22 Empty Crown
In a dark room, There is a man sleeping quietly in bed. If you look at him you can see some changes happening to him.
His originally Black short hair is growing at a fast pace, and if you look carefully you can see, almost half of his hair is losing colors and changing from black to a pale gray. And in the middle of his forehead, there's a crown giving a soft black light washing his body.
After the glow stopped also the change stoped, at this moment the eyes of this man suddenly opened.
"Where am I?" This man naturally is Gray. Gray looked around him weirdly, he didn't recognize the room he's in. Gray tried to remember the last thing he did.
"The trolls, then the cave, after that....." After some thoughts, Gray's face becomes pale.
He remembers, after hearing Gandalf screaming when he wore that crown, a great pain striked his head, that pain was even worst then death itself, as if millions of burning swords penetrated his head, the more he remembers the more scare he feels.
"Yes, the crown.." Gray touched his forehead and found that there's something more in his forehead. When Gray felt the crown he also noticed the changes in his hair length.
After discovering that he cant remove the crown, Gray checked his equipment, after finding Glamdring, Orcrist, and Sting beside the bed, he put them in his back, then walked out of the room, but the scene outside shocked him.
"Here is... Rivendell?" since he watched the movie he can remember how Rivendell looks like but when he saw in his eyes, it was even more shocking, it's like a piece of heaven on earth.
Gray walked around for a bit and then stopped beside a water pool. He wanted to see his reflection on the water.
But his reflection has surprised him, he even wanted to ask; who are you!
Long silver black hair, Black Crown, and weird tattoo under his left eye, but the most obvious changes was his left eye color. He originally should have two normal black eyes, but now, his left eye colors become a colorless gray.
"I was careless" Gray hates his stupidity this time, because of his knowledge about the plot, Gray didn't think theirs anything could hurt him as long as he was careful, but he forgot that he's in a real-world, not simply a movie world he watched before. And what he knows about this world might be only a little part of it.
"So you are Gray that Mithrandir talking about" Suddenly, a nice and soft woman sound appeared beside him.
When Gray heard the voice he was surprised and looked around him. Under the moonlight, a tall woman was standing there looking at Gray with great interest. this woman has a long body, long wavy hair, long dress full of grace and elegance, pale blue eyes as if they can see through the world itself.
"Galadriel!!!" How can Gray not recognize her, She's one of the greatest of the Elves in Middle-earth, surpassing nearly all others elves in beauty, knowledge, and power.
But for Gray, she's the last person he wants to see in this world. He knows that this woman has telepathy ability. Who knows if she entered his mind and saw his memory. After all, not every telepathy like Professor X.
Galadriel stared at Gray with her pale blue eyes, which gave Gray great pressure, if Gandalf's eyes shine with wisdom, then Galadriel's eyes can see your heart!
"You seem too wary of me?" Galadriel felt Gray's vigilante and wondered why, after all, it's there the first time to see each other.
Gray heard her word and become even more vigilant.
Seeing Gray acts in this way, Galadriel smiling face, becomes more clear, she shifted her eyes to the crown on Gray's head.
"I-lost-rí; The empty crown, to think it will appear on a mortal head" Galadriel looked at the crown and said.
"Empty crown? You know what this crown is?" Even though Gray was vigilant of her. But he also wants to know what is this crown, so he asked.
"It's a very powerful magic artifact, it's said the one who wears it even god can't enter his mind, nor time can reveal his future" speaking to this point, Galadriel's face becomes a little eager. Such an artifact, Who doesn't want to obtain, but she didn't try to take it. After all, this crown already recognized Gray as a master, so she can't use it even if she wants.
Hearing her word Gray eyebrow raised a little, God cant enter my mind? isn't that what I really need, Mind-Shield!. So this also means she can't enter my mind?
Gray wanted to try, so he said some rude words to her in his mind .....
"Why do I feel your thinking of something bad?" But Galadriel's looked at him with some dangerous smile. As if she's saying; Say one more word and you will die.
"Mehh, I don't know if your lucky or not, you will probably die, when the crown awakens for the second time" Galadriel sighted, and had some pity in her face. Finally, this crown accepted a master, but it turned out to be a human, such a fact is ironic for her.
"I will die? Second awakening? " When Gray heard her words, he felt confused.
"The reason this crown is so precious, not because it can shield your mind, but because it's evolving ability, but every time it will evolve it will take a huge amount of life from its owner and evolve a new ability, at the same time it will make some changes in the owner body, and as you can see your hair and eye color shouldn't be like this before, which mean you already passed the first awakening" Galadriel explained the crown real ability to Gray.
When Gray heard the first part his eyes brightened a lot, Evolving artifact. How can Gray not know what does that mean? It's not simply an artifact anymore, but a god-level artifact!!!!
But the more she explained, the more ugly his face becomes. Especially when he heard about the way the crown evolve.
Take life to evolve !. When Gray thinks about those words, horrifying thoughts appeared in his mind. Gray directly activated his ability and checked his C Disk, but what he saw made his mind completely blank, originally he should have 45GB free space, but now he only has 35, which means 10Gb was drained from him already!.
"And every time the crown awakens, it will take ten times the last amount of life, if you were an elven royalty maybe you would have serviced, but as a human... I don't think you will survive the second awakening" Galadriel contained her explanation ignoring the already pale face Gray.
....
"What's the difference between Royal elf and normal elf?" When Gray heard her last words, he already knows what he has to do. if its elven blood, he will get it soon, but she said royal elven which made him wonder if there's a difference between normal elves and others. Come to think about it even though there were many elves in the movie before, but not many were as strong as their leaders such as Galadriel and Thranduil.
"The quality of life, in another word, if normal or half-elf life is soft as water, the royal or hight-elf life is hard as ice" Galadriel answer was so simple, but so clear for Gray.
After thinking about everything she said, Gray becomes more clear about what he needs to do.
"Looks like you know what you need to do" Seeing Gray face becomes much better, even though she doesn't know what he wants to do, but she still thinks that's enough.
Gray looked at Galadriel deeply and then said: " Ms. Galadriel, I want to thank you for your help, I already know what I need to know"
Gray really thanked her from his heart, if she didn't tell him such a thing maybe he will only copy normal elf genes not knowing about the crown evolution possess, which may lead him to death.
"I helped you because Mithrandir asked me to help, so you don't have to thank me" To tell the truth, the reason why she told him all this was because she wanted to see, what made the crown choose him. Is he really worth for it?
Thinking of this, a little expectation appeared on her heart.
"I forgot to tell you, your dwarves friends already left this place, if you follow them now you may be able to catch up with them" Galadriel said as if she remembered something.
"What! which way did they go!!" How can Gray let them leave without him, if he didn't follow he might miss the chance to get Sauron ring.
"Well, then went to the mountain road" she pointed to the direction the dwarves left and said.
Hearing her word Gray directly run in the direction she pointed to, but suddenly stopped and looked back, wanting to thank Galadriel again, but he didn't see her after turning his face.
"LADY GALADRIEL, THANK YOU!" since he can't see her, then maybe she's still around, so he screamed out loud, hoping she can hear him.
And as he expected she really was nearby.
Hearing his word Galadriel smiled and said: "What a cute human"
