The Dream - Part 4

by Bex

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Walking the by-ways of Imladris had the effect of calming me, bringing me down from my elation. Ironically, despite my initial joy at having my ability to speak to all restored...I found myself barely needing to talk at all.

Down corridors, across flagged squares, along grassy lawns. Those we met tended to offer the faintest of smiles, the smallest of nods. Still others regarded us not, bent on their own errands.

I found that many of the gardens most resembled Japanese gardens in their unmannered, 'natural' design. Very calming. Tiring quickly after all, I deposited my posterior on a wooden bench in one such area. Perhaps Gaenir'd been right when he'd advised taking lots of rest...

Temeril sat down next to me. He'd gone unusually quiet during our walk. I glanced aside at him. "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. That wasn't necessary."

He smiled faintly in response.

The silence stretched on between us.

I found myself thinking: He brought me all the way here to meet me, eh? Bet he's sorry now... and repressed a giggle that I suspected would easily have been classed as 'semi-hysterical'.

I looked over, then up as he again took a hand in his. "No, I am...sorry I hurt you. By bringing you here."

I smiled my own small smile back at him. "Don't tend to do that sort of thing as a rule, eh?"

"I did not know it would work. It may be that no one has done such a thing before."

I nodded. "It wasn't all your fault."

I'd managed to surprise him; he was now staring at me. "I remember... Someone calling me. That was you, wasn't it?" When he nodded, I continued. "Well, I went towards you. I didn't have to do that... did I?"

He considered that. Then smiled again, this time a little closer to his former enthusiasm.

"Perhaps you'll be written up in the history scrolls..."

He glanced quickly at me. "Now you mock me."

I ducked my head and smirked. "Yes, I do...I'm sorry."

We sat there, my hand still in his and both grinning like fools, until we heard, or perhaps felt, someone's approach. Looking up I saw a robed male elf hastening towards us. No one I recognized. He, though, recognized us.

"We thought to find you indoors, but here you are. Lord Elrond requests your attendance at a meeting due to take place shortly."

I blinked. "Both of us?"

He nodded. "Mithrandir arrived not an hour ago; he would meet with you both."

My stomach clenched. Both elves glanced at me quickly as if startled, and I was reminded that whether or not they could always sense specific meanings, they certainly seemed to notice emotional surges.

Fool that I was, I thought I'd already passed through the gauntlet of WhoIWasWhatIWasDoingHere, with Elrond. And 'passed'.

I'd forgotten about Gandalf.

"She has been ill," Temeril said loyally, aware that I was less than thrilled at the summons. "The Head Healer himself has ordered her to rest..."

I was sorely tempted to put off the inevitable, but...

Best get it over with.

"It's all right, Temeril," I sighed. "Let's go."

*****

I approached the House with dragging feet, dread coiling in my gut. But it wasn't as if I were going to my own execution, after all! He just wanted to...talk to me and Temeril. I glanced aside at my companion, grateful that I would not be alone.

As we drew near, we could see a figure waiting for us on the porch. I slowed a little, feeling exquisitely 'open'. Must do something about that, I thought to myself vaguely. Can't just let everyone simply rifle through my thoughts, now, can I...?

I felt a faint sensation of umbrage, realizing a few moments later that it wasn't mine. Well, a person can hardly help noticing it when you are projecting your emotions all over the place, now, can they?

He had a point. He also had a long ornately carved pipe, pale, perhaps made of ivory, and was smoking as he took his ease out there on this side porch. I gazed up at him mournfully. I could feel Temeril beside me, similarly subdued. The Istar gazed back for a few long moments as we stood at the bottom of the steps. The elf who'd fetched us inclined his head to Gandalf and disappeared indoors.

A few long moments more, and he relented, his face crinkling as he motioned to the seats before him. "Sit, both of you. Up here, where I can see you. I won't bite. Much."

Very funny.

His face wrinkled in further merriment. We ascended and sat ourselves down before the gray-robed old man.

He puffed in silence for a few minutes, gazing at us. Finally, he said:

"Quite an accomplishment. If you want to call it that...given that it was, as I have heard, a complete accident."

Temeril gazed at him uncertainly, and the wizard raised eyebrows at him in an invitation to elaborate. Taking his cue, the elf proceeded to once again describe the proccess by which he'd tracked me down, then altered the ritual to reach out to me. Thus I heard for the first time what had happened. Gandalf's gaze flicked back and forth between Temeril's face to mine during the telling.

Then it was my turn to describe what I had experienced on my end. Including that little detail - that I'd willingly ventured close enough to Temeril to get snagged. If one wanted to get technical. In the end I added little to the over-all tale. Like Elrond, the wizard was little nonplussed by my mentions of dreams...even when my words implied that to me, our surroundings might well be but a dreamscape.

"You said you came here from a very different place? You are of the race of men, are you not?"

I nodded warily. "Yet Arda is not my home."

"And yet you know of it, and of Elrond. And, it appears, of me. How?"

I winced inwardly. The $10,000 question. I had decided that honesty was to be my policy regarding this - but no elaboration unless pressed.

"Some there told tales of this place and those who helped shape its history."

He nodded, thoughtfully. When he said no more, puffing away on his pipe, I blinked. That was it?! He was simply going to accept all that?

Gandalf's eyes glinted at me from under his bushy brows. "Oh, this is hardly the first time I've heard of other realms. Though I'd never heard of successful travel between them, that hardly being my area of interest." His eyes crinkled up at my astonishment.

"Neither had I." Temeril's and my head swiveled to see that Imladris's lord had joined us on the porch, there to lean against one pillar, arms folded as he peered at us. Gandalf simply continued to smoke in apparent contentment. "Though a few scrolls documenting events of the First Age have mentioned stories of elves who disappeared, never to be seen again. They were not deemed to have been captured by the Enemy, nor sent to the Halls of Mandos. But neither did they ever come to Valinor."

We were all silent then, thinking.

"You don't think my coming here was really just an accident caused by Temeril."

Three pairs of eyes fastened on me. "As we have seen it does not occur easily. Was inteference on the part of still others involved? I cannot say."

"Yet there are...'Guardians' of Arda. Some of our tales spoke of them." I hesitated, and when Elrond and Temeril both nodded confirmation, I continued. "Might they have done it?" Next to me, Temeril looked non-plussed, perhaps having already gotten used to the idea of being able to claim exclusive credit for my arrival.

"Would that be within their power? Probably." It seemed Gandalf was tiring of the fruitless speculation and had concluded his questioning of us. Had I 'passed' inspection? Again? My mind raced, as he shifted on his seat, then began to lever himself up.

For all that I'd worried about this meeting...I had yet one more thing to say. So much for my determination not to offer unsolicited information.

"There's one more thing."

Gandalf paused. All three men looked politely at me.

"The tales of Arda, told in my land..." I struggled for words that would inform but hopefully not overly-alarm. "I know not how true they are, you understand? How well-remembered." I looked pleadingly at the two older men, and they nodded their understanding.

"Some of the tales...were of things I believe are yet to come, here." There. I'd said it.

Elrond sent an unreadable glance to Gandalf. Who sent an equally unreadable one back.

And they both turned blandly reassuring faces to us. I might have mentioned that it would be sunny tommorrow, so unconcerned were they. Temeril didn't seem to get it; at least I saw and felt no surprise from him. "We shall speak no more of this tonight - we have already talked much, today," Elrond said. Which was certainly true. "Time enough after we have all supped and rested." As if on cue, I yawned hugely.

"I shall see her back to her quarters," Temeril promised. Elrond nodded, adding that food would shortly be brought to my room. We bid our good nights, and started back across the lawn to the guest room wing, dusk setting in around us now.

For good or ill...I'd now put my foot well in it. Though perhaps...I'd agonized, made my big confession...all for nothing?

~End part 4~