-Disclaimer-
Nothing belongs to me besides the characters of Rachel and Kari, and sometimes I wonder about them. The rest belongs to the brilliant genius that was JRR Tolkien...or reality.
-9: Tibet-
We spent most of our first day of travel in silence, talking only occasionally as we walked along. Ameson was, at all times while we walked, sandwiched between any two random male members of the party - guarded, as it was. He seemed to find this infinitely amusing, and spent most of the day grinning or snickering to himself. He reminded me of Captain Sheridan from the beginning of a Babylon 5 episode I'd seen once, to be honest. And it was just as weird in person as it had been on the show.
The rest of us, I think, were just getting used to being out in the wilderness again. Oh sure, we were on a rough road for most of the day, and there were signs of habitation around most of the time - though they dwindled as the day went on - but Tibet had a natural feel that had long since disapeared from all but the most remote spots of North America. And as Elves, we revelled in that feeling. It was...odd for me, since the only places I'd ever been since becoming an Elf had had that respect for nature. Even Bree. Calenda found it odd, as well. Neither of us had really noticed the lack of nature or wilderness until we found ourselves back in it.
When the sun began to set, Elrohir started looking around for a place to camp. We, of course, asked him why he wasn't looking for a farm house to stay at, and he gave us some odd explanation that, I think, consisted of Ameson trying to escape and wanting to sleep under the stars again. At any rate, we ended up camping outside that night. Most of us crashed right away, not even caring that the ground was rocky, but Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and, surprisingly, Ameson, claimed they weren't tired and stayed up, talking softly, while the rest of us slipped into Elvish sleep. I have no idea how late they stayed up, only that they were the ones to wake everyone the next morning, seeming as energetic as the rest of us.
The next day was much the same as the first, only with more talking. We'd gotten used to being back in a natural land once again, and now were beginning to talk bout it, and other lands of the past, as we walked. This, of course, naturally brought us to wondering what had happened to the other races of Middle-Earth, Hobbits in particular.
"You don't want to know." Elrohir said gruffly when we asked him. There was a moment of silence as we all looked at him, and he sighed. "OK, maybe you do." he grumbled. "There was an earthquake. The Shire fell into the ocean, along with the Grey Havens."
"Oh, how cheerful." I said with a grimace.
"I told you you didn't want to kow." Elrohir said defensively. "Just be glad I didn't tell you what happened to the Dwarves." We walked in silence for a few more minutes, and then Elrohir sighed and looked back at all our expectant faces. "Fine, I'll tell you."
"Excellent." I said.
"As depressing as it likely is, it would be nice to know." Glorfindel said with a sad smile.
"The Lonely Mountain turned out to be a dormant volcano, which erupted due to the same earthquake in which the Shire and Grey Havens were lost. Moria was over-run with orcs again before the Dwarves there used some of Saruman's explosive powder to collapse the mines rather than let the orcs take over again. Happened to end the orcs along with the Dwarves, so I suppose some good came of it." Elrohir stated flatly. "The Hobbits and Dwarves that weren't in their homelands when they were destroyed eventually either died out or married taller people, so that their bloodlines died out. The monstrous races like trolls and orcs just sort of disapeared over the years. I think without a master mind like Sauron, Morgoth, or Saruman to watch over them, they fought themselves into extinction." There was a moment of silence.
"Well, so much for a happy ending." I said with a sigh.
"I just wish I could've seen them." Calenda said with a shrug. "The tales you all tell about the Hobbits and Dwarves make them seem very fun and interesting."
"I second the wishing I could've seen them." Ecthelion said.
"I thought you were one of the older ones?" Ameson asked in confusion.
"I am, but I died before the Hobbits and Dwarves were really discovered." Ecthelion said with a shrug, and then shot a glare at Glorfindel. "And unlike SOME people, I wasn't picked by the Valar to return to life, and Arda, early."
"Not my fault. Totally NOT my fault." Glorfindel insisted.
"Oh, so you didn't bother Mandos repeatedly with questions about being dead until He got tired of you and practically forced Manwe to let Him send you back?" Gil-galad asked.
"No, of course not." Glorfindel replied with a sniff of indignation.
"That's not what Mandos said." Gil-galad said, arching an eyebrow, and Glorfindel gave him a startled look.
"When did He say that?" Glorfindel asked.
"When I was dead and asked Him why He hadn't gotten sick of me annoying Him yet." Gil-galad stated. "Which was sometime after my twelfth escape attempt."
"You tried to...escape...from the Halls of Mandos?" Elladan asked, arching an eyebrow.
"It was something to do." Gil-galad said with a shrug and a grin. "Anyways. Mandos told me that He had been annoyed by the master and was now immune to all forms of annoyance by anyone else."
"Aha, so He never actually said my name!" Glorfindel said.
"Well, then I asked Him who this 'master' was, and He gave me your name." Gil-galad continued. "Then He shoved me into some type of cosmic hole and let me spend the next little while climbing out..." Gil-galad, for some reason, smiled fondly at the thought.
"He lied." Glorfindel said after a pause. All the Elves looked at him.
"You realize what you just said, right?" Ecthelion asked dryly. Glorfindel frowned.
"Ok, He didn't lie." Glorfindel said, then eyed Gil-galad. "Which leaves only one other option. Gil-galad is lying." Thus commenced a brief skirmish in which Gil-galad and Glorfindel ended up pulling their swords out and having a little duel as we went down the path. The rest of us ignored them, except for Calenda and I, who were doing our best not to giggle. I failed spectacularly when Glorfindel lifted some 'Princess Bride' and 'Zorro' lines from my head and started saying them outloud. They made absolutely no sense in this situation, of course, but that just made them funnier, especially once Gil-galad started replying with old, First Age battle cries. We eventually had to stop and let Gil-galad and Glorfindel finish their strange little duel as Elrohir joined me in collapsing onto the ground with laughter. It was the 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!' line from Glorfindel, done in the proper accent, that did it.
The duel, of course, ended in a draw, as Glorfindel and Gil-galad both managed to slip past each others defences at the same time to put their swords at each others throats. They both looked surprised for a moment, and then grinned.
"You win!" Gil-galad conceeded.
"No, you win." Glorfindel contradicted.
"I said it first - you win!" Gil-galad insisted.
"You're a High King - YOU win!" Glorfindel countered.
"And I'm you're son-in-law - you win!" Gil-galad said, then paused and mused out loud, "That still sounds wierd."
"You have no idea." Glorfindel replied. "You win."
"No, you win." Gil-galad insisted. He and Glorfindel locked gazes then and had a short staring contest. It ended with both of them blinking at the same time. Gil-galad frowned, and Glorfindel arched an eyebrow.
"We win." they said in unison, then sheathed their swords and turned back to the rest of the group.
"OK, I knew Gil-galad was weird from Father's stories, and I knew Glorfindel had to be somewhat weird to put up with you, Rachel, but that has to be the only time I've ever seen them both truly ACTING weird." Elrohir said, turning to me. "And I have to say, it's disturbing."
"So are you and Elladan in the morning." I replied dryly. "Now, shall we move on?" And so we did. The rest of the day continued in a similar light-hearted vein, though I doubt any of us, especially Ameson, forgot why we were there and what we were doing. But we chose to ignore it that day, and so, on the surface, it seemed as though we were just a group of friends travelling through rough wilderness.
In the evening, Elrohir found us another outside camping spot - outside this time because the closest house was another hours walk away, and the sun had already set. We made a quick little camp, then ate supper and settled down. Ameson went to sleep almost immediately, but us Elves stayed up talking for awhile longer. Elrohir's tale of the end of the Hobbits and Dwarves have brought up old memories, and we all spent several hours reminicing. Eventually, we all got depressed enough that we decided it would be best for us to go to sleep, before one of us Faded. That brought a sour laugh from most of the group before we turned in, Elladan staying up on watch.
The next morning, we were much more somber as we set out. Well, everybody else was. My somberness lastness just long enouh for the sun to come out and shine down on us, lighting up the day, making birds sing and little animals scurry around. In other words, everybody else resisted the cheeriness of the day, while I could not. Neither could Ameson, apparently, though he hadn't really been somber to begin with, and was slightly confused as to why we all were, having missed our conversation the night before. At any rate, since he was the only other cheerful person in the group, I decided to go over and talk to him.
"Hi." I said cheerfully as I walked up beside him.
"Hello." Ameson replied, smiling slightly. Then he glanced at everyone else, leaned towards me, and asked in a stage whisper, "Whose dog died?" I chuckled.
"No one's. We were just playing 'Do you remember...?' last night, and it's got everyone depressed." I replied.
"Everyone except you." Ameson pointed out.
"Yes, well, I am unable to resist the cheeriness of the day." I said with a shrug. "Plus, I thoroughly enjoyed Middle-Earth while I lived there, knowing that one day, it would fade away."
::Liar. You didn't know it would fade away until Elladan brought that message from Kari!:: Glorfindel accused in my head, a hint of amusement and teasing in his mental voice.
::Not true! I knew it would fade away somehow, become something different than what it was. I just didn't know it was going to become the world I came from.:: I replied.
::Right.:: Glorfindel said, sounding only half convinced. His mental voice held more amusement and teasing now, as he could feel the truth behind my words. In response, I dashed over to him and pinched his butt - causing him to yelp - before returning to Ameson.
"What was that about?" Ameson asked, puzzled.
"He was being annoying." I replied sagely.
"How? He was just walking along!" Ameson protested.
"Well, Elven couples who are especially close can develop a sort of telepathy between themselves." I replied, honestly rather surprised that we hadn't mentioned this to Ameson before. "It's how Elrohir knew who had Kari - before he left for Valinor, she woke up once long enough to give him a mental message."
"Oooh." Ameson said, a variety of emotions crossing his face at this news. "So can he hear anything from her now?"
"No, and I try constantly to get through to her." came Elrohir's voice from ahead. Ameson jumped.
"Right, Elven hearing." he muttered, then frowned thoughtfully, looking slightly disturbed, as well, as he looked around at the landscape.
Of course, then I realized that I'd successfully depressed the only other cheerful person in the group, which was not what I intended. So I wracked my brains trying to think of a way to lighten the mood. The only thing I came up with was a question that was dying to be asked, anyways, so even though it wasn't necisarily cheerful, I figured I'd ask it anyways while I tried to think of something more cheerful.
"So, when ARE you going to try and escape?" I asked. Ameson looked over at me, startled, and I gave him an innocent look. I could almost SEE everone else's ears pricking up, waiting for Ameson's answer.
"Oh, I wasn't thinking of it at all, actually." Ameson replied finally, smiling slightly. I gave him a 'how stupid do you think I am?' look. "No, I'm serious." he insisted. "After all, it's not very smart to pull an escape attempt unless you know you can succeed, and if you know you can succeed, you aren't TRYING to escape, you ARE escaping. So either I never see an opening, and don't bother escaping, or I find a way to escape, and you never see me again. Either way, I am not TRYING to escape at all." I blinked at Ameson, and then giggled. Within moments, my giggle had turned into full-fledged laughter that eventually required me to sit down.
"No offence, Elrohir, but I think I like the FBI." I declared once I had finished laughing. Everyone was now, of course, looking at me as I sat on the ground, but I didn't much care. The absurdity of the situation - where I was, what I was doing, and with whom I was doing it - had momentarily become too much to hold in.
"As far as I'm concerned, you can like them all you want, just so long as you help me get Kari back." Elrohir said dryly, then grinned evilly. "Then SHE can tear strips out of you for liking the FBI." I snickered.
"Too true." I said as I stood and we started walking again. "Which means my apologies Ameson, but your organization shall remain on my hit list until further notice."
"No need to apologize." Ameson replied. "I understand perfectly." I giggled again, then, seeing the mischievious twinkle in Ameson's eyes, I decided to go walk by Glorfindel before I ended up laughing so hard I needed to sit down again. I had apparently successfully cheered Ameson up. Which was just as well, as halfway through the afternoon that day, it started to drizzle.
By evening, we were all soaking wet, and Elrohir had to find us an unoccupied cave to sleep in for the night. Unfortunately, we woke early the next morning to discover just WHY the cave was uninhabited - it flooded in rainstorms. And rainstorm is what the drizzle had become. Elrohir made a displeased noise when he saw that.
"I hate walking in the rain." he said.
"Well, shouldn't we just find another cave to hole up in until it stops, anyways?" I asked curiously.
"No, knowing Tibet, the storm could last for several days, and I don't want to waste the time. Besides, we're only a day or two from the monestary." Elrohir said, then turned to Ameson. "And we have a soaking wet mortal who's likely to catch a cold no matter what, but more likely to catch pnuemonia if we wait for the storm to end without drying him off."
"So nice to know you're thinking of me." Ameson mumbled, currently huddling in Ecthelion's sleeping bag, which was the driest of the lot. Even then, it was still damp, and the end was just plain soaking wet, having fallen in a puddle overnight.
"Well, let's get going then, shall we?" Elrohir said, starting to pack up all our wet belongings. "The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get to the monestary and get warm and dry." That made us all speed up our packing, especially Ameson.
The pace we set for walking that day, along with the rain and eentual thunder and lightning, made it impossible to talk much, except for between Glorfindel and I, or Calenda and Gil-galad. So I spent the day paying only partial attention to the world around me, most of my conciousness turned inwards, where in our minds, Glorfindel and I were walking along the beaches of Dol Amroth, talking about anything and everything, especially the events of recent days.
::You know, sometimes I never quite understood where you were coming from, Rachel, even when I could look into your mind.:: Glorfindel commented at one point. ::But seeing your world - I have begun to understand.::
::We are all the product of where we grew up, I suppose.:: I said with a shrug.
::And where you grew up is so much more complex than where I did, that it makes you more difficult to understand.:: Glorfindel replied.
::I suppose, but sometimes you can be just as difficult to understand.:: I said. ::I was only able to adapt so well to your way of thinking because I know the world you come from, I know the tales, and I've met the people. Someone from my world who hadn't would find it as difficult figuring out where you were coming from as...well, as any of the hobbits would find my world.:: In our minds, San Fransisco flickered into view around us, with the four hobbits from the Fellowship standing on a street corner, looking around themselves in utter confusion. We chuckled as our mental landscape flickered back to Dol Amroth. We moved on to other topics, then, only pulling our attention back to the rainy landscape around us when Elrohir suddenly darted into a nearby hole of blackness, stating that we were stopping for the night.
Following Elrohir, the rest of us discovered that the hole of blackness was, in fact, a cave, as unihabited as the last one, though much much drier. Ameson, upon entering the cave, found a boulder to curl up against and just sat there, shivering, until Elrohir and Elladan started a fire. Then the bedraggled agent moved next to the fire and started muttering under his breath. We all chose to ignore the fact that we could hear each and every insult he hurled at us under his breath. Elladan, in fact, pulled out a welcome surprise. None of us even really noticed what he was doing until the wholesome scent of athelas filled the cave, and then we all whirled with exclamations of surprise to see him giving Ameson a tea of some sort, the steaming bowl with athelas leaves floating in it sitting by the fire. Only once he was sure Ameson whad the tea did Elladan turn to us.
"Father took a plant of it with him when he left for Valinor. He gave me a few leaves before we left." Elladan stated. "I figured now was as good a time as any to use some of them."
"Certainly cheers things up. But I thought athelas only healed in the hands of a true Numenorian king?" Calenda asked curiously, glancing at the cup Ameson was holding.
"It does. That's just cammomile tea." Elladan replied with a grin, and Calenda chuckled.
"Silly me, of course it is." she said, and then most of us set about spreading our wet sleeping bags out in the hopes they'd dry before we had to crawl into them - Ameson and Elladan were the only ones who didn't help in the endeavour, and that was because Ameson was, well, still recovering, and Elladan was cooking supper. Supper, some sort of stew, was ready surprisingly quickly, and we all ate ravenously. Once we were done, even us Elves were ready for a good night's sleep, but our sleeping bags were still unpleasantly damp, so we stayed up for awhile longer. Ameson, of course, passed out in Ecthelion's sleeping bag - which was still the driest, apparently Ecthelion had a hidden talent for keeping camping gear dry - immediately after finishing eating. Once he was good and thoroughly out, Elladan carefully went and checked the man's temperature.
"He hasn't caught anything yet, but another day and night like this and he will." Elladan declared with certainty as he returned to the fire.
"We'll reach the monestary early tomorrow." Elrohir assured his brother. Then talk turned to other things, and eventually, all of us but Gil-galad - who was on watch - crawled into our still-damp sleeping bags and slept until morning. Ameson was the first one up the next morning, after Glorfindel, who took over from Gil-galad half-way through the night, and to my surprise, the agent managed to cook us a fairly decent breakfast.
"You can cook...decently!" I said, not bothering to hide my surprise as I took a bite of the food on the plate Ameson had handed me when I'd dragged myself over to the fire. I was the second - technically third - one up that morning.
"Well I DO have my own house, with no other roommates." Ameson said dryly. "Learning to cook is kind of a requirement in that situation."
"Not really." I said dryly, and Ameson blinked, then chuckled.
"No, I suppose you're right, it's not." he said. "Regardless, I wanted to be a chef when I was younger, and took the appropriate courses and had the appropriate jobs right up until my third year of university."
"And what happened in your third year of university?" I asked curiously.
"Due entirely to my drunken, partying roommate, I missed the deadline for getting into most of my classes, and had to take whatever I could get, which happened to be a lot of logic and science courses. Also, my friend talked me into taking a martial arts course, and I managed to - entirely accidentally - lay out the black belt teaching the course on my second day. And when I say 'lay out', I mean unconcious with a broken nose and no clue on either side as to why he didn't see my punch coming." Ameson said with a chuckle. I joined him in laughter before turning my attention to the meal.
It really was very good, a fact which I shared with Calenda and Elladan the moment their eyes focused and it was clear they were awake and getting up. I actually tried to get seconds, but Ameson beat me off with a spoon, saying I could have seconds once everyone else had had firsts. And when I say 'beat me off with a spoon', I mean literally. Heaven knows why, but Elrohir had packed a long-handled wooden spoon, and when I tried to get seconds, Ameson rapped me across the knuckles with it. Of course, that isn't exactly sufficient to discourage me, so I went for it again, and recieved another rap before he whacked me on the butt as well.
"Glorfindel!" I whined at that point. "Our prisoner is beating up on me!" I turned to the elf that I sometimes called my husband, only to find him shaking with silent laughter. "Traitor!" I declared after gaping at him for a moment, then tried once more to get seconds. This time, when Ameson started whacking me with the spoon, I tried to get Calenda and Elladan to help, but they both declared that they were too busy eating this WONDERFUL food to help me. Even without looked at them, I could see their amused smirks. They actually started sniggering by the time Ameson stopped whacking me with the spoon, which wasn't until I was cowering in fear on the other side of the cave, huddled against the same boulder Ameson had been when we first entered the cave the night before. The fearful look on my face turned out to be too much for Glorfindel, as his silent laughter turned explosively unsilent shortly after that, and that resulted in everyone else waking up with a start. Of course, they all stared, disconcerted, at the situation presented to them - me cowering against a boulder, Ameson standing threateningly over me, brandishing a spoon, while Glorfindel laughed hysterically.
"It's too early in the morning to even try." Ecthelion declared, turning away from the scene, then hauled himself out of his sleeping bag and went over to the fire to help himself to breakfast. With a last, warning look, Ameson went and joined him. I tentatively followed as Elrohir and Gil-galad followed Ecthelion to the fire.
"This is good." Ecthelion said in surprise as he had his first bite.
"Yes, it is. And you will never guess who made it." Calenda said with a smile.
"Who?" Ecthelion asked with a frown.
"Ameson." I said with a smirk as I returned to my seat by the fire, though I was watching Glorfindel somewhat worriedly - he was still in silent convulsions of laughter, both physically and mentally. I couldn't get ANYTHING coherent from him. So at first I missed Elrohir freezing, fork full of food halfway to his mouth.
"Ameson cooked this?" Elrohir asked with a frown, and I nodded as I looked at him curiously. "You...let our prisoner cook breakfast? Tell me you at least watched him?" I blinked.
"I was asleep." I said, somewhat confused.
"So you have no idea what he might of put in it?" Elrohir pressed, and I blinked again, then realization lit my face as I finally realized what Elrohir was getting at - he was afraid Ameson had poisoned the food. I frowned and looked at Ameson, only to see him chowing down on his own platefull of food, seemingly not paying attention to the conversation. The way he was very obviously chewing and eating his food, however, showed that he was, in fact, listening, and proving Elrohir's suppositions wrong in his own way.
"Well, he's eating it too, so he can't have put anything bad in it." I pointed out. "I'm not dead yet, anyways. Though Glory might be if he doesn't stop laughing soon. It wasn't THAT funny." I glared at Glorfindel, who was now just snickering quietly as he sat on his rock. At my pointed comment and look, Glorfindel looked up at the rest of the group, and after lifting the topic of conversation from my obliging mind, he decided to step in on behalf of Ameson.
"I watched him the whole time he made it. He didn't put anything but food in it." Glorfindel stated.
"Yes, well, if he hid a talent for cooking, how do we know he isn't also hiding a talent for sleight of hand?" Elrohir inquired suspiciously. Ameson snorted.
"Trust me, sleight of hand, I'm no good at. The FBI won't let me do undercover work because I suck so badly at it. The last time I tried, some seven year old kid, who wasn't even in on the test, spotted me." the agent said dryly.
"So you say." Elrohir said with a frown.
"Sheesh, Elrohir, nothing bad has happened so far. And do you really think Ameson is going to poison us when we have limited food and there's a rainstorm going on out there that only you seem to know your way through to the nearest shelter?" I asked, also frowning now. Elrohir muttered discontentedly, but eventually agreed that it made no sense for Ameson to poison us right then and there. Then, he rounded on Glorfindel.
"And why exactly were you watching Ameson cook instead of standing watch? Not that you ever STAND watch - you're always sitting." Elrohir said.
"I was watching our prisoner closely. And why stand when you don't need to?" Glorfindel asked, smiling innocently. "All that gets you is sore feet, something that you get enough of on any trip requiring a watch."
"Here here!" Gil-galad and Ecthelion piped up, then returned to eating.
"Didn't you once tell us that a warrior must be alert and ready for action at all times, and that they could not be that while sitting?" Elladan put in at that point, frowning slightly.
"Young, inexperienced warriors cannot be alert and ready for action at all time while sitting." Glorfindel clarified. "Warriors like me, however, can."
"So what, once you gain a fifth digit in your age, you're suddenly allowed to sit on watch?" Elrohir asked with a frown.
"No, brother, once you gain a fifth digit, you're not just allowed to sit down, you HAVE to sit down, since you're so old and feeble." Elladan corrected with a smirk. Glorfindel, Gil-galad, and Ecthelion exchanged glances.
"You two hold, I'll get the spoon." Glorfindel stated, and suddenly Gil-galad and Ecthelion were diving for Elladan and Elrohir, while Glorfindel fetched the spoon from Ameson. He then had to wait while Gil-galad and Ecthelion subdued Elladan and Elrohir before he whacked both of the twins - hard - on their backsides with the spoon, at which point they were let go. Glorfindel pondered the spoon for a moment.
"I suddenly see the appeal of Boromir's shield, Rachel." he said, flashing a grin in my direction.
"FINALLY! It only took...what? Several THOUSAND years?" I muttered, and Glorfindel chuckled. The rest of breakfast continued in the same sort of mood, all of us steadfastly ignoring the pouring rain outside, and the fact that we'd have to go out in it very soon. We actually lingered in the cave much longer than we should've, but since Elrohir assured us that the monestary wasn't all that far away, we didn't feel much of a rush. Ameson, especially, seemed to appreciate the extra time spent in the cave.
But eventually, Elladan put the last log of firewood we had on the fire, and we realized we needed to pack up and go. So we did, setting out into the rain with no few grumbles from everyone involved. Elladan and Ecthelion kept close to Ameson as we went, all too aware that even for us Elves, visibility in the rainstorm was horrible, making it a perfect time for Ameson to escape. Ameson hardly seemed up to escaping, however, huddled in his coat, trying to make himself as small as possible while he walked as fast as he could go.
The rest of us were similarily miserable - there wasn't much talk even between Glorfindel ad I, and I suspect Gil-galad and Calenda didn't talk much, either. Therefore, we were all happy when Elrohir suddenly made an abrupt turn, and thick wooden doors loomed up out of the rain, a large, monestary-like building behind them. Elrohir had to bang on the door heavily for several minutes before someone finally opened it, and then the monk that did so only opened it a crack at first, until he saw Elrohir's face. Then the door opened all the way, and we were hustled inside while the monk called for his fellows to get warm baths and food prepared for us. Even as the monk was shutting the door behind us, several more important-looking - or at least more enlightened-looking - monks showed up to greet Elrohir. I noticed the eyes of one of the monks near the back widened perceptibly as he took in the group, and I knew that he had the Sight Nam-kha had spoken about.
I didn't pay much attention as Elrohir exchanged pleasantries with the monk that seemed to be in charge, only caring once we were shown to a large dining hall, given seats near a large fireplace, and given large platters of warm food to eat. We all dug in and ate heartily, even Ameson, who had started to sniffle. We finished our meal before the monks could finish heating enough water for warm baths for us, so we sat and talked instead. Elrohir revealed that we'd stayed a little longer in the cave than we'd thought this morning, and it was actually evening now. None of us really cared, and so he turned his attention to Ameson for a moment.
"So I guess you shan't be escaping after all." Elrohir said.
"Apparently." Ameson muttered, then let out an explosive sneeze. There was a sprinkling of laughter, and then we let the poor agent be, until the monks came and told us our baths were ready. Then Calenda and I took charge of Ameson, who seemed to be worsening, and got him to his bath. A few quick words from me explained the situation to the monks, and they soon brought all sorts of things to help someone who was sick. Within an hour, we had Ameson tucked into a nice warm bed, out cold due to a natural cold-curing and sedative herb mixture the monks had turned up. Only then did Calenda and I go have our own baths, and finally crawl into bed with our husbands. For being a monestary, the monks were surprisingly accomidating towards two married couples.
----To Be Continued...with the man wanted for crimes in almost every country of the world!----
-Authors Note-
BLAAAAARG. After many, many troubles involving not only my computer, but work, as well, I'm back - for one chapter. The next chapter for this story is NOT finished, and is currently not being written on, either. This is partially due to NaNoWriMo, but mostly due to lack of interest. Methos, Jack O'Neill, and John Sheppard keep kidnapping me and putting evil crossover plots in my head. And we won't even mention the various characters from Harry Potter that occasionally try to drag me down into THAT FanFicdom...
Anyways. The point is, I have no idea when the next update will be. I'll try and make it sooner rather than later, but until further notice, this story is, sadly, on hiatus.
-Crimson Starlight, off to find a well-shield bunker to hide in...