Wicked Grace

In the meantime on Nora's side, Nora was marching with her Elves while holding Excalibur while thinking, 'You are quite a burden to carry, did you know that.'

She sighs as Elrond notices it and asks, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, just my thoughts are wandering around lately," says Nora as she sheathed her sword and looked at the Horizon seeing smoke rise in the distance.

"Are we too late?" asks Nora seeing the smoke as Elrond shakes his head.

"Not yet. We still have a chance to change the outcome," says Elrond looking into the direction of the smoke.

"Minas Tirith is a bit further in the North. From where the smoke is rising must be Osgiliath. It's an abandoned city if Gondor used to fight so Minas Tirith doesn't feel the danger. We should arrive in Minas Tirith in five days," says Elrond as Nora turns around to see the Elves following her command.

"Five days is good. They already gave their best to make sure their future Queen survives the battle of Helm's Deep. I don't want to exhaust them on the trip to Minas Tirith," says Nora as she thought that they needed a real pause from fighting.

"You mean to say," says Elrond when Nora nods.

"I don't think Celine will leave this world since she seems attached to the elf, Legolas. I might lead right now but in the future, it will be my little sister that will lead you all," says Nora as she looked in front again.

"Then it is good that she is traveling with the others," says Elrond as Nora nods.

"It seems they all bound together and Gimli seemed to miss Bran," says Nora noticing how Gimli stared at the club Bran left behind.

"If that is true then maybe we could see sooner or later a friendship with the dwarves again. It has been a long time since we could peacefully talk with each other maybe it will be possible after this is over," says Elrond as Nora smiles.

"Maybe, but I'm more worried about the future we are walking to right now," says Nora as she looked at the horizon again.

"There are still battles to win before we can say that everything will end well," says Nora as she didn't mean the battles on Middle-Earth.

"But as long as we don't give up we will stand tall," says Elrond as he made Nora smile.

"If I were into men you would be the first on my list Elrond. But I love women so now about you gift me your daughter," says Nora sarcastically surprising Elrond since Nora would never joke around.

"I'm sorry, but she seems adamant to marry Aragorn," says Elrond back sarcastically making Nora smile as they marched towards Minas Tirith.

In the meantime near the border of Mordor and Gondor, John and Nesiara were thinking of storming the Black Gate to enter Mordor with Frodo and Sam but opted against it because it would be too dangerous for Frodo and Sam.

"There is a path between the mountain we could take but maybe we should deal with our little stalker," says John as he turned around seeing Gollum following them.

"We should kill it. It would free him completely," says Nesiara as she suddenly took her hairpin out.

It grew into a staff that fit perfectly into her hands when Frodo asks, "Who is following us?"

"Gollum, he used to be the wielder of the Ring before he lost it to your uncle. He has been following us since we left Rivendell," says John as he answered Frodo's question.

"Why is he following us?" asks Sam as John pointed at Frodo.

"He wants what Frodo is carrying. The Ring seems to call him since it corrupted him. Nesiara is right that his death would be a blessing for him," says John as he suddenly raised his hand and pulled Gollum towards him using the Force.

Nesiara then just smash her staff at the head of Gollum and blood splashed out like candy out of a piñata. She then sets the corpse on fire before she cleans her staff and puts it back where it was before.

"Was that necessary?" asks Frodo as John nods.

"Yes, he could reveal our position and we don't want that," says John explaining why they needed to kill Gollum.

"Anyway, we should try to find that cave you were talking about," says Nesiara as John nods taking the map out.

"If we go by the book there should be a cave around here. Not even the Orcs take that path making it perfect for us," says John as he pointed where roughly the cave was.

"Then it should be near," says Nesiara as John nods.

"Why would the Orcs not look for us there?" asks Sam now worried.

"Because the Arachne rules there," says John as Frodo and Sam seemed confused.

"He means to say that a Spider lives in that cave," says Nesiara as they understood that part when Nesiara seems to understand why they were confused when she continues, "You only met the little spiders in the past. Trust me some spiders can be bigger than John."

"So giant spiders," says Frodo worried about it.

"Don't worry we have the best person to deal with that problem," says John while pointing at Nesiara.

"She is the natural enemy of spiders or have you forgotten Moria," adds John as both remembered that Nesiara could produce fire out of her body.

"Right burning the whole cave down before entering it," says Sam as John snaps his finger.

"Exactly," says John as he puts the map away.

"Can we talk about burning the whole cave once we are there," says Nesiara as they were losing time by standing around.

"She is right. We should worry about the cave once it is in front of us," says John as they begin to move again.

In the meantime, the last group was running down the hill to hijack the ships that were on the way towards Minas Tirith.

"Do you think we will make it on time?" asks Boromir as the five rushed the Hill down without fearing for their lives since they would lose it if they lose their footing.

"How about we talk about that when I don't have to worry about dying from a misstep," says Gimli as it was for him more difficult than for the others.

"We are almost there. Just hang in there," says Aragorn as he was leading them down the hill with the Army of the Dead following them invisibly.

They arrived at the shore and the ships were about to pass when Aragorn says, "You may go no further."

This awoke some interest from the ship as the people looked at the shore finding five people standing there.

"You will not enter Gondor," says Aragorn calmly as the men on the ship began to laugh from hearing him.

"Shouldn't we just kill them?" whispers Celine as Boromir smiles.

"Let him have his moment," whispers Boromir back.

"Who are you to deny us passage," says the captain of the ships calm back thinking that Aragorn was joking.

"Legolas, fire a warning shot past his ears," says Aragorn as Legolas pulls the string of his bow ready to release the arrow when Gimli interfered by pulling on the bow a bit with his ax.

The arrow flew through the air and killed one of the men on the ship making Gimli put his hand on his mouth sarcastically.

"Watch it, lad. We warned you. Prepare to be boarded" says Gimli as the men began to laugh again.

"Boarded? By you and which Army," says the captain as Aragorn smiled.

"This Army," says Aragorn as the King of the Dead passed through Aragorn followed by his army as they attacked the ships.

The people scared jumped from the ship making the group laugh from seeing this show when Celine jumped onto one ship and sailed it towards the shore.

"Everyone on board. Next station, Minas Tirith," says Celine as the others boarded the ship.

"How long will it take?" asks Legolas as Boromir lifted his hand up showing five fingers.

"Five days if we are lucky," says Boromir as they began their travel towards Minas Tirith.

"Anyone wants to play some cards to relax a bit from this stressing travel," says Celine as a deck of cards appear in her hand.

"Card games? I never thought that you would gamble," says Legolas as he saw the deck of cards.

"It was a friend of my great-great-grandparents who taught me this game when I was still a child," says Celine as she explained to them how to play Wicked Grace.

"He must have been a rogue," says Gimli seeing that you could cheat that easily in the game.

"One of the best crossbow-wielders you will ever see and a dwarf with the ability to make every story he counts unique like the story of the Champion of Kirkwall and the Maniac," says Celine as Gimli coughs.

"Of course he must be a great warrior but that story about what does it go?" asks Gimli as Celine was mixing the deck.

"About Abigail and Logan. He wrote a book about the Champion of Kirkwall but he declared it a plagiarism of another book he read before when he wrote about what really happened calling the book as I said before. It was about the early life of Abigail and Logan when they still lived in Kirkwall," says Celine as she sighs.

"Varric would come by with Abigail to visit my family since the first time he came to us Bran couldn't let him go since he had so many stories to tell," says Celine as began to deal the cards.

"Now I really want to meet him," says Gimli as he was thinking of Bran holding on a Dwarf to stay to tell him a story.

"The only thing Varric didn't have was a beard. But he was proud of his chest hair," says Celine remembering Varric always showing his chest hair proudly.

Legolas was trying to cheat when Gimli says, "Keep your dirty hand clean, Legolas. My hands might be slow but my eyes see everything."

This made the group laugh as they began playing only to find out that Celine already when she says, "Also, you shouldn't let me deal the cards. I learned a lot from Varric."