Lord Of The Rings Fan Fiction ❯ Bargaining with Death ❯ Arriving ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 1:Arriving
"We've got a breather sire!" a shrill voiced yelled in the silence. Wherever this place was it was freezing and Teru could feel the cold air in her lungs as she drew in raspy breaths.
"What should I do with it sire? It's a human breather sire. Haven't' had one of those in a while. Must be important. Last one I can remember us having that were human were that bloke, Martin Luther-sommat or other. So what do you want me to do with this 'un sire? Should I send it up to the replacement department or-"
"Crying out loud! Do you ever stop talking Tuk? I swear in all the years we have been banished you haven't shut up for more than a minute!" A deep, silky voice resonated in the cold space filling it with fire and brimstone. "Bring the breather here. I will examine it for myself."
Thin fingers grasped Teru's arm and the small hand closed itself round her wrist and began to pull her across some smooth, polished surface. After a few seconds the thing stopped and dropped her wrist."Here you are my Lord. The breather you wanted." Tuk spoke sullenly, sulking and sounding like a petulant child.
"There. Was that so difficult? You managed to do it all in silence. Have a human bone for a reward." Yelps and whimpers of happiness sounded from Tuk, whatever Tuk was, and Teru felt a drop of something wet and sticky fall on her face. Groaning she reached a hand up and wiped the sticky substance away. She opened her eyes and saw that it was some sort of saliva and froth mixed together.
"Eww. That is gross." Teru wiped her hand on the polished floor now that she could see it and then pushed herself up into a kneeling position. Once she was upright and the floor no longer seemed to be shifting Teru looked up to see a pair of bulbous, yellow eyes staring into her face. After letting out a shriek, she examined the thing more closely. The eyes sat in a round head, with large flappy ears, small horns and a beak-like nose and mouth. The rest of the creature was formed like a skinny, underfed child, its belly however was distended and Teru thought she could see what looked like bones poking into the skin of the creature. Overall, the thing was ugly.
"What the hell are you?" She asked the creature."Tuk, is called Tuk. And I ain't hell, that is." Tuk pointed to his left and Teru followed the knobbly finger and saw a giant wall of flame about thirty yards from where she was knelt. After letting out a small breath of astonishment, she turned to look in the other direction. "That's earth, breather."The wall this time wasn't made up of flames but was similar to a giant security office with millions of television screens. Each showed a different picture of some event on earth, parties, births, deaths etc."I see. And where am I Tuk?" Teru asked the creature as turned to face it."Breather is in limbo. Breather needs to speak to Prince of Hell." This time Tuk pointed in front of them and Teru leaned round the creature and looked up a massive pedestal to see Lucifer.
Lucifer looked similar to a human. He had the same body shape of a human but had accessories, wings, horns, a tail, nothing major. The thing that alerted Teru to the fact that she was actually seeing the real Satan was his eyes and presence. Although his eyes were pitch black, like his hair and nails, she could see torment, pain and anguish in them and she could feel an oppressive force of despair weighing down on her.
"Sooo..." Lucifer drawled. "What or who, exactly, do we have here? Name, Age, Gender and Type of Death, and don't take too long breather, my patience is already thin because of Tuk."
"Umm. My name is Teru, I am 23 years old, female and...what's type of death?" Teru looked up at the King of Hell confusedly.
"Silly breather." Tuk giggled. "Lucifer King means how did you die? Were you hung, drawn and quartered? Impaled, crucified, beheaded?" the little demonic creature continued saying different types of death in an almost trance-like way.
"I guess I was stabbed? Murdered?" Teru answered hesitantly as her last memories were rather vague. "So, now that I've answered you're questions can you please tell me Lucifer King-" She thought it better to be respectful to Satan, after all he was a Fallen Angel and who knew what they could do. "Why am I in Limbo and not in Hell or Heaven?"
Lucifer sighed exasperatedly and then looked down at a clipboard he held."You are in Limbo, Teru the breather, because you aren't supposed to die. Not yet. And you haven't achieved what you were born to do. So, The Almighty Lord decreed that any, thing or person who died before their time would be sent to Limbo where I and my sisters would reassign them to a different world." Lucifer put his clipboard down and looked down at Teru with disdain. "Sisters! I have need of you."
The figures of three women appeared, each was beautiful and ethereal. Two of the sisters however looked evil and malicious, whilst the third seemed more resigned."What's wrong brother?" The first woman said mockingly, her eyes and hair were almost as black as Lucifer's but there was a slight tinge of red."Yes brother. Why do you have need of us?" The second woman was taller than her sister and her hair was midnight blue."Surely the Great Deciever does not need the Three Fates?""We are merely, old hags according to you.""Silence sisters." The third and final sister spoke. She was smaller than both her sisters with blonde hair and gold eyes. "Lucifer needs us to look for a place to put this human girl." She smiled at Teru. "What is her name brother?"
Lucifer simply handed the clipboard to his youngest sister and began to torture Tuk. Whilst the small demonic creature was tortured the Three Fates leaned over the clipboard and began to confer."Uh, excuse me?" Teru asked quietly "But I thought the Three Fates were old women with one eye that they passed between them?""Bloody myths!" The first sister swore. "I knew the stupid humans would get it wrong.""I blame the most recent view on that movie. You know the one about Hercules. They totally got that wrong." The second sister said"Well they got you two right, you old hags, Lucifer and I on the other hand they got completely wrong." The third sister cut across her elder siblings squawks of outrage. "Teru, humans are stupid. And ignorant. As you can see we are not old crones, with one eye. Not only would that be incredibly unbelievable but it would also be very unhygienic."
By now Teru had lost all semblance of control and rational thinking and simply nodded."Now, we are going to place you in a different world. There you will live out your life however there will be some changes. It seems you weren't supposed to be born on earth nor be born human. You were supposed to be born on Middle Earth as a Skinwalker. So we will put you in Middle Earth at the equivalent time for your age at the moment. Okay?" The blonde smiled and placed the clipboard under her arm. "Brother? If you wouldn't mind?"
Lucifer moved towards the wall which had the numerous pictures of earth playing and waved his hand. A smaller screen appeared at the level of his hand and he made multiple gestures until the wall showed different pictures. Teru was given little time to look at the wall however as the Three Fates began to usher her towards it. All three began to speak but instead of speaking one at time they started a sentence and it was finished by another sister, a constant stream of talking whilst they manoeuvred the unsuspecting and confused girl towards the screen.
"You're name will no longer be Teru-""But Amaterasu.""You aren't mortal anymore-""Rather, you are immortal""That doesn't mean you can't die though,""Instead you will suffer greatly for many years from seemingly 'mortal' wounds.""The only sure way for you to die is,""Beheading. So try to avoid weapons aimed at your head.""You will be able to speak and understand,""The new languages. We changed your brain pattern to recognise all speeches of Middle Earth.""And your wound that was inflicted on you by your ex-lover,""Has been partially healed.""It is no longer a deadly wound.""Well it can't be deadly as she is dead already.""You know what I mean.""And finally," The third sister left her elders to argue and placed her hands on Teru's shoulders. "When you arrive in Middle Earth you won't even have a humanoid appearance I'm afraid. It's one of the conditions of sending you back. Also it's your heritage so you'd have to learn to deal with it sooner or later. Anyway, good luck."
With those final words the Third Fate gave Teru a shove which sent her flying backwards but instead of hitting the wall she fell straight through it. Limbo disappeared and was replaced with blue sky and clouds. The falling however did not disappear and Teru struggled to turn around in mid-air.
The world was zooming up closer and closer."Oh shit!" She said and then she landed.
****
Lord Elrond of Imladris sighed. This council meeting was neither going as he had planned nor how he had envisioned. Whilst he knew there was tension between the dwarves and the elves, he hadn't expected the representatives of each species to begin arguing about the most trivial things e.g. 'How elves are afraid of the dark so they can't go underground.' Or 'How dwarves are so ignorant they cannot appreciate the beauty in the forests.' Nor had Lord Elrond envisioned the men turning against each other. Whilst he doubted men, he had not expected them to turn on their own, Boromir was attempting to destroy Aragorn with words. It was a shame Boromir was more a warrior than a poet, for his passionate tones could have been used well as a diplomat.
The moment the Hobbit had placed The Ring on the pedestal in the centre of the council, chaos had broken out. The only people who had not joined the arguing were; Frodo, Lord Elrond and his sons and Lord Aragorn had attempted to remain removed from the quarrelling despite Boromir's attempts at engaging in an argument.
"Silence!" Lord Elrond shouted, attempting to call order back to the council. "Silence, we must put aside any differences or grudges and think of what is best for Middle Earth." His words fell on deaf ears and he sat back in his chair. "The only way this rabble would silence their pointless babble is if something dangerous suddenly appeared."
Little did Elrond know that, that 'dangerous' thing was currently hurtling down towards the gathered council. However, once the thing had crashed onto the roof surrounding the courtyard and then bounced onto the pedestal where the ring was, the entire council; men, wizards, dwarves, elves and hobbits all turned their attention to the creature that lay draped over the pedestal.
The creature was almost solid white, save for the slightly creamy/silver stripes that ran down its fur. It was so large that only the middle part of its body was on the pedestal, it's head and forelegs hung over one side. Lord Elrond could see the large head on the animal was rather beautiful. The lines of its bone structure were graceful and accented by the silvery stripes. Its nose was the darkest part of the creature as it was jet black and was the most visible feature.
"Lord Elrond. What is this beast that has landed in the midst of the council?" Boromir shouted from opposite the Lord. "From this side it simply has legs and a tail. It does however look to be rather large. I'd say if it stood on its hind legs it would be taller than any elf, wizard or man."The members of the council, now recovered from their shock, began to crowd around the creature and talking in raised voices."Do you think it is a creation of Sauron?""Maybe it is a spy?""Could it be some new form of magic?""Mithrandr, what say you?"
Gandalf simply shook his head."I'm afraid, my friends, I have never seen a creature like this in all my travels. Nor has Lord Elrond, according to his expression." The small Hobbit who had remained silent throughout everything now spoke up in a young, clear voice."Lord Elrond?" The elfin lord turned to face the brave young hobbit. "I think its bleeding whatever it is."Now that the gathered council had heard the Halflings words they inspected the creature more closely. Indeed there was a steady trickle of blood flowing down the carved stone and beginning to pool on the floor."We must move it off the Ring!" Boromir shouted and pulled his sword and scabbard from his belt. He then began prodding the creature, attempting to make the unconscious beast tip over and onto the floor."I don't think that's a go-" Frodo started but was cut off as the creature's eyes flew open and it began snarling. Frodo had never seen a more terrifying sight, not even when he had been stabbed on Weathertop. Lips pulled back showed sharp, white teeth and the scrunched up face of the animal only made it look more ferocious and savage.
"Back away. Everybody just back away and give the poor creature room." Lord Elrond commanded. As the council obeyed the large animals snarling began to quiet down and its tail ceased its furious lashing. It rolled onto its stomach on the pedestal and the gathered council could now see the deep wound on its back near its spine that was bleeding profusely. The back legs began to scrabble on the carved stone surface of the plinth, hoping to get a purchase so that it could climb up and over the top rather than being balanced on its stomach. Hidden claws craved new marks in the stone and soon there was a myriad of white lines on the ancient stone. Despite this newly discovered hidden weapon, Boromir decided that the creature did not deserve to live.
"Why are we leaving it alone? It is just one injured beast! It could be a spy for Sauron and we are letting it ready itself to attack. Just kill it!" With that Boromir ran forward, sword raised above his head to smite the unknown creature. Faster than the human could blink the creature had whirled round, knocked his sword from his raised hand and had pushed him to the ground. The foolish man now lay on the ground with 370 pounds of muscle baring its teeth at him...