There and Back Again

Chapter Five: The Council of Elrond

Gritting her teeth as she purposely ignored the wizard that was sat on the other side of the circle, Thalia was surprised that she had resisted the urge to strangle Gandalf; she could not believe he had lied to her. 

It had taken her some time to calm down after her talk with Gloin and Elrond had been quick to try and calm Thalia down after she had confronted Gandalf about what had happened. 

Of course, he had reminded her that there was much at stake right now and they needed Gandalf so he could not possibly allow her to kill the wizard for messing with her in such a way even if he agreed it was uncalled for. 

There was no denying that she would now have to take a trip to Erebor so that she could see Thorin; the children deserved to meet with their father and she needed to confront her past. 

"Strangers from distant lands, friends of old, you have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction; none can escape it," Elrond started looking around the group that had gathered for this meeting. 

It was hard to ignore what had happened when Thalia had discovered that Gandalf had lied to her but they had to focus on the bigger problem that they were going to face. 

"You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the ring, Frodo," Elrond instructed looking towards Frodo, he was surprised how strong the hobbit was and he was sure that he would always be surprised by how strong hobbits truly were. 

Getting to his feet, Frodo walked towards the centre of the gathering and carefully put the ring on the stand for everyone to see; he felt self-conscious about the fact that everyone seemed to be staring at him and kept his eyes low. 

Thalia felt a little uneasy as everyone stared at te ring, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and she was glad that the twins were not here; she did not want them to witness any of this. 

"So, it is true. In a dream, I saw the Eastern sky grow dark. But in the West, a pale light lingered. A voice was crying, "The doom is near at hand, Isildur's Bane is found."," Boromir whispered raising up from his seat and walking towards the ring; it was almost like he was in some sort of trance while he looked towards the ring.

No one seemed to want to speak and they could only watch as Boromir as he continued to move towards the ring; he reached out to touch the ring which seemed to snap everyone into action and tried to stop him. 

"Boromir!" Elrond shouted jumping to his feet, he could only imagine what would happen if the ring fell into Boromir's hands; he had seen one man fall to the power of the ring, he could not watch the other do the same. 

Everyone seemed to tense at the movement from the Dúnedain and no one was sure what would happen if he got his hands on the ring; the ring would do anything to be returned to its master and Boromir would take it right to him if he had the chance. 

"Ash Nazg Durbatuluk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul, Ash Nazg Thrakatuluk, Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul," Gandalf chanted as the light darkens and the air seemed to rumble, darkness seemed to gather in a blink of an eye. 

Everyone reacted to the chanting that seemed to shake the world around them, it made the hair stand up on Thalia's neck and she felt like something was dragging the breath from her lungs. 

There was a ringing in her ears and she felt like the world was starting to slant, she blinked trying to fight off the wave of dizziness that seemed to have struck her. 

Only when the darkness seemed to lift did everything return too normal and Thalia took a deep breath relieved that it was over; she could see the concerned looks that Gloin offered her but she ignored him.