Title & Chapter Number The Wayward Wish 8/14
Author(s): - Author's Index
Website: Tortured Scribes
Fandom: Tolkien
RatingNC-17
Disclaimer Thank you J.R.R. for the wonderful playground of Middle Earth. Thank you Peter for the wonderful playground created by your casting department. I don't own any copyrighted material in this fic, I'm just borrowing it and I promise to return it when I'm done. Did I mention I have no money?
Warnings None
Betas Jay Foppins III and Constance Ambrose
Cast Characters for Lord of the Rings, Original Female Character
Timeline Lord of the Rings AU
Spoilers The Two Towers
Summary The realities of being a modern woman zapped back in time to Middle Earth - minus the fluff.
Notes Elvish is Sindarin; If it looks like Tolkien and it sounds like Tolkien, it probably is. He wrote it first, he wrote it best, I'm just repeating it for storytelling purposes and make no claim that I came up with it. Everyone else has done the Modern Female in M.E., so now it's my turn. Hopefully, I've done it with a bit of style and believability.
Chapter Eight: The Fangorn Forest
Gimli soon had a fire burning merrily from the fallen branches left behind by the Riders of the Mark. Heeding Legolas' warning they did not cut any new wood. Gimli settled down for first watch and Jessy joined him. Unable to sleep, even though she was exhausted by the rigors of the last few days.
"I wanted to thank you Gimli for coming to Galadriel's defense."
"I did not do it for your benefit." Gimli said gruffly, eyes scanning the shadows beyond the firelight. "But you are welcome." He turned and smiled at the girl. Despite all his misgivings, he was proud of the way she had held up during their journey. She had grown much in a very short time. "Do you miss your home?" He asked suddenly.
"Yes and no." Jessy paused. "I have no family left and few friends, so I'm used to being on my own. I think it's the simple things that I miss most."
Gimli grunted. "I understand. We are not so different then. But for now, you should get some rest."
Sighing, Jessy rose and walked past Aragorn and Legolas to settle herself on the ground. Gimli's question had made her realize how little she thought of home anymore. Her friends must think that she was dead. They would most likely have mourned her passing and moved on by now. Someone else would be doing her job, for the company would no doubt recover from the fire. Her boss had probably gotten another raise at the expense of someone else's hard work. Truth be told, she didn't think her friends would recognize her now, she hardly recognized herself. As her mind continued to wander sleep claimed her and she was soon snoring lightly.
She was in such a deep sleep that she never heard the commotion that followed not long afterwards. Gimli was watching the fire when an old bent man, leaning on a staff appeared at the edge of the firelight. He started and his movement woke up Legolas and Aragorn. The three warriors jumped up but made no move to advance.
The old man was wrapped in a cloak with a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes. He made no sound or movement but watched the party.
"Would you care to join us by the fire, father?" Aragorn asked before beginning to stride forward. Just like that the man vanished.
"The horses!" Legolas cried but it was too late, the horses were gone.
There was naught else to do but wait the coming of dawn. Aragorn took the next watch followed by Legolas.
In the morning, a booted foot to her backside awakened Jessy. "Get up lazy bones or do you intend to sleep the morning away."
Jessy cracked open one eye to see Aragorn standing above her. She reluctantly got up and stretched trying to relieve the cramped muscles in her back. Pulling her cloak more tightly about her body to ward off the morning chill.
"Good thing we were not attacked last night for you would have slept right through it. As it is, only our horses are missing." Legolas said as he handed her a piece of lembas.
"What happened?" Jessy asked Aragorn pointedly ignoring Legolas.
"It is as he says, a stranger came to the very edge of the campfire. He said nothing and disappeared when Aragorn made to approach him. That is when Legolas noticed the horses were missing." Gimli explained as he stomped his feet in an attempt to warm himself.
Jessy looked back at Legolas, "So much for what they say about Elven hearing."
He ignored the barb and began to search the edge of the campsite for any clues about the old man.
After a search of the burning ground and the battlefield, they had just about given up hope of ever finding the Hobbits. It was during a second walk from their campsite to the burning ground that Aragorn discovered their first bit of good news. He found a mallorn leaf with a few crumbs of lembas left in it. Gimli found a sharp rock near some cut biddings.
They entered the forest, Jessy feeling frustrated because she was of no use. She could not read the signs of the forest and had to have them pointed out to her by Aragorn or Legolas. Finally, near a riverbank Aragorn found the faint impressions of footprints.
"They are too indistinct for me to make out which Hobbit it is. But we at least have track to follow and know that one of them is alive."
They continued to make their way deeper into the forest but Aragorn could not anything among the leaves and he returned back to the bank.
Finally he found a place where the Hobbits had bathed their feet and the area was covered with two distinct sets of prints.
"The good news is that they both seem to be alive and well. But these tracks are two days old."
"We can not search the whole of the forest. I do not think we help them by starving together. And I do not wish to meet up with that old man again." Gimli moaned.
"We are not leaving this forest until we find them or their tracks lead us away from it." Jessy hissed at the Dwarf. "If you want to leave, nothing is stopping you."
"Peace! I only meant to point out that we must hurry if we are to succeed." Gimli said apologetically to her. It was a little out of his nature but his loyalty to Galadriel had extended to her ward, so Jessy was able to speak to Gimli in a manner few others could.
"We will find them and if we can do no more that starve beside them, so be it!" Aragorn said.
They continued on until at last they came to Treebeard's Hill. Aragorn was unable to puzzle out the strange marks that littered the ground and could not find where the Hobbits had left the area on their own two feet.
They stood upon the top of the hill in hopes of discerning a trail to follow but could see nothing but gray barked trees marching off in the distance in all directions.
"Look!" said Legolas.
"Look at what?" asked Gimli frowning at the Elf.
"There in the trees" Legolas said.
"I don't see anything! Is it Merry and Pippin?" Jessy asked excitement causing her voice to rise in volume.
"Hush! Speak more softly!" Legolas said sternly to the others. "Look!
Down in the wood, back in the way that we have just come." He pointed back towards the river. "It is he. Cannot you see him, passing from tree to tree?"
"I see, I see now!" hissed Gimli.
Jessy squinted until she also noticed the bent old man in gray rags flitting from tree to tree towards them.
"I warned you Aragorn." Gimli looked at the Ranger before turning eyes back to the man who was getting closer step by step. Finally, he could stand it no longer. "Your bow, Legolas! Bend it! Get ready! It is Saruman. Do not let him speak, or put a spell upon us! Shoot first!
Both Legolas and Jessy took up their bows but neither was able to notch the arrows they held loosely in their hands. It was if some other will had taken hold of them.
"Why are you waiting? What is the matter with you both?" Gimli hissed at the two archers.
"We may not shoot an old man so, at unawares and unchallenged, whatever fear or doubt be on us." Aragorn said quietly. "Watch and wait!"
Every instinct in Jessy screamed at her to shoot the approaching figure but she could not get her hand to complete the action of notching the arrow.
The old man seemed to speed up then until he stood at the base of the hill. He looked up but they could not see his face for a wide-brimmed hat overshadowed it. At last the old man broke the silence. "Well met indeed, my friends. I wish to speak to you. Will you come down, or shall I come up?" Without waiting for an answer he began to climb the hill.
"Now!" cried Gimli. "Stop him!"
"Did I not say that I wished to speak to you?" said the old man. "Put away your bow, Master Elf! You also, child!"
Both Legolas and Jessy seemed to lose control over their arms. Their bows and arrows fell silently to the grass at their feet, their arms left to dangle motionless at their sides. Beads of sweat glistened Jessy forehead as she struggled to gain control of her limbs.
"And you, Master Dwarf, pray take your hand from your axe-heft, till I am up! You will not need such arguments."
Gimli started to move and then became like stone unable to do more than stare as the old man deftly finished climbing the stone steps to the top to the hill.
He finally stood within only a few feet of them and he addressed them once again. "Well met, I say again! And what may you be doing in these parts? An Elf, a Man, a girl-child, and a Dwarf, all clad in Elvish fashion. One even bearing the mark of the Golden Wood about her brow. No doubt there is a tale worth hearing behind it all. Such things are not often seen here."
"You speak as one that knows Fangorn well," said Aragorn. "Is that so?"
"Not well," said the old man. "That would be the study of many lives. But I come here now and again."
"Might we know your name, and hear what it is that you have to say to us?" Aragorn asked politely. "The morning passes, and we have an errand that will not wait."
"As for what I wished to say, I have said it. What may you be doing, and what tale can you tell of yourselves? As for my name!" He laughed long and softly at that.
Aragorn felt a strange chill run down his back having nothing to do with fear.
"My name!" said the old man again. "Have you not guessed it already? You have heard it before, I think. Yes, you have heard it before. But come now, what of your tale?"
The four companions stood silently before the old man, unwilling to tell him anything.
"There are some who would begin to doubt whether your errand is fit to tell," said the old man. "Happily I know something of it. You are tracking the footsteps of two young Hobbits, I believe. Yes, Hobbits. Don't stare, as if you had never heard the strange name before. You have, and so have I. Well, they climbed up here the day before yesterday; and they met someone that they did not expect. Does that comfort you? And now you would like to know where they were taken? Well, well, maybe I can give you some news about that. But why are we standing? Your errand, you see, is no longer as urgent as you thought. Let us sit down and be more at ease."
The old man moved towards a pile of stones and sat down upon them. Whatever had still the movements of the four companions was removed and they were able to move once again. Immediately Gimli drew his axe, Aragorn his sword, and both Legolas and Jessy retrieved their bows.
The old man seemed not to care and continued to settle himself on the rock. It was then that his gray cloak part and they glimpsed the white robe beneath.
"Saruman!" Gimli cried and leapt towards him, axe in hand. "Speak! Tell us where you have hidden our friends! What have you done with them? Speak, or I will make a dint in your hat that even a wizard will find it hard to deal with!"
The old man sprang quickly to his feet and then leapt to the top of a large rock. He stood their towering over them, having tossed aside the cloak and hat; his white garments gleamed in the sunlight.
At the last second, Legolas turned his bow up, shooting an arrow high into the air before it disappeared in a burst of flame. The others where unable to move.
"Mithrandir! Legolas cried with joy.
"Well met, I say to you again. Legolas!"
They all stared in shock at him for his hair was as white as newly fallen snow. Finally Aragorn seemed to find his voice, "Gandalf! Beyond all hope you return to us in our need! What veil was over my sight?"
Gimli said nothing but sank to his knees.
"Gandalf, " the old man repeated, as if recalling from old memory a long disused word. "Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf." He stepped from the rock and picked up the gray cloak, wrapping it around himself once again.
"Yes, you may call me Gandalf, " he said in the voice that was the voice of their old friend and guide. "Get up, my good Gimli! No blame to you, and no harm done to me. Indeed my friends, none of you has any weapon that could hurt me. Be merry! We meet again. At the turn of the tide. The great storm is coming, but the tide has turned."
Gimli laughed suddenly, "Gandalf! But you are all in white!"
"Yes, I am in white now. Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been. But come now, tell me of yourselves! I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see. Tell me of yourselves!"
They sat about the ground around his feet and Aragorn told them of all that had passed since the bridge. Then talked turned to Sauron and Saruman and the gathering darkness. He told them about the Ents that even now were turning towards Isengard. Then he told them of what befell him after his fall into shadow. Then as the morning wore on, he gave to them messages from Galadriel.
To Aragorn:
Where now are the Dúnedain, Elessar, Elessar? Why do thy kinsfolk wander afar? Near is the hour when the Lost should come forth, And the Grey Company ride from the North. But dark is the path appointed for thee: The Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.
For Legolas she sent this word:
Legolas Greenleaf long under tree In joy thou hast lived. Beware the Sea! If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore, Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more. But even in this tiding take heed, From the Sea you can be freed. Look to the joy you have buried deep, Though many sorrows you will yet reap!
For Gimli her words were more kind:
To Gimli son of Glóin, Lockbearer, wherever thou goest my thoughts goes with thee, But have a care to lay thine axe to the right tree!
And finally to her ward, this cryptic riddle:
Far you have come and far you must go, Peace is fleeting in the Hobbit's hole. When sorrow has ripped apart your heart, Remember upon your forehead, you bear our mark!
Then Gandalf looked to Aragorn with a look of seriousness. "The quest of your companions is over. Your next journey is marked by your given word. Yu must go to Edoras and seek out Théoden in his hall. For you are needed."
"No!" Jessy interrupted the wizard. "We have to find Merry and Pippin! They may need our help!"
"Nay, child," Gandalf shook his head. "Your place is with Aragorn for
it is he who Galadriel has given your care over too. She bide me to remind you that until such time as it safe, you are to obey him."
"I AM NOT A CHILD!" Jessy raged. "I refuse to be treat as one any longer."
Gandalf raised himself up until he towered over her. "You will do well to heed my words, girl. I, for one, would not disobey Galadriel. She can be a powerful enemy if crossed. Merry and Pippin are well and you will see them again soon."
Jessy wisely held her tongue but her thoughts could be read plainly on her face.
With that, Gandalf whistled and three horses appeared before them, two of which were familiar to the companions. Jessy once again rode behind Aragorn but this time Gimli rode before Gandalf. And so they began their journey to Théoden's Hall.
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