Arthur and Terra led the way into the cafeteria, with the rest of their motley group trailing along behind with varying expressions of curiosity, incredulity, and suspicion. Not knowing where they would find Ilene's roommate, they decided to simply walk to the large table in the back corner where they had last all sat together.
At the table, they found the strangest possible collection of visitors.
"Adam?" Terra asked, shocked at all over brownish colored friend, "I thought you were protesting in Brazil."
"I had my passport revoked," he replied in a soft, nervous voice, "They thought I was trying to smuggle drugs."
While this was going on, Trista was rushing to the side of her eleven year old nephew, calling, "Ethan, what are you doing here? Is my sister around?"
"No," the fair skinned boy replied, "We who are here have something to tell you."
Ryan rushed to the side of his sister and her boyfriend, recently turned fiancé, "Riley, Oscar, shouldn't you be at home, or your own school, or planning your wedding, or somewhere else?"
His long haired sister replied, "We've come here to do something much more important."
Meanwhile, Jenny, Corey, and Megan all asked at once, "Melody?" then stared at each with great surprise.
"Sorry I had to surprise all three of you like this, but it was what needed to be done," the beautiful Melody replied.
"Ok," Arthur interrupted all the mini-conversations going on around him, "So, there's Ilene's roommate, and here's all of your friends that you've ever known. Is this all just to be the oddest reunion ever, or do we have some kind of purpose?"
At this point, Megan spoke up, "I'm really sorry that T isn't here for this meeting himself, but circumstances arose and we needed to change the plan. If you'll all just sit down and make yourself comfortable, Lewis, myself, and everybody else here will try to explain as best as we can."
After a brief awkward moment where everybody found a chair, Lewis started speaking, "As I'm sure you're all aware, Ilene and Zephyr were kidnapped last weekend, we have great suspicions that all of you will also be kidnapped."
Megan continued, "Because you are all so much more than ordinary college students, we needed to get you away from where you could be found. Thanksgiving break is coming up next week, and we need you to come with us for safety."
"What do you mean 'You are all so much more than ordinary college students'?" Vanessa asked.
"For that, we will have to let your friends and the friends of your new acquaintances explain," Lewis said.
Trista's eleven year old nephew, Ethan, was the first to speak, "Trista," he said, "I'm not actually your nephew. I'm also not eleven years old."
Ryan's sister Riley chimed in, "None of us and none of you are what you appear to be. That is why we were all able to escape our obligations and duties that we should have right now."
Melody said, "We really can't tell you who you or we actually are because you'd never believe us."
"But what you do know," said Adam, Terra's beige friend, "Is that, though we make strange claims, you absolutely have to trust us."
Lewis finished off, "Please come with us. It will definitely save you, could possibly save us, and just might save everything else."
Arthur and Terra looked at each other, knowing that they both managed to fill what seemed to be a leaderless void and that their decision would probably speak for the whole group. Arthur dipped his chin in the slight way Terra had come to know meant that he would do whatever possible to know the truth.
In unison they said, "We will go with you."
The rest of the table quickly nodded their heads in assent.
In their eyes was the obvious gleam brought on only by the desire for adventure.
On their way off the college grounds to all the cars Ilmare, Eonwe, and the other maiar were able to round up, Imare said, "That was far too easy."
"You're overthinking it," Eonwe said, "They've all spent their entire lives with a gut feeling that something was just not quite right, and we helped to nudge them towards it."
"Besides," Olorin, still in the form of an eleven year old added, "I started them off on the biggest possible news of all. That made them much more susceptible to anything else anyone else might say."
"And three people who had never met each other before in their lives just discovered that they all knew me. I'm sure that helped," Melian said.
Aiwendil said nothing. He hardly ever did, so Ilmare felt all right when she finished the conversation, "I still never feel quite right when anything happens with so little trouble."
Dividing the valar up into all the cars had been easy. So had the four hour drive to the log cabin way out in the woods, isolated from civilization.
Rooming accommodations hadn't been.
All of the maiar had made the mistake of forgetting that those valar who had been married to each other long ago had only truly met in this memory last week, and all the valar couldn't understand why their friends couldn't figure out where to put them. Not that they knew anything about being of the valar.
"Ok, look," Megan was saying, "Trista and Ryan can have their own rooms, which we labeled, we don't know where Vanessa is going to sleep, and everybody else has to share."
"Why is it that only Trista and Ryan get their own rooms? Why would you think anybody else would actually want to share a room that badly? Who would I share a room with? Where are you people even going to sleep?" Helen asked.
"Well, we assumed you would share a room with Dustin," Oscar said, "And we-"
"Why on Earth would I share a room with a boy I've only met a week ago? What kind of girl do you think I am? I-"
"And why is it that you don't know where I'm sleeping?" Vanessa butted in, "Can't somebody else sleep on the couch, or does it have to be me?"
"Look, I'm sure we'll get this all figured out," Adam said, "For now, why don't we please try not to shout?"
"This is all you own fault for choosing to get to know somebody of the opposite gender best," Terra said, "Arthur and I ended up as a small group together, and I will be fine sharing a room with him, as I know him best."
Arthur turned a shade of red that rivaled the red of his hair and mumbled something about his opinion, which nobody heard except Ryan, who laughed at it.
"You, Ryan, have no right to laugh when you get a room all to yourself," Penny said.
"No, it's just that he said something funny," Ryan defended himself, "And I had as little choice in the matter as you."
"And so, you are angered by not having a sleeping partner?" Jojo asked.
The angry bickering quickly degenerated into louder, angrier bickering, during which it was somehow settled that everybody would keep their original rooming arrangements, provided that Riley and Oscar would hang a curtain up through the middle of every room, expect Terra and Arthur's, who just didn't seem to care if they roomed together at all. In exchange for having their own rooms, Ryan and Trista would have the last bathroom time, and Vanessa got the pick of either of the two couches or the outside hammock and also the first bathroom time. She picked the outside hammock, which Lewis promised to build a fire near every night.
When they finally had a moment to rest, Eonwe said to Ilmare, "See what you did with your doubting? You caused this problem."
Though she could see the laughter in his eyes, Ilmare said, "That I did."
Olorin collapsed next to them on the couch, "At least we foiled the spying that I had noticed over the past week."
"Thuringwethil's gone?" asked Aiwendil.
"I haven't seen her since we got into this forest."
"Good. She scares my rabbits."
All the other maiar rolled their eyes and laughed a bit at Aiwendil.
After four days of sharing a room with Arthur, Terra knew him better than she thought possible, and after the fifth day of waking up to randomly loud snore he always had at two-thirty in the morning, a name sprang up in her mind.
Aule.
That was the name. Aule.
This was her Aule.
She smiled fondly, and when they woke up, both she and Aule rembered, if not everything about their past, then at least their names and what they meant to each other.
"Yavanna."
"Aule."
Only valar could have hugged each other that hard and lived to tell of it without bruising.
I started writing this chapter an hour and a half ago, and then I got into the writing mood and finished it. It's also just a bit shorter than the previous chapters, which did make finishing it a bit easier.
I also think it's funnier. Do you think it's funnier? (just curious)
So I'm going to use these names for the maiar for the entire story. If you want the be refreshed on who Olorin is of whatever, drag out your old copy of the Silmarilion or look them up on .com.
Also, remember that chart I suggested way back in the fourth (or so) chapter? Here's where it comes in handy. If there is any interest in the chart I have made for myself, I will convert the current one (I update it every chapter to keep track of characterizations) to a pdf and put a link to it in the note for the next chapter.
Also, Radagast. I made fun of him here. Interestingly enough, I have a friend who has beige skin, beige eyes, and beige hair. I based Radagast's coloration on him.
In case you're wondering what happened to my laptop this time (because something always happens), the fan broke. It only just got fixed today, which was why I started the chapter today.
Disclaimer: Funny how these things work, but I don't own the Silmarilion. Wow. Shocker.
I really need to learn how to write shorter Author's Notes.