I do not own Lord of the Rings, or any of Tolkien's characters. Any characters and plot lines I create are mine.
A/N: Yes. It has been a while. No. I have no excuse. This chapter is extra long (though it does not make up for me being a bad updater).
Thanks bluedancingkittykat! You, perhaps unintentionally, gave me a plot bunny for this chapter.
I also have a new computer now that doesn't stink as much as my old computer. Of course, it doesn't know all the Tolkien words I need for this story. I have never seen so many red squiggly you-spelled-a-word-wrong lines in my life.
Obviously, I took an opportunity to go into Azruphel's childhood. I found this piece of a chapter in my files and decided to develop it for this update. It includes a snapshot from each of the nine Nazgûl. Don't worry! We will get back to Azruphel and Strider soon enough.
I did go back in the chapters and adjusted a few things. It is mostly just language and spelling errors. One thing I did do was change the name Strider went by in Minas Tirith. I had him using the name Thorongil, but it was pretty pointless. So he is just always Strider now.
Chapter 12: Growing Up Nazgûl
Ren
Adûnaphel and Khamûl were foolish even to take a child, especially a toddler. The child was obviously not one of them. Imagine! A little two-year old blond girl wandering around Mordor on her own! He had objected to this, of course. He had objected to it when they first brought her back, he had spoken with Sauron for hours about it, but after everything that had occurred, Adûnaphel got her way. Khamûl must have done it for her, from what Uvatha had told him, Khamûl wanted to leave her. And of course Adûnaphel went and named the girl Azruphel. Once she had a name, it was clear she was staying.
He had avoided the girl for months, only seeing her every once in a while. Adûnaphel showered the child with affection, and Khamûl started to as well. The other Nazgûl were getting to know her. Even Uvatha, his friend for years upon years, seemed to like her. In fact, one day Ren had gone to the stables only to seen Uvatha giving Azruphel a ride on his horse! From then on, he avoided the other Nazgûl whenever they talked about Azruphel. Whoever this girl was, she was nothing like them and never would be.
It was in March that he finally had a conversation with Azruphel. Adûnaphel decided it would be her birthday, since it was almost a year since they had found her. While her 'parents' were busy doing who knows what, Azruphel had wandered up to him.
"Hi!"
He turned around slowly, knowing it was her. He had never formally met her beyond Adûnaphel's introductions.
"What's your name?" the girl asked. Strange, the girl could had no way of seeing his true form under the dark cloaks but could tell that she had never met him before.
"I am called Ren."
"I'm Azruphel!" she said. Ren kept thinking about how energetic the girl was. It was a shame she wasn't afraid of him like most humans were.
"Nice to meet you, Azruphel. Now if you excuse me, I must be going."
"Mommy says I'm three today! I was two, but now Mommy says I am three."
Ren sighed. He was not going to be able to break away from the little girl easily.
"How old are you?" Azruphel asked.
Ren tried to look as menacing as possible, even though he knew it would not work on Azruphel. "I must be going!"
Azruphel giggled, giggled, at him. Ren had been taken by surprise before, but never like this. "Please!" she whined in a rather annoying way. "How old are you?"
Ren finally obliged, in a way. "Much older than three."
"Am I going to be as old as you?"
No knowing what other response to give, he said, "One day."
Azruphel's face lit up. "I'm going to tell Mommy! I'm going to tell her that I will be as old as you!" Azruphel turned to run back down to the hall. Ren repressed a chuckle. He still was unsure about the girl, but he was starting to warm up to her.
Hoarmurath
Khamûl and Adûnaphel wanted Azruphel to learn everything she could. Therefore, she needed a teacher in pretty much everything. Hoarmurath knew Azruphel from the first few days since she came to Mordor, and really liked her. She was energetic, excited, and incredibly smart. The last he learned when Khamûl asked him to teach her languages and history.
To say Azruphel was simply smart was an understatement. Azruphel had the ability to almost soak up language. By the time Azruphel was five, she was fluent in several languages. She loved history. Hoarmurath was sure to teach her as much as he could. He taught her elvish history and about Númenor. He hated lying to her about the rings, but he went with the story Er-Murazor commanded. Sauron offered them the rings, they willingly took them, knowing what they were doing and who they were taking them from, and joined Mordor because it was the best. He hated how Azruphel took the information in complete faith. He told her that the dwarves were too concerned with riches, even though they had pledged themselves to Sauron. They had been greedy and paid for that greed, and Sauron had the three rings that were left.
"One of those rings will go to you when you are old enough," he said.
Azruphel looked down, almost unhappy.
"What's wrong?" Hoarmurath asked. "Do you not want a ring of power?"
"No, I do. I am just afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"What if I become like the dwarves. It is one of their rings, after all. What if I become greedy and only care about gold?"
"You won't."
"How do you know?"
"It is the person that makes the ring, not the ring that makes the person. Dwarves were already greedy and obsessed with gold. The ring added to that. You are not greedy now. You will be nothing like them."
Azruphel looked relieved after that, but Hoarmurath was afraid. Azruphel, unlike the rest of them, actually knew what she would enter into when she took the ring. It took years for them to fade, but Hoarmurath wondered if it would take less time for Azruphel.
Dwar
He knew Azruphel. Not that well, obviously, but well enough. He was not a close friend of Khamûl or Adûnaphel, so he did not see her very often. He did not hate her like Ren used to. He had been rather busy over the years, and only saw her a few times. That, of course, was until Azruphel turned six. That was when all of them started paying more attention to Azruphel.
It started when he heard her screaming. She was screaming for Khamûl. Dwar knew he wasn't there. Er-Murazor had requested his presence to discuss Gondor. As far as he knew, no one was anywhere near this particular corridor. He decided to investigate. What he saw would scare him forever.
An orc was pushing Azruphel's head into a bucket full of water. She was struggling, trying to get away, but the orc was too strong. The orc was just laughing.
Without any hesitation, Dwar drew is sword and charged the orc. The orc looked up for a second, eyes widening, before Dwar stabbed him.
When he pulled Azruphel out of the water, she was shaking. She was trying to say something, and Dwar had to lean in close to hear it.
"Dad?"
"No, Azruphel. Khamûl is not here. I am Dwar."
Azruphel became very emotionally distant after that. Everyone was concerned. All orcs were warned of torture and death if they even thought of touching Azruphel. For weeks, Azruphel could not look at a bucket of water or a stream without shaking. For a year, she would not approach anything large enough to be submerged in. Eventually, she calmed down, but she refused to walk in a stream or get her head wet. The Nazgûl followed her everywhere, and Azruphel seemed fine with that. It wasn't until the one day when she wandered off on her own that they knew she would be alright. They were worried sick, of course, but in the end they were relieved.
Adûnaphel
Ever since Azruphel became her daughter, Adûnaphel had changed. She became softer, more open, and even, to a point, caring when it came to Azruphel. It started when Azruphel called her 'Mommy' for the first time. Sharing the idea of 'parenting' with Khamûl was difficult, especially when Azruphel began to cling to Khamûl more and Adûnaphel less.
After she nearly drowned, Adûnaphel tried to bring Azruphel out of her shy demeanor. Often, they took trips away from Minas Morgul and the orcs to the wooded areas near the Anduin. They never made it as far as the Anduin; Azruphel's new fear of water made that impossible.
While Azruphel had been found at age two, Adûnaphel often forgot that she was completely human. She seemed, at times, almost Nazgûl. So, it came as a surprise to Adûnaphel when Azruphel stopped and it picked up a flower, one of the first of that year. At first, she did not ask what it was, just stared at it with a faint look of both recognition and confusion on her face.
"What is it?" Azruphel finally asked.
"That is a flower," Adûnaphel said cautiously. She did not understand Azruphel's behavior.
Azruphel stared at it some more before saying, "I have seen one before, but I do not know where."
Azruphel then got up and kept walking, leaving a fearful Adûnaphel behind. Later that night, when Adûnaphel went in Azruphel's room, she saw the flower sticking out between the pages of a book.
Ji Indur
Shortly after the 'incident' with six-year old Azruphel, Khamûl decided she needed more training, especially in self-defense. Khamûl was often busy doing tasks for Sauron, so he asked Ji Indur to teach her.
It was very difficult at first. Azruphel did not have the strength to do much of anything. They practiced together for years, using wooden sticks at first before moving up to short, light swords. Azruphel was a natural and was very coordinated. She was able to disarm Ji Indur repeatedly over the years. As she got older and her strength grew, he pushed her to the best of her ability.
Ji Indur also forged many of the swords used by the Nazgûl. After many years of practice, he began to forge a sword especially for her. It complimented her style, size, and strength. On her fifteenth birthday, he gave it to her. He had never seen her that happy before. It occurred to him later that he had not seen her that happy since.
Akhorahil
Akhorahil was one of the few Nazgûl in Minas Morgul who had training in healing. It was a useful skill, especially when dealing with Azruphel. While he dealt with the average bumps and scrapes of a child, he noticed Azruphel coming in with more injuries and more interesting explanations sometime after she turned thirteen.
"How did you get the scratch on your arm?" he asked as he placed a bandage on the injury.
There was a stretch of silence. She is making up a story, Akhorahil thought.
"I fell off a rock and hit a branch." The story was obviously false, but Akhorahil decided to play along.
"Really? Where?"
"Over near the crossroads. I was on that old, broken statue." For a quickly made up story, it was good. Except for one small detail.
"I did not see you leave. In fact, I was under the impression you never left Minas Morgul all day."
"You must have not seen me, then," Azruphel stated simply. Akhorahil knew better. As he finished bandaging the arm, Azruphel spoke again.
"Do not tell Khamûl. He worries too much." Akhorahil obliged, knowing that Khamûl's overprotective nature would not help Azruphel.
Over the next year, similar stories continued to arise. After the first encounter, Azruphel came prepared with her stories. She was getting better at improvising, too. Akhorahil knew better, of course, yet he continued to play along.
It wasn't until one day, two years after the first injury, that Akhorahil finally got the truth out of Azruphel. She stumbled into his quarters, which was the first hint that something was seriously wrong. Azruphel always walked with a calm, confident stride. Akhorahil could not see what was wrong until Azruphel turned, revealing the torn tunic on her back and the gash that was bleeding. It was not deep, but both Akhorahil and Azruphel knew the usual excuses would not work this time.
"How did this happen? And do not say that you tripped down the stairs. We both know you have been lying."
"You know, the one time I really did fall down the stairs-"
"Azruphel!"
"I was fighting some orcs. It is not a problem."
"I wouldn't call this injury 'not a problem'."
"I had limited space to twist away."
Akhorahil sighed. "How long have you been picking fights with orcs?"
"I would not call it 'picking fights'. A group of us have been practicing together for years."
"You are saying all of those injuries-"
"Most, of those injuries came from orcs. Yes."
Akhorahil considered all of the times Azruphel had come to see him. "Why go to the orcs? I thought Ji Indur was teaching you sword fighting."
"Ji Indur is teaching me how to fight one person in a formal way. I need to learn how to fight many, to fight without rules."
"Why not ask Khamûl? Or any of the Nazgûl?"
"They would never let me. Khamûl probably wants me to wait until I am like you before I even see a fight," Azruphel sarcastically snorted.
While meant as a joke, Akhorahil knew there was some truth to Azruphel's last statement.
Uvatha
Azruphel was reckless. There was no other way to describe her, in Uvatha's opinion. He knew about most of Azruphel's adventures, because sometime between her first horseback ride and her sword fighting with orcs, she and Uvatha became very close. When she was younger, she referred to him as Uncle Uvatha, much to the annoyance of Khamûl.
Azruphel pushed herself to the physical limit, often sacrificing at the risk of her health. That is how Uvatha found her one day, at age seventeen.
As he walked into the stable, he noticed Azruphel riding her horse. No, not just riding, standing on the saddle. Both feet were planted where she should have been sitting, and Uvatha noticed her legs shaking as she cantered past. Clearly, this was not her first attempt at the trick, and as the pair approached a stack of hay, Azruphel leaped off the horse's back, neatly landing in it. She surfaced, holding a piece of dark red cloth, and smiled.
Her horse returned to her, and Azruphel laughed. "About time!" she laughed, laying back down in the hay and breathing hard. This is when Uvatha decided to approach.
"What do you think you were doing?" he asked. Azruphel was startled, quickly leaping out of the pileand standing in front of Uvatha.
"I was trying a new trick!"
"By leaping off your horse?"
"It's fine. I'm fine."
"You could have hurt yourself! What was this 'trick' if I may ask?"
Azruphel heaved a sigh before saying, "I wanted to see if I could jump out of the saddle and grab this flag." She held up the piece of red cloth.
"Why?"
"Because I could."
Er-Murazor
The day Azruphel received her ring was a proud day for everyone. Er-Murazor had deemed her ready, with the approval of Sauron. The group of nine was about to become ten. It was the first step towards the eventual goal of giving the dwarf rings to men. The dwarves did not deserve rings of power. It was time the rings were given to those more worthy of being Sauron's servants.
No one knew what would happen when Azruphel took the ring. This was the second part of the experiment. If it worked, Azruphel would quickly come under Sauron's control, if not immediately, then in a few years. The ring had been reshaped to fit her finger, but still retained its original power. Sauron himself appeared in a form that day, and presented the newest Nazgûl with her ring.
It was as if the entire group drew a collective breath as the ring was slipped on. Azruphel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The others could feel the shift in the power surrounding Azruphel, as her presence was added to their senses. She did not immediately fade, just as they had not, but there was a new confidence in her. She opened her eyes, smiled, and said four words.
"I can see you."
Khamûl
One day, in April of the year 3016, Azruphel ran away. Just weeks after turning nineteen, the girl who had been a success was now missing. For whatever reason, she had lost faith in him and the other Nazgûl. They had not seen it coming.
On that day, the Nazgûl met and discussed what they had learned of Azruphel's movements. Khamûl himself had cornered a traveler leaving Minas Tirith. After much 'persuasion' the traveler revealed that a girl matching Azruphel's description and a man had stayed at an inn several days ago. The man did not know where they went.
As he reported this to the others, Khamûl had to wonder about Azruphel. He did not think she would ever do this. But, then again, maybe he didn't know her at all.
A/N: Please favorite, follow, or review. It helps me remember to update.