Chương 73: [Rika's Grudge]

The lads had drawn the curtains before the others arrived. Nobody mentioned it, but everyone knew why. Watching Lord of the Rings in the cinema when it first came out was an experience nothing had ever beaten, and they wanted as close to that as they could get. The glow of the screen was the only thing cutting through the dark, and the weight of Galadriel's speech carried through the silence. From the looks on the three of them, it had worked.

The lads knew the film—every beat, every line, every moment before it arrived. They'd seen it enough times that watching it wasn't really watching it anymore; it was closer to listening to a favorite song, the pleasure found in the familiarity rather than the discovery. So they watched the trio instead. Rika hadn't said a word since Galadriel started speaking. For someone who usually filled every available silence, the quiet was its own kind of reaction.

She had her knees pulled up and her wings folded flat against her back, completely still. Torren sat forward in the armchair, hands clasped and eyes locked on the screen. Shai hadn't moved either. Her mouth was open slightly, ears pushed forward, her tail curled around her on the couch without her noticing. Leo glanced at her. It had been almost twenty-five years since he'd sat in a cinema and felt exactly like that. He smiled and looked back at the screen. The scene shifted as the Shire opened on birdsong.

Frodo waited by a tree, and Gandalf arrived on his cart, singing to himself. By the time the two of them were laughing and Frodo was climbing up beside him, all three guests were smiling.

"I like the old man," Rika said, her grin returning.

"Everyone likes Gandalf," Leo laughed.

"He's as tall as me, I think," Torren noted.

"Nah, he's tall, but the people in the Shire are hobbits," Phil said.

"They're small. Shorter than dwarves, even." The three looked at the screen more carefully.

"We don't have those here," Shai said.

"No," Sam replied.

"You won't recognise a lot of the races in this." The group watched the party unfold—Bilbo's vanishing act and Gandalf's warning. Phil commented on the seventeen years that had passed between the wizard leaving and returning. Rika had a question for almost every scene, while Torren leaned further in. Shai's tail moved slowly, a rhythmic sway she seemed unaware of. Then came the road. The Shire faded, replaced by the first real chill of panic as a Ringwraith made its appearance.

The hobbits scrambled beneath the roots of the downed tree.

"Oh gods, it's going to get them," Rika whispered, watching from between her fingers. Parmo laughed as the scene shifted to the four hobbits sprinting for the raft, the wraiths screaming behind them.

"That was too close! They don't even have weapons to defend themselves!" Bree followed—the news that Gandalf was missing, then Aragorn appearing from the shadows of the pub. The wraiths caught up, the group slipping away into the night with a stranger leading the way.

"Do they trust him?" Shai asked.

"They don't have much choice," Leo said. Then Merry and Pippin lit the fire on Weathertop. Rika dropped her hands from her face.

"What are they doing?"

"Being idiots," Phil said.

"They were being hunted! Why would you—" She stopped as the wraiths appeared, closing in on the light.

"I think they should leave those two behind. That's so stupid."

"Well, you knew that by this point," Luka said.

"Well, yeah, but there was the firework and the stealing crops and now this. If someone did this in the guard, they'd have been thrown out." When the wraith drove the blade into Frodo's shoulder, Rika groaned and covered her face again. Torren slumped back in his chair.

"If this is how it ends for him—""It's not," Phil cut in.

"You're certain?"

"I've seen this film fifty times, mate. I'm very certain." Torren settled forward again, though he didn't look entirely convinced. Shai hadn't looked away, but her tail was giving off short, sharp flicks, catching Leo's arm on one side and the cushion on the other. Well, Leo thought, now I know what her being annoyed looks like. Frodo opened his eyes in Rivendell, and Torren let out a long, audible breath.

"See?" Phil said.

"Told you." The shards of Narsil came next, laid out on their stone plinth. Torren leaned in, his eyes narrowing.

"That sword. It looks like the one on your arm." Phil smiled.

"Yeah. It does." Then the Council of Elrond began. The weight of the Ring's history settled over the room. When Boromir spoke, pushing for the Ring to be used as a weapon, the darkness bled into the scene before Gandalf drove it back. Rika's wings shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't like him," she said.

"He's not a bad person," Sam said softly.

"His whole life has been fighting their enemy. His people have been holding the line longer than anyone, and no one is coming to help. He just wants something that gives them a chance."

"When Legolas reveals who Aragorn is," Leo added, "remember that Boromir's father has been running Gondor for years. To him, Aragorn is just a man who'd rather live in the woods than help his own people. He doesn't think he needs him." On screen, Boromir said the words: Gondor has no king. The three guests watched him, reassessing. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Elrond spoke of destruction.

Gimli swung his axe at the Ring, and the dwarven steel shattered on impact. Torren watched the dwarf pick himself up.

"The dwarves in this look exactly right. At least, for the ones I've met. Some have a reputation for being brash like that." Then Boromir again, his voice low: The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume.

"That sounds awful," Rika said. Gimli was back on his feet. I would be dead before I see the ring in the hands of an elf! Shai made a quiet sound.

"Elves and dwarves don't really have that problem where we're from."

"If anything, it's humans and elves that can't stand each other," Torren added.

"The nobility, anyway. Both as bad as each other, from what I've heard." Then Frodo stood. I will take it. Rika stared.

"Why Frodo? You're going to be useless going somewhere like that."

"He's a brave soul," Torren said quietly. The Fellowship formed around him. When Merry and Pippin pushed their way in, all three guests groaned in unison.

"Why are they still here?" Rika asked.

"Why didn't Gandalf tell them to go home? They're worse than useless." The Fellowship set out. The scenery changed—Rivendell giving way to wilder country and grey skies.

"That journey," Sam said, "from the Shire to Mount Doom. It's nearly two thousand miles." Torren looked at him, stunned.

"The walk from Murray Street to the boats in the marina is about a mile," Luka provided for context. The three guests fell silent, processing the scale.

"The hobbits do all of that with no shoes on?" Rika asked.

"Are they mad?" The lads laughed. The birds came next, then the attempt on the mountain. Saruman's voice carried in the storm as the snow drove them back. The choice of Moria arrived.

"Why not go to Gondor?" Shai asked.

"If Boromir and Aragorn's people are there, it seems safer."

"Men are easily corrupted," Leo said.

"That's why Boromir acts the way he does. And why Isildur couldn't destroy it at the start." Shai looked at the screen, then back at Boromir walking into the dark.

"Ah." The gates of Moria rose out of the blackness.

"Is the door magical?" Torren asked.

"Enchanted," Leo replied.

"The password's written on it; he just has to figure it out." Merry and Pippin began throwing rocks into the water. Rika's wings twitched.

"Those idiots really can't help themselves, can they?" The doors opened. Gandalf raised his staff, and the light pushed back the dark, revealing the staggering scale of the mines. Boromir's voice came low and flat: This is no mine. It's a tomb. The Watcher struck, a tentacle closing around Frodo. Rika threw her arms up.

"These stupid hobbits! They should just throw those two to that thing and run!" The lads grinned. The Fellowship scrambled inside as the entrance collapsed. Nowhere to go but forward. They moved through the dark until they reached Balin's tomb. Gimli dropped to his knees.

"Balin was Gimli's cousin," Parmo explained, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"He'd led an expedition to retake Moria. Everyone assumed he'd succeeded. Nobody knew he was dead." Gandalf read from the book. The drums in the deep. We cannot get out. Then Pippin nudged the corpse. The impact rang out through the silence. The chain followed, the bucket clanging all the way down. The echo seemed to go on forever. Rika threw her hands in the air.

"He did that on purpose! He's trying to get them killed!" she shouted.

"He's not," Sam said, laughing.

"That's just Pippin."

"He is going to get someone killed! Why did they bring him? I thought Gandalf was meant to be wise?" The drums started. Rika's eyes snapped back to the screen, her grip tightening on her knees. The Fellowship scrambled for the doors as the orc blades splintered the wood. When the cave troll finally smashed through, Rika hissed, her wings snapping open so wide she almost hit Parmo.

"What is that?" Shai's voice was strained, her tail lashing the back of the couch.

"Cave troll," Sam said, glancing at her. The fight erupted in a blur of steel and stone. The three guests watched in a trance, Rika half-off the couch as the troll cornered Frodo against the wall. When the spear-tip caught him squarely in the chest, the sickening thud of the impact made Shai flinch and pull her knees to her chest. Rika went dead silent. Torren's hands gripped his knees until his knuckles turned white.

They didn't even look happy when the troll was finally brought down; their eyes were fixed on the small, slumped form of the hobbit. Then, Frodo gasped.

"How?" Rika's head snapped up as Aragorn pulled back the torn tunic to reveal the shimmering silver mesh.

"Mithril," Gimli breathed on screen.

"Mythril?" Torren stood up, nearly toppling the armchair.

"You have stories of Mythril?"

"The most precious metal in the world," Phil said, grinning at Torren's shock.

"Light as a feather, hard as dragon scales." Torren stared at the screen, stunned that a world without magic somehow had a name for the rarest metal he knew. The correct name at that. The film pressed on, the Fellowship fleeing through the halls until the shadow fell over the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The Balrog didn't just appear; it felt like it stepped into the room. When the wall of flame erupted and the growl vibrated through the floorboards, the trio stopped breathing.

"What is that creature?" Torren whispered.

"A Balrog," Leo said.

"A shadow of the ancient world."

"They need to leave! Now!" Rika gripped the edge of the couch. They watched Gandalf turn back, standing alone on the narrow span of stone.

"You shall not pass!" The staff hit the stone, the bridge gave way, and for a second Rika started to cheer—until the whip lashed out. When Gandalf was pulled over the edge, Rika let out a strangled "No." Frodo's scream echoed through the speakers, a raw, desperate sound before the others dragged him away. Shai's ears dropped back. The sadness on her face was clear in the flickering light of the screen. Beside her, Leo felt something move against his arm.

Shai's tail had begun to rub against his sleeve, a rhythmic, comforting motion she didn't seem to notice. Leo didn't move. He watched the tail for a moment, then looked at her. She felt his gaze and turned, her eyes meeting his. Her face flushed a deep pink as she realised what she was doing. She pulled her tail away quickly, looking away, while Leo just gave her a small, reassuring smile. Both of them turned their eyes back to the screen, though neither was focused on the Fellowship exiting the mines anymore.

Time blurred as the group moved through Lothlórien and down the Great River. When Galadriel spoke Rika shouted.

"It's her. The lady from the start. It's her voice.". The lads smiled and watched as she went quiet again, focused back on the screen. Then came the breaking at Amon Hen. Boromir cornered Frodo, desperate and corrupted by the Ring's influence.

"He's lost it," Rika said, though there was no anger in her voice.

"He's just... he's broken."

"The ring is playing on his need to protect his people," Torren said grimly. The Uruk-hai attack shifted the mood instantly. Rika sat up, her tactical brain clicking on as the scouts sprinted through the trees. Then came the stand. Boromir, alone with the two hobbits, the horn of Gondor sounding out through the woods. The trio watched, breathless, as he took the first arrow. Then the second.

"Get up," Rika whispered.

"Please, just get up." He did. Every time he swung his sword to protect the two hobbits Rika had spent the last few hours calling useless, she looked more and more conflicted. When the final arrow hit and he fell to his knees, she looked defeated.

"I told you they would get someone killed..."

"He redeemed himself in the end; he went out like a true warrior," Shai said, her voice somber. The film ended with the fellowship shattered. Frodo and Sam heading into the hills alone; Merry and Pippin captured; and the remaining three refusing to leave the two troublemakers to their fate. The credits rolled, and the haunting vocals of the ending theme filled the flat. Nobody moved to turn the lights on.

"So," Leo said into the dark.

"What did you think?" Rika was the first to speak, wiping her eyes.

"That was amazing. I can't believe how much I hate those two and they aren't even real."

"It's a lot to take in," Shai said, hugging her knees.

"Your world... you can make people feel like they were there. Like they lost a friend." Torren stood up slowly, stretching his legs. He looked at the lads, his expression profoundly respectful.

"You told us these were stories," Torren said.

"But you carry the marks of these men on your skin. You talk about them like they're your history. I think I understand why you're the way you are now."

"What do you mean?" Luka asked.

"You expect heroes to be ordinary," Torren replied.

"And the small to be brave. It's a strange way to live... but I think I like it." Phil stood up and finally hit the lights.

"Well, that's just the first one. There's two more." Rika's wings flared.

"There's more? When? Now? We're putting the next one on now right?" The lads laughed, the heavy mood finally breaking.

"Maybe give it a couple of days, Rika," Sam said.

"I think we all need a bit of a rest after that one."

"The hour is later than you think," Parmo said with a wink"Fine," Rika huffed, though she was already looking at the DVD cases.

"But if those two hobbits don't get rescued, or they do and someone else dies because of them, I'm going to be very annoyed."