The Road Goes Ever On And On

Disclaimer: No, I do not own.

Chapter Six: New Discoveries

"Are you surprised to see me?" asked the girl who had caught Tithenwen and kept her from escaping.

"Who the bloody hell are you? Let me go now!" cried Tithenwen, fighting against the girl, trying to break free and run again.

"Tess, it's only me, Dolly. Your 'friend'?"

"I have no friend. I have no family either. I'm a Ranger and Tess is not my name…"

"Tess, stop playing games…"

"I'm not playing a game! And stop calling me that!"

"Tess," said Aragorn, coming closer. "Are you okay? Did you hurt your head?"

"No I did not! Now get away from me! All of you! Let me go!" cried Tithenwen fighting harder to regain her freedom.

"Stop fighting! Please!" begged Aragorn, starting to whine again.

"Oh give it up! She was always stubborn and apparently nothing has changed. Nothing ever does!" scowled Dolly.

"Let me go!" protested Tithenwen, still fighting

"Did it ever occur to you that this might not be Tess?"

"No…" said Aragorn with a whine. "Why?"

"I think she would have recongized one of us by now and she's only getting nastier!" replied Dolly.

"So?"

"So, does she carry anything that would identify her?"

"Yeah."

"Check once we get her back in her room."

"Okay," said Aragorn, trying to help drag Tithenwen back to Tess's room.

But Tithenwen only fought harder and dug in her heels so finally both gave up and Aragorn picked up Tithenwen. And he carried her, kicking, screaming, biting, and cursing all the way back to her room and dropped her on the bed as Dolly locked the door. And Tithenwen was not happy about this one bit.

Aragorn quickly searched for the Evenstar pendant and the Ring of Barahir. The Evenstar hung from her neck like it had when she disappeared. And the Ring of Barahir, the ring that Aragorn had once worn, but removed after becoming King, was on one of her fingers. He found them and held them both up to Dolly.

"It's her!" he announced.

"How can you be sure that this isn't an imposter who killed her and stole them?" questioned Dolly.

"Good point!" said Aragorn with a sigh.

Then he remembered. Tess had the mark of the Evenstar on her shoulder. So he checked the stranger's shoulder and sure enough, the mark was there. Not that she behaved or let him look at her shoulder willingly. But there was no denying it. This girl was in fact his daughter. But why did she not remember anyone or anything?

"It's her, Dolly, it's her. No denying it. It's her. But why does she not remember anything anymore?"

"It must be related to us going home. She's forgotten everything. Or it could be related to her injuries or it could be a spell."

"From who?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you?" asked Aragorn, whining like a child again.

"Stop acting like a child! You are a grown man! Behave like one!" scolded Dolly, shaking her finger at Aragorn, who whimpered in fear.

The girl snickered and both turned to face her.

"What's so funny?" asked Aragorn, close to tears.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" was her reply. "Now can I go?"

"Go where?"

"Home. Where I belong," she stated simply, not knowing how much her words hurt Aragorn.

"This is your home," said Aragorn, pointing out her room. "Welcome back to Gondor and city of Minas Tirith."

"I do no live in Minas Tirith! I'm a Ranger! I want to go home!"

"And where is that?" asked Dolly sarcastically. "On the back of your horse?"

"No, at the Ranger camp…" said the girl before clutching her forehead in pain.

The Ranger camp. Home. Something had happened there. Something terrible. She had to go back. That minute. Something wasn't right. And Minas Tirith. They had been heading for Minas Tirith. Why had they been going to Minas Tirith? To warn the King. The danger that was after her was after him too.

"Is everything alright, Tess?" asked the man.

"No, I must warn the King. A new threat is coming… It wants him dead… My camp… Must find them… Something terrible…" was all that Tithenwen could get out before everything went black.

"What just happened?" asked Aragorn as Tithenwen went limp.

"She's fallen back into a dream state again," said Dolly, after taking a quick look at her friend.

"Why?" asked Aragorn, getting impatient and whiny.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"You are supposed to be the smart one!" he said whining.

"So? You are supposed to be King!" Dolly shot back.

"But…"

"But nothing. She's your daughter. She wanted nothing to do with me before I left, so why would she want my help now? Why should I help her?"

"Because you are her friend!"

"I'm not her 'friend' anymore. She made that pretty clear before I left. Why don't you go find one of those Rangers who she knew? I'm sure they'd be of more help!" said Dolly, heading towards the door, ready to leave.

"I don't know any of the Rangers! I never met them!"

"Not my problem, now is it?" she added, closing the door.

"Come back!" cried Aragorn. "I don't know what to do!"

Dolly stepped into the hallway. As she did so, Tess's cousin appeared out of nowhere, startling the older girl.

"Where's Tess?" asked Becca, concern clearly showing in her face for her cousin.

"She's not here. Well at least not in the right mind…" said Dolly turning to head for her room.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Dolly let out a deep sigh and turned back to face Becca. "Your cousin is crazy. She has no clue who she is and is being very nasty. She lost it as we were leaving. Or at least according to her father, that is…"

"Her father?" asked Becca, confused.

Dolly sighed again. "Her father is the King of this city. He has many names. He was known as Strider when he was a Ranger. And as Aragorn to many other people. Now, most people know him as King Elessar."

So she's a princess? Right?"

"Correct. Not that she wanted to be."

"Why wouldn't she want to be a princess?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask her!" cried Dolly, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration before storming away, leaving Becca behind.

"Gesh…" said Becca before looking that the door. That had to lead to Tess's room. And Becca really needed to talk to Tess. So Becca opened the door and entered, to find her cousin passed out on the bed it strange clothes and a man, crying on the floor.

The man looked up when he heard her enter. They locked eyes and Becca saw the gray-blue that matched Tess's, when they were that color. Tess's eyes had often changed colors before deciding to stay mostly blue. So that man must be Tess's father.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" asked the man nervously.

"I'm Becca. I came from Earth, with Dolly and the others," offered Becca, hoping the man would understand.

"What others?"

"Um, Kate, Emily, and Jon."

"Who's Jon?"

"I think he's Emily's boyfriend."

"Oh," said the man, looking down at something in his hands.

"What have you got there?"

"Nothing too special."

"Can I see?"

"No!" cried Aragorn, as Becca reached towards the shining stuff in his hands, having a spastic moment.

Becca jumped backwards, scared and surprised at his reaction.

"I'm sorry..." he said softly, apologizing a moment later.

"What just happened?"

"I shouldn't have acted that way, but I have a tendency to be possessive of stuff. That I spent too much time with psychos."

"Right…" said Becca, not believing him. If anyone was a psycho, then it would be him for sure.

"Honest. I was just looking at some stuff that is very close to me. One is a necklace from my wife and the other is a ring that I had for sometime. You can look at them too…" he said, showing her the Evenstar and the Ring of Barahir.

"Oh…"

"I once had a nightmare that the Evenstar had shattered. But that was a long time ago. But it is a very special necklace."

"My cousin had one like that. She let me wear it one time to school. And then we went riding later and I lost it. It fell off the chain."

"Did it shatter?"

"No. It fell in the grass. We found later that day. She was upset that we'd almost lost it. She kept murmuring about something too. In another language."

"What was she saying?"

"I don't know."

"Was it Elvish?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Huh."

"Why do you care anyway?"

"Oh I was just wondering if she had spoken any Elvish back there."

"Back where?"

"At your home. Earth."

"Oh, yeah. She was addicted to some book and taught her horse some weird language. She even gave it an odd name and yelled at us when we couldn't say it right. She also insisted upon being called by another name when we rode."

"What were the names?"

"She called her horse Brego. And she liked to be called Tithenwen. Said it was her name in Elvish."

"Did she do anything else, strange?"

"Um, she called herself a Ranger on Halloween, when we'd dress up. Or Strider the Ranger. Something like that."

"Huh," said Aragorn, as everything began to make sense.

Author's Notes:

Here's the last of the triple update! Tomorrow, I'll post chapters seven and eight!