Laer4572Yes, everyone is happy but don't get too comfortable. Things are bound to be…changeful. Keep reading!
Fk306 animeloverOne of the things about this fic that make it great is the fact that you never know what's going to happen. Ever. Therefore, you shall have to read this chapter and wait and see what happens. But please keep reading.!
Princess SiaraIf the fair Barbie doth like Lindir then thou shalt continue to read the fair writings of these two noble Lordlings. If thou would also keep reviewing fair lady we would also love thee forever! Keep reading!
Ty-Kwan-DoSorry we haven't up dated sooner but we have both been sick. The cough and hacky-lung has taken a huge toll on us both. We need reviews to make us better. Keep reading!
Slayer3 : You never need any encouraging you beastly girl! Keep reading! Oh! Darn it there I go again!
Joeela Alinn : Yes, Barbie needs a little romance to keep things interesting. Keep reading!
Angel RageReally? Well, we love you too. Keep reading!
PlainAndSimpleDear Plain and Simple, have I ever told how I love your name? Well, I do. And as for weird dreams this chapter kind of…well, I can't say…you have to read it….go on! Keep reading!
crazyroninchicYes! We love making people's day! You have not seen angry until someone gives you the "Denethor look" it could froze a raging dragon in its tracks. Keep reading!
Georgianna Look here. I am not the kind of man to play with a girl's emotions and so I must kindly insist that you find someone else to smoother with love. I am a very busy man and…back away! I said back away! I will not hug you! No! No! No! …..Winkle! Keep reading!
Archimedes-FactotumI think we caught the whole, "Dropped off the face of the earth" thing too. We've been out of our minds busy with work and everything that we hardly have time to breath. I assure you that whenever your picture comes we will remember you and will wept tears of joy that it finally arrived.
The loon from down the block : Too much candy? Is there such a thing? Keep reading!
AnnamariahThe love boat is about to set ship! TooT! TooT! We love stealing lines from other movies and good stories. I mean…cough cough…that we used them first and they were stolen! Thieves and robbers! Keep reading!
Chicky PooI'm sorry if we have been keeping you all on a thin thread of waiting but we've been busy/sick/tired and we hope you forgive us. Keep reading!
Silveni : You're awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome-er! Keep reading!
ArwenEvenstar83I love your name! I hope you keep loving our story!
AraelMoonchildSorry we haven't written in so frigging long but …well, I think I've said this already but we weresicktiredbusyanddowntrooden. There, I'm sure you understood that. Keep reading!
Alateriel567I, (Snodgrass) am in the process of getting my driver's license as well. I have always been too lazy to get it before. Enjoy your up date!
Princess Siara (again) : Dude! We loved the picture and will post it on the fan site as soon as we can so everyone can see it! Thank you so much all over again! We kiss your feet!
halfelvenmedeaWe love Lindir too, but not in the way that Barbie does or at least we think she does…or…never mind. Keep reading!
chelseypudgeOh Pudge! My Pudge! Oh, beautiful Pudge! Keep reading!
Elvin BlueEyesI love a good lover's moon as well. I hope this chapter is what you wanted but I'm guessing not because…well, keep reading and you'll see what I mean.
Alberix.Silver.QuillAh yes, the reviewer who will not stop sending messages to up date. Well, I hope that you enjoy this one as much as the last. We're sorry it took so darned long to write.! Keep reading!
Jo : No, I regret to say that I am my own person and not the person in the mag. However, since I have no idea what kind of crappy writing the other person might be doing I suppose I don't feel bad about it after all. Hashanah! Keep reading!
Ithildi BlaqueI'm sorry if we missed your birthday but…We hope that you like this chapter as well. It has a different tone to it. Happy late Birthday though! We are so glad that you have reviewed and that you love our story as much as we do. Keep reading!
Luthien and Tari OronarI suppose that we're happy that you dwell in a little world of your own making. Coughfreakcough. I hope you plan on up dating your other stories as well. I know we haven't been the best example but then you shouldn't always use us. Keep reading!
The Reviewing Llama : Thank you for keeping track of the time it helped snap us into action...if a little slowly. It always thrills us when one of you guys come along who have read the story and are reviewing for the first time. I hope you continue to love the story! Keep reading!
Snodgrass: Boy! My hands are killing me from all those reviews! I hope we have ever more next time! Hooray! Let's get this party started!
(Snodgrass begins to dance around the office much to Winkle's disgust. Snodgrass proceeds to knock into all the Christmas decorations and the lights go out. The computer sighs again and hit's the up date key.)
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Chapter Forty One
The World Has Changed Forever
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Emily's POV
"Emily, wake up. Come on you've been asleep forever!"
Hands were shaking me in that annoying way that people have when they're trying to wake you up. I was particularly tired the night before and I wasn't…
Wait a second! What was Barbara doing in my room! Where was Boromir!
I sat up too fast and smacked my head on the bottom of the top bunk bed. As stars whirled around in my head and I felt strange like I should be remembering something, something had happened that shouldn't have.
"Whoa Em, what's up? I mean I know that jetlag can be bad but this is…what!"
I looked at Barbie sitting on the edge of my bunk bed at home. She was wearing her Sweet Dreams jammies and her glasses were perched on the end of her nose. She was looking at me like she thought I was crazy. I looked hard at her for a moment and then I looked down at myself.
I was wearing a wrinkly jean skirt and my "I survived Helms Deep" t-shirt. I suddenly felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach.
"Barb?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened when I came home last night?"
Barbie smiled uncertainly, and said, "Well, you came in and went to bed after saying something about not feeling well."
"That's it?"
"Yep. Why?" she asked, "Was there supposed to be something else?"
"What about Boromir?" I jumped out of bed and wandered around my room touching the dresser and piano and my Lord of the Rings Books. The last family portrait was smiling back at me and I was on the verge of tears.
"Uh…Boromir?" Barbie smiled, "Dude, what kind of dream were you having? What kind of dream were you having?"
"I grabbed Barbie and said, "Don't you remember? We were in Gondor! Aragorn and Arwen were just married and you were dancing with that blond guy! I was married to Boromir and …" my hand went to my stomach. Nothing, it was flat and empty.
"My baby." I said. I felt that hard knot in my chest and tears, hot and painful began to pour down my face, "I didn't get to say goodbye."
"To who?" Barbie looked really scared now, "What are you talking about that? Man, what kind of medication are you on!"
"We were in Middle Earth, Barb I…I" I sat down in the middle of the floor and Barb patted my arm.
"That must have been some food they have over there." she smiled, "Don't cry Em, I'm sure you'll go back to England some day."
"But I never said goodbye." I cried.
"Emily, Emily! Emily. Emily!"
The room was too warm, the air was hot and heavy. I wanted to push away Barbie and cry. But she was suddenly much stronger then I was and she was calling my name over and over. I tried to block the sound, it hurt my ears.
Someone was shaking me again, but their hands were stronger and their voice was deep and afraid. My eyes flew open and for a second I could only see the candles on the table by the bed. Wait. Candles?
"Boromir!" I flew into his arms, because of course it was him shaking me awake. He wrapped his arms around me and smoothed my sweaty hair away from my face. I cried into his shoulder and held him as close as I could. The familiar feel of his embrace and the smell of his hair and skin.
One of my maids stood there with water and a glass in her hand and she looked ready to cry. I stopped struggling and gasped great lungful of air into my chest. I felt like I'd been holding my breath the entire night. Boromir rubbed comforting circles across my back to calm me. He nodded to her and she left the water and we were alone.
"There now. Don't take on so love. Was it a bad dream?" He asked, soothing me as only he could. (I know it sounds sappy but when your married you'll understand what I mean.)
"It was the worst dream I have ever had in my life, and I was so…so afraid." I cried and cried. With my free hand I felt the bump of the baby through my nightgown.
"Is it the baby?" Boromir asked concerned, "Should I call for a healer?"
He got out of bed and poured me a glass of water. I drink it but it was stale and bitter. Then I realized that some of my tears had gotten in the way. I wiped my face and looked around the room. The curtains, the candles and the fireplace, rug and Boromir's armor and sword laying on the huge wooden chest in the corner.
"No," I reached out for him, "It was just a dream I had that the baby was gone and Barbie couldn't remember and .." I looked into his eyes.
They were dark with worry and he pulled me closer and said, "What else?"
"I was back at home." I said, "Barbie was there and she didn't remember anything about you or Middle Earth and…I was so alone. I never felt that way before it was so…terribly complete."
Immediately his arms tightened around me and he kissed my cheek and hair and shoulder. He didn't say anything but he looked deep into my eyes and his face a mask of unreadable emotions. I touched his face and said, "I would never leave you like that."
"No." he said, "I know."
But all night either of us slept, and he held me tighter then he ever had as if I would disappear from his arms. I just lay there in his arms thinking that if I made sure that whatever powers that be knew I was happiest with him then I would have to leave.
But as suddenly and weirdly as the Fellowship had appeared in our time, how shouldn't we return to it the same way? Without warning. Without goodbyes.
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Barb's POV
Someone jabbed me in the side with their elbow.
"Barb." Emily said in an annoyed voice "You've been falling asleep ever since I got back. I am trying to talk to you."
I growled
"Don't poke me." Then I stopped.
I opened my eyes, and sat up. I froze. I was on the old, brown couch in my living room. Luggage was scattered over the floor, and Emily sat on the other end of the couch. She was wearing her "I Survived Helms Deep" t-shirt, and she had that different smell and look about her that people do when they have been away for a long time.
"Em." I choked out "What's going on?"
Emily laughed.
"You are sleepy. Remember stupid? I just got home, and I have been trying to tell you about that cute guy I met at the museum. Horribly old, but he knows the most interesting stories."
"But- but what about Gondor?"
"What!" Emily said incredulously "Look, Barb, I know you haven't been feeling well, but you need to distinguish between Middle Earth, and reality. You sound like you've been reading one too many fan stories about mystical portals, and hairdryers and girls falling into Middle Earth."
"Emily!" I screeched "You were married to Boromir. For heaven's sake, you gave him a bloody nose in this living room. There were the Nazgul, and then Galadrial got in touch, and then Gandalf took us back with the Fellowship...and…and then…"
I trailed off. Emily sat there, open-mouthed , staring at me like I was insane.
"Em." I said, in a small voice "You don't…
"Barb." she began, looking worried "Did something go wrong when I was gone? I can call Mom and Dad if you want to talk to them. You're really weirding me out."
It felt like an icy waterfall was cascading over me, the Niagara roaring in my ears.
"My glasses." I reached up. There they were, perched on the end of my nose, as if I had never been to Lorien. I pulled up the edge of my pajama shirt. That's where the Nazgul had stabbed me. That's where a small, thick scar should still be.
Nothing.
Emily touched my arm. She looked scared, and if she was about to cry.
"Barb." she said in a trembling voice "If this is some sort of sick joke, I am going to strangle you."
I just sat there. All the memories raged against each other, clashed with what I saw, felt, heard now. The living room. Emily not remembering. For what seemed an eternity, there was nothing. Just the rock hard, terrible realization that all along, I had been dreaming. That I was insane or something. That all those memories were nothing.
That I was home.
When I sat up, it was with a jerk. I shook all over, clenching fistfuls of blanket in my hands. My face was wet, as if I had been crying in my sleep. Yes, this was Gondor. The eternal breeze tugged at the curtains that hung at my window. When I checked yes, there were all the scars left from the Last Battle. The Nazgul, and a few from Helms Deep, Moria. I had been dreaming.
"I was dreaming." I had to repeat that to myself.
And maybe that scared me most of all. That despite my memories, I had believed I was home. The world I had lived in for the past months wasn't real enough for me to believe in it, if I couldn't touch the scars, see Boromir. Or the city, or a dwarf, or an elf, or a wizard, or a hobbit.
Somehow, in that dream, if only for a few minutes, Middle Earth had vanished from my mind, as if I had never been there.
As if I had never been there.
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Emily's POV
There was a couple times in the next few weeks that I almost told Barbie about the dream. But every time that I got up the courage I felt a kind of check on my words. It was as if this wasn't the time to say anything.
See, in Middle Earth that kind of spiritual sense is heightened. You come to a kind of understanding that some one is helping you along over your shoulder. And sometimes that means not letting you go on about something.
There was a new air to Gondor after the wedding. The fact that we had a human/elf queen kind of created a more magical mood over the realm. I know that I changed a lot too. I don't think it had a much to with the dream, but with a sense that this was a new age of the earth and changes were to come with it.
The world had changed forever and things were going to be different then we had ever thought of. We were all older and wiser, and for some reason I would burst out crying about it at the worst moments. All my maids cooed that it was just normal with the baby and all.
I suppose but I had that feeling that something was going to happen. It might not be just what I wanted, but I knew that it would have to happen for everything to settle down.
"You seem most thoughtful of late." Faramir said. He came into the living room where I was sitting.
"I've had a lot to think about." I said, "I decided to start writing down the story of the Ring and how Barbara and I were involved. I was just thinking of what a strange story it was proving to be."
"You and your sister are full of strange tales." Faramir grinned. He looked over my writing and said, "You really should learn Gondorian. It isn't proper for the Steward's wife to write in a language no one understands."
"Well, Eowyn writes in Rohirric and no one understands that besides you and a few scholars." I pointed out, "Not of course, that you want anyone reading your love letters."
"Certainly not." Faramir had the good grace to blush.
"The city is so quiet these days." I said, "I've never known it to be so silent." I said. I laid down my pen and went to the window. The glass was frosted over with the first cold of the autumn and I saw that Barbie had already written, "Barbie was here" in it with her fingernail.
"I suppose it must always be this way after a war. The quiet is strange to our ears." Faramir said, "I think that the people are resting as well. This is the first real peace we've had in all of my life. Before this we have allows hang under Mordor's shadow."
"What on earth are you two gloomy pusses' doing staring out of the window in that down hearted way?"
Suddenly, out of the wood work as it were Legolas and Gimli were in the room! There were greetings all around and I have to say that I was never more glad to see the little hairy dwarf in my whole life. They were tight lipped about the trip they had taken but we didn't mind that. We were all so glad to see them.
That night we went to the palace for a feast and I can remember a happier time. Unless it was the one that was to come a few months later.
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Barb's POV
The next few days after my dream were…calm. You know when you've been really scared, and after everything's over, and nothing happened, you feel relieved? And then stupid, for even being relieved? Because there was nothing to worry about in the first place.
I didn't tell Emily my dream. She hadn't been feeling well. Boromir hovered around her, and when he absolutely had to go, legions of maids hovered around her, and I didn't feel much like baring my soul before them as well.
And so I was left rather alone for a time. There was not a lot to do. Once, I took out my sword ( which Elladan had brought back to Rivendell with him, and I had brought with me) and made threatening gestures toward my curtains. But the sword didn't feel right in my hand, and something seemed to tell me that that time was over. I put the sword away, and it felt the right thing to do.
So I took long walks through the city. The gardens, especially. It was early September, and there were still autumn flowers in bloom. The young trees that had been planted were beginning to turn gold and red. They all added some color to the White City.
There had been visitors from Ithilien. Legolas too. I felt I hadn't see him in ages. As usual, he didn't hang around indoors much. He always said he could never love Minas Tirith, because it was to much stone and marble for his taste. He stayed in the gardens as if that was the only place he could draw breath.
He was now, as usual. He was kneeling besides a brilliant bunch of carnations, weeding, and humming under his breath, occasionally singing a few words of the song.
I knew some Elvish, after living in Rivendell, and I could make out a few words. Nothing that, put together, made much sense, but it sounded pretty. He looked up, and smiled. That was thing about Legolas I liked most. No matter what he was doing, he always looked as if he was glad to see you, and he had been waiting for you all along.
"Barbara." he said, and stood up, brushing some dirt from his hands "I have not seen you for some time."
Another thing. When he was around a garden, he was became more Elvish, if that is possible, and spoke more formally.
"Hmm. I hear you visited the Glittering Caves awhile back. How was it? And Gimli, of course." I asked.
Legolas's face twitched, as if he wanted very much to laugh. Instantly though, his face became very serious.
"We had pledged to never reveal what-ah- transpired in our journeys, either to the Glittering Caves, or Fangorn Forest. It- changed us both, greatly, and- is too near-"
He stopped, still struggling not to laugh.
"Gimli is very well." he ended finally.
With wisdom beyond my years, I, in wisdom, wisely decided not to pursue the question.
"I am pleased to hear it." I said gravely "You may convey my good wishes when you return to Ithilien." I sat down on the garden bench, and Legolas sat besides me.
"Perhaps you could do so yourself." he suggested.
"What?"
"Well, you might visit Ithilien, before the seasons turn. The whole realm waxes more beautiful day by day. You would be a welcome guest."
I shifted. A small, crisp breeze whirled by, and a few leaves tugged free from their branches. I cleared my throat.
"I am not sure I should leave." I said awkwardly "Thanks for the invitation. Maybe I'll take you up on it someday. But you know…Emily's getting along there, and I think I should stay. A little longer, anyway."
"A little longer." Legolas repeated thoughtfully. He paused for a moment, and looked out, over the city. He nodded, slowly, and then turned to me, taking both my hands in his.
"You feel called away, do you not?" he asked, very gently.
I drew a shuddering breath.
"How do you know?" I managed, unable to call back the tear that slid, unbidden, down my cheek.
Legolas said, softly "I, too, feel called to another place." He stopped again, and drew a deep breath, as if trying to remember something. The air of another country…and what his song was about.
"But now is not my time." he said quietly "Neither is it yours…not for a time yet."
"And waiting may not all be sorrow." he added, and smiled a small smile, and he reached up and brushed the tear away.
"Okay." I said, in a tiny, tiny voice. I understood.
And that's why I cried, all over his shoulder.
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Another special frigging Announcement!
Because we have such a loving fan base we started a Yahoo! group that you can join! That way we can share stories and pictures and get to know each other better without having to wait for up dates! We'd love to hear from all of you. So, hop over to the site that you can find in our profile and join the group! Mention who you are in the chat box and we'll join you up!
Love,
Snodgrass and Winkle.