It took a while to burn the orcs and wargs corpses, and to provide proper burials for all the fallen ones, and first of all was the mending and healing of the wounded ones. The horseleech healer from Lake-Town proved himself a fast and diligent sewer, and he worked along with Óin bringing relief to many a dwarf and men. Lily was too pain struck to help, and spent her time with glazed eyes beside Thorin’s body, unable to eat or to drink.
She barely breathed.
Iris was torn, too, barely leaving Lily’s side, as along with Thorin lay the body of Fili, her dear Little Brother. After Ellen’s insight on how to deal with kingship matters, Kili went into a dark mood also, as everything that gave meaning to his life until then lay dead on the cold stone.
Ellen and Wolfram sat together, as albeit the sorrow of the hour they had to elucidate some points before he went back to his world. His, no more hers.
“What is all that Klingon stuff? What did you find out, Wolf?”
“Ellen, this Gate was found by a man of our world in the sixties. If you find his real tomb, you may find his writings in a more common language than Klingon. He made the inscriptions in the stone close to Mirror Lake only to leave instructions of how to use the Gate.”
“But why in Klingon?”
“As a NerdNet guy, or whatever our group called itself by then, he wanted to be sure no creature from here would easily find the way to get there. You can imagine that our world would not know how to deal with orcs or dragons, or yet darker forces. That’s what the NerdNet does, we keep the Gates safe, or at least try to. By writing in Klingon he made sure only a nerd from our world would be able to find and use the Gate.”
“All right, I’m getting used to the idea that I’m not nerd enough!”
“Thankfully, he left instructions on the other side too, else I would not be able to find this Gate. There are others, but this was the first Middle-Earth Gate NerdNet guys found for me, and I went for it at once. Even so it took a while to reach it, and it was not easy to get last hour air tickets to Indonesia.”
“Indonesia?”
“Yes, the other side of this Gate is in a small lake close to Kelimutu mountain, in the Isle of Flores. Do no mistake it for the Kelimutu lakes that change their color, that ones are poisonous with volcano fumes.”
“Be sure I really wont mistake them, brother!” She shook her head, helpless.
“Well, and then there is the timing problem. It only opens when the summer solstice in the south hemisphere occurs along the new moon, in our world; then it stays open the whole week of the new moon, on our world’s side, and seven times this long here in Erebor, forty nine days around dwarven New Years Day. We have a couple of days, yet, but then it will take twenty eight Middle-Earth years for it to open again.
“Hmm, but only four years in your world. You may be able to visit me then!” The elf was smiling.
“It is not a very smooth transition, fast changing Gates are quite… nauseous, I’d describe it, but I guess yes, as it will be the only way for us three to see you again.”
“Lily is going with you too, then. I thought as much.”
“It was hard to talk to her, she is too hurt inside, but she agreed that staying here would only bring her more pain. We hope back at home her heart may heal, may be human again and heal.”
“I hope so. And Iris, is she willing to go home without complain?”
“Actually, no, but this choice is mine, not hers.”
YOU ARE READING
Loyalty, Honor, and a Willing Heart
FanfictionWhen three women fall down a cliff while going to a LARP meeting, what they least expect is to find they are not where they thought. Their journey in Middle-Earth gives another measure to what means to have Loyalty, Honor, and a Willing Heart.
