Major Samantha Carter shook herself for the third time in as many minutes. It was a particular lazy day in Lothlorien. The novelty of visiting a city built entirely in trees seemed to wear off on both sides, and now the Fellowship was doing little more than drilling with weapons. At the moment Legolas was teaching Daniel how to use two short swords in concert to best dispatch the enemy.
Stop it, Samantha.
Come on, he's cute, available, and its not like we've had a lot of boyfriends lately. The last one sacrificed himself to save our world, remember?
He's not even human.
Neither was Nerem.
At least his people came from earth originally.
And he has those pointed ears.
All the more reason to stay away.
We always wanted pointed ears.
"NOT LIKE THAT!"
"Carter?"
Sam looked up and fought the urge to blush. She hated it when people caught her arguing with herself. "Yes, sir?"
"You all right?"
We're fine, just falling for an elf. Will you stop that! "Fine sir, just thinking out loud."
The colonel looked like he was going to say something for a moment. " Soooo… what are you planning to do on day three in paradise?"
"I was thinking about talking to … about the solutions they used to heal my wound," Sam looked down as if she could see through her sleeve, to where the once infected cut was healing. "The stuff is amazing, and I was hoping the elves would have a deeper understanding of their herb lore other than ' it just works'."
"Planning on taking samples too?"
She brushed off his sarcastic tone. "I would if we could, sir. The potential for some of the things we've seen here is astronomical."
"And that was why you were staring at Legolas's ass for the past three minutes?"
Busted.
"Sir?"
The colonel sat down on a rock across from her. "Come on, Carter. There's nothing that low on him that could command your attention like that," he paused, then smirked. "At least not in the back."
"I wasn't looking at his ass," she replied, slightly indignant. Or any other part of him, thank you very much. " I was watching his footwork. It's almost like boxing. Maybe if you paid attention you could learn something." Oh, low blow. Score one for Carter.
The colonel gave her one of his 'yeah, right, and I'm the queen of Sheba' looks. "Fine. I just came by to let you know Samwise was asking after you."
"Samwise?"
O'Neill rolled his eyes. "You know, red-haired hobbit, kinda round, always hovering over Frodo? It gets confusing calling both of you Sam all the time."
"Oh," Sam stood up, refusing to glance in the elf's direction.
Frodo watched as Sam chatted with Samantha animatedly. His friend had taken an almost immediate interest in the group that had joined them, but never really had a chance to talk to them on the road.
Their plotting against you cant you see just waiting until we let our guard down
Frodo clutched at the Ring, willing it to be quiet, to let him think. He'd had to do more of that as their journey progressed. Before, when everyone was quiet, he could almost hear it whispering, but he couldn't make out the words. At those times he felt the ring was laughing at him, teasing him. Now it seemed to want him to hear it/
"Frodo?"
The hobbit looked up into Samwises's concerned brown eyes. "Yes Sam?"
The other hobbit smiled. "I thought you'd gone to sleep, you were sitting so still."
"No, Sam. Just…thinking is all."
Sam handed Frodo a piece of bread and a slice of what smelled like venison. "Strider said I was to make sure you ate something."
Absently, Frodo picked at the bread, taking small bites to satisfy his friend, but not really tasting anything. That was something else he'd noticed. He couldn't taste things, not like he used to, unless he really tried. He'd first noticed at Rivendell when he'd nibbled on a piece of cheese, expecting the sharp bite of a bright orange block of cheddar. Instead it had been muted, almost to the point of tasting like nothing.
I can help all you have to do is ask/beg and anything we want will be ours
No No NO!!! Frodo shouted in his head, and the chatter stopped. Completely. It never did that before. Usually it only faded into background noise, like the sound of water running over stones in a brook when you were sleeping, waiting until he stopped thinking about it to grow louder and louder, like a rushing in his ears…
"Are you all right Frodo?"
It was Strider this time, standing over him, concerned eyes scanning him thoroughly. "I'm fine Strider, just tired."
"You've been sitting there for almost three hours, Frodo. Do you want to lay down?" the question came from Daniel, who was standing behind the ranger, wearing a similar expression of concern.
Frodo nodded and stood, refusing to grimace as his muscles, stiff from inactivity, protested against the sudden movement. He'd lay down for a while, and maybe when he woke up all of this would be nothing more than a dream.
As the hobbit drifted to sleep another thought intruded on him. The thought that the ring had started calling them 'we'.
"Teal'c?"
The soft question interrupted the Jaffa as he slipped into keel-no-reem. At the moment he didn't need to travel in the gray lands and let his body recover, he simply wanted the solitude that the state created. He opened his eyes, and found an elf maiden, blonde like most of the elves here, sitting across from him in almost the exact same pose.
"Is there something you require of me?"
The elf nodded. "The Lady Galadriel wishes to speak with you. Will you follow me?"
Teal'c nodded and stood, and followed the elf through the maze of trees. The day was wearing on, and the bluish lights that lit the forest were unlit, allowing the sunlight to burnish everything it touched.
" She is through there," the elf said, pointing through an arch almost covered with ivy.
Teal'c nodded and headed through the arch, and down a small stretch of stairs, which lead into a small room. The ground was mossy beneath his boots, with the sure feel of stone beneath that. The whole room was little more than stone walls covered with plant life, open from above to the sky.
" Have you been pleased here?"
Teal'c turned around at the soft question, and found the Lady sitting on a bench in an alcove. In the dim light she glowed slightly, a soft luminescence that silvered the ivy around her. " I find your kingdom most pleasing."
Galadriel stood, her clothes hissing with the movement, and began walking towards the center of the room. "I am glad to hear it, jaffa."
Teal'c didn't respond. As far as he knew, no one had called him a jaffa within Lorien. "How do you know that name?"
" I am perhaps one of the oldest of my kind still living, Teal'c," she replied. " I have seen and known much that would be considered myth by the people of this world, even elves. That is how I know of your kind."
" You have no need to fear me or my companions."
Galadriel smiled, her blue eyes boring into him. " I have no fear of them, Teal'c. They can do no harm here that is not being done already."
Teal'c wasn't convinced. "Then why have you called me here?"
"To give you a warning," the elf's voice deepened, and the jaffa could feel the weight of her age through it.
Watch the one you call leader and friend. He has been tempted, but I do not know if he will fall
The voice echoed through his mind, and Teal'c fought the urge to panic. This was something he had no experience with. " Why tell me this?"
"Because you are perhaps the only one who can stop him. Here the ring will be quiet, as quiet as it can be, the tendrils it send to those around it clipped. Outside this realm they will begin to grow again."
"And if he is taken?"
Galadriel walked towards a small fountain that trickled out of the stone wall behind her. "He can be reclaimed, depending how willing he is to follow the rings will."
Teal'c thought of his commanding officer. O'Neill refused to follow orders, even when they were to his benefit. "And how do you know this?"
"The past, the present, and to some extent the future are realms that I am allowed to travel through, Teal'c. The future is not set, and there are many paths that may be taken, I have simply told you of one," She looked up, and seemed to be staring at something over his shoulder. "You should go now, your companions are looking for you."
"He's pacing like a caged lion."
Aragorn looked up at Gimli's observation concerning their friend. Since their conversation three nights ago Legolas had been impatient, pushing himself and his pupils to their limits, something of a small feat for the elf. Now that they were settled in for the night he was more restless.
"It is probably little more than home sickness, Master Dwarf," Aragorn muttered around his pipe. "Elves seldom travel from their forests and valleys. He will calm down eventually, so you need not concern yourself."
The dwarf scoffed. "Like I would stoop to worry over an elf!" But he went back to chewing his pipe, casting quick glances to where their companion was sharpening his knives.
"It will do him good to be back on the open road," Boromir noted, settling down onto his sleeping palette. "It seems that leisure doesn't suit him."
"Would you mind speaking louder? I believe perhaps half the inhabitants of Lorien who do not know you're talking about me," Legolas shot a hot glance at his friends.
Boromir raised an eyebrow. "The concern of your friends angers you?"
Legolas sheathed his blade and stood up, moving away from his companions without answering.
"Well, that answers your question, Boromir," Gimli sighed, packing his pipe. "That elf needs a woman, and right quickly. That would quench the fire burning through him fast enough."
Aragorn held his tongue, casting a last glance at Legolas as he disappeared in the tree line. A woman would not do, perhaps one, if his friend would allow his emotions a little freedom. With that thought in mind he turned to Samantha, who was talking quietly with Pip and Daniel, and who was taking obvious pains to keep from watching the elf as well.
"Beautiful, is she not?"
Boromir's quiet question was almost too soft to be heard. "Samantha?"
"Who else would I be speaking of?" the human looked her way, then turned back to Aragorn. "I find it hard to believe that she would bind herself to a military life, especially with her intelligence. Lucky would be the man who she gives herself to."
"Aye, Boromir. Lucky would be the man," the ranger agreed. Or the elf, he added to himself.
Galadriel turned her attendants away as she stood in the forest house, watching as her city fell deeper into sleep. Tomorrow the companions would be leaving her shores, to continue their journey away from the protection she could lend them.
Closing her eyes, she searched, and found what she wanted in an instant. The blackness of the Ring was a hole in her mind, drawing her ever closer while it pushed her away. She could feel its poison spreading, fighting against the meager bonds she could wrap around it. The tentacles were weak, but still there, sliding against her barriers like snakes, trying to grab Boromir and O'Neill. She had seen Boromir fall, witnessed his betrayal in her mirror, but for the other the path wasn't nearly as clear. The mirror clouded, the images breaking into a thousand points of light, taunting her with its inconclusiveness.
"I can feel your concern," Celeborn said, coming to stand next to his queen. "It has been so long since your were this uneasy."
Galadriel opened her eyes, but didn't turn around. "There is still much to be done, and much to be said. But I find myself unwilling to do it." She looked in the direction of the companions, who were even now sleeping. "Every step they take draws us closer to our end. And to their own."
Celeborn watched his queen struggle with herself. "You cannot control fate, my love. You can only see a handful of the many ends that each road can lead to," One slim finger traced the delicate ring she wore. " At times I believe your gift is a curse."
"As do I."
Silently, the elf made her way down to where the companions were sleeping. The closer she drew to them the more her heart pounded, her hand throbbing as Nenya cried out to its master. It was through sheer force of will that she and the other elves were able to keep their rings untainted by the evil Sauron wrought with his master ring, and the battle still raged, not as heated as it had millennia ago, but just as dangerous.
She knew the moment Frodo awoke, the only one aware of her passing. It was almost too easy to slip into his mind and plant the idea to follow her. And he did, trailing her path through the trees to the Hall of Seeing. Gently she lifted the silver pitcher and dipped it into the fountain, the water ice cold against the heat of her hand.
"Will you look into the mirror?"
"What will I see?" She could feel Frodo's fear, but there was nothing she could do to alleviate it. He watched her as if expecting her to spring at any moment.
"Even the wisest cannot tell," she almost had to force herself to pour the water, flinching slightly as it hit the bottom of the basin, "for the mirror shows many things. Things that were, things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass." Galadriel waited, breathless, for the hobbit to step up to the mirror. In this she could not compel him, for any action on her part would skew what would be seen.
The moment Frodo looked into the mirror she could feel its power, and closed her eyes against a glare only she could see. In moments she was swimming in the visions the mirror gave, comparing them to her own wanderings through time. The same darkness was there, the same despair that had crowded her mind since the Ring decided to awaken. Then the moment was gone.
"I know what it is you saw, for it is also in my mind. It is what will come to pass if you fail," she hardened her voice to keep it from shaking. Their two visions were almost exactly alike, a sign that didn't bode well.
The fellowship is breaking. It had already begun.He will try to take the ring. You know of whom I speak. One by one it will destroy them all. She let the words drift from her mind to his. Some things were better left unsaid where any could hear. She did not know what would come of her tampering with his future, but she hoped for the best.
If you ask it of me, I will give you the One Ring.
The response sounding so clear in her own mind threw Galadriel off balance, but no more so than the content of his words. "You offer it to me freely?" She glanced from his open palm to his eyes, seeing no guile there. He wanted her to have it. "I will not deny that my heart has greatly desired this," she could feel her voice trembling, feel herself moving forward, hand extended to where the Ring shimmered in the dim light. A sound filled her mind, much like the rushing of water over stones. The ring was so close…
The sudden surge of power was overwhelming.
Alatáriel, lasto beth nîn… tolo a'nin…
"In place of a Dark Lord you would have a queen…"
Amin Linda ele lle…
"…not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn…"
Amin naa lle nai
"…treacherous as the sea…"
I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin I'anor
"…stronger than the foundations of the earth!"
Khila amin…
" All shall love me and despair."
Ona e' a'amin…
N'uma.
Somewhere in the swell of power another voice sounded, swimming through her, reminding her of what was happening. As suddenly as it had started it was over, leaving her drained. The One Ring reached out to her, but she was beyond its control. Nenya beat softly against her fingers, a warm comfort as always. The Ring had tempted her, with all the power it could muster, but still, it failed. "I passed the test. I will diminish, and go into the west, and remain Galadriel."
"I cannot do this alone."
The thought rose over the words he was speaking. "You are a ring bearer, Frodo. To bear a ring of power, is to be alone," it hurt to give him that cold truth on top of so many others. " This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will."
"I know what I must do, its just, I'm afraid to do it," for a moment Frodo looked like a lost child, suddenly thrown into a world that he neither understood or wanted a part of.
She leaned down, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. You will find your courage."
Authors Notes:
Sorry about the long wait between reviews, the great halls of learning beckon, and I cant resist… I'll start with the translations, since I'm sure you guys are saying 'huh?' :
Alatáriel, lasto beth nîn… tolo a'nin… Galadriel, hear me…come to me…
Amin Linda ele lle… I sing to see thee…
Amin naa lle nai… I am yours to command…
I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin I'anor… The bones of our foes will gleam under the sun
Khila amin… Follow me…
Ona e' a'amin… Give in to me…
N'uma… No
Alatáriel is an ancient form of Galadriel, closer to what the Noldor spoke than Sindarin. AND for those of you who don't know, Galadriel was a ring bearer. She wore Nenya, the elven ring of Air, which also gave her telepathy and second sight.
Oh My GOD, this story is getting waaaayyyy to long! I cant believe I'm actually doing this!!! I've actually gotten over 100 reviews!!!!
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