RP 18: An old evil

[Courtney]

"I'm just so tired!" Courtney says quietly. "It seems like we've been walking along forever and ever. I can barely even remember the good times we had in rivendell and back home in my little garden. It all seems like a dream..." she shudders in a sudden burst of wind. "And it seems to disappear a little more everytime i look around. Maybe none of that was real and we are just imagining things... Yes, that's probably it." she mutters to herself, and rubs her arm, which is begining to burn again, but from the inside this time.

[Aredhel]

She tries comforting the hobbit by telling her what they will do when they get back to Rivendell.

"I have no idea what we are supposed to do,"she says quietly,"Except that I have to take you somewhere to get those markings off. Only I know where it is. But I don't want to leave everyone else behind without protection."

[Afterglow]

"Do not worry about us, Aredhel." Afterglow says, the end of her staff glowing slightly. "Do what you must."

[Courtney]

Courtney tries to rest, and eases her mind by thinking aboutthe shire and trying to remember every single flower that she ever grew in her garden, so she wouldnt forget. She knows that Aredhel will find the place where she can be rid of the marks on her arm forever!

[Aredhel]

Smiles at the hobbit.

"Well, then,"she says," Shall we go?"

[menchu]

*We'll do anyway...* thinks Menchu.

Then takes out her wooden piccolo and plays a swift melody to try to cheer up her mates.

[Aredhel]

Her ever deepening heart rises suddenly at the swift tune, thinking of pleasant days.

[Courtney]

OOC: Does anyone know where we are supposed to be going, or what we are suposed to be doing?:confused: It seems like we keep walking and not getting anywhere...

[Aredhel]

OOC: I have no idea. Just pick a destination.

[Kit Baggins]

(OOC we're stil in Mordor, guys. I don't have a clue what we're meant to be doing though...)

[Courtney]

OOC: how about we are going to the sea of nurn where Aredhel can find a cure, but when we get there, there is some sort of evil creature lurking beneath the waters (the old evil), and we can go form there.

In character: Just as Courtney thought she couldn't walk anymore, her companions said that they had arrived at their destination. Courtney looked up and saw a great glittering sea before them "Is it the ocean?" she asked.

OOC: if you guys don't like this idea, you can change it if you want...

[Wizdom]

wizdom didn't say anything he merely staired at the murky darknes.

[Courtney]

They begin to set up camp. Courtney lies down by the lake to take a nap,

[Afterglow]

"Uhmm...guys? I REALLY don't think we should camp here." Afterglow says, a bad feeling growing in the back of her mind. She receives death stares from the tired company. "I'm SERIOUS." She says quietly. Someone says "paranoid" but they are muffled by blankets.

[Kit Baggins]

"You're paranoid, I tell you." Kit mutters sleepily. " 'S just a lake. It can't hurt you."

[Courtney]

Courtney is already fast asleep. After a while, she feels the gently lap of water against her feet as the water comes ever closer to her and her companions.
In her dreams, Courtney stand on a cliff over looking the ocean, with the salty air aginst her face. Suddenly dark storm clouds appear on the horizon. She can hear thunder off in the distance, and something appears to be rising out of the water... Courtney leans further over the cliff to see what it is. It appears to be hundreds and thousands of spiders clinging together in the shape of...Courtney doesn't know what to call it. she has never seen anything so great and awe inspiring and yet so terrible. Just as she is leaning so far over the edge that she begins to slip, a huge bolt of lightning strikes the creature, and the spiders scatter accross the surface of the water.
Courtney wakes up suddenly from her dreams screaming in pain and clutching her arm, her screams sound unhuman they are so full of anguish. She falls to the ground and scrambles away from the edge of the lake on her hands and knees. Her companions wake up at the sound of her scream, and try to calm her down, but as they look around them, the ground seems to be moving underneath their feet. It is not the earth moving, however. the ground is covered with minute spiders, coming out of the water. Everyone looks further accross the water to see where the spiders are coming from, bt the sight of it parallizes them with shock, as the rain starts puring down once more...

[Aredhel]

She glances over to Wizdom,"Okay...what should we do now? Run?"

[Kit Baggins]

"GOOD IDEA!!!" Kit yells. "RUN!!!!!!" He runs after Courtney, his face stricken with terror.

[Aredhel]

She follows after Kit and Courtney.

[Courtney]

they run until they reach the low hill directly to the north of the lake. Courtney turns around and looks back at the water, her eyes wide with fear. The water seems to be rising up in the middle of the lake. At first Courtney thinks it must be a wave, but then she remembers that this is not the ocean. "What is that?" she asks as her companions turn around to face the lake. Then, the dark shape lifts its head, since after all it is a creature and not a part of the lake, and speaks slowly in an ancient language, and yet everyone knows what it is saying. "I am the oldest of all evils on Middle Earth. i am so ancient that even Sauron seemed but a child to me. I have slept through the past ages as your petty wars raged on and I have waited patiently for this day when I shall at last take back what is mine!" The creature laughs hideously and moves closer to the edge of the lake.
"What is yours?" Courtney cries out despairingly, as she runs toward the creature. "We are not yours! You cannot have us! and neither is middle Earth! We've fought for ages to protect it from evil, and you will not take it away from us!" Courtney lifts up her silver wizard staff above her head, even though she knows she will have no power over this ancient being.
The creature in the water laughs once again and suddenly a great winds knocks the staff from Courtney's hands and she falls to the ground.

[Kit Baggins]

Kit draws his sword.
"Leave us!" he shouts at the creature, but he knows it's no use. In desperation he raises his yellow wizard's staff above his head and sends a bolt of lightning into the creature. As it laughs again, he bends down to check if Courtney is alright.

[Courtney]

Courtney sits up slowly shaking her head . She looks down at her the markings on her arm which are burning so bad now that Courtney can actually smell the stench of burning flesh. Sparks of light fly off of it, but she can't even feel it she is in such a daze. "I'm alright Kit." She manages to say. "I'll be right back." Courtney gets up and walks to the edge of the water, but she doesn't stop there. She keeps walking until the water is waist high and the creature is directly in front of her and towering above. "You lie to us!" she calmly says, the look of fear gone from her face, "Sauron is your master! And Sauron is dead. his powers our gone and so are yours!"

"No! the creature screams! My powers surpass that of sauron's! It is my destiny, my right to rule middle earth!"

"Yes, your powers were greater than Sauron's, but you pledged your strength to him, and now you will pay!' Courtney stands up tall and lifts her arm above her head. The sparks fall into the water, and so much steam rises from the water that her companions can no longer see her. Suddenly there is a hugeflash of light, and the water swirls around them. They hear a tremendous cry of pain, and then the water becomes still once more. At their feet the thousands of spiders are dead, and there is no sign of the creature, but there is no sign of Courtney either.

[Kit Baggins]

"COURTNEY!!!!" Kit screams. He runs a few paces into the water, but there is no sign of his friend. Kit collapses to his knees, and bursts into tears.

[Courtney]

Just then, courtney climbs slowly out of the lake a few feet away from Kit. Her arm is a bloody mess, torn to bits and hanging limply from her shoulder, but she has a huge smile on her face, like she always used to when talking about her little garden back in the Shire. "Kit!" she cries, running over to see if he is okay. "Are you alright? The old evil is gone! at least for our lifetime! And my arm is better! I can feel it! The writing is gone look!" and then Courtney looks at her own arm for the first time since she came out of the lake. She sees all the blood and promptly faints.
When she wakes up, the entire group is gathered round a nice cozy fire, and the wind is warm and gentle against her face. she looks at her arm again, which has been bandaged and soaked in herb water. "I never could stand the sight of blood..." she says, embarrassed about passing out in front of her friends. but they just laugh and hand her a bowl of soup, her first warm meal since they set foot the evil land of mordor, which somehow, now, even after all that has happened, seems less frightening then ever before, as if some great shadow has left her mind, and she almost feels at home in this desolate land that had haunted her dreams all her life.

[Kit Baggins]

"I want to go home." Kit says in a little voice. They all turn to look at him. Kit gives them a weak smile. "After everything that's happened, I don't think I can take any more of this." He sighs. "When I thought Courtney was dead back then, I realised that I could have done something to save her, but I wasn't strong enough. I thought that I hadn't done anything useful since this quest began- that I'd just been a burden to you. I thought you'd all be better off if I was dead."

[Aredhel]

She looks for a long while at Kit.

"Do not think like that, Kit,"she says softly,"You do not realize it, but you have done a lot for us than we could possibly fo. You have given us your strength. You have given Courtney your strength. If not for you, we would have given up hope long ago. But it is your choice to go home. We can't make you stay, that is beyond our power."

[Kit Baggins]

Then Kit smiles sadly.
"I don't think I could ever forgive myself if I went home now, after all that's happened. I'm coming with you."

[Aredhel]

She smiles kindly. Then she frowns.

"If that creature was older than Saurun,then wouldn't it be the 'old evil', and our journey is done, or is there still another 'thing' out there? Some how I feel we are done our journey, but there is still a deep, dark feeling that there is something else, or is that jsut the general feeling that Mordor gives you?"

[Courtney]

"Oh no Kit! you have to come with us!!!! If it wasn't for you I would have been so scared I would have ran all the way back to the Shire! And we have come all this way. Somehow I feel that we must all stick together in this... it would be perilous to seperate now..."

OOC: do you want to keep going with the story, or do you want to start a new one? Either way is fine with me...

[Aredhel]

OOC: How about I start a new threadcalled the Return Home?!

[Kit Baggins]

(OOC: Good idea :) .)