When we finally reached the gate of Lothlorien it was dark out. We all entered wearily and the Fellowship (including me and Katy) were drug up to meet with the lord and lady of the wood.
About the time they were greeting us, a little ditty started going through my head and I believe it went a little something like this: ‘Pizza! Pizza!’ And I wondered where that came from seeing as how I haven’t wanted pizza in a long time.
When this didn’t seem to tempt me the ditty changed to something more along the line of: ‘Popcorn! Popcorn!’ I actually wasn’t hungry after all those berries I had recently eaten.
The little ditty changed again, this time it sounded a little more desperate saying: ‘Playstation! Playstation!’ This seemed to get the desired result as I started thinking about how long it had been since I last played my Playstation and I began to wish I was home right now so I could play Final Fantasy or something.
Then I smirked, realizing for the first time that Galadriel was staring at me. This must be one of her mind games I thought. Then I thought, ‘She wants a mind game? I’ll give her a mind game!’
I started to think out random things. One second dwelling on my PS2 and the next my mind wandered to digital wrist watches. Then I thought about staplers which led me to think about paintball. This in turn led to strange thoughts about overgrown apes in diapers.
After less than a minute of such random thoughts I saw the fruit of my labor. Galadriel looked utterly perplexed and just a little afraid herself. She took a step back and broke contact with my mind, moving on to Katy beside me.
I laughed to myself, wondering what she could possibly be thinking right now.
They had finished their greeting when I heard a new greeting. One I had thought I had well escaped by then…
"Rachel! Katy!" The voice yelled sounding unreasonably happy. Unnaturally even as the Fellowship had not been in very high spirits of late.
I swung my head just in time to see the source before being engulfed in a hug!
"Not again!" I moaned, not realizing I had said it out loud until I heard lady Galadriel’s light laughter from behind us.
"I take it you already know our other guest, Lady Stacey." She commented lightly.
I heard various elves snickering at our plight. Probably none other than the elves I had oh so recently annoyed on the journey here.
Finally I could take no more of it, "Get off!" I shouted, finding new strength from who knows where. I shoved her back, "Lle au?" I asked, "What are you doing here?"
Stacey glared at me, not liking to be spoken to in a language she could not understand, "I’m sure that wasn’t anything nice." She growled, "But that’s okay ‘cause now we’re together again and I won’t let you out of my sight again!" She exclaimed hugging us again.
This time when she released me I drew my sword, "Do that one more time and you’ll meet with the not-so-nice end of my sword!" I warned.
Stacey gulped and backed off somewhat. The whole of the Fellowship was laughing now, their moods being greatly uplifted at our plight.
Their laughter was soon cut short however, as Stacey proceeded to greet every one of them in the same manner as she had us. We would have returned their laughter to them if we weren’t still a little traumatized by the hugs we had just received.
We left the halls silently, each one of us pondering the same horror and keeping a wary eye at the perpetrator. We all followed some elves back down to the ground level to where a space had been set up for us to sleep.
Finally I recovered, "What are you doing here?" I asked again.
"Who me?" Stacey asked innocently.
I rolled my eyes, "You can cut it with that goody act, we all know you here." I told her, "Yes you! Who else would I be talking to? I know how everyone else got here!"
Stacey looked down, "Elrond sent me here." She told me.
"When?" I asked.
"Just a couple of days ago." She replied.
"And you’re here already??" Katy asked, "It took us forever to get this far! How did you manage so quickly?"
"Well, we had horses…" Stacey told us, "And for some reason the elves were pushing us along at a very fast pace!"
"Wait, why didn’t Elrond just keep you in Rivendell? Wouldn’t that have been safer?" I asked.
"Apparently, he doesn’t appreciate my ‘behavior’." Stacey told us before starting her tale…
****Flashback****
Rivendell several days before:
Elrond was hastily leading Stacey back to her room. "What do you mean you’re sending me to Lothlorien?" Stacey asked.
"We have already been through this. You cause too much trouble. You are going to Lothlorien. Maybe Galadriel can get you to behave." Elrond replied, while some elves were hastily packing clothes into a bag.
"You can not handle girls very well, can you?" Glorfindel questioned.
"What makes you say that?" Elrond asked.
"Well, Arwen was getting to about this age when you sent her to live with Galedriel…" Glorfindel reminded him.
"That was a completely different situation!" Elrond rebuked, "She wanted to go! In fact, she is the one who asked me!"
"Sure, as you say." Glorfindel said, not convinced.
After a pause Glorfindel spoke up again, "Come to think of it, you sent the twins away when they were about this age as well. The only one you did not send away when they were this age was Aragorn, and he was hardly ever here, always off with the twins somewhere…"
Elrond chose to ignore Glorfindel’s new realization. It wasn’t his fault if the immaturity of young people ground on his nerves…
One of the elves handed Stacey her bag. Stacey snatched it from her and the servant elves left. "When do I have to leave?" Stacey asked.
"I was just going to round up some elves to accompany you." Elrond told her leaving the room.
Stacey sighed and started moving around the room shoving more stuff in her bag.
"I do not think that belongs to you…" Glorfindel told her as she put a mirror in her bag.
"I don’t think it belongs to you either, Glorfy." Stacey told him and continued to pack her bag.
Glorfindel gave up and allowed her to take the items. After all, at least she was getting out of here, right?
A lot of elves were gathered around to see Stacey off after lunch. Elrond suspected it was to ensure themselves that she was actually leaving.
He himself was here for that same reason. The last time he didn’t keep a close eye on some of his guests they ended up getting into things they shouldn’t have.
"We wish you all a safe and quick journey." Elrond said before the company departed.
Stacey ran over and gave Elrond a goodbye hug. Then she gave Glorfindel a goodbye hug. Then she gave whoever else she could catch a goodbye hug…
By the time the warriors accompanying her got her to leave, the hall was looking rather empty; it’s only occupants being several traumatized elves.
"Are we there yet?" Stacey was whining. The elves hadn’t trusted her to have a horse of her own, so she was stuck riding one with an elf named Trolandir*.
"No, we are not. We are barely any closer than the last time you asked." Trolandir sighed. He knew it was not going to be an easy journey when he drew the first lot to ride with the maiden, but this was worse than he had feared.
Stacey was quiet after that for all of a minute, "Are we there yet?" She repeated.
Trolandir sighed, but decided maybe it would discourage her if he said nothing.
"I said, are we there yet?" Stacey repeated, annoyed at being ignored.
Trolandir continued his vow of silence.
Stacey grumbled unintelligibly. Then she broke into song:
I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves,
Everybody’s nerves,
Everybody’s nerves!
I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves,
And it goes just like this…
I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves,
Everybody’s nerves,
Everybody’s nerves!
I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves,
And it goes just like this…
She continued on like this for sometime until Trolandir had finally had enough. He abruptly stopped the horse and lightly jumped down, with Stacey in tow right behind him.
"That is enough!" He cried, proving once again that even elves are susceptible to headaches, "We will not continue on until you promise to stop this horrid noise!"
Stacey looked indignant, "It’s not horrid noise, it’s singing. Don’t you elves like walking songs?"
"Not if you are screeching them in my ear!" Trolandir exclaimed, "Besides, we are not even walking."
"Fine." Stacey complied, "No more walking songs."
Trolandir was surprised at how easy that had been and remounted his horse smugly, Stacey remounting right behind him.
It wasn’t long before Stacey broke into song once again:
This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friend!
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue singing it forever just because…
This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friend!
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue singing it forever just because…
Stacey had barely gotten through the fifth verse before Trolandir interrupted, "I thought we agreed no more singing." He told her.
"We agreed no more walking songs." Stacey corrected, "This is a riding song."
She smiled to herself as Trolandir turned red with anger and annoyance before she began singing again, "Everyone!"
This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friend!
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue singing it forever just because…
This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friend!
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue singing it forever just because…
Return to contents here