Chapter 33: Aftermath

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Alright, sorry for the wait on your end but we had to take one of the twins to the hospital and that threw me off... but he is doing good now and should be well in a few days. On top of that this is another enormous chapter. I suppose I could split it up... but figure it dose not really matter. So here you are. It's mostly dialog... but hopefully you enjoy it... its some hefty stuff.

In which there is much discussion.

Plonk... Plonk... The sound of rocks falling into the stream was interspersed with the sets of footsteps approaching from behind. Sara didn't have to look, she had a pretty good idea who was approaching by the occasional thud of a staff on the ground. It wasn't as though she had exactly hid her trail. At first Sara had just run, run away from the barn, from Thorin, from everything. If only she could have run away from Middle Earth all together, or from the Valar and the knowledge she now was forced to carry. She had been called back to herself when her feet had splashed into the water of the small stream, her boots filling with water. She had run to the forest that closed around Beorn's land on all sides but the west. She wiggled her slimy toes, wringing her nose at the feel of her wet socks. She had easily outpaced the old dog that followed her, but he had the better nose and after a while he had come limping back to her side. Tom raised his head from where he lay several feet away, peering into the foliage behind them as the others came closer. The decaying log beneath her was covered with a thick moss that grew between the deep grooves of bark, and she shifted uncomfortably as she reached for more stones to cast into the burbling stream. Dappled light seeped through the tall pines and reflected off its ever changing surface. Sara liked the water, always had. There was something about the way it moved, the way that life emanated from it, that always worked to calm her. Today, however, it had done little to ease her shifting moods of anger, grief, confusion, and exhaustion. Apparently her current circumstances were not to be washed away like the dust of the road, but to be carried and endured like the scars on her arms. Two sets of heavy dwarvish boots came into the periphery of her vision to the left and a long gray robe to the right. How could she tell them... tell them that their king, that Thorin and the line of Durin would die. In vain she wished that Nori had never stolen her phone and let himself in on her secret.

"Well, have you finished it now?" asked Nori, coming to stand in front of her. She nodded and Gandalf took a seat next to her.

"And?" pressed the thief.

"And what?" she stalled, searching for a way out of this conversation. What she really wanted to do was talk to Gandalf alone, but she knew Nori would never allow it and it would only make it harder to keep things from him. Gandalf, she thought, was not about to go off half-cocked and tell the company everything, as Nori would be likely to do. She was not yet sure if she should tell Thorin, Fili, and Kili about their fates, but if they were to know, she wanted it to come from her and no other. They deserve that much at least.

"I believe Master Nori, a more prudent way to approach the subject would be to ask specific questions," suggested the wizard, withdrawing his pipe from his robes. Nori huffed, irritated and impatient.

"Very well. Do we succeed in taking back the mountain?" he asked. A vague idea began to form in Sara's mind of how to get rid of the dwarves without revealing too much of her hand.

"Yes," she said, dropping a white stone into the water. "The mountain is reclaimed by the company."

"What of the rumors of Smaug? Are they right? Is he still in the mountain? Is he alive?"

"Yes," she said. Another splash, another white stone. "He is there and very much alive." Bifur said something to Nori.

"Do we find the Arkenstone? Do the other clans come to our aid and help to drive out the worm," translated Nori.

"We find the arkenstone," she said. "But we don't need it. Lord Elrond was right, we wake the dragon and he takes it out on the people of Laketown, destroying it. Smaug is killed by Bard The Bowman of Laketown after Bilbo discovers a weak spot in the dragon's armor. A talking thrush brings a message from Bilbo to Bard and he uses the last black arrow to kill Smaug who falls on the burning town obliterating it." A new thought struck her. If she did have family in Lake town as Balin had suggested, they might be among those who died in Smaug's attack. The rocks grated together in her clenched fist. Yet another chance she might lose someone she loved, thanks to the Valar.

"Ms. Sara," called Gandalf, bringing her back to attention.

"How many lives lost to the dragon?" repeated Nori.

"The book doesn't give an exact count, but says about ¼ of the town's population died and the town itself is in a flaming ruin," she said.

"That's not what I meant," replied Nori nonchalantly, waving his hand in the air. "Are any of the company lost to the dragon?" She glared up at him.

"Did you not hear me!" she said, her voice raising in volume as she flung the handful of stones at his feet. He jumped back startled by her outburst, his feet plunging into the shallow stream to avoid her throw. "An entire town is destroyed and ¼ of the people die. This is the same town where I might have family. Do their lives not matter just because they're not dwarves, not part of the company?" Bifur sat on her other side and took her hand in his squeezing it as he shook his head.

"I'm sorry. That was tackless," said Nori. She let out an angry breath.

"No," she said after she had reeled herself in a bit. "None of the company are killed by the dragon." It was quiet for a few moments before Bifur spoke.

"He wants to know about the elvin road," said Nori. "Are Beorn's warnings merrited?" Sara hesitated to reply.

"Yes," she finally admitted.

"How so?" asked Gandalf after he blew several large green smoke rings.

"The spiders that radagast talked about..." she started.

"What of them?" asked the wizard, letting the hand holding his pipe fall to his lap as he scrutinized her.

"They have spread further north. We get caught by them and it's only due to Bilbo that we escape." A shiver of revulsion crawled down her spine and gooseflesh popped up on her arms. Sara didn't mind spiders, infact her grandmother had often called her to exterminate them, but spiders as tall as a man or larger, that was a different matter altogether.

"Spiders are not so bad," said Nori. "You say we escape right?"

"Not so bad! Are you crazy? Spiders larger than you are no big deal? Even if you don't think so there is still starvation to deal with, and an enchanted river that makes you fall asleep and forget everything if you touch it." Bifur shook his head.

"Does someone fall in?" questioned Nori, setting himself on a rock midstream, heedless of the water lapping at his feet.

"Bombur falls in and we have to carry him for four days. When he wakes up he's forgotten everything that's happened since Bilbo's house."

"That is problematic," mussed Gandalf, a small blue ring floating past the tip of his nose.

"That's not all," said Sara. "The elves are the biggest problem. They take the company captive for weeks, I'm not even sure how long." Nori looked up clearly shaken.

"We are captured by elves?"

"How do you get yourselves out of that debacle?" asked Gandalf.

"Bilbo," she said. "His magic ring is very handy. He is never actually caught."

"He is a clever fellow that Mr. Baggins," nodded the wizard.

"Thorin and Dwalin are not going to like this," said Nori, reaching into the water, picking up a pebble before throwing it back. Bifur grunted in agreement.

"Then don't tell him," said Gandalf. The thief's head jerked up.

"We have to tell him," insisted Nori.

"Would you risk your success merely to save yourself some discomfort?" asked Gandalf, cocking his eyebrows. Nori was quiet, contemplating. "If you tell Thorin and the others about the dangers on the road ahead, it could sway them to take a different route all together." Bifur shrugged his shoulders as if to say "So what?" This did not go unnoticed by the wizard.

"We don't know what would happen if you were to change from your chosen course," continued Gandalf. " If you go South you would be hunted by Azog, and the North takes you too close to Mt. Gundabad, and both choices take you hundreds of miles out of your way."

"We don't know that for sure," said Nori. "The other roads may be safer. The book has not proven infallible thus far."

"Exactly," replied the wizard. "You don't know anything for sure, except that the elvin path thought dangerous is the most guaranteed to see you safely on and on time to the mountain. Can you say the same for the forest road or the other paths?"

"He's right" said Sara. "The book is still the closest thing to sure we have."

"Perhaps," said Nori. "But see here Gandalf, just what do you mean by 'you' and 'your'?"

"Exactly what I said," he replied. "You and your."

"He's not coming with us," said Sara simply. "He has other things that need taken care of."

"You mean to say that we face all these perils without a wizard?"

"Precisely," said Gandalf. "But it is not as though you were helpless, I am sending Mr. Baggins with you and the Valar are sending Sara." Nori did not look convinced.

"You won't make it through the forest without Bilbo and certainly not away from the elfs," said Sara. Nori drew her keys from his pocket and clicked the button on the laser pointer compulsively as he thought for several moments.

"I still dislike all the secret keeping," he said finally, taking a clear pebble from the stream and slipping into his pocket with the keys.

"Perhaps not," said Gandalf. "But if you tell, you put all the others lives at risk. Do you not think that Thorin would try and find another way to Erebor?"

Nori sighed in defeat. "He would, if only to avoid the elves, and if by some chance he didn't, Dwalin and Gloin would be sure to convince him."

"So are we agreed," said Gandalf, tapping out his pipe. "Thorin nor the others are not to know."

"We are agreed on the subject of the elven path yes, but what of after? What of Smaug and Laketown?"

"I suggest you ask your foringn consultant," said the wizard, turning his piercing gaze to Sara. "What do you say of Laketown." She thought for several moments before answering.

"Assuming we make it that far, we will warn them to evacuate the town. That should save lives without messing anything up. We will just have to make sure we find Bard and have him stay behind." She paused. Did they really need Bard? Sara already knew Smaug's weakness. Did Bard have to be the one to do it? She was not sure.

"And why would he volunteer to stay behind and face a dragon on his own?" asked Nori skeptically. "He would be mad to do so."

"I will tell him," said Sara hastily. "I will tell him it's his destiny. I could even show him the book on my phone. He is the heir to the city of Dale and becomes king after Laketown is destroyed."

"Perhaps," said Nori, still unconvinced.

"Think about it," she insisted as the haphazard idea grew in her mind. "If he knows he will kill the dragon, knows its weakness, and he knows he'll become king what would hold him back?"

"Nori shrugged. "So you intend to tell the others about the book after we have escaped the elves?"

"Yes. After we escape the elves I will tell them." She was careful not to specify exactly when.

"Very well," said Nori, getting to his feet. "I will remain silent, but only for the sake of the company, and under the provision you tell them after we leave the elves." He pointed at Sara.

"All right," she agreed.

"Now," said Gandalf. "I suggest you two return to the others and assure them that Sara is quite safe."

"What of you," he asked. "Evening is not far off." Bifur gave Sara's hand one last squese before he stood.

"I wish to confer with Sara about some other matters unrelated to the company or quest," said Gandalf, waving them off. "Go now, Sara will be safe enough with me. Go asure Thorin that we found her. He looked quite distraught." Guilt and grief swelled in Sara's gut at the mention of Thorin. She pulled a chunk of the green moss from the tree she sat on as the dwarves returned the way they had come

"You were not truthful," said the gray wizard. "I thought you didn't like being called a liar."

"I don't," she admitted. "That doesn't mean I never do it. But this time I told the truth."

"Well if you did, you didn't tell it in its entirety," he said.

"I had to satisfy Nori," she said, pulling another chunk of moss off the bark beside her. "He would have caught me if I lied, but because he was expecting and watching for it, he failed to notice I didn't tell the whole truth. I needed to talk to you alone."

"I see. And what did you wish to discuss with me? What are you hiding?"

"The last chapters of the book. Gandalf, there are five chapters after the death of Smaug."

"And what do these chapters describe?"

"The Battle of Five Armies," she replied, her voice so quiet even she had trouble hearing it. "And the deaths of Thorin, Fili, and Kili."

He looked at her sharply. "I thought you said there were no casualties among the company."

"From Smaug," she clarified. "They are killed in battle Gandalf." Her voice cracked as an all too familiar tension began to build behind her eyes and temples. "They came all that way to reclaim Erebor, just to die in battle defending it."

"Perhaps you should tell me in detail," suggested Gandalf, as he began to repack his pipe before lighting it. He was well through his pipe a third time, and the bare patch on the log had grown to a considerable size when she had finished telling him the contents of the book and answered his questions satisfactorily. She even showed him exact excerpts from her phone. The sun had gone down and they sat in the light of Gandalf's staff, Tom's head in her lap as Gandalf stared into the darkness.

"So I have sent Thorin Oakensheild on an errand of doom," he said after many long minutes of heavy silence.

"What am I to do Gandalf? I'm so confused. Why have the Valar sent me here? Why move me around at all? I can't tell if I'm meant to change things, or if trying will be what brings about the book's end. Nothing is clear. Reality and the book only match up to a point, but there are gaping holes in the story. Some of this seems to be because of me, like the fact that Fili and Kili didn't die in the river. But what about Azog? He is supposed to be dead. I don't know if Tolkien was a creator of a world and book gone mad, or if he was just a really selective author who had somehow got ahold of the history of Middle Earth. On top of all this, there are the visions for the mirror which I have no idea how to interpret. I am starting to understand why Dumbledore had a pensive, it's just too much to keep in my mind at the same time and impossible to organise my thoughts."

"What visions?" asked the wizard. "You spoke of no visions."

"I looked in Lady Galadriel's mirror," she said, and she began to tell him what she had seen, hoping that he could make more sense of it than her. She left out the images of her and Thorin, a bit embarrassed to tell him about the kiss and the scene in the hayloft which had surely been alluding to this afternoon, but made sure to relay all that was relevant.

"I don't want to put too much stock in what I saw," she said. "But lots of it matches the book, reality, or both. Lady Galadriel said the mirror never lies and only shows things that are possible in the future, but I know that just because it's shown doesn't mean that it's set in stone. Or at least that's what I think, honestly I'm just tired of all the guessing."

"Quite the quandary," he admitted, stowing his pipe away. "But truly if the Valar have given you all this knowledge, then surely they sent you here for a purpose."

"What? What is my purpose? Do I tell Thorin to go back, save their lives and the lives of countless others by keeping the war from ever happening? But what about Smaug? You've said it's too dangerous to leave him alone, and while I think the Lord of the Rings could still happen at this point, I just don't know. Everything is so twisted and confused. What should I do Gandalf?" He didn't speak for several minutes and Sara just sat, her head in her hands trying to regulate her breathing.

"I cannot tell you what course you should take," he said finally. "Only give you advice. Ultimately you must make the choice for yourself. You are the one with the knowledge of the near and distant future, the one sent between worlds at the will of the Valar."

"What kind of cruel gods are they?" she said bitterly, her fingernails digging into her scalp. "Why send me to earth only to call me back to watch Thorin, Fili, Kili and countless others die, possibly even my family in Laketown, if the Valar have seen fit to leave them alive till now. No benevolent gods would do that."

"Has it occurred to you that it is not what they want at all," asked Gandalf sitting up straighter. "I would not dare speak for them, but I do know that their motives are good and they value the lives of those under their stewardship here in Middle Earth. Even yours, or they would not have gone to such great lengths to alter it."

"How would you know that?" snapped Sara, not looking up. "It doesn't seem that way to me."

"Do not take me for a conjurer of cheap tricks Ms. Sara," said Gandalf, his voice growing in intensity and power. "Or have you forgotten my true nature? I am not merely an old man in a gray cloak who happens to be a wizard. I was sent here with four others to help guide the peoples of this world." His voice genteled. "I serve the Valar just as they serve Eru Iluvatar. They do not give me orders or tell me what to do when, but instead endow me with their ideals and grant me the power to effect change, guide others, and inspire hope, leaving the details to me. So don't feel jilted simply because they did not leave explicit instructions for you."

"But I don't even know the end goal," cried Sara jumping to her feet. "I don't know how they want things to end up, so where am I guiding things to?"

"You think I have knowledge of the end of all things? I am wize, not all knowing," he said.

"Then how do you know what to do?" she asked, jamming her hands into her pockets. He was silent for a moment watching her.

"I take my knowledge of what the Valar value and work from that."

"And what do they value?"

"Life Ms. Sara, life, hope, love, charity, and all that is good they work to bring about. Simultaneously they fight the darkness of Morgoth, the master of Sauron and author of all that is evil, twisted, and perverse. If we work to fight the dark and preserve the good things in this world then we are doing the Valar's will. That is why I choose to do what I do, and how I guide my actions. If you lack a direction, let these things and your knowledge of the future guide you." Sara sat once again, feeling numb as all her cloying thoughts vied for her attention.

"I'm still not sure what to do," she said forlornly, rubbing her forehead with a grubby hand leaving a smudge where her fingers had passed.

"You never will be sure," said the wizard getting to his feet. "Life is full of uncertainty and we

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