Haldir walked up the ramp onto the ship after Elhith, turning back to see Sauron eyeing the ship with equal amounts of repulsion and anxiety. Slowly, he walked up the ramp, each step appearing more forced than the last. He even closed his eyes as he took the final one onto the boat.

Elhith immediately patted Sauron on the shoulder. "Don't worry so much, you'll be fine. You forget that this is Valinor. Nothing bad ever happens here."

"Of course," Sauron said through clenched teeth.

Haldir almost laughed at the sight of the previous dark lord of Middle-Earth being led to the stern of the ship by an overly blithe elf. It was just way too warped to actually be happening. Chuckling to himself quietly, he followed behind them.

They came to a group of benches near the stern of the ship, some already occupied by elves waiting for their departure. Elhith guided Sauron to one of these benches, where he plunked down and sat silently. Elhith then began off back to the ramp, seemingly to greet the elves who were arriving and coming onto the ship. As he passed Haldir, however, he paused for a moment. "He is really not enjoying this at all, is he?"

"No," Haldir said, looking at Sauron, who was resting his head in his hands while gripping large amounts of his hair.

"I wonder why that is," Elhith mused. "I have not met anybody who is as uncomfortable in a ship as he is. It is odd."

"Mmm."

Elhith then continued on his way, and Haldir sat down on the bench next to Sauron. It was interesting to note his nauseated appearance. Personally, Haldir would not have thought that he could get ill, but by the look on his face it was apparent that such was possible.

A few more elves came down the path from Mandos, and then the ramp was taken down and they began to sail off. The boat rocked back and forth gently, the water very calm. It apparently wasn't calm enough, however.

They had been sailing for roughly half an hour, during which time Sauron had not made a
sound. Quite suddenly, he hopped up and dashed around the mast and riggings towards the middle of the boat. Haldir figured that he had a vague idea of what this action would indicate as he lost sight of Sauron. With a sigh, he got up himself and followed.

He saw Sauron hunched over the side of the boat, clutching the railing tightly. Haldir
cringed. Focusing on some distant spot off in the ocean, he walked towards the rail a little more. "Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

"I think I am going to be sick," Sauron responded weakly.

"Guessing that's a no." Haldir looked around, unsure of what to do. It wasn't like he had ever been around a person with a case of seasickness before; he hadn't even seen the sea until now!

Thinking about trying to find Elhith, he made his way towards the bow. Luckily for him, Elhith was there conversing with a few of the sailors. "Hello!" Elhith called when he saw Haldir. "What are you needing?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Haldir said. "You wouldn't happen to have anything for
seasickness, would you?"

"Oh," Elhith whispered.

Haldir nodded.

"So he's...?"

"Yes."

"Has he...?"

"Not yet." Haldir paused. "I hope."

"Well then!" Elhith said, jumping up. "I have just the thing." He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small bottle, then tossing it to Haldir. "That should do it."

With a quick nod, Haldir went back in search of Sauron, who was in the same spot that he had been before. Haldir nudged him with his elbow and then handed him the bottle. "What's this?" Sauron asked.

"I don't know," Haldir answered.

Sauron looked at Haldir distrustfully. "And what do I do with it?"

"Drink it I suppose."

"You expect me to drink something when you don't even know what it is?"

"It's suppose to help with the seasickness."

Sauron paused for a moment, and then popped the lid off the glass and drank the contents. Haldir figured that he must have been feeling pretty bad to have given in so easily.

After a moment, Sauron sighed and sat down on the deck.

"Feeling better?" Haldir asked him as he perched on the riggings.

Sauron nodded.

"What is with you and boats anyway?"

"It's not so much the boat part as the ocean part."

"Oh." Well, that didn't really explain the situation any better. "Then what is with you and the ocean?"

Sauron glanced at him momentarily. "My memories of it are not pleasant."

"How so?" Haldir prompted.

"Why do you care?" Sauron snapped at him, the illusion of flame in his eyes jumping and increasing twofold.

Although it did unsettle him, Haldir was not affected enough to drop his questions. "I'm just curious."

"You realize that your curiosity is the main fault of your people, right? It is what helped lead to my rise to power in the first place," he said coldly.

"Yes, I suppose you are right. The situations were quite different, however, so I do not think that my inquisitiveness as to why you do not like the ocean will lead me to some terrible ruin," Haldir pointed out, hoping that he was right in this assumption.

"You just don't give up, do you?" Sauron asked tiredly.

Haldir shook his head. "It isn't something that I'm known for."

With a sigh Sauron stood up and leaned against the railing, taking a moment to make sure that there was no danger of falling over. "You probably know the story. I was taken to Numenor as a prisoner, I poisoned the king's mind -- made him my pawn. I'm really good at stuff like that," he said with a smug smile, looking off blankly into space as though he was reminiscing.

Haldir, unsure of how to respond to such a statement, nodded slowly.

"I told the king that coming here would make him immortal, and so off he went to war against the Valar. I sat back in Numenor, quite pleased with myself, as I was sure that I had the destruction of the Edain practically guaranteed. Of course, I had expected this to happen without anything happening to me." He paused and frowned. "That was a bit of an oversight."

Haldir finally made the connection now, even though he had known the story beforehand. "So, when the island sunk into the sea, you went down with it and drowned," he said bluntly.

Sauron shuddered. "It doesn't matter if you have the ability to get a new body later on, you still feel the end of the one you have…" He looked at the ocean again, leery. "Drowning was not much fun."

"Really. And I had expected it to be a blast."

"If you didn't notice," Sauron said, his eyebrows furrowing, "I'm disclosing personal information here. I won't ever do so again if you make snippy remarks when I'm done."

"Well maybe I don't want to hear about all your stories. In fact, I am sure that I won't want to hear all of them."

"Why not? Bit too gory for you to stomach?"

"Probably," Haldir answered truthfully.

"Oh." Apparently he had not expected Haldir to be honest.

At this moment, Elhith appeared and leaned against the mast. "Did the drink help?" he asked Sauron.

"Yes."

Haldir, feeling a bit rambunctious - he thought it might have been the air - decided then to toy around with Sauron a bit, just for the heck of it. He realized that it would probably come around so that he'd regret it later on, but at the moment he didn't really care. "Elhith here is the one who gave me that stuff, you know."

Sauron looked curiously at Haldir, as though wondering what he was up to. "Is that so?" he said as more of a statement than a question.

"Yes. Did you make it yourself, Elhith?"

"I did," replied Elhith, looking a bit proud. "You learn to make and have these things around when you are sailing with people who might not be as comfortable on the water as yourself."

Haldir smiled and looked at Sauron. "Isn't that just so courteous, Rondae?" he said with exaggerated cheer.

Sauron narrowed his eyes but did not answer.

"Well, don't you think you should thank him?"

Oh yes, it was his grand scheme. Well, not really that grand, but he figured it would be interesting to try to get Sauron to say 'thank you', two words he had probably never uttered together in a very long time.

Suddenly Sauron spoke, however, when Haldir looked at him, his lips weren't moving.
You think that's pretty funny, eh? Haldir blinked a few times before he realized what was going on, and he didn't particularly like it. Sauron was getting into his head, quite literally.

Just figured out what I am doing? Haldir thought to himself. He figured that Sauron would get the message as he had said that he 'heard' whatever Haldir thought.

Mhm. Not a good idea, not a good idea at all. I do not think you want to go the way you are going, he communicated, his last sentence in an almost sing-song voice.

But I think I do.

I would beg to differ.

Then differ. It isn't going to stop me.

Have it your way then.

Haldir looked at Elhith, noticing that he was watching Haldir and Sauron with an expression of complete confusion, yet it seemed that he was anticipating some sort of recognition. Haldir turned back to Sauron "Well?" he asked.

Sauron squinted slightly and then sighed irritably. "I appreciate having the use of your remedy for seasickness, Elhith," he said with seeming ease. The fun of it was spoiled for Haldir. It had been much too easy.

Elhith smiled. "I'm glad that it helped. If there is anything that I might be assistance to, you need merely to ask." He then hopped down from the rope and headed back towards the bow. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. We shall be arriving in about an hour."

Once he was out of sight, Haldir frowned. "That didn't seem so hard. I thought that you would have been a bit more defiant."

"That's what you wanted me to do, wasn't it?"

"Well, yes."

"Then why did you think I was going to do it?" Sauron rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "I weighted my choices." He held up one hand. "I could play along with your little plan and act just like I knew you had thought I would," he paused and then lifted his other hand, "or I could just suck it up and say an empty thank you. Being in my situation, which one would you choose? Hm?"

"Ah, you're no fun," Haldir said, crossing his arms.

"You're a real treat yourself."

Haldir shook his head. "That's not very nice."

"Darn," Sauron said, snapping his fingers. "And I was trying so hard to be kind!"

Haldir snorted and then got up to go back to the seats. He had finally met his match in sarcasm. And he knew that would make for many long verbal battles.