The camp of Ereinion Gil-galad, somewhere in the boonies of Beleriand - a reflective interlude

"A penny for your thoughts."

Eonwe had been so locked away in his thoughts that he jumped a little when Jim sat down beside him. He smiled at the young police officer. "I am not sure they are worth as much as that." He said tiredly.

"Well no need to ask what you're thinking about." Jim reached out with a stick and poked the slumbering fire into sparks of life. The sudden flare of warmth lit Eonwe's face up and Jim could see the worry etched into it. "If I was worried about anything, my old desk sergeant used to ask, if you can't do anything about something, what do you do?"

A ghost of a smile passed across Eonwe's lips. "And what do you do?" He asked softly.

"You do nothing, because there isn't anything you can do and there's no use fretting about it."

Eonwe laughed softly. "Your desk sergeant was a wise man." He watched the flames flickering and wondered whether Kim was also watching flames and fearing for her life. A stab of deep pain hit him square in the chest at the thought of her being hurt or killed and his child destroyed, followed by a surge of white hot rage.

Jim saw his companion's eyes light up with anger, but wisely said nothing to fuel it. "You should try and get some sleep Gary . Tomorrow is another day and you don't know what news the scouts will bring back."

"You appear so calm." Eonwe said quietly. "Yet you and Kim seemed to have struck up a friendship."

Jim drew some meaningless squiggles in the dirt near the fire with his forefinger. "Are you asking whether I am concerned or worried? If so, then the answer is yes, but I've been on a few cases where children or adults have been missing during my short career as a policeman. At first you worry for the person. You hang on every single bit of news that comes in to the point of obsession. Every day that passes is one day off someone's life, or so you feel. Then you hit the worst part when days have passed and there's nothing. That's when you assume that whoever it is has to be dead. The profiling people say that there is a system to count the chances of somebody surviving a kidnapping based on whether or not the kidnapper has made a demand for payment. If he or she has, then the longer the negotiations last, the longer the victim is likely to survive." He shrugged. "Not every kidnapper takes their victims for money though. Sometimes, and often in the case of children, molestation is the primary objective, in which case usually the child is already dead by the time the disappearance has been noted by the parents or carers. Somewhere along the line you develop a 'where there's life and no evidence of death, there's hope' philosophy. You have to otherwise you go insane."

Eonwe realised that by telling him all of this, Jim was trying to rationalise his own feelings on the matter and that alone told him that Jim was very worried for Kim indeed. More worried than he would have been in his ordinary life in the future. Kim had not been kidnapped by someone bent on extorting large sums of money, nor had she been taken by some serial killer. Something very, very different had her, something not very human at all, with no consideration for life in any form, including its own kind. Orcs were driven by their impulses; hunt, eat, take pleasure and kill.

A niggling feeling in his mind told him that the Orc would probably keep Kim alive, for the time being anyway. She was his bargaining chip, but for what purpose?

Perhaps she's bait. Gary's thoughts sounded in the back of Eonwe's mind.

But for what? Queried the Herald. There is no way he could know of her importance to you and I and it is doubtful he would know about the child.

I'm not so sure. Gary responded. He was obviously watching us and hanging about for some reason, if it was just about the weapons he would have hotfooted it straight to Thangorodrim for his reward. I don't believe he knows about the baby, but if he did, it would just be another bargaining chip. I think he's trying to draw you out, away from the main part of the Host; or rather someone is trying to draw you out, because I truly don't think that he has that level of intelligence.

Morgoth? Eonwe queried. I doubt that he would go to that trouble since he knows that he and I will eventually face one another anyway. He knows he will survive since I have no authority to condemn him to death and insufficient power to kill him. He only has two courses open to him. He either prevails against the Host and shadow will completely cover Arda Marred or we will prevail and capture him.

Well the way I see it. Gary mused. Whoever it is wants you to push on to Thangorodrim now, and to be honest, with the amount of small skirmishing groups and the larger battle groups he has at his disposal all around this area at the moment, going straight up to take him on would mean that you avoid most of them to get there and then they bite you right in the ass when you least expect it. The main thing that you have going for you right now is time; time to sweep the area clean and leave yourself a clear face to face battlefield. Because once you get there, you need it to be just you and him because he's going to throw whatever big guns he has at his disposal at you. You can't afford to be attacked from the rear as well.

"I'm sorry Gary; I probably just bored you to tears." Jim 's voice interposed into Eonwe's silent conversation with Gary . He stood up and pressed the Herald's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"No, no Jim. I appreciate that you took the time to talk to me." Eonwe caught at his arm and tried to reassure him. "I had turned inward and was not giving the real situation the consideration I needed to give it. I am in your debt, I assure you. I hope you feel that you can always talk to me."

In the moment that Eonwe touched him, Jim had an epiphany. The feeling that Gary 's speech had altered, that his whole demeanour had begun to change returned to him a thousand-fold and he knew without a doubt that this was not Gary he was talking to. A million little things suddenly became crystal clear. Gary 's quiet talks with the Chief, the fact that they had become closeted with each other a lot more afterwards and the deference of many of the Elves. It was clear that the Chief and the Elves had also guessed. Not to mention the transformation in battle than Gary had undergone and the physical changes which were manifesting themselves in front of him.

This was not Gary , or, it was the new and improved version of Gary ; and he also now fully understood why Kim had been so wigged out by everything.

"You're not Gary are you?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. "You're something else entirely."

Eonwe stood up calmly and faced the young copper over the fire. "Would there be any point in trying to argue with you?" He asked ruefully. He began to allow the full ambience of his Maia being suffuse him until he appeared as he looked to the Elves and those of the Blessed Realm.

The High King, Celeborn and the other Elves who were awake did not miss the transformation and drew closer to the tableaux being played out near the camp-fire although they didn't interfere. Rion and Noruthalion rose up from where they were sitting awaiting their watch with glad smiles on their faces as their Lord and Commander finally revealed himself.

"Who are you?" Jim whispered. Gary 's face was so bright he could hardly bear to look at him in the eye.

"I am the Maia Eonwe, Herald of Manwe, Lord of the Breath and Air of all Arda and the Elder King of all Arda. I am also the Captain and Commander of the Host of the Valar." Eonwe said quietly. "But in your time I am Major Gary Matthews of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and hold the position of Adjutant to my present unit of which Kim Freeman is a serving Senior Rank and Chief Knowles is the Chief Clerk of the unit."

Jim was stunned, so stunned that he had to sit down. "But how?" He stuttered. "I mean you're over there leading the Host and you're here as well? How can there be two versions of you?"

Eonwe sensed Gary 's breathless silence in the back of his mind and gave a hollow laugh. "There cannot of course. Eventually my future self, Gary and I will merge back into one person. Morgoth has created something called a temporal causality which has resulted in our two timelines meeting. At the point of them meeting, my future self and the rest of you were pulled into this timeline. It is Lord Manwe's and my belief that this was triggered off by Morgoth's Orc raiding party coming too close to the rift in time caused by his meddling. They were pulled through; as you were into a sort of No-man's Land between the two timelines and in their wanderings they happened across a group of modern soldiers on a training course in the Forest of Dean . The rest of that, you know about. They saw the weapons in use. Morgoth saw this through their eyes and wanted the weapons to use against the Host, so he ordered Thadak the Orc who has the weapons and who…" He stumbled a little on this, but recovered himself quickly. "…who has Kim to bring them to him. However Thadak and the others must have seen Kim and wanted her for pleasure. So they hunted her rather than kill her along with the other soldiers. Since then she has somehow become part of the bargaining chip Morgoth is using to get Thadak to bring the weapons to him."

"You and Gary are switching bodies back and forth because the closer you are in proximity, the less are the differences between you." Said Jim softly. "That's why Kim was so confused, why she isn't sure of your feelings towards her. It was you with her the other night. You felt guilty because of Gary and left her."

Eonwe nodded and swallowed past a huge lump that had appeared in his throat. "Yes…" He whispered. "And it was the stupidest thing I could have done. I should have stayed with her and now I have lost her." He sank back down, buried his face in his hands and wept.

At this point Gil-galad stepped from the shadows into the firelight. He gently laid a comforting hand on Eonwe's shoulder and smiled at Jim . "Well now you all know everything I have known from almost the beginning. However my main concern at the moment is why Lord Eonwe has not gone back to his rightful place at the head of the Host yet."

Eonwe collected himself and looked up at the High King. "I believe that Gary and I can answer that." He said quietly. "We believe that this is Eru's doing; a means of protecting me from myself if you will. I will not deceive you. Kim and I have bonded with each other, but I am sure you will have understood this from the other evening. She, however, is unaware of the importance of the link that has been created, but as you will appreciate her welfare is of paramount importance to me. Morgoth also knows this now, as does, we believe, the Orc we are chasing down. We also believe that he has taken Kim in addition to the modern weapons in order to force my hand in the hopes that I will lead the Host on an abortive early strike against Thangorodrim but for what reason we do not know. Although Gary and I are theoretically one and the same person, we are still separate enough that my action in bonding with her has not affected him, apart from making him very irritated with me." He gave a wry grin and a ripple of laughter spread around those listening. "Because he is not as emotionally affected at present he is less likely to allow himself to be drawn into leading the Host north before we have routed all of Morgoth's perimeter troops and skirmishing parties. I am here so that, with your help, I can catch up with Thadak before he gets much further north and when I do he will suffer greatly. Gary will continue to lead the Host in my absence with the help of Lord Tulcas and the commanders of the Noldorin and Vanyarin armies. This will also serve to keep us apart until I have retrieved the weaponry."

Cirdan stepped forward and held his hand out to Eonwe, who took it in both of his. "Welcome to our merry little band Lord Eonwe. We may not be able to offer you the comforts befitting the Herald of Manwe, but we will help you get those weapons and get your lady back to you."

Eonwe let fly with one of his devastating smiles, which had the usual effect on all and sundry, except perhaps Jim who was still standing on the other side of the camp fire with a bewildered and rather dazed look on his face.

You need to talk to him. Gary urged. He won't know how to react to you now.Reassure him that he isn't on his own.

"Jim..." Eonwe held out his hands to the policeman and desperately sought the words that would reassure the young man that he was no different to the man Jim had accepted as one of his companions. It struck Eonwe that Gary was right, Jim had to feel alone and abandoned at this moment. Kim was wherever the orc was taking her, Chief Knowles was with Celebrimbor and the Naugrim trying to craft ammunition and Gary himself was leagues away with the armies of the West. Eonwe was simply all Jim had of his world to hang onto.

Jim stared at the Maia for a long moment. He looked like Gary, he even managed to act like Gary most of the time. In this world of dramatically ever-changing circumstances Jim badly wanted to believe that he, Gary, Kim and the Chief would get back safely to their own world and their own time, but the events of the past twenty four hours had rocked his solid belief that all was going to be well. Now he was beginning to understand that there was a distinct possibility that none of them might get back home; that he might never see his mum, dad or his grandma again. In fact Kim could possibly be dead even now. Being alone in a world that wasn't his was a thought he didn't want to give countenance to at all. It was all just too much.

"I just want to go home. I miss my mum and dad." He finally said in a miserable little voice and his tears overflowed.

There. It had finally spilled out. Jim, who had held it together, hacked and slashed his way through orcs by Gary's side and who had strived to keep his own and everyone else's spirit up during their trials was having his moment of weakness and it wasn't only Eonwe's heart that went out to him. However before anyone else could say or do anything to comfort him, Eonwe had crossed the short distance between them, pulled him into a tight embrace and held him as he clutched onto the Herald and hiccuped and sobbed into Gary's combat jacket.

After a few moments of this touching emotional outburst it began to dawn on Eonwe that Jim was actually holding him in a death grip and his air supply was beginning to dwindle. Not to mention the front of his jacket was soggy with tears and snot. He vainly tried to loosen the the young policeman's grip to no avail and eventually managed to gasp out. "Uh...Jim? Oxygen... becoming... a huge issue here."

Jim blushed bright red and let him go. "Sorry mate." He said apologetically. "Dunno what came over me. I made a bit of a mess on your combat jacket as well."

He took off his bandanna and handed it to Eonwe who dabbed gingerly at the large shiny wet patch, but instead of saying what he intended to say, which was something like "'it doesn't matter Jim, it will soon dry", what actually came out courtesy of Gary inside Eonwe's head was something quite different. It did however break whatever tension had existed between them prior to that point.

"Urggh...ewww Jim! You put snot all over my jacket. You twat. That's fucking disgusting." Eonwe flushed with embarrassment and clapped a hand over his mouth, but it was far too late. The damage was done.

Jim grinned smugly at Eonwe. "That'll fucking teach you to switch bodies on me you bastard!"

Despite being shocked at what he'd inadvertently blurted out, Eonwe let out a snort of amusement at the wicked note in Jim's voice and the next they knew they were both whooping and hooting with uncontrollable laughter.

The astonished Elves, who hadn't really understood a word of what had just passed between the Herald and Jim were treated to the spectacle of both of them falling about and totally cracking up, but it did bring smiles to quite a few faces in the camp.

"They're obviously quite mad, both of them." Celeborn remarked dryly. "Are we absolutely sure we want an insane Maia along with us on this venture?"

The High King chuckled. "Wasn't meeting up with Eonwe what we intended all along?" He asked innocently. "He had to be a little insane to come here and take Morgoth on in the first place."

They were interrupted by Erestor and two of the scouts riding back into camp which brought the hilarity to an abrupt end. He dismounted and handed his horse over to one of the guard, then he approached Gil-galad and bowed to him. "Mae govannen Hir nin."

"Well met Master Erestor, what news?" Asked the High King.

"We found sign, half a league north of here."

Eonwe stepped forward eagerly. "And Kim? Is there any sign of her?"

Erestor shook his head and Eonwe's heart sank. "I am not sure Garee. It is difficult to tell since he has left the road to cross open country on a direct route north to Thangorodrim. The ground is rocky and we found no definite tracks." He spoke slowly so that Jim could pick up on what was being said.

"Then how do you know it's him?" Jim asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

Erestor dropped some three rounds of unspent ammunition into Eonwe's palm.

"They must have worked loose from the magazine." Eonwe looked up at Erestor who had a faint smile on his lips. "There is more?"

Erestor nodded. "There is. The orc is wounded. There are no footprints and very few other tracks, but he is leaving a trail of blood that a child could follow. We found the broken shaft of an arrow among the bushes. An Elven arrow but we could see no one in pursuit of him."

Celeborn started forward eagerly. "Then we have him!"

Gil-galad nodded at Glorfindel who immediately gave orders to break camp. An hour later they were off in pursuit of Thadak and the weapons.

ooOoo