Hi everyone! I'm backkkk! Hope you enjoy the little departure from the canon LOTR world. Just thought it'd be cool to mix in other fantasy worlds. :) ~xDare2Writex

Chapter 26

The Unseen Realm

On the other side of the gateway, I landed on solid grass and dirt. I stood with my back towards where I had just come from. Looking down for my pack, I realized I was no longer clothed in my Elvish vestments. Vines erupted from the ground beneath my feet and snaked onto my body.

"hey!" I screamed, alarmed.

Leaves and vines were wrapping themselves around my torso, arms and legs. They glowed a soft red. A minute later, they slunk back into the earth. A fairy armor as light and lithe as petals had enveloped me! It was shining silver, as if the purest silver particles from the earth had come to clothe me.

Yes, I am home. A flash of light behind me interrupted my armor inspection.

The rest of the Fellowship came tumbling through the gateway like dominos. My eyes (with even more sharpness and focus than elf eyes) looked up to see the world of my ancestors before me.

What I saw shattered my heart in pieces. It was a mass graveyard. Fay bodies were littered everywhere, slaughtered to shreds. My kingdom it seems was no more. Damn You! I telepathically shouted to Galadriel, hoping she really could hear me. The Fellowship was as struck by the Wasteland as I was.

"What happened?" Merry said.

Delilah let out a scream. "Ohmygod There's dead people like everywhere!"

"Just like Moria." Gimli said sadly. Aragorn put a hand on his friend to console him.

"No. This can't be." I whispered, not even aware I had fallen to my knees.

"Whoa, that is just nasty." Mark exclaimed, pointing to the twisted corpse of a blonde fairy. Her body was contorted sideways, half-clothed, mouth still screaming. It made me feel sick and I wasn't the only one.

"Bleeecchhh!" Delilah's squeaky voice roared, her dainty head stuck in the bushes.

"Where have you sent us?" Sam asks me worriedly. I had no true answer to give him.

The trees here, the grass were charred black. Soot flew everywhere. The rivers and ponds nearby were soured to a purple color, with Fay corpses floating eerily. "These are burial grounds." Legolas said to eyes scanning the destruction.

"No," I said. "They lay where they fell. This is what's left after…" Then it dawned on me. "Sauraman must have found it. He must have gotten through the gateway."

Boromir snorted. "That's impossible. How could he have known how to open it?" "True, only a Fay can open the gate." Said Lauren. Was I really the only one who thought he was wise enough to know the location and figure out the way? He really wanted to leave no path to Mordor.

"I don't know if he used magic or possibly…bled a Fay." I started walking, fists clenched, sword drawn.

Aragorn sped up to go ahead of me (lest I accidentally be confused for the party's leader gasp) and everyone else followed. Uncertainty. So many bodies. So much pain. I could see how they died just by looking at them. Some were burned, some drowned, many slain by weapons. From all I had read in the Realm book, Fay did not believe in violence and were not trained in combat. Black stains mixed with the red ones. Orcs. Maybe the Urak-hai. Nick stuck closer to me, and it was comforting to have his presence.

We passed the fields of black ashes and smoke, and went deeper amongst the trees for more coverage. Legolas looked alert. "The trees whisper to me. They say they're dying. The land is dying." But he was wrong. The land was already dead and so were my people.

The Fellowship walked along silently and cautiously, they were following me. A pang of guilt struck me. I had led them here to this wasteland. At one time, the clans and lands must have been exquisite and diverse. Now everything looked ashen, gray and burnt. The dead grass changed to barren sands.

"Where are we?" Pippen asks me, as I study The Realm's map. "We must be in the Fire clan territory. See the illustration; it depicted a bustling marketplace full of exotic fay." I point showing him.

Every territory and clan area seemed pretty different. The desert type sands eventually led to windy Mountains to the west and a green (no brown) valley to the east. Because I wasn't sure how the time worked here (would hate to come out the other end and see the world was taken over by Sauron), I tried to follow the most direct path to Queen Celestial's StarBorne Castle. Inside the castle is the only exit out to the Mordor lands, you see.

"Vanessa?" Legolas says to me. "Umm, yes Legolas?" Wondering what he could want to say to me. By now we're very close to the castle. Walking through an open field with forest trees surrounding the sides, the Elvish Prince looks uneasy.

"Vanessa, from all the evidence we've seen, I think we can rule the Urak-Hai out. There's no one trace of their crude armor or weapons around." His logic seemed sound, I agreed. "Yes. It seems-" Before I finished my thought, I saw a row of rustic tree huts by the tall everwoods.

"Waiiiiit Uppp!" Screams my friends as they run after me. I'm running towards these huts like no tomorrow and all I know is I'm filled with anger and tears. There's this one hut on the end that in particular keeps catching my attention. It's more run down than the others, overgrown with ivy.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Aragorn says on my heels. The others are still catching up.

"I, I don't know. This place feels like a dream." I say, touching the doorknob. BOOM. I'm thrown from the door. It was sealed with an enchantment to keep intruders away. Oww, nice.

"Here Vanessa." Nick says, helping me up. "Do you know this place?' He says. He kept talking after that, but my ears stopped working.

I was swept up in a vision; a vision of this being once a childhood home and place of happiness and then unhappiness as an adult. This was where I once lived as the wife to Haldiar. Ugh past lives… why this now? I don't want to remember this stuff… there's way more important things going on than my failed relationship. I decide for right now to just not think about it anymore. "This was once a home of mine. It isn't anymore." Nick wraps his arms around my shoulders. "We'll be leaving soon. It'll be okay I promise."

"Is anyone there?" A timid, small voice calls out on the wind. Everyone turns around. Clutching to a dead tree stump, was a small Fay. She was still alive. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes! Yes Fayeth, are you all well?" Legolas says, crouching down to meet her at eye level.

The sight of her made my heart beat rapidly. She wasn't dead- but she wasn't truly alive either. A gurgle that might have started as a laugh doesn't quite reach through her lips because her throat was torn open.

"I've got the Grey. I know I'm dying. My name is- was, Halenya." She was in bad shape- more zombie corpse than fairy. A quick glance revealed open sores, strange wounds that showed her grey flesh, white hair and thin bones. Her nearly white eyes fixed upon the elf-prince. "You're an elf? You're not supposed to be here. None of you. He'll get mad. And she'll kill you all." Her voice came out in small, ragged breaths.

I crouch next to the poor Fay's head. "Who's "he" Halenya, Sauraman?" More struggled giggles. "No. Draybreon. He knows you're here." Merry and Pip instantly shoot each other clueless, fearful looks.

"Who did this to you?" Lauren asks solemnly.

"Wasn't done to me, it's what happens after seeing such evil. They left me for dead; they knew I would catch Grey sickness, everyone I've ever ared about is long dead. I've been slowly rotting here since the second age. Never thought I'd see a face agai-, again. Thank you." She coughs, and red spittle lands on the dirt. Haleyna seemed to turn her eyes to the whole Fellowship. "she….she hates intermixing. She knows you're here too."

Frodo looks at the Fay with his head titled to the side as if still trying to figure out what she once was. Sam is weeping openly; her plight too much for his big hobbit heart to take. Colyne is staring at her feet while Mark put his arm around his sister. Lauren, surprisingly was just calmly looking at the Fay. That worried me. Shell shock?

Aragorn grimly kneels down and nobly says, "Do you want to find peace?" At this Halenya jerks up, trying to speak."Yes but wait. Starborne is your only hope for escape."

"Sister-Fayeth." She turned towards me, and I try my hardest not to flinch under that pupil-less bony fingers curled around the collar of my armor. She gives it one hard tug.

"Find our Grace... Goodbye." Before I can ask her what she means, Aragorn takes out his whittling knife and stabs her quickly so that she can pass on as painlessly as possible. Legolas looks away, eyes closed, whispering a prayer. Halenya's eyes glaze over as Aragorn closes them reverently.

A soft sigh, and her spirit is gone.