Shadows of Light
By Aria Breuer
Disclaimers: All material from The Lord of the Rings book trilogy belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien. All material, style, and plotline from the 2011 live-action film "Red Riding Hood" belongs to Catherine Hardwicke. All original material, including the story plot and OC(s), belongs to the author of this fan fiction story.
Full Summary: Three months before his journey to the Grey Havens, Frodo Baggins is reunited with Lydia Maether, the hobbit werewolf and tween – now a woman – from his past. However, with Lydia's family searching for her, as well as Sam and Rosie unable to find any means of trusting the strange woman, Frodo and Lydia are left with fewer choices than they had when they were tweens. Can Lydia come to a compromise with her family? Will Sam and Rosie discover what Lydia really is, and separate the two lovers? Or will Lydia decide to bite Frodo by the next blood moon? This is the sequel to Shades of Grey. Written in 2011. Repost.
First off, this sequel wasn't finally realized until ValueMyHeart reviewed Shades of Grey and told me her ideas. I should also inform you, the readers, since werewolves were bred first by Morgoth and then Sauron, as is told in a reference book on Middle-earth, then that means they are cursed and are supposed to be evil, no matter whether they are innocent or not. So, this is not following the Twilight Saga history, but the film's style "Red Riding Hood". Also, that means whether Lydia Maether, my OC, can be trusted this time around will be something we'll have to wait and see. I also did not come up with the title; the title for this sequel was thought up by ValueMyHeart, but it works all the same.
Silver Nocturne, One-Shot
March of the year 3019, in the Third Age of Middle-earth, was dwindling fast. Evenings were stretching across the southeast, barely showing any hint of a silvery moonlight. Only on nights when the moon lit the night sky were Lydia and her family able to transform into wolves, before the silvery moonlight vanished behind another thick cloud bank. Lydia chose her livestock well when she hunted with her family; however, she noticed for a long time her parents growing wary of her actions. Her brother and sister managed their first hunts for human flesh and blood in a fortnight. She knew there would come a time when her parents and two siblings would ask her to catch her first human prey. She didn't expect it to come during the War of the Ring.
On the very eve of the Orc attack at the ruined city of Osgiliath, near the Pelennor Fields and the white city Minas Tirith, Lydia and her family reached the battlefield by nightfall. Right away, Lydia smelt a foul odor rising in the air. She knew that reeking smell came from Mordor Orcs. Then another smell, more distant, reached her nostrils. The scent smelt familiar to her, as if from a time long since past, when she was in her mid-tweens and had met a full-bred hobbit for the first time. She knew who he was, for she had heard rumors of a Ring-bearer being accompanied by a Fellowship of men to Mordor, Sauron's homeland, but she never expected that Ring-bearer would be him…
"Lydia, pay attention!" barked her father, drawing Lydia's gaze back to the ruined city, which now appeared overrun by the Orcs from Mordor. Paying no heed to the Orcs, Baldur instructed his eldest daughter, "Now, when in battle, it is crucial that you go after the weakest kill, or else the Orcs will take you down first. Then you should… where do you think you're running? You will not betray me, like your brother nearly did."
Lydia smelt the air again. "You don't smell that?"
"Who Lydia?" asked Baldur, sniffing the air but looking at her with a confused expression.
"It's him. Frodo," announced Lydia, cautiously. "I should leave before he discovers us…"
"Lydia, if you leave the pack, you will not be allowed to return," said Cordula, protesting freely. "Please daughter, my dear one. Do not leave us."
"You all aren't going to follow me?" asked Lydia, worriedly.
"There are better things for a werewolf to do than help humans and humanoids. It is how we are bred, not because of our choices. If you leave, you will find it difficult to find us, unless you are ready to kill or change someone with a single bite," admitted Bettina, slyly.
"Do you fancy Mr. Baggins, Lydia?" asked Baldur, curiously.
Lydia attempted to lie, but failed, "No… maybe I had… some feelings towards him, but that was years ago. Times have changed." She admitted, "I just don't want you to hurt anyone important."
"So you wouldn't mind it if we attacked those hobbits, you consider friends, and take the One Ring back to Sauron?" asked Baldur.
"Where is your heart, Papa?" Lydia paused, and then said sharply, "If you attack the Hobbits, I will attack you first. Consider this our war Papa, Mama, Bettina, Edwin, but I will not betray Frodo. You have my word."
Lydia fled from her family's sight, as Baldur said to the air, "You will return to us one day, Lydia Maether. Until you do, we will wait." He and the other family members then attacked the Orcs and Men on sight at Osgiliath.
The Shire returned to full bloom in the spring of the year 3020 TA. In that season, the hobbits Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton wedded on May 1st, and then came to live with Frodo Baggins at Bag End. Days followed before Frodo experienced a number of vivid dreams. Weeks soon turned into months and the dreams became more lifelike, as if they were leading him somewhere or telling him that he would meet someone from his past. The same tween he met five years after Bilbo left the Shire for Rivendell, who appeared as a woman with dark curly hair, brown eyes, and wearing a dress in the deepest shades of grey, seemed to show up at the end of the dreams, which seemed to be repeating the same scenarios.
In the mid-week of June of the year 3021 TA, two years after the destruction of the One Ring, Frodo awoke from another vivid dream about the hobbit woman, turned werewolf by the full moon. After he dressed, Frodo entered the dining room, where he found his gardener and best friend Sam holding his three-month-old daughter Elanor. He sat down at the table as soon as Rosie entered the room, from the kitchen, carrying another dish filled with warm food. Once everyone was seated, they ate breakfast in silence.
Throughout the meal, memories of his few meetings with the Maether family returned to Frodo's thoughts. Eventually, when these few memories of when he was a tween flashed clearly through his mind, Frodo stood up and left the dining room table before Sam could say two words to him. Before Sam could reach his bedroom, Frodo closed the door sharply after him. Minutes seemed to pass, with no break in the silence that now entered the room. The moment he sat down on the bed, weariness took over, allowing him to enter another darkened dream in a forest.
o-o-o
When he at last came to, Frodo walked out of the bedroom and entered the parlour, where he looked out the window and saw the sunset was already across the horizon. A long moment passed before Frodo saw Sam approach the window's wooden ledge.
In concern, Sam asked his master, "Mr. Frodo, are you all right?"
Frodo started, "Sam, I –" He was cut off by a loud rustling sound that came from the ferns and bushes, just outside the smial, which was followed by three knocks on the front door.
Aloud, Sam shouted, "Who is it?"
"It's Lydia Maether! Can I come in? I need to speak with Mr. Baggins! Please?" Lydia cried on the other side of the door.
Sam grabbed Frodo's arm, as he warned, "Wait… this could be a trap."
"Sam," said Frodo, sharply. "Let me speak to her. I'll see what she wants."
Sam sighed in regret. "All right, but don't invite her to stay here. I don't trust her."
Frodo replied, softly, "I will be careful, Sam." His voice dropped as he approached the front door and opened it to reveal Lydia, as a hobbit woman, standing on the stone platform outside the dwelling. Frodo looked back at Sam as he fled down the entrance hall, before turning the corner and entering the next hallway.
Shortly after Frodo invited Lydia inside his smial, Lydia spoke long and hard throughout the night about her betrayal to her family. Though the debate between Lydia and Frodo did not last long, Frodo agreed, with some regret, to let Lydia stay at Bag End until she could find a way to deal with her family issues, or figure out how to compromise with her parents and siblings. Even as Lydia entered the hallway with Frodo, she caught Sam's suspicious gaze, but said nothing to him in return as Sam's master showed Lydia the guest room, which was right across from Sam and Rosie's bedroom.