The Road Goes Ever On And On

Disclaimer: No, I do not own anything beside the character of Tithenwen and the plot!

Chapter Sixteen: Battle Plans

Arwen rushed to where Brego stood and examined the body beside him. Sure enough, as Brego had tried to tell them, it was Tess. Becca stood in the doorway with her mouth hanging open in shock. Her cousin wasn't dead!

Tithenwen moaned and opened her eyes. She blinked several times before softly saying, "Nana?"

A smile came across Arwen's face as she looked at her daughter. "You're alive!" she cried in disbelief.

"What else would I be?" joked Tithenwen.

Arwen's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come and her eyes darted down to the floor. Tithenwen looked confused for a second before she smacked herself in the head. Arwen looked up when she heard Tithenwen hit herself and looked confused.

"Who told you I was dead?" Tithenwen asked.

"Saruman…"

"And you believed him?"

"He said he'd killed you and that he had Aragorn…"

"Saruman ambushed us by tricking me. He used me to get to ada. And if he dies, it's all my fault!" cried Tithenwen as went to stand up.

"Tithenwen, what's going on?"

"Saruman thought it would be funny to mess with my mind. Well he did and he tricked me and now my memory's back. Saruman made me believe that escape would save us from death but it was a trap. I was a fool…"

"You got that right," said Becca quietly as joined the conversation.

Tithenwen glared at Becca who smiled back.

"So what do we do?"

"Saruman is coming to attack Gondor, right?" Tithenwen asked.

"Yes," said Arwen, confused. "And your point is?"

"We trick him. Let him think that we've abandoned the city and then we let him have it. Give him a taste of his own medicine!"

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Becca.

"Nana, you and Becca must ride for Rivendell. Act as if you are fleeing. We have to send Faramir and Mary away the same way, but we'll sneak them back in. And we leave the gates open. Saruman will think we've given up…"

"What a good idea!" said Arwen.

"What a good way to get yourself killed!" yelled Becca.

"Becca, you are not going to fight! War is too dangerous!" Tithenwen said, having read her cousin's mind.

"But you still fight!"

"I fight because I want to and because I'm fighting to save my world and my family! I have reasons!"

"And what's wrong with wanting to help?"

"There is nothing wrong with wanting to help but, no you will not be fighting!"

Becca glared at Tithenwen and Tithenwen glared back, and then Becca grabbed Beauty and left.

"Stubborn…" Becca hissed under her breath as she left.

"Are you sure about this?" Arwen asked Tithenwen.

"Positive. I just will need some help…"

"What do you need?"

"I need Merry, Pippin, Emily, Jon, Dolly, Mary, Faramir, Gimli, Legolas, and Kate if this plan is going to work."

"Why?"

"So Saruman will not know what hit him," Tithenwen said with an evil smile.

"But Dolly isn't your friend anymore."

"She will be," said Tithenwen as she took Brego and left the Houses of Healing.

"Let me get this straight!" said Dolly, having a laughing fit. "You want me to help you? Why should I help you?"

"I realize now what I've done and I'm sorry for that. I just really wanted to know my family! Can't you understand that?" Tithenwen said to Dolly.

"No! Should I understand?"

"Yes!" said Tithenwen as she sighed and shook her head.

"Nothing you say will change what happened."

"Well I didn't ask you to come back, now did I!"

"I shouldn't have come!"

"But you felt that you had to! Am I right?"

"So? Your point is?"

"You don't completely hate me and I don't completely hate you! Why can't we just get along like we used to?"

"Because the person that I used to be friends with is gone, Tithenwen!" said Dolly in a nasty voice.

"Dolly, what if it had been you?" Tithenwen asked quietly.

"What?"

"What if it had been your parents? What if they had been in Middle-earth instead of mine? What if you had had to choose? What would you have done?"

Dolly glared at Tithenwen who smiled back. Dolly sighed and said, "The same thing I guess."

"It wasn't that I didn't want to be with my friends, it was that I wanted to get a chance to know them!"

"And you'd had that chance before we left and you still stayed!"

"Dolly, they were my parents! I had just met them!"

"So?"

"So! So I wanted to stay with them! Is that a crime!"

"Yeah!"

"Fine, I'll just find someone else to help me, since my friends don't understand and care…"

"That was low…" Dolly pointed out.

"So what if it was? I can't get any lower than I already am!"

"And what the bloody hell was that supposed to mean?"

"If you cared, you would have known the answer."

"What?"

"The reason I ran off for the Wild was because my friends left and I was lonely! I missed you guys and it was run off, looking for adventure and new friends or suicide!"

"What?"

"Nevermind!"

"I thought you left because you hated the city!"

"I did, that and once ada was King, I was on my own most of the time. I wished for friends but I'd been so nasty, that I didn't have any."

"Which made you lower than dirt?"

"Pretty much."

Dolly laughed and smacked Tithenwen upside the head.

"You are such an idiot sometimes!"

"What?" asked Tithenwen, rubbing her head.

"Oh, I give up! Friends?" said Dolly, extending her hand.

"Friends!" cried Tithenwen as she shook Dolly's hand and the two friends smiled. They might not be as close as they had been, but at least they were once again friends.

Author's Notes:

Well this is a double post day! The next chapter should be the start of the battle and then the following chapter will be a showdown between Saruman and Tithenwen. And chapter 19 will be the aftermath of the battle and chapter 20 will be the start of Part II!