THE FORGOTTEN
A Dream and a Journey
Disclaimer: I own my fuzzy cat slippers, but I do not own the Lord of the Rings. Nor the Peanuts comics.
Authors note: Henceforth, I am going to put elvish dialogue in italics. That way I don't have to be redundant with a bunch of "he said in elvish"'s. Also, I am either editing or erasing many of the author's notes because they no longer are applicable and you're here for the story. I will however, be using them for any points I deem worth explaining… like at the bottom of this chapter.
It was not long before they left the places protected by King Thranduil's power. The order of riders went as follows, Thinhen, Legolas, Jennifer, and then Ellindë with guards before and after them. It was about mid-morning when they left the left the lands protected by the king. There was nothing to mark it but a cut stone on the side of the road, but Jennifer could feel the difference as clearly as one feels the difference between water and air. The forest immediately turned darker and the air closer. Never before had she felt so unsettled and claustrophobic in the woods.
"We have left the Woodland Realm, haven't we," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes," replied Legolas, his voice only just loud enough to drift back to her ears. "This is why we shall hasten through as quickly as we can."
They rode in silence for some time. The only sounds to be heard were that of the horses' hooves and a light clinking of armor. Occasionally off in the distance one would hear some animal in the brush or a bird or squirrel in the trees, but that was all. No sigh of wind to be heard or felt on the forest floor. Between the still air and the perpetual gloom, Jennifer understood how the dwarves and Bilbo must have felt. At least she had with her sure guides who knew the forest road. She couldn't fathom traveling through here without someone who knew the way through.
After hours of relative quiet from her companions and the incessant rustling in the gloom, Jennifer decided traveling in silence was too much for her over active imagination and asked, "So Ellindë, Thinhen, what do you both do?"
"I am a groom under Brenion," Ellindë answered.
"And I am a soldier," Thinhen added.
"Do you two usually go with Legolas to Rivendell?" Jennifer asked, not really thinking it was a great question, but it was all she could think to ask.
"I have before," Thinhen said.
"I do not usually, but as it is uncertain you shall return with us, I am along to bring Galion back," Ellindë added.
"Either of you married? Children?" she asked.
"I have a wife and two children and four grandchildren," Ellindë answered.
Jennifer turned as best she could and looked at him. "Are you sure? You don't look a day over twenty-five."
"I married young," Ellindë replied, eliciting a chuckle from their traveling companions. Jennifer thought she even heard one or two of the stoic soldiers snort a laugh at that remark.
Jennifer smiled at the joke then asked, "What about you Thinhen?"
"I am married, but unlike Ellindë, I am not impatient, so I have but one child," he replied. This comment seemed to earn a general chuckle as well and Jennifer wondered if this meant he might still have another child or maybe his was still young – whatever that may be for an elf, but she decided not to ask because she couldn't think of good way to word it without sounding awkward or nosy. It wasn't that she was nosy. She didn't want details about Thinhen, per say, but now her mind was generally wondering about what family life and child rearing might look like for elves. She remembered in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings that there was something like two hundred years between the sons of Elrond and Arwen. Maybe Thinhen's oldest was two hundred, but in another two or three centuries he'd have another?
But she let that mystery drop as another query came to mind. "What about you, Legolas? Are you married?"
"No, I am not," came his simple reply.
She almost blurted out, 'why ever not?' but thought better of it. She figured anyone who couldn't manage to garner so much as a school boy crush from one of her peers had no business questioning why someone else didn't get married. She decided to change the subject entirely. "How far do you suppose we've gone?" she asked.
"Nearly five leagues[M1] ," Legolas answered.
"About how many miles is that?" Jennifer asked.
"Fifteen," he answered. "And hopefully by dark we shall have put another ten or more miles behind us.
"Good. The more the better. Your father's neck of the woods is nice and all, but the rest of it gives me the creeps!" she replied. "It's just unnerving in here."
They traveled through the darkling wood all day with barely a stop. The horses seemed as eager as anyone to be out of there and back in more wholesome places. They traveled on until it was almost too dark for Jennifer's tired eyes to see.
"Legolas," she tiredly called out, "is there any remote possibility we shall be stopping for the night?"
"I am sorry Jennifer, but no. We dare not stop until we reach the other side," he apologetically replied.
"How are we going to see though? I remember reading it gets pitch black in here at night. And won't the horses need a rest?" she asked.
"The horses hate it here more than we do. They should not stop for the night if we begged them," Ellindë said. "And these horses are conditioned for long journeys."
"We shall stop now and rest the horses for a little while and eat and light lanterns, then we shall carry on," Legolas added. "When we reach the other side, we shall make camp and rest for an entire day before moving on."
With that, the company halted and as with their other pauses of the day, the guards immediately arranged themselves into a rectangular formation, facing outward, so nothing could approach from any direction without being seen. The riders dismounted and fed and watered the horses as four of the guards set to lighting lanterns. They were strange lanterns, or so Jennifer thought. They were brass and seemed to have little brass shutters on every side that could be opened or closed. On one side the glass was painted red, but on the other four it was clear. Jennifer asked Legolas about it and he told her they had found over the years that if they use a red lantern, they aren't nearly as bothered by moths or bats or other things as they are if they try to use a normal lantern. The creatures didn't seem to be as drawn towards red light.
Once the horses were fed and watered and the lanterns lit, the riders remounted and the guards resumed their marching formation on either side, but this time with two lanterns in the front and two shining out to the sides from the rear. The red light made the forest look strange and Jennifer thought the weird light and shadows were messing with her. She took to just staring straight at Legolas' quiver and doing her best to ignore everything else. Eventually, the lack of sleep from the night before, the adrenaline from being on edge all day, and the simple exhaustion from riding twenty some odd miles that day got the better of her.
"Is it possible to sleep on a horse?" she asked.
"If you are an elf, yes. If you are a human, only if you are very talented," Legolas answered. She gave a tired sigh as she tried forcing herself to stay awake. It wasn't working. "Jennifer, if you are truly that tired, I am sure Ellindë would not mind leading your horse while you ride in front of me again."
She was so tired that she gratefully accepted the offer. She didn't care that she would basically be snuggling with an elf all night. For as much as she had felt awkward and embarrassed by leaning on him a week ago, now she couldn't care less. Exhaustion trumped personal space.
The small procession stopped. Jennifer and Legolas dismounted their horses. Ellindë took the reins of Jennifer's horse and Legolas helped her mount his horse, and then he got on behind her. They started riding again and Jennifer was asleep in less than a minute.
They rode in silence for nearly half an hour. Suddenly she called out in her sleep, "Legolas! Legolas! Where are you?" She sounded distressed. The elves all looked at her, then each other. Was she really talking in her sleep? Ellindë and Thinhen started laughing; they had never heard anyone talk in their sleep before.
"Answer her!" Ellindë whispered. Legolas gave a slight grin and nodded his head.
He bent his head down close to her ear and whispered, "I am right here."
"I can hear you, but I cannot see you," she replied. "Can you see me?"
"I can see you."
"All is black around me! A veil stands between us."
"Then go through it! I am on the other side," he suggested to the sleeper.
"No, I cannot go through it, or past it, or around it. Someone must remove it," the sleeping Jennifer informed.
"Can I remove it?" Legolas asked.
"No, only the winds of Manwë can remove it."
The elves stared each other wide eyed, with big grins on their faces. "Keep going!" Thinhen encouraged.
"Here comes the wind! The veil is gone! I can see you now!" she quietly exclaimed.
"Come here then," Legolas said.
"I am here. I have something I must tell you."
"What is it?" the prince asked.
"I cannot tell you, yet. I cannot tell you here."
"When can you tell me? Where can you tell me?" He was testing to see whether she could keep track of two questions at once.
"I can tell you later on a green hill. I cannot tell you now."
"Why can you not tell me now?" he asked.
"I cannot tell you now because I do not know what I have to tell you."
"Then how do you know that you have something to tell me?" the elf asked.
"I have seen it."
His brows knit together. That didn't really make sense, but she was asleep…
The other two elves were surprised that Legolas could hold her in conversation for so long. They didn't expect her answers to be so coherent, for the most part. They told Legolas to see if he could change the subject. If he could, then it would become truly interesting.
"Do you need anything?" Legolas asked.
"Yes, a fire. It is chilly!" she replied.
"I cannot make a fire here. Would you accept my cloak instead?"
"Yes," the sleeping girl replied. Legolas hadn't really expected that answer. He did not want to try unclasping and taking off his cloak, for fear of waking her, so he simply wrapped her in it with him.
"Thank you!" she sleepily replied. Was she awake?
"You are welcome."
The other elves were very amused with all this.
"Say something else!" one of them whispered.
Legolas bent back down next to her ear and whispered in elvish, "Where are you?"
"The same place you are!" she quietly replied, in elvish. The rest of the conversation was in a mix of common tongue and elvish.
"Where am I?" the elf asked.
"Do you not know? Ithilien!"
"Is anyone here with us?" the prince asked.
"No, why would anyone be? Sauron is gone, his orcs are scattered, and no one needs to patrol this place anymore!"
The elves almost laughed! "She hopes and dreams against all odds doesn't she?" Ellindë said. "Ask what you are doing there."
"What are we doing here?" Legolas asked.
"You invited me here. I thought you knew," she retorted.
"Did I?"
"Yes you did," she calmly replied.
"When?" the prince asked.
"Before the wedding," she said in a matter of fact way.
"Whose?" Legolas asked in surprised tones.
"Aragorn's and Arwen's! Don't be silly!" the sleeper replied.
Legolas spoke to his kinsmen, "Well, she is hopeful! How long have those two been courting? Sixty years?"
A muffled laugh was heard from the other two. Elves for decades had been placing bets on those two.
"What should I say?" Legolas asked.
"Tell her you remembered that you brought her there to do something mundane like make baskets," Ellindë said with a grin.
Legolas bent back down by her ear. "I remember now, I brought you here to make baskets."
"Baskets?" the sleeping girl puzzled. "I do not know how to make baskets!"
"You do not?" he asked with feigned surprise.
"I do not."
"Can you bake bread?" asked the elven prince.
"I never tried. If I were to bake bread, however, I would need an oven. Wouldn't a house be a better place to bake bread than the woods of Ithilien?"
"It would," he admitted to Jennifer. "If you can't bake bread, or make baskets, then I do not remember why we came here."
"I thought elves were not affected by old age or time!" she said.
"No, we are not. Not like that anyway."
"Then why do you not remember why you brought me here?" she asked
"I do not remember why I brought you here, because I did not bring you here. You brought me here," the elf quietly informed.
"How?" she asked with confusion in her voice.
"In your dreams you brought me here," Legolas calmly replied.
"Do not be silly! I cannot bring waking people into dreams," she said.
"You can, and did."
"How?"
"You invited me," Legolas told her. "You called my name, and I answered, and I was in your dream."
Ellindë and Thinhen looked at the two. It was starting to scare them. He was sounding increasingly distant. They were wondering if he wasn't really being pulled into her dream. They had heard rumor of such things happening, but it always seemed like a campfire tale and was always between two powerful elves. Not a human pulling in an elf.
They had been silent for a moment or two. Slowly, they were aware of faint voices behind them. The voices were Jennifer's and Legolas', but they sounded as if they were on the other side of a thick wall.
"Why can't we talk this way in waking?" the girl asked.
"We can. We have," replied the prince.
"No, I mean alone."
"We did, remember our ride to Mirkwood your first day here?"
"No, I mean sitting under a tree like this, speaking on nothing in particular."
"Why do we bother talking if we are talking about nothing in particular?" he asked.
"Something to do," she softly replied. She was sounding more and more drowsy.
"I suppose," the elf replied. Thinhen turned around and saw Legolas' face in the dim red lantern light. It looked like he was struggling with something. In a few moments he added, "Are you comfortable?"
"Yes, quite comfortable. You are a very comfortable person to rest on," she said as if he were a couch.
"Am I really?" he softly whispered. Ellindë and Thinhen thought he was starting to sound tired.
"Yes. You are. It is much nicer to rest on you than to rest on a tree." she sleepily whispered.
"What makes me better than a tree?" he asked. A grin was in his whisper.
"For one thing, you are much softer! For another, you talk back when I speak to you. You are also a good deal warmer than any living tree I have encountered! Trees don't let me borrow their cloaks either. I enjoy your company Legolas, and trees won't put their arms around you when you lean on them," she softly whispered, sounding drowsier by the minute.
"Do you like me?" Legolas whispered, almost sounding incoherent.
"Of course I do! I never said otherwise. I like you very much!" she quietly informed.
The other two elves smiled at each other. This conversation was becoming interesting. Very interesting. They were convinced that she had pulled Legolas into her dream, but how? As far as they knew, she was more mortal than anything else.
"I am going to sleep. Do you mind if I keep leaning on you?" she asked.
"Not at all. Sleep as long as you want," he softly replied to the dreamer.
"If I become too heavy or bothersome just wake me," she said.
"Do not worry; you will not ever be bothersome," his whisper was just above a breath. He sounded very tired himself.
Ellindë and Thinhen just looked at each other. They couldn't believe their ears. Had Legolas been entirely pulled into her dreams? Had she worn him out in her dream? No, it seemed too farfetched. He must have been playing along. With Legolas' words the talking ceased. The little world those two had been in disappeared when Legolas spoke to the other two elves.
"I did not think she would talk that long. Next time, one of you can speak to her in her sleep!"
"Was it that miserable?" Ellindë joked. "You seemed to be enjoying yourself!"
"It is not that it was miserable, it is that it was tiring."
"Tiring? What do you mean?" Thinhen asked.
"I was trying to pull her out of her dreams and give her another one, but she kept pulling me back into hers. When I realized that was not working, I tried seeing if I could manipulate her dreams. That did not work either. It was like her will was stronger than mine," Legolas tiredly replied.
His kinsmen looked at him in disbelief. Though neither of them were skilled with ósanwe, they knew Legolas and his father had some skill in it. Even though they couldn't be sure to what extent their skill went, it was still startling that this human girl should have any ability with it, let alone best anyone who is practiced in it. Ellindë asked Legolas when he started to realize that Jennifer was winning.
"When she invited me to walk through a wooded garden," Legolas calmly replied.
"Wooded garden? Was that where she called you?" Thinhen asked.
"No, that was where we went just before she started talking about nothing in particular."
"We thought that was Ithilien," Ellindë commented.
"No, that wooded garden was where we went just before we went to Ithilien."
"Where all did you go Legolas?" Ellindë asked. This was even more intriguing than what they had heard.
"When she called me, we were in some meadow. Then the wooded garden, then we went to Ithilien. I think. It is hard to say, it all blended together. Now, if you will stop questioning me, I am going to let my mind rest." he said. That meadow seemed very familiar though, now that he thought about it for a moment. It reminded him of the last dream he had of her before he fetched her, but that image clearly came from her mind, not his. Had they shared a dream before? Her account of it did sound similar to his…
The next morning, at dawn where dawn could be seen, Legolas woke up out of the elvish wakeful sleep. Fifteen minutes later, Jennifer's eyes pried open.
"Good morning!" he said to the girl.
"Mornin'. What time is it?" she muttered.
"It is sunrise beyond the borders of Mirkwood," the elf replied.
"How long shall it be until we leave this horrid gloom?" she asked with a yawn. The thickness of the gloom was very nearly suffocating.
"What? Do you not like the dark?" Legolas teased. "I am afraid it shall be sometime tomorrow. We have made good time. When we do, we shall ride until we are a distance from the edge of the forest, and then stop and rest for a day. In the meantime, we shall stop as soon as the darkness lessens and rest for a while and eat before continuing on."
"Oh good! I'm famished," Jennifer said.
They rode on for a little while more as it was still very dark beneath the trees, and Legolas began telling her about her dreams the night before. Her eyes grew wide. She remembered dreaming it, but she had shared it? When she learned that she had pulled Legolas in, she almost fell off the horse. She knew he was in her dream, but she thought as a figment of her imagination, not that he was actually in her dream. What did it mean?
It was concluded that she most likely had elvish blood, high elvish blood. She gave a low whistle and a quiet chuckle. "And I always thought my ancestors were peasants," she said.
Eventually it was light enough beneath the trees for them to stop and put out the lanterns. They stopped right in the middle of the road again and lit a small fire and made a nice little breakfast for everyone. After about two hours everyone seemed to agree it was time to move on and began putting out the fire and making ready to go without a word being said. On they went, but today as they were making excellent time, there was some talking and singing to help the time pass and keep the gloom at bay. Ellindë decided he would take the gentle rise and fall of their road to give her some instructions on how to keep her seat going up or down hill and began periodically critiquing her riding.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully and that night Jennifer once again rode with Legolas so she could sleep a little, but this time passed the night with no dreams. The next day in the late afternoon they found themselves catching a glimpse of light at the end of the dark tunnel of trees. It grew and grew until at last they found themselves out in the wide open air again as the sun began to dip behind the Misty Mountains. They rode on until they were a comfortable distance from the forest and then the whole party stopped and made camp. The armed guards were going to spend the night with the others and then make the journey back to the Woodland Realm the next day.
The first order of business was to light a fire and begin making dinner and to unsaddle and take care of the horses. Thinhen primarily handled the former and Ellindë oversaw the latter as the rest set about rolling out bedrolls and establishing something like a perimeter. This is when Jennifer realized she was about to spend the better part of a month living in the wide open air. She had slept out under the stars before, but she had never done it for three weeks on end. Part of her was excited at the prospect and part of her really wanted a tent. Most of all, she just really hoped it didn't rain. She surveyed their little camp for a minute, trying to figure out where best to put her bedroll before she finally flung it down near the fire and began unrolling it. It seemed rather long, and when she unfolded it she discovered a length of rope had been carefully coiled down the length of the middle along with some tent pegs.
"This is not a bed roll," she said aloud, mostly to herself.
Legolas looked over and said, "No, that is a tarpaulin in case it rains. You can use the rope and pegs to create a shelter. Though, it is better in wide open places if you have some poles or sticks. Come, let us go gather some we can easily carry with us in case it rains between here and the mountains."
Legolas and Jennifer quickly headed back towards the edge of the forest as the sun's final rays painted the trees, each with a knife for cutting wood. It didn't take them long to find a few relatively straight branches they could use. They cut six of them at three different lengths and brought them back to camp. By now Thinhen had a warm and cheery fire going with some little cakes on the fire that reminded Jennifer of Johnny cakes. As they finished he'd say a word Jennifer didn't know and the guards would come up and take them from him and go back to what they were doing, and every so often he would eat one himself or offer it to Ellindë who was lying stretched out on his bedroll. He also had a wide and shallow pot of water going into which he was throwing in root vegetables as he cut them. She could see some green herbs floating around in the pot already and wondered if any meat was going to be involved.
"Prince Legolas, would you mind slicing some salt beef into the pot?" Thinhen asked.
"Not at all," he answered, setting down the staves he and Jennifer had cut. As he began cutting off slices he glanced up at Jennifer and said, "See if you can figure out how to set up the tarpaulin on your own."
"Alright," she said, eyeing the gear. She certainly had experience when it came to setting up tents, but she hadn't quite done anything like this. However, she thought she had a pretty good idea. It didn't take her very long to get it set up as a lean-to sort of thing with one end held up by two of the staves and drawn taught with the other end staked into the ground. "What do you think?" she asked, surveying her work.
"Jennifer, eat this," Thinhen said, holding out one of the cakes to her on wooden spatula. She leaned over and took it thanking him, as Legolas went over to her make-shift shelter and gave it a once over.
"Good work. But what if you should want some privacy?" Legolas asked.
"I'm out of luck," Jennifer said. "And up until ten minutes ago, I thought I was going to be sleeping under the stars for a few weeks, so I'm happy I have this much." She took a bite of the cake. It was a Johnny cake sort of thing. She could have used a little butter and salt on it, but it wasn't bad.
Legolas laughed, "Did you truly think Estelneth would send you off into the wild with three ellyn, that is elven men, and naught but a cloak? Perish the thought! Indeed, she has sent you with every luxury she could contrive. Observe." He began to disassemble her lean-to and reassembled it into a pup-tent with the edges draping down like flaps so she could have full concealment inside.
"Nice," she said appreciatively. "Thank you!"
Legolas gave a nod. "You are quite welcome."
Jennifer threw her gear inside, finding her actual bedroll in the process, and got everything settled and arranged then came out and sat in the grass beside the fire. "Do you need any help, Thinhen?"
He shook his head. "None at the moment. All that is to be done now is to wait and stir. Here, have another," he said, proffering her another cake.
Jennifer thanked him and ate it while just sitting and staring absentmindedly at the blazing colors of the sunset that matched the fire for a good long while as she was tired and a bit sore from so much non-stop riding. She was so lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed that Legolas was now sitting down beside her.
"You look sad," he said.
"Huh? Oh. Everyone always tells me that, but I was just thinking," she answered.
"What were you thinking about?" he asked.
"This and that. Mostly how much has happened over the last week and a half. This time two weeks ago, I was eating dinner with my family and trying to decide if I should start studying for finals yet."
"What are finals?" Legolas asked.
"Final exams. It's the last tests taken at the end of the school year. They're usually pretty important and tend to make up a pretty big chunk of your grade and cover everything you've learned all year. Honestly, I never know how to study for those stupid things. I don't really study for regular tests. I just pay attention in class and take really good notes. Usually I just try to read through my notes for each class once or twice, but honestly – I never make it all the way through."
"Do you do well?" he asked.
"Well, if you mean do I pass? Then yes. I always pass; and usually with a pretty decent grade. But my mom is one of my teachers and she told me before Christmas break if I did as well on the written test as I do when she's quizzing me from the study guide, I would get much better grades. It's frustrating but I've decided I don't really care. If what I'm learning is supposed to help me later in life, then I would much rather understand it thoroughly and get worse grades because I didn't worry about parroting it on paper, than get good grades and not understand what any of it. There are other students doing way better than I am because they can recite answers, but I know full well they don't really understand it. They're just reciting it."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, they told me. I tried studying with them to see if it would help and that's when one of them flat out told me they just memorize stuff for the test and then forget it right after."
"I think you are wise to strive for understanding," Legolas said.
"Thanks," she replied with a half-smile.
"Do you wish you were back in school right now?" he asked.
"To be honest – for as much as I don't mind school, I wouldn't want to miss this evening for the world," she said, looking up at the evening sky. The sun was well behind the mountains now and the last glow of the sunset was darkening into night. The stars were coming out in quiet splendor and Jennifer watched as sparks from the fire flew up to join them.
"It is a glorious evening," Thinhen said, "And dare I say, this shall be a delightful stew."
"Well I am hungry and tired of waiting for it," Ellindë said standing up. He picked up a log from the small pile they had and threw it on with a word Jennifer didn't quite catch, and immediately it caught fire and she could feel more heat being thrown off. "We shall never get anywhere if you are stingy with wood, Thinhen. The forest is right there. We can gather more."
The pot began to boil and half an hour or so later everyone was gathered around the fire and eating and a wineskin was being passed around. In stark contrast to the last couple of days, everyone was merry, even the guards that weren't on watch, and there was much talking and singing. Jennifer loved listening to the elvish voices as she gazed up at the stars. She wasn't terribly good with constellations back home, but she could still tell that the stars here were different. For a long while she gazed at the night sky full of stars in silence as the others carried on.
"Which one is Earendil?" she blurted out.
The conversation quieted as everyone looked up into the night sky. "That one," Legolas said, leaning towards her and pointing.
She followed his finger and asked, "That one? That bright one above the mountain peak there?"
"Yes," he answered.
"How do you know of Earendil?" one of the guards asked.
"She is a good student," Legolas answered. "She listens more than she speaks, which is more than can be said for you, Raithon." This drew a general laugh from the elves, including Raithon, and the conversation moved on to other things.
After a while, Jennifer grew sleepy and quietly slipped away to her little tent and went to sleep. The others quieted their speech and song, but carried on a while more until well after she had begun to dream.
The next morning she awoke after the sun cleared the top of the forest to the sounds and smells of a camp breakfast. She opened her pack and examined it for the first time. Estelneth really did do a thorough job packing for her. Towards the top in a very convenient pocket was a brush and a comb and several coiled ribbons and leather laces of various lengths and colors. In an equally convenient place was a small, round metal jar with lid of the tooth powder mixture she had grown accustomed to over the last week, as well as a bar of soap that resided in a separate metal tin. Jennifer left the rest of it for later and decided the first order of business was brushing her hair. Once brushed, she put it in a long single braid tied off with the same leather lace Estelneth had used the morning she left. For a moment she sat staring down at the tooth powder and soap and concluded any further getting ready required water. She wasn't sure she was ready to leave her tent though. She still felt like a tired mess and she well imagined she was in dire need of a bath. Her consolation though was that everyone else was in the same boat, so to speak, and that the lot of them were all bound to be dreadful looking by Rivendell. Or so she hoped. She had visions of her looking like Pig Pen from the Peanuts comics next to three runway models looking like they were heading to a photo shoot. Suddenly she just wanted to crawl back into her bedroll and hide.
Just then, she heard a familiar voice very close by call her. "Jennifer, the morning passes! Rise and join us before your breakfast grows cold!"
With a supreme effort of will she crawled out of the tent and was greeted by the sight of nine elves all sitting around the fire and looking immaculate, even though some of them had damp hair.
"Good morning," Legolas said cheerfully.
"Mornin'," she mumbled.
"I trust you slept well?"
"Yeah, thanks."
"Thinhen has your breakfast by the fire waiting for you. Afterwards, if you like, there is a little stream just there you can wash in," he said.
Jennifer nodded in reply. She never knew how to respond to those sort of statements. Do you say, 'thanks'? or 'good to know'? or something else? Her mind spiraled deep into the polite language quandary as she sat down to a breakfast that was essentially left overs. This was fine with her though, because Thinhen had contrived to keep it warm all night and it did wonders for the flavor. She sat on the ground and ate in silence as the others talked, finished eating, or generally enjoyed the September sunshine. It was, after all, a very fine day. The morning sky was bright and clear and the air was fresh and cool, though Jennifer could tell it would end up being a pleasantly warm day. She was very glad that they were resting today. Three days and nights on horseback was exhausting, and the horses seemed to agree. They were together over to her left. Two were grazing, one was laying down on the grass and looked for all the world like he was sunning himself, and the other was rolling in the grass, then would get up and pester the one that was lying down, who would either shake his mane at him or give a lazy threatening nip at his friend's ankles, and then go back to either rolling or grazing.
Jennifer finished her breakfast and set her bowl down beside her and laid down and stared up into the endless azure and listened to the others talking. As a courtesy, they were talking almost exclusively in the common tongue. The guards were discussing when they wanted to begin the return trip, Ellindë and Thinhen were talking about how the horses were playing with each other, and Legolas was singing quietly somewhere off to her right.
The guards decided the sooner they got going the better and two of them went over to Legolas to tell him their conclusion and take their leave. In a matter of minutes they were fully assembled and wishing the others all speed and safety on their road and so turned and headed back into the forest, leaving one of the lanterns with the four travelers. Jennifer was a little sad to watch them leave and was glad there were still three others with her. Still, the world suddenly felt much more lonely and huge. Not a farm, not a village, not another traveler as far as she could see. She wondered if this is how Lewis and Clark felt on the edge of the frontier.
In any event, she decided it was high time she wash up. "Legolas, where did you say that stream was again?"
Her query seemed to pull him from his thoughts. He blinked then said, "Oh, it is just down that way. The land dips a little so you cannot see it. Can you hear it though?"
Jennifer stood still and faced that direction. "Oh, yes. I do. It's a quiet little thing. Thank you," she said. Quickly she gathered her things and found Estelneth had sneaked in a smaller, thin towel along with everything else. She rolled up everything she figured she would need in it and headed towards the stream. The land did dip, rather steeply, into what could almost be mistaken for a ditch. The sides were grassy with the odd stone here and there and at the bottom ran a merry little bubbling stream with bed of a rocks and sand. Jennifer turned around and looked back towards camp and reckoned that she was completely out of view of the others. That suited her just fine. She didn't feel like having an audience as she brushed her teeth or did anything else. The little stream was cool, but not too cold so she made the most of it, but quickly.
She returned to camp and sat down again with her back to the fire so her hair would dry faster.
"You look much more awake now," Legolas said.
"That stream would wake anyone up," she said. "That was definitely brisk!"
He gave a chuckle then sat down beside her with a map that he laid down on the grass before her. "As we are going no further today, I thought perhaps now would be a good time to show you where we are and where we are going."
"Yes, please! I was going to ask you before but everything was just so crazy."
"Indeed, so let us address it now. We are here," he said, point to a spot on the map near the forest above the mountains. "We are some miles north of the Carrock. That is where the Beornings live," he said pointing to a place clearly labeled in elvish. "We shall head straight to the river and then follow it down to the Carrock where we will either cross or take a ferry south to the Old Forest Road and take the road most of the way to Imladris."
Jennifer nodded. "Out of curiosity, why don't we just cut across country diagonally to the Carrock, in a straight line?"
"We have not brought much in the way of provisions, so we shall we be fishing as we go. On this side of the river are more farms and grazing and not as much wild game. On the other side of the river and in the mountains the land is less cultivated so we should be able to hunt without a problem," Legolas explained.
"That makes sense," she said. "How long until we reach the river?"
"If we keep a quick pace, we should reach it tomorrow or the day after. Then just a few days traveling down the river, then depending on how things are, we shall then decide to either take a ferry or cross and travel on foot and in a couple more days we shall reach the mountains. The mountain path is tricky though. We can take the road, for the most part, across the mountains, but then when we reach the foothills we must be more careful what paths we take in order to find the valley. But do not fear, I have been to Imladris many times and have not gotten hopelessly lost yet," he said with a smile.
The rest of the day was spent at ease and after an early supper, they all went to bed early, but this time Jennifer insisted she sleep out under the stars because she claimed the cold and daybreak would wake her up much sooner than she awoke that day. Sure enough, she woke only a few minutes after the others in the grey before dawn. Thinhen put out the fire and they ate a quick and cold breakfast then packed up their things and were off before the sun had cleared the top of the forest.
They were able to keep a fairly quick and steady pace all day. Jennifer was growing more comfortable riding and was able to go for longer and longer stretches before needing a break. They reached the river by sundown and made camp then carried on at first light the next day. For the first couple of days heading south the weather was fine, then it rained one day and they decided in order to make sure Jennifer didn't catch a cold, they would simply stop and camp. They found a grove of trees to camp in and arranged the tarpaulin so it was strung between four of the trees and created a canopy big enough for all four of them to lay down comfortably with their gear. Ellindë had with him a second tarpaulin which he put up for the horses, who stood under it patiently waiting for the rain to end. The rain didn't relent until nightfall, so they spent the night there and carried on the next day.
At the Carrock, Legolas spoke to the ferryman who said that conditions were fine, so they hired him to take them all down the river to the port at the Old Forest Road. The rain the other day had apparently been worse in the mountains and the net result of that was that the Anduin was running a little higher and quicker than usual, which was just fine with Jennifer. It had already been over a week on the road and she was beginning to miss little things like chairs and solid walls with roofs. She would have missed having privacy, but as she shared a room and lived in a small house, she was rather used to living with people around every time she turned. As well, the three elven men seemed to be going out of their way to give her whatever privacy and space she might need, which she found rather impressive, given they were traveling in fairly flat, open country. On the other hand though, she was also getting very comfortable being around them. She knew full well she had to rely on them in order to get safely to Rivendell, and though she was picking up or adding to her existing outdoor skills, she knew she would be in a very tough place if she were suddenly without them. She may have only known Legolas two and a half weeks, and Ellindë and Thinhen a week and a half, but spending all day and all night with anyone for that long will start to breed familiarity.
As they traveled by ferry, Jennifer wished she had read more Mark Twain. Watching the swirling water rush by the raft made her feel like a river rat and she found herself wishing she had an old west outfit and a deck of cards. Or at the very least, a straw hat and a harmonica. She had none of those things, however. What she did have was four horses and three elves who seemed to be enjoying the cruise down the Anduin. Particularly Legolas. He seemed more than a little content to spend most of the day sitting on the edge of the raft with a line in the water. In fact, he had done most of the fishing since they had reached the river. Jennifer figured him for an enthusiast on the first night by the river when he pulled out a fishing pole and flat box about ten inches wide and four inches long that was full of fishing lures. It wasn't the fact he had fishing gear though that tipped her off, it was him showing them to her and telling her how he made them and which sorts of fish seemed to prefer which ones. Often while he fished, he invited Jennifer to stay with him and he would teach her elvish or tell her elvish history and lore.
They reached the ferry landing at the Old Forest Road around mid-morning after only one full day and two nights of travel on the river. They disembarked and now made straight for the mountains which had been looming so long on their right.
Riding through the mountains proved to be a bit harder for Jennifer than riding through the forest or down the river had been. The forest and the river's edge, by and large, had been flat and so her having to go bareback hadn't been terribly problematic. Riding through the mountains was a different story. Ellindë would either ride or walk beside her the first few days and give instructions on how to balance riding on an incline or decline. The path they took through generally didn't have many steep angles that they had to climb in, making it easier for Jennifer to stay mounted, but even so, it was different and a bit more difficult. However, on the occasions where the path got steeper she would find herself in danger of losing her seat which made her nervous. The horse was very good at making sure she stayed on, but there were more than a few occasions where they either had to coach her through how to stay mounted, or she had to dismount and walk or ride with the one of the others. The horse and the elves were all patient though, and more than once the elves apologized for there not being a single regular saddle in all of Mirkwood.
Eventually though, they began the descent into what Jennifer could see was a wild hill country. She wondered where Rivendell might be, or if maybe she was looking right at it. The path through the mountains had felt like huge, wide loops as they wound around the mountain sides or through valleys. Descending into the hills though was disorienting because the loops became smaller and sometimes if the hill was extra steep, the path either spiraled down the hill or went in tight zig-zags down the side of it. Again and again Jennifer found herself extremely grateful she was traveling with someone who knew where he was going, because if she had to find it, she was certain she would die in a canyon somewhere hopelessly lost.
When they drew close Legolas said to Jennifer, "Jennifer, Imladris na pella i aman." (Rivendell is beyond the hill.) Almost as soon as he said that she felt something strange, like she had felt when they left the Woodland Realm, but in reverse. And it felt older and stronger, like it went right down into the earth and up past the mountain tops. They reached the top of the hill and found themselves looking down into a valley. There Jennifer saw the Last Homely House East of the Sea. The afternoon sun, and the mid-September air made it look like something out of a painting.
As they rode down into the valley she could hear the elves singing their welcome. The mood was light, the date was now September 20th. They had made excellent time. Jennifer knew that Frodo hadn't left Bag End yet. She realized that she had about thirty five days until the Council of Elrond would begin. She had thirty five days to explore Imladris. A smile crept across her face.
Authors note: Just so you know, for most of the elven names I have been using an elven name generator and have forgotten to jot down what the names mean. Oops! Also, I had to do a lot of digging to figure out how far the Woodland Realm is from Rivendell and at the end of the day, I could only get a ballpark figure. I decided the elves plus Jennifer were going to be making rather decent time and decided three weeks generally fit the number of miles I reckoned they would have to travel. Also, a quick note about how long a league is – that can vary substantially depending on where and when you're talking, not to mention the difference between a nautical league and a terrestrial league. After doing more research and some math on how far Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas may have traveled between Sarn Gebir and Fangorn, I decided that going with a league = 3 miles fit rather well. I'm not saying that's what Tolkien had in mind, I'm saying that seemed like a fairly logical conclusion after doing math and research and, if I'm being honest, multiplying and dividing by 3 is easy and that made figuring all this out easier on me.