Title & Chapter Number: Border Crosser 15/?
Author(s): - Author's Index
Website: Moviecostumes.com
Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of J R R Tolkien, the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Enterprises. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warnings: Graphic het sex, violence, angst, character death. I am not responsible for any injuries that might occur while jumping from various old trees.
Betas: Zee, Lenara, SoErl.
Cast: OCF, Haldir, Galadriel, Celeborn... well, and almost anyone else you could imagine when thinking about `Lord of the Rings'.
Timeline: AU
Spoilers: None
Summary: If there was a passage to Middle Earth from our world, what would you expect to find? or: Tolkien invented Middle Earth - didn't he?
Notes: My OFC(s) are mine; the Elves that Tolkien invented (he did, didn't he?) are not mine (what a pity!). A special "thank you" to the Kronos Quartet / Clint Mansell / Fatboy Robert s for the "Requiem Overture", giving me (and brought me through) several dar k nights when writing this. Thanks to Xavier Naidoo and Rufus Wainwright for their music that inspired me. Thanks to the Goddess for letting me find peace and inspiration. And thanks to my ever-curious and inspiring beta readers, pushing me forward on each chapter.
Dedication: This one is for the two only real Elves on earth; To the Silver One: You will always have a special place in my heart and memories; to the Golden One: You are a legend, a saint and the only true heir of Gil-Galad I know. Let's burn them down! :-)
* SPECIAL WARNING: There are real people avatars innocently depicted in this fic. They belong solely to themselves, no harm became of them and no offence is intended. It is just my way to pay the tribute to these real people, for without them, we would not have words and images of the wonderful Elves in our heads. This is posted with the List Mum's approval.
(Sindarin translations at the end of the chapter.)
Chapter 15 - Back to Middle Earth
The alarm clock woke me from my dreams. Midnight. At the same time, I heard the knock on the door. I opened for Chris, dressed quickly, took my backpack and we left the hotel, hurrying for the Golf Club.
We had to search a little until we found the clearing with the old tree again, but after about an hour, we finally stood there.
"And now what?" asked Chris, "Will we wait for lightning or what?"
I chose to ignore her question.
"Put on your Elven dress!"
"What? The Elven dress? Are you crazy? I cannot climb with that Elven-"
"Well, then climb first, and then put on the dress. We need to take these backpacks with us, anyway."
"Why the heck do you want me to put on an Elven dress just to climb on a tree? You need a doctor, Dana, really, seriously."
I was already about to put on mine; as I found the climbing easy. "You will see as soon as we both have climbed on that tree, and jumped down on the side. If nothing happened, you can still put me under control of a doctor, alright?" "Well.. uhm... OK... I guess I have nothing to lose."
She still shook her head; but she could see from my face that I was really serious.
I climbed first and took the backpacks up. Then she climbed.
"I shall dress up? Here? On a tree? Dana, this is ridiculous!"
"Chris, dress up. Trust me. Just this little once more. Trust me." She gave up and changed her clothing.
"And now?"
"Take your backpack on the back and do what I do!"
I took my backpack and got ready to jump.
"You have to jump off this side of the tree - not the other. You will probably not see me landing, in fact, you will not even see fall all the way down - I guess I will just disappear. If you don't dare to jump after me, you will have to wait about 15 minutes until I come back. Oh, and please - wait some minutes until you jump after me; I think two minutes should be enough." and I prepared myself mentally to get away from the landing zone quickly, knowing that the different time would let her arrive in less than seconds.
"I will jump after you, silly woman," she grumbled, "and may the Valar protect you when I land and hit you!"
"You may crush me if I have not told the truth", I said, smiling, and jumped.
Light flashing. Back in the sun of Middle Earth.
"You needed long," grinned Haldir, offering his hand, and the emptiness in my head was gone.
I rolled quickly from the landing zone. "She's coming," I yelled excited, "she promised to jump behind me!"
A loud "bump" behind me indicated that she really dared to jump. She collected herself; looking around with eyes full of wonder. "Where the hell am-"
She saw the three brothers. And her eyes filled with tears, seeing their beauty.
"My God - Dana - you told me - and I didn't - I couldn't -"
"It's OK, Chris," I assured and took her in my arms. "I didn't believe it the first time I landed here as well." I patted her on the back. "Now dry your tears; may I introduce you to three wonderful gentlemen..."
She looked at them in disbelief; and I snickered; as I knew that I had looked a the three for the first time the same way.
"This is Orophin, a wonderful masterpiece of nature artwork; this is Rúmil; for himself also a wonderful piece of natures artwork - and not to forget Haldir, the most arrogant Elf in the woods and greatest piece of natures artwork - as long as you do not know that he has hidden some humor deep inside of him, and, of course, have never met Lord Celeborn before."
She even brought out a shy "Mae Govannen," which was still more than I could say when I saw them first.
The three greeted her the Elven way, hands on their hearts.
p I picked up one of these big mallorn leaves. "Look, a mallorn leaf. Bigger and a little different from the illustrations, eh?"
She stared at it, in disbelief, again. "The velvet leaf? From the fossils? - Dana, how is it possible? How can this be? I..."
"Oh," I said, "just wait and see. There are more surprises to come..."
Haldir pulled me aside, for a moment, when Chris was still about to wonder about the leaf, and shyly watching the Elves. " Anann gen úgennin," I took the advantage of showing him what Chris had taught to me some time ago and what I had forced her to refresh when we walked to the Golf Club.
His eyes opened in surprise, and he smiled. "Pedich Edhellen?"
"Not too much," I whispered to him, "but I promise to keep practicing on it."
On our march to Caras Galadhon I told her about the worlds, the weight, the time and the space. I told her about the Border Crossers; and their limit of crossing; also about the big passage that was gone.
All the time, she had these tears in her eyes; but when it came to the limited crossings, she started to cry again. "Why do you cry?"
"Don't you know what you have given to me here? This is where I wanted to be all of my life; and you gave it to me - and gave one of your crossings to me. You have no idea what that means to me. This could for sure only be beaten by bringing me to Rivendell, or right into the arms of Legolas."
"Oh Chris, this is not such a big deal," I said, "I am planning not to cross the border too often, so I thought you should be a part of it; that's all. Plus," I added, "I would not have found the passage if you would not have insisted on taking me with you on your Tolkien trip, right?"
I told her about Tolkien and Jackson. She grinned, laughed, shook her head.
The brothers had to leave us at the borders of the town; they had to go back to the woods, awaiting the arrival of the Fellowship. I knew why they had to go; Chris did not yet know; as I had not told her what was yet to come.
I was so happy to see Haldir again, and sad that I would have to let him go for almost two days, but satisfied to be able to feel him back in my head. I took the clasp from my backpack, and pinned it carefully to his cloak.
He smiled. "I was sick when you were gone," he said
"And so was I," I answered.
His brothers called for him, it was time for him to go. He released the clasp again, carefully pinning it to my gown. "Hebo anim, Melamin," he said. I smiled, just understanding half of what he said, but it obviously made him happy to talk to me in his own language; and I liked this language, at it sounded more like singing than speaking.
Chris and I walked on, just a mile more to go.
At that moment, Haldir's words entered my mind, and even if he was not in sight any more, I could clearly understand him.
[Just a warning, Melamin,] he brought to my thoughts, [when we return... with the Fellowship... keep away from Legolas, and also tell your friend to do so.]
I imagined that exactly *this* would become quite difficult, as Chris loved Legolas.
[Jealous, my dearest Warden?] I thought back.
[No, not jealous... trust me... keep away from him; he is not what he seems to be.]
I made a silly face. Legolas is not what he seems to be? We will see, I thought, but did not focus on him.
We entered Caras Galadhon and Chris became very, very silent, when she saw all the beautiful Elves in the city. I watched her closely; she seemed to want to take all the music in the air, all the scents and sound of the town in the woods with her. And suddenly, I felt very, very sorry for her.
"Chris?"
"Yes?"
"You only have seven days with me here and now, and afterwards, we will have to go back if we find no replacement for you. You may come back to me for more crossings, if we find a solution for some... problems, but you don't have a lifetime here. You remember that?" "Yes," she nodded sadly.
"OK, I just wanted to keep that in your mind."
Suddenly, she had a strange look on her face, which changed into disbelief.
I knew that kind of look, I once had it myself, lying in a bed, staring at an Elvish woman reading a book...
"Had a daydream, Chris?" I asked. She looked at me, stunned.
"There was... I don't know... Daydream? ...maybe..." She bit her lip.
"You have just been greeted by the Lady of Light," I said to her, "consider this to be normal; I, too, thought that I was hallucinating when I saw this for the first time."
I lead her up these endless staircases, to the treetops.
When she saw Galadriel for the first time, she fell on her knees, overwhelmed of her beauty and presence; just as I was when I saw her the first time.
She offered her hand to her, offering her to get up. "I am pleased to meet you, Chris," she smiled, and she still caught not only Chris, but also me with that smile.
I saw Chris standing there, jaw dropped, and I guessed that she would not utter a single word to the Lady. Instead, she surprised obviously not only me, but also Galadriel by starting a quite fluent conversation in Elvish.
"Suilannon agen, hiril nin. Glassen gen cened," she said, and again, I did barely understand a word.
The Lady smiled, took her in her arms and embraced her. This time, *my* jaw dropped. I think I'm losing my mind, I thought, I'm feeling sick and want to go home. That woman is crazy, totally crazy.
I mean, seriously - how many people do *you* know in our world who could start a fluent conversation in Sindarin...?
"I thank you for your words, Chris; but also think of your friend who does not understand what you say." She was obviously reading my thoughts, again.
"So... so it is really true?" Chris said, still not believing; and I snickered, remembering my own feelings when I first saw the Lady. "Yes, it is true," the Lady confirmed.
[Lord Celeborn and Peter are waiting for you in the library, Dana... Please leave Chris here with me, I will show her around and we will come to you later...,] I sensed her thoughts delving towards me.
[As you wish, my lady...,] I replied to her.
[And, Dana,] she added, [I would like to have a little conversation with you later, as well... Concerning that clasp you are wearing, and especially its owner...]
I blushed to dark red color, quickly turned, grabbed my backpack and walked to the library.
The Lord and Peter were already sitting there, waiting for me. "Mae govannen," I greeted them both, slowly getting used to the Elvish words.
"Dana, nice to see you again. Did you bring my phial back?" The Lord seemed very concerned about his phial.
"Yes," I grabbed into my backpack, "here it is." He carefully took the glass, examining it. "It is wonderful that you thought of it," he said.
"Did you have the content tested?" Peter asked.
"Yes, I did... and we received some very interesting results...," I said, and started lecturing on mallorn trees, fungicides, air and drugs for about an hour.
After I finished, Peter and the Lord looked at each other, surprised. "Why didn't I have this idea earlier," Peter said, "I am feeling a strange kind of homesickness each time I return, for some hours, but it is not my home I am sick for... it is this place...."
"I have discovered the same when I returned...," I said, surprised.
"And me too."
A quiet voice came from a dark corner of the library, surprising me, as I did not know that there was anyone else around than the Elflord and the director who also seemed to be surprised. The shadow got from his chair, stepping into the light slowly.
A young man, more boy than man, dressed in an old fashioned suit, stepped into the light. I held my breath, knowing exactly who this was.
I closed my eyes in disbelief; Peter had jumped up from his chair by then, with a pale face.
In the light of the room, we saw him, still young, still looking toward his tasks of life before him.
The young Englishman was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
Peter turned to the Elflord. "Why didn't you tell me that he was also here?"
The young man se
emed lost, shy, and careful in any move he made. I couldn't help walking over to him, looking into his eyes, just grabbing his hand and saying "I am very honored to meet you, John Tolkien. You probably do not yet know or can imagine, but you will change and affect many lives in our world."
He looked puzzled.
Peter hurried over, obviously wanting to take the chance to greet the author, no matter if young or old, as well; but... "A pleasure, Mr. Tolkien... a pleasure, indeed."
The young man looked as if he would like to be anywhere instead of in this library with two obviously insane, older people, who almost fought for shaking his hand.
"I have no idea who you both are, or how you got to know my name, but I am certain of two things. First, I would like to know who you are, and next, I would like to know why you are so honored to shake my hand? I am just an English schoolboy, who - to be admitted - found an entrance to a very, very interesting world...," he said, slowly, with a wonderful english accent.
Peter and I stared at each other. He did not know it!
"I am Dana Michaels, and one day, dearest John," I spoke slowly, letting him know about the importance of my words by taking a deep breath, "one day you will be important to him; this is Peter Jackson, by the way," I pointed at Peter, "me," I pointed at myself, "and approximately a billion other people in our world, `just' because you have discovered that entrance and will be able to be a storyteller. You will see, you will find out."
I thought that this was enough to tell him; I did not want to alter his destiny. What would happen if he, after all, would decide that it would be no good to write his books? Then the world would end up in a paradoxum, and I would not even be here.
He laughed. "Me, a storyteller? I have problems in writing my homework, how can I be a storyteller?"
"You will be, believe me. You will be one of the greatest storytellers that our world ever has seen," Peter tried to encourage him.
The young man seemed to think about that carefully for some time. "A storyteller... I don't know; maybe... It's a neat idea."
OK, at least he did not laugh about it any more; he even considered it to be a neat idea, and that was not bad for a start.
The Elflord cleared his throat. "Could we please return to the subject?"
We sat down again, John placed his chair nearer to us so that he could take part in our conversation.
"I guess it could be a good idea to talk about the big passage that once existed," Peter said, "My Lord, do you have any idea why it collapsed?"
"No," he said, quickly, hasty - a little too quick and hasty, for my taste.
[Are you sure about this?] I repeated my question privately and stared into his eyes that carried the wisdom of ages. He did not look at me when I heard his answer.
[I know you and your clasp-owner have a problem, Dana; and I know we will have to find a solution.... But I am not willing to discuss this in front of other Border Crossers...]
He turned from the shelf he had just searched through.
"I guess we all need some time to think about what Dana told us today. Besides it is almost dinner time and I am hungry, so I should release you all for today. Let us meet on an evening soon."
He bowed and guided Peter and me through the door, John remained in the library and was obviously searching through the books.
There I stood, in the warm evening air of Caras Galadhon, and stared at the moon that was just about to rise.
"It is never that clear in our world, isn't it?" I heard Peter say and found him standing next to me gazing at the stars in the same way.
"No, it seems as someone has taken away the fog."
Sudden laughter came from the gardens. We looked over and saw Chris and the Lady Galadriel coming our way.
"Your visitor?" Peter asked.
"Yes," I nodded, "she's that special person."
"Dana," Lady Galadriel said, "you were right, she is really special, and it was a wonderful idea to bring her to us. Chris, this is Peter, and Peter, this is Chris," she introduced them both to each other. I saw the sparkling in Chris' eyes, I had never before seen her so happy as on that first evening in Lothlorien.
"Let me find out about the person that was worth one Border Crossers' trip," he said, "will you have dinner with me?"
And Chris and Peter were gone. There I was, alone with the Lady Galadriel, and I knew what was to come.
"Will you walk some minutes with me, Dana? We have to talk. I wish I could put this off to a later point of time, with the Fellowship coming to us, but it cannot wait." She took my hand and we walked slowly to the gardens.
"My lady," I tried to find some words to start with, "I know that the situation is difficult, and that..."
"Difficult?" She interrupted me, looking into my eyes with the most arrogant look that I had ever seen from any Elf. "I heard that humans often underestimate problems, but `difficult' is an interesting definition for the problems that you have caused."
I swallowed. What did she expect from me?
"Are you aware," she went on with her speech, "that you have probably changed the future of Middle Earth?"
"Maybe it will be a better future," I dared to say.
She remained silent for some time. "When did you expect to tell me, anyway?"
"Uhm... well... Haldir said that it would be a good idea to... well, maybe wait until the Fellowship has left?"
She shook her head. "Our March Warden is always so cautious. But you as well as him will certainly understand that I always know what is happening in my woods the moment that it actually happens. I am VERY angry about not being informed at all, and if Uruviel would not have thought about a certain cloth lying on the floor of your room this morning when I accidentally was about to catch her thoughts, then..."
I cannot believe this, I thought.
"Accidentally caught her thoughts? I do not really believe this, my lady. I don't think that you have `accidentally' caught the thoughts of your handmaiden. I would believe and accept that you were curious without daring to ask her, but I do not believe that `catching thoughts' is something that could happen to you accidentally."
She looked at me in a strange kind of way, I could not determine if she would laugh or either beat me down with some kind of strange Elven magic. Finally, after endless seconds, she smiled.
"I must admit that I was curious, yes. I also have to confess that I had some strange kind of feeling that night, that I have not felt for a very long time and which I only sense if an Elf binds himself to someone else. And I wanted to know what was going on."
"And now, that you know, what will you do? Separate us? Kill me? Let us live? Send me back?" Any possibility that came to my mind went into this sentence, but surprisingly, none of my suggestions was taken seriously.
"I would not want to loose Haldir," she said while taking a place on a bench, carefully patting the place next to her, inviting me to sit down, "he is our March Warden, and he is a good one. However, we do not have too much time to decide what we could do. Tell me, was he in control?"
"What?" I doubted my ears. She cannot really ask about such-
"Are you with child?"
I sighed. "He says I am not."
"So then he still was in control."
I could not help laughing.
"What are you laughing about?"
I blushed.
"You do not really want to know, Lady Galadriel, do you?" Her stern eyes gave me the answer, and I tried to be serious.
"Well, let me say it like this. If *that* was `in control', then I would wonder how it would be without any control?" I caught a strange sound from her. Giggling? The Lady Galadriel was giggling?
"What did you think how that works, Dana? He does not just `switch it off' before he starts. He has to control it, all the time."
I preferred not to say anything in return. "Let me know who of you both started it", she said. Again, I did not believe her words. Would I have to spread out a whole night of lovemaking before her very ears?
"Uhm, well. I guess I did, accidentally, because I touched his face."
Amused blue eyes stared at me. "Accidentally? No. Bindings do not happen accidentally by touching an Elven face. Otherwise the enemies we have would try nothing else than to touch our faces."
Now I was confused. "But he said that if I would touch him, he would-"and was interrupted by her laughter which did not stop for some time.
"Well", I hesitated, "if it was not the touch, what was it? Then I could tell you who started it."
"The will", she stated.
"The will to do what?"
"To give yourself to the other."
"Oh, I guess then we started it both."
Again, the strange sound. Giggling?
"Should it be possible", the Lady mused, "that our Haldir has enough of being bound to the woods?"
"Bound to the woods?" I must have given her the most astounded face she had ever seen, as she laughed out loud when she looked back at me.
"Oh, Dana, you did see his `Treeshow', did you not?"
I had expected anyone to call what I had witnessed by a funny name, but `Treeshow' was funnier than anything I had imagined, and I had to hold myself to the back of the bench, otherwise I would have ended up sitting on the ground because of my laughter.
"'Treeshow'?", I gasped. "Is that what you call this... this..."
"...'Treeshow', yes. He always had a, uhm, strange kind of relationship to nature."
We stared to the sky, the first stars were shining down on us.
"I wonder what the Valar thought when sending you to us? Is this some kind of strange entertainment? For them or for us?"
She took my hands in hers, looking at me in a strange way; her skin glowing in the moonlight, the eyes sparkling like stars.
"I told you not to hurt my people, Dana. I told you to be careful with them. You have chosen to ignore my words, and I am not yet sure if I should be either angry, exasperated or confused about it or if it should sadden me. Haldir belonged to us for such a long time, I cannot imagine how it will be without him. We will have to find a solution for both of you, and I would have been glad if either one of you would have talked to me before you started, well, anything. Maybe you would still survive if you would be parted from him, as you are Human and can deal with the pain, but for him, as an Elf, this is definitely not possible."
She tipped her head, as if she expected me to say something, but I had no idea what I should answer to her.
I remembered the strange, missing feeling that I had when I was back in my world, and asked myself if this would ever go away if I would just return and never come back.
She went on with her speech. "I can sense something else... something else that has not happened in times before... something that will happen to Haldir, maybe, but I am not sure... No, this cannot be, we would never send.... One thing is certain, this will definitely be a completely different age than all the others I have gone through. I will have to talk to my husband about all of this; and we will have to find a solution - for you, for Haldir, and for all of us. I have never heard of any possibility to make a Human immortal; so we will have to search for another solution."
"What about the big passage?" I dared to ask.
Her eyes grew wide, almost in shock.
"It has gone, a long time ago," she said.
"But there was a passage, right? The only real time passage that ever existed, if Haldir spoke true. And I think that you and your husband do know much more about it than you are willing to say."
"Not yet, Dana... not yet. It is not yet the time to speak about the passage. We will still need time."
"Time is the one thing that we do not have too much of, my lady," I answered.
"We will first have to see what happens... this time, anything could be different, because of you... let us see how the Ring and its Master will influence us all this time."
The Ring. The One Ring. It really existed, as well as its Master; and in her eyes I could see something that I had never seen before. Was that... fear?
"So the disappearing of the passage depended on the one Ring? It depended on Sauron?"
"Do not ask any further for the moment, Dana. Let us linger for some time to see what we can do and find out. For the moment, we can do nothing but wait."
She raised up. "I need to go to dinner now. My husband will be waiting for me."
I saw her floating away, not even the small stones on the walkway made a sound under her footsteps, and I was alone. My thoughts went to Haldir, and I sensed that he was tense in whatever he was doing. Had the Fellowship already arrived? Did he meet them there, out in the woods, not giving permission to enter Caras Galadhon as I thought to know he would? What would they be like?
I did not feel too hungry, so I started to walk around in the gardens, with the camera that I had fetched from my backpack, and carefully tried to depict the beauty of the moonlit flowers. I smiled sadly, as I knew nobody who would look at these pictures in my world would have believed that these were unedited photos. Such beauty did not exist in the world I came from, and I sat down next to a bush that was filled with pink flowers which had an unearthly, orange glow in the dark.
I started to ask myself if anything I did was right; if it was right not only to come here, but also to become bound to the Elf, probably to change the future of Middle Earth. My life would never be the same again, and I had changed the life of these creatures that I always thought to be pure fantasy.
Suddenly, I felt a touch on my shoulder. I slowly turned around, and stared at the glowing flower which unhurried leaned towards me, just having tenderly touched my skin with its petals. Another branch moved my direction, and wound around my arm, always careful and gentle. I smiled and moved closer to the bush. More branches took me in a careful, slight embrace; and I felt Haldir's voice in my head.
[Even if I cannot be with you, I want you to know that I am still there with you...]
I closed my eyes and leaned to the plant, which held me tight, yet careful; and felt at home.
I must have fallen asleep the same minute.
~*~*~*~
Sindarin translations:
(These are my translations. I am new to Sindarin, learning the language for only about six months now, so any mistakes are mine and remain mine.)
" Anann gen ú-gennin." = "I have not seen you for a long time."
"Pedich Edhellen?" = "Do you speak Elvish?"
"Hebo anim" = "Keep this for me" (and, yes, it's anim, not amin.)
"Suilannon agen, hiril nin. Glassen gen cened." = "I give greeting to you, my Lady. It is my joy to see you."~ Next Chapter ~
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