delighted pink.
Christine wandered up from behind. "Oh yes she is! She's evil and terrible, and smelly! Take my word for it!"
"This coming from the girl whose most prized possession is a shirt that says 'ALL MY HEROS ARE EVIL!' Right…"
"Hey! Darth Vader and Hannibal are cool!" Christine protested, glaring at Kirsten. "Do not mock my heros!"
"Darth Vader?" Aragorn asked, looking confused. "Why have I not heard of him?"
"Er… because he is a silly made-up character." Kirsten said smiling up at him. "You know, made up for a story. Fiction. He's sorta like an odd version of Melkor."
Glancing back at Christine, a disturbed expression crossed his face. "Melkor!" Giving her another odd look, he quickly moved towards Gandalf under his breath, he whispered, "keep that one away from the ring," nodding towards Christine.
"Oh jeeze!" Christine rolled her eyes, making a face at Aragorn. "Can no one here take a joke? Though," she added as an afterthought, "they ARE pretty cool!"
Spying Legolas, she beckoned him over with a wave of her hand. "You, wench," eyebrows raised, he merely looked at her.
With a loud sound of exasperation, she spoke again, sarcasm dripping from her tongue like poisoned honey, "forgive me, O Mirkwood Prince." Glaring at her, he quickly walked past her, hoping she would leave him alone. Legolas made his way to stand beside Aragorn.
"Mellon nin, those girls are certainly odd aren't they?"
"They are indeed, they are indeed."
Christine gave a loud sigh. No one had a sense of humour, it seemed. It was going to be a very looong trip. She glanced back at the rest of the Fellowship, but they all looked very grim. Ho hum…
She moved up beside Kirsten, flashing her friend a smile. "So how are you liking the grim, I-have-no-sense-of-humour, weight-of-the-world-upon-my-slender-shoulders Fellowship? Personally, I think they ought to lighten up… or their face'll stick that way."
"Christine, you do realize that this is the girl who absolutely adores everything that ism well, Lord of the Rings! Plus, I think their cool, they just don't have your crude sense of humour."
"Did I say anything gutter-like? NO!"
"You just called Legolas a 'wench'."
"So? I could have called him a 'rentboy', the word wench isn't exactly dirty!" Christine sighed, feeling slightly alienated. "Well, you stay and have fun withy Mr. Serious." She gave a small smile and dropped back.
"Great. Geeze, abandon me. Now who am I supposed to talk to?"
"Well, we were going to offer, but you seem quite content talking to yourself, so we'll just go…" Merry and Pippin stood close by.
"No, no that's okay… Please stay and talk with me. It'll be nice to talk to someone other than Christine for a while."
"HEY!" Christines voice carried over the air. The rest of the Fellowship who had heard everything let out a chuckle.
"Nicely done, Lady Kirsten, nicely done." Aragorn looked back with a smile.
"I feel so unloved…" Christine pouted.
"I'm sure somewhere someone loves you…" Legolas said, sarcasm coating his voice.
"Hey! I'm sure she's very nice… some of the time." Pippin replied.
Christine scowled, and if looks could kill, Kirsten and the rest of the Fellowship would have been bloody corpses on the ground. Alas she would have to stick with verbal barbs…
"Oh sure, she says something MILDLY amusing and you're all fawning over her. Pardon me if my sense of humour is far too modern for you gentlemen to understand." Angry and not just a little hurt, Christine stormed away to walk beside Bill, knowing that her reply had been weak and foolish.
Feeling guilty that she had been so hard on Christine, Kirsten hung back to stand by her. "Hey, I'm sorry." Christine remained silent, her eyes starring forward blankly. "Look, I really am. Okay? Silence once again reigned. Looking down at her feet Kirsten sighed, then sped up, hoping that Christine would forgive her soon.
Christine looked after Kirsten with a shielded gaze, absently stroking Bill with one hand. She was scared stiff – they were in the middle of Lord of the Rings for goodness sakes! She had seen the movies and read the books, she knew what the Fellowship would have to face. As usual, she covered it up with humour… but seeing as no one liked her, nor got her jokes, the outlook was beginning to look quite bleak.
Soft footsteps alerted Christine to the fact that someone was probably going to try and talk to her again. "Excuse me Miss Christine," Sam said as he came near. "Beggin' you pardon, but I don't think they really meant anythin' by it. And if it helps, I think you're mighty funny." Sam looked at his hairy feet as he waited for a reply.
Surprised, she gave him a quick smile. "Thank you, Master Sam, it's nice to know that al least one person doesn't think I'm some deranged nutter." She gave a rueful laugh, before changing the topic. "So, do you have a girl back home? A nice guy like you ought to have no trouble with the ladies."
"He flushed, "well… there's this one girl, her name is Rosie…"
Legolas jogged up to Kirsten, falling in pace beside her. "What is your homeland like, Lady Kirsten? Do they all have such strange names?
"Well, I guess, yeah. To use, it would be your names that are strange…" Blushing slightly, Kirsten looked up. "Not that they aren't nice, just, you know, different." Feeling slightly flustered, she looked away.
"I understand." Amusement tinged his voice at her obvious discomfort.
"It's a lot different then Middle Earth… our leaders are elected, and the only dominant rave is man." She smiled at Legolas's shock. "We don't even have elves, or dwarves, or hobbits, or orcs, or any of the different races here."
"Madness…" he muttered, causing her to laugh. "Hey Aragorn!" He called back, "did you know that they only have humans in The Couch!"
"Well, then, perhaps tat will take your race down a notch."
"To quote Lady Christine, 'I feel so unloved.' Any, HEY! You were raised by elves, you're part elf, and you're in love with an elf!" Legolas said indignantly.
"He has you there Aragorn!" A smile graced her face, as Kirsten teased him. Just shaking his head, Aragorn turned to talk with Gandalf.
Silence overtook the Fellowship as they continued to walk. As night fell, camp was made on the edge of a river. Kirsten grabbed her bedroll and made to set it up by Christine, but Christine merely picked up her own, and walked away. Upset and still feeling guilty, Kirsten sat down with her head in her hands.