Something Special
Author: Lil-Hellraiser
Disclaimer: Don't own any of em. Nope, just my computer here and my poster of Orlando.
Author's note: The long awaited CHAPER 9! W00t, I've been waiting and waiting just as long as you all have. This is an informative chapter, and it starts of RIGHT where we left off last chapter. So what are you wasting time reading this for? READ THE CHAPTER AND WASTE TIME REVIEWING!
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"Okay, Galadriel, tell me everything." I demanded, and Chase whistled.
"Chill out, Sunshine. You're so red you might explode." He remarked smartly, and grinned. I glanced at him with an 'excuse-me-but-was-I-talking-to-you?' look. And then I mentally smacked myself. What the hell was I thinking, talking to GALADRIEL like that? Score two, Chase.
"And if you don't mind, I'd like answers as well, your grace." Chase added. I suddenly felt bad. Chase and I had been living in the same country without even knowing of each other's existences. He deserved to have answers just as much as I did. I mean, while he was in Middle Earth, beating himself up over being taken away and leaving everyone to assume him dead, I was also in Middle Earth, mourning his death and wishing that I could just start life over. We both had a rough time, it seemed.
"Very well," the Queen stood and led us down a small staircase. When we emerged at the bottom, we were in a little clearing with a fountain-like statue in the middle filled with water, and there was a pitcher filled with water sitting next to it. She picked up the pitcher and painstakingly poured all the water into the fountain, eyes held on the water. She then glanced at us, and her eyes seemed much bluer.
"Will you look into the mirror?" She asked in a more powerful voice. Chase remained immobile.
"What if we see something we don't like?" He asked, and hesitated. Galadriel smiled, and seemed to be staring at him extra hard. Chase looked like he was processing something very important in his brain, and I realized that Galadriel was speaking with him with her powers. He stepped forward. When I didn't follow, he held out his hand.
"Its all right, Jolie. It can't hurt you." He said, and reassured me with a smile. I grabbed his hand and walked to the mirror, and peered at the clear water, seeing nothing but the bottom of the stone basin. And then it changed.
There were reflections in the water and they became more solid as the seconds wore on. And soon, it wasn't just in the basin, it was in my head as well, like a troublesome thought.
There was a huge battle across a large ocean, below the gulls and the dark sky. A cry was heard and there was a 'clang!' of swords. In the middle was a very ragged, dirty, but victorious looking Galadriel.
The scene changed. There was a shadow of a man in the midst of swirling fire, and he was summoning something from it. A circular object sprang forth from the flame, gleaming and shining, but horribly so. Evil radiated from the object and the man, and I began to develop a headache as the shadow-man slipped the object on his finger.
The One Ring.
The scene changed again. There was the shadowed man, looking good and kind. He was giving up three beautiful rings to three very enchanting beings. One was gold with a blue stone, the other was crystal with diamonds at the top, and the last was gold with a magnificent red stone, and I had never seen it before in my life. The three beings turned around to admire their gifts. There was Galadriel again, but the other two elves, I had not seen before.
My mind grew blank and was filled with a deep fog. I wondered if I had fallen asleep, but convinced myself that I was awake, and there was still more to be shown. Suddenly, light filled my eyes and I was watching a battle take form before me. It was taking place on the summit of a huge mountain, and there were Orcs everywhere, snarling and growling. The stench of death filled my nostrils and I began to cough. Just as soon as I stopped, there was a deathly quiet. It seemed like everything had been muted. There was a zoom in on that dark man, but he was decked out in black armor and carried a mace. The Ring was on his finger. He killed and killed, and after he killed a particularly important looking person, and young man ran up to him and began to fight.
Unfortunately, the duel didn't last long, and the young man fell to the ground, his sword shattered. With the shards, he swiftly chopped off the evil man's finger, the one on which the Ring of Power dwelled. The evil man froze, then seemed to explode with evil vibes, when he suddenly crumbled, leaving nothing more than ashes in his wake. The sound came back on, and I seemed to be carried up the mountain to a small tunnel. In it were that young man, looking at the molten lava below, and Lord Elrond. Elrond seemed to be in a state of serious despair.
"Isildur!" He yelled. "Cast it into the fire!"
The man called Isildur stared in wonder at the Ring that he now carried. My heart began to beat faster. The Ring seemed to be talking to him, and, without a doubt, Isildur was listening.
"Destroy it!" Elrond shouted, perhaps even pleaded. Isildur turned around, and with a chillingly empty look in his eyes he replied evenly, "…No."
Elrond gasped and looked at him with wide eyes. The fire roaring in my ears made it difficult to keep up with the conversation. Isildur calmly walked passed Elrond and out of the tunnel, not minding the ashes surrounding him like snow. Elrond just looked passed him hopelessly, and then into the fires below.
My vision blurred, and when it cleared, I was watching a boat in the middle of the ocean, sailing towards a vast shoreline, the same one that I had seen a great battle on only moments before. On it, looking fresh and beautiful, were Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, along with Frodo, and…Bilbo Baggins. THE Bilbo Baggins. I was shocked for a second there. He looked so old. Actually, everyone did. Well, older, anyway. What was going on?
The scene seemed to fast forward by a span of years. Galadriel was lying in a bed of feathers, looking pale and distraught, and her ring, MY ring, was not on her finger anymore. Her lovely face grew tremendously white, and then she exhaled slowly, her blue eyes dimming. She didn't move from that point on. She was dead.
"NO!" I pushed myself away from the mirror, and let go of Chase's hand. He was staring down at the mirror, and a solitary tear ran down his cheek and dropped into the mirror. He shook his head and looked up at her, a look of horror crossing his face.
"How could you show us that?" He asked, looking betrayed.
"Yeah!" I piped up, my heart beat slowing down. "I don't believe you!"
"I didn't need to watch someone die!" Chase said, looking at his feet. "Lord Elrond…I've never met him before. Why, Galadriel?"
"Lord Elrond?" I asked, confused. "But, I didn't see him."
"Who did you see?" Chase asked, furrowing his brows. I gave a meaningful look at Queen Galadriel.
"Okay, what did you see first and foremost?" He asked, hands crossed.
"I saw a big battle on a beach-like place…"
"So did I."
"And Galadriel was there, right in the middle."
"…I didn't see her."
"Who did you see?"
"Um…some other elf guy. Can't place the name. He looked pretty damn important though."
"Whom you saw was Gil-Galad, leader of the Noldor." Galadriel interrupted.
"What great battle were we watching?" I asked, my eyes widening in fascination.
"The battle of the Noldorian rebellion against the Valar." Chase answered for me. I gazed over at him, wondering how he knew all this stuff. Once again, he answered for me (sheepishly, might I add), "I've lived with an all powerful Queen of Elves for a decade, Jolie. I don't just sit around and play pretend. All this stuff I know now, I've actually learned over time." He unfolded his hands.
"Okay then…" I went on. "And after that, did you see Sauron forging the One Ring?"
"Yep."
"And then when he fooled everyone and gave the elves their own rings?"
"Uh huh."
"And then when Isildur killed Sauron and wouldn't destroy the One Ring?"
"Saw that."
"What about that one part where everyone's sailing across the sea?" I asked, confused by my own words.
"Yeah, that too, but I have no idea what's going on." Chase responded, scratching his head.
"Me neither…" I said. "I never saw the third movie."
"Oh, you mean they made a third one? I only got to see the first."
"Don't worry, I'll fill you in sometime."
Galadriel looked considerably lost, and that was saying something. Her ears looked like they were twitching in annoyance, and her head was tilted off to one side. Her blue eyes were fixed on us in curiosity. I would be too. Here we were, me discussing matters that hadn't happened yet as if they were as common as rain in Seattle, and Chase acting like the matters on the whole bored him to death.
"Anyway…" Chase coughed. "Did you see Lord Elrond die?"
"He died?" I asked, a sinking feeling in my heart. "No…I saw Galadriel die." But then I glanced hurriedly at the said elf, who seemed unaffected by this news. Wasn't she at least a little sad?
"You both followed the separate paths that your rings took, thus taking you on the journey of their Ring Bearers." Galadriel answered smoothly. "That is why Jolie only saw myself, and you, Chase, always saw either Gil-Galad or Elrond."
"My ring had more than one Bearer?"
"Yes. Your ring had been passed on from the Noldor King Gil-Galad to Lord Elrond Half-Elven of Imladris, many years ago."
"Excuse, me." I broke in. "If you are the rightful Ring Bearer of my ring, like Lord Elrond is the rightful Ring Bearer of Chase's, then why didn't I come to Lothlorien and he go to Rivendell instead?"
"Because you were not ready to hear the truth." Galadriel said simply. That had two meanings to me. Either she had already told us the truth, or she was going to tell us something bigger in a little bit.
"Are these rings evil?" I asked tentatively, remembering how corrupted Frodo would start to be.
"Only as evil as you make them become." Galadriel answered coldly.
"When Chase came to Lorien, didn't you have your suspicions?" I wondered, feeling lost now. Galadriel laughed lightly.
"Why wouldn't I have any suspicions about a boy wearing a three-thousand year old ring that I remembered from the day it was presented to an Elven King?" She asked. At my blank face, she continued on, "When you turned up in Imladris, Elrond immediately wrote of a girl who had appeared wearing Nenya, and who seemed to recognize his own ring, Vilya, from another location. Together we made our connections."
"But what about Gandalf?" I asked. "Was he included in any of this?"
"Where's his ring?" asked Chase.
Galadriel held up her flawless hand to silence us.
"Because you two are the only ones that have appeared in Middle Earth thus far, and within a close time-frame, we are going to assume that Gandalf kept his ring safe after he travels back to Valinor."
"So you're saying that he didn't lose it like you guys." I finished. Chase glared at me, obviously displeased with my manners.
"…if you put it in those terms, then, quite." Galadriel said, though she seemed to be burning a hole in my eyes. I didn't understand. I was only joking.
"You are the only ones we are counting on having in this world." Galadriel said softly.
"Why, though?" Chase asked, seemingly pleading her for an answer. She smiled secretively at him.
"That, my child, is for you to discover."
"We haven't changed since we got here." I broke in. "Will we ever?"
"You have received Rings of Power of the immortal Elven Race." Galadriel said, and then hauntingly added, "What do you think?"
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It had been a few hours since our talk with Lady Galadriel. Chase had shown me a talon in the trees to stay in, which was kind of like a tree house. There was one big room with a bed and a dresser-like thing in the corner. There was also a dressing screen that you could move in front of the basin of water at the back if you needed to bathe. Chase helped me heat the water and add things like flower petals to it, and then moved the screen in front. After a moment of indecision, he decided to sit on my bed and talk to me through the screen while I bathed.
"So, Chase, how did you get here, I asked, settling down into the warmth of the water.
"Well, remember how I walked you home that one day? I was on my way to my house, and this nasty black orc attacked me."
"Same here." I said, listening as I inhaled the scent of wildflowers.
"Well, I DID get to my house. I ran to my dad's car and pulled out his revolver from the glove compartment to try and keep me safe. Then I ran into the field behind my house."
"Chase, you had a gun?" I asked, looking at the screen as if I could see him through it.
"Anyway," He said, coughing, "That thing followed me all the way into the field, and I shot it once before I was gone."
"Just 'gone'?"
"Yeah. It was weird, like being pulled through space, and I couldn't handle it, so I guess I passed out. But I woke up right on the border or Lorien, and wandered through the trees until…" He sighed. I stopped rubbing bath oils on my arms to question him.
"What? Until…?"
"Her." Chase breathed. "She was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Her hair was so dark that the darkness I fell into did it no justice, and her eyes were perfect and gray, like two silver orbs of moonlight…"
"Who are we talking about here?" I asked irritably.
"Arwen Undomiel." Chase sighed, and I heard him recline back onto my pillows. "She saved me from the wilderness and brought me to her grandmother Galadriels' council. It is because of her I am still alive. I owe her my life." It was plain to see that Chase was smitten over Arwen.
"Uh, HELLO? You can't mess around with her." I pointed out. "She's destined to be with Aragorn, and since I have seen one more movie out of the three than you, you're gonna go by my word. They WILL end up together. Don't do anything stupid."
"Yeah, yeah." Chase sighed. "Anyway, I was introduced to everyone once Galadriel invited me to stay, including Diyerne. He taught me everything I needed to know about fighting and stuff. When I got so bored of just sitting around Lothlorien, he decided to make me a scout, and he's trained me ever since."
"It's a good thing you're a fast learner." I said bitterly, remembering one time when Legolas tried to help me shoot a bow and arrow again. I almost hit him, and from that day on he declared me a hopeless student. Was I gonna tell Chase that? Noooooo.
"And basically, that's all." He said. "I was living peacefully until YOU decided to show up and steal all my fun!" He was joking now. I laughed, and some water splashed over the side.
"Don't make a mess, now." He warned. "I won't help you clean it up." I just laughed some more and some more water splashed. He was suddenly serious.
"Jolie, I'm not kidding." I stopped laughing at his tone. "Why is it that you have a total lack of respect around here?"
"Lack of respect?" I said incredulously. "I thought I was giving respect."
"You had absolutely no proper manners while addressing the Queen!" He reprimanded. I thought back to my time in Rivendell. Did I show respect there? There never was a need to. I was the only human besides Gilraen and Estel, and people were kind to me and my human-like antics. If I joked around with someone, they thought it was cute. And I guess I'd never really needed to be formal with Lord Elrond. He'd been like a father to me since I'd came to Middle Earth.
I told this all to Chase, and he sighed in reply.
"Jolie, that may be accepted in Rivendell, but here it's a whole different community of elves. They're very proper and very rule abiding. They don't trust easily, and that's why you have to behave politely with them."
"I'm sorry Chase." I said sincerely. After all, these elves were his people now, and he was only defending them. Would I do the same for the elves in Rivendell? You bet your ass. "I had no idea."
"Its fine." He said. We were silent for a few seconds.
"Hey, who's older?" I asked.
"Um, that would be me." Chase said, confused.
"No, technically I'm older because you're still sixteen, and still I'm seventeen."
"Our bodies are still sixteen and seventeen. Physically, you're older but in reality, I win that contest."
"Damn." I said, earning him a laugh. I smiled. Once again, it was silent.
"So, who was that guy you were latching on to all day?" Chase asked, and I could practically see him grinning. "Some new boyfriend. Great catch." He whistled.
"Ew! Glorfindel, my boyfriend? Yeah, right." I shuddered and resumed rubbing something like shampoo in my hair.
"THE Glorfindel? Slayer of Balrogs?" Chase said in awe. I grinned.
"That's the elf." I replied.
"No way! You know him?"
"Know him? Of course! He helped rescue me…"
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Whooooooooooo. I've been meaning to get that chapter over and done with for a while now. It took…WHOA. Four hours. Four HOURS I wasted to get this done for you guys. I'm surprised my fingers aren't bleeding. PLEASE review…I don't wanna beg…but PLEASE!! Thanks!
