Beauty and a Beast

“Arryn…”
She heard him say her name again.

Her pace quickened, and she heard his pace quicken as well. She hiked the skirts of the dress past her ankles, and she ran. She ran until she reached a separate glen, that was similar to the one she was previously in, stray for the fact that it was much darker. She sat down in between two dark hedges, waiting for him to pass by. She wanted to tell someone; but after all, who she was, was, besides the Dark Lord himself, the most feared being in all of Middle Earth. The Dark Daughter, had many names; Nyx, Melantha, Melanthe, Adriana, Athanasia, and Shivani. But were all equally feared.

According to legend, the Dark Daughter was even more powerful than the Dark Lord. Nyx, Melantha……..or whoever it was bottled up inside her was desperately trying to break out of her and what frightened her the most was the fact that; she was letting her out, little by little, through anger, and now that she thought about it, that would explain why when the troll hit Aragorn in Moria; she felt something inside her snap. It was one of the barriers that kept Nyx, or whoever it was inside her, trying to escape from inside her.

*******

It had gone quiet for a while, and Arryn stepped out from in between the hedges. Her hair had various twigs, and leaves in it. She walked out, and she sat down on the edge of the rock-framed pond that was in the glen. She angled her head, and she began to gently remove the twigs and leaves that had knotted into her hair, as she removed them, she dropped them into the pond. When she was done, she looked back into the water, and she saw….not Arryn, but Nyx. She had her pale snow white skin; her dark as night hair; her blood red eyes, and her Dark Daughter Tribal Tattoo’s.

They were faded, but they stood out against her pale skin, like a fresh drop of blood, on a fresh blanket of snow. She looked evil, and nothing like Arryn. She could hear a faint tread of footsteps behind her, and, once again, she smacked her hand down on the water, distorting the frightening image. Tears of anger, and frustration welled in her eyes; and they splashed onto her pale clenched hands.

“Arryn…”
Legolas said, gently, as he walked closer to her.

She covered her face with her hands, hiding her face, and her tears. He sat down beside her on the edge of the pond.

“Are you okay?”
He asked, carefully.

“Y…Yes….I’m fine…”
She lied, choking up a bit at the end.

“Are you sure?”
She looked up at him, with one eye.

“Can you please leave Legolas? I just want to be alone for a little while.”
She said, serenely.

“Arryn…we’re all worried about you. Let us know what’s going on with you…”

“I can’t…….tell you……”
She said, a few tears leaking from her eyes.

“What’s wrong, Arryn?”
He asked her.

“I…”
She said, standing up, and she took a few steps away from him, keeping her back to him. She covered her mouth, and she squinted her eyes. A few tears managed to escape her eyes, and a soft sob escaped her. He walked up behind her, and he placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Arryn…Everything’s going to be okay. Okay?”
She turned around to face him, her eyes turned back up to face him, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Nothings ever going to be okay. Not for me…”
She said, softly.

He reached up, and he touched the side of her face.

“What are you talking about, Arryn?”
He asked her gently.

“I…can’t tell you…It’s just……complicated right now for me…I just…”
She began to trail off, and tears of frustration fell from her eyes.

“I’m a monster.”
She said, plainly, turning her gaze to the ground.

“No you’re not, Arryn…”

“No. I am. You just don’t know what I am. I really am a monster.”
She said, quietly.

Legolas wrapped his arms around her, and he held her against his chest, allowing her to calm down a little.

“You’ve had an eventful day, Arryn. You should rest…”
She nodded, into his chest.

They both turned and walked back to the area where the Fellowship was staying. She slipped beside her brother, and she fell asleep.

*******

The Fellowship was asleep. Shining with soft white light, a figure in a flowing dress walked by them. Frodo awoke up with a start as though by some invisible sign. Lady Galadriel was there, gliding past Elven statues among the trees, frozen amid their merriment in the dark night; she looked neither to the right or left nor made any apparent sign. Frodo proceeded to follow her as though beckoned too.

Galadriel descended to her garden in a glade and filled a silver ewer with water from a trickling stream. She stood before an ornate stand with a shallow silver basin upon it. The Lady turned towards Frodo.

“Will you look into the mirror?”
Lady Galadhriel asked

“What will I see?”
Frodo asked her, carefully.

“Even the wisest cannot tell. For the mirror…shows many things…”
She answered, as she stepped up to the basin, and she began to pour the water into the silver mirror.

“…things that were…things that are….and some things…”
She emptied the ewer and stepped back.

“…that have not yet come to pass.”
She finished.

Frodo stepped up onto a low platform below the mirror to take a look. He peered down and saw nothing but his reflection. Then, suddenly, the mirror cleared and showed a vision of Legolas, Merry and Pippin and Sam from the platform in the woods, recalling his feeling of guilt. Then, the vision changed. The Green Dragon Inn appeared in the ripples, green and cheery as it ever had been. Suddenly, fires belched up, flaming from windows and doors. Orcs lashed whips. The image changed to a frightening looking young girl, with a scarily familiar face. She looked like Arryn, except she had pale white skin, and blood red eyes. She just looked evil.

Frodo gasped, his eyes wide.

Beneath grey skies and dark hills shouldered with machinery and industry, a line of Hobbits were driven into a mill to work by slave-masterly Orcs. Then, the Eye of Sauron filled the mirror. The Ring hanging from Frodo’s neck pulled him closer to the water. Steam began to curl up from the basin as Sauron spoke to Frodo in a dark tongue. The Ring hung in the pit of blackness within the fires of the Eye. Terrified, Frodo grabbed the Ring and jerked back, throwing himself off the step and landing on his back on the grass.

“I know what it is you saw, for it is also in my mind.”
Her voice echoing in Frodo‘s head.

“It is what will come to pass if you should fail. The Fellowship is breaking: it is already begun. He will try to take the Ring. You know of whom I speak. One by one, it will destroy them all.”

“If you ask it of me, I will give you the One Ring.”
Frodo asked her, silently, as he opened his palm, offering the Ring to her.

“You offer it to me freely. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this.”
She said to him

She approached Frodo and placed her hand over the Ring, her hand quivering. Her image began to change. Suddenly, she towered over Frodo, her cloak running ragged in a sudden wind, her eyes like dark hollows, arms flung high. She wears a breastplate; her hair billowed around her. As though underwater, the glade became murky and green.

“In place of a Dark Lord, YOU WOULD HAVE A QUEEN! NOT DARK, BUT BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN! TREACHEROUS AS THE SEA!”
She said, boldly.

Frodo backed away in fright.

“STRONGER THAN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH! ALL SHALL LOVE ME, AND DESPAIR!”

The great murky light faded abruptly and Galadriel let her arms slowly fall, the pitilessness of her image disappearing. Breathing heavily, she spoke to a windblown Frodo.

“I pass the test!”
She said, with joy.

“I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.”
She added, as she began to turn away.

“I cannot do this alone.”
Frodo said, sounding troubled.

Galadriel turned back to face the frightened Hobbit

“You are a Ring bearer, Frodo. To bear a Ring of power is to be alone”
She said, serenely, as Galadriel lifted her hand up, a ring adorned her finger.

“This is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, and I am its Keeper.”

Frodo stared into her eyes.

"This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will.”

“Then I know what I must do. It's just… I'm afraid to do it.”
He said, sadly.

Galadriel bent down to meet him at eye level.

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future…”
She said, reassuringly.

**********

Orthanc rose through plumes of black smoke. Saruman and a great Orc stood in the rising sun in the inner chambers of Orthanc.

“Do you know how the Orcs first came into being? They were Elves once, taken by the dark powers. Tortured and mutilated…”
Saruman said, as the Orc growled.

“…a ruined and terrible form of life. And now...perfected: my fighting Uruk-Hai. Whom do you serve?”
Saruman asked.

“Saruman!”
The Orc grumbled.

The Uruk-Hai were fitted with armour and they were given weapons. They received white handprints on their heads and faces, signifying Saruman’s army. They then assembled before him in a great cavern beneath a high balcony.

“Hunt them down! Do not stop until they are found. You do not know pain, you do not know fear. You will taste man-flesh!”
Saruman shouted to the troops.

The Uruk-Hai raised their weapons, shaking them, with a roar. Saruman turned to speak to the Uruk-Hai leader whom he spoke with in his chamber, as they stood on the balcony.

“One of the Halflings carries something of great value. Bring them to me alive and unspoiled. Kill the others! Except the She-Elf. She is a great asset to the Dark Lord…”
Saruman instructed.

An Uruk-Hai troop left Isengard in a long column.