Eee! Two reviews already! :3
Let's try for 5 by Friday?
Reyna's hands drummed lightly against her knees, and she leaned forward, impatient for the Council to start.
It was another few minutes until Elrond finally started speaking. "Strangers from distant lands, friends of old. You have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle-Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite, or fall. Each race is bound to this fate – this one doom."
He pauses. "Bring forth the ring, Frodo."
Reyna perked up and looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of Frodo. Her mind started running over the possibilities of getting an autograph – everyone would be so jealous when she told them about going to Middle-Earth.
But then her fantasy faded as she heard the words "Gondor has no King. Gondor needs no king."
Stupid!
She mentally slammed her head into a desk. Missing half the conversation? Plain annoying. At least she could almost tell who they were on sight.
Ah, well, I could just listen and see who makes the Fellowship of the Ring. The rational part of her brain told her.
She listened to the rational part of her brain.
Reyna looked up, just in time to see a dwarf – apparently Gimli – shatter his axe on the ring.
Elrond blinked, and said, "The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin by any craft that we here possess. The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came."
Reyna giggled slightly as she heard the words, "One does not simply walk into Mordor." Having seen one too many lolz pictures of Boromir saying that line, all of the seriousness was lost from her.
Luckily for her, nobody heard.
"You have my sword."
"And my bow." That was the first time Reyna had made the connection that the blond Elf was indeed Legolas. Feeling slightly ashamed, she sulked lower in her seat.
"And my axe."
Boromir then joined, and Sam, and then lastly Pippin and Merry.
"Nine companions… So be it! You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring!"
Ready to go, Reyna started to stand… then dropped back down as Elrond started speaking again.
"Now, we have a complication."
I don't remember this…
Elrond started pacing, and he said, "Yesterday, Aragorn was in the woods when he picked up a young woman who apparently had no recollection of where she had been."
Aragorn looked confused, and Reyna slid back, trying to hide herself.
"Reyna, please stand."
Reyna, though a bit embarrassed, and unsure what was going on, stood uncertainly.
"I have decided that to find your way back to your home, you will need to travel across the land, and try to find out what exactly you need to do to go home."
Murmurs flitted around her like butterflies, but Reyna didn't understand exactly.
"My lord?"
Elrond turned and stared at her, his eyes steely.
"You will be accompanying the Fellowship of the Ring."
~Sun and Moon~
The memory replayed over and over in her head as Reyna filled up the many waterskins she was sent to fill. She placed another into a pack, then straightened up, pulled the pack over her shoulder, and trudged down towards the procession of mixed races.
She was determined to prove her worth. Being almost sure that the Fellowship didn't trust her wasn't helping her self-esteem, but being a girl, she had almost been expecting that.
"Ah, our female rider is here." Aragorn turned and assessed her.
"Will she hold us back, d'ya think?" A whisper from behind Reyna caused the girl to stiffen.
"All is innocent until proven guilty. We cannot judge that she is going to hold us back." Boromir dipped his head.
Feeling slightly better from Boromir's welcome, she proceeded to pass out the waterskins.
"See? She's useful." Gimli rumbled.
I try to be.
After putting the excess waterskins on Bill, she dusted her hands off and asked, "When do we leave?"
"Right now, actually." Legolas informed her, and the ten people started on their journey, Bill loaded with supplies, and everyone fresh and eager for the adventure.
~Sun and Moon~
Puff… "When do we rest?" Puff… Sam's voice startled Reyna out of her stupor of walking.
Aragorn looked up at the sky, shielding his eyes.
"Ah, I guess we should, now."
Reyna dropped Bill's lead rope, and then sat down, leaning against the rock face.
After a few minutes of calming down, Reyna found herself sitting next to Gandalf. He was staring straight ahead, staring at nothing, apparently. Absorbed in his thoughts.
Reyna amused herself for a few minutes by sharpening the dagger they had given her (There had been a lot of complaining that she didn't have to do any fighting), but then, she sheathed it, feeling that there would be no benefit in sharpening it again.
The second she sheathed it, a flicker in her hand caused her to flinch, and she felt a burning pain sear her leg. She hopped up, growling, "Ouch. Ouch. Ouch."
She looked down at her hand. Had she accidentally scraped herself with her dagger?
There was a little hole in the side of her pants, a rip or tear, it looked like, so she settled on that explanation. But there was nothing to tell her why her hand had flickered just before the pain started.
She cast it out of her mind, and instead focused on the scene in front of her.
Boromir had stood, a few seconds ago, along with Pippin and Merry, and they asked Aragorn something Reyna didn't catch. It was obvious soon after, for the three drew their swords and Boromir proceeded to teach the hobbits some fighting skills.
"Two, three, four, five. Good, very good."
Reyna, noticing Legolas standing alone, watching the horizon, rose and weaved through the Fellowship towards him.
Legolas didn't turn as she drew level with him. "What do you see?" She gently pressed.
"A wisp of cloud…" He murmured, his eyes not straying from the sky.
A cry of pain made Reyna whirl around, and she saw Pippin kicking Boromir in the shins. She laughed as Pippin and Merry regrouped and charged him, effectively knocking him down.
Legolas tensed beside her. Boromir saw where Legolas was looking and studied the sky.
"That cloud is moving fast… Clouds aren't supposed to move fast against the wind, correct?"
Legolas turned and cried, "Crebain from Dunland!"
Reyna didn't recognize the words, but the sounded familiar.
"Hide!"
Realizing that they must be evil, Reyna helped to push their weapons into bushes. Sam quickly put out the fire and everyone dove into hiding. She lay, trembling, against another tense body, in the shadows of a rock that served as her hiding place.
Crows cawed loudly, and the sound of wings flapping accompanied their passage, swooping over the small camp. Fear pierced her, and she felt her heart beating quicker than usual, her body heating up.
Then, the crow's calls faded into the distance, and a shout from Boromir called the all-clear.
Gandalf growled, "Spies of Saruman! The passage south is being watched; we must take the Pass of Caradhras."
Poor Bill was fitted with supplies yet again, and Reyna leading him, the group started to travel again, their merriment a few minutes before forgotten.