Disclaimer: See Chapter 2
Thank you to all reviewers. The game is afoot and the plot thickens!
Chapter 22 – To sleep, perchance to dream
"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we
don't know how to replenish its source.
it dies of blindness and errors and betrayals.
It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness,
of withering, of tarnishing." – Anais Nin
The Forest of Dean, England, present day.
"This is extraordinary. It's utterly extraordinary. An inter-spatial rift and it's as clear as day. I never thought I would see the day when I would be a witness to something like this." Excitement suffused the voice of Dr Norman, the scientist called in by the Ministry of Defence to investigate the 'Forest of Dean Phenomena' as the Whitehall boffins had started to call it.
He paced up and down in a clearing in the Forest of Dean, stopping every now and again to take some further readings with a device reminiscent of the tricorders from Star Trek. When he stood up he would push his glasses back up his nose, tuck his floppy brown hair behind one ear and study the results in the tiny view screen. His three assistants were scurrying about doing likewise.
Inspector Alun Davis of the Lydney police stood with the General and his Aide de Camp and watched with amusement. He got the distinct impression that the young scientist was on the point of chortling like a gleeful schoolboy over his findings.
"What?" The General turned to his Aide, his voice filled with sharp irritation. "What's he saying?"
The Aide, a Captain from the General's home regiment the Enniskillens, pursed his lips. "He says it's extraordinary sir." He drawled in that supercilious way only scions of the upper class houses of Britain can manage with ease. His nostrils flared with distaste as though consorting with ordinary humans was just far too much for his delicate constitution to tolerate.
The General's grey brows drew together. "Extraordinary?" He asked incredulously. He strode over to where the scientist had been stooping just a couple of minutes earlier and peered at the bushes and trees and eventually he took a step back. "They just look like bushes and trees to me; nothing extraordinary about them. Bloody boffins, they're all alike. There's nothing here. It's a complete waste of time if you ask me." He whistled at Mugger who was exploring a particularly tantalising rabbit hole. "Come on boy, what are you pulling at you silly bloody animal?"
Mugger's teeth had latched firmly onto something and he was busy worrying it out of the hole, so the General bent down and swatted him away. "It'll be some damned picnicker's rubbish Mugs, dirty and nasty, not for little midgets like you." Then he frowned and bent closer.
The dog's persistent digging had revealed something wrapped in green plastic which he had half dragged out of the rabbit hole. The General gingerly lifted it out, but as he did so, the damp plastic tore and something rolled out of the bag at his feet. He bent down and found himself staring into the eyeless sockets and deteriorated face of the unfortunate WO2 Irwin.
The General stood up and took out a handkerchief. He carefully wiped his fingers and then snapped the lead onto Mugger's collar. "Sorry old chap." He said softly. "Can't let you have that." Anyone standing close would have seen the tears and regret that momentarily filled the old man's eyes, but when he finally turned to where Alun Davis and his Aide were standing, there was no sign that the tears had ever been there. He pointed at the object on the ground. "Mugger and I seem to have located WO2 Irwin's head Inspector." He said gruffly.
Davis indicated to one of the policemen who went over with gloves and another baggie to retrieve the missing head. "Well that's one mystery solved." He sighed.
While this was going on the scientists had completed their readings and investigation. As Dr Norman approached the General and his retinue, he found himself facing a stern, uncompromising audience. He cleared his throat nervously and the glasses slid further down the bridge of his nose. Inspector Davis swallowed back a laugh as he saw the General's sharp eyes rivet onto the offending glasses.
"Well?" The General barked. "What have you found? Out with it man."
Norman's earnest blue eyes filled with terror and his Adam's apple bobbed nervously. He cleared his throat again and the glasses slid down to the end of his nose where they balanced precariously on the tip and threatened to fall off, but he seemed too terrified to do anything about it. The General pursed his lips, bent forward and, ever so gently, pushed the glasses back up the young man's nose. One of the younger officers, a Second Lieutenant who had accompanied the General tittered nervously and was rewarded with an icy, paralysing glare as his boss's head turned as swift as a striking snake to look at him. He stopped in mid-titter.
Norman gave Davis an agonised glance, and in spite of the amusement value the whole thing was affording him, the policeman decided to put the poor lad out of his misery.
"What have you got for us Doctor?" He asked kindly and the scientist seemed to melt with relief.
"It's something that we know might happen in theory, but up until now it's only been something that Science Fiction writers have used. It's called an 'inter-spatial rift' or an inter-dimensional portal or gateway." He beamed brightly at the General and his officers and was met with blank expressions all round. His newfound confidence wavered and so did his voice. "An opening between dimensions?" He managed to stutter out before lapsing into an uncomfortable silence.
"Are you asking me or telling me?" The General asked testily. "What are you drivelling on about man? Science fiction, dimensions? Sounds like a load of absolute poppycock to me."
In the face of such utter, blinkered disbelief and open scepticism, the scientist bravely found his voice. "Er…no. It's definitely not poppycock General. As a matter of fact there's a lot about the world and universe around us that we don't know and whilst the idea of an inter-spatial rift seems very far-fetched, the science surrounding the theory is very sound. If you think of time existing in lines rather than something past, present or future and each time line co-existing with the last in succession within its own boundaries, we have something that looks a little like a layer cake and then you should have a general idea of what I'm talking about."
He stopped his rambling lecture and stared hopefully at his audience, whose expressions now ranged from utter disbelief, through utter contempt and back to blank, this being the expression of the young Lieutenant who had giggled earlier. He desperately turned to the only friendly face in the bunch and Alun Davis smiled encouragingly at him.
"Well, anyway. The theory goes that sometimes certain cataclysmic events in any one of the timelines can cause it to accidentally 'bump', for want of a better word, into the next one and then the boundaries meet and push against each other causing a weak point." He pushed his glasses back up his nose and took heart from the fact that nobody had, as yet, tried to shoot him down in flames again.
The General stared thoughtfully at the young scientist. "I see. At least… I think I see. So if each time dimension co-exists with the last, then what you're telling me is that somehow Major Matthews, Sergeant Freeman, Mr Knowles and Constable Moore have encountered this weakness and ended up in another time dimension?"
Norman's head bobbed up and down furiously. "Exactly."
"Which time dimension?"
"I'm sorry?" The scientist looked confused.
"Which time dimension have they crossed into?" The General asked patiently. "Past or future?"
"Ah…I…er…don't know which one." The scientist admitted. "There's no way of telling. They could have landed in the far distant future or the far distant past, but my gut feelings are that they have gone into the past. How long past is debatable, but judging by the weapon left behind by the murderers, I would say some time equivalent to the Iron Age."
The General's brow lifted. "Are you saying that the bastards who murdered my soldiers came from the past and have somehow taken Major Matthews and the others back with them?"
Norman again. "Yes, but not necessarily taken Major Matthews and his group. They may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly found themselves somewhere totally different. It might even have looked similar at first because it's likely that they would arrive at the same spot, just perhaps many thousands of years earlier. Of course the continents of the earth have altered considerably down through the millennia and so has the vegetation, so they could be wandering around totally lost."
The General's austere face blanched. "Dear God, what a dreadful thing to face. My next question is of course…"
"How do we get them back?" The scientist interrupted.
The General nodded and waited expectantly. So did everyone else.
"There is no way we can physically get them back without duplicating the events that led up to the first incursion which would hopefully open the rift again on both sides. And it's highly doubtful we could do it. Even supposing we could, then we wouldn't necessarily step into the same part of the dimension that they did, however they could come back of their own accord and they would step into the correct dimension, i.e. ours, because the rift is actually stable on this side."
The General impaled him on a piercing glare. "You seem to be inferring that the rift thing is still there."
Dr Roger Norman smiled for the first time since launching into his explanation. He beckoned to the General who gave Mugger's lead to his aide and followed him over to a line of trees, interspersed with thorny thickets. Just behind the trees the General could clearly see a wide chasm splitting the ground. The scientist pointed over the chasm at the forest beyond and the General followed his finger, but after studying the area for a few seconds his expression became puzzled.
"What am I looking at?" He asked in bewilderment.
"You're looking into the other time dimension General." Norman said softly. "Let me show you." He lifted the General's hand and gently thrust it forwards. A gasp of astonishment rose from behind them as everyone watched the hand disappear almost to the forearm. The General suddenly gasped with pain; his face went deathly pale and the scientist pulled his arm back quickly. As he did so the General's skin prickled and stung where it had met the rift.
"Surely if I can put my arm through, then we could send someone through?" He asked.
"Not unless you want to lose them permanently." The scientist replied. "The rift is still there to all intents and purposes, but now it's a one way street. It begins here, but it's like a tunnel that crosses over the chasm and into the next dimension and it's getting narrower as time goes on. You felt the pain level rise as your arm penetrated the rift and if you had tried to push through regardless, the resulting pressure would have eventually crushed the bones. Whoever is on the other side can come this way for the time being, but we can't follow them through to where they are."
The General continued to stare over at the other dimension and the more he looked, the more he became aware of a slight haziness that formed a roughly man-sized circle through which he could clearly see the other side. His sharp glance went from the trees he could see within the circle and the trees on either side of it.
"The trees are different inside that circle thing." He said softly.
The scientist beamed and pushed his glasses up his nose again. "Ah yes, I was wondering when you'd notice that. Yes, the trees in the middle of the rift are willows, which are not grown in the Forest of Dean, at least not in this part of the forest, and the others are oak and beech, which do habitually grow here."
The General turned to him. "And you say that something can come through but we can't go the other way?"
The scientist nodded.
"How do you know that?"
"When we first came here at the request of the Ministry of Defence and Forestry Commission this morning, we set up a camp in order to examine and film the area thoroughly. Within the first hour we counted a myriad of small and larger animals coming through the rift to this side unharmed, but when a rabbit went through from our side it staggered back out and keeled over stone dead. We examined it and got a local lab to do a post mortem and the findings show that almost every bone in its body had been crushed. How it managed to come back in that state is anyone's guess. I can show you the footage if you like." He decided not to mention that it had seemed to him and his colleagues that the animals were seeking sanctuary from something. Someone like the General would think that was far too fanciful a notion.
"That won't be necessary." The General smiled grimly and turned to Alun Davis who was standing quietly to one side. "We need to seal off the area immediately and set up a twenty-four hour manned guard post, combined police and military. I don't want anything else coming through. Anything human or vaguely human that is. We also need to examine the small animals that are coming through to make sure they're not bringing anything potentially damaging to our ecology with them. All civilians are to be kept strictly away from the scene." He glanced from Davis to his aide who nodded, opened up his mobile phone and hurriedly started to make a phone call back to Divisional HQ.
Alun Davis nodded and trudged back to the police car where his assistant, Detective Sergeant Tucker waited for him.
"Liase with the Captain over there to seal off the area stipulated by Dr Norman. No civilians are to be allowed through. Also notify the Forestry Commission and the Forest of Dean authorities of what we are doing so that they can post notices making this part of the forest off limits until further notice. We'll supply a couple or three of shifts of policemen; the military will supply the rest. And Tucker…?" The Detective Sergeant raised an eyebrow in query. "They need to be armed."
Tucker nodded and started to talk into his radio.
Within the hour, the Forest of Dean was swarming with armed police officers and soldiers and a crop of tents had mushroomed up around the area. Dr Norman and his team had been instructed to try and find a way that they could perhaps send some sort of probe through the rift with a view to locating Major Matthews and his team, providing that they were in the immediate area of the rift.
An uneasy calm settled over the Forest of Dean and nothing moved within the sealed off area apart from the quiet and orderly changing of the guard shifts and a steady stream of small animals from another age who came through the rift seeking sanctuary and shelter. They were now being captured unharmed as they arrived and taken to a local veterinary facility for examination and treatment if necessary.
Camp of the Host, the Forest of Brethil, Beleriand, First Age
"He is me." Eonwe's voice was little more than an awed whisper. He looked up at Tulcas who was hovering over him, eyes filled with concern. "Does he know?"
Tulcas shook his head. "No. He knows nothing of his past. In order to carry out the command of Eru, his memories were removed and his form made flesh. He…you… cannot shed it, and he will remain that way until his task is complete."
"And what is this task?" Eonwe queried.
Again Tulcas shook his head. "I cannot tell you that. All I can tell you is that at some future time Eru will request that a representative from Aman be sent back to Middle-earth and you will be that person. I do not even know whether you volunteered for it, or whether you were simply commanded by Manwe. Only some things have been revealed by Eru.
"The people with me, do they have some necessary input into this task?"
Tulcas grinned. "They are soldiers under your command, if I understand their purpose correctly."
A swift smile lightened Eonwe's face like a stray ray of sunlight. "I am a soldier then. At least I am doing something I know about in this future Middle-earth." His brows drew together in a slight frown. "What about the woman?"
Eonwe's orderly came in with a tray of food, which he set down on the table and began to uncover the dishes. After he had completed his task, he bowed to both the Herald and the Vala and left as silently as he had entered. Eonwe bent over the dishes and sniffed. "It all smells very nice. What is it in aid of?"
Tulcas settled his large frame into a chair and regarded Eonwe with amusement. "It seems Lady Varda was concerned that you weren't eating properly and decided that you need feeding up." He waved a large hand at the groaning table. "This is the result."
A myriad of expressions crossed Eonwe's handsome face, not least of them bewilderment. "She expects me to eat all of this? Can I not do anything without someone knowing?" He stood up abruptly. "When this body needs relieving of waste products, do they watch to make sure I am doing it correctly and regularly?"
Tulcas registered the frustration and agitation in the Herald's voice. "Peace child. They are only concerned. Manwe and Varda consider both you and Ilmare as their children and they love you dearly. They would never intrude into any personal areas of your life without speaking to you first." He said in a pacifying tone. "Come, sit back down and we will both eat." He selected a plate and started to put things on it. Eonwe sighed deeply and slumped back down in his seat.
"I know they worry about me, but there is no need. Truly. I have just had a great deal on my mind the last few days. Eating seemed of minor importance in comparison with everything that has been happening." He accepted a heaped plate from Tulcas along with a fork and stared at it in bemusement. "Am I to eat this or climb it?"
Tulcas gave a shout of laughter and outside the tent an irritatedhealer dropped a full bag of newly cleansed instruments in the dirt as a result. "Just stop whingeing Eonwe and eat your food."
There was silence for a few moments as Eonwe manfully tackled the mountain of food, and once he started eating, he discovered that he was indeed quite hungry. Tulcas sat back and watched with satisfaction as half the plate was cleared. He himself had absolutely no trouble downing a trough of food in the shortest time possible.
"You are not going to get out of answering my question by filling me with dinner." Eonwe said with a grin. "Tell me of the woman who accompanies me…er…him."
Tulcas sighed. "She is also a soldier under your command." He replied guardedly. Manwe had not forbidden him to speak about the woman called Kim and the budding romance between her and Eonwe's future self, but he felt a sudden reluctance to give Eonwe anything else to worry or think about.
Eonwe's eyebrows climbed up to his hairline. "A female warrior?" He murmured. "Surely the men of the future will not make their women fight?"
"As I understand it, the army is made up out of professional soldiers who volunteer themselves and are paid for the privilege. It is called a standing army, not raked up from everywhere. The woman is as much a warrior and can be called to fight the same as the men." Tulcas said mildly. He speared a particularly luscious, rich looking piece of cheese and broke open a soft bread roll to eat with it.
"Are they lovers?"
Tulcas choked on a massive bite of bread and cheese and Eonwe sat patiently while the Vala composed himself after the coughing fit. A slight smile tugged at the Herald's mouth.
"What in the world possessed you to ask that?" Tulcas finally managed to stutter out.
Eonwe shrugged and grinned smugly. "I know you quite well by now and I sensed you were hiding something from me regarding the woman. Since you have admitted that she is a soldier under my…his…command that can only leave something private between them. What else can it be but of a personal nature, like a desire to bond with each other or perhaps the fact that they already have?"
"Eru's blood." Tulcas shook his head in despair. "You are far too perceptive for your own good. They are not bonded, but he…you…wishes it." He groaned. "You have me confused now. There are complications and I did not want you to worry about them."
Eonwe leaned over with a wicked gleam in his eye. "What manner of complications?"
A distinctly uncomfortable expression crossed over the Vala's face and he shifted in his chair. "Just…complications. She likes you, or rather him, but considers him to be out of her reach. Instead she has concentrated her attention on Melannen."
Eonwe realised that his mouth had dropped open and he shut it with a snap. "Melannen?" His voice had risen a couple of octaves in shock. "Ingwe's Melannen?"
"I know of no other. Very few Elves are called by another's name, it is not customary among them. And as a High King's son, Melannen is quite a catch." Tulcas gaily added fuel to the fire.
"She likes Melannen?" Eonwe repeated dumbly. "If anything he is more out of reach than I am. Elves and mortals do not bond."
Tulcas chuckled. "So what were Beren and Luthien? Valinorean Mist?"
"Well there is them of course, but it is not usual."
"Neither is a human and Maia bonding but your future self seems to be seriously considering it." Tulcas replied calmly.
"How can she choose Melannen over me…er…him? Could we please just decide that he is a separate entity while we are discussing him? I am losing track of who is who." Eonwe asked crossly.
Tulcas clapped a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "Of course we can." He drew up a chair and gazed into Eonwe's dark blue eyes. "You have seen her, have you not? So tell me what she looks like."
Eonwe cast his mind back to the night he and Curunir sneaked up on the mortals. "To be truthful, I couldn't see much of her, what with the bulky clothing and all the dirt. She was of slight build with light coloured hair, possibly light golden, but it was difficult to see under the dirt and grease." His nostrils wrinkled. "She needed a good scrubbing, like all of the Edain I have met so far seem to."
"Did you feel nothing when you looked at her?" Asked Tulcas curiously.
Eonwe shrugged. "Not at that time, but later…"
His voice trailed off and he dropped his gaze, but Tulcas picked up on it immediately. "Later?" He prompted. "What about later?"
"When we…he was fighting, he heard the woman cry out and turned to see. When she fell, such a pain stabbed through him that it caused his attention to wander and…well I explained about that earlier." Eonwe looked down at his lap. "He loves her. He thought she had been killed and a part of him died at the thought of losing her. It was just like…"
"Just like when you lost Arien?"
"I will not speak of that." Eonwe flared. "I cannot speak of it. Not yet."
Tulcas stared at him in pity. "Eonwe, it has been thousands of years, when will you be able to talk about it? Keeping it bottled up inside cannot be helping. You need to get on with your life and stop grieving over her."
"Well my future self certainly seems to have got on with our life." Sarcasm dripped from Eonwe's every word. "Since he is happily contemplating bonding with a mortal woman. So you see. I obviously will get over it eventually and then you can all stop fretting." He stood up and paced around the tent. "How can a future version of me exist in the same time as I do?"
"You can't." Tulcas said candidly. "Only one of you can continue in this time. Eventually, as the distance closes between you one of you will gradually cease to exist."
Eonwe stopped pacing and looked intently at him. "Him or me?"
"Him."
Eonwe sank back down into his chair and leaned forward. "And what of those with him. Will they, will she, remember him and grieve? If they bond then..." He left the awful thought unspoken.
"Will she die from grief?" Tulcas finished the question and then shook his head. "That is not the mortal way. They do not bind themselves to each other in the same way we do, since they do not have eternity. Everything is passionate and short-lived and then they pass beyond the circles of the world. She will not forget, but she will not fade."
"What will happen to the task he has been given?"
Tulcas shrugged. "I do not know, but I do know that it was an important one. Eru will just have to begin it all over again."
A few hours later, when the Vala had gone, Eonwe lay on his cot and tried to rest, but thoughts of his future self, the woman and some unnamed task kept flitting through his mind. He wasn't even aware that his eyelids had fluttered shut and he was no longer awake, but instead wandering through dreams.
It seemed to him that he was in a strange place of hard shiny white surfaces and dimmed lights. Light clatters of sound drifted in and out of his ears accompanied by the muted murmur of voices. He walked along a wide corridor and turned into a small room in which there was only one bed with white pillows and a pale green coverlet. One single small cupboard stood by the bed with a jug of water and a glass on it. He stared around the room with interest. It was pristinely clean and he could smell a strange sharp odour, not unpleasant, but not pretty either.
After a few moments he became aware that he was not alone in the room.A woman was standing by the bed smiling hesitantly at him. He smiled back reassuringly. She wasn't beautiful by any means, but there was a vulnerability about her that made him want to fiercely protect her. He got the impression of a small, slim woman with shoulder length light blonde hairand brown eyes far too large for her small face. Livid bruising marked the smooth pale cheek and he impulsively reached out to gently touch it with his finger.
A small smile lit up her face and she went to catch his finger before it touched her cheek. As her slim fingers curled around his Eonwe felt a shockwave of emotion roil through him. He made as if to grip her hand and pull her to him in an embrace but in an instance she dissipated like smoke in his grasp.
He sat bolt upright on his cot, hand still outstretched to touch her, but instead he was all alone, totally bewildered and utterly bereft.