Mysterious Fate
By Cormak
Disclaimer: The original characters from Lord of the Rings belong to their respective owners. New characters belong to me, especially Kaitlyn. This story was written for fan enjoyment and not profit.
Reviews are always welcome. I especially like constructive criticism. Flames are not welcome and will be ignored. Any additional author's notes may be found at the end of each chapter I post.
Special thanks to my beta Scattered Logic for listening to ideas and helping me to figure out where this story was going.
Chapter 5: Someone to Trust
The group was quiet as they traveled. They rushed over flat plains, rocky terrain and through dense woods. As the sun began to set, and the group seemed weary, Aragorn felt that they were far enough away from Moria to set up camp. He chose a space in the forest with a several viewpoints and a river not far away.
Kaitlyn helped Legolas gather sticks and logs so that they could have a fire to cook dinner with. The fire would be put out once the dark of night fell. They did not want to attract any unwanted visitors.
They strayed from the immediate camp where the others laid out bedrolls and started to prepare whatever food they carried. Aragorn went to the nearby river and attempted to catch fish.
The elf and the human woman were silent as they collected the wood. Legolas watched the woman as she loaded her arms up with kindling. He found her strange and different as well as bold but not unlikable. He tilted his head realizing that she was favoring one arm.
"You are injured," Legolas stated.
"I'm fine. It's nothing." She told him and shrugged him off as he stepped toward her.
He frowned at her tone and realized that she was refusing to look him in the eye.
Kaitlyn did her best to ignore him and focused solely on gathering wood.
"It should be attended." Legolas insisted.
She spun to face him and was about to tell him that he could stuff his concern where the sun didn't shine, but she stopped and snapped her mouth shut.
Legolas was regarding her with a look of complete concern. His eyes were the bluest that she had ever seen and they were looking directly into hers.
For a moment they regarded each other in silence and then Kaitlyn exhaled loudly and made her way quickly back to camp, dropping firewood as she went.
Legolas frowned but did not follow her.
She set herself to the task of preparing the fire, something she did know how to do. She had learned it from girl scouts when she was a child. It gave her hands something to do, and enabled her to hide how badly they were shaking. Merry and Pippin joined her
"You're hurt," Merry told Kaitlyn as he helped her set up the kindling.
Kaitlyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? "I know, Merry. I'm fine."
"Orcs coat their arrowheads with poison. You could die from such a wound." Boromir called from where he sat on a fallen log.
Kaitlyn raised her head, her hair falling like a dark curtain along the sides of her face. She gazed at the light haired man. "Thanks for the concern, friend, but I'm fine," she said through clenched teeth.
Boromir's eyebrows lowered. "You pretend to be brave, but I can see right through you. You are nothing more than a scared little child!" Boromir glanced at Frodo and then back at the woman. The man's brows were low over his eyes.
"It will take control of you. You will be our downfall!"
Kaitlyn's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about? What will control me?" She glanced at Frodo who was looking concerned. What was going on?
"We never should have brought you along! You're a burden and you'll be the death of us all!"
"Boromir! That is enough!" Aragorn cried out. He was making his way back from the stream and he carried several fish. He tossed them to the ground and Sam went to prepare them.
"We've lost one member of this Fellowship. I will not stand for fighting amongst those who are left."
"Who left you in charge?" Boromir practically snarled.
"Gandalf did." Aragorn told him. Boromir became silent.
The wizard's name said a loud brought silence to the entire group. Frodo looked away, his eyes full of torment.
Kaitlyn glanced at the hobbit. Something was going on and everyone was keeping it from her.
Darkness fell several hours later. After eating some fish, a few potatoes from Sam and some herbs and mushrooms, the group settled down to rest. Aragorn volunteered for first watch and Legolas volunteered for second.
Kaitlyn had moved away from the group and was glancing up at the stars. Tears clouded her eyes. She grieved for Gandalf who she had only just met and she grieved for the life she would never return to.
She jumped when Aragorn appeared beside her and then she frowned.
He did not say anything. He merely stood beside her gazing up at the stars.
Several minutes later, he spoke, "I've come to attend your injuries."
"They're fine." Kaitlyn told him.
He regarded her carefully. "Boromir was correct when he told you that orcs coat their arrowheads with poison. Even the smallest amount could make you ill."
"I don't feel ill."
"Not at the moment, but that could change."
She said nothing in reply and Aragorn walked around her. There were tears in her eyes and she refused to look at him as he brushed her hair back from her ear. The blood had dried and the wound was not serious. He had dampened a cloth and he cleaned it gently.
"It is not as bad as it looked. It caught the rim of your ear and sliced it but the wound is not deep. This could have been much worse. Let me see your arm. "
She didn't fight him and instead pushed up the sleeve of her sweatshirt and allowed him to look at the scrape.
"You were very lucky. Neither of these wounds was serious. I do not believe any poison should bother you."
"Lucky," she snorted bitterly and she looked him in the eye. She did not feel lucky.
"You will need to be trained," he told her when he had finished attending the wound on her arm. "You could have been killed today," he told her softly.
She lowered her head. "I know," she told him softly. "I might have been dead were it not for you and the elf."
Aragorn nodded and noticed that she was looking back at the camp. He noticed Boromir glance their way before the fair-haired man settled down beside a fallen log.
"Do not take what Boromir said to heart. He is not himself and he had no right to insult you."
Her glance was far away. "Boromir is not what concerns me," she said softly.
"Then what troubles you, my lady?"
She looked at Aragorn. "I still am no closer to understanding what is happening around me and the one person that I was beginning to trust and feel comfortable with is…is gone." She choked.
Aragorn watched her struggle to keep from crying. He could see the tears in her eyes.
"We all cared for Gandalf."
She nodded.
"He had faith in you. He believed you would become far more than who you are now."
Her brows furrowed.
"He said that?"
"Aye, he did. I can help teach you but you must believe in yourself and illuminate any fears or doubts you may have."
She nodded and swallowed. That was much easier said then done.
A long silence grew between them. He knew that she was grieving for Gandalf just as the rest of them were. There would be time for discussion about training later. He realized that she most likely wanted to be alone with her thoughts and he turned to leave.
"Where are you taking us? What is Loth..loth..." she asked, stumbling over the name.
"Lothlorien," Aragorn told her. "It is the home of the Lady of Light." At her confused expression he said, "One of the homes of the Elves."
"Is that where…" she glanced back at camp and looked to see that the fair-haired Elf was staring at them from where he held watch. He did not look away when she looked at him. She turned back to Aragorn. "Legolas is from?"
He shook his head, his wavy brown hair settling around his face. "No. He hails from Mirkwood, the Woodland Realm."
"I don't know anything about these places. They're unfamiliar to me," she told him sadly.
Aragorn gave her a slight smile. "For now they are. Perhaps one day you will be familiar with them. Perhaps you will even see them with your own eyes." He placed a hand on her shoulder and left her in peace.
Kaitlyn sighed. Didn't these people realize that she did not want to be familiar with their land? She wanted to go home.
Legolas watched as Aragorn made his way back into the camp. The elf had heard the man and the woman's voices and despite having strong hearing, the elf had not been able to decipher many of their words. He had heard the word 'Lothlorien' and when the woman turned to look at him, he knew his name had been spoken as well.
"How is she fairing?" Legolas asked, nodding toward the woman standing alone along the tree line.
"She grieves like the rest of us. Her heart is heavy," the man told him.
Legolas frowned. "And she is frightened."
"She has every reason to be. She knows nothing of this world or the dangers that will face us."
Legolas looked at his friend, his voice soft. "I have the terrible feeling that something is going to happen. It is not safe for her here."
Aragorn frowned. Legolas' intuitions were usually correct. "Gandalf believed that she would prove her worth and that she would be a skilled warrior with time. I will start her training as soon as we reach the safety of Lothlorien."
Aragorn started to move away prepared to begin his watch.
"She speaks to you?" Legolas asked softly.
Aragorn turned and faced him. "Some."
Legolas' dark eyebrows furrowed. "She fears me. I see it in her eyes."
Aragorn regarded his friend. "She has never met an elf before."
"Perhaps not, but she has never met a dwarf before either yet she talks to Gimli." He countered smoothly. "They were talking after dinner. I could not help but overhear them."
Aragorn tilted his head. "Does that trouble you?"
"I should be feared by the enemy, but not by one of our own. I have done nothing to harm her." The elf's brow was furrowed in concern.
Aragorn patted Legolas on the shoulder. "She will come around. Give her time. Everything here is strange and new to her."
Legolas nodded and hoped that would be true.
Legolas stood on his watch, his sharp senses alert and ready. The young mortal woman had not returned to camp and he was concerned about her. She distanced herself from the Fellowship and he knew that would harm her instead of help her.
His ears caught the sound of crying and he turned slightly so that she would not catch him looking at her.
She was sitting with her back against a tree and her head was in her hands as she cried softly.
He stood and listened and contemplated if going to her was a wise course of action knowing that she feared him. He heard movement and saw that Aragorn had also heard her sobs. The Ranger immediately left his bedroll and went to her. Legolas watched as she shied from him. He heard their hushed voices and turned away. He did not want to be rude and purposely eavesdrop.
Kaitlyn thought that she was being quiet. She had not meant to break down and she was angry with herself for it happening and for someone hearing her. She had been looking through her bag when she found her wallet. She had begun to look through the pictures she kept within it. There was a family portrait of her with her parents that had been taken professionally some years ago. Her eyes had clouded with tears and before she knew it, she had started crying.
Aragorn knelt beside her. "What is wrong?"
Kaitlyn shied away from him. She hated to cry and she hated being caught crying even more.
"I cannot help you if you do not answer me." Aragorn told her softly.
She raised her head, her eyes red and puffy from crying, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She held up her wallet to him and Aragorn took it carefully into his hands.
The pictures he saw were so clear and the color so vibrant. Whoever the artist was had more than captured the people in the picture. He looked carefully at the people and recognized Kaitlyn to be one of them. There was a man and woman standing behind her and they were all smiling.
It was a portrait. A family portrait. Aragorn sighed. "You miss your family."
Kaitlyn nodded, her eyes brimming with fresh tears.
"I am sorry. The pain will lessen, but only with time," he told her sympathetically. He felt for her. She had not only lost Gandalf, whom she had begun to trust, but also her family and her entire life, as she had known it.
Kaitlyn wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her sweatshirt and sniffled. "It is so hard to know that I'm…I'm… never going to seem them again," she choked.
"While you will not see them in the flesh, you have this portrait of your family to see with your eyes, you have memories in your mind and love for them in your heart."
"That's not enough." She lowered her head and tried to collect herself. "I know it will have to be someday, but right now…I feel so alone."
"We all feel alone at times, but we do not have to remain as such. While there is much we do not know about you and much you do not know about us, there is the time to learn. Time to create new friendships." He raised his brows and gave her a slight smile.
Kaitlyn sighed. "But everyone is reluctant to tell me things. How can I make friends if I am believed to be untrustworthy?"
Aragorn shook his head. "You are not untrustworthy and you will discover the answers you seek, but not overnight. These are dangerous times for Middle Earth and knowledge can be deadly."
"So can the lack of knowledge."
Aragorn knew that she was right, but he also knew that it was not wise to tell her about the ring until she knew more about her surroundings as well as how to defend herself. "I promise that you will find the answers and if you are willing to open yourself and your heart you will see that friendship surrounds you."
She smiled through her tears and remembered his earlier words. "I guess I am lucky. I could have ended up with those Orcs or who knows what else."
"Very true. You should rest. There is still a long journey ahead to Lothlorien and you will need your strength."
She nodded and Aragorn helped her to her feet. For a moment they gazed at each other. Kaitlyn smiled shyly. "Thank you, Aragorn. I needed a friend right now."
"You are welcome." He was very pleased that she trusted him enough to call him a friend. It was certainly a beginning.
Aragorn helped her settle down with the others in camp and he offered his bedroll to her. She lay down on the canvas roll and gazed at her sleeping companions. The hobbits were all sleeping, except for Frodo who was trying to pretend he was. Boromir was sleeping by the fallen log and Gimli was snoring softly.
She watched as Aragorn went and stood beside Legolas. She watched the two for a short while before her eyes felt heavy and sleep claimed her.
Aragorn sighed as he stood beside Legolas. He knew that his friend had heard most of the conversation and he did not need to tell him what had happened. Legolas had also seen Aragorn help Kaitlyn settle herself. The woman had seemed comforted by the Ranger's presence.
"Maer ha i e hirnen ben esteliad." It is good that she has found someone to trust. Legolas told him.
Aragorn nodded. " Harthon esteliatha 'waith bain." I hope that she will trust everyone.
Legolas smiled, hoping for the same. The two returned their gaze to the land and held the remainder of watch in silence.
To be continued…
All the Elvish used in this story is Sindarin and I've done my best for it to be correct Sindarin. It is not the RPG Elvish that some stories use. I have downloaded lessons and worked out my own sentences as well as had help from people who are more versed in the language than I am.
All help with Sindarin came from councilofelrond.com . The lessons, dictionary and the people from Elvish 101 have been incredible help. I could not have done it without them.
If you notice that any of my Sindarin is wrong and you know how to correct it, feel free to e-mail me.
Clayman: *waves * Thanks so much for your review! I'm glad that Kaitlyn doesn't seem like a Mary Sue! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Solar: Thanks for the review, hon! I'm glad that you are enjoying it so far and I hope that you will continue to do so. I can't wait for the romance myself but I have to develop the characters first. Then there will be time for romance. : )
