-The Games of the Gods, Book Two: Playing the Game-
-Disclaimer:-
Nothing belongs to me besides the characters of Rachel and Kari, and sometimes I wonder about them. The rest belongs to the brilliant genius that was JRR Tolkien...or reality.
-8: Transport -
The next morning, it was a very smug Glorfindel and a very happy, dazed me who emerged from our room for breakfast. Calenda either didn't notice or ignored our looks, while Ecthelion and Elrohir exchanged smirks. I managed to pull myself down to earth enough to start discussing plans in more detail with Elrohir, however, and it was soon determined that Elrohir and Glorfindel were going to spend the morning out hiring some 'protection' for our apartment while we went to Tibet, while Ecthelion and I went to check up on Ameson and his two guards, and book plane tickets.
"Oh, he's doing fine." Calenda informed us smugly when I announced where Ecthelion and I were going. "Though Gil can't quite remember when he last saw a human that particular shade of white." I rolled my eyes.
"OK, make that, Jack and I are going to go RESCUE Ameson from his guards." I said wryly.
"Well, at least he won't give us any trouble phoning in his emergency vacation." Ecthelion said with a chuckle, only stumbling slightly over the modern words. It was a good thing Elves had, as a general rule, very good mental capabilities, allowing them to adapt more quickly than a human would. "Speaking of which, do you know what you want him to say?"
"Um..." I blinked, completely clueless. Elrohir, just getting ready to leave, sighed and pointed to the counter, where a pad of paper with writing on it rested.
"I wrote it last night while you and Glorfindel were sequestered in your room." he said with a grin.
"Yay! Wonderful purple twin!" I said with a smile, practically bouncing over to the counter. I quickly read over the speech Elrohir had written. "Too long and stilted." I declared, then grabbed the nearby pen and started crossing things out and re-writing sections. Elrohir gave an exasperated sigh, then shook his head and said his goodbyes. Glorfindel didn't go so calmly, of course, having to come over to me, pluck the pen out of my fingers, turn me around, and give me a kiss that left me struggling to remember why he just gave me a pen, and most especially, where on earth he thought he was going. A mental nudge from Glorfindel as he ducked out the door, fortunately, restarted my brain, and with an annoyed 'harrumph', I went back to editing Elrohir's 'speech'.
Finally, after about half an hour of re-writing, I deemed the resulting message acceptable, then said goodbye to Calenda, instructing her not to open the door to anyone but one of us - to which she rolled her eyes and replied 'Yes, Mother' in a very sarcastic sort of way. Some days, being a mom just plain sucked. Anyways. Ecthelion and I headed off, arriving at the hotel without incident (well, as long as you don't count Ecthelion's horror over the chihuahua we saw, and my almost accident when, upon spying said chihuahua, I declared 'yo quiero Taco Bell' and collapsed into an unexpected giggle-fit). At the hotel, we found that Ameson was indeed an unnaturally pale shade of white for a human. I gave Elladan and Gil-galad reproving looks.
"And just WHAT have you been telling him, hmm?" I demanded.
"Oh, nothing much." Gil-galad said innocently - too innocently.
"Orcs." Ameson managed to squeak out, his eyes wide, as he looked at me.
"Ahhhh." I said with a sage nod. "Only believe half of what they said. They both have a mad on for the creatures. Now! I have your little speech that your going to tell the people at FBI headquarters." I held the piece of paper out to him, and he read it over once, then frowned.
"Um, you might want to change that last line." he suggested, then immediately flinched as all the males in the room turned glares on him. I just arched an eyebrow.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, that particular phrasing could sort of kind of bring the entire FBI down on you looking for me?" Ameson said, an interesting combination of fear and hope displayed on his face.
"What, is it code from 'I'm in trouble, come find me' or something?" I asked in surprise, and he nodded vigorously. I stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. Eventually, given all the weird looks I was getting, I calmed down and declared, "Only Elrohir and I could stumble across such a phrase by accident." Ameson shrugged and gave a tentative smile, which quickly disapeared into abject terror as Gil-galad have him a deadly glare. "Enough, Gilly. We don't need him so terrified he can't speak, or they hear his emotions across the line. Now, Ameson, what's the number?" Ameson blinked and looked up at me in surprise.
"You...want me to give you the number?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, is there a problem with that?" I asked patiently.
"Well, no, but considering how you were going on about not being able to trust me last night, I'm surprised you'd trust me to not give you the phone number for the elite special forces division or something." he said truthfully, then hurried to add, "Not that I would!"
"Certain things require a certain amount of trust." I said with a shrug. "Besides, it seems to me that you know now that it's in your best interests to co-operate."
"That I do." Ameson said, glancing at Gil-galad and Elladan, then rattled off a phone number. I had him repeat it, slower this time, as I wrote it down. I dialed the number using the hotel room's phone, then held it up to Ameson's ear. To my surprise, he didn't start right in on the speech, but there was nothing I could do without causing suspicion as he started flirting with whoever was on the other end. Then, after a couple of minutes, he said his little speech, made a few excuses, and said goodbye. When I hung up the phone, everyone in the room silently turned to look at Ameson, who shrunk in his chair.
"Monique has been my friend for years, and our flirting is a running joke between us. She would've been suspicious if I hadn't flirted with her for awhile!" Ameson finally snapped defensively.
"You could've warned us." I said angrily. "I TOLD you to stick to the speech we prepared!"
"Well, I didn't know she'd be on the phones today until I heard her voice." Ameson said defensively. "And if you knew there was a possibility that I'd have to ad-lib, would you have phoned at all, or just set off for Tibet without getting me to phone in?" I sighed.
"Should've let Elrohir kill him." Elladan said, his manner making it clear that he'd be happy to kill the agent on his brother's behalf.
"No, what damage is done, is done." I said. "Let's just get him into the truck and find another hotel to hold him at." So we spent about two hours finding a different hotel to stay at - as far away from the first one as we could get and still be within easy traveling distance of our apartment - and then I left Elladan and Ecthelion to guard Ameson as I took Gil-galad back to the apartment. We had a little argument with Calenda about letting us in - she, of course, decided to be smart and question my identity. Gil-galad eventually sent her some sort of mental message that made her open the door. The type of message was revealed when, upon entering, Calenda and Gil-galad disappeared into their room much the same way as Glorfindel and I had disappeared the other night, leaving me to close the door and sit down at the computer to begin booking plane tickets.
Elrohir and Glorfindel arrived back about an hour after I finished booking the tickets, and then we dragged Calenda and Gil-galad out of their room to begin packing all personal items up again. Elrohir and I included the computer tower in our packing, just in case, and then we threw everything into the truck, even as two thug-ish looking men showed up and asked to speak with Elrohir. A few quiet directions and the exchanging of keys later, the two thugs disappeared into the apartment, and we all piled into the truck.
"What makes you think they won't steal everything and run?" I asked Elrohir as we headed for the hotel with Ameson, Elladan and Ecthelion.
"I'm paying them almost double of what everything in that apartment is worth. And they only got $1000 of it, each, ahead of time." Elrohir said.
"Ah, money. The way to a man's loyalty nowadays. Mostly." I said sagely.
"Not really." Elrohir said. "Having 'A Cause' is more of an incentive for loyalty than money these days, as per always."
"Mmm...no, I think if anything, they're tied." I pondered.
"Can we go already?" Calenda asked impatiently. Elrohir and I, having snagged the front seats again, looked back at Calenda in surprise, then at each other.
"'Are we there yet?'" We said in unison, and as Calenda sat back to sulk, we sniggered and Elrohir started up the truck. After I corrected Elrohir on exactly which hotel we were going to, we went off, and several hours later, our little group arrived at the airport.
"I just thought of something." I said with a frown as Elrohir parked. "We don't have passports." Wordlessly, Elrohir pulled a stack of passports out of his pocket and began handing them out to various people. "Wow, you were busy this morning." I mused.
"He's had people working on them since our first night here." Ecthelion revealed as he took his, and I glanced at Elrohir in surprise. He shrugged.
"I had a feeling we would have to leave the country." he said with a secretive smile. When I arched an eyebrow, he looked pointedly at Ameson, who was being 'escorted' by Gil-galad, Glorfindel, and Ecthelion. I shrugged, and we went off into the airport. I'd get the reasons for his 'feeling' out of him later.
Even with Elrohir's passports, I was BEYOND amazed by the time we managed to get into the air. The ease with which we'd gone through security had been...simply astonishing. I hadn't gotten through security that easily since I was in my early teens - before September 11th, in other words.
"Well, Elladan and I may have sort of picked up a few things from Grandmother." Elrohir said innocently when I commented on it.
"You didn't!" I exclaimed, then immediately quieted and shrunk down in my seat as I got a few reproving stares from other passengers. When they had all turned their attention elsewhere, I turned back to Elrohir and hissed, "Tell me you and Elladan didn't mind-whammy airport security!"
"It was hardly a mind-whammy!" Elrohir sniffed. "Neither of us have anywhere near Grandmother's skill at telepathy. We just...soothed their nerves a bit while we were around. And we'll both have headaches tomorrow as thanks for our trouble, especially if we continue doing it all the way to Tibet, as I plan to." I frowned.
"So you went to all the trouble to get passports, and you're not even trusting them now?" I inquired.
"It's not so much that I don't trust them, as that I'd rather be on the safe side, considering what's at stake." Elrohir said, with a meaningful look, and I realized he was right - despite any moral objections I might have to impairing airport security's ability to do their job, Kari was the most important thing here. So I nodded and turned my attention to Glorfindel, who was staring fixedly at the seat in front of him, hands gripped on the chair arms so tightly his knuckles were white.
"Enjoying yourself, Glorindel?" I asked pleasantly.
"I hate flying." he ground out, and I arched an eyebrow.
"How can you hate it already? We just started the flight, and this is your first time." I pointed out.
"Oh, I've been 'flying' through the air before. It wasn't pleasant then, and this is bringing back those unpleasant memories." Glorfindel stated, his voice very carefully kept even.
"Ah. Oh. Right." I murmured, remembering how Glorfindel had REALLY died - most people thought it was the Balrog that had killed him, but if one managed to get Glorfindel to talk about it, they'd find out that he'd actually died because the Balrog had pulled him off balance and sent him tumbling down the mountainside - something guaranteed to kill even the best of warriors. "Hmm." I said thoughtfully, looking at Glorfindel, and then turned to Elrohir and informed him that he was going to help me distract Glorfindel for the rest of the trip.
"What? Why?" Elrohir asked, startled.
"Because flying doesn't agree with him. Now, distraction!" I ordered. Elrohir just looked at me like a deer caught in headlights for a moment more, and then leaned around me and started talking to Glorfindel about something or another as I began fiddling with my seat so I could poke my head back to check on the other members of our party - Elladan and Ecthelion were sitting on either side of Ameson behind us, and then Gil-galad and Calenda behind them (Various seat changes with other passengers had resulted in us having our nice block of seats together - it was actually surprising how accommodating other people were when you asked very nicely if they'd mind switching seats so you could sit with your husband/daughter/son-in-law/other relation).
In the end, I ended up convincing everyone, even Ameson, to help me keep Glorfindel distracted from the fact that we were flying. Ameson was actually the most help, as his form of distraction was asking questions about Glorfindel's life, which Glorfindel then had to concentrate on to talk about. Ameson's questions were, of course, obvious digs for information, but since they worked so well at distracting Glorfindel, I decided not to stop him.
After we landed in Shanghai, however, I did take Ameson off to the side, along with Ecthelion and Elrohir, and had a very pointed conversation about what he 'should and should not' do with whatever information he gained while helping distract Glorfindel. Ameson readily agreed to all our 'suggestions'.
And, of course, it was in the Shanghai airport that I finally remembered my internal translator - and only after a small amount of confusion on my part, too! It started when Elrohir began looking lost. I naturally asked what he was looking for - our gate, as it happened - and he went to show me the symbols that would signify our gate, when I just looked around and went, "Isn't that it over there?" Elrohir gave me a weird look, but let it lie, and off we went. Then, of course, came the over-eager salesman, who had determined that I wanted to buy some nifty little gadget that had who-knows-what uses.
"Hey, bugger off already, will you? I'm not interested." I finally said in annoyance after the salesman had followed us - well, me, specifically - for about twenty feet. The salesman, ever smiling, made his apologies and left. I, of course, kept walking - until the mental feeling of distance between Glorfindel and I made me look behind me, and I found all my companions stopped in their tracks, back where I had told the salesman off. I stalked back.
"Hey, he had it coming, alright? No one has the right to be that pushy even if they only get paid in commission and have a wife and five kids." I stated, thinking they were surprised at me telling the salesman off.
"Oh, no one's disputing that." Elrohir said dryly. "It's just that none of us knew that you spoke Chinese."
"I don't." I replied, arching an eyebrow. "I speak exactly two languages - English and Kari's and my made up language. If you count Pig Latin, I speak three languages."
"Liar." Elladan accused. "You've spoken Common, Sindarin, and Quenya for millennia."
"And Dwarven." Gil-galad added, grimacing only slightly as he remembered the time I'd insulted one of his 'advisors' in Dwarven, only to discover that said advisor happened to know Dwarven. I frowned at the three of them - the twins and the High King - for several moments before memory of my internal translator finally came rushing back. And close on that memory's heels came the realization that Manga came from Japan and China primarily. I ignored the expectant people in front of me, awaiting an explanation, and began scanning for the nearest news stand. If I was in a position to read authentic, untranslated Manga, I wasn't going to pass it up.
Unfortunately, Glorfindel got wind of what I was doing - sometimes it's annoying, having your significant other able to read your thoughts - and before I got more than a few steps towards the nearest news stand, he darted forward and wrapped his arm around my waist, thereby restraining me without actually looking like he was restraining me. I, naturally, ruined the look by struggling against his grip.
:Authentic Manga! In it's original language: I whined mentally.
:You need to explain to everyone else about our internal translator.: Glorfindel said sternly, not even bothering to ask what I was on about now.
:That can wait! Manga: I insisted as Glorfindel, feeling his grip loosen, wrapped his other arm around my waist.
:No, it can't! Because if you disappear, they're going to want ME to explain: Glorfindel replied, a grimace coming across in his mental voice as I began prying at his fingers, trying to get them to let go.
:So? You're good at explaining tings! I'm good at finding and reading authentic Manga! So why not both of us do what we're good at: I asked, sounding as pitiful as I could, while giving Glorfindel my best puppy-dog eyes.
:Because it's YOUR gift, therefore YOU should explain it. Besides, I don't want to.: Glorfindel declared, not caving in the slightest at my look.
:But -:
:NO.: Glorfindel was firm this time, and I realized I wasn't going to move him - figuratively or literally. I sighed and stopped trying to get away. Glorfindel, sensing from my mind that this wasn't simply a trick to get him to loosen his grip so I could get away, relaxed his grip, and we turned back to the group with smiles on our faces. They were, naturally, giving us extremely freaked out looks - even Calenda and Gil-galad. Though Elrohir had a slightly suspicious tinge to his freaked out look - he probably had an idea what I had been trying to get to.
"You people are weird." Ameson murmured under his breath finally, breaking the silence. We all turned to look at him, and he looked back defiantly. "What? You are!"
"True enough." Calenda agreed after a moment more, and then all attention returned to me.
"So, Rachel, care to explain how you can speak six languages where you claim to only be able to speak two?" Elrohir asked, and I sighed.
"When Kari and I first got zapped back to Middle-Earth, we found that we could instantly understand and speak any language - save for Black Speech - even though we only ever spoke, heard, or saw our native language, English." I said. "We didn't notice at first, but I eventually discovered this 'internal translator', as well as how to turn it on or off. I haven't had need to pay attention to it for such a long time, however, that I just forgot about it - plus I didn't know it would do modern languages."
"So where did this 'internal translator' come from?" Elrohir asked curiously.
"Near as I can tell? It's a gift from the Valar, though I've never gotten around to asking them about it." I said with a shrug. There was a moment of silence from our little group.
"So you FORGOT about a gift from the Valar?" Ecthelion asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Hey, you know me." I said defensively. "And besides, I think it's meant to be forgotten about."
"Well, at least someone else will speak Tibetan." Elrohir said dryly after another short, silent moment.
"Indeed." I replied, then turned to Glorfindel. "Now can I go get Manga?" Glorfindel opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, they called our flight. I looked westwards and said 'Why me?', and then Elrohir and I began hurrying everyone through the airport to our gate.
I couldn't tell whether or not Elrohir and Elladan 'soothed nerves' as we boarded the plane, and I decided not to ask as we got in the air again, heading for Beijing. From Beijing, we flew to Chengdu, and from Chengdu, finally, to Lhasa, Tibet. It was...odd to have spent all the travel time in planes and airports, and then suddenly step out into the middle of Tibet, which was very much different from the city we'd started in. Elrohir and I, being the only ones that spoke Tibetan, quickly agreed that, since Elrohir knew his way around, he could lead the group, while I'd stay with everyone else and translate - not to mention keep them out of trouble. At any rate, Elrohir managed to find accomodations for the night without much trouble, and then arranged for supplies for a hike to be delivered there the next morning. It would have been that day, but even us Elves were pretty much walking dead after our flights - Gil-galad actually had an arm around Ameson's shoulders, keeping the poor agent upright as he stumbled along with us.
Eventually, Elrohir led us into a hotel-type establishment, where we were led to our rooms, and all of us save Glorfindel promptly collapsed into the sleep of the dead. Glorfindel didn't crash because, on our last flight, the males had discussed and decided to keep a watch. I would have objected to their not including Calenda or I, who they knew could fight perfectly well, but I was dead tired, and they were willing, so I let it be. Calenda seemed to be of the same opinion.
I woke up close to fourteen hours later, before most everyone else, and promptly went and found food. Well, to be precise, I went and found Nam-kha, AKA, The Very Friendly Kitchen Man, and he, in turn, found me food. And spent most of my meal chuckling over how I shoveled it down. Not to mention the wise-cracks about how Tibet was supposed to be the starving third-world country, not America. Of course, once I was done breakfast, my mischievous streak decided to make an appearance, and I had Nam-kha fetch me the most fragrant piece of food the kitchen made. He was confused, but obliged me, and then - since I had been too hungry on my way down to the dining hall to pay attention to where I was going - he led me back up to our little party's rooms.
I'll give Glorfindel credit, he had excellent reflexes - Nam-kha jumped about a foot when Glorfindel suddenly went from sleep to fully awake and snatching for the food in my hands in one second flat. But Glorfindel and I haven't been able to surprise each other since about the fourth year after we were married. Distract? Yes. Surprise? No.
I dodged Glorfindel's snatch and dashed out of the room, Nam-kha - having caught on to the game - only inches behind me. Nam-kha shut the door behind him, but I knew that wouldn't stop Glorfindel for long, so with a quick wink for Ecthelion, who was standing guard and looking quite amused, I dashed into the next room, which happened to house Elladan and Elrohir. Nam-kha, this time, didn't follow, and the loud laughter coming from outside the room explained why.
At any rate, with Nam-kha laughing loud enough to wake the whole hotel, and the very delicious smelling food in my hands, it's no wonder that Elladan and Elrohir woke up. And, of course, I don't have the inside scoop on their brains, so they managed to surprise me, and snatched the food away. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like darting into a room for safety, only to be pounced by two naked, identical male elves, who then snatch your food away and commence having an entirely ununderstandable conversation - or possibly argument - in what can only be termed TwinSpeak. I really don't know what else to call it...I don't recall ever hearing them do it before, but it was the oddest thing. They spoke in half sentences or broken sentences, leaving out words or phrases, sometimes replacing the words with gestures, most of the time not. It also consisted of significant looks - and ended in a brief arm wrestle, which Elrohir won. Then they finally settled down, Elladan munching happily on the biscuit-type food. How him losing had resulted in him getting the food, I don't know, and frankly, I was slightly too creeped out to ask.
"Sooo, you found a source of nourishment?" Elrohir asked cheerfully, turning to look at me. I stared at him for a moment.
"I think I'm going to take my chances out in the hall." I said, and then followed through on that plan, abruptly dashing back out into the hall. Glorfindel was, of course waiting for me, an evil gleam in his eyes - but it went away and was replaced by surprise when I dashed behind him and whimpered.
"Rachel?" he asked with confusion - and a little worry.
"Elladan and Elrohir are scary-evil-weird in the morning!" I whimpered. Silence, save for Nam-kha's now-quiet laughter, fell on the hallway for several seconds.
"Did she just admit that Elladan and Elrohir are too weird for her?" Ecthelion asked slowly from the end of the hallway, disbelief clear in his voice.
"I think she did." Glorfindel said, sounding shocked.
"Only on Tibetan mornings, though." I clarified from behind Glorfindel.
"It's still more than I ever thought I'd hear you admit." Ecthelion said dryly.
"Yes, well, shh!" I said. "Spaghetti." Glorfindel and Ecthelion just looked at me with these exasperated 'what now?' looks on their faces. I grinned, having regained my footing on the Plane of Weirdness. "So, who wants to wake up Gil-galad, Ameson, and Calenda?"
"No need." Ameson said grouchily from beside Ecthelion, and I noted with surprise that he was sitting huddled in the corner under a blanket.
"What're you doing out here?" I asked him curiously.
"Hmm...correct me if I'm wrong, but Calenda is your daughter, right?" Ameson asked, tilting his head to one side, and I nodded. "Then it's better you don't know." I frowned, then glanced at Glorfindel, wondering if he got what the Agent was getting at. Judging from his odd look, a cross between a smirk, annoyance, and nausea, he did - and just seeing the look on his face helped me figure it out. Of course, Glorfindel, having figured out just what his daughter was up to, immediately went and banged very LOUDLY on Calenda and Gil-galad's door.
"Fuck off!" came Gil-galad's voice, quite clearly, from the other side of the door. Glorfindel turned to me and arched an eyebrow.
"What!" I demanded. "I didn't teach him the word, I swear!"
"He is apparently very easily corrupted by the modern world, then." Glorfindel said dryly, and then banged again on Calenda and Gil-galad's door. Directly after his fourth bang, right when he was going to bang again, a very annoyed Calenda opened the door.
"What!" she demanded, very deliberately not hiding the fact that she was wearing nothing under her robe.
"Oh, nothing." Glorfindel said pleasantly, then turned around and walked back over to me. Calenda stared at him in shock.
"Gil-galad, my dad's been replaced by a Balrog. Come vanquish him?" she said finally, twisting around so she could speak back into her room. There was the sound of rustling behind Calenda, and then suddenly she stepped aside and shoved the door open. A throwing knife came whizzing by her and just missed Glorfindel before embedding itself in the wall. By the time all of us in the hall, having turned to look at the dagger, looked back at Calenda and Gil-galad's room, the door was closed again, and neither my daughter nor son-in-law were anywhere to be seen. Ecthelion, Glorfindel and I all looked at each other - and then burst out laughing, just as Elrohir and Elladan emerged from their room. Nam-kha, not understanding what was said, had been somewhat worried, especially when the knife came flying out of Calenda and Gil-galad's room, but soon came to laugh with us. Ameson just smirked drowsily in his corner, having had his, indirect, revenge. Elladan and Elrohir, of course, wanted to be let in on the joke, and by the time we'd recovered from our laughter and explained it to them, Calenda and Gil-galad emerged, looking thoroughly annoyed with the lot of us.
"Please tell me you have found food, thus excusing at least a small part of what you just did." Gil-galad growled as he and Calenda were confronted with five grinning Elves, a smirking FBI agent, and an uncertain, but still amused, Tibetan.
"Rachel has!" Elrohir supplied. "She woke Elladan and I up with it." Gil-galad looked at Elrohir in surprise, then his gaze slid over to Glorfindel, who was, noticeably, the only elf in the hall that wasn't fully dressed - he hadn't had time to do much more than pull on his pants before giving chase to me, after all. Glorfindel, of course, nodded in my direction as confirmation of the unspoken question. Gil-galad and Calenda glanced at each other, then back at me.
"You realize you're going to experience every unpleasant way there is to wake up over the next several weeks, don't you?" Calenda asked.
"Oh, probably." I said, waving my hand through the air. "But it was worth it. And why am I getting blamed for waking you two up, anyways? That was all Glorfindel."
"Well, we'd have to wake Glorfindel up to get to you, anyways." Gil-galad said with a shrug. Glorfindel sighed.
"The things I get dragged into." he said with mock despair, looking westward.
"Don't even TRY to pretend you didn't enjoy it." Ecthelion said dryly. "We know you too well." Glorfindel chuckled.
"Ah well. I'm going to go finish getting dressed, then perhaps we should all go downstairs for breakfast?" he suggested, and everyone quickly agreed. Of course, I decided that I could have a bit more fun, and tried to follow Glorfindel back into our room to, ahem, distract him and thus delay breakfast for the others after having woken them up so they could have it. Note the 'tried' part. Elrohir and Ecthelion grabbed my arms to keep me in the hall even as Glorfindel darted away, shutting the door very quickly, and sending me a mental 'STAY'. I sighed.
"It's horrible when everyone knows you too well." I said to Nam-kha in Tibetan, and he laughed. Elrohir, the only other to understand, chuckled as well, but declined to let the others in on the joke when they asked what was so amusing.
At any rate, Glorfindel emerged fairly quickly - he didn't even stop to braid his hair, so it was hanging loose - and we all tromped down to the dining room for breakfast. Of course, since I'd already eaten, Nam-kha didn't get a table setting for me, so I spent the entire meal annoying my fellow travelers - and snitching food off Glorfindel's plate. And Elrohir's. And Ecthelion's. And Calenda's. Elladan, Ameson, and Gil-galad I left alone, though - Ameson I didn't know well enough, Elladan could be very possessive about his food, and Gil-galad had brought more of his throwing knives with him and eyed me dangerously every time I got close to him.
Once we were finished eating, we thanked Nam-kha, and Elrohir headed out to find the supplies he'd arranged for our hike - which ended up taking him exactly as long as it took to open the hotel door and go three steps out, as everything was being delivered personally. Never mind that Elrohir hadn't asked for it to be delivered, nor told any of the merchants where we were staying (especially since he hadn't known at the time). Needless to say, Elrohir was quite surprised, especially when the merchants cheerfully helped split everything up into manageable bundles for each of us to carry - well, each of us but Ameson, who we weren't stupid enough to give his own pack of supplies. He may have gone along with us so far, but none of us forgot for more than a few moments that he was there as our prisoner. At any rate, I watched with amusement as Elrohir, in dazed surprise, directed the merchants as to where to go, and did his best to keep them from hauling our things down from our rooms and packing our backpacks for us. Then, spotting Nam-kha off to one side, watching with equal amusement, I sidled over to him.
"So, did you know about this?" I asked him conversationally, still watching the scene before me.
"Indeed. I told them where you and your friends were staying." Nam-kha replied equally conversationally.
"May I ask why?" I inquired.
"You may." Nam-kha replied with a hint of amusement in his voice. When he didn't say anything further, I rolled my eyes and chuckled.
"WHY did you tell them where we were staying?" I asked, turning to look at Nam-kha. He didn't reply for a moment, simply watching the others thoughtfully, and then slowly turned to face me.
"Because we could not let so many First Ones pass through our lands without giving them the proper honor." Nam-kha said carefully. "It would bring dishonor on us, and shame our families for generations." I couldn't help it, I gaped at Nam-kha for several moments. Then I grabbed his arm and hauled him off into a secluded corner.
"How do you know?" I demanded, my voice low, though not threatening.
"It was not I, but one of our monks." Nam-kha replied in a low voice. "Some of them have the gift of seeing the life force of those around them, human or animal, and one such saw Honoured...Elrohir?" Nam-kha paused with a glance in my direction, obviously asking if he'd gotten the name right, since Elrohir was currently using the name Harold (don't ask me why). I nodded in confirmation, and Nam-kha continued. "One of the monks with the Sight saw Honored Elrohir when he first came to our land many, many years ago. He saw how Honored Elrohir's life force was as old as the stones, and that it had no end, no matter how far forward he looked in it. The monk recorded what he saw, and ever since, monks with the Sight have watched new arrivals in our lands carefully, looking for the First One. None had ever dreamed to see seven First Ones at the same time, however. Truly, we had thought Honored Elrohir and his wife to be the last."
"They were." I said slowly, digesting what Nam-kha had said. "But others without your respect have captured...Elrohir's wife," I hesitated over what to call Kari before continuing, "And he called us back from the Undying Lands to help him save her." Nam-kha looked horrified that anyone would do such a thing.
"Truly, I cannot believe that any of my countrymen -" Nam-kha started, but I quickly cut him off.
"No no, it's no one from your country. Ameson, the mortal we travel with - it is his fellows who have done this." I explained. "We do not blame them, but in order to not warn them that we have discovered that they are responsible, we have to take Ameson somewhere secluded and safe. Honored Elrohir knows of a monestary where we hope to leave him."
"Oh." Nam-kha said, and the look he gave Ameson then was a strange mix of hostility, pity, and suspicion.
"Listen, Nam-kha - whatever you do, do not tell any of this to anyone else." I said sternly.
"I will tell no one." Nam-kha said solemnly.
"And if other travelers come looking for us, please, just stay out of their way." I said. "I don't know what lengths they'd go to to get the information out of you, and I'd rather not have you find out the hard way."
"I will guard your secret with my life." Nam-kha said, bowing his head slightly.
"No, not with your life." I said sternly. "There's no need for you to put your life on the line for us - just stay out of their way." Nam-kha just bowed again, and then slipped out of the corner. I called after him in the vague hope that he'd listen to me, but in the end, I knew he wouldn't. Sighing, I returned to the main group to find the others currently laughing and joking over Elrohir's continued fluster. Glorfindel, however, sensed the difference in my mood as soon as I stepped close, and he broke away from the conversation immediately, looking concerned as he put his arm around me and pulled me close.
:What is it, Rachel: he asked softly in my mind, and I replayed my conversation with Nam-kha to him.
:Should Ameson's friends come looking for him, Nam-kha's life will become very unpleasant.: I said with a sigh.
:Perhaps, but we do not know that this FBI will come looking for Ameson right away, and beyond that, it is Nam-kha's choice.: Glorfindel said soothingly. :Each of us choose our own paths, and Nam-kha has chosen to make his run parallel to ours for a time.:
:Doesn't mean I like it, though.: I grumped, and Glorfindel chuckled mentally.
:Only the insane, evil, or unfit like hearing that there are people willing to die for them.: Glorfindel said. :Turgon frequently snapped at the Chiefs of the Houses of Gondolin when they would make plans to have their best men - or they themselves - near him when battle was expected. We didn't even dare suggest it to Gil-galad...and, well, we all know how that turned out. So we tried it again with Estel, but he became downright unruly when we would try to protect him.: A touch of amusement followed that last thought, along with the brief image of a young Aragorn shouldering his way in-between two Elves to make the killing blow on an orc the Elves had obviously been protecting him from. I couldn't help but chuckle slightly at that.
:Then I'm in good company, I suppose.: I said, then with a mental caress and kiss, returned my attention to the others as the merchants finished getting everything ready for us. I made sure to thank each and every one of the merchants personally, and Elrohir, confused, did the same at my prompting. The others made similar motions of thanks, though their thank-yous were more general, as they didn't know the language. Then, finally, we settled our packs on our shoulders and set out. The merchants, supposedly just going along with us to their shops, escorted us to the edge of the city, never mind that we went in the opposite direction from the hotel as the airport, and all their shops were between the hotel and airport.
This, of course, caused much comment among everyone else, and once we were out of the city, I felt obliged to explain to them all what I'd learned from Nam-kha. Elrohir was, naturally, quite stunned, and yet at the same time, admitted that he'd known on some level that they knew about him and Kari - he'd always felt more at ease in Tibet than anywhere else, acting more like himself than he did anywhere else. And so began our first full day in Tibet.
----To Be Continued...with the end of 'Lord of the Rings' that you never heard from Tolkien!----
-Authors Note:-
Ehm, sorry for the loooooong time between updates. There are many reasons for this. The first week after my last update, I hadn't written the chapter. The second week, I was thoroughly and unashamedly distracted by the wonderful guy known to you all as Duke Storm, who came up for a visit. The third week, there was an...interesting trend at work, with people not knowing when they were supposed to be there - half the people didn't show up when they were supposed to, or showed up when they weren't supposed to. The fourth week, in protest against the stupidity of the staff running it, everything in the store decided to break down at once - including the till - while what seemed like half the city decided they wanted to buy from us.
The fifth week after my last update - also known as two weeks ago - I finally managed to finish writing the chapter...only to realize that I forgot something, and that I didn't really need the guide I originally saddled our friends with. So I re-wrote the chapter. Then, while switching files from my old shared computers to my new, personnal computer that I don't have to share with anyone, I accidentally over-wrote the re-write of the chapter. I sulked for a few days about doing this, and then I finally re-rewrote the chapter. Only to discover that my new computer didn't have a word processing program on it besides notepad and wordpad - which, while nice, don't have a spellchecker to catch my stupid typos. So I spent a few days finding one of those, and finally, today, finished the chapter.
So that's the story of my last month and a half. We won't even mention the fact that, as of last Friday, four of the seven staff at our store went on vacation, leaving just three of us to run the store, sometimes for a twelve-hour long day. Whee? Yeah.
Anyways. Sorry for not replying to any reviews for the last chapter - I assure you, each and every one is appreciated. I may go through and reply to some of the ones with specific questions in them over the next few days, but I won't be responding to all of them. Likewise, I don't think I'll be able to respond to every review from now on, due to time constraints. It took me close to, if not more than, an hour to post a chapter before, since I was replying to all the reviews for the previous chapter before I did so, and I just don't have the time for that anymore, sadly. As I'm writing this, in fact, I have a little over an hour before I have to go to work, and I have about six different things I need to do between now and then. (including eat)
Yeah. That's the story of my busy life. On the amusing side, while I was transferring things between computers, I found two random, half-finished FanFictions from different fandoms that I'd completely forgotten about...I mean, literally forgot about. I can't even remember the plot I planned for them, and spent half an hour trying to figure out if they were actually mine or something somebody else wrote, until I recognized something that was unmistakably my sense of humour. Heh.
Now, I'm going to end this stupidly long Author's Note. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter - and please, review! All reviews are appreciated, and I'll be thinking up something to do as thanks instead of replying to each and every review.
Namarie,
-Crimson Starlight
-Authors Note the Second:-
Sorry for no new chapter, but I don't actually have another chapter, and since doesn't allow author's-note-only chapters anymore...well, you get the idea. Anyways. Any of you who have access to my LiveJournal will already know what I'm about to say, so, for your entertainment, random 'Glorfindel slogans' produced by The Advertising Slogan Generator (www . thesurrealist . co . uk / slogan . cgi):
"It's a Beautiful Glorfindel." "No-One Does Chicken Like Glorfindel." "Go On, Get Your Glorfindel Out." "Stimulation for Body and Glorfindel." "Just One Glorfindel - Give It To Me!" "Make Room for the Glorfindel." "The Glorfindel Effect." "I Wish They All Could Be Glorfindel Girls." "Think Once, Think Twice, Think Glorfindel." "Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Glorfindel."
And now tht that's done, on to what I have to say.
Two weeks ago, I woke up to prepare the next chapter of this story for upload...only to find my computer making clunking noises at me and demanding a boot disk to start up. Further investigation revealed that my computer had suffered a catastrophic physical hard drive failure (not my words for it, but apt, nonetheless). Now, due to the fact that I got a second hard drive recently, I DO have my computer working again, but the hard drive with ALL my data on it is currently sitting in my closet. (We won't even mention what happened to my back-ups)
The ONLY way I can get the data off that hard drive is to pay $1000+ (Canadian) to have it shipped to someplace in Ontario, where some highly trained people are going to take it into an ultra-clean room, take it apart, pull the data discs out, and put them in a different hard drive, one specially made to handle random hard drive data discs being dumped into it. And even then, there's no garauntee, though the guys at the computer store say there's a good chance that the data can be retrieved.
Now, I don't have the thousand dollars right now, but I'm working on it. Still, it's going to be several months at the least before I even send the thing away. And since the cost increases the quicker you want it done, it will probably be another little while - perhaps a few months, perhaps less, I haven't asked about times yet - before I get the data BACK, assuming they can retrieve it. As soon as I get the data back, however, you will get your update. Or, if I get fed up, I may rewrite the chapter for you. Big if there, though - I've already re-written this particular chapter three times, and it's becoming a matter of principle to get it back and post it.
So, essentially, what I'm saying is this: Don't expect an update before the end of the year.
It's sad, it's depressing, but there it is. Maybe I'll be able to post as a Christmas/Yule/whatever present for everyone. We'll see.
Until then, remember to back up your stuff!
-CS