'Well, my dear', remarked Elrond when he stopped laughing, 'how do you come to be
disrupting my life again?'
'Crikey', Rory replied 'do you reckon after last time that I WANTED to be here
again? Do you take me for a total Galah?'
Elrond raised one eyebrow and gave Rory a look full of amusement 'I am pleased
to see you too', he said.
'You accused me of disrupting your life; I thought I saved your butt. Never say
Elves have good manners', she snapped in reply
'Relax!', chuckled Elrond, 'I am teasing you, and no I have not forgotten your
help at Mt Doom, and I have often wished that I could have thanked you properly,
dear girl.'
Gandalf decided to interrupt the little chat, 'Rory', he said quietly, 'how did
you manage to get here this time, and so badly injured?'
'Well', Rory replied, 'I think a stressful situation has something to do with
it. Like the first time I was seconds from being killed, and POW I'm in Mordor.
Don't ask me how or why it works.'
Aragorn spoke 'that theory is good, but what about the Ring, it seems both times
Rory has shown up that the Ring is involved'.
'What about the Ring? Demanded Rory. 'You do mean the One Ring, our evil mate
Sauron's little toy, I take it?'
'How much does she know of the Ring history, Elrond?' asked Gandalf.
'As much as anyone', Elrond replied, 'Rory was there when I failed to make
Isildur destroy the Ring'.
Aragorn and Gandalf stared at Elrond, who shrugged and said, 'It is true, Rory
was standing close enough to me to have touched me, she attempted to make
Isildur give up the Ring by force, something I could not bring myself to do.
Isildur threw Rory head first into a cliff, rendering her unconscious. I think
he had been waiting to take revenge on Rory, as they had never been friends'.
'Then what happened?' asked Aragorn, looking at Rory with new interest on
realising she had known his famous ancestor.
'I was injured and weak with grief from Isildur's betrayal. Everything seemed
lost, the two high Kings, Elendil and Gil-Galad lay dead, and many other fine
warriors also lay dead or dying; Why? I thought, it is all in vain. The last
Alliance had achieved nothing, nothing at all, it was all ashes and dust and
death. I sat at the volcano's very edge, uncaring if I fell in, or died from
grief just sitting there. Then Rory appeared in front of me just as dusk was
falling. At first, apart from telling her to go away and leave me be, I ignored
her, even when she poked in the ribs with my own sword hard enough to draw blood
from the edge of my chain mail digging in to me. Vaguely I could hear her
shouting about stupid elves, but took no notice. Then she slapped my face, hard
enough to split my lip, I tasted my own blood, and that did get my attention.
Without thinking I slapped Rory back, she just laughed and remarked that
obviously I was alive, she had begun to think that Elves died with their eyes
open like they slept.'
Elrond drew a deep breath, and looked at the woman in the bed, she was grinning
at him and said softly, 'obviously your hearing was affected, if you don't
remember all the yelling I did. The curses I spat at you should have curled your
hair, but you always were too stubborn for your own good. Hope I don't have to
haul you off of any mountains this trip round, you're too heavy to make that
fun.'
'Yes', said Elrond to a shocked Aragorn and Gandalf, 'once having revived me,
Rory somehow all but carried me down the mountain side; I was weaker than I
thought from blood loss and shock, the mountain was clearly going to erupt, and
Rory stated that if I was going to sit there and get killed, so was she. We both
spent several days in the care of healers, than one day Rory vanished. No one
knew where she went to, I have spent three thousand years wishing that you got
home safely, my dear', he said to Rory. 'I am pleased that you did, but worried as to
why you are here again'.
'Aragorn, is I think, right', remarked Gandalf, 'Rory is connected to the Ring,
probably in a magical way'.
Confused, Rory looked at the 3 people in the room, 'well is someone going to
explain to me?' she asked.
Gandalf looked her in the eye, 'the One Ring, thought lost for three thousand years,
has been found again', he stated.
'Oh SSSSSSShit', said Rory.