The Lord of the Rings: The Banshee Queen

Chapter 16

Arwen fixed her headdress and rubbed her belly, sitting on the marble throne.
She began, "I wasn't expecting to run into two hobbits during my ride. You both must be exhausted and hungry. The Banshees have been a problem for my husband's people. But Dawn, do not worry about how they feel about you. My husband and I have reassured them that you do not mean any harm towards them and half of them do not believe you are Jafilyn's heir."
That was a relief to us.
Dawn and I would have left immediately if the people here stood outside the Citadel, torches ablaze and chanting for her to die.
"Pray tell, my Lady," she said, "where is his Majesty? Has he gone on a royal hunt?"
"He is resting in our chambers. He will be most happy to find out I have brought you here. And I shall order a servant to take you to your own rooms...if you don't want to share that is."
"Thank you, my Lady. We most appreciate it," I told her.

The dinner consisted of roast chicken; platters of cooked shellfish with boiled salmon and freshwater trout; beef with their fat and juices dripping off the plate; stewed conies and green onions dipped in a unique sauce.
For dessert: cream cakes and fruit tarts; colorful pastries coated in sugar.
Dawn drank sweetened red wine out of a crystal goblet, cramming the food down her gullet and licked the droplets off her lips as Aragorn and Arwen's son Eldarion chugged milk.
Before me was a silver platter of a chicken leg and a stone-baked potato though I lacked an appetite. I pressed my knuckles to my mouth and sighed.
"Is something wrong, Frodo?" Arwen asked.
"No, my Lady."
Dawn wolfed down the various cheeses and chewed off the leg of her own chicken.
"May I be excused?"
"Aren't you hungry?" Aragorn asked.
"I don't feel very well. But I'd like to have some stew brought up to my chambers please."
Dawn wiped her face and asked, "Frodo?"
"I'll see you soon, Dawn. Please...don't worry about me."
I got up from my chair and escaped to my chambers.
I blew out a sigh and smoothed my hair back behind my ears, gnawing my bottom lip, drawing two small beads of blood.
All Dawn and I are trying to do is get to Mordor, not have a great feast with the King and Queen of Gondor.
It was terribly rude of me to leave dinner suddenly though.
They did excuse me, but guilt clawed at me.
I took off my tunic and slipped under the covers of the massive bed, setting my arm beside my head.
I didn't know when I fell asleep, but when I was, the nightmare was tortuous.

Dawn is running around in a forest of green and wearing a white satin gown, her curls flying behind her.
As I reach out to touch her, she captures me first.
We fall on the ground, laughing as we rid each other of our clothes and make love viciously like wargs.
The clouds gathered in the blue sky and poured crimson rain.
No, not rain.
Blood stained our naked bodies when Dawn stood up, her eyes a horrific black as two large obsidian-colored wings sprouted from her back.
Right behind her was a Banshee; one of fair hair and a wooden staff in her clawed hand.
She places a black crown of knotted spikes and deep amethysts on Dawn's head.
"Frodo, help me!" she cries out before she screams and is dragged away from my embrace.
I attempt to get up when cold iron squeezes my neck and another Banshee pulls on it, choking me. Dawn is returned to me, bathed in blood and markings decorating her naked flesh.
"No one can leave, scum," she says in a husky and powerful voice. "There is nothing you can see but terror and death, Frodo, my love."
The towheaded Banshee pins me down and her fang-filled mouth curls up in a smile as she said, "Your mother would be so proud of you, Dawn."
Straddling me, Dawn growls, "Make love to me", and her claws impale my throat.

I sprang up in bed, coated in sweat and shivered.
Dawn is now sleeping, her face calm. Breaking down in tears, I held her closely to me.
I have to save her before it's too late.