Chapter 3 Applethon and Friends.
Aragorn stood firmly, and told the rest of the company to run and then he ran to the girl. Who stood transfixed where Gandalf had fallen bent over as she wrapped her arms around her and then looked up to the rocks, and saw tiny outlines of goblins. She let her arms fall to her side, and sat with her legs beneath her, not moving, he screamed at her,
"Run! Run you fool!"
But she sat and he watched as the company made its way for the opening and he ran across the bridge swooped her up in his arms, and ran. As she fought him struggling to get loose back to the bridge. It was one hour after noon, the sun was shining and the clouds were white and high. The drums faded. He set the girl down, Gandalf's death was painful, but this girl struck his curiosity. He quickly examined her, she was pale and thin fragile. She was once very tall and slender he thought, her eyes were an enchanting navy blue, she had fair brown hair which now was tangled. There were dark circles beneath her eyes, her breath was so slow, and she had many open wounds. She had lifted her hands to shield her eyes from the sun. She wore strange clothes.
"Your name?" She looked at him detecting the urgency in his voice, "Dawn….Dawn Summers"
"My lady, I am Aragorn son of Arathon, we must now leave." he said again with more urgency
He stood there for a second but then firmly deciding, he would have to take her with them. First she risked her life to save Gandalf, second Gandalf had spoken to her even if only moments before his death. He nodded towards her. He moved to pick her up, she immediately stood up, and wrapped her arms around herself. She began to shake vigorously, and Aragorn scanned her quickly, her skin although rusted with dirt and blood was a light blue, she had her eyes covered as if she had never seen the radiating light of the sun before. Aragorn withdrew his cloak and moved to wrap it around her. She stepped back, he then stopped and handed the cloak to her. She grabbed it quickly, and held it open to make sure nothing fell out, she wrapped it around her, and a tiny smirk came onto her face. She turned her eyes upon him and he darted them elsewhere as he began to raise the others, there was no time for remorse for Gandalf at least not here, not so close. They began to walk as she tried to adjust her eyes to the sunlight. He began to talk to her, she didn't not hear what he said, but the man she had tried to save, she guessed, they were his friends. They weren't even given time to grieve, and alas they went down a road. None of the company paid her heed. The man who had carried her was Aragorn son of Appleathon, wait? Was that it? A midget like man made a plea to stop at Durin's Stone, Aragron gave him leave to do so, he left with another midget, was that a midgets kid? She thought silently. He then turned to her
"Lady Dawn, we go now to Lothórlien." he said quite calmly although Dawn could feel him searching her with his eyes
He saw her having difficulty walking her legs were clumsy, her eyes were never fixed, she was try to fixated on a certain point. Yet when she walked, her path was crooked, and he observed, she held her hand to her side, and he observed this too had blood seeping through her hands. He now watched the girl, she was pale and near death, her lips were a light shade of blue.
"Lady Dawn, you feel not well?" She shook her head in reply, "I will live."
He smiled she was stubborn,
"Lady you bleed, and you cannot walk a straight path." Dawn winced as she took step and closed her eyes tightly, then made for a way to change the subject
"Aragorn, who was that man, and why were you guys there?" she said slowly, even she knew with common sense not many intelligent people would venture into the-----mutant cow's den.
He turned away from her, he explained the Mines of Moria to her, however not mentioning their intent of being there in the first place.
"May I ask why you were in such a place my lady?" Aragorn said again quite calmly but still Dawn could feel him eyeing her with great suspicion.
Dawn stiffened, she didn't even know why she was there, or how long she had been there or anything.
"um---well I don't exactly know how, um but I think I came here um a long time ago." she hurriedly remarked trying to separate the time of days.
Aragorn's voice changed, and he eyed her suspiciously, "you do not know?"
"well um I um can't remember." she said coolly as if this happened all the time to her.
She said it was true in fact, she didn't know how long she had been there, or how she came here, but it wasn't earth and it sure as hell wasn't 2004.
"what is the last thing you do remember?" he said quietly his eyes narrowing
What she should tell him, that she, Dawn Summers was this powerful key from another world? Had just finished battling the first, and then fell into a hole and boom here she was?
"Falling." she said aloofly
Dawn looked at the companions and tried to focus on them, she suddenly turned the questioning around
"You all look different? Are you demons?" Dawn said suddenly regaining some street smarts. Going off with strangers, good job Dawn, she thought silently to herself.
"No, I am Aragorn son of Arathon, a human, the other man with dark brown hair is Boromir, prince of Gondor; the one with the blonde hair, is Legolas, an elf of the Woodland Realm; the stout red head man, is Gimli son of Glión, a dwarf; the four little ones with hairy feet, are hobbits, the fat one is Samwise Gamgee or Sam, the one who sings is Meriadoc Brandybuck or Merry, the one who dance is Peregrin Took or Pippin, the other hobbit who left with Gimli, is Frodo Baggins."
"Well I guess you aren't demons then, what exactly are hobbits?" She breathed in deeply and then her eyes shut.
"Lady Dawn!" Aragorn put his head to her chest, and listened to her slowly exhale and inhale. He turned suddenly and screamed
"She will die soon, we must get to Lorien! Legolas, you will carry her, she will protest, but she is too weak to walk." Aragorn didn't know why, but he had a feeling he was compelled to protect her, now at least.
Then she awoke she was to numb to move, she was comfortable though. Whatever she was laying on it was soft and safe, and really warm and comfy like. She felt her body shift, "wait a sec I didn't do that!" Her head was tilted into the most beautiful brown eyes and blonde hair man, wait pointy ears, uh elf she had ever seen. She looked to see why she had waken and finally caught what was going on, and heard
"The dwarf breaths so loud, we could have shot him in the dark."
She laughed which she quickly ceased because it hurt when she laughed, not a good sign; and examined a group more elves. But these weren't tiny little Santa Claus elves, that wore bells on their shoes and made toys. They were tall and all of them really really cute. They looked at her with great curiosity, mostly because she had been the only one had laughed. She didn't understand what was being said, but she was put into another man's arms, she looked up to see brown hair and kind gray eyes, and he looked at her with great pleasure.
"Lady Dawn, I'm Boromir." he said gently above a whisper
"Hi, there." she said managing a small smile and lifting her hand lamely
A ladder or talan as someone else called it, was let down. She watched as the hobbits went up behind Legolas. Boromir shifted her, so that he could climb up as well. She watched as a light was shined in her face, with a quick snap of her wrist she pushed it away. Slayer sister reflexives, ah they do come in handy. The light still hurt her eyes, why was this jerk, shoving it up in her face? Then the hooded elf, introduced himself as Haldir, and then Legolas introduced the company. When he said a dwarf however, Haldir seemed angered, and Legolas tried to calm him. She looked over at the two other elves, who eyes had been on her the whole time. They smiled at her, and spoke something to Haldir. Haldir and Legolas's eyes met hers, Haldir said.
"My brothers, say you hide your beauty."
As weak as she was, she felt her face go a light shade of red. It was then they were split up in separate trees, she was with Legolas, Boromir, and Aragorn.. Boromir set her down, and she was quickly wrapped in a blanket. A nice oh so warm blanket, that she tried to pull tightly around her, but the wounds ached and her body twitched with should be soft contact of the blanket. Aragorn then unwrapped her, and looked at her wounds, she never realized how many she had, until he touched them all with some sort of liquid. She watched him apprehensively at first, but the liquid was doing no harm and truth be told she wanted the blood to stop in case she opened another portal, and but she also wanted the damn blanket to wrap around her. She almost screamed when he touched her left side, there lay her biggest wound. She had never quite seen it before…it was a bit gruesome to say the least….but she had no memory of how she got it, which scared her even more. It didn't look healable either….it was rather large…she didn't think a brown scab would do the trick either. He looked at her uneasily, and she stared at him, bastard she thought silently. She watched as Boromir slowly settled into a deep sleep, after much complaining of being so high in the trees, did Gimli fall asleep. Aragorn watched her in great amusement, as she eyed everyone one with great suspicion. Forcing herself to sit up, and keeping her eyes opened.
"Lady Dawn, you are in much need of rest, why do you not close your eyes?" he said with a small smirk on his face
"I don't need rest, after all I never really slept in those damn mines, so why would I need it now?" she snapped, at least I don't think I did, she remarked to herself, wow poor memory understatement of the year.
Her response was clear, and she turned her eyes to look out into the forest. Aragorn sat there for some time, before beginning, the story of Frodo's quest, which even brought shock to Legolas's eyes. But for a strange reason, Aragorn trusted this girl, she had already proven she had will, she also seemed to be very clever, and resourceful to survive in Moria, and also very forgetful. After telling the story, she looked at him, prepared with many questions, but on looking at his face, she seemed to understand all he wanted to do was sleep. So she turned her head, and let him do so.
Dawn watched as she heard the magical fall of water from the Nimrodel. It was so peaceful the way the water fell. She stared at the water for a while before she saw a pair of dark green eyes. She stared more intently at it, then looked at Legolas who eyes were quickly leaving the water and were now scanning the ground below them. She rested her head, it was nothing she kept telling herself and then felt her eyes begin to close and immediately sat up. She watched as Legolas who had been leaning on the tree, turned his head from her. She looked at him, he had suspicions, yeah will go figure, she would too, he had really long blonde hair, almost as long as hers. Usually that was a turn off, but he was well groomed, and he had tight like spandex pants on, well at least he had a nice bulge, wait don't think about that, he is an elf, she is a girl. How old was this guy anyway?
"Hey you, how old are you?"
Legolas looked at her, and then replied,
"My lady, I'm 3,000 years old."
Emphasizing lady, oh yeah they were all proper and crap, like that one Halloween where Buffy had been turned into that 18th century girl. She silently laughed remembering how useless and girly like her sister had been. Well up till the point where the evil Spike had chased her. Hmmm…Spike and Buffy, that brought some tears to her eyes. She quickly turned her head, not wanting to show any signs of weakness, well besides the fact of all the wounds. She made another attempt to move, and that sent pain through out her whole body, she let out a slight gasp. Legolas eye's fell on her. She clutched her hand to her side, as she slowly felt the scab open, and blood began to seep through. He leaned down, and his soft hands removed hers, and he quickly ripped a piece of the blanket and pressed it onto her side, she tried to pull his hand off hers, yet he quickly moved her so that she was leaning up on his chest, and he wrapped a cloth around her. His arms were strong, and he smelled like fresh pine a sort of foresty smell. She breathed in deeply, and fell soundly asleep in his arms. For a long time she had never quite felt safe and protected and tonight with these strangers from another world surrounding her she did somehow.
Okay yes the other chapter was a bit here she is now and nows she is here. I'm still working on it. Grammar be damned! I suck at it, forever will be doomed with bad grammar. This is why I need an editor, great news I just submitted a short fictional story to a contest, and got 3rd place. I got 350 in cash and they offered to put it up towards publishers but shamefully I said no. The story was not even close to being finished they restricted my writing those fiends. But I am in touch with knopf a publishing company now, they just sent me a free copy of this book called Eragon, I suggest you read if you like the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. There sending me this other books called the Eldest, the writer is only 20! I think he is very talented. I'm hoping to get more reviews, and I might post my short story on here. I am not actually sure though I get some reviews, but not as many as I'd like. But I will be updating, revising more frequently, I'll give you notice if I rewrite a chapter. Such as chapter 2 currently under my criticism as well as several others. Thanks for R&R