Chapter 6 - Rivendell
Disclaimer: For the last time, items, ideas, and people related to lord of the rings are not mine. This applies to all previous and following chapters. thank you.
Black smiled. She examined her hands, stretching and testing her fingers. She shot a ball of fire spiraling off to the side. It exploded in a fury, and black grinned.
"Man, I feel good!" she shouted.
"How? You..." Aragorn stuttered.
Black locked eyes with the Ranger. "From the ash a fire shall be woken," she recited. Then turning to Legolas she said, "Come on, Fairy-boy. The quicker you run, the quicker you'll be rid of me." She sprinted away.
She ran with great ease and joy; the trinkets on her belts tinkling and whistling like the air through wooden wind chimes. Even with him possessing the superior qualities of the Elven race, Legolas had to exert himself to keep up. He could have sworn he heard Aegnor laugh.
Towards the evening of the second day of running, Aegnor stopped just as suddenly as she had begun.
Once Aragorn and Legolas were beside her, she gestured to a spot less than a mile away.
"Lest mine eyes deceive me," she said with an impish grin, "there lies yonder Rivendell."
The woman accompanied the two to the edge of the valley before she halted them again. Ever since her fantastic transformation in the grove a few days earlier, Aegnor seemed to be a kind of giddy nymph; always grinning mischievously, murmuring queer incantations. Aragorn could not make sense of it. Legolas did not care; he thought it more of her cruel nature to be so obscure and mocking. His only thoughts of her were to wish her ill.
"And so, my good fellows," Aegnor said in her sprite-like fashion, "I must leave you." She bowed deeply, then retrieved a small, unadorned wooden box from somewhere among her many utility belts.
"Will you not come into the valley of Rivendell?" Aragorn asked. "To give it personally to the halfling from whom you unwittingly took it? And to receive your praise for being a Ring-bearer?"
"Scorn for stealing is more what she is likely to get," said Legolas.
Aragorn ignored the Elf. "For food and drink then? For rest before you leave again?"
"Why do you treat her and give her honors as if she has done a noble thing, purely out of the goodness of her heart?" Legolas demanded. "She has done nothing of the kind. It was simply an attempt to rid herself of us; she acted in her own interests."
"She still carried that evil thing so that we would not have to," Aragorn replied. "I do not wish her to go unrecognized."
"But she herself is an evil creature, can you not see that?" hissed the Elf. "I, for one, can identify her for what she truly is; and the only thing I wish her is ill."
"Aye, and don't I know it?" Aegnor said, breaking her silence.
Aragorn and Legolas turned their eyes to her, as though they had forgotten she had been standing there.
"I beg for this one last favor," Aragorn said. "Bring the Ring to the Council, or at least return it to Frodo, before you depart."
Legolas was clearly displeased. Aegnor looked apprehensive.
"There'll be more bloody fairies down there, I suppose?" she said. "I've never gotten along well with the pointy-eared people, as you can tell," she told him, glancing at Legolas. She sighed. "Well, if I must descend into the Realm of the Elves, then I must." She began down the path. "Perhaps they will not be so quick to hate here," the woman mused. "I haven't stolen anything from them personally, as far as I can remember."
"You disgust me," grumbled the Elf.
"I ain't crazy about you either, Fairy-boy," the woman called back. "But we should be willing to endure a few more hours in one an other's presence, knowing that soon we will never have to look upon the other's ghastly face, ever again! The thought brings a tear of joy to mine eye!" And she sashayed out of sight.
As they approached the Elves' dwellings, Aegnor clasped her black cloak around her neck, so as to be more 'presentable' around the Fairies.
She let Aragorn and Legolas go ahead of her as they entered the hall where many people were gathered, eating. Black chose to hang back in the shadows and observe the scene, as a an old, gray bearded man with a staff approached the Ranger.
The old man whispered anxiously in Aragorn's ear. Aragorn in turn clapped a hand on the old man's back and gestured behind him. The old man peered around, then looked back at the Ranger. Aragorn turned swiftly; looking about frantically, questioning Legolas.
Black chuckled. She could guess the situation as she saw Legolas mouth the words 'I told you so.'
Not wishing to cause trouble, she cupped a small ball of fire in her palm to give off an unobtrusive glow - to alert Aragorn of her presence. Seeing this, Aragorn was quite relieved, and pointed Aegnor out to the old man.
The old man was a Wizard, one of the Istari, Black noted. As he stared at her, appraising her, Black nodded her head slightly in recognition. This was a man of respectable magic; a real Wizard, not the kind of psychotic witch-doctor that she had dealt with before. She had to find a way to talk to him-away from all these suspecting eyes.
Black remained in that corner, observing everyone carefully but never losing sight of the Wizard, the whole night. It wasn't difficult to pick out the hobbits; four midgets in a crowd were always easy to spot. She located the one named Frodo. He stared down at his mug with wide eyes. Hadn't he worn that same expression when she had first met him? Maybe his face was frozen that way.
No one noticed, or at least no one mentioned anything as they passed Black in her corner when they left the dining hall. When Frodo got up and made to leave Black gave an inward sigh. First thing's first; she had to return that wretched Ring, then she could talk to the wizard.
Frodo walked slowly through the dark halls. He had been going about in a cloud ever since he had lost the Ring to that pickpocket. If Sauron found the Ring and claimed dominion over the earth it would be all his fault.
Frodo jumped and swirled around when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.
"Hello, Frodo."