Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings or any of the characters. They all belong to Tolkien and I am making no money off this.
Summery: See previous chapters.
Chapter Five
I spun around.
"Gandalf!"
Sure enough, there he stood. Oh, minor difference; this was Gandalf the White, not Gandalf the Grey. Interesting change.
He smiled momentarily, then turned serious once more.
"You must choose, dear girl, who will go and who will stay. I must leave soon, and your choice must be made by then."
My mind was starting to work overtime when Lord Celeborn decided to join the conversation. "You are still injured from your battle, old friend. You are going nowhere until you have seen a healer."
Gandalf shot a glare at the Lord of Lothlorien. While it may have frozen the blood of just about anyone else in Middle Earth, Celeborn was made of sterner stuff, and simply ignored him and motioned for a healer to be summoned.
Amusing as it was, I barely noticed Gandalf being pulled away.
Knowing the wizard, it would not be long before he managed to escape the healer's clutches, which meant that I only had a short amount of time before I would have to choose which two of the children returned and which would stay with me.
Collum would be the expected choice in the eyes of most of Middle Earth, as he was the only boy in our company. On the plus side: his presence would arouse fewer questions. On the down side: He had a tendency to blurt out whatever was on his mind and question everything. While that would normally be a good thing, there would be times wherever we were going that he would need to be silent or that there would be no time for questions.
Gretal would be the easiest if I tried to pass off whoever stayed as my child; our facial features are similar enough. On the plus side: She is the lightest and easiest to carry. On the down side: She is the youngest, and thus the more difficult in caring for and asks almost as many questions as Collum.
As I mentioned before, Bella's mother was a gym instructor, so Bella has the greatest endurance out of the three. On the plus side: Bella stood the best chance of keeping up and had a very good sense of when too speak and when to keep silent. On the down side: Bella would be the hardest to pass of as a relation, as her height and the hint of green in her eyes are the only thing we have in common.
I am distracted by a noise from nearby; Gandalf has gotten away from the healers. I have the five minutes it will take for him to climb the stairs to make my choice.
Shit.
Shit and several other words in other languages that I have no idea the meaning of but know from observation will get you in trouble.
Again, excuse my language.
I called my three charges back up from where a number of elves were singing with them and picking flowers.
All right, Collum was busy creating chaos by running around and disrupting things, but that was beside the point.
I want to explain the situation before I make the choice. I will not be the only one affected, after all.
They come up to the Talan, Bella and Gretal holding flowers and asking me too put them in their hair. As I do so, I explain what is going on and about the choice. Gretal wants to go back and Collum and Bella are undecided. By the time Galadriel, Celeborn and Gandalf return, (The Lord and Lady had managed to waylay the wizard long enough for the healers to do a decent job at healing him. Galadriel, bearer of Nenya, is not to be defied, even by stubborn Istari.) Collum had chosen to return and Bella had decided to stay. Thank the Valar for children making quick decisions.
I rose from my kneeling position and informed them of our choice. Gandalf nodded and we left for the clearing where Galadriel's mirror was kept. Upon reaching it, they opened a portal back to our world. Collum and Gretal hugged me one last time and Gretal put a spray of niphrindil flowers in my hair, then they went through the tunnel.
Gandalf wanted to leave as soon as possible so Bella and I quickly packed what we needed and followed to wherever he would lead us.
The Lothlorien elves had gifted us with clothing more suited to this world, for which I was very thankful. Lord Celeborn had also suggested that I choose a name to use while I was here, as 'Natasha' didn't really blend in.
I didn't really see the need. I'd forget to respond half the time so people would guess that it wasn't my real name anyway, and I saw nothing wrong with my name. I may hate being called 'Christmas child', but it is my name and I intend to keep it. Besides, we were trying to pass ourselves off as being from a different land, so strange names were acceptable.
Then we were off, heading towards Rohan, where Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn were currently chasing after the Uruk-hai that had taken Merry and Pippin. Gandalf, at least, would meet them in Fangorn Forest. I was not sure exactly where Bella and I fitted into all of this.
I was sure of one thing, however.
This was going to be a very long and drawn out Eru-only-knows-how-long-we-would-be-here, I just knew it.
I wonder if it would be appropriate to yank at my hair and scream 'why me!' at the top of my voice.
Maybe if I wait until I am alone and find some way to muffle the noise. We have enough problems; I don't want to be thought a madwoman, on top of it all.
