Chapter Seven

The morning came quickly, but the night had been peaceful with the exception of the small disturbance. Hours after Legolas and Saber had gone to bed; Frodo woke up and saw one of the elves pulling up the ladder to the flat. He had said that orcs had come down from the mountain and were seen in the forest. He then disappeared into the night and Frodo had fallen back asleep. Now it was morning and everyone was awake, packing up their bedding.

"Best sleep I've had since Rivendell," Pippin said as he stretched, looking out at the golden forest.

"It was really good," Merry agreed and Andreas yawned.

"My feet hurt," he mumbled and Saber leaned against the tree, sharpening his claws.

"Saber!" Orpheas smacked the back of his head, "what are you doing?" He looked at the now scratched up tree.

"What?" He flicked a piece of bark and looked at his nails. "I barely scratched it." Orpheas shook his head and dropped the ladder down. Haldir stood at the bottom waiting.

"More walking…" Heru muttered as he threw down his bag, nearly dropping it on Haldir. He climbed down slowly and looked at Haldir, now suddenly aware of just how attractive the elf was. "Yum," he smiled and spun around on his heel, looking up at the rest of the group coming down.

"Orcs came down from the mountain last night," Haldir said once they had all come down, "we killed them all but I am afraid there will be more still to come by night fall. We must leave at once."

"Are we going to be blindfolded again?" Pippin asked.

"No," Haldir turned to Aragorn, "I received word last night that you are all to walk freely through Lothlorien, even the dwarf."

"Sweet," Heru said, trying to dust off his clothes. "God I so need a shower."

They started walking again, following Haldir to the bank of the river.

"How are we supposed to cross?" Boromir asked and Haldir whistled. An elf appeared from some bushes that no one had noticed, not even Saber, he was so well hidden. Haldir spoke to him in Elvish and they threw a rope across. It was tied at the other end and Haldir skipped easily across where he tied the end of another rope above the one to the tree.

"Hold the rope above and walk," he instructed and the fellowship slowly one by one crossed the river. They walked again for several more hours but no one really seemed to mind, they were all lost in the beauty of the land. It seemed pure and untainted by any kind of evil. The air was fresher and refreshed all their grieving hearts. Gandalf hadn't been forgotten but their sorrow seemed to lessen as they walked. The boys had never seen anything as beautiful and they couldn't get over how clean the air felt to breathe. They walked all day, walking over twenty miles, pausing only a couple times to rest. Finally they came over a hill and there was another large tree with several more flets.

"We will stop here for the night," Haldir said once they reached it. The boys and hobbits dropped their bags and sat down, tired from the walk.

"It will be safer for you to sleep up on the flet again," he said and they nodded.

"Just gonna sit for a moment," Andreas said tiredly and closed his eyes.

"Common," Andew threw him over his shoulder and climbed the robe ladder. He jumped back down and grabbed three of the bags. Heru and the hobbits reluctantly stood up and followed. Boromir went next; convinced these strangers would be of no use in any battle if they were already exhausted.

Aragorn thanked Haldir and followed Legolas and Gimli up the ladder. Orpheas went last, lingering for a moment as if listening to some far off sound.

Once they were all up on the flet, Andrew opened his bag and pulled out his whiskey and a box of cereal. He poured a handful into his mouth and ate it dry.

"What's that?" Pippin asked, opening his own bag and pulling out an apple.

"Frosted flakes," he said with his mouth full, handing the box to him. Pippin stuck his little hand into the box and stuffed the crunchy flakes into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully, tasting the mixture and looked at the box.

"Strange," he said at last and took another handful, handing it back. "You have strange food." Andrew laughed a little and put the box away.

"I could go for a nice, big juicy steak right now." He said with a smile and pulled out an apple instead.

"Or Chinese." Andreas said and Andrew's eyes widened.

"Ooh or Thai."

"Yea!" He sighed and looked into his bag and pulled out a pack of roman noodles. He broke it up and opened it. The hobbits watched with interest, the others had resolved to let Pippin ask most of the questions.

They continued to eat in silence except for the odd comment between Andreas and Heru but the others were all thinking of Gandalf. Pippin started to talk about him and recalling the fireworks at Bilbo's birthday but Merry told him to be quiet. The grief was too much for the other still and Frodo had started to cry when Pippin brought up the fireworks. Unable to bear the silence no longer, Pippin looked at the boys.

"Tell us of your world, please." He asked, "What is it like there? Do you tell stories? Is there music?"

"Yea, we tell stories but not really story stories, those are left in books and movies. We have movies, which are too complicated to try and explain but they tell stories." Andreas answered.

"What kinds of stories? Will you tell us one?" He asked, his blue eyes filled with sadness.

"Sure," Andreas thought for a moment trying to recall some kind of story that would be appropriate for the moment. "There are a lot of different kinds of stories in our world but I can tell you some legends." He lit a cigarette and decided to go with an Egyptian story.

"Long ago there was a god who was so great and had so many names that even the gods didn't know all of them but he called himself Ra, god of life and light. Isis, the goddess of magic and life was living on earth in human form as what some call a "witch-doctor". She used her spells on men but she grew tired of this and wanted to be the mistress of gods and spirits as well as men. She meditated on how she could become this and she decided that she would only be able to get this power if she possessed the knowledge of the secret name of Ra. Ra's existence was bound up in his name and he guarded it with most jealously, he knew that if he was to ever tell his name to anyone that he would be from that moment on, at that being's mercy. After trying to get his name in the ordinary methods and failing, Isis came up with a plan. It was known in Egypt and Sudan that if a magician obtained some portion of a person's body, like a piece of hair, spells could be used on them which would create a lot of pain and harm to that person. Ra had become old and was weak and he drooled and the saliva would fall on the ground. Isis waiting for her chance and when it came, she caught some of the saliva. Mixing it with dust, she moulded it into the form of a snake with poison-fangs. She whispered her spells over it and it came to life and she took it to the path that Ra travelled every day. Shortly after, Ra passed the snake and it bit him, poisoning him. It was painful and Ra cried out in agony, his jaw chattering, lips trembling and he fell speechless, the pain was so great. The gods heard his cry and rushed to him and when he was able to speak, he told them about the serpent. All of his power and his secret name that he had never told since birth became useless against the serpent and he was consumed with pain. He commanded all the gods that knew of spells to come to him and tell him what they knew. Isis then came the great lady of spells, the destroyer of diseases, and the reviver of the dead. Looking at Ra she said, "What hath happened, O divine Father?" Ra told her what had happened and Isis said to him, "Divine Father, tell me thy name, for he who uttered his own name shall live." Ra then started to tell her of all the things he had done, describing his creative acts, finally saying that he was Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening. Although he thought that by naming these great names it would satisfy Isis and that she would immediately pronounce a word of power and stop the pain in his body. But Isis was not fooled and she knew that Ra hadn't told her his true name. She began to beg him to tell her his name at once. He fought and refused to tell her his name but the more he resisted, the worse the pain in his body grew. "Isis shall search in me, and my name shall pass from my body into hers." He said and at that moment, Ra removed himself from the sight of the gods and the Throne in the Boat of Millions of Years had no occupant. The great name of Ra was hidden in his heart and Isis didn't believe he would keep his word so she and Horus agreed that Ra had to make an oath to part with his two Eyes, the Sun and the Moon. Ra allowed them to take his heart, along with his great and secret name and give it to Isis. And then it seemed that Ra was dead. Isis who was strong in the power of her spells, said "Flow, poison come out of Ra. Eye of Horus, come out of Ra, and shine outside his mouth. It is I, Isis, who work and I have made the poison to fall on the ground. Verily the name of the great god is taken from him, Ra shall live and the poison shall de; if the poison lives Ra shall die." The poison was drawn out of Ra and because Isis had created it, and once she had the knowledge of his secret name it was irresistible. If the words were written on anything it became a powerful charm and if the charm was steeped in water and then drunk, the words were like efficacious as a charm against snake-bites. To this day water in which the written words of a text from the Kur'an have been dissolved or water drunk from a bowl on the inside carved with religious text, it's still regarded as a never failing charm in Egypt and the Sudan." Andreas finished the story and the hobbits who had been listening intently clapped.

"What became of them?" Pippin asked and Andreas shrugged.

"I don't know, it's just a legend, it isn't true."

"It isn't?"

"Not that I know of, is it?" He asked looking at Orpheas.

"The time of the Egyptian gods is before my time." He said gently, "I'm unsure of that exact story, but Ra and Isis are in fact gods but they don't dwell on earth anymore. That was long before men took over the world. They don't have very many followers anymore." Orpheas recalled from what he had studied.

"Oh," Pippin nodded and curled up in his bed. "It was an interesting story though," he said and thought about it as he dozed off to sleep. Merry had already fallen asleep and Frodo and Sam were struggling to stay awake.

"Are many of stories like that?" Boromir asked.

"No," Andreas shrugged, "there's so many stories that it would be impossible to tell you all of them or even all the different kinds. That was just the first one that came to mind." He smiled and leaned back against the tree.

"Are there many gods in your world?" Legolas asked and Andreas nodded.

"Thousands upon thousands. I mean, I don't know if they're all real or if they're a lot of different names for just one god but every group of people have their own. What about here? Aren't there a lot of gods?"

"There is the Eru, the creator of all things." Legolas said, "But there is also the Valar, creations of Eru that came into this world to finish its creation." He explained and Andreas nodded.

"That's cool." He was never one for religion but after he had seen everything, he didn't doubt the existence of gods and goddesses anymore, especially considering that Ares was his best friend.

They continued to lightly talk but mostly it was Andreas and Heru who talked while everyone else went to sleep. At last, exhaustion over took them both. All the next day, they continued marching on until evening was coming again and the wind was whispering through the leaves. They came out into a great treeless space that ran in a circle. The grass seemed to shine as if the sun were still above it, the memory of its warmth lingering. On either side there was a green wall that encircled a green hill that was covered in mallorn-trees that were taller than they had yet seen, they stood like sparkling, living towers. Throughout their branches and amid the golden leaves were countless lights that shone green and gold and silver.

"Welcome to Caras Galadhon!" Haldir said and turned to the company, "here is the city of Galadhrim where the Lord Celeborn and Galadriel the Lady of Lorien dwell. But we cannot enter here and must go to the southern side. It is a long walk for the city is great and there is only one gate in which to enter."

The boys sighed, thinking this city would be huge like the ones they knew from back home.

They walked for awhile on a paved road until they came to a bridge and just over the bridge was a wall that encircled the city. Haldir knocked and spoke, the gates opened soundlessly but they couldn't see any guards. They walked inside and the gates shut behind them, not a single person could be seen within the city.

"Ghost town," Heru said quietly and Orpheas rolled his eyes. They went around, walking up several paths and flights of stairs until at last, they came to the higher places and saw a large lawn where a fountain shimmered, lit by silver lamps. On the south side of the lawn there was the mightiest of all the trees; it was smooth and gleamed like grey silk in the lights. Beside it, there was a white ladder and at its foot there were three Elves sitting. They jumped up as they came up and they saw that they were tall, clothed in grey mail and off their shoulders hung long white cloaks.

"Here dwell Celeborn and Galadriel," said Haldir, "it is their wish that you should ascend and speak with them." The guard elves looked at the strangers curiously. They climbed and climbed and to those who weren't used to climbing huge ladders, it never seemed to end. They passed several flets on their way up on either side and some that the ladder passed right through. Finally they came to a large talen like the deck of a large ship and on it was a house that was so large that it almost would have been considered a hall of Men upon earth. They followed behind Haldir, Frodo and Legolas went before the rest and they entered an oval shaped chamber. There were soft lights all around, green and silver and the roof was gold. There were several Elves there and on two chairs beneath the bole of the tree, there sat Celeborn and Galadriel. They stood up as they entered, very tall, not like Legolas or even Elrond.

"Sylven Elves, I think." Orpheas whispered to the boys. As they all came in, they were welcomed and told to set their bags down and rest. Once they were all sitting down before Celeborn he looked at them and said, "Here there are thirteen. Fourteen were set out: so said the messengers. But maybe there has been some change of counsel that we have not heard. Elrond is far away, and darkness gathers between us, and all this year the shadows have grown longer."

"Nay," Lady Galadriel said, her voice was deep and clear, deeper than a woman's usually is, "there was no change of counsel. Gandalf the Grey set out with the Company, but he did not pass the borders of this land. Now tell us where he is; for I much desired to speak with him again. But I cannot see him from afar, unless he comes within the fences of Lothlorien: a grey mist is about him, and the ways of his feet and of his mind are hidden from me." They hung their heads in grief and the boys shifted awkwardly.

"Gandalf the Grey fell into shadow. He did not escape Moria." Aragorn said sadly. There was a cry from the elves in the hall, both of grief and of amazement.

"These are evil tidings; the most evil that has been spoken here in long years full of grievous deeds." Celeborn said, "Tell us the full tale!"

Aragorn told him everything that had happened from Caradhras and afterwards. He told of Balin and his book and the Chamber of Mazarbul and fire with the shadow on the bridge and then of the balrog.

"Alas! We long have feared that under Caradhras a terror slept." Celeborn said sadly, "If I had known I would never have let you pass the northern borders."

While they talked the others stared in wonder. Gimli stared at the elves in both awe and sadness. Orpheas listened, honoured to have met such ancient elves that even in Mayadar there were stories about them. There was a long silence and finally Galadriel spoke, "your quest is known to us," she looked at Frodo, "but we should not speak of it openly but it is good that you came here to seek aid, as I am sure was Gandalf's plan. I will not give you counsel, telling you to do this or that, for I cannot tell you which way to choose. I only know what was and is and partly what is to come. But I will tell you this: your quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the company is true." She said as she looked at them. She looked at them all, holding their gaze for a long time until it made everyone but Legolas, Aragorn and Orpheas uncomfortable.

"I am pleased to meet the heir of Alexander and Atta." She said, looking at Orpheas who hearing his parents names, eyes widened.

"You knew my parents?" He asked quietly and she smiled.

"Yes, long ago when I was young they came." She said slowly, recalling memories of old, "tell me, where have they gone? Do they still dwell in your lands?"

"No," Orpheas said sadly, "my father fell in battle and my mother's life was taken with his." Galadriel looked at him sadly but smiled.

"Great is the love of the Glandians, there is no other bond stronger in all of the worlds." She turned to the rest, "do not let your hearts be troubled, tonight you will sleep in peace." And with that, they were all suddenly aware of how tired they were.

"Go now!" Celeborn said, lifting his hand to the exit, "you are tired and filled with sorrow. Even if we were not concerned with your quest, you will find refuge in this City until you are healed and refreshed. Go now and rest and we will not speak of things ahead for awhile."

Haldir led the company down the tree again where at the bottom, beds of soft moss and leaves had been made for them.

"I will leave you here, for I must return to my post." Haldir said and bowed.

"Thank you for your help." Aragorn smiled and they all bowed, watching Haldir leave. As they settled in, feeling exhausted and yet better than they had felt the entire trip, voices came up from the trees singing a beautiful but sad song.

"What are they saying?" Frodo asked and Legolas' eyes were wet with tears.

"They mourn for Gandalf." He said gently and looked away. Legolas went up and spent the night among his people and the others went to sleep quickly, the exhaustion of the events recently over taking them completely.

Several hours into the night, Orpheas stirred. Clouds swirled around him and there was a figure standing against the light, her golden hair flowing in the wind. Snow gently fell from the sky and a song began to fill the air, calling to him. The image changed and against the black, ripping in the air was a white horse. Slowly the image drew out and it was a flag falling down, blowing in the wind and landing at his feet.

His eyes flung open and he let out a cry, gripping his chest that was ripping open slowly.

"What's wrong?" Andrew asked, sitting up with a start at hearing his cry. Orpheas couldn't speak, the image of the woman filled his mind and the song grew louder and louder until it consumed him. He wept, her loneliness, her pain, her strength, it all filled him like a burning fire through his veins. Slowly he stood, the blood running down his chest and he stumbled a few steps.

"Orpheas!" Andrew jumped up upon seeing the blood and ran to him. "What's wrong?"

"I hear her." He finally managed to speak. The glazed look left his eyes and he looked at Andrew, "I'll be ok. I just need to be alone." He said gently and walked away, gripping his chest as it slowly closed.

He walked off, wandering away from the trees and up to the hill. I hear you. He whispered in Glandiath, whispering into the wind. Where are you?

"What wakes you?" Came a deep but beautiful voice from behind him and he turned, Galadriel stood clothed in a white dress and cloak, her silver gold hair fell down her shoulders, her beauty was breathtaking.

"I have heard the call of my soul." He said, his eyes filling and looking out.

"And what is the call of your soul?" She asked. She knew more than anyone else in this world of Glandians but still, they were even a mystery to her.

"For every Glandian, there is a soul mate. One person in all the worlds that completes them, that balances them. It is said that there is a song that only soul mates can hear, a song of their souls. They hear it all their lives until they meet and upon meeting, their souls are bound to each other. When the marriage ceremony is preformed their souls become one, uniting into one life source. Forever, they're bound together, their life tied to the other's and they can hear each other's thoughts and know all that the other feels. That is, if both are Glandians. There have been rare times when they're not. Ammon's soul mate is an elf." He explained, "but you can only hear the song if you're in the same world, it doesn't expand beyond that. I often wondered if I would ever hear it." She listened intently, her grey eyes fixed on him.

"And now you have heard it?" She asked curiously, looking at his bloody chest.

"Yes, as if I've been struck by a great wave. It all came at once, all that she feels, the song is piercingly loud and my heart aches to find her." He touched the place where his heart had opened.

"So you bleed?"

"Only great emotion can pierce a Glandian's skin." He smiled, "a great sorrow and loss breaks the heart, for a Glandian, it literally rips through our hearts and our chest is cut. It heals usually, unless it is the loss of a soul mate or such an evil that it over takes him. My love's soul is in great pain, her heart is breaking." He narrowed his eyes and stared out at the sky.

"What path will you then choose?" Galadriel asked, standing next to him and looking out at the night sky.

"I swore to protect the Fellowship until their quest was finished, I must hold true to that oath." He said, his green eyes changing colors as the emotions washed over him.

"It is within your power to leave, to go and follow the song in your heart." She turned to him and Orpheas felt the temptation she offered. It seemed that in his mind, he could see two paths and she stood between them. One led to the destruction of the ring, following faithfully and leading into a darkness. At the end of the other stood the woman from his dream, glowing and past her, he saw love and happiness. Galadriel offered him both paths, showing it was his choice to make.

"My heart longs to go to her, to see if she too can hear our song, to take away her pain but," he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, "there is no future for us if I do not make sure their mission does not fail." He said firmly and looked at her, his eyes now shining a fiery red with confidence. She smiled at him and nodded.

"You have a strong will, Lord Orpheas. I am honoured to have spoken with you." She said and bowed. Turning, she walked away. Orpheas watched as she disappeared behind a tree. He turned away and stared back up at the sky, wondering where in Middle Earth was his soul mate and wondering what the flag had a meant.

Several days passed, Orpheas withdrew from the company and spent most of his time in a trance like state while the others rested and grieved for Gandalf. They were able to sleep deeper and better than they had since they left Rivendell and even Andrew felt a small bit of peace touch his cursed heart. They didn't know how long they stayed, for the days in Lothlorien blended into one another and time seemed to stand still while the world outside passed them by untouched. Saber was given permission to hunt in the forest and he spent his nights climbing through the trees and hunting. Legolas spent most of his time with the other elves and the hobbits did what hobbits do best: they laid back and relaxed, drank and ate and told stories and poetry. Andreas and Heru tended to stay by them, they liked their attitude of leisure and they passed their time talking about their worlds and the adventures they faced.

"One more story!" Pippin begged when Aragorn had said they should be going to bed.

"Oh common, just one more Aragorn." Merry argued and Aragorn laughed, shaking his head.

"One more."

"Alright," Heru grinned and lit another smoke, sitting up and grabbing their attention. "There was this one time when we saved the world," he said casually and their eyes widened.

"What happened!?" Pippin asked eagerly and the other three nodded, Sam taking a bite of bread anxiously. He was all pumped up with adrenaline from the stories they had already told him about the demons they fought.

"It's really not that interesting," Heru said in a false modest way. Andreas elbowed him and Andrew rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what story he was talking about. Heru jumped up and the others laughed, the hobbits stared riveted.

"Alright so back when we were all in high school, when we were like what? Fifteen, sixteen?" He asked turning to Andrew.

"You and Andreas were sixteen and I was getting my diploma." He said.

"Right ok, so Andrew was just finishing school cus he never did when he was younger and Ammon had him, Saber and Orpheas all enrolled with us. He said Orpheas needed to 'keep an eye on us'. Anyway! So we were all still just a bunch of kids that always got into trouble and that day was no different at first. We were cutting class and Norah, the Slayer, was with us. We were walking through this tunnel cus in our world, Saber can't be in the sunlight so we had to go through the sewers when we saw this thing! It was so ugly, its eyes were red as fire, but there weren't just two! There were six!" Heru's eyes widened, "it was a demon with three heads and its skin was black as the night and it had three fingers on each hand, long claws on each. Now, this wasn't a big deal to us, it looked just like an ugly demon to us and we killed it quickly. But it had this talisman that Norah grabbed cus it looked important. So we headed back to the school cus Araylen, Norah's watcher and Ammon's husband worked there in the library and would wanna see it. We went to him and showed him the golden talisman and he went all Araylen like, getting all freaked out and muttering stuff as he ran about his books. It was now almost dark he had been reading so much, we all got bored and had wandered in and out of the library, getting food and coming back. Finally, after several hours of his muttering and reading he finally said in a typical Araylen way,

'oh dear, that isn't very good at all'" Heru mimicked, putting on a British accent.

"What was it?" Merry asked.

"It was a talisman of a demon that worshipped this god, Ghashna-zag." Heru said, "Who was one of the most ancient gods that lived on the earth before they had been exiled into the hell dimensions. He was one of the most powerful and he was a ruler of a hell dimension. Now this demon we had killed was part of a cult that worshipped this Ghashna guy, but Araylen said that he had thought they had all been killed a century ago when they had tried to bring him back to this world. The watchers council had them destroyed, or at least he thought. This talisman was part of five others that if placed together, would open a portal and bring forth this god.

'What would that mean?' we asked him and he pulled his glasses off and looked at us.

'It would literally mean hell on earth.' Araylen said and explained how Ghashna-zag had been searching for a way back into this world to regain his kingdom for thousands of years but the talismans had been scattered across the world to prevent this from happening for they can't be destroyed. So he set us out on a recon mission to go and find the layer of these demons and try to find out how many of the talismans they had already. Araylen sent Ammon to go to the temples were they were supposed to be hidden and kept safe. We set out and went back the sewers. Andreas, me, Saber and Orpheas went one way while Norah and Andrew went the other way. We walked for hours in that stench but we finally came out to this opening. We could hear ugly voices echoing up through this one tunnel. And thank god for cell phones. We called Andrew and he and Norah came running over. They can both run pretty abnormally fast." He pointed out, "anyway, an hour later we went down the tunnel and it got brighter and brighter. We could see torches and we got down lower and hid behind a bunch of boxes. These two were fighting about something and the one that looked like the leader was shouting about one of his men being killed and now they had lost the last talisman. The last one. They already had four out of the five! We tried to look around to see how many there were. There were about fifty from what we could see so we snuck back out and met Araylen at the house. Ammon had taken the talisman into Mayadar for safe keeping after discovering that the temples had been attacked and the monks that protected them had been killed. We got our weapons and we set out to kill them all. We figured it was only fifty and there were six of us. We didn't think it'd be that big of a fight. Man we were wrong. By the time we got back there, a few hundred had come, at least three hundred demons. They were all different kinds of demons too, even a couple vampires which can only be killed three ways: fire, beheading and a wooden stake through the heart. They all wanted to bring back this horrible god who from what Araylen had said, was a god of fire and liked to trap people's souls in fires that would burn forever, torturing them for all eternity." The hobbits gulped and Boromir narrowed his eyes. Heru had the attention of everyone; even a couple elves had come to join in the story telling a few hours ago and were now listening and gathering others. Heru's eyes were glowing in delight, he was in his element. Somehow, it didn't matter where he went; he always seemed to catch an audience. "We were completely out numbered and I thought we were screwed. I mean, we were a lot younger then, at least Andreas and I and we had only been training for like, two years. We were so out of our league but Andrew," he looked over at Andrew who seemed to slink away, "he seemed to get more excited and he pulled us aside and he and Norah came up with a plan. Saber, Andreas, Norah, and Orpheas would cover the four entrances while Andrew attacked in the center distracting them and I would go and get the four talismans. I wasn't too fond of being the one to have to go and get the stupid things but there was no other choice. If they found the other one, it wouldn't just bring forth their stupid god; it would also bring the hell dimension that he ruled into this one. It would rip apart the veils that separated the worlds and all the demons and prisoners in that world would be set lose on this one." They gasped.

"But you were only six against hundreds!" Cried one of the elves staring at them in amazement.

"Ya but Andrew," Heru grinned and looked proudly at his brother, "Andrew's a secret weapon. I mean, we're all skilled and Norah's the Slayer so she's super strong too, but when you unleash Andrew on a room full of demons, it gets ugly." He grinned. "Drawing his sword Andrew ran into the room screaming," Heru grabbed his sword and held it up, "'I'm gonna kill you all fuckers!' and they all came running at him and at first I was like, oh man this isn't going to work. They came at him like moths to a flame and they piled on him but then he just threw them off him like twigs and started slashing them apart. Some of them tried to run but that's when the others got them, they were all trapped. I managed to avoid it all and get to the altar in time. I grabbed the four and Andrew came over and stood in front of me like a shield. They killed all of them in ten minutes flat." Heru had been swinging his sword acting out Andrew's part and then stabbed it into the ground. "And we were able to stop Ghashna-zag from returning to earth." Heru said proudly and his audience clapped.

"Great warriors you must be in your world." The elf said and stared at them in wonder. "Your kings must be proud of all that you have done to protect them."

"Ha!" Heru laughed and the boys smirked, "nope, they don't know we exist… except when they're trying to arrest us for shit we didn't do. No, our 'kings' don't know what we can do. Demons and all that stuff, that's just superstition in our world, people don't believe in them anymore. It's actually considered a weakness to most people if you believe in a god. I mean some people believe in it, but they don't think it's actually real. And if they knew about us and what we could do…" he looked down.

"They would hunt us all down and lock us up and do tests on us, experiment on us." Saber said with disgust, "if you're not human in our world, you're tested on. You're considered a threat; they can't ever know we exist."

"That's terrible." The elf said in horror.

"Then why do you do it?" Came Boromir's voice.

"What do you mean?" Heru asked, looking at him confused.

"Why protect a world that would sooner lock you up than thank you?" He asked, his eyes glaring at them. "Don't you want the glory of a hero?"

"No," Heru frowned, "I don't know why we do it. We've all seen so much shit and how horrible humanity is and yet, we care. I mean it's our world too. We're not just protecting strangers, we're protecting each other, protecting what we care about and love and there's a balance of good and evil in our world. We need both and we help keep that balance." He explained.

"Then you are even better men than I had first thought." He said and the boys smiled, Heru blushed.

"We haven't always been." He said quietly and sat down, lighting another smoke.

"I think we have had enough stories for tonight," Aragorn said gently and stood up. "We should get some rest, the night is getting late." The elves said goodnight and left, leaving the fellowship to themselves.

"I think I will sleep here tonight," Legolas said gently, smiling at the group.

AN: Please review, won't be posting another chapter for a bit, want to give any readers a chance to catch up. Let me know what you think so far!