Out of Place

Chapter18

Elrond felt it first. The rush of energy emanating from one of the trees, it hit him hard and it wasn't long until everyone else felt it too. The.. aura was pushing down on them, their lungs felt like they were collapsing and even the Elven King struggled to stay standing. It was as if the very being- the very meaning- of power was standing before them. The pressure was like a tidal wave, crashing into their bodies at full speed. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. The power radiating off the mysterious source made their legs tremble and caused goosebumps to rise along their arms. The wind seemed to follow the call of power and their clothes billowed as strong wind currents raced around the area. It was as if for a split second the world had turned to chaos and then, the dominating aura suddenly disappeared.

Those who had fallen onto the ground slowly stood up. Everyone was still shaking, their bodies still recovering from the feeling of the powerful rush of energy. Those with longer hair were trying to remove their locks from their vision and the young hobbit was trembling in his seat. The old wizard noticed this and mustered up a small smile, placing a comforting hand on the brunette's shoulder. Frodo seemed to come out of whatever daze he had been in previously and looked up at his old friend, worry, fear and concern clear in his blue eyes.

"W-what.. what was that?" Someone said, their voice shaking as they tried to catch their breath.

"Could this be it?" Boromir muttered. ".. Is this the power of the Ring?" One of his hands rested under his bottom lip as he stared at the golden object that had remained undisturbed by the sudden event.

"Perhaps it was annoyed by our pointless arguing." Aragorn spoke. His voice held no humor as he side eyed the son of the Steward of Gondor. 

Elrond and Gandalf shared a look. They both had a suspicion of where the aura had come from and neither one of them suspected that it came from the Ring. In their minds there was a chance it came from the Ring however both had sensed that the power had not come from the golden object. It was hard to tell but both were sure that it had come from the trees. The fact that Arwen had said that the creature who had saved her from the dark riders seemed to hide in trees and that, that strong aura had come from that very place could not be a coincidence.

"..Power like this.." Boromir shook his head. "It cannot be wasted. We must use it and fight!"

"How much of our previous discussion do you remember? The Ring is evil! We cannot wield it! As Aragorn said before, Sauron is its master. It will not answer to anyone else." Legolas' words caused Boromir to grit his teeth as he begrudgingly sat down.

"Let us not waste time saying things that have already been said. The time to take action is now." Lord Elrond's voice was as usual: calm. Those who were still standing up sat down in their seats as he continued speaking. "As I was saying earlier, one of you must take the Ring and destroy it by casting into the fires of Mount Doom."

Everyone was silent for a number of moments before fighting once again broke out. 

~<*.*>~

Sakura wanted to punch herself in the face.

How could she have been so stupid? Wasn't her chakra control supposed to be close to perfect? How could she make such a rookie mistake? She felt so dumb!

Taking a deep breath the pinkette tried to calm down. After noticing that she had -foolishly- unmasked her chakra and that she had accidentally released a miniscule amount of killing intent, Sakura had moved from her position. The kunoichi had jumped over to where one of the other shorties were hiding and was keeping an eye on them as well as the meeting. She knew that the people down below had sensed her chakra; however she hadn't quite expected their reaction to be so.. dramatic. Some of them had collapsed onto the ground whilst others were shaking like they were a leaf hanging onto a tree in the middle of a storm. In Konoha she could unmask her chakra and none of the civilians would even notice. Sure, the civies would be intimidated if she aimed KI at them but the amount she had let loose only moments before was hardly noticeable.